Monday, January 28, 2008
Oooh....SNAP!
Yesterday we were visiting with some friends and when it came time for supper we decided to order pizza. So we're discussing what to order when the following hilarious jibe is uttered:
Friend: Why don't we order an extra-large vegetarian?
My husband: I've already got one of those!
And to think that his wit was what attracted me to him in the first place.
Yesterday we were visiting with some friends and when it came time for supper we decided to order pizza. So we're discussing what to order when the following hilarious jibe is uttered:
Friend: Why don't we order an extra-large vegetarian?
My husband: I've already got one of those!
And to think that his wit was what attracted me to him in the first place.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Sun n' snow
It's a sunny, bright, sparkly day today. A great day for walking.
I'm putting together a proposal for a literature course that I may have to start teaching next week. It's exciting to have the freedom to create my own courses, giving free rein to my own interests and creativity. I never thought I'd have this kind of leeway right away, as soon as I started teaching, but then again I never thought I'd be a teacher, so it's all kind of surreal anyway! And scary, but not quite as scary as last semester when I did it for the first time...
It's a sunny, bright, sparkly day today. A great day for walking.
I'm putting together a proposal for a literature course that I may have to start teaching next week. It's exciting to have the freedom to create my own courses, giving free rein to my own interests and creativity. I never thought I'd have this kind of leeway right away, as soon as I started teaching, but then again I never thought I'd be a teacher, so it's all kind of surreal anyway! And scary, but not quite as scary as last semester when I did it for the first time...
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The old year and the new
I haven't written my annual "And so that was Christmas" post, and now I don't think I will, but I'll give you the highlights before I move on to the newer news.
Christmas was, as it always is with children, wonderful. Especially for the littlest one (who's 3), it is really magical; however corny that may sound, it is the appropriate word for it. Sadly my eldest child may have lost some of the magic this year (I won't refer specifically to the reason here, but you can probably guess). But this has not been as sad an occurence as I thought it might be. I mean she's 10, and is still very much a child, where some 10-year-old girls seem to be teenagers already. I don't mean to say she's immature; not at all. She's just one of those kids who retains her innocence and the best childlike qualities. She's very sanguine about losing one of the core beliefs of childhood.
The holidays were quite busy, with family and friends. We hosted 2 dinner parties (1 big and 1 smaller), one of them on New Year's Eve, and we had guests for Christmas day as well. As usual we went to my mom's on Boxing Day for the big family gathering and feasted and sang and played games and caught up with everyone's news and of course we laughed. Very loudly. The gift-giving wasn't quite as obscene at my mom's this year because we all picked names so that everyone (including kids) only got one gift and a stocking each. This was a great improvement and I think everyone would support the idea of doing it like that from now on.
The children received plenty of gifts but not too many, and they felt spoiled while we didn't feel too guilty or poor. That's good. As always, the week in between Christmas and New Year's was the truly relaxing part of the holiday, and the snowy, mild weather meant we could really enjoy just being home together and playing outside.
Our newish New Year's Eve tradition carried on this year, and we had an intimate supper-and-board-games party with friends who live in the neighbourhood. The idea is to keep it simple and small and invite people who can walk here and back home, so that everyone can drink as much as they want. It was smaller than we planned (3 of the 7 invitees didn't show up), but it was still a lot of laughs.
As for the year to come, it looks like I'll be teaching 2 courses this semester. Nice! And D. will be starting a new job that is very exciting and will be challenging and is kind of a risk. He's nervous and excited but we both think it's a good leap for him to make right now. My only new year's resolution is to work a few hours a week on the basement and garage until I get it reasonably organized. It is a frightening mess and frankly I suspect that a family of homeless people is living under our stairs. Which leads me to brag about my accomplishment of last year's main resolution: I resolved then to do more to help others in 2007, and I have taken on (and stuck with!) 2 major volunteer jobs and a whole lot of little volunteer tasks. I feel very good about this, as the volunteer work has enriched me and has fit in well with my life. Hopefully it has done some tiny but of good for others as well.
I haven't written my annual "And so that was Christmas" post, and now I don't think I will, but I'll give you the highlights before I move on to the newer news.
Christmas was, as it always is with children, wonderful. Especially for the littlest one (who's 3), it is really magical; however corny that may sound, it is the appropriate word for it. Sadly my eldest child may have lost some of the magic this year (I won't refer specifically to the reason here, but you can probably guess). But this has not been as sad an occurence as I thought it might be. I mean she's 10, and is still very much a child, where some 10-year-old girls seem to be teenagers already. I don't mean to say she's immature; not at all. She's just one of those kids who retains her innocence and the best childlike qualities. She's very sanguine about losing one of the core beliefs of childhood.
The holidays were quite busy, with family and friends. We hosted 2 dinner parties (1 big and 1 smaller), one of them on New Year's Eve, and we had guests for Christmas day as well. As usual we went to my mom's on Boxing Day for the big family gathering and feasted and sang and played games and caught up with everyone's news and of course we laughed. Very loudly. The gift-giving wasn't quite as obscene at my mom's this year because we all picked names so that everyone (including kids) only got one gift and a stocking each. This was a great improvement and I think everyone would support the idea of doing it like that from now on.
The children received plenty of gifts but not too many, and they felt spoiled while we didn't feel too guilty or poor. That's good. As always, the week in between Christmas and New Year's was the truly relaxing part of the holiday, and the snowy, mild weather meant we could really enjoy just being home together and playing outside.
Our newish New Year's Eve tradition carried on this year, and we had an intimate supper-and-board-games party with friends who live in the neighbourhood. The idea is to keep it simple and small and invite people who can walk here and back home, so that everyone can drink as much as they want. It was smaller than we planned (3 of the 7 invitees didn't show up), but it was still a lot of laughs.
As for the year to come, it looks like I'll be teaching 2 courses this semester. Nice! And D. will be starting a new job that is very exciting and will be challenging and is kind of a risk. He's nervous and excited but we both think it's a good leap for him to make right now. My only new year's resolution is to work a few hours a week on the basement and garage until I get it reasonably organized. It is a frightening mess and frankly I suspect that a family of homeless people is living under our stairs. Which leads me to brag about my accomplishment of last year's main resolution: I resolved then to do more to help others in 2007, and I have taken on (and stuck with!) 2 major volunteer jobs and a whole lot of little volunteer tasks. I feel very good about this, as the volunteer work has enriched me and has fit in well with my life. Hopefully it has done some tiny but of good for others as well.
