This afternoon the boys and I took advantage of this sunny fall holiday (it is Canadian Thanksgiving today), and went for a long nature walk at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. This gave Jim a quiet house in which to get some recording work done—and I am choosing to be grateful that he has so much [...]
The boys and I kicked off (what we are calling) our first day of homeschool for the 2011-2012 year. Daegan is now grade 4, and Gareth grade 2. It went wonderfully! After our two week ‘staycation’, the boys were raring to go, as was I. This is the most recharged I’ve felt in years. While [...]
This Thursday is Remembrance Day in Canada, a day in which we remember and thank those who have served in Canada’s armed forces, in both wartime and peacekeeping duties. Many other countries hold a similar day of remembrance on November 11th, marking the formal end of WWI on the 11th hour of the 11th day [...]
Last Thursday the boys and I headed to Swift Current, SK to meet Jim, who was taking the bus from Regina (about 3 hours E of Swift Current) there after his Prairie Developer conference. We then headed out on a mini-vacation of sorts, heavy on dinos and wildlife and landscapes. Despite all of us catching [...]
We watched the movie Fly Away Home on Friday night, and it was very well-received by the boys. This is the movie from the late ‘90s in which a young teen girl and her father teach some orphaned / abandoned Canada Geese to migrate south for the winter, by flying ultra-light planes. A very heart-warming [...]
A friend of mine posted this brief documentary clip on facebook, and it is a wonderful snapshot of the breadth and history of Canada-US relations. I hope it gives more depth and insight to my American friends about my country, and why Canadians get so bothered by the fact that (in general) we know far [...]
Last night we watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver with our boys. Overall, I thought it was very well done. It showed the diversity of people, language, culture and landscape that it is Canada—and the underlying respect, gratitude, tolerance and quiet pride many of us feel who live here. Not that [...]
Monday January 18th was A.A. Milne’s birthday, so I did a few Winnie the Pooh activities with the boys. We watched the classic The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, read bits from various books, and learned a bit about Winnie’s history. Did you know that Winnie is named after the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, [...]