Sunday, August 21, 2011

Wonderful friends & nature & Help

Today's blog will be divided in three (or more) segments:

We love our 'Ontario friends' as we often refer to them. Shared McGill memories, shared values and similar dreams makes us grow closer each time we see each other. We enjoyed spending time with them around the pool in the backyard, playing Monopoly (though the baby didn't quite approve), eating Mexican food, getting a parking ticket and planning how to get out of it, walking around McGill and the Old Port and going shopping. Can't wait to see you again!
Aren't her sandals the cutest?

Nature: I think I've mentioned we have been going on bike rides, hiking, etc. This week we had a new outdoorsy adventure. We went canoeing around the Boucherville Islands (see it here on the map). My parents rented a kayak, and since Paul & I had once fought in a kayak during our honeymoon, we decided to go for the canoe. A beautiful hour and a half of singing, paddling, and looking at different kinds of birds and fish later and we were done. It was a very fun afternoon. Oh and in other news, on a bike ride the other day, we discovered a vineyard in St. Bruno and it's actually good! If you live in or around Montreal you should try it. Here is the website

Please ignore my over-sized bum and enjoy the view.
The Help: My good friend lent me the book the other day and I started reading it. I enjoyed hearing the words spring to life, so much so that on a rainy, dreary Sunday like today, I decided to go see the movie. It was my dad's suggestion, and though I know I should have read the book first, I couldn't help myself. I must say the critics aren't lying. It is seriously amazing. One of the best movies of the year, if I dare say so myself. Now I just have to finish reading the book. I don't think it will be too hard, because I'm expecting the book to have more details anyway. 

Now I am getting ready for the first day back to school. I won't have any students in my classroom yet, but I'm getting that nervous/excited feeling about starting a new school year. I don't even have my outfit picked out yet! I should probably get going on that!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Choosing my religion

I've started going to church again. And after stating that, I always feel I have to defend myself. If I said, "oh I'm going for a run" or "I'm heading to the gym" that would be OK and accepted by society. But church? Why would I do that?

I've mentioned this in previous posts and I'll repeat it again. I strongly believe that humans have to evolve in three spheres (perhaps there are more I haven't noticed yet) in order to feel content, or at least I do. These are the intellectual, physical and spiritual sides of self. I think that our society is obsessed with the first. You have to be smart, study a ton, and work a ton in order to be successful, right? Oh and then comes in the second part - if you don't look 'just right' you won't get as far in life, so you better be active. I feel that the spiritual side often gets ignored.

I've had a strong sense of faith since I was very young and I know that a lot of this is inherited from what my parents taught me and the fact that I grew up going to church on Sundays and to Catholic school. I think my sense of faith has stuck with me though, a faith that I describe as knowing that there is a benevolent force out there, knowing that we all fit together somehow, that we have a purpose and are not just here haphazardly. This sense of faith is a great feeling that is with me pretty constantly, but nurturing that spiritual side of myself has been a new 'need' of sorts. I like to take time to think, pray, meditate, and just 'be'. It helps make me feel centred. But, with a job, friends, husband, life, errands, that time - not just 'alone time' but spiritual time always seems to be the first thing scratched off the 'to-do' list.

I'm still not convinced that I believe in organized religion, so maybe I'm taking the easy way out here. But Catholic church is what I know. I like the tradition of it, I like knowing what to expect, I like gaining a better understanding of Bible stories. Maybe I should really look around and find something that feels just right for me, because I have to admit, I still sometimes feel like a fraud in church. Like maybe I'm not quite supposed to be there because I'm still taking out the bits that I like and not accepting the whole thing. But shopping around for a religion also feels wrong. I like the idea of Ramadan, and I have yet to try the Unitarian church Dawn mentioned a while back. But for now I know that going to church once a week makes me feel good, helps me grow and is making me more aware of who I am and what I believe in. I guess there is no short answer when someone asks "Why do you go to church?"

