Helena-Reet: School holiday, ManicTime, Family Guy, the Moomins, the Loud House passion, and last but not least, a festive neck steak with saute onion

18 Dec, 2020 by Helena-Reet Ennet

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NordenBladet – Today school’s winter holiday began. Ivanka Shoshana had a Christmas party at school (however, parents were not allowed to attend due to Covid-19 risk). That was sad, because Ivanka (12) goes to the newly renovated Tallinn Tondi School for the first year (the school for children with special needs) and parents can see their children’s studies and school events only virtually. So in the morning I hand my child over on the front door and in the early afternoon I go and collect my child from the front door again, this all due to the covid-related precautions. Another sad news is that Ivanka’s assistant teacher lately caught the virus and recently also a schoolchild tested positive.

Ivanka Shoshana has generally been all her life a very healthy child, just now and then a minor cold if anything. Hoping not to bring bad luck, but I trust that this will remain so. She strengthens her health regularly (takes icy showers), is athletic and washes her hands very carefully (even way too often). To my mind, autistic children are clever, and although communication is indeed not their selling point, they do well in googling stuff, at least I can say that about my daughter. The extent of her actual knowledge is difficult to measure, I cannot even assert how many languages she masters, she regularly listens to google translation for her phrases, she follows videos in different languages and routinely surfs the web. At least her English language is fluent (since that is one thing I am capable of evaluating), and most of the things she watches or looks up online are in English.

Actually, I just recently wondered that I would need to monitor her web conduct with a tracking device (I will download the ManicTime program to her laptop), so that I can keep an eye on the sites that she visits during the day. For example, meanwhile I noticed that she watches Family Guy cartoons, which I find to be very inappropriate for a minor’s eyes. The animated sit-com jokes, created by Seth MacFarlane for Fox Broadcasting Company, are steeped in social criticism and the parody is generally quite excellent, but for the younger generation it is too much, to put it mildly. The central theme is built around the Griffin family who lives in the fictional Quahog-named town in Rhode Island. Peter Griffin is an overweight father character who is fond of booze and is slightly mentally handicapped, and for example Stewie Griffin is the family’s youngest son, who is a speaking infant that now and then desires to kill his mother. I told Ivanka that she does not have my permission to continue watching that cartoon anymore, because it is violent and not proper for children, and it seems to me she does not watch it any longer, however I intend to monitor the situation. She sometimes comes to me and asks, when she grows up would that change things and would she then be allowed to watch, and I reply that indeed then she can but for the time being I suggest that she watches something more friendly, like for example the Moomins. Today we had a lengthy discussion about the Moomins. I said that it is not only children that watch the Moomins, the story is so great that even grown-ups love and watch it, that I also love to watch the Moomins, despite being a grown-up. She went on asking – do grandmothers also watch the Moomins? Does grandpa, too, watch the Moomins? Does aunt Sirli watch them as well? etc. That was so sweet. I replied that indeed everybody does 🙂 And then she, too, watched.

But there is one more cartoon that she likes – it is The Loud House! I would say it is quite The Loud House passion! She is a fully committed fan and oftentimes comes to me with her laptop and has a black-and-white video frozen at some stage and she would ask me to print the screen so she can color the picture (below there are some examples …these are a fraction of the pile that has been printed …enough material to create a home-made color book!). Yet this is not where it ends – today she came to me and announced that she would like Santa Claus to bring her the stuffed toys from The Loud House series: the characters Lisa, Luna and Lana. That’s how it is. Now can anybody please tell me where I might find those toys that soon? Haha …as far as I know the characters created for Chris Savino Nickelodeon are on sale only in America.

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Estella Elisheva spent three hours in the evening with the cell phone at her ear – giggled and talked with one of her best friends, classmate Rahel. It is so nice to hear how fluently she speaks good Russian. Estella Elisheva went to a Russian-speaking school the Tallinn Jewish School 8 years ago, able only to say “My name is Estella Elisheva”. I believe that
mastering many languages is the greatest gift I have made to my daughter by taking this decision. Since kindergarten I have taught her that three things matter in life, and she should go in for these, then I will never nag with her what her other grades are or what kind of grade list she brings home.

These three things that I have recommended for her are:

1. Learn languages,
2. Take good care of yourself, be athletic, fit, etc,
3. Go in for a favourite hobby (for her this has been music/the violin). To be able to make it to somewhere requires commitment and it will not be possible to excel in everything.

And now, to wrap it up, the final scene that remains is our today evening’s festive neck steak with saute onion. Honestly, for quite some time I have been fascinated by gourmet food! From the time I began to raise my awareness about healthy nutrition, food has become my priority. I enjoy preparing the food, I add a lot of love, I enjoy serving the food and oh do I enjoy the eating of a meal that has been prepared with the heart! Never again will I eat a meal standing up or rushing around like I used to do when I started my businesses. The beautiful ceramics tableware (handmade by me or my child, or specially ordered to be handmade), the lovely napkins, the pleasantly served and garnered food – this is a part of my day every day! I will not step an inch back from this standard, ever!

PS! It is so wonderful to have your own garden!!! How I love the countryside life!!! This year I froze berries in glass jars (to be even more nature-friendly and to avoid plastic). These are some sweet berry jars, so nice and heartwarming to open up in winter time!

Have a great weekend!