Math helps

I am between sixes and sevens these days.

Not sure where that expression came from but it fits the theme of math, and numbers.

I am helping a grade 11 student with pre-calculus math.

I have been sitting at the kitchen table for hours a day doing radical problems.

It helps.

It is soothing.

Because there is, in fact, a right answer even if I don't get it right the first time.

I can figure it out, and get the right answer.

How come life isn't like that?

(This is a rhetorical question, but feel free to answer if you wish).

Premonition or Intuition- either way I'm a believer

Every once in a while I get a flash of something awful happening to someone I love.

I learned years and years ago that when that happens I am to surround the person in white light to protect them.

I had a vision of my son having a car accident on the Alaska Highway. I immediately surrounded him and his truck in white light.

Last night he phoned.

He is ok.

He did have an accident on the Alaska Highway.

He went into a skid and to avoid hitting a semi he steered for the snowbank and rolled his truck.

He wasn't hurt.

He knows his seatbelt saved him from serious injury.

Six feet either side of that snowbank was a six foot drop-off.

That snowbank saved him.

He got a lift from the driver of the pilot car accompanying the semi to a truck stop four kilometers down the road.

The tow company wanted hundreds of dollars to right his vehicle and tow it to a garage.

He walked back to his truck.

He got his axe, heading into the forest and cut down a ten foot tree.

He put the trunk of the tree through the window of his truck that was lying on its side and with the help of another truck driver they righted the vehicle.

Thank God for the kindness of strangers.

His truck started, and he continued the drive home.

Another twelve hours.

Slowly, with four way flashers going and no side mirror.

He was scared.

He made it home to his loved one. She had a hot bath ready for him.

He is still in shock.

So am I.

But non-believers, back off.

White light works.

A to Z(ed) - here I come!

In April I am going to participate in the A to Z blogging challenge. I am Canadian so let's all practise pronouncing it A to Zed, shall we?

Today is the day we announce our theme if we are going to use one.

I am.



When I graduated my Grade Eight class in June of 2012 the class presented me with a quilt. I had taught this same group of children since Grade One.

Throughout the Grade Eight year the students and their mums met and made quilt squares depicting different events in our eight years together.

There are thirty-six squares.

I will tell you a story about each one connecting them with the A to Zed theme.

I have wanted to blog about this quilt (which I sleep under every night) since I received it.

This challenge has given me the perfect opportunity.

Please join me on April 1, for post one, A = Advent Apple.

I will be linking to other blogs in the challenge so I am certain it is going to be an awesome month.

And a special shout-out to my blogging buddies, Wendy of the Rock and Edwima's Episodes who are joining me in this madness!

My blog is an open book so why doesn't he read it?

I have a question for all you bloggers out there.

Does your significant other read your blog?

Mine doesn't.

He says he thinks he should so he can know more about what I am thinking about stuff.

But he doesn't.

I think he is afraid to.

I have sometimes blogged about him, and then I have to print out the blog and put it in front of his nose.

Then he reads it.

But jeez?

What's a blogger gotta do?

Maybe I have to start blogging about climate - because he reads ALL those blogs.

Out of my mind?

I decided to start a new knitting project.

Nothing unusual there.

Except.....well, it is a pi shawl (yes, I am that math geek), and I did start it on March 14, which was Pi Day. Actually it was super Pi Day because it was March 14 of the year 2015 which is the first five digits of Pi - 3.1415.

This shawl is a large circular shawl and it has beads placed on it to represent accurately the night sky in the northern hemisphere.

What's not to love?

But I decided to colour code my beads to match the magnitude of the actual stars.

So I started with this chart.



and then using this chart that shows the algorithm of how the shawl is constructed....




I got out all my tools to add the colours to the beading chart.

It isn't as daunting as it first seemed.

Here is my progress so far - I am ready to start chart E and I have 288 stitches. The colourway of the wool is Scandinavian Fjord. How perfectly northern is that?

I can see the big dipper already. Can you?

(Hint - the red bead in the centre is the north star)

Maybe I am not out of my mind, but this shawl is going to be out of this world!

I should. Should I?

Today I am feeling full of "I should".

I should dust.

I should vacuum.

I should go for a swim.

I should get out of my pajamas.

I should do the dishes.

But then there is this still small voice.

Should I?

I mean, eventually, of course, I should (and will) do all the things.

But, right now?

Right now what I should do is listen to my body.

I have a headache.

I have a sore throat.

Maybe pajamas, and tea, and my mohair blanket are all I need while I curl up on the couch and watch the rest of Season One of One Tree Hill.

Because I should find out if Peyton and Lucas are going to finally get together.

Shouldn't I?

Hey, my blog is ready for Grade One!

Blogging friends have been announcing their blog's birthdays so I went back and checked and guess what?

My blog turned seven last Friday.

Seven on Friday the 13th. Ya gotta love that.

So that means:

a) my blog is ready for grade one

b) she has probably lost her front teeth

c) I am a completely different person if you follow the belief that all of your cells are replenished after seven years.

Hmmmm...

This also means that I am a bad parent because:

a) this is the first time I have acknowledged my blog's birthday, and

b) I missed it by two days!


However, I don't feel too bad because apparently for years my mother celebrated my birthday on the 19th of October until someone went and checked my birth certificate to verify it was actually the 17th.

I can't really fault her, I was the fourth child, and hey, who keeps count after three?


So, happy birthday, Breathing Life.

You are doing fine.

You have good friends.

You are still here.

And that?

That is a good thing.


If you want to read my first ever post check it out here:

OK

I have a good friend and when I see her and she asks me how I am if I say ok she says:

"Oh, you and your oks".

Sometimes my sister asks me how I am and I say OK, and she says:

"Liar"

They are both right.

Sometimes I say I am OK when I am clearly not OK.

But I say OK, because

a) I don't want to go into it

b) If I go into it I will start crying and I don't want to cry

c) Sometimes I can't find the words to go into it

d) Sometimes I am just ok, and that is better than not ok.


I have had a hard week. I have been subbing in a class with some children who have, to put it mildly, challenges.

I wasn't up to the challenge.

It made me mad. At them, at their parents, at the school, at myself.

It made me sad. For them, and for all the children that I think the education system and society has, and is, letting down.

I wanted to blame someone.

Anyone.

Everyone.

I blame myself.

For not doing a better job this week.

For not doing a better job for the thirteen years I taught at the school.

For not doing a better job for my own children.

So.

If you see me this week and ask me how I am doing.

If I say OK.

I am lying.

I am not OK.

I will be.

But not today.

It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

And some days are like that.

Even in Australia.



(Words by Judith Viorst but today it was my Life)

One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small

I woke up this morning and heard my husband talking on the telephone.

He has the most wonderful voice. I have always loved that voice.

My next thought was - "What would it be like to live alone? Just me. No-one else to consider."

But then, there was his voice. I'd miss that. I'd miss him.

When I wandered into the kitchen the nesting pair of juncos was on the back porch checking out the flower boxes -they made me laugh.

My husband came into the kitchen and put his hand on the back of my neck as he does often. It is a loving gesture.

"I think the pills are working - it is good to hear you laugh".

My eyes teared up as they are tearing up now.

I have been laughing more often - just a chuckle here or there.

Another sign that upping my medication was a good call.

Or it could be the juncos.

Or spring.

Because spring is coming.

It always comes.

Limerick Contest

Go check out the original blog for all the entries here.

Here is mine:

There once was a very fast knitter
Who suddenly became very bitter
The sweater was pink
But when washed in the sink
The darn thing it no longer fit 'er.