My Life – Page 10 – a hippie with a minivan

AQED/QAHBE Symposium 2009

Yesterday was the AQED/QAHBE (Quebec Association for Home-Based Education) Symposium…

I had avoided going the last years because there was not much that interested me in the presentations that were offered, but this year I decided to take a chance and go. I am happy that I did so…

We left in the morning at about 6am and got there at about 7:15 and we were in the first arrivals… there was an intro and then the presentations started…

The first I went to was called “Eco-Education” and was basically about the language around homeschooling and about how the word “homeschooling” misrepresents the act by giving the impression that it is “school at home” when it is so much more (or even not close at all to that model in the case of unschooling). The words of “Eco-Education” in this situation doesn’t take on the meaning of ecological (though they can be intertwined) but takes on the meaning of “eco” as representing our “habitat”… our environment etc…

The second one was on “unschooling”… lol… I actually ended up taking a bit and I am glad I did… I had mentioned when I presented myself that I was an unschooler and that I was there to mingle with other unschoolers… and soon after we left the room I was aproached by a woman who presented herself and her partner and we ended up talking for an hour or two about unschooling and eating lunch together… it was really great to meet them and I hope that we can keep in touch because they were great people whom I would love to know more… Sadly they live far away but I hope that there will be other ways to keep in touch…

I also met a cool homeschooling mama that came all the way from NB to meet other French homeschoolers…

After lunch there was a seminar but I ended up ditching it and talking with another couple that are in the other homeschooling group that I go to at times and we ended up talking for another hour about unschooling and kids and family life etc…

It was really refreshing to be around so many like-minded people…

In the afternoon I went to two other presentations…

One was on Waldorf and I kind of regret going to that one… though I went to a walforf school when I was young, I did not see it at all in the same way as was described…

The last one was on a theory called Parent-Guide, Parent-Complice, which turned out to be a really cool presentation about parenting… many of the things presented in the book reminds me about a little bit of “Hold onto your kids” mixed in with “Playful Parenting” with a little bit of “NVC” thrown in… among other ideas that seemed pretty interesting…

After, I met with my friends and we headed out for supper and we had a great time eating and sharing before finally heading home at about 9pm…

Anyway… I am really happy to have been there and I had a lot of fun and I am honestly looking forward to next year…

Sunday morning…

We got to sleep in this morning… the boys were up a bit before us but Simon and I got to stay in bed and sleep for a little while longer… though I would like another little one one day I am really enjoying that they are growing up and are able to take care of themselves a bit more… even if it just gives us an hour more of sleep….

The last few days have been busy…

Thursday was Simon’s birthday… so I cleaned… made Burrito’s and baked a cake and helped the boys make cards etc…

On friday, Simon took the day off and I decided to go do some shopping in Montreal and to make things easier for Simon and have a little one on one time I brought Xavier with me…

First stop was to find a tripod, then we walked around a bit and I bought some PJ’s and a new sweater… then we headed to a little comic book/figurine store and Xavier picked something out for himself and I picked somthing out for Colin…

I was so mad when I got back to the car and I had gotten a parking ticket… I will be contesting it because I was really not at fault… I was parked in space 351, I had paid for space 351 and I still had an hour left… and I got a ticket for space 350… ( I had my camera on me so I took pics and I have the receipt)… It seems that the city of Montreal is really looking for money…

After, we got in the car and headed out for lunch.. I couldn’t find a space near the restaurant I wanted to go to so we headed to Shwartz’s for the best smoked meat you could ever eat… Xavier had having a blast…

After that we went to a little deli next store and picked up some sausages, cheeses and some hot sauce for Simon… and then headed to my friend Gen’s house to see her and the babes and bring some Leftover vegetable korma that I had…The babies are getting so big and Gen is looking great!

After that we headed back off Island and I headed to Ares Kitchen supplies… I hadn’t known that there was one right near the mall I usually go to but saw it when I visited their site… OMG… it is like the Toys R Us of kitchen supplies… I found exactly what I needed and saw many more things I wanted… that place is going to be dangerous!

It was late, so we picked up a bagel and headed home…

Then yesterday we woke up to Khéna vomiting… then we cleaned the house a bit then I went out for groceries and Simon’s mom, sister and a friend came over for the afternoon… we ordered Pizza and talked and played the Wii… it turned out to be a better visit then I would have thought..

Khéna is still sick though… throwing up and now diarrhoea…

Anyway… today we are all relaxing, the housework is pretty much done and we are just crossing our fingers that it doesn’t spread…

tired and sore but feeling great…

Tonight I made Annie’s vegetable Korma… it was amazing!!!

