Good Reads

I recently started reading Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance. It is absolutely hilarious. And it is (mostly) true to his voice too. You can hear him say “Duuuude” and “Oh (expletive).” in that way that he would say it. Plus it’s a really interesting perspective on the way we go about finding and maintaining relationships in today’s day and age. I’m only 50 pages in, but already I would recommend it. 

I also recently read Sarah Jio’s Goodnight June, a fictional backstory on the inspiration for the famous children’s book Goodnight Moon. I discovered Jio when I visited the library a few months ago and stumbled upon her book The Look of Love. It was a weirdly cheesy book, but I couldn’t stop reading it. Then I wanted more. I will be back to the library soon to get more of her books. She is currently my favourite. 

On the boards: Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma. 

Some links

It’s already August (what!), and the heat has all but swallowed me whole. It makes me really wish there was a giant Slip ‘n Slide down Princess. Um, this should totally happen.

Also, when we were in NYC last week, we went to this deceptively large Italian market called Eataly, and I really want to go on one of their tours. Maybe when Andy is older he will enjoy this.

I didn’t get a chance to go to Brooklyn on this past trip, but a friend and I are going to take part in the Sketchbook Project. I attempted a year or two ago, but alas never actually finished my sketchbook. Accountability for the win this time!!

Shopping

For some reason, I tend to do most of my clothes shopping while on vacation. I don’t know what it is about being away from home that primes my shopping instinct. Maybe all those cross-border shopping trips we took when I was a child unintentionally told me that shopping at home is less fun than shopping in the States.

To add more fuel to the fire (or rather, I suppose, to douse what shopping spark was left), I got pregnant. To date, the latter half of my pregnancy was probably the time during which I had the least desire to shop. During the last 3 months, I essentially wore the same crew neck shirt from Uniqlo (I had this in multiple colours) with a cardigan and the maternity jeans I bought from Target (I had two pairs). Not knowing how my body would settle post-pregnancy was enough of a deterrent for me not to purchase anything.

I’ll be honest, at 3 months postpartum, there are still many items in my closet that do not fit me. Things are tight where they didn’t used to be, and items just don’t fall the same way. I have tried on my favourite LOFT dress (XS, purchased last year) a number of times and every time I am still not comfortable with how it fits.

Things are looking up, though. I took a trip to our local mall yesterday with Andy asleep in the stroller and managed to find not one, not two, but three things that I liked! I have been on the lookout for an inexpensive one-piece and picked up this swimsuit for only $15 at Boathouse (haven’t shopped there since high school, back when Roxy and Billabong were my go to brands). I also got this maxi dress and this shorter dress from H&M. Now to find a new pair of sandals to replace the one I have essentially worn through.

12.

It was a weird day for Andy. He ate more than usual and wasn’t a particularly happy camper. It all started this morning, at our first official session of mom and baby yoga this morning. He protested almost the entire time (“I will not stretch my arms to the sky, but I will stretch my legs to kick you while you’re doing downward dog”). But all is forgotten now, as he sleeps peacefully in his crib. On that vein, some exciting news – Andy slept through the night for the first time this week! It was a little disorienting, actually, because I woke up on my own (not to his crying).

The big event of the week for this little guy was going to his aunt’s convocation! It was rather spur of the moment, but we had a good time (arguably, a better time than i had at my own convocation). I can’t believe even my little sister is done her schooling…

Now, we must confess. Kelvin and I are not exactly stellar examples of alumni. We don’t give to our school or attend chapter events…or stay involved in any way really. I mean, my parents have been ragging on me for the last few years to update my address so Queen’s will stop sending my alumni magazine to their place (I finally did this week, just FYI). But nostalgia has a way of creeping in as you get older. Plus, this year marks our 5-year homecoming reunion. And we have a special opportunity starting September to reconnect with campus. So who knows, perhaps we will find ourselves embedded once more into Queen’s life.

If Andy decides to attend Queen’s, he will be the Class of 2037…

Now most nights, Andy sleeps pretty late. Like 10:30 late. So yesterday we decided that it would be okay to bring him to watch daddy play softball. Andy seemed to show quite an interest in the game, so we hung out around the dugout until my DEET-less body could no longer take the mosquitoes. Bite count? Andy: 0. Mommy: 4

As for what’s going on in life beyond Andy, I finished another MOOC this week, and I don’t have any on the boards until July. So in lieu of that, I borrowed a whack load of books from the OCT library and am enjoying perusing through them. Plus I have made twitter chats a 3x/week event. Good times.

I am also really looking forward to getting these bracelets from The Jones Market (and perhaps another one or two in a different colour). I shall order them for delivery to our hotel in Nashville.

