It's a Week before Holy Week, next Sunday is Palm Sunday, and where was I this morning? Sitting in my pjs thanking God I wasn't in church? This is a huge struggle for me. I grew up in the every Sunday even if you are on deaths door, you go to church family. I know I should be there, I know that part of me wants my kids to know a Genuflect from a Kneel but the other part of me says I'd rather be home lately watching them run around and enjoy a lazy Sunday morning. No pressure to get out the door on time to catch a bus or rush to here and there. But why is 930 am now early in my mind? Why is 1015am for Sunday school early? Why is the 1130am mass early?
I will struggle with this I'm sure for the rest of my life because my "backup" parent here, doesn't bother. It's not something he ever gave any weight to, I knew that almost 19yrs ago but still I wish that someone would say "are we going" because really it's easier to go as a whole family then just me.
When I had my first son, I really enjoyed Mass on Sundays because it was an hour (drive to and from included) that I wasn't being needed for something. I got to sit and think and feel great after I got out. There are people at church, real live not inside a computer people. I can "shake hands" (when it's not Flu season) and smile and nod to my fellow Catholics.
The boys learn to sit still, but yet I still fight the urge to drag them out of their by their ears some Sundays. That feeling that all eyes are on us, as I say "SHHHHHHHHH, I can't hear the priest" or "We'll talk about it in the car, and boy will we talk" and the evil eye! My kids know the evil eye, that was something I learned well and use often for many sitations.
Next week we'll be there, it's an important week, we are not going to the Island so I'll be in mass here in town. I think some of the locals will be in shock. We'll see.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Canadian Pride
I'm sitting here with the snowy TV playing in the back ground. I can hear the interviewer talking to someone (sadily I didn't catch this name), about Patriotism. Do they think that this feeling will change, will our confidence in being Canadian change? I didn't know honestly that it wasn' t there to begin with. I guess it comes from being part of the eastern coast of Canada vs anywhere west of that?
I think I've definitely come to the conclusion that if you haven't grown up within the Maritimes of Canada, you don't see what I've always seen.
When I came back to Canada for a visit after living in the USA for 2yrs, my parents pulled out a flag. They hung it in front of my then 8month old son, so that he would know what a Canadian Flag looked like. They did worry we wouldn't teach him anything about Canada while we lived in the big USA. They sang Oh Canada to him while they rocked him. I guess some of that sunk in because I came back to Canada before my oldest started going to School. We felt the pull to come back to Canada. Maybe we came for the family or maybe we came for that deep down pride that's still within us to BE Canadian, Live Canadian and Bring up little Canadians. Sure there were days that I call the older two sons my little Americans but it's a dig for my family. My boys know they are Canadian, their citizenship cards say so! My youngest was born here.
The Schools here in New Brunswick are definitely full of Canadian Pride, you can see it when you walk in the doors, and you hear it when the kids sing their Oh Canada. My kids know the words, and it brings me back to my elementary School years when everyday in Nova Scotia started with Oh Canada. We live in a beautiful country, and I always have and always will be proud of my country, with or without Olympic Games in my very very very far off back yard.
I think I've definitely come to the conclusion that if you haven't grown up within the Maritimes of Canada, you don't see what I've always seen.
Go Canada GO!
You've always been a country to be proud of, if you haven't been a flag waver before now? I didn't see it. My Aunts and Uncles had Canadian Flags at their cottages all my childhood. My Grandma had red and white stones along her driveway, painted beach rocks leading the path to her door and her driveway. I guess one could argue it was a colour scheme that just happened, but why?why was it red and white? When I came back to Canada for a visit after living in the USA for 2yrs, my parents pulled out a flag. They hung it in front of my then 8month old son, so that he would know what a Canadian Flag looked like. They did worry we wouldn't teach him anything about Canada while we lived in the big USA. They sang Oh Canada to him while they rocked him. I guess some of that sunk in because I came back to Canada before my oldest started going to School. We felt the pull to come back to Canada. Maybe we came for the family or maybe we came for that deep down pride that's still within us to BE Canadian, Live Canadian and Bring up little Canadians. Sure there were days that I call the older two sons my little Americans but it's a dig for my family. My boys know they are Canadian, their citizenship cards say so! My youngest was born here.
The Schools here in New Brunswick are definitely full of Canadian Pride, you can see it when you walk in the doors, and you hear it when the kids sing their Oh Canada. My kids know the words, and it brings me back to my elementary School years when everyday in Nova Scotia started with Oh Canada. We live in a beautiful country, and I always have and always will be proud of my country, with or without Olympic Games in my very very very far off back yard.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Learning Continued and Continuing
Life is definitely a learning experience, I've been learning since the day I was born, I learned my Parent's voices, my family's love. I learned to walk, and bike and talk and talk and oh did I mention talk? Today while talking to a friend, I learned again. I learned that I miss my years of taking Business courses.
