My Life – Page 2 – a hippie with a minivan

A few updates…

I wish I could say that I have not been writing much because I have been super busy. It would be way too easy. I have had the time to write in the last weeks, but I just haven’t been doing it.

So, now it is time and I will use it to catch up…

Summer came early here this year. Then left. Then came back, and now left again. Quebec weather is unpredictable and extreme. We had frost warnings last night and a heat wave two days before. If you live here, you know what I am talking about. I did manage to get the pool starting during our first heat wave at the beginning of the May however which meant days in the pool when the weather permits. Which is needed when you do not have air conditioning.

Here is a picture from from the beginning of May. Wilhelmina isn’t very big on cold water so she lets the boys go in while she at most gets her feet wet. The boys however can spend hours in the pool without a problem.

Actually, the weekends of May were quite busy. We had a homeschooling conference which was quite enlightening. At the moment, there is a wave of unschooling happening on the french side of the homeschooling community and it was seen at the conference. (I am writing a post on that)

I then had a cadet reunion. Yes, I was an air cadet… and this year it was the 60th anniversary of the squadron so they decided to invite all of the alumni. We even marched around the arena and then caught up with old friends and acquaintances, had an awful supper and then danced to music from the early 90’s… It was fun and weird…

We also got very close to getting a bus but it fell through at the last moment. Sigh… so close yet so far.

One day we will get out of this cycle we are in and we will get our dream to go ahead. It has giving me a big boost of decluttering though, and we we spent a whole weekend taking things out of closets and going through clothes and toys and books and stuff and were all read to do a garage sale. Of course we live in a city in which you can not have garage sales except for 3 weekends in May (in which you have to choose only one) and then one weekend in August. Well, we decided on the last weekend of the three because my reunion was on the first weekend, the second weekend we took to get ready but then of course it rained and we couldn’t do it. So now we have a house and shed in which all of our clutter is out and in the open, and I am completely overwhelmed with the mess which makes it even harder to get the minimum done. I could just donate it all and there are things that I do not mind simply getting rid of but there are things that I would rather try to sell but I need to make a deadline so that what doesn’t sell leaves. It is SO hard though.

In other news, we got our passports! A lot of work to get that done but Simon did it all and we did it. I saw that the “We Shine” unschooling gathering was happening again this year and again, I missed the registration. Of course in the last years when I realized, I was not only too late but didn’t have our passports anyway but this year I was still late on registration but took a chance and thankfully I did, because we are going! Yay! So, in 11 days we will be heading to the Catskills in NY and we will be spending a week with amazing Unschoolers. I can’t wait!!!

So rambling over…

I am working on a few posts that I have been meaning to write and maybe I will get the habit of posting often again.. hopefully, because I miss it 🙂

Looking back on 2012…

We are just a few hours shy of 2013. Wow, 2013…. it wasn’t even a year that I thought of when I young. The year that I will turn 36, that year that at the end of , I will have an 11, 9, 7 and almost 4 year old. The year the hopefully things will start moving for us.

This year was not the easiest for us and though there were many positives, there were some hard times too…

Here are some of the biggest things that happened this year:

My Grandmother (my father’s mom) died on New Years Eve and my dad was back in the hospital for a few months.
Willa turned 2!
We decided to sell the house (still not sold)
My Uncle Marc died from complications due to Diabetes
My Dad Died just a week after my Uncle.
I met Jerry Mitz and Leandre Bergeron at the AQED symposium
Xavier turned 10!
We got the all clear for Wilhelmina! she is now healthy.
Colin turned 8!
We decided that we want to do some bus living
I shared some financial struggles
Decided to offer my Photography services professionally
Did NaBloPoMo
Learned how to Crochet
Khéna turned 6!
I learned how to Needle Felt

Favourite parenting posts this year:

High Standards and the Cycle of Coercive Parenting
Discipline and How Non-Punitive Parenting Works
Praise and the proverbial carrot…
What if money didn’t matter?

Happy New Year!!!

November 24th

It is late and I just arrived home after a long day. If it wasn’t for NaBloPoMo I would not be here writing on the blog tonight.

I left this morning early, did a bit of shopping and then headed to Melons et Clementines to give my two workshops on EC and Babywearing. I had a great turnout and met some really nice people and the afternoon went by in a flash. I then headed out to meet up with a friend to go out to supper.

As I left the workshop it was getting dark and it was snowing and as I turned onto Sainte-Catherine street (the main street in Montreal) there was just something magical about it. The snow falling, people walking and laughing in the street… It just felt like the city was alive and I felt the need to roll down my window and just soak it all in.

