23 posts tagged “family”

Happy New Year.  (Albeit, a bit belated!)

Our holidays went well.  All told, Chris was off for almost 3 weeks, though some of that did include a couple of days of work but since it was for a course, we were out of town staying with the in-laws so it still felt very holiday-y. 

We spent Christmas Day at home, just the four of us.  Dinner was a pre-made affair: portabello and provolone stuffed chicken breasts, vegetarian samosas and steamed yam.  Candy cane and chocolate crackle ice cream for dessert.  Yummy - even if it is not so traditional.  We didn't want any leftovers since that next morning, at 4 am, we hit the road to my parents place for the next week.

A typical 8 hour trip was only 10 hours in the end and we're glad we left early since we met hardly anyone on the road for the first few hours and the weather got progressively worse after noon as we got closer to our destination.  The last 45 minutes on the highway saw us drive through about 3-4 inches of snow, straining to make out the tracks in front of us and hoping (praying!) we didn't catch the shoulder which was hard to discern under the thickly falling snow.

Family time was wonderful.  Mostly.  The disappointing part was that my brother, sister and her boyfriend were to arrive the same night we were but their flight was cancelled due to high winds at the arriving airport.  And since things were a gong show at YVR this season, they couldn't get a flight until 2 days later, eating half their holiday time.  In the end we did the best with what we could.  It was pretty great that all 5 of us siblings and partners, less one significant other, were able to make it.  We're spread out now, it's tough to do.

And between the fist-sized prawns, snow, surprise gifts (marc ecko wallets!), snow, a Wii golf tournament, and more snow, what I appreciated the most was being able to spend time with my family, just hanging out.  It was tricky to swing this year - we only ended up with 4 hours of awake time when everyone was in the same house - and as families grow and our own lives build up around us, getting togeth may be increasingly difficult, or at least require a great deal of effort and planning.

For some people, quality time is what it's all about.  For me, I found I need quantity time with my family (especially my extended family) in order to get quality.  We don't just get together and suddenly start talking about all the important stuff in our lives.  That takes time.  (Ok, there is totally an exception when it comes to my sisters and mom, but then it's usually a one-on-one thing.)

My Grandma has lamented once or twice at how children don't often stick around their hometowns anymore, but tend to move away. ***  Statistics show us this is the case - if urban populations are up, the people have to be coming from somewhere else.  In her case, I know she's wanting for our children the connection to extended family and grandparents that I had growing up.  I'd love that too, but it doesn't always work that way, often because of work.  (In my case, moving to my hometown would put me in almost direct competition with my mom for a job and there's only about 2-3 position related to Chris's work in the whole town.)
So for now, I take what I can get.  We'll make the day's drive north when we can.  We'll happily welcome family passing through or staying for a few days.  We'll make phone calls and send emails and post pictures of the kids on the internet.  I can even mail photos, you know, with a stamp.  Because quantity time means something, too.
 

***One of these days I may just point out to my wonderful grandma that this moving away of the younger generation isn't limited to this generation.  I know of a couple in their twenties with 4 kids who, about 50 years ago, moved from their family in California to Northern B.C.  Not exactly 'nearby', eh?  Sound familiar, Grandma? :)

Last Friday we left home and this Friday we're still away from home.  Here's a list of thirteen things about my last week, in no particular order.

1. I became an AUNTIE!  James was born last Friday.  We were passing through town and planned on stopping in to see my sister who was being induced.  Turns out he was born while we were sitting in the parking lot while I nursed Peaches.  All is well with everyone.  We'll be staying with them in a couple of days!

2. I took 2 ferry rides.

3. I ate lavender shortbread and drank red wine (not necessarily together).

4. I spent very little time on the computer.  We had limited dial-up so I all I really did was check email.  As a result, I found I missed inter-web-land.

5. I enjoyed visits with old friends that were entirely too short and didn't manage to connect with some others.

6. I watched several float plans land and take off - the joys of staying right on the Harbour.  Gus learned to say 'plane float on water' and watching them was his favourite thing to do, after playing cars with Grandpa.  Here's a shout-out to my f.i.l. for hours of car-playing, goldbug-searching, plane-watching, dinner-making, grocery-getting, wine-pouring, and baby-carrying.  My thanks.  (And for those of you who know me in rl, my m.i.l. was in India at the time - now en route home- and, sadly, missed all that car-playing.)

