Lighthouse Keepers

   Wow, what a summer it has been! Every year I tell my husband, this summer I am going to take it easy and relax and do lots of fun things, and every year something happens and my summer becomes jam packed. This summer was no different. Last school year was a very challenging year for me because I undertook the huge task of creating a history curriculum for my class. The school year hadn’t even finished when I began planning a big anniversary trip for us. I finished teaching five days before we left for two and a half weeks. Then we were back for one week before a close friend got married. Three weeks later was an unexpected trip to Florida for some training, and then four weeks later, my youngest sister got married. It was a great summer but I was so glad to see September coming.    Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a number of people mention that they are very much looking forward to fall. I think it’s the cozy sweaters and smells of pumpkin spi...

It was a few weeks before Christmas. Money was tight, expectations felt high and then came that hydro bill for over $800. Long story short, I ended up snapping at the Hydro One employee on the phone and then hung up on her. As far as she knows, I have stopped feeding my kids so that we can forever pay the hydro bills. Truthfully, it was not her fault. She was simply the messenger and who knows what I did to her day.  Looking back, I am disappointed at how I handled the situation. I like to think that I learn as I go and have grown since, though I am sure I have more great stories to come.  It is that time of year again. We sing and speak of love, joy and peace. We prepare gifts and are full of excitement. Or are we really? It is also possible that we are busy, overwhelmed and frustrated. As we go to town, we see the hustle and bustle all around us. With the hustle and bustle, there is a lack of smiling faces. Chances are we will experience bad customer service, get cut of...

How my mom dreaded those words. I don't know what all her reasons were but one reason she dreaded those words was because of the list of items she needed to shop for to get us prepared for the first day of school. Backpacks, lunch bags, indoor shoes and outdoor shoes, pencil case, crayons, markers, pencils, pens, pencil sharpener, erasers, glue, ruler, scissors, binders, notebooks, papers, index cards, kleenex box, all this and more ..... X 10. Not to mention new clothes for all of us. Second hand was new to us.  Sometimes mom would reminisce about those days gone by and then she would hold her head  and say, "Ack muech liva nich moll dinken on de dajg", "I'd rather not even think about those  days". But somehow she always managed to survive another, and another and yet another  school year. She never gave us the impression that she could hardly wait for us to go to school  to get us out of her hair. In fact it was just the opposite. She want...