Sweets vs. Desserts

Helena usually eats school lunch. There are foods that she's quite used to, like pasta with tomato sauce or fish & chips, but then there are also things like beef rolls or cheese & onion plaits that she's tried and liked.  At times, however, she prefers to take a packed lunch (or what she calls a "pot" lunch, as that's how packed sounds to her when spoken with a British accent).

Last week she asked if she could have dessert in her lunchbox, because there is always dessert with a school lunch.  That sounded very reasonable to me, so I added a pack of gummies.  When I picked her up that afternoon, she was quite concerned "Momma, I can't bring gummies to school.  They are not allowed!"

So this morning I asked about the gummies.  Her teacher replied that they really prefer children not bring sweets to school.  I explained that I was happy with that idea, and that the only reason I'd packed them was because there was always a dessert included with school lunches.  She then went on to explain that dessert to them is a piece of cake, a biscuit, or a chocolate bar.  Those things are fine but not sweets.

As you might guess, this is one of those things that doesn't completely make sense to my North American mind but I'm happy to follow the rules now that I know them!

Helena and school

Helena loves school.  I'm having a hard time knowing what else to write!  She just loves it.  Every day she gets dressed in her school uniform and wears sturdy leather black shoes to school.  As soon as she enters her classroom she changes into her plimsolls, a pair of very simple black shoes.  Every time she goes outside, she changes her shoes.

She's been coming home and telling us about the different words that are used in her classroom than what we use at home: plaits instead of braids, pudding instead of ice cream, biscuits instead of cookies, swap over instead of switch, pants instead of underwear, trousers instead of pants, and bananas (said with a long a) rather than bananas (said with a short a).  She hasn't quite caught on to the idea of no school days yet, as every weekend day she has said something like, "You need to take me to school!  I'm really late!"

John, a.k.a. Ph.D., The Professor

It's official - John is 100% completely done with his Ph.D.  He has completed his courses, finished his comprehensive exams, written his dissertation, defended his dissertation, and has been through convocation.  We can't believe it's over.

Unfortunately there was no funny hat for John to wear, but he looked great in his robe and hood.

There were celebrations before and after convocation with family. 

Nice work, honey.  I'm proud of you!

John's Going-Ons

While I get to spend most of my time hanging out with Helena, my husband is a busy man.  He's not one of my regular blog subjects, so I'm changing that today.

He's finishing up all the marking from the first class he's ever taught - "The Messiah in Ancient Judaism."  It's been a fun term for the two of us, as I've been able to understand/share/empathize/advise in his teaching activities.  Believe it or not, I'm not able to do much of that when he's in the midst of studying how to use the Septuagint to help figure out what the original Hebrew was in the Old Testament.  (Okay, and to completely illustrate how I'm barely able to communicate with him with those ideas, I'll admit that he had to help me write that sentence, as my first and second go at it were "not quite right"!)

His favorite home activity is building with Duplos.  It's something new almost every day, and if he likes it, he takes photos of it.  Here's his locomotive:



He's also getting Helena interested in Wind in the Willows.  Part of her love for it could be the fact that a main character is a badger, which happens to be the mascot for John's & Helena's favorite sports team - the Wisconsin Badgers of course.

And he's growing facial hair.  Today is Day 6. He's promised to shave it off before the baby's arrival, so it will probably be around for 11 more weeks.

Any questions about the man of the post?

ABD PhD Candidate

This Monday was John's last day of school.  LAST DAY.  

 

He came home with a new title - ABD PhD Candidate.  He's now All But Dissertation - you know, all he needs to do now is get his dissertation done! 

After 21 1/2 years of going to class, studying, and taking exams, a celebration was in order. That night included Gourmet Burgers and Blokus.  But the rest of the week is full of fun exciting things as well, the best being the simple fact that John is around!

Dad/TomDad/Dad2/Grandpa/Poppy

He's known by many names in our home, and they're all affectionate ones.   During John's dad's visit last week, we ate out at a lot of fun restaurants and he & John were quite cultural with two concerts and a museum visit.  None of those activities were the highlights however. 

The first highlight was keeping up the family tradition of hunting & gathering in the dark.  When John was young, the men of his family would sneak onto the Mackinnac Island golf course in the middle of the night and collect hundreds of golf balls.  Here in Toronto they collected "chestnuts" with Helena to later roast.  Good thing John researched it before we tasted them, however, as they'd actually collected horse chestnuts, which are poisonous.  (Later we bought some and man, do they not taste good.  That Christmas song is now ruined for us.)

The second highlight was going to a University of Toronto football game.  Wow, is our team ever bad.  In 2008 they ended a seven-year winless streak at 49 games.  They managed to end the game we watch with a score of 34-6.

Do notice that the team emblem is not on the 50 yard line.  Rather it's on the 55 yard line.  In Canadian football there are almost 110 yards, which is very close to 100 meters.

Third highlight?  Playing hearts with TomDad each evening.  He is so good at shooting the moon or attempting to shoot the moon and yet still unload all his point cards on us; yet it's so much fun.

Thanks for the visit, Dad/TomDad/Dad2/Grandpa/Poppy!

Education Update

John has officially finished his Ph.D. coursework. 

 That means he won't be a student in a class again ever (or as John says, for a long time).  This is after 21 years of sitting in a classroom!

Alright John!

So, what's next?  He has only two simple tasks left:

1) Pass his comprehensive exams. 
2) Write his dissertation.

At the beginning of 2013, he will take 4 exams on subjects that he has studied.  For each exam, he is responsible for knowing everything he has already learned on the subject plus another year's worth of studying the subject.  Thus, for the next 8 months he will be studying and learning a lot. 

He will also be writing his dissertation during this time.  It needs to be turned in to his readers by November 2014 in order to graduate in the Spring 2015.  Here's a very basic description of what it will be about:

It's about using the Septuagint (The Greek translation of the Old Testament) as a witness for textual criticism (determining what the original words were) of the Old Testament.

But all that is in the future...right now we're celebrating that he's done with classes!

Poor John

You know the homework is tough when John almost completes 2 Akkadian exercises in the time that I put together these three tables.

By the way, he has 10 more to do tonight.

Ready for Relaxation

Yay for Reading Break! Starting tonight, John is officially on vacation for one week. He is going in to the library tomorrow and some day next week, but otherwise it is time for some good old relaxation with his family.


Helena is obviously already experiencing the stress-free life! No, this is not a posed picture. In the first few weeks of her life, she would go totally limp after eating. One time she was just resting on my legs, I pulled her forward to put on my chest, and the above is how her body fell!


Helena is already taking after both of her parents' families in finding enjoyment in books. Maybe we'll all get to take some time for reading...


Or perhaps there will be more time like this in the next few days. If there is, you can expect some more blog posts to appear!

Ugaritic Kindergarten

John's been busy learning the alphabet this past week...