What makes you happy, makes you rich!

MUSINGS ON MIDLIFE'S MISADVENTURES:

Love, laughter, family, friends, hugs, kisses, sleep, health and good memories. All cost nothing AND are free, free, free. You need only make room for them in your life.

Over the years, I have always counted my blessings. I have a*l*w*a*y*s lead a charmed life. I have tried to express gratitude, but it was more out of a sense of "I should", rather than a true sense of REAL APPRECIATION. However, as I age, I have come to learn that appreciation.  What makes me happy now? Small things... that are really BIG things, such as...

Anticipating and relishing a visit from friends I haven't seen in three years.

Receiving an unexpected Sunday night phone call from my "adult" child, for no reason.

Big hugs that last at least seven seconds. A good friend once told me that it wasn't a REAL hug unless it lasted that long, so I try to make mine last those SEVEN seconds.

Glorious weather that allowed me to enjoy our fall days to their utmost, by going for long hikes and walks with Vimy and friends.

Getting my Croc back, that I had lost while hiking on the Mi'Miq Trail.

Skyping with a friend across the ocean, while chatting over a glass of merlot.

Being fined the LESSER of two fines for speeding.  Believe you me, that made me SO, SO grateful.

Comforting a crying child in the schoolyard, by bending over to hug him; he wrapping  his arms   around me and hugging me right back, hard!

Jiminy Cricket starting on a -35 Celsius morning, with no wind chill! -35!!!!!  And no block heater!

Being healthy enough to shovel snow, and not keel over.

Giving blood in seven minutes, ( a record for me as I am a slow bleeder!), even though the ENTIRE process took two hours.  Drink lots of water before giving blood; it works wonders.

Having my eighty-two year old mother in my life; she who cares, is concerned and is STILL mothering her sixty-two year old, single daughter.

Knowing God DID NOT WANT ME JUST YET, on Monday after school.  (THIS IS A BIG THING, PERIOD!!!)  I  SO could have been a goner right there and then, when I failed to make a stop at the end of a street, because I confused my brakes and my clutch.  I drove right across Riverside Drive,  m-i-s-s-i-n-g being T-Boned by a car on my right, by a few seconds. Thankfully NO car was coming from the other direction. I could have been THE filling in a sandwich, come to think of it.  It simply WAS NOT my time to leave this earth. Good thing, because I still have a lot of friggin' LIVING to do!!! (Pardon my language.)

Understanding why my dear father used to say, "I don't want anything for Christmas.  I have all I want and need."

Bearing witness to the heartfelt words of a little six year old Syrian girl, explaining the following to me and her classmates, in basic English.  I had read a story in class "Why We Remember", near Remembrance Day. Many children wanted to share what war meant to them.  Amna, with gestures, said "I be Syria, boom, boom, house gone. We go Turquia, come Canada. I am happy".  Then she smiled shyly.

Need I say more ONE more thing that makes me happy?  Being Canadian! 

Wishing all of you, my readers, family and friends, a Joyful and Peaceful Christmas.  À tous mes lecteurs, ma famille et mes amis, je vous souhaite un très Joyeux Noël, comblé de paix et de bonheur.
I also wish you ALL the things that money CAN'T buy, in 2017.

HAVE YOU E....V.....E....R....

...been to a Santa Claus parade where toilet tissue was handed out, along with candy? THAT was a first for me!

...found something when looking for something else? I had told my friend Listen Linda, where my house key was hidden, indicating in a text that she had to look UP, and to the right.  So what does she do? She looks UP and to the left, and finds a key that the previous owner had hidden, leaving behind when they moved out.  That was kinda neat!

...been told "You smell like lobster! Long pause... And lobster STINKS!"  I totally forgot that gem when I posted my Kindergarten tales recently. I WISH I had been cooking lobster. It was mackerel; the smell still clung to my cardigan.  I have very little sense of smell, so I am oblivious.  That is NOT always a good thing though, is it?

