Adventures in Hervey Bay: Sunday, May 13, 2012

I was hoping not to get a call to teach on Tuesday - and I didn't. It was a lovely day (when isn't it ) and so we headed down to the beach to enjoy the ocean again. We took our chairs and set up under a tree with our books and sat and enjoyed the water, the sun and the lovely breeze. I find that we (and by the 'we', I mean a lot of people in HB) take the beach for granted, so I told Dad this week that we need to remember to go down there more often. Tuesday night, I went with Dad to the chapel - while he had his priesthood meeting, I worked on Primary stuff. I have been thinking that it would be a good idea to take that time to get things organized for the following Sunday including getting all of my photocopying done. It was a very productive time and I was glad to get so much done as I was going to be really full-on on Sunday.

I got called in to teach on Wednesday - to a school that I have only been to once before in the time I have been teaching in HB. I had taught Prep there before and this was for a Prep class, too. Last time I had had a great day and this time was the same. The teacher had left a plan, but it needed some extra things which she did not leave (not sure she knew she was going to be away). Thank goodness for her teacher aide, Donna, who was amazing! She basically made up the plan for the day and things went so smoothly. The children were great - there was one little boy who was a bit of a handful (one of the other teachers told me that this little guy would be a handful) and he did go off and had to go to his 'time out' area. After a bit, he came around and was great for the rest of the day. Of course, I made him my 'carpet example' - he really liked being the one who everyone looked to to see what they should be doing. After everyone had left for the day, he came back to the classroom with tears in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he didn't want his teacher to come back, that he wanted me to be his teacher. Awww. :-)

Dad brought my running shoes to pick me up after school and we went down to the beach again, but this time we went for a 50 minute walk. It was low tide and so we didn't get to walk in the water, but rather just walked along the wet sand. I love walking along beside the water - the only drawback is that, by the time we got there, the sun was low on the horizon and so it was going to be in our eyes when we were walking along one way. So, we decided to walk along the beach away from the glare of the sun and then walk back along the boardwalk.

Thursday I did my regular teaching at Torquay - I talked with Pam afterwards about a couple of the kids who I thought were not up to the challenges I was asking of them - so she took those two out of my group and added two more children who she thought might be up to the challenge. I was glad that she took this one little girl out of the group as she was a 'brat' - yeah, I know, I should be kinder, but really, that's how I would describe this little girl, and apparently her mother has told Pam the same thing. Anyway, I am looking forward to next week in the hope that I will be able to really help these children to go a little further in their learning than they would be able to do with being a part of a class of 28 children (that's how many are in Pam's class - crazy to have that many children in a kindergarten class). I'm not sure that I am being very effective with the challenge that I was set up to do, but then I didn't have the cream of the crop in my group, so I am trying not to be too hard on myself.

Dad went to Meals on Wheels Thursday morning and got a different partner this time. His usual partner, Paul was there, but Avis asked Paul if he would come back on Friday as she had an extra person and needed him more the next day. Dad and his partner did the route that he and I used to do in the retirement community called 'Baycrest'. I used to love doing that route as we got to know the people and would chat a little with each of them each week. When I asked Dad if many of our old regulars were on the route that day, though, he said that only a couple were. Dad went to SES Thursday night and was very busy for the whole evening. Since it was the second Thursday of the month, they had a 'support group' meeting - this smaller group within the SES group talks about how their fundraising efforts are going and also vote about things they wish to buy (this time it was whether to buy a display board which is huge and folds down to a briefcase size). The training for the night was a communications exercise based on the training they had received two weeks previously. It was sending, receiving and recording radio messages - however, it was prescripted so it was pretty fast-paced.

On Friday morning, I went over to Torquay to do some assessment of the children I have been working with in Pam's class. I find that I just don't have much time during my usual day and Pam wanted to know some information about what these children knew, so I decided to use my free time that morning to do that. Chantelle saw me and asked me what I was doing - when I told her what it was, she said that I didn't have to do it on my own time - I told her that I just didn't have time to do it during the day on Thursday. She said that she wanted me to do her class instead of Pam's. :-) At 11am, I headed over to Kawungan to eat lunch with the grade two teachers before going into Bronwyn's class for the afternoon (she had 3 hours of curriculum development training to go to). I love her class - they are lovely kids - I am looking forward to the four weeks of teaching I will be doing with them in September/October.

Dad and I went for another beach walk on Saturday afternoon - the weather was lovely (or was it beautiful or was it perfect ) and since it was high tide, we got to actually walk in the water which I love to do. The little waves were actually splashing quite high and both Dad and my shorts ended up quite wet and sandy by the end of our walk. It was still wonderful being at the beach - I really love it there. :-)

Today is Mother's Day and so all the talks in Sacrament meeting were about mothers. Dad and I were both assigned to talk today - my talk was on 'The Sacred Role of Mothers' and Dad spoke on 'Women and Mothers in the Scriptures'. I used mostly quotes from the prophets and blog entries from LDS women - Dad used mostly the scriptures in his talk. We both received very positive comments about our talks which is always nice to hear. I really enjoyed giving this talk with stay-at-home mothers not being valued by the world and knowing how important it is for women to do that. Here are a few quotes from my talk:

Spencer W. Kimball: “No matter what you read or hear, no matter what the difference of circumstances you observe in the lives of women about you, it is important for you Latter-day Saint women to understand that the Lord holds motherhood and mothers sacred and in the highest esteem. He has entrusted to his daughters the great responsibility of bearing and nurturing children.... There is divinity in each new life.”

President N. Eldon Tanner: From the beginning God has made it clear that woman is very special, and he has also very clearly defined her position, her duties, and her destiny in the divine plan. One of woman's greatest privileges, blessings, and opportunities is to be a co-partner with God in bringing his spirit children into the world.

What a glorious concept! No greater honor could be given. With this honor comes the tremendous responsibility of loving and caring for those children so they might learn their duty as citizens and what they must do to return to their Heavenly Father. They must be taught to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and to accept and live his teachings.

President Gordon B. Hinckley: “Most of you are mothers, and very many of you are grandmothers and even great-grandmothers. You have walked the sometimes painful, sometimes joyous path of parenthood. You have walked hand in hand with God in the great process of bringing children into the world that they might experience this estate along the road of immortality and eternal life. It has not been easy rearing a family. Most of you have had to sacrifice and skimp and labor night and day. As I think of you and your circumstances, I think of the words of Anne Campbell, who wrote as she looked upon her children:

You are the trip I did not take;

You are the pearls I cannot buy;

You are my blue Italian lake;

You are my piece of foreign sky.

President Spencer W. Kimball: “Motherhood is near to Divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places her who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels. To you mothers in Israel we say, God bless and protect you, and give you the strength and courage, the faith and knowledge, the holy love and consecration to duty, that shall enable you to fill to the fullest measure the sacred calling which is yours.

After church, Dad and I came home and assembled a pavlova which is our special dessert for Mother's Day. Dad and I bought the ingredients yesterday at the grocery store (and no, we didn't make the pavlova base [meringue] from scratch - we bought one already made) and topped it with cream, mandarines, strawberries, bananas, kiwi and passionfruit. It was most delicious!!! (Sorry Nana :-) I took a pic and have added it along with some from our camping trip last weekend as well - hope you enjoy! :-)