Matters of the Heart

Hey all- I would appreciate if you could pray for my momma. It seems like a traumatic health year in the Reimer family. First Chad had pneumonia, then dad had a pulmonary embolism and now my mom has been sick for the last two weeks and she went to the hospital today and has been admitted.

She has congenital heart failure and cardiac myopathy. Essentially her heart isn't working the way it should and they believe there is some damage. They believe she must have contracted a virus at least a month ago that attacked her heart. But she wasn't sick a month ago, so who knows.

So she's at St. B. Different doctors have said different things about the severity of the situation. Essentially it is not likely to be life threatening. Sanity threatening though. She's on bed rest and for those who know my mother... she's not a fan of sitting still for any length of time so she is not looking forward to this. Not like she would be if she was otherwise a sitting duck.

I've had a crazy busy week as I have been subbing all but one morning and have two Kindergarten classes to take care of tomorrow for Halloween.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers I know will be sent our way.

Eight Months

Eight months ago today we found out that Renee had passed away. In the last eight months so much has happened in our lives but not a day has gone by that I don't remember her smile and her belief in hope. So today I will leave you with part of a prayer that she kept with her in her last months of life.

St. Patrick's Breastplate
I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the
Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession
of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.

I arise today through the strength of Christ with His Baptism,
through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial
through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.

I arise today, through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me,
God's host to secure me:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right,
Christ on my left, Christ in breadth, Christ in length,
Christ in height, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

9 Pages

Does that sound excessive for a guest teacher to read before they are "sufficiently" prepared to sub in my class? I just realized that's how many pages I have for my sub tomorrow. To be honest 6 pages of it are my general sub information that will be going in my sub binder including an index but no appendix and 3 are specific to tomorrow. It covers all my routines from duty, to behaviour, to bathrooms, to snack (hmm... right beside bathroom in this list), and how to properly send my children home (after all they can't just go home with anybody).

Neurotic? I'm not sure. I mean if someone had never met your kids before and they were going to be with them for 2 1/2 hours and had to get some very specific things accomplished wouldn't you leave a list that was even longer? I wonder some days how being a parent is going to compare with being a Kindergarten teacher. In a way it's different because I feel like I have 40 parents who trust me everyday to protect their little person. While if it's your own child it's your own flesh and blood that you are protecting. Guess I'll wait a while to blog about that.

And in case you were in suspense. The dairy farm went well today. Going on the bus was a big thrill for those of my students for whom it was the first time. We got to pet the calves, watch a cow being milked and we even got chocolate milk in convenient little cartons. Not straight from the brown cows this time.

Cheers!

Hmmm... not too much going on

Despite life being pretty busy it doesn't seem like much is going on. Just the usual.

I called in sick for the first time on Friday. I was feeling pretty worn out from my crazy day on Thursday. I have never felt more baffled. Maybe baffled is not the word but despite having all my students at school on Thursday there was not one time when we were all in the same roomat the same time. I had an EA pulling out kids for work, a volunteer doing some finish up with kids, and then they did all of my kids hearing and vision screenings in the same afternoon. It was nuts. I could have easily lost one and not known it till home time.

Despite really needing a sick day I wasn't sure how my kids would do with a sub. I felt a little like a mother hen, a little protective. However, my sub on Friday who is my room partner reported this morning that all had gone well and my kids had been great. Phew. I was glad that their first sub was someone they see quite often. She's usually working in my class in the afternoons while they are there so she wasn't a stranger. And today I started preparing them for their next sub. I have to go to a Kindergarten inservice on Wednesday and my room partner is going too, so they will have someone different. Hopefully they're good for her too.

But tomorrow we are going to the farm. Watch your feet, and hold your noses. Heading to the dairy farm. I am subbing in the morning and going to a meeting and then a banquet after school so I will definitely be bringing at least one change of clothes. It's not that I don't like farms, after all I was a farmer this summer, but I do not want to smell like one.

That's all the excitement I have for now.

Cheers

So many thoughts!

Right now I am sitting at my computer with so many thoughts running through my mind. None of them are thoughts I can actually do anything about. Thoughts about our future, where to live, where to buy, when to buy, to buy or build, feeling like I'm picking one family over the other, what will happen if we move, will we make new friends and still be able to maintain our current relationships, what will happen with the housing market, will I get more subbing, another half-time position, a full-time position next year, what financial decisions to make now so we benefit in the future....???

I was talking to a friend about being patient tonight. Neither of us are good at that, but yet we "must" be because we cannot change the situations we are in. We just have to wait and see what happens.

Is it the culture that we are in to not just live and trust that God will make things happen? Are we so anxious and high strung that we cannot just be still and know that things will work out? When will I learn that God will take care of it if I let him?

Cheers to God's infinite control, and being able to have some one to give it to.

Thankful

I have so many things to be thankful for today so I'm going to make a list. (Thanks for the inspiration Dayna)

- God, whose love endures forever
- My wonderful husband- who has a plan and a vision for our life
- my family biological and in-laws
- Great friends who love me even when I screw up
- Family which fits into the friend category too
- Karyn and Monique (and 23 great years with Renee)
- A job which I love most moments (and a carpool to get there)
- A roof (even though there's neighbours up there) over my head
- a warm bed
- Steve's new job
- food... mmm cheese, cheesecake, bread, cupcakes, and so many wonderful things
- Reading
- My shoes
- shopping online
- Dreaming
- Digital Cameras
- Dutch Blitz, Killer Bunnies, Scotland Yard and the good times around these games
- Having people over
- Hugs (man this should be higher up on the list)
- Birthdays
- Christmas lists
- Wine
- The freedom to try and be who I want to be
- Celebrating
- Life

For all these things and so many more I am very thankful. Yes life may be stressful some times but maybe I should just remember in those times "I'm to blessed to be stressed".

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Poems

These are for Pam and Tammi and anyone else that thinks poems are funny...

First one- The Turkey

The Turkey is a funny bird
It's head goes wibble, wobble
The Turkey only knows one word
and that is gobble, gobble.

(with the appropriate head bobbing and emphasis)

The other- sung to Frere Jacque I believe

Turkey Dinner

Turkey dinner, turkey dinner
Gather round, gather round
Who will get the drumstick?
Yummy yummy yumstick
All sit down, all sit down

Turkey stuffing,
Cornbread muffins
Pumpkin pie, with whip cream

All of us were thinner
Before we came to dinner
Me oh my, too much pie. (with appropriate exaggerated stomach grabbing)

And I do not share these with my room partner, not that I wouldn't be willing to share. They actually came from my cooperating teacher the year I was in Kindergarten. She lent me all of her poems already written out (yay!)

Anyways, as you have too much pie think of this poem and say Me oh my, too much pie.

Happy Thanksgiving all!