Giving Thanks: Lessons from My Grandmother

Giving Thanks: Lessons from My Grandmother

by | Oct 9, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays | 0 comments

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and, besides filling up on turkey, I’ve been giving a little bit of thought to thanks. First off, a few of the things I’m thankful for this year: 1. Eight years of marriage to my wonderful, supportive, creative-minded husband.  (We got married on Thanksgiving weekend, which, consequently, is an easy way to remember the date, and to be thankful for each other every year). 2. My two most beautiful children.  Their personalities just glow, and I am so thrilled to get to know them more each day. 3. My family.  My parents, and my sisters, and my elderly grandparents, including my 96-year-old grandmother, who I recently went to visit in Saskatchewan. Visiting my grandmother could have been hard.  I took my baby with me to see my grandmother, perhaps for the last time.  It was a lovely visit, and my daughter took her first real steps right there, in my grandma’s room!  It was a very special visit, imbued with the beauty of the prairie scenery, and heightened by the contemplation of life and death. While there, my aunt said something that resonated with me.  “Old people really help you realize what is important.”  I’ve been thinking a lot about that, especially in light of Thanksgiving.  And it really is true. My grandmother recently fell, and broke her pelvis.  She could have simply given up, and allowed herself to rest in her last days.  But, there she was, walking the halls in her walker everyday, because that is what she has been asked to do.  Because that is what is needed.  Because that...
Embrace the Chaos: Homeschooling a Large Family with Jenny White

Embrace the Chaos: Homeschooling a Large Family with Jenny White

by | Oct 7, 2011 | Featured Fridays | 1 comment

Ever wondered how homeschooling works for large families?  Here is the fourth in our series on homeschooling in the Cowichan Valley, BC.  Jenny White generously shares her secrets and tells us a bit about how it all works for her family of five girls.   1. Tell us a bit about your family. We are: Jenny and George White.  Our children are Belle (13), Emerald (11), Lavender (9), Poppy (5) and Honey (2).  We love being together, and living a rural, self-sustaining life – in a busy, chaotic life.  But, we are striving towards simplicity. 2. Have you always known you wanted to homeschool? Yes.  I went to school to become a teacher when Belle was 1.  Originally, I wanted to run an independent school.  For awhile, George and I were both in school together (we took a family studies course together!).  It was fun. But, when I had Emerald, it became too much.  And, I learned how much I wanted to be home.  I couldn’t fathom sending my kid away full-time.  We did co-op preschool with Belle, but we slowly moved our way out.  None of them went to preschool after that.  I want to be the one watching them reading, learning, and absorbing – not hearing about it at the end of the day. 3. What is your favorite thing about homeschooling? The family togetherness that is created.  That kids aren’t separated by age, and that family can be their primary influence, not peers. 4. The hardest thing? Feeling torn in many different directions all day.  I worry that the kids don’t get enough one-on-one.  I would...
Natural Inspiration at Rivers Day

Natural Inspiration at Rivers Day

by | Sep 26, 2011 | Inspiration Mondays | 6 comments

Today, my son, Dylan, and I had the privilege of attending the BC Rivers Day celebration one of our local parks.  Every year I tell myself I will go, and this year, we finally did! It was great!  Such a wonderful, non-commercial event, it made my heart sing.  And there were so many fun, inspiring activities, I thought I’d share a few here. Set in one of our favourite parks, BC Rivers Day was a nature-lover’s dream.  Williams Park was the perfect location for the event, for, besides having the obligatory river, it is a park full of tall, majestic trees, walking trails, and a playground.  As a fun aside, it also borders a farm with cows that come right up to the fence for a greeting.  And it is a salmon spawning area, which is particularly fascinating at this time of year, when the salmon are running. All of the local environment protection and conservation groups were present, with intriguing displays at every booth.  Dylan particularly loved learning about the township’s new curb side compost pick-up service (might have had something to do with the garbage truck display) and, beavers (our national animal).  He was even coerced into smelling beaver musk (which is really not all that pleasant). We also loved the owl protection society’s booth complete with two real owls (Did you know there was a difference between a barred owl and a barn owl?  Up until recently I had thought they were the same thing, assuming I had just made the mistake of thinking I heard “barn” when I should have been hearing “barred”).  Both were...