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Change ahead

Well I've made it a year as a blog-writer and still find it very fun. Since my return from Florida, I have partaken in many outdoorsy activities with my family (surprise, surprise - those who know us know that this is always what we do with free time on our hands). My dad, Paul and I went on two bike rides. The first one was a huge uphill climb and the second one was more of a stroll. I prefer the stroll. I also prefer a women's bike seat and am still hoping for an Amsterdam-style bike purchase in the future.

On Saturday, my mom and sister joined us for a hike up a nearby ski hill. It was HOT and there were a few times we stopped because I thought my heart would jump out of my chest, but the view was beautiful and it was a good time. After the hike we jumped in the Memphremagog lake (I really like the lake's name) to cool off and stopped for poutine at a diner, which may have cancelled out the calories burned during the hike, but that wasn't the main goal anyway (burning calories that is).

View of lake Memphremagog from Owl's Head ski hill.

Other than that, I chopped my hair off! Actually the hairdresser did. I'd been thinking about it since April and was too chicken to do it, and finally I just did. I really like having short hair, it's the easiest thing in the world to up-keep, and seeing as I spend about 0.2 seconds on my hair, it's a great style for me. I have a wedding coming up at the end of August though, so I don't know if there is any 'special' way to do short hair so it looks nicer, but suggestions are welcome!
Before
After


Now that it has been a year, I'm thinking I may want to change the focus of my blog and I need your advice. I have come up with three different options, let me know which one you think is best.

A - Keep the blog as it is, random thoughts, etc.
B - A teaching blog, reflections on my teaching that will help me improve as a teacher could be written here
C - A 'historic' blog of sorts, rewriting some of my best journal entries from when I was a little girl/teenager

Which option do you think is best? A, B or C?

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Highlights of my trip to Jacksonville

Well, the real highlight was meeting my nephew and seeing my family (in-laws sounds a little weird, doesn't it? so I'll just call them family), but here are a few other things that were notable:

1. I arrived at the airport and since I hadn't checked any bags, I just walked straight out. Thank goodness for technology, because I was able to notify one of my friends in Montreal via Skype that I needed Paul to call his family via Nextel because I didn't know where they were. I was chatting on Skype while trying to find them, and for a while we all got scared that maybe  I wasn't at the right airport. So I went up to an officer and asked him, "Am I in Jacksonville?" and he answered, "Yes mam, this is Jacksonville International Airport." After 45 minutes I realized I was at the departure level and needed to go down a flight of stairs to the arrivals! Not one of my proudest moments, but at least I was in the right city!

2. First impressions of Jacksonville = lots of highways, lots of space, everything super beautiful and well-organized. My sister-in-law and her husband live in a really nice suburb. There was also a southern feel to everything, including the architecture. I kept feeling like I was in a novel.

3. Amazing cleaning products! My sister-in-law and her husband have a very 'green' house, and Paul & I also enjoy eco-friendly everything, so it was neat to see she had made her own cleaning products that smelled heavenly and worked so well! She also had a super cool vacuum and mop. I swear I would clean more if I had some of those! Oh and I used them because I helped clean the house before the baptism.

4. Pizza on the grill = delicious! The recipe is actually my husband's (well he found it on the internet, but you know). I helped make the tomato paste and the dough from scratch. Then in the evening when the whole extended family had arrived, we cooked the pizzas on the BBQ. It was so good! The dough tasted even better than usual.

5. A beautiful church and deep conversations about God and religion with my sister-in-law were inspiring and eye-opening. It helped get me in the mood for my nephew's baptism, which was beautiful.

6. Shopping! Right now the Canadian dollar is high and American prices are usually lower anyway, so it was a great time to buy in the States. I got a little carried away at the Dollar Tree store because they have some an amazing section for teachers! I really am excited to be able to decorate my classroom!

All in all, it was a great trip. It was just so good to see family again and to meet my nephew, I don't think words can describe it. Just picture one big happy family I guess. From discussions to helping to watching the Kardashians on TV, everything just felt so comfortable and right. I am so excited to get to spend Christmas with them this year. A year apart was really too long!