I ate and then debated with myself for about a min about going to the pool or not (swimming after eating spicy food with cauliflower etc. is not always the best plan)… but I got my things and left…

When I got there I saw a friendly face who gave me a few words of encouragement to get back into things and somehow while we were waiting the conversation turned to homschooling and I found myself needing to explain what it is all about… (he was one of those who had never even heard of it… I have to admit that I was really not in the mood tonight to do that because he was trying to debate me on it…

Anyway… got in the pool and there were two lanes open for laps and it was a bit crowded with about 6 people per lane… but I put my music on, and got into whatever rythm I could with the others and just kept swimming… and after about 20 min some people left and at the 35 min mark I was the only one left in my lane… so I was able to do the last 20 min at a good rythm…

I didn’t do as many laps as I was doing before I broke my routine, and I took a few 1-2 min breaks than I usually did… but I did a lot more than I thought I would be able to do… I really think the music has a lot to do with it… when I am a but tired I tell myself to just finish the song… or I get a song that has a faster beat and I follow that beat for a few laps…

My muscles are a bit sore but I really feel great… I am debating on whether I am going to go again tomorrow (I don’t want to hurt myself) but I won’t be able to go wednesday or thursday…

I’ll see…

It really does feel great though… I need this to be a routine again and knowing that it won’t be to hard to catch up to where I was is encouraging..

what an amazing weekend…

My good friend went into labour on Friday night… 39 weeks 2 days with breach twins…. she called me just when I was just leaving the mall and was heading home with Simon and the boys…

Her water broke and she was on the way home to relax a bit… and wanted me to come over for the night….

I headed back home (a 40 min drive) and then got Khéna to sleep and got ready to leave…

I got in the car at 10pm and just as I was leaving I got a call from her partner saying that the contractions had picked up and that they were on the way to the hospital…

I went fast…. faster than I usually go… and I actually got to the hospital about 5 min after them…

Going in there she knew that she would be having a c-section but she wanted to experience labour a bit before to get all some of the hormones going so that the babies would get the benefits…

She laboured for about 6 hours and then at about 3:30 she decided on the section…

Just before 5am, she became a mom…

There was a bit of time that everything was quite stressful… a lot of contradictory info and a very stressful time with the doctor and with the c-section… something that was really hard to see my friends going through and was very emotional…

But the babies are beautiful and healthy and so is mom…. they are all amazing!!!

Kai is a gorgeous little man who weighed in at 8 lbs 6oz and Zoe is a beautiful little girl who weighed in a 7lbs 7oz….

I wanted to make sure that nursing was going well before I left and it was going pretty well by the end of the day…

Anyway… it was a long night and then a long day yesterday without sleep… we all tried to rest but it was just hard to do it with all of the emotions and excitement and there were things to be done…

Though there were downs… there were also ups and it was an amazing experience that I feel so lucky to have been part of… I was able to support them and help them when they needed me…

I also feel so proud and privileged of being able to be part of the babies lives right from birth…

just a little change…

I am facing the fact that we won’t be moving in the near future… Where I want to go is just too expensive, jobs are scarce and things are just not timed very right with finances etc…

So if I can’t move, I need to make the most of what we have now.Which means in our homeschooling life and our home life…

We have been living in this house for almost 5 years now and sadly it still doesn’t feel like a home. So I have been thinking about what would help and I think that changing rooms around would help with the flow of the house.

We have a split level with 3 closed rooms on the basement level (office, guest room and large Playroom plus the laundry room) and 2 bedrooms upstairs (our rooms) with the living room and kitchen.

Right now the boys are in a room that is 10 X 11… with a very small closet (in their room are two overflowing dressers, a bunk bed and a toddler bed)… and our bedroom is slightly smaller though we have a larger closet…

My idea would be to have the boys room where the playroom is now which would have the advantage of having space for their bunkbeds, their dressers, a large closet and I would put the guest bed in there which would become Khéna’s bed… and there is alread some shelves up for books etc… and they would still have room for some toys if we decided to have it like that…

Our room would go in the office space downstairs which is the second largest room in the house so that we would be near the boys room and because the room is bigger, Simon could have his clothes in our room also (right now his clothes are in the guest room) and we would be on the same floor as the laundry.

The other advantage is that all of our daytime living space would be on the same floor… I would have my sewing room upstairs and easier to access, and because it wouldn’t double as the guest room we could put our other table in there which we could use for crafts, puzzles, games etc and it would give me extra room for cutting fabric etc…

I am still debating on whether to keep the office downstairs and have the playroom upstairs or vice-versa….

Anyway… those are my plans and I really want to do it and soon but it is hard to even imagine where to start. It would be a great oppurtunity though to declutter even more and do a deep clean of the house…

Has anyone done something like that? any tips on where to start?