Pee o knee

 

I haven't cut and tabled peonies before.  Time to start. 

It's just a hat.

 I've thought about this hat, and this button often. 

Today is a day of sorrow for me.  Decades ago women marched, they protested, the majority of us as adult voting people in a nation want women to chose what is right for themselves.

I'm not sure what to do.  I want to march.  I want to act.  I want to fight.

If we don't honor our women enough to allow them sovereignty over the body that they live in, then the decision makers have judged women unable to make the right decision.

"allow them sovereignty".  Who is it exactly that decides to allow them and who are 'they' to make that decision.

I don't know what my job is, but I'm ready.

Building

 One more thing to say.  Rebecca and I were talking about what to do when you see someone's work, know you can do better, there is better out there... And their stuff is kind of.. well... Shit.

I'll use the"building people up" analogy.  I know that we are amazing, and know better than others almost all of the time.  But I've experienced holding my tongue a few times.  It seems to work better.  I break people less. 

I'll give Doral the gold metal for this, I've seen him sit beside another, let them mistake over and over, and with patience and quiet, allow the child to get there on their own with him as  a support person. 

I'll try to be a little more like Doral.  Or said differently... I'm going to steal Doral's good idea!!!  Hehehe. 

 

A year and a day.

To break the silence.  Maybe it's not a challenge to speak after the day, but I might as well do a collage story. 

A carburator.  Michael and I sat down and tried to fix the lawn mower.  It surges now and I am illogicality attached to that 15 year old mower.  I tried to take it apart and fix it a week ago.  No joy.  I did it again to teach Michael something/anything in the process.  We got it working this time.  I think we now know something on how to keep it another 15 years.

Betty said what is brunch, can we do brunch.  We ended up at Kilkenny's in Brentwood.  A good dining experience but a disappointing waitress.

A quick visit from rebeky.  It was a joy to steal ten minutes and go out of bounds on the routines. 

I love taking photos of the photographer.  I think it's catching people trying their hardest.  The face does beautiful things when you are fully engaged in a task .

A. Type of squash that I don't care for. I tried spaghetti, acorn, but this thing is too sweet.  I'm looking for savory meals with my squashes.  Less sugar please. 

ants on this flower. It's a flower right?

A deer in from of the office munching on fresh doors shoots.  I videos d it but I'm not going to put videos up here. 

A cake dropped that was too be a seven years old s cake.

A mom working after kids sleep to create a morning birthday surprise. 

Neighbor Dave sold his house.  I think he got fleeced by a realtor.  He sold for lower than any house listed currently in the neighborhood. He'll be fine but it does seem a bit predatory on old people. 

Three little kids crafting before bed. 

The parent tapes are strong....

 A mathematics test is offered for grade 5 & 6 children in Calgary through the CBE.  

http://blogs.mtroyal.ca/cesmc/

Level 1 is for children in grade 4/5, and Level 2 is offered for grades 5/6.  When Michael told us about the contest and that there was an exciting dinner prize for the children that win, we began to try and prepare.

Miranda went online and printed the tests with answers and wrote them out on individual stickie notes.  Over 100 stickie notes covering most of the family white board.  That way the questions could be pulled off the board, attempted, and breaks taken between learning sessions.  He's a photo of the last 25% of the stickies. 

At first Michael was to try and answer three or four questions a day.  Sometimes this was hard work, other times it was easy work, and other times we just didn't do it.

The painful lessons that we went through:

1. I found myself in the my childhood, arguing with my father.  Anger, hatred, frustration, tears.  The parent tapes are strong.  Many math practice questions devolved into "but I can do it in my head", and parents yelling "we are giving you the gift of how to do these!!!  Receive this for later years or don't!!!! We are offering help, not punishing you!!!"  Ah..... good parenting....

2. Over and over it seems, the lessons were about how to read the questions and about the nomenclature.  "What does Product, digit, sum, number mean".  The math never seems to be difficult, but the deciphering of the question is the work.

3. The tricks are around the edges.  The beginning number, the ending number, whether you include the beginning number, whether the beginning number is "1" or does it include a "0".

4. Please write down your work.  "But I can do it in my head!!!!!!"  No please... half of the job is to leave the page so that someone can follow your thoughts.  Just circling the answer will not give you partial marks and you will eventually get most of your marks from partial work when the math gets too difficult.

The test was April 27, and Michael felt very confident.  He did Level 1 as a grade 5'er, and he thought that he got every question except for one.  What an absolute pain though, because the work goes to be marked and the results aren't released for a month or more!

Just yesterday, June 10, Michael found out that he received a partial success.  The award of "certificate of distinction".  No one knew that this was going to be offered.  He did not win the "dinner at Mount Royal" although that was the goal at the beginning of this journey.  We tried to find out how to over praise for this, in order to encourage for next year as well as give the girls insentive and motivation for when they reach grade 4, 5, 6.

The request from Michael was "spicy chicken" as his reward for the certificate.  It's an over cookable chicken bites from Costco.  To over-reward him we went to a restaurant that has spicy chicken sandwiches.  "Citizen Brewery".  

After, we were to go get ice cream from "made by marcus" which is a froo froo ice cream joint down the hill on 19th from our neighborhood.  Everybody was so full from dinner though so we decided to save the ice cream reward for the day after and have an icecream lunch.

Finally, to conclude, here is a picture of michael doing stickie notes and recording his work in his duotang.  Also, I took his certificate into work so that I could use the laminator and protect it a little bit.  

B

Copellia

Betty was given two tickets to Coppelia the ballet after finishing her highland dance class.  Miranda asked if she should buy three more tickets and go as a family?  I say OF COURSE!!!  What fun! 

For some reason, I was very put out to see Kenny on the first page of the performance.  The creative director, I thought, talked about supporting the arts.  "The society without the arts, is like the human without a heart".  I did enjoy the opening words that were said.  

I also enjoyed the idea that they floated about "come to the arts, suggest to others, and even buy extra tickets and gift them to others".  I am not sure if my wallet will allow, but I did mention to Miranda that I think buying one extra ticket from now on is a spectacular idea.  We can always grab 'someone' to come with us.