Pressing On

This was the sight that greeted those who had to visit the Cancer Clinic today.  The picture does not do it justice in the least, the whole place had a lovely fall theme, provided, I understand, by the receptionist there who must have a LOT of storage at her disposal.  She does something wonderful for every season.  I know that because I have now been a guest there during every season of the year! My visit today confirmed that it has been a year since my surgery - I thought it must be something like that but I didn't have the wherewithal to look it up myself in my old planner. I mean, I didn't care THAT much to celebrate the anniversary. I also found out something else today that I suspected but didn't know for sure.  I'm considered a Stage 2A cancer patient, with a Grade 3 tumour.  This sounds really dumb, but based on what the surgeon had told me waaaay back I had supposed Stage 2 cancer but somehow the oncologist did not actually say those words an...

Yes, the turkey looks like it's sticking out its weirdly long tongue at us. After I posted the picture I felt like it was rather a serendipity because, well, I don't feel like giving thanks. I feel like my thanks-giver is worn out. I feel tired of turning crummy things inside out to find the silver lining.  Some things are just crummy. I am thankful that we are all healthy this year, truly! I'm thankful I've got a warm place inside today because it's pouring gigantic drops of rain. There are many other things too, just not everything. I do realize it's not my usual approach, and it's anti-scriptural, and it's no good for me or anyone else but what can I say: I'm a bit gloomy this year and feel like calling spades spades - which should make the world very afraid... Note Bene (NB) for my international friends :  It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada today; I'm in Canada : )

As of this year I have survived  completed 10 years of homeschooling!  My flagship student is now in grade 10, meaning, including kindergarten, I have just entered my 11th year.  Gosh. I'm going to be homeschooling longer than it took me to graduate... hmmm. I remember just getting started, thinking that surely someone would step in and save us from this terrifying prospect.  I had no intention of homeschooling.  I had many intentions of hiring a tutor and travelling the world. Worst case I would homeschool for a year or two until such times as a tutor was realistic. Apparently a tutor was then and continues to be, highly unrealistic.    I would still hire a good private teacher in a heartbeat. The obvious question is why did we not just take advantage of local schools when kindergarten rolled around? Well, it's got to do with my delusions that life is what you make it and you can make it something great - or at least more of what you want it ...

This is the view I much prefer, with the lovely oak tree out the window.  I got my favourite chair in the chemo room last week for my Herceptin treatment.  It really is a pleasant looking room, don't you think? It's particularly nice in the late afternoon when the sun is shining.  Still I wouldn't be too disappointed if I never saw it again.  I hope nobody reading this has to see it either.  It's actually getting harder to go back there. Before it seemed like I was always there all the time but now, with substantial breaks in between, I find I'm letting my guard down and going back is an increasingly jarring experience. Thankfully my devoted husband has been driving me in the last few trips. I feel like such a wimp!  I mean I CAN go in by myself, but I'd sure rather not...

School days, school days,  Good ol' golden rule days, Reading and writing and 'rithmetic, All to the tune of a hickory stick! Anyone else's mother used to sing them that little song?  Of course my mother was raised by nuns in a convent, so she may have been more familiar with the "stick" than most. I can guarantee that none of my mom's first days of school looked remotely like the one we had here this September.  We always try to make it special and fun; I mean it's a little bit of an anticlimax to 'go back to school' in your own living room. So what's a homeschooler to do? Well... It starts off like this: In the bags a homeschooler this year will find some very junky breakfast food (a huge treat here), some monster erasers, colour co-ordinated notebooks, either a cool t-shirt or Pokemon cards (dependent on his/her interest), gum, soda and various other odds and ends specific to the receiver. Also stacked high on the tab...

Not a great view, but a view none-the-less. I was in the "overflow" at the Chemo Clinic today which means no windows, but I sat next to a lovely lady on nearly the same treatment plan as I, but farther down the road by a few months, so we had lots to chat about.  It was also only about 50 minutes or so, so not so bad. Despite the fact that it's a short appointment and there are no real side effects to the medication, I always feel wiped out after.  I'm sure part of it is the hour drive to get there and the rest is the experience of being at the Clinic at all. Somehow it's always a little stressful even when they aren't doing stressful things to me... But I have 3 weeks off now!!  Yey!

Of course that's what most of us secretly think - that we are good enough to go heaven.  I mean we're certainly not as bad as that guy over there...  but that's not really where I'm going with this. The other day we were enjoying a picnic in the park and discovered this lovely cupboard full of books! Oh how I love books :)  It was one of those book-bins where you drop off books you don't want and pick up a book you do want. Well, there are almost always books I want in a book bin (as my groaning bookshelves will attest) but there was one there that I found to be a must-have. I know a bit about Buddhism, I investigated it a bit years ago when I was wandering across the spiritual landscape.  I recently read a very interesting non-fiction book on a woman's search for the teachings of a certain monk:  "Ten Thousand Miles without a Cloud", which led her through the history and geography of Chinese Buddhism; but I hadn't quite seen something so er...