A New Year, A New Job, Narnia

A lot has happened since the last time I posted to this blog.  First, we went back to Massachusetts for Christmas.  The whole family was there. Kathryn was back from Montreal, Aaron was home from college, Aaron and the two younger kids and I drove down from PEI.   Our family, Tommy, Alicia, Rachel, Michelle, Joe, Joey, Steven, Natalie, Jillian, Isabella, Alcida, Bob, Alcida, Ashley, Stephen, Mom and Dad were all together for the first time in many years.  Michelle even arranged to have the family photographed at the New Year's Day party. We also saw Bumpa, Kim, Mike, Jeff, Olya, Rob, Mal, Mike, Brian, Kerry and Kevin at Mike and Mal's Christmas party.  We even made it to the St. Michael's choir party at Gerry and Kathy's house on Beacon Street.  So many parties, so little time!  We left the day after New Year's, just in time to get caught in a blizzard in northern Maine.  We stopped to stay the night in Houlton, ME before driving back to PEI the next day.

The weather in December in PEI was fairly mild, hovering around 0 celsius. Cloudy every day, a little snow every day, sometimes more.  Still no snow days until yesterday, much to the kids' disappointment.  I finished my first semester of teaching online for UMass, and I was ready for something new.  I got a grant to teach fabric art for the local seniors on Saturday afternoons, which began the first week in January.  It is a class of 12 ladies who have been working on fabric self portraits.  They seem to be enjoying themselves, and I am enjoying the class as well.  It is fun to put this kind of classs together and help people learn new ways of doing things.  In April, we will be having a gallery showing of all the class projects, courtesy of our Provincial Library in Cornwall. 

Just after we came back to PEI, I got a call from Study Abroad Canada to come in to take an English grammar test.  I had submitted my resume to teach there before Christmas, and they were interested in meeting me.  I took the test, and did well.  I began substitute teaching English as a foreign language a couple weeks ago.  It really is fun to be back in the classroom again, and I really enjoy teaching adults who are highly motivated to learn.  It is also fun to meet so many people from so many different countries.  The teachers are young and well traveled, and have many stories to tell.  I am also taking an advanced drawing class on Tuesdays just for fun, and training as a community interpreter for Spanish on Monday nights.  I love it here!

Yesterday, it snowed quite a bit, and the kids had their first snow day.  Today Abby and Daniel and I went for a walk in the woods behind the house and along the Clyde River.  It was so beautiful.  There is about a foot of pure, deep powder on the ground, and the sun was shining!  We walked through the old horse trails in the woods, making our way along the river, through the balsam and birch trees.  It was just like the movie Narnia.  We were half expecting the evil snow Queen Jadis to appear on her sleigh and hand us some Turkish Delight!  All the footprints were ours.  No one else goes back there. Ever.  We half expected to run through the fur coats in the wardrobe in the Spare Oom.  Just another magical day on the beautiful island.