...bragged about something, and then had the reverse happen? I had taken to bragging recently, how at the age of 62, I hadn't had stitches, surgery or broken a bone. Well, turns out I broke my little finger on the Fundy Trail, when I fell on slippery rocks on the beach. An x-ray almost two months later, confirmed it. That will teach me!  No more bragging.

...had the snowplow pass and throw a huge snowball SMACK in the middle of the end of your driveway? It was the size of a snowman's belly!!  Nothing else, just the huge snowball. I had just finished shoveling, so OUT I went.  I had to pick it up with two hands and pitch it in the snowbank.  If I didn't know better, I would think some evil ELF had planted it RIGHT there!

...crept into bed on an evening when it was -35 degrees Celsius, with gale force winds blowing, only to find a hot water bottle wrapped up in a towel, under the covers at the foot of your bed? What a surprise and w-h-a-t a treat!!! My mother is the only one who e-v-e-r put a hot water bottle in my bed. It was a GOOD elf who did that.

...received a Christmas card from Hogwarts? I did!  My English friend Tracy, has parents who live in Biggleswade, England. Now isn't THAT a name straight out of a Harry Potter book?  It is to me, so they signed their Christmas card this year. "Hogwarts." It made me smile and smile.  What makes you smile?

DITCHED!

At 7:30 yesterday morning, I had to take Vimy to the dog kennel on my way to school. It is a beautiful, but snapping, bitterly cold wintery morning. I gaze at the gorgeous waning Super Moon in front of me, and am captivated by the snow laden trees lining my route, their boughs heavily laden with fresh, white snow. We've just had forty centimetres of snow. YES, you read that correctly. FORTY centimetres of the fluffy white stuff was dumped on us Tuesday and Wednesday.

I drop Vimy off at the kennel, and start driving back up the long, snow packed lane, leading to the main highway. A white SUV is coming down the lane. It is someone else dropping off their pooch at dogie day care. Well, the lane is n-a-r-r-o-w.   I start veering to the right a little bit, hoping the oncoming driver will veer to the left, and we will be able to meet without clipping each other's mirrors. WELL, that driver doesn't think or react the same way as I do. CONSEQUENTLY,  I end up with my front end STUCK  in what I think is a shallow ditch, or just the side of the lane. I can't go forward, or backward. I am NOT about to start spinning myself into deeper ruts either. Jiminy Cricket gets stuck easily. He is barely six inches off the ground, after all.

I get out of my car, look at the mess I am in, and immediately call my kennel guy,  who is six hundred yards away. Cell phones can be a Godsend, don't you think? He comes running with a shovel, bless him.  He did that fast, because he was checking in the dog, whose owner had kind of j-u-s-t bullied me off the road!

I was a little miffed to say the LEAST, about being in this predicament.   I am already thinking, "God, I hope I don't have to get towed! I hope I am NOT late for school!" "Thank goodness I DON'T have duty first thing!"

Bob and I are both trying to figure how to get me out of the snowbank (or ditch), when the SUV, making its way out, stops and the passenger window is rolled down.  WHAT do I see but the grinning face of a Grade Five student, from the VERY school where I am going that morning.  He waves merrily and says "Hi Madame D!"   As if it were TOTALLY NORMAL for him to see me in this situation.  KIDS!!!  LOL  I smile back sweetly and ignore the driver. Bob tells the parent I will be okay.

That I am, and lucky as usual.  Thanks to Bob, who shovels furiously,  pushes me out of the hole Jiminy was in, and then adds one bit of advice, "Get an automatic!"  I get to school just in time, thankful and grateful once again, that I have easily gotten myself out of another early morning misadventure!

 

I AM TOTALLY CONSUMED!!!

By what, you may ask? Or by whom?  In MY case, it is a W*H*A*T!  It is my job as a supply teacher.