So it’s 10:49 and I am hosting book club tomorrow. We’re reading Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda and I am about 90 pages in (out of 490 pages). Looks like it’s going to be a long night…

the art of being a woman

In a world where so much of who you are seems to be wrapped up in the external – in accomplishments, in appearance, in possessions – it is immensely refreshing for my soul to be reminded of what true beauty is.

Growing up, I had subscriptions to your typical teenage girl magazines – Seventeen, YM…I cut pictures out of them to make collages – collages full of photoshopped women, advertised beauty products, and the like. I’m happy to say our subscriptions have grown up since then. We now welcome Kingston Life and Spacing into our home, in addition to my professional magazines. About a year ago, my husband introduced me to a magazine called Darling. I was moved by its mission and intrigued by the way it distinguished between eight female personas. I promptly subscribed to their online content, and I will admit it is probably the only feed that I read in its entirety.

I’m someone who has often found her worth in achievements and in an ability to get things done. This has served me well on a number of occasions. However, it has also left me utterly devastated more than a few times.

At church today, our speaker touched on the reality of our brokenness as people and our deep need for healing and restoration. I was challenged to consider the reign that God has (or doesn’t have) over all aspects of my life, and I couldn’t help but be convicted of the fact that I have yet to allow him to make an indelible mark on my life. When people see me, do they see someone whose life has been transformed by Christ? Sadly, I don’t know that they do.

All of this brings me to the ideas of identity, worth, and beauty. What does it mean to be a woman, and to live well? Undoubtedly, all women are unique, with different aspirations, different values, different needs. However, I believe there is a certain something that we should all be striving for, to live life on earth with purpose and meaning that extends beyond just the here and now. As a mother, every day I am learning to understand and accept the changes that have occurred in me (mentally and physically) since taking on this new role. I have some seemingly abrupt new ambitions. I have a slate of new responsibilities. And simultaneously, I have a new image of myself to either accept reluctantly or work hard to reform.

In short, it’s a tough act to balance.

And so, I am thankful for the care and thoughtfulness that goes into a magazine like Darling. For curating content that inspires and uplifts and is authentic. In an attempt to foster what I think is a very healthy mindset, I’ve ordered the most recent issue of Darling and I can’t wait to receive it.

Happy Mother’s Day

It’s surreal to me to think that I’m a mother. I’ve had 25 years worth of Mother’s Days – Sundays of giving my mother handmade cards and crafts (some much better than others, I must admit), of brunches and dinners. All these years, I never really thought about the other 364 days a year that my mom continued to be a loving mother without recognition. 

Now that Andy is around, my mother (and MIL) are grandmothers. And there’s nothing that makes them happier than seeing their little grandson’s smiling mug. To celebrate, I decided to make them a little something to keep that little mug closer, which also happens to provide a good place to rest their own (coffee) mugs. All the tutorials I found online essentially brought me back to this post by Darkroom and Dearly, so I followed those instructions to create the Polaroid coasters for my mom and mother in law. 

  
We made them each a set of 5 (and ended up with a set for ourselves too as we accounted for potential mistakes) and they turned out quite nicely! The 4×4 ceramic tiles I got at Home Depot along with the little felt pads to put on the bottom. I was too cheap to actually spend money on mod podge, so I went to the dollar store (where I got the sponge brush) and picked up a bottle of glue, which I proceeded to water down at home (2 parts glue to 1 part water).

The whole process was very straightforward. I used sandpaper to scuff up the tiles just a tiny bit, then wiped the dust off with a tissue. I printed the pictures at Costco, cut them down to size, put the glue substance on the back of them, and pasted them onto the tiles. I used Kelvin’s old Target debit card (which we sadly will no longer need) and ran it over the photo to get extra glue out and so the photo would adhere better to the tile. I let it dry for quite a while and then proceeded to put another layer of glue/water over the whole tile. Let dry. Another coat. People had mentioned that they were able to see streaks from the mod podge, but perhaps it was because we simply used glue/water, we didn’t find them that prominent. What’s more, when we used the acrylic spray, any streaks we did have  disappeared. 

So all that was well and good. We let them dry and then brought them outside onto the deck for a coating of clear acrylic spray. Between coat 1 and 2, I heard a little patter on the window. In a panic, I rushed down to the main floor. “Please don’t be rain,” I thought to myself. It was rain. Kelvin was super helpful and bolted outside to collect up the coasters. I had a little pity party for myself as I wiped the beads of rain off the now somewhat sticky coasters. After spending time (unsuccessfully) googling the effects of getting water on such projects, I brought them outside again (under the porch this time – why didn’t I do this the first time) for a second coat. When they were dry, I added the felt pads at the bottom, and all was well. 

 

Last thing – we packaged them up nicely with twine and a homemade tag. Happy Mother’s Day!

Inspiration

Kelvin and I had a discussion the other day about people in our field that we really look up to. It’s funny, because as much as I can list off thought leaders within education, when people ask me about my role models or people who inspire me, the first people to pop into my mind have to do with cities and urban space.

