Month: October 2020

School has been interesting this week. Mom and Dad have been evil. Haha! Just kidding. They’ve been busy with work but also with helping my sister and I with our school work. We’ve worked out a plan that works well for now. It might change but we’ll see how it goes. My sister and I have jobs now. I have to make sure no one is watching TV after 9:30 at night and my sister has to make sure all the lights are off in the house. Mom and Dad say this will help with our sleep schedule.

In school, I learning about exponents and proving whole numbers to the power of zero. It was confusing at first but neat at the same time. Did you know that zero to the power of zero is in-determined or “error” on the calculator. It was neat.

The weather has turned colder and the sky was overcast (cloudy) most of the week. It was hard to wake up when it looked so dark outside in the morning. Then we learned about the Winter Solstice and how the shortest day of the year is coming in December. I’m looking forward to Santa. But first, I’m looking forward to Halloween this Saturday. I’m excited. YEET! I am carving my pumpkin today and finishing my costume too. My sister has been worried about getting the right curls in her hair for her costume and Mom keeps telling her it’ll be fine.

Next week, we’ll review our COVID Halloween experience.

BY: J and Mom (Mom did the typing because I’m slow for now).

So mom and dad were hashing out some details of a plan on how to structure our days better because my little sister was having a bad Monday. We spent the weekend having too much fun and Monday was hard. I was listening from my bedroom while reading.

It got loud. Dad sounded like “Gammbl, Gammbl, Gammbl!” Then mom sounded like, “Gahh, Ahhhh, Ahhh!” It was a mess. But in the end, they asked for my input on a plan and I liked it. It wasn’t scary. It’s rare for them to get like that. I hate when they argue but I know enough that when mom and dad get loud it’s not always a fight. Sometimes it can be a serious discussion to make things better. They’re just older humans that have emotions too.

Mom and dad talk to us about what they’re discussing. So that we know not to be scared and know what’s going on. We’re always included. It’s just annoying when they get loud. But now my mom knows how to annoy me like I annoy them. I know how to annoy them more. :0 😉 XD

By: J. and Mom. (Mom did the typing because I’m not that fast, yet)

It was not our usual thanksgiving. We didn’t gather into one family members house with a set table, let the kids play and all the adults converse, reminisce, laugh. It was defined and shaped differently this year. The pandemic overshadowed this holiday in such a way it makes gray clouds seem welcomed and not so menacing.

The weather was lovely. The house was a mess (as usual). There was no turkey (by choice). There was however, a moment while dinner was still in the oven and on the stove that I cleared and cleaned our dining table and set it simply with silver chargers, small tall white wine stemware (for all) and two battery operated tea lights in glasses. Our littlest became excited and sat up in the booth (built-in corner booth seating) just to look at the space. She picked up her charger and started looking at herself in it.

Shortly thereafter, Boeuf Bourguignon with mash potatoes was on the table. Our drink of choice was a sparkling elderflower and pomegranate drink. Our littlest posed the question to each of us: what were we thankful for? Her brother said he was thankful for food. Their dad said the same. She said she was thankful for family. When the question was posed to me, I paused. I was thankful for so much. Family, friends, food, the dishwasher to name a few.

I spent a little time preparing a dessert (out of a convenient box – hahaha) because it was our Thanksgiving and sometimes desserts need to be “special”. After broiling the sugar on top of our Crème Brulée, dressed with berries and lightly dusted with powdered sugar, the kids gave it a try while we ate ours. Little wonder had no more room after eating her dinner and stopped after a couple bites. Big wonder wasn’t a fan of the way the sugar was caramelized and hard on top when he put a spoon to it. So, he skipped it.

In retrospect of our holiday sans extended family gathered, it was nice. I woke up this morning thankful for so much more. This pandemic has overshadowed and cancelled so much in society (not without frustration). But it also shone light on all that is normally taken for granted. It is drawing us closer as a family as we spend everyday together which we are immensely humble to have this time together. We miss our gatherings with other family members and friends that are far and those that are close but we are still grateful for them.