I am really a full time teacher, as I have had one day off since mid-October. Now, I am NOT counting that o*n*e snow day we had.  However, the difference between me and a "REGULAR" teacher, is that my teaching day is DIFFERENT, in every way, e-v-e-r-y single day. Different language, different school, different district, different level, different everything.

This week I replaced a VP in an English school on Monday, a Principal in a French school on Tuesday, a Grade Two teacher in a French school on Wednesday.  Thursday, although I started in a Grade One class in an English school, I was switched to a Grade 5 French Immersion class, because the supply teacher assigned didn't speak French.  Today, I was switched AGAIN.  The poor VP was totally frazzled because she was short TWO teachers, and actually apologized for switching me from replacing the Principal in this English school, to teaching Kindergarten instead. I gave her a big hug, and told her "It's ALL good!"  What's not good about having thirteen very active five year olds, NINE of them boys,  pretty much rule your day? :)

All of which leads me to have SO, SO many DIFFERENT INTERACTIONS, with SO, SO many different people in a given week, that sometimes, my head is spinning and I feel like my brain has been fried by the time Friday rolls around. OR as my oldest childhood friend would have said, "I wouldn't know my ass from my elbow!"

However, it also gives me so many opportunities to laugh, chuckle, and smile, that I just have to share some of those moments with you, ONCE AGAIN. I think I am finding all these moments EXTRA precious, as my teaching career winds down, and I face total retirement by 2018.

Here are a few very special moments in English Kindergarten classes:

Little Annie: Did you teach us last weekend? No, not last weekend! A few weekends ago?

Me: What happened to your arm Jaden?
Jaden: I broked it.

Caleb: Mrs. L hided my scarf!

Alisha: Why isn't Mrs. M. here? Is she working on her homework?

Owen: I made a GYNORMOUS snowball at little recess!

Here is ONE tenacious kindergartener:

Ellie - Where is Mrs. P?
Me - She can't be in class today?
Ellie - Why?
Me- She has a lot of things to do.
Ellie - What things?
By now, I would have just told the child her teacher was sick.  However, her teacher had meetings to attend, and was right there in the classroom giving last minute instructions to her student teacher, so I couldn't very well lie and say that!
Me- I don't know. She is a very busy lady, too busy to be here today.
Ellie- (not giving up!)  Well, is she doing her GROCERIES, or something?

Eli can't find his indoor shoes. We search all over, all morning, with no luck.  At first recess, little Kate offers up the following, as they are getting dressed to go outside.  "Eli's shoes are at the office!" I, of course, ask... "Why are they at the office?"  Her reply?  "It's because he barfed!"  Now those four words explain it all to me. Do they explain the situation to you? :)  Well, he was sent to the office because he was sick and was sent home. Whoever picked him up, (the grandmother I was told) picked up his indoor shoes as well, so ... note home asking that the indoor shoes be returned. Mystery solved!!!

In conclusion, what would Kindergarten tales be, without a Show and Tell?  It was Emma's turn, and she had a lovely little eyeglass case from "Bo Oktical!", in her little hands.  Inside were two pair of prescription eyeglasses, for a little girl. The problem here? They AREN't her glasses. Emma doesn't wear glasses.  I start asking all kinds of questions, (which is always encouraged with Show and Tell) only to find out that Emma found this case either in front of her house in the yard or on the side of the road.  Well, WHAT kind of parent allows her child to bring someone else's PRESCRIPTION EYE GLASSES, to Show and Tell? All I could think was, "Some poor sweet little thing, is walking around ALMOST BLIND, (the lenses were thick!), because another little girl brought her LOST glasses into Show and Tell. Gee willikers!

Every time I am back at that school, I seek out little Emma and ask her if her parents have found the owners of those glasses? She shakes her head no.  Honestly, I am going to have to call "BO OKTICAL"
(known as Vogue Optical!)  myself, to find out if any parents have inquired about lost glasses being returned.  I can't sleep!!!

My first snow woman of the year, created with my neighbour Edith.  Isn't she cute? We called her Palotte, Acadian slang for "clumsy!"