7. I also watched a passenger train pass us by twice a day.

8. I wandered Chinatown and other cool shops sans Gus while Peaches slept in her wrap.  In particular I perused cool baby/kid stores with beautiful things like handmade organic cotton sleepers for $70.  I found myself wishing I could do the wandering thing more, but things like feedings and naps and life got in the way.
 
9.Since we've been gone, we know of three babies who have been born.  Since Thanksgiving the total is up to 6, mostly boys: Daniel, Liza, Matthew, James, Lucas, & Maerk.
 
10. We took a little ride just out of town to see the salmon run.  The air was cool, the ground wet, the smell of rotting fish was strong, the gulls were gorging.  I am amazed at the strength of those fish as they swim up stream, or flop about finding more water if they find themselves in shallows.  Gus spent much of his time there saying "[Gus] see planes."  Guess what he and Grandpa did when they got home? 

11. Peaches continues to have periods of 5-6 hours of sleep.  One night, she even did 7 hours, though that was preceded by a day of about 3 hours of cumulative sleep.  She's a terrible day sleeper.

12. Both Chris and Gus had sore throats and strained voices.  This was especially unfortunate for Chris since the whole purpose of our trip was work-related for him - he had to spend his days teaching his course!  Surprisingly, I haven't succumbed to this round of colds.  Yet.

13.  There's still more trip to enjoy and since the work portion is finished, it's just all friends and all family all the time!
 

1. I'm at the in-law's place right now.  We're en route to our provincial capital where C. has work  for the week and so we're making it a working holiday, staying at the in-law's condo there.  Looking forward to catching up with a couple of friends and enjoying the city of my alma mater.  I'm not looking forward to limited computer use, thus the update.

2. I'm not so sick anymore.

3. Peaches has decided she can sleep up to 6 hours at a go a night from time to time.  Since Gus was so not like that, I'm astounded.  And thankful.

4. I've been making some stuff.  Here's the pumpkin pie from scratch that turned out ok. 

DSCF3453

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And here's an ATC I had to make for a swap with pieces sent by my swap partner: (the tricky part was getting the metal pieces to stay on well.)

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Loathing:

• When I can't get Peaches to sleep.  So she cries.  A lot. And wants to eat.  Frantically.  Then spits it all up.  Repeat.
  
• Party politics.
  

• Book Club.  First pick: The Kite Runner.
• Incoming in-laws.
  
• Having to decide how to spend some free time with grandparents around to entertain the grandkids.
• I finally decided to what baby carrier to get.  My Moby wrap should be here within a day or two!
• Sunshine.
• Waterdeep.
• Making fun envelopes.
• Getting my voting card in the mail.
  

Things I'm Not Loving:

• Cluster feeds at night.
• Being tired.
• The non-return to school.  Feels strange not to go back with everyone else yesterday.  I'm a bit melancholy about it.  I didn't feel this way with Gus, but I think this time it's because I actually have a specific school and my own specific job and, well, I'm not there.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not ready to rush back or anything.  This just feels strange...
• Forgetting to eat more fruit and veggies.   
  

Things I am Loving:

• My husband: C. does most all of the cooking, pretty much all the cleaning, gets Gus out for chunks of time during the day (and Gus has been going through a two-year-old can't-make-up-his-mind-on-anything episode which requires infinite patience) and will be the one to get up with Peaches to burp her or generally settle her down during the night.  Talk about loving and serving!
  
• Visitors from afar: my mom, my in-laws, my sister and brother-in-law, my best friend and her husband.  Yay!
• Frozen casseroles in my freezer and homemade pizza coming on Friday.  Are our friends taking care of us, or what?!  Blessings indeed.
• Gus's return to daycare (he'll be going one day a week) after his summer hiatus went so smoothly much to my relief.
• My new pajama bottoms.
• Peaches's increased level of alertness during the day.  She loves looking around, almost too much... "ok, time for sleeping, kiddo!"
• That our camera is not broken, after all.
  