Despite all that may come or go with COVID in the coming months, I think adapting and being flexible will be the attributes that we exercise most. These characteristics and patience. All, good traits for our kids to develop and for us to fine tune. We know our patience will be tested but laughter will always ensue.

The week past rather uneventful. We got into the groove of work and school with little more than the pangs of restlessness as our usual groove has been that we were out doing something noteworthy at least once a week for several months now. I supposed the only thing we noticed was the restlessness this week. And I apologize for the late post (it’s Friday not Thursday).

Since we realized the restlessness settling in most yesterday, we changed up our schedule and took to a restaurant close by for dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy. We needed the change in the atmosphere. Our kids were happy to be there and the calm came back after that.

As we’re into Autumn, we are aware that not only the weather changes. Our outlooks on things, sleep, eating and moods change. Our sleep is broken or longer, we want more comforting foods that are hot, prepared in the oven or crock pot and more time spent on meals. An unexplainable restlessness or anxiety sets in. It could be the anticipation of the longer nights and less sunlight. Albeit that anticipation may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the day. The anxiety stems the same. So how do we smooth the bad days? How do you?

This year is different than any other year. We are not waking to ready the kids off to school. There is no timer hanging over our heads to ensure that the kids get to school on time. We work from home and now, they school from home too. It’s not an easy undertaking. It’s not without its challenges. But the check ins on how each of us are feeling and all the extra hugs and cuddles help. But noticeably, the weekly outing somewhere (anywhere) helps.

Both kids have plenty of opportunity to reach out and communicate with their friends and family and see a couple. It’s hard these days to have the play dates and gatherings thanks to COVID measures. It is harder for our social wonder to accept this at times. She does her best to be understanding yet freely expresses her disdain with all the adults imposing these rules. As does our son however, since he is a little older, he has a bit more patience and has been very empathetic towards his little sister and others. Even with everything changing (the routine annual changes and COVID stuff), I think the key (for us anyways) is to tune out the noise and simply enjoy the moments we have together.

We ventured to a location close to where we at the time. Randomly selected because it was close to drive to. It was a short outing while on a work errand and a surprisingly delightful find. Without looking at images, we simply searched the map apps for a trail nearby and picked one that was close and had a waterfall. 

A quick flash back: before our website, we journeyed to see a few waterfalls with the kiddos and walk a trail not too far from home. They learned that there were different types of waterfalls and were able to name the types (cascading, ribbon, etc.). This new location would be a chance for them to use that knowledge that they had obtained. Off we went. 

While we’re still working on figuring out how to add photos, the incredible sight was immense! Also, to our delight was the exclamation from the kiddos, “Look! It’s a cascading waterfall!” 

The location we selected and time as well, could not have been better. It was overcast which made the colours of the leaves on the trees that much more vibrant. It was cool and windless while we walked down stairs to a basin and noted a sign there en Français, bringing attention to the possibility of fast rising waters due to the hydro electric damn up and off a distance. We still took in the sights and sounds from where we were, observing the rocks and how they alternated in colour and maybe rock variety too (still to be investigated). 

We continued on our journey, back up the stairs and down the trail to a suspension bridge crossing over the river. It was hard to tell the depth of the river as in some areas bare rock was visible.

The path meandered in a couple directions and we chose to go down more stairs and followed along the edge. We came by a lovely lookout point on a narrow deep ravine that made its way into a turbine for generating electricity. To the kids delight as well (as they previously learned about our own city’s hydroelectricity generation), they were able to identify this site and tell us what happened there too. It was nice to see the validation of the knowledge they acquired. It was clearly proud moments for them. 

From there we accessed the other side of the basin, noting the different colour ribbons of rock, took a selfie and ascended back up and over the suspension bridge to the car. In all of this, there were people around when we arrived but it was quiet. When we returned to the parking lot, this was a different story. Happy to have been able to find and enjoy this location before it became very busy.