Letting experiences and feelings be what they are … 

Two small lessons came to me within an hour.

If you’re a parent, you’ve likely had the sense of wanting your children to have wonderful experiences, feeling joy and satisfaction as much as possible. Less comfortable feelings are, well, less comfortable. And while some of what our own childhood was like probably plays into how comfortable we are with harder feelings, either a lot or a little, this is likely common to all parents to some degree. It just kind of is. 

Well, it’s the end of an era for our family.

S delivered his last newspaper last week. It’s hard to believe how many years he’s been at it. He was just turning 5 and eager to help when my oldest son (8 at the time) convinced me to “co-sign” for the first paper route – he technically needed to be 10 to have it on his own.

’ve heard those words said both emphatically and tentatively several times over the last week or so. It’s usually been followed by the words, “Well, it can’t be any worse than 2020.” Personally, I think it can and might be, but I guess what we can each control is our own perspective. Do I sound a bit tentative even in saying that?

Eyes brightened, a smile of appreciation grew and a spring in his step returned. It was payment collection time for my son’s newspaper route. This is a second route he’s taken on in order to pay for some bills and equipment for a future project he’s been planning. He’s been pretty excited about it and waited several months to get this additional route. He’s taken it seriously from the get-go, connected with customers and set up a routine to keep things as consistent as possible.

The topic of typewriters came up in family conversation the other day. I described the clickety-clack of our old family typewriter and how excited I was as a young teenager when I received an electric one.

My two younger kids were up early this morning cleaning up cat vomit. It’s a lovely way to start a story, I know😉. It’s relative to what I’ve been thinking about, though, so bear with me. It was a bit of a mess. I passed them in the kitchen as I was heading back to bed from getting a glass of water. They were getting paper towel and spray cleaner from the cupboard.

The interesting thing I’ve found about being Canadian is that there is an inherent sense of multi-culturalism, regardless of where you live or the make-up of your family. Never mind that Toronto, our largest city, is apparently the most multi-cultural city in the world (I’m always a bit skeptical of how things are measured but, for the moment, Wikipedia tells me it’s still so), with a varied history, we have a range of linguistic and cultural perspectives right across the country.

Is learning that is expressed through play still relevant as kids become older? Do we see differences in the way that “older kid” play is expressed depending on personality?

As I was writing about the personality of play, I started to have memories of the many a-ha moments over the years. These were times that the ideas, knowledge and skills that a child had, literally came bursting into their play.

Play is so important. It expands the horizons of a child’s world, builds competencies as they are ready, and allows them to try on new ways of being.

We noticed moments when there were beams of light and we could see the colour spectrum, sometimes distinctly, other times less so.

There are so many, so I’m thinking of ones that aren’t really obvious and/or so recent that they don’t need a mention (eg. Frozen or Harry Potter, for instance, although a couple of those types snuck in), but not so obscure that they’d be hard to find.

People the world over are finding themselves either together a whole lot more right now OR apart and not able to see each other in person. We, like most people, are in a combination of those situations. A few of us in our family are very much together right now, and there are others we’d been looking forward to seeing this week that we can’t get together with.

There was a spot on the highway where, if we were heading east at just the right time, we might be able to see three trains on the three tracks running through the countryside at the same time.

Imagine my surprise as I was wheeling my cart along in the grocery store one evening and ran into Ernie hanging out near the chicken broth.  I don’t think I’ve seen toys in this particular grocery store, let alone a lone Ernie amidst a container of Marvel superheroes.

I’ve been a consultant with Usborne Books at Home, the Canadian branch of Usborne Books, for the better part of 15 years. I have always loved the multi-faceted approach that Usborne takes.

I found a couple on our shelves and then was looking in a board game store and came across some long-forgotten gems! Although the names will likely not be new, they might spark an idea to get them out or have a look for them.

My hope was for an ordinary week. Last week was, well, a lot …. and just as I thought I’d made it through, it ended with a sudden Friday night stomach flu that knocked the strength and hydration right out of me. My chance to rehydrate and rest in peace Saturday was thwarted by the arrival of guests of my husband’s. They traveled a crazy several hours from the north through a snowstorm for a visit, and also seemed undaunted by the presence of a stomach virus in the house. Sigh…

I’m kind of nostalgic for the younger years with my kids and all the anticipation, both faith-based and festive. The reading of nativity picture books, church pageants and a good dose of The Grinch. The fun of decorating the house together, baking, working on hand-made present after hand-made present and the annual gingerbread house decorating at their Granny’s

I finished my last bite of lunch and put the container in my bag, preparing to head out to drop my daughter and her friend off to their Art class. We were at a library in a community centre the next town over and we had been reading in one of the private study rooms.