What do you find interesting or unique about your family history?

1. On my paternal side, we can trace me back to William Booth, the guy who founded the Salvation Army.  Did you know that as well as its significant social activities, it's also a church denomination?

2. On my maternal side, we can go back several 'greats' to an uncle who had the name of James Knox Polk; also known as the 11th President of the United States in the 1840s.  Among other things, he was known for supporting and implementing (as best he could) Manifest Destiny .  As a branch of our family now lives in Canada, I kinda get a kick out of this, though I'd say that this branch has produced some 'leaves' that are quite content that Great Uncle Jim didn't get North of the 49th. 

3. On my other paternal side, we have Ukrainian landowners, (near Kiev) who had to flee because the Bolsheviks didn't like landowners. 

4. Said landowners arrived in Saskatchewan, had trouble finding work, so my great-grandpa changed his name from the Russian sounding version to "Stephen" and borrowed his wife's German maiden name, Mueller, changed that to Miller, and found finding work much easier.  When my grandpa couldn't get into the army during WWII under-age in Saskatchewan, he and his brother came to Vancouver and took a page out of their dad's book, changing their last name to Miller and managed to get into the army that way.

hmmm, these things really are just interesting for those to whom they belong, eh?  :)

Last week the school year ended and with that comes a break from work for me.  Since I'm due to have a baby in August, I won't be returning to work for the entire school year next year.  (For those who don't know, in Canada we get 50 weeks of maternity/parental leave from work; partially paid if you've worked 600 hours before taking leave.)

This last semester of work was very tough on me.  I do enjoy teaching, but life is hard to juggle with a family and friends to enjoy as well.  And my job is not just 9-5.  It is common to have to take home marking, or find I need to plan lesson x or prepare test y.  And reading and assessing 30 student essays takes some degree of focus and lots of time.  It all starts to wear on me after awhile.  I'm not as happy; it's tougher around the house, on my husband and my kid.  And then I find work not nearly as enjoyable either.

Don't get me wrong: I'm really glad I went back to work after Gus was born.  I didn't know how I would feel after having a kid and working or not working.  Returning to work showed me that, for now anyway, I don't feel like I need to be teaching.  (We are fortunate - we are not dependent upon my wage so working is a choice for me.)   I think that, had I not returned to work, I would have likely spent much time wondering, even yearning, to be back teaching.  (I wonder how that research project would work?  How could I re-vamp my novel unit?  I really want to try that assessment technique, etc.)  My hard heart would have needed much work; God mercifully spared me that by giving me the opportunity to find out for myself.

So, after a few months of enjoying fewer days of work than not, I was surprised to be in the last week of work wishing I was returning in September.  I forgot about that feeling; I should have anticipated it having been there before.  It was the desire to improve all those things where I felt I had failed my students in the semester previous - perfecting my craft for my students, and myself. (I also needed to remember that the year wasn't a washout - it's just easy to let thoughts of the weakness overwhelm the many successes and strengths to the year.)  Essentially, I want another 'kick at the can.' 

However, for this mama, that kick may not come for awhile.  With 2 babies to send to daycare, the economics aren't worth it, especially when, as I mentioned above, the rewards of my job just aren't stacking up.  I'm very, very glad I don't have to make that decision for awhile yet.  But I'm thankful for the options all the same. 

In the meantime, I'll open up a binder once in a while and jot down some more notes about how to tighten that unit on Macbeth, or try to develop a new thematic unit for my English 8s.  I should read Hamlet, too, one of these days.   I'll think about my mom, who started her teaching career at the same time I did (we graduated at the same time!), and know that there's still lots of time to head out into the classroom, be salt and light, and use the skills and giftings God gave me.

p.s. - Happy Fourth of  July to all my American friends!

Hi there.

I know I would never win a consistent-voxer award, but I was still a bit aghast to see how long it has been since I posted; it's been a bit since I've checked in on my neighbours and I'm usually pretty good about it, even if I don't always comment.

