a hippie with a minivan

yes… I am complaining…

Today is Sept 26th and we are having record highs and it is 26C but it feels like 34C with the humidity…

I am hot…

I don’t like being hot… we stopped the pool motor a few weeks ago… if we hadn’t I would be in the pool right now…

Khéna is wearing a diaper only and is sweating so much there are drops of sweat hanging from his hair and he is so clammy every little hair and piece of dust on the floor is sticking to him… I feel that the floors are gross but I don’t have the energy to clean them right now…

When I am hot like this, I feel that I have no patience either. The boys are driving me crazy today… they are driving each other crazy…

Khéna finally passed out on me but he hadn’t been wanting to nurse because he didn’t want to be too close…

Tomorrow, we are going to the recycling plant for a tour and it is going to be raining so we can’t have a picnic… the person organising it said that it will “preferable to go to McD’s” I don’t know who prefers McD’s but I don’t… ugh… I think that I am going to bring a lunch and we’ll eat in the car or go to a friends house with it…

At least they say it will be cooler tomorrow…

Wasn't ready for that…

I have always known I was going to homeschool… way before I had kids… even when I was a kid myself…

I was ready for people questioning me, asking about homeschool, wondering about the legalities and the logistics and the myths.

But… I wasn’t ready for the reactions that I have been getting…

Because Xavier is now “school age” everyone asks about school. When I say that we homeschool some ask the questions that I was ready for… but many others surprise me…

they have no idea what homeschooling is… they have never heard of it.

I wasn’t ready for that. How can someone have never heard of homeschooling?

I know that it isn’t popular in french-canadian circles but I thought the concept was at least known. I remember talking to one of the moms in my area that homeschools and she too had never heard of it until she started searching for information on school alternatives for her son who has leaning problems.

It really surprises me each time… I won’t even think about talking about unschooling with them…

Is this common?

a few pics from the park…

Proud big brother…

Colin

the boys having fun…

the new stroller…

unfamily friendly…

One thing I hate about where we live is the lack of things to do with kids.

There are almost no SAHM’s in my area and if there are they stay away from the outside world.. when I go to the park if there are other kids there they are with a daycare worker, or another babysitter, grandparent etc… no parents… not unless it is the weekend…

but there is also almost nothing to do here as a family…

I wanted to see if there was a free swim at the local pool (the only pool in the region) and yes, there are… there are 2 hours in the morning for adults only, 2 hours in the late afternoon for adults only, an hour at 8pm for all and then an hour after that for adults only… So the only time you can go swimming with kids is when most kids are going to bed… who goes swimming with kids at 8pm?! I called and talked to the pool director and she said that she tried to do a free swim for kids a few years ago in the daytime but there were only about 4-5 kids that came… but that we could rent out the pool if there was enough people that wanted it (130$ an hour)… I talked to her about it a bit more and she said that she would think about it… we’ll see what she decides..

There is a family centre here… but again… though it is for families and for kids the activities that are planned always have the kids and the parents separated… because they really believe that parents need to do activities without the kids and the kids have to learn how to be in daycare. When you ask if you can stay with your kids you get looked like as if you have three nostrils… don’t get me wrong… there are some activities that you are with your kids… but you are only allowed to have one child with you and you need to put the others in the daycare… not even a nursling is allowed to stay with you if you are with an older child. The activities are also really rigid and planned and they even give you homework if you don’t finish it during the allotted time… It is just so unfriendly and what I have heard from many others is that the kids don’t enjoy it…

There is not much else here besides that… there is stroller group that does a lot of walking but you can only have a child in a stroller, no other kids are welcome.

There are “extra-curricular” activities… but only Xavier would be able to go and really he is just not that interested by them at the moment and honestly… I don’t blame him… he wants to be with his family and do things as a family…

it is sad that this city is so anti-family.

Confession…

I feel that I have to confess something…

Yesterday, I went out and bought….

a new stroller….

Yes, I feel guilty… I hate strollers, I hate the way they look and the way that they are overused… I hate that people choose strollers and distance over babywearing and closeness. Don’t get me wrong… We do have a small compact stroller that we keep in the car…. we use it mostly to carry our stuff when we are out or in case one of the boys get tired…. or to put Khéna in when we sit down to eat somewhere and he is on my back etc… but with it’s very small wheels it doesn’t go far on our streets or in the park and would not have been usable in the snow…

Anyway, I would like to walk more and though I LOVE to carry Khéna he is getting heavy and though I don’t mind putting him on my back for a few hours it tires me out pretty quickly… especially when I am not walking on flat surfaces…. So I thought that a stroller might be a nice thing to have… and of course I will bring the wrap and put Khéna on my back when he wants it or if one of the boys get tired and want to ride instead of walk…

So I wanted something with big wheels…

I have been keeping my eye on used ones but I hadn’t found one yet… or the ones I saw were taken quickly… So I looked around at the new stuff and happened to check out the TRU website and saw a Quinny Speedi stroller on special (51% off bring the price to 149.97 instead of 299.99) and found a store in Montreal that had them in stock…

So I bought it…

I take a pic of it in use today…