Trying to improve my English!!

This is my 5th post….. wow!!

When I was growing up, my four siblings and I were always encouraged by our father to read, do crossword puzzles and help him with his stamp collection.  My dad would tell us that reading often made you remember words and improved spelling; crosswords exercised the mind and stamp collecting gave one the opportunity to learn about the world; he would tell us that the proper name was “filatelia”  Philately .  It was fun to see stamps from far away places and imagine what the places looked like.  My beloved dad would encourage us to learn the “scientific” terms when talking about animals and vegetation:  say  flora and fauna he would tell us; but the one name that stuck with me was “Hippocampus” which is the proper name for seahorse.  I loved saying that word as to me it sounded as if I was very knowledgeable!!  I’m sharing these things with you to give you an idea of why it was important for me to learn  English well.  So, because of the love of reading dad instilled on my siblings and me, I started to make the effort to read books and the newspaper, and following my dad’s example, I tried to teach my children the joy of reading. I remember that I was trying to read a book about Charles Oopan, a man from New Zealand who had escaped Nazi concentration camps in more than one occasion, the name of the book is:  The Mark of a Lion!!  Love that book, it really made an impression on me.  I wish I could find it to really read it now.

I was a very prolific mother and ended up having eight of the most awesome, thoughtful, caring, giving, faith filled and loving children, all of whom are now great grown ups with families of their own!

As I said before, seven of my children were born early, but the earliest was my sixth child who is the one born very premature.   Now, if we talk about number eight, a girl, the story changes.  I’m a petite woman barely 5 feet and memories; well, this child decided that she was too comfy in my tummy and chose to rent my womb for ten days passed my due date!   Oh boy, and I was big, could barely stand alone and was ordered to bed rest long before my “supposed due date”  I’m sure that some of you ladies will identify with not being able to see your feet, well, when I sat down my belly was a little bit beyond my knees.  In those days there was no such thing as choosing the date of delivery.  When my baby girl was born, she weighed nine and a half pounds, and when we came out of the hospital she wore an outfit for a three month old baby!!  Of all my children, this one girl is the one to whom I gave a lot of nick names.  My sweetheart baby girl is an awesome woman, who from the time she started earning an income began sending me a bouquet of a dozen roses, on her birthday to say thank you for giving her life…… that’s my sweet, thoughtful and loving Bumble Bee!!

Our life continued as with any other couple; we had our ups and downs, but always our children were at the forefront, they always came first.  My difficulties were that, if you remember, I came to this country as a young woman (barely 23 years old) with two young boys and now I found myself with eight; no family to turn to in moments of need; no friends to call at a moments notice because of an emergency and we lived in the country.  As I didn’t have a role model to follow as far as raising my children went, I literally winged it.  I became creative to manage my eight fireballs.

When one of my children misbehaved, I would start talking to them in English, at times I was so upset that the proper words escaped me, so I would switch to Spanish but if I was beyond angry, I would yell… yes, yell a word in Garifuna (a native tongue in my hometown) so then, when the kids would hear me yell MANIBA, (pronounced Mahneebah), there was immediate silence because they knew I was really angry. The word means be quiet but I choose to say: shut up!!

Tomorrow, more of my creative ways with my children…. ’till next time!!