1:45 I leave work early, Tuesdays I don’t have daycare and he is in a special after-school tennis program so cannot take her home when school lets out
2:00 I board the Seabus
2:15 I board the bus
2:30 I walk home
2:50 I walk to school
Category Archives: Parenting
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I love a good photo, but a dreadful one is even better! Especially this one for its pairing with the birth of an adoption; a process I can’t wait to follow.
Live within limits without limiting life
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This past spring I FaceBook posted a truly epic photo of me. I was in all of my glory – disheveled hair, buggy wild eyes, and a strained expression extending from collarbone to forehead. You can imagine the comments (I love you all, I really do).
The truth is that photo was one of the more important ones taken of me in my entire life.
That wintry and blustery day last spring, Martin and I had rushed during our lunch hour to get an RCMP clearance check. We handed over several pieces of ID, got fingerprinted, and then photographed. A few weeks later, we had another important piece of documentation in our hands – confirmation by Interpol that we are clear of any previous criminal activity. Another hurdle cleared.
We’ve been doing a lot of high jumping this past year……….because there’s a lot of paperwork to be done when you’re…
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Where
Mama, sing a song.
Baby, what song shall I sing?
Sing a song that is happy.
A song about love?
No, love can be lost.
A song about friends?
No, friends can be forgotten.
A song about dancing?
No, dancers get tired.
Baby, what song shall I sing?
A song about home, mama.
Because home is where the heart is?
No mama, because home is where you are.
Live within limits without limiting life
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Open letter to helicopter parents
Dear Helicopter Parents,
I am sympathetic to your worries and can understand your intentions, but I would appreciate it if you could reign in your hovering urges when it comes to my kids.
You see, I am not one to hover; mine are the children who wave goodbye to me without looking back.
They know I would never send them off into a world they are not prepared for.
They know that things might go differently than they might expect, but they can adjust and move on.
They have been listening to the new skills I have taught them at each step of their development.
But it is what I know that I would like to discuss with you.
I know when it is time to let them choose who attends their birthday parties.
I know when my kids have learned what range of foods they should put in their own lunches.
I know when it is time to let my 11-year-old navigate a controlled crosswalk across a busy street.
I know when my 11-year-old can ride with his 8-year-old sister to your house for a play up the notorious hills of North Vancouver.
I know when they are ready to be at home alone for 15 minutes, a half an hour, and eventually for an evening.
So, please don’t
Pout if your kid was not invited this year, he or she may make the cut next year, who knows, kids are fickle.
Feed my children more than they thought to pack.
Insist on picking him up because you wouldn’t let your child cross a busy street alone.
Offer to drive them home.
Wonder what kind of parent I am to leave her children alone.
Because, I’m the kind of parent who expects that her kids
Never need to be reminded to be polite.
Never expect other houses to be just like home.
Never need me to hold their hands while they are out.
Never question why we choose to leave the car at home whenever possible.
Always know that I am just a phone call away should they need me.
They are confident, flexible, individually minded, and proud they can do so much on their own.
They make mistakes, they get hurt, and they struggle with their feelings.
They fly their own helicopters.
Sincerely,
A woman trying to teach her children independence and courage
Live within limits without limiting life
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My nephew’s film debut!
Youth Team – How to do Research from
North Van Museum and Archives
Live within limits without limiting life
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Almost Crimes – Broken Social Scene
Imagining the story behind the song…
Almost Crimes
I get up to pee. It’s early still, the house is quiet.
I live alone. What changes from night to day. Is it outside noise—cars, birds, neighbours?
I realize I’m still sitting on the toilet for no reason, just lost in sound and silence.
I live alone, where does the sound come from?
I flush. Onomatopoeically speaking, flush is not particularly accurate. It’s too gentle for such a violent sound—rushing water gulping air, desperate for the return of calm.
I’ve broken the seal, sound floods in. Who says “onomatopoeically speaking” anyway?
I hear the furnace rev up, readying to deliver the day’s warmth. Heat is energy and so is sound. It’s more than just fan noise. In the cold there is silence, in the warmth there is sound.
My body is humming.
As if mocking my reverie, the music visualizer on my laptop is pulsing in an electric light show. Even in the silence there is sound expressed in light and shapes and flashes of darkness. I press the mute button and the sources of the vibrant show suddenly flood my ear canals.
… The Yukon keeps me up all night
Complications seize your best…
Drums punctuate guitar riffs, rolling and stopping, pacing the vibrations as if the drumheads themselves were plucking the strings. Voices exchange words and sometimes interrupt. It is a love song. It’s on repeat and I replay the night before.
The ache returns.
____
Continue reading
In the quiet
Two square shapes
On one rectangle
Their sides rectangles too.
She reaches out
With her cylinders
And lifts an angle.
Her big circle stills
Her small circles
Rest on the squares.
Repeat.
She puts the sphere
Together
As though it could be taken apart.
Put together
Taken apart
Put together.
All that is left is to
Choose the colour.
This moment is hers
I pause
And this is my reward.
~Anonymous
Live within limits without limiting life
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But what does it mean
They’re drifting
I thought they’d stay
I lose more
With each day
Half full
And my heart beats off and on
I pine and wane
Interchangeably
This is my fate
Brought on by me
Half full
And it seems I’m losing steam
We count the like
In the face of stars
It seems so small
But my heart is theirs
Half Full
And a solo is this song
A new beginning
Brought a new end
I have to start
To start again
Half full
And myself I have to blame
All that’s new
Seems permanent
I cannot see
A return again
Half full
And life here is unknown
Late at night
Voices the same
I cannot see
A logic game
Half full
And here I must remain
They said I’d turn
It could be so
I can’t predict
What’s left to show
Half full
And so I plod along
If you see
I’m there today
Please forget
What I might say
Half full
My thoughts are wicked friends
~Anonymous
Live within limits without limiting life
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Like Minded
Environmentalist Egalitarian Engineer 