When I left University to go get married, I know it sounds like I'm a woman of the 1940-50's? no I was a woman of the 90's. I left my Business Degree program and got married.
My Hubbie was living 19hour drive away from me while I was going to University before the wedding. I had enough of school and wanted to be with him. I told my mother that I'd continue going to school. I promised I wouldn't let my education stop, so I signed up for a Business Diploma program in my new town. I worked part time in retail, I went to school part-time and I learned to be a wife, and cat mommy. We moved out of there before I finished my Diploma, so now I hold in my trails of learning 1/2 of a Business Degree and 1/2 of a Business Diploma. I had thought I'd do Human Resources. I didn't. We moved out of the country. I wasn't allowed to work in the new Country, I wasn't allowed (visa restrictions) to go to school there either. I could have fought hard to get a student visa but... I almost didn't mind but I had a back up plan. I did some distance education. The courses were interesting, the timing was all mine, I did it on my and my cats time. Hubbie travelled for work, he was away, the cat and I read our training books, we played Warcraft, we found IRC and ICQ and many friends inside the computer. The computer, I was susposed to be using that for my papers, and my learning. I found a way to talk to people, not just the cat. I continued to learn but those courses? While doing distance education I didn't keep on a time line. I could ask for extentions, I could blame that new baby that showed up, I could blame gallbladder surgery, I had excuses. I was still learning.
That was between 12-15yrs ago. Today I have 3 growing boys, they are learning daily. I'm learning daily how to parent and keep them interested in continuing their learning. Homework isn't fun but it can be... Some days I have more fun helping them then they have doing the work. I haven't finished any of those degrees or diplomas. I thought about being a Lactation Consultant but I realized that my personality just wasn't going to be the best help to some newly learning parents,(pushy isn't always wanted) that was something I was still learning. There are many ways to parent, many ways to build humans and keep them on the path to learning.
Today when talking to my friend on the phone and reading over her homework with her I remembered so many things I thought I had lost. Just because the university says your courses will not be transferable after 10yrs, doesn't mean the information isn't in there. It does stick, you can retain some of it, it just can come up and surprise you what you have learned how much you can keep on learning and adding to the pile of Learning. I'll continue to keep on learning, and growing being Me.
When I left University to go get married, I know it sounds like I'm a woman of the 1940-50's? no I was a woman of the 90's. I left my Business Degree program and got married.
My Hubbie was living 19hour drive away from me while I was going to University before the wedding. I had enough of school and wanted to be with him. I told my mother that I'd continue going to school. I promised I wouldn't let my education stop, so I signed up for a Business Diploma program in my new town. I worked part time in retail, I went to school part-time and I learned to be a wife, and cat mommy. We moved out of there before I finished my Diploma, so now I hold in my trails of learning 1/2 of a Business Degree and 1/2 of a Business Diploma. I had thought I'd do Human Resources. I didn't. We moved out of the country. I wasn't allowed to work in the new Country, I wasn't allowed (visa restrictions) to go to school there either. I could have fought hard to get a student visa but... I almost didn't mind but I had a back up plan. I did some distance education. The courses were interesting, the timing was all mine, I did it on my and my cats time. Hubbie travelled for work, he was away, the cat and I read our training books, we played Warcraft, we found IRC and ICQ and many friends inside the computer. The computer, I was susposed to be using that for my papers, and my learning. I found a way to talk to people, not just the cat. I continued to learn but those courses? While doing distance education I didn't keep on a time line. I could ask for extentions, I could blame that new baby that showed up, I could blame gallbladder surgery, I had excuses. I was still learning.
That was between 12-15yrs ago. Today I have 3 growing boys, they are learning daily. I'm learning daily how to parent and keep them interested in continuing their learning. Homework isn't fun but it can be... Some days I have more fun helping them then they have doing the work. I haven't finished any of those degrees or diplomas. I thought about being a Lactation Consultant but I realized that my personality just wasn't going to be the best help to some newly learning parents,(pushy isn't always wanted) that was something I was still learning. There are many ways to parent, many ways to build humans and keep them on the path to learning.
Today when talking to my friend on the phone and reading over her homework with her I remembered so many things I thought I had lost. Just because the university says your courses will not be transferable after 10yrs, doesn't mean the information isn't in there. It does stick, you can retain some of it, it just can come up and surprise you what you have learned how much you can keep on learning and adding to the pile of Learning. I'll continue to keep on learning, and growing being Me.
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