Work has been humming along.  It's had its hiccups, but I'm mostly quite please with things.  I've finally hammered out a clearer path for the next few weeks for the class that I am the least experienced with.  Ironically enough, that's the one going well.  I must say though, the kids are great, and most have already gone through enough labels.  They may roll their eyes a bit but know what they're there for and get down to work.  For now, that's enough for me!

I've had some fantastic highs, good times with family and friends. 
I've had some low times, with family and friends.

Right now I'm in a low.  It's hard when friends leave.

We cut my Gus's hair.  Gone are his curly wisps, but I kept a lock like a dutiful and sentimental mother. 
I had my hair cut.  It's back hanging just to my shoulders.  The big step was bangs.  I haven't had bangs since I was 12 and at first, I felt like I looked 12 again.  But they're working out.  It does mean actually using a blow-drying for styling purposes which, again, I haven't done since I was 12.  But I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Usually the blow dryer was used only so it didn't actually look like I had just showered and taken off.  Growing up, my walk to high school was less than 10 minutes but in the winter I usually arrived with frozen hair.  Man, I guess I really didn't care.

Off to do exercise for my back.  It's weak.  Or at least that's my explanation for why it gets sore within 3 minutes at the sink doing dishes.  Any suggestions?

To close:
Though un-related to this post, it's been on my mind these days.  These words are from Madeleine L'Engle.

Wherever there is unity in diversity,
then we are free to be ourselves;
it cannot be done in isolation;
we need each other.

Last week was a busy one: work, parent-teacher interviews (4 hours of them!), and then a trip to the big city for a conference where I also squished in lots of visiting.

The plan was for me to head straight from school out of town.  Before the end of the day though, I was getting reports that the main highway, which goes over 2 mountain passes to the coast, was closed due to a multi-vehicle accident.  I checked the BC roads site and learned it was only closed northbound and since I was heading south, decided to go the main highway.   Everyone else thinking the roads were closed meant that there wasn't much traffic which was nice, but it also meant that snow accumulated more quickly than with more tires on it.  The first 45 mins was through snow, and then the rest of the trip was in rain, but I made decent time all the same. 

I had to focus on the road a lot, but I did manage to take in some of my surroundings.  While snow this early in the year is unusual in most places, it's not for the higher elevations.  What did seem unusual to my eyes was the white snow on leafed trees.  Most of my images of snow come with bare branches or evergreens, not snow on poplars that are golden, their leaves not having taken to the ground yet.  It was an interesting contrast for me.  And quite a lovely one. 

I arrived at the conference only a little late and my mom, who was also attending, bought me a glass of wine so that made it all better ;)  The speaker for the evening was encouraging and enlightening and got me thinking about the cool things of teaching that can get lost in the day-to-day grind.  It also was affirming - encouraging me to keep on with the good things that I am doing in the classroom. 

The next morning was the rest of the conference proper and I attended a few different sessions - non-fiction reading and writing, assessment and public speaking - and found all to be useful and worthwhile.  I got from them what I had hoped for.  The earlier keynote session featured a local author who is also internationally published.  She spoke primarily on the importance of writing from your own landscape and in holding on to the stories of your life and past - otherwise it's gone.  Of course, this is important to say about our landscapes, as it was mentioned that the next greatest 'war' in our century could very likely be with our environment.  How will our children/students fight a war over something they either know nothing or little about and so will not care for it? 

Much to think on.

The reminder of the weekend allowed me time to visit.  I spent the evening with my mom and sister and we had dinner at the Banana Leaf.  Breakfast was with my brother-in-law and his finace who was back from school in the Philippines for a couple of weeks, and then lunch was sandwiches with homemade bread with 2 friends from university - one of whom has a 10 month old I hadn't met yet.  That was the only time I was really, really wishing I had Gus with me;  it would have been fun watching him and Bella play together.  I even got in a one hour visit with another set of friends on my way home, making it into town just after dark, which was the goal.  I managed to see Gus just before he went to bed and he seemed happy to see me.  He and dad had a grand time together and C. thinks that it doesn't matter who is with him - as long as he's fed and has his blankie, he's happy!

And that's all she wrote.