On the Sunday before Rowan was about to start school on Tuesday, I got text confirmation that I’d be subbing two hatha yoga classes at a multi-franchise fitness centre. Two different locations, actually, in two different Metro Vancouver cities. My first subbing, procured through a Facebook call out. Yes! I can do it, I reply….
Tag: parenting
Me Oh My Oh, No Potato?
We were so excited to harvest potatoes from our first season of stacked growing. The leaves started out growing like gang-busters. Every few weeks I’d have to trot next door for more tires from the auto mechanic. We thought we’d be set for winter (well, for a short Vancouver one!), but the taters were a no-show until…
Chard makes my spirit level
Today’s happiness is the kind that feels like floating. Internally my spirit is level. There’s a little buoy inside me, bobbing about on a sea of incidents. Sometimes it’s pummelled by waves of children who hate my parenting, or knocked up against the rocks of an empty bank account, or just squeezed into a shrinking air…
Money mucking blues
The trouble is that I said, ‘Above all I will write authentically.’ I will not be afraid to admit I am broken or lost or failing, because then others will know its okay to admit their failings too. Only, when I said that, I was feeling pretty together. I was surveying my failures from a…
3 weird ways to spot anxiety
My old companion Anxiety turned up this week. It’s interesting because through yoga and therapy with a naturopath i’ve learned how to spot anxiety even when i don’t consciously feel worried about anything. My three weird anxiety symptoms Gnawing hunger. I feel gnawing deep in my gut, even if I’ve just eaten. Before I started medication…
Mamas, Beer and Bears
Real Camping On from my last post…I feel like such a dumbass for suggesting I’d be prowling around the fire with my cougar panties on. In fact, I played the smiling frump in my full-coverage one piece (with a cool picture of a sunset forest, if that counts for anything.) Besides our family and my…
How to talk to men. Or not.
I’m so excited that we are going camping tomorrow. Three nights in a tent at Lake Allouette. It’s all down to my sons’ caregiver being organized enough to book a Long Weekend site two months in advance, and being kind enough to invite us along. Camping is a big step in moving a relationship from…
Our Folk’s Fest
The first time my man and I went to Vancouver’s Folk Fest I was nine months pregnant with our first child. I was a fan for life. Not only are there five stages of music and so much good food, there’s a special hippy rule that pregnant women don’t wait in line for the porta-potties….
Secrets of a former loser
“And what was your high school experience like?” I’m sitting round a dinner table with three women I’ve only met once before. Two are my fellow volunteers for a poetry outreach society (how cool is that?!). The questioner is the society’s kindly executive director who pays us monthly with a savoury home-cooked meal, red wine…
Why I got FED UP and Signed Up to Homeschool
Big Brother had his last day of kindergarten last week, but you wouldn’t know it by activities going on. No last day party, no family picnic, no mini-graduation. Just a small grocery bag of papers and art projects from the year. Maybe this wouldn’t niggle me so much, except the French Immersion classes, in the…
Walking in Circles
I was worried on our trip that my older son, nearly six, would get bored and then pester everyone to death for more tv, more treats and generally more attention. He’d deserve it too, since his little brother, two, is very clever at staying in the cute spotlight, and his only nearby playmate would be…
Saying ‘So what?’ to flaws
(Halfway through our 9-hour flight home. Looking tired, but still smiling) One reason I keep comparing this recent family holiday to England with the one four years ago is because the similar circumstances let me compare the real-world effects of my work to deal with depression and anxiety. The first trip I was just about…
Wendy's House 