Sometimes.

Leave a comment

I’ve been in Washington, DC, for the last three days, visiting my best friend Sarah.  We have been friends for twenty-five years now, through thick and thin, and she’s just had her second baby boy.  I travelled to DC solo, to have a few uninterrupted days to get to know him and to catch up with her.  

This is what I learned:

Friendships, true friendships, survive distance and time.  

They survive cross-country moves, broken hearts, the pressures of grad school, and the stress of new jobs. They survive marriages and babies and practices and renovations.  They pick up where they left off whenever and wherever an opportunity presents.

And that’s what we’ve done.  For twelve years together and thirteen years apart, we’ve laughed and cried and laughed some more.  

This weekend, we talked about how we never imagined our futures like this. Our teenage minds could never have dreamt of these busy, loving, fulfilled lives we live, and they certainly didn’t dream of raising our babies five hundred miles and a country apart.  Yet, here we are. So although we can’t have dinner together on Sunday nights or see our kids play in the backyard as a pack of four, we can do these things sometimes.  Some is better than none, and once-in-awhile beats never.

So, sometimes, it will be.

  

Worobec Beach

Leave a comment

Did you know that it was Burlington Green’s Community Clean Up Green Up Day this past