Jane Jacobs. Amanda Burden. Enrique Penalosa.

What impresses me about these individuals is the way that they see cities – not simply as machines that need to balance the perspectives and desires of different stakeholders, but as living, breathing spaces that are foremost for people. I love the way that Jane Jacobs observed neighbourhoods in an effort to understand them. I love how she advocated for them unwaveringly. I love Amanda Burden’s fervent passion for public space, and her recognition of the importance of details. (I also love her eloquence and the fact that she looks so put together). I love Enrique Penalosa and the vision and follow-through he had for Bogota’s priorities.

I also love TED talks, and the way they can inspire you, and remind you of these wonderful things. Talks like this one by Amanda Burden, which I watched multiple times.

5.

Doing the laundry with a baby in a carrier is easier than doing the laundry with a baby in a sling. But man, loading the washing machine without a child strapped to me at all is the easiest of all.

My sister is back in town for the next few weeks, so we have a built-in babysitter when she’s home. It’s great! On Thursday, we left Andy in the carrier with her while we went downtown to pick up pad thai for dinner from one of our go-to asian places. Even though it was only a 45-minute jaunt there and back (including our in-restaurant time), it was glorious. This morning, I got a load of laundry in while she held him. It will be harder come the beginning of May when she is back in Toronto for good. Not looking forward to that.

Looking back at the last few posts, I realized I talk a lot about how Andy is such a good sleeper. And he is. Sometimes. Usually during the day…which is not when we need him to be a good sleeper. The past few nights have been pretty rough, with me not getting much more than 45-50 minutes of good solid sleep at a time. So, we have decided we are going to start introducing some semblance of a sleep routine. Right now, that consists of him being in the carrier with daddy from roughly 9:30-midnight while I nap, followed by an inconsistent few hours, then a big nap with daddy between 7 and 9 am and sometimes a continuation of said nap with mommy until 10. No more. We will attempt to start to wind him down around 9:30/10 (and by wind down, we mean wind down for the crib, not for the carrier), then have him up for a change (new diaper, and out of his PJs) at around 8/8:30. That will require that I am also up at 8/8:30. Hmm…that may prove difficult.

Now time for those random things around the internet that have piqued my attention this week.

I got domestic and made this pasta and these muffins.

I also follow an online magazine called GOOD and a few days ago, they made published this post about poetry. I wrote a poetry about parenthood. It’s an acrostic poem.

People told me that raising
A child would be both tough and
Rewarding. I’ve found this to be true.
Every day, my baby has
Needs that must be met;
There are times when he’s poopy,
Hungry, gassy, or fussy.
Other times, he just wants to be held.
One thing’s for sure, I’ve never known
Days as full of joy and love as these.

Last but not least, these illustrations about the life of a new mom made me laugh. I proceeded to share them with a number of other new moms around me.

3.

Lots of big changes this week.

Andy rolled over for the first time this week. He also had an explosive bowel movement that resulted in me having to clean the walls, the door, and the carpet. Oh, and we also moved him into his own crib and his own room to sleep at night. He continues to be a pretty good sleeper, waking up every 2 to 3 hours to feed and then sleeping the rest of the time.

Looking back at photos of Andy from the last three weeks, we are surprised to see how much he has changed in appearance. He’s outgrown his footed newborn onesies so he has now graduated into wearing clothes from his 0 to 3 months drawer.

Last but not least, this is Andy’s first Easter. Though he has yet to understand the gravity of what it is Jesus has done on the cross for him, we continue to pray for him to one day have a deep, meaningful relationship with Christ – one that will bring many others to faith as well. This holiday also brings us many visitors from out of town. We’ll be heading over to the in-laws’ soon for some family time and Andy will get a chance to meet many of his relatives for the first time! Here’s hoping everyone is healthy :)

This week’s top 5:

• Take a shower while your baby is sleeping – made the mistake of being too leisurely with my time on Thursday, spending time lounging and writing this blog post 
• 9 pm to midnight “naps”
• Our baby monitor – now that Andy is in his own room, it’s crucial for us to have a monitor to see how he’s doing. This thing is on the entire night and we love that it has some wicked night vision
• A stroller – Kelvin did oodles of research and eventually we ended up with this one, which we bought at a fantastic store in Ottawa. It cuts through snow like a boss.
• Our diaper bag – We don’t leave the house without this. Another one of Kelvin’s discoveries (after seeing it on one of our favourite blogs), this diaper bag has all the compartments we need plus is unisex and stylish enough that we could totally continuing using it after out diaper bag days

Learning a new skill

I must admit that as a new mom, the days often blend together. The distinction between weekends and weekdays is minimal, and it seems I am on a continual train of feeding, napping, and doing laundry. Surely this is not what motherhood is reduced to! Thankfully, I am not confined to my home, plus I have access to a whole range of opportunities through this handy little thing called the internet.