I met up with my friend at this amazing little place called “Le Milieu” which is a space that is made for people to be creative. A small café in the back, couch and comfy place to sit in the front and tables and chairs that you can sit around with art supplies lining the walls. It is a space that has been made for people to get together and be creative. To learn from others, to do things on their own, to talk and crochet or knit or paint or create jewelry or sew etc. It is such a warm and inviting space and would be somewhere I would love to hang out on a regular basis if I was closer. I am even giving a workshop there next month!

My friend and I headed out for supper at “Le Nil Bleu”, a great Ethiopian restaurant on St-Denis Street, and we sat and chatted about unschooling and life over amazing food and then continued our conversation over cappuccinos at a small café not far away. It felt good to be out, it felt great to talk and share, and it was just a great day altogether.

It was also a bit bittersweet. As much as there are times that I say I would never want to live in Montreal again, that I want to leave the province, there are times that is just feels like home and today, it was one of those days and I know that I will miss it when we are gone.

Daughter

I am still in wonder at times when I think that I have a daughter. After three boys, I never thought that it would happen.

I have trouble seeing myself in my boys. They have some of my traits and Xavier is starting to look a bit like me at the same age, but mostly I see Simon or even the male members of my family when I see them. Wilhelmina however, I see me…

This is a picture that my mom and grandmother found while doing some gardening outside. It was actually in one of the potted plans that used to be in the house but has been outdoors for a while now. My mom had never seen the picture and my grandmother didn’t know why it was there, but there is was.

I see the picture and I see Wilhelmina… I was about 4 years old in this…

At the moment, Wilhelmina has been obsessed with wearing this dress. It is a dress that I wore often as a child and have held on to it for all my life so that one day, my little girl may wear it. And now she is.

There is something very special about seeing myself so much in one of my children. I truly love having a little girl.

Back in the sewing room…

When we decided to sell the house last february and had a few visitors come see the house, my sewing was put on the back burner. My sewing room became a storage room for things that I was wanting to sell and I thought that I would need to start packing up sooner then later, so I didn’t want to start on any new projects anyway. The longer things dragged on, the more things accumulated and the task of clearing the space and getting back into sewing was a bit depressing and overwhelming. A few weeks ago though, I finally decided that I was going to do it. One day, luckily on the “oversized items” garbage day, I decided that the old oversized TV unit that was holding my fabric quite messily was going to go. I emptied it onto the floor and I asked Simon to help me take it to the curb.

What was left in my sewing room was a total mess. I should have taken a picture but even i didn’t want to see it. That is when I emptied two of my shelves on my bookcase which prompted my post on stuff, as the shelves that I emptied was full of magazines that I was having trouble letting go of. I was able to place all of my fabric on those two shelves but was still a bit overwhelmed by the rest of the mess.

Over the next two weeks I did a little at a time and then yesterday, I finally pushed through the last bit of e mess and am now so happy of the space. Though the space was not yet done last week, just the potential of it already had my creative juices flowing, and I decided a few days ago that I was going to finish the quilt I had started making for Wilhelmina last year so that I can give it to her for either Xmas or her birthday. I can’t believe that it has been sitting there waiting for me for nearly a year and half. I started on it when Willa was just over a year old and then with her being a toddler and into everything I slowed down, and then her health issues last year and everything else, I just never went back to it…

Now that I started sewing again, it feels so good! I love being at the machine! I just go into my own little world and it is so relaxing.

I am also thanking myself for what i had already done. I might have let the sewing room get out of control but I didn’t let my things get out of order. My plan was still on the wall where I had easy access to it, all of my fabrics were together and prepared, I had pre-cut most of my fabrics and stitched together my dresden flowers so that I wouldn’t lose any of the pieces. (actually, I did that a few months ago because I didn’t want to lose any pieces if we moved) and basically, I proved to myself that I can actually be very organized.

Yesterday, I finished piecing together the squares that will be around the center… I had already done three of them but finished the 7 that were left… These are the images from last year, but they still look the same except that I have also quilted the sash between the blocks.

Today, I finished one of my dresden flowers that will be one of the four corners. The flower itself was already sewn, I just needed to cut the fabric it would be on, cut the backing, make a “sandwich” with the batting, press it, pin it, sew it, make the center and quilt it..

I have three more to go but if I can do a bit each night I could hopefully be done my major components by the end of the week. After that I need to decide how I am going to quilt it. Another thing that I did today was make a few scrap “quilt sandwiches” which I practiced my freehand quilting on. I am still not at all comfortable doing it but I do love that even though I make mistakes, with the pattern that I am practicing, you cannot see the mistakes unless you really look for them. But of course, doing a practice run and actually putting the foot down on my hard work are two very different things.