Our daughter Rachel is selling art this month to support a language program for her son (our grandson) Brett. Brett is one of many on the autism spectrum and has difficulty with language. Rachel has found a language program which helps him, but his school doesn't have it at this time. In honor of Autism Awareness month, she hopes to raise funds to purchase this program for Brett and the other children at the school with language problems Her work can be found at her Etsy site.
Her friend has organized several crafty people who will be donating portions of their sales to a favorite charity---Rachel's is a part of this. Check out this site "Handmade with a Purpose"!
Shortly after arriving in Kansas City, we picked the kids up from school. Libby came out in JUST tights, t-shirt, boots and jacket. Her teacher explained, "She didn't have an accident or anything, she got hot and took her dress off." We later talked her into putting the dress back on so we could go out to eat. I asked Davis, "When you saw Libby at the morning assembly, did she have her dress on?" Davis: "No, and I was pretty surprised." We went out to Waldo Pizza for dinner where we tried the "Pat and Connie Special". Brett was the star having participated in limbo at the school assembly and being the opening speaker at mass the next day. St. Elizabeth's was beautifully decorated for Thanksgiving. Brett's opening speech had a lot of "th" sounds which he has been working on. He did a great job. . .Davis said, "I thought at the end he was going to say, 'I said my "th"!'" But, Brett did a fine job and didn't stray from his script. Doesn't he look handsome and poised! Miss Libby colored a page for me and wrote (with help): "Grandma, I love you. She is my friend." Davis was busy crossing off the days until Dad gets home. . . And, helping me get ready for Thanksgiving by crumbling the cornbread, putting all of the ingredients in, stirring, adding herbs. And, Uncle Jim gave the stuffing high praise the next day!
The dock in Finland wasn't quite as interesting as in Stockholm or Warnemeude, but we were taking a bus and "rail" trip through Helsinki. Our first stop was the Sibelius monument. This video that I found on Youtube, is a beautiful visual and musical tribute to Finland. Around 5:23 begins the melody to my favorite hymn "Be Still My Soul" which is, of course, "Finlandia".
After a bus tour around the city, we got on the tram to basically see almost everything we'd already seen by bus. This was not the greatest excursion---several reported back at the ship with wonderful excursion in Porvoo and my brother and his wife visited a horse farm which they enjoyed. The video above hints at some of what I considered the best part of this excursion---learning about the people. Finland has been dominated by Sweden and Russia over the years. Their signs are all bi-lingual with Finnish and Swedish---the languages are not remotely related. Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are not related to the dominate language family in Europe---Indo-European---which includes Slavic, German, Latin languages as well as Urdu, Pinjabi Hindi and Bengali of India! Here, are Finnish, Swedish and English---my German speaking friends shouldn't have any trouble reading the Swedish: staden= Stadt (City); ren=rein (clean), but the Finnish. . . Of course, there were historical buildings and statues. This is actually of Russian Czar Alexander II who encouraged Finnish autonomy and the use of their own language. What I loved about Finland were the people---their humor, their resourcefulness, their courage. In addition to Jean Sibelius, another famous son Eero Saarinen, holds a special place in the hearts of St. Louisans.
Several weeks ago my grandson Brett (6) was visiting and watching his favorite video about all kinds of trains and trolleys. His sister (1) and cousin (2) were with him. He was overheard to say, "Can you say trowey. . .tro-wey."
Today his brother Davis (4) and I were outside playing "I see something. . ." Davis went first, "I see something green." Me: "Are you kidding me? trees, grass. ." Davis: "It begins with the "g" sound." Me: "Garden?" Yes! When it was his turn again, he said, "I see something gray." I guessed clouds, sky, sidewalk. He said, "No, it has the "w" sound." Skeptically I said, "Walrus?" He said, "Here's another hint, it eats carrots." I said, "Wabbit?" He said, "Yes, WABBIT!"
Most of my life, I've considered it fortunate that I was just ahead of the Baby-boom. Generally, the Baby-boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 after the fathers returned from World War II. It was a huge population explosion that has reverberated through American society.
This blog will be part history, part memories, part reflections of a retired teacher, but active "Senior". I have always felt like I straddled two generations forming a bridge. Sometimes I think like a baby-boomer, but sometimes I'm locked into my parents' Depression era thinking. I'm a dichotomy of two eras. But, I'm always ready to try something new---so here I am dipping my toes in the water of Blogworld.
