Thursday, June 23, 2011

School Days and Talents Discovered

This is a bit of a housekeeping post. Ok. Not really.

Really, it's a bragging post, but I didn't want to write that straight off, lest you stopped reading.

'Cause Imma gonna let you you get back to your life, just as soon as I tell you this:

1. I am going back to school. Well, I hope to go back to school. IF I get accepted, get off the wait-list and get funding. That's a lot of "ifs" but I have faith. IF all goes well, I'll be studying Social Service Work at Loyalist College.

I am very, very excited and have been thinking about this for some time. It feels good when I wrap thoughts of study and learning around me - it feels right to be learning how to be helpful member of and asset to my community.

Now, if only I could kick the asses of all those potential students ahead of me, I'd be set!

2. When my Mum retired, she decided to try her hand at learning to paint. Water colours, to be precise. She soon moved onto to drawing and sketching to oil on canvas and without so much as a whisper of bias I can tell you this:

She. is. amazing.

Who knew? Certainly not Mum, who's as dazed by her awesome talent as we are, but who gamely creates beautiful works of art all the the time. In fact, she has so many pieces, my Dad convinced her to enter her (our) favourites into an exhibition north of Lakefield.

Shameless, absolutely shameless plug forthcoming:

It's worth the drive to Lakefield! Beginning this weekend,  Mum's work (along with other artists') will be hanging  at the Harbour Art Gallery (http://www.trentsevern.com/kawarthapark.cfm) all summer and you really ought to see it. Seriously. She does great work. Here, for example, is something she whipped up for my husband, for Father's Day:


Just like that. She does outdoor scenes, too. And the prettiest lighthouses. I'm just sayin'.

3. Matthew graduated from Kindergarten this morning. That's actually all I'm planning to say about it tonight. I'm saving all my tears and weepy "where'd-my-baby-gooooooo???"-ness for his last day, which is only six  blog posts away.

You have been warned.


And you? Got any cool stuff going on that you'd like to brag about share?

6 comments:

  1. What kind of work in the social work field are you planning to do? My favorite (cause I've been around a lot) are obviously adoption workers but also domestiv violence ones as well. Oh and the social workers in the city over who took initiative to open a homeless shelter that serves hundreds of homeless men (cause they're underserved). Homeless people and orphans have my heart. Anywho, how amazing that your mom found here hidden talent later in life. And she's pretty darn good! Don't even get me started on the weepy kids growing up thing. I feel like the past five years have gone so fast I missed enjoying each moment to the fullest, and now he's a "big" kid :( Alas I always have Tanner who just doesn't grow. Oh well, just think in five/six more years you'll have a tween on your hands ;0)

    Kisha

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  2. In the end, I'd like to be the liason/go-to person for families who struggling with care issues for their aging parents: when to insist, how to decide, where to access care, etc.

    After that? I'm interested in palliative care and helping families navigate the final journey with grace and dignity.

    That's what I think today. Ask me if I get into the program and then ask me when the program's done! LOL!

    Mum will love to read your compliment, Kisha. She IS good, isn't she? I hope to take and post some photos of her other pieces this weekend. Stay tuned.

    Sigh...blink and childhood is gone, it seems. It has gone even faster now, since I am not the child, but the mother.

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  3. I love it when people who are retiring take up new hobbies. My grandpa taught himself to bake when my grandma had to go into a home due to dementia. He brought them into her. After she died, he would still bake occasionally and bring them into her care workers. As life goes, that was the same care home where he would spend his final year much later.

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  4. ^^^ This made me weepy. It's sort of how I see my parents, in coming years. I imagine my Dad will care for my Mum as long as possible, because, well, it's what he does.

    I love that your grandpa still baked after she was gone. What a lovely image.

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  5. Congrats on all the big news! I'm excited for you and your plans to go back to school. When would you start?

    Your moms painting is amazing.

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  6. IF I get funding/accepted, I'd start in September. Am praying so hard that I get in!

    I'll tell my mum that you said so - she'll be delighted! Hope to post more of her pieces in coming days!

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