Winter and Teaching (two separate things)

So, I know I talk about this way too much, or at least I think about it way too much (I do try to monitor how much I talk about this) but winter in California is SO different!

Canadian winter = -20 degrees (or -30 or -40, you get the picture).
Californian winter = +10 degrees (may freeze at night every ten years...this is one of those years)

Canadian winter = snow.
Californian winter = no snow unless you go up a mountain

Canadian winter = scarves, toques, down-filled jackets, long underwear, boots, etc
Californian winter = scarves, beanies, down-filled jackets, long underwear, boots, etc.

Notice the differences? The weather is colder in Canada, there is no snow in most of residential California, and yet people are wearing the same thing! Of course, Nathan is still wearing shorts, though he traded his sandals and bare feet in for socks and shoes a couple weeks ago. But still...it's not THAT cold!

I was driving to Wal-mart today and I saw this guy, probably in his 20's and he was wearing a huge jacket and was holding his scarf across his face as if it was too cold outside to breathe without it. And here's the best part...I glanced down at my in-car thermometer and it was 10 degrees outside! +10 degrees! This would be considered a decent spring or fall day in Canada! Definitely t-shirt weather in much of Canada. These poor Californians are freezing their butts off. haha.

We've also noticed on the news lately that there are warm-up shelters put up for the homeless because it's getting down into freezing temperatures at night (-2 is the coldest we've had). I say it's a great idea, it would be very uncomfortable to sleep outside in this weather, but what about the homeless people in Winnipeg or Saskatoon or Edmonton? If there's no room in the shelter, what then? I bet Canadian homeless would be thankful for -2 being the coldest that winter nights got.

We also heard warnings on the news for people to be sure to bring their pets inside at night because of the cold temperatures. PLEASE! Animals were made to be outside. I can understand bringing your animal inside when it's -20 (if they usually stay outside) but when it's only getting down to zero? They can handle it. Then again, the majority of dogs down here are chihuahuas...maybe those little guys can't handle it. But isn't that what doggy-sweaters are for?

Needless to say, I'm getting a kick out of this...

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And now for the teaching part of my post. I have always enjoyed teaching. It doesn't really intimidate me, as long as I know what I'm supposed to be teaching quite well. In the past I have taught camp devotionals, children's church lessons, kindergarten reading/alphabet, and piano lessons. I have also taught crochet.

I guess it started in high school when my friends wanted to learn to crochet. We sat down together and I taught them (remember crocheting together, Marsha?). Then, in Bible school, crochet was the big thing, so I whipped out my stuff and taught whoever wanted to know how along the way (my favorite lessons were the ones I gave to Nathan!). In Altona, I taught one of my friends to crochet and we got together a couple times to crochet together. It's always been such fun.

When we first arrived here at school, I felt a desperate need for a project so I pulled out my crochet hooks and bought some yarn. I would take my crochet projects to various movie nights and hang outs and before I knew it, I was teaching people here how to crochet. By now, crochet parties have become quite the common occurrence, especially among us student wives. And it is not unusual for someone to come to our door at least every second day to ask how to make something or how to do a new stitch. I'm loving it. As a result, I'm crocheting SO much more myself. Since moving down here, I have made a hoodie, a couple toques, a pair of mittens, a cowl, an afghan, a scarf, a shawl/wrap, tons of stars for decorating our place, a baby toque/mitten set, another baby hat, and I'm in the process of working on a hammock.

Perhaps I should drop out of school and just start selling my stuff on Etsy. What do you think?