Throughout the days I do have moments of respite in which i am free to pursue my own interests. One such interest is design. For the last few years, I have had opportunities to do a whole bunch of hand-drawn and graphic design projects, the latter of which I have accomplished primarily on Photoshop and Sketchbook Express. Those two tools are great, though perhaps not the best avenues for creating the flat illustrations that I tend towards.

Enter Adobe Illustrator.

I have never used Illustrator before, but from what I can tell, this is the program I should be using for my flat graphic projects. A little while ago, I stumbled upon this crash course to Illustrator and my intention is to use Adobe’s 30-day trial to see whether Illustrator is something I should invest in. To learning new things!

Craving

Once again, it’s been a while since I blogged.
However, I wanted to share something I wrote in class today.
Every Thursday, my kids have writer’s workshop. It’s a chance for them to have focused writing time, and I get a bit of time to write as well.
The piece below is called Craving. I’ve only just begun it, but it’s my first foray back into creative writing. I don’t know if I will continue it, but for now, I’d like for it to be enjoyed by a wider audience than just my iPad.
Also, on a completely different note, I’m attempting to blog more regularly in pursuit of this things called reflective teaching. I’ve revived scribbling on the walls. We shall see how this goes.

It started off as just a one time thing. A friend of mine slipped some to me on the bus after school. I was hesitant, of course, because it was so unfamiliar. So new. So dangerous. You know those people that your parents tell you not to hang out with in school? She was one of those people. Always pushing me to step just a little bit outside of my comfort zone.

But I couldn’t resist. The packaging was just too tempting. And so I took it. And I opened it. And that first snickers bars was unlike anything I’ve ever experience before. It had been in her pocket for quite some time, so it was hot, melted, gooey. The sensation wrapped around me like a warm blanket on a cold winter day. It was the perfect blend of chocolate, nuts, and caramel.

All through first period I could think of nothing more than having another taste of that snickers bar. My pencils turned into snickers. My binder was a box of 48 snickers. At one point, Donalda, who sits two seats down from me had a nosebleed and I thought it was a river of caramel flowing from her nostrils.

“Keegan!” Mrs. Landon screeched, snapping me back to my snickers-less reality, “what would you say was the most important event during World War 1?” My face turned beet red. Did my teacher and classmates know what I’d been thinking about? Was it written all over my face? I glanced over at Mrs. Landon and it took every ounce of my strength not to think about her glasses as a pair of half eaten snickers bars.

The bell rang, and I bolted out of there as fast as I could. Only one more period and it would be recess. Then I’d need to track down Pauline to get more bars.

Parrott’s Bay Conservation Area

More outdoor time this weekend! We didn’t venture too far this time around – headed along Bath Road/Hwy 33 past Amherstview. We ended up at the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority’s newest conservation area, Parrott’s Bay, for a leisurely stroll around a surprisingly large wetland. Our exploration was much less intense than last week. In fact, I wore boat shoes and jeans (in retrospect, it was way too hot for them). Still, some absolutely beautiful encounters with nature.

The conservation area was small enough for us to do a loop within about an hour (click here for trail map). From the parking lot on Hwy 33, we headed first to the lookout. It was a fairly short jaunt to a cute little gazebo overlooking the entire wetland.

We backtracked to where Trail 1 and 2 split, and headed north along Trail 2. The trails for the most part are well marked, but I would still suggest keeping a map with you (or a photo of it on your device). We continued on Trail 3 towards the bridge and were pleasantly surprised with what a nice walk it was. At the bridge, you get a view of the wetland to one side and Taylor Kidd on the other.

The best part of the trail came directly after this bridge, when we headed into what seemed like a fairly mature forest with very tall trees and a high canopy. It reminded us of being in the forests in BC!

We marvelled at the fact that we were still in Ontario and ventured on along Trail 4, then Trail 5. This place has an undisturbed quality to it, and perhaps doesn’t get as many visitors as some of the CRCA’s other properties. Most of the trails were in wooded areas, though a few sections wound through clearings. The boardwalk that is supposed to connect Trails 5 and 6 didn’t seem to exist, and the path was a little damp there, but it was nothing compared to the mud that we had trampled through last week. The trail eventually led us out to Bayview Drive, linking us up with Hwy 33. Despite having cars whizzing by us and only a shoulder to walk on, we found ourselves enamoured by the beautiful houses on the other side of the street. We made it back safely to our car, and headed on home.

Quite different from the conservation areas we frequent in Kingston, Parrott’s Bay is definitely a place we will be returning to. Next time, we might park at the lot along Taylor Kidd and explore some of the trails we didn’t get to on the north side of the conservation area. Either way, it’s a beautiful place.

One last picture for the post – pristine views of the lake on one of the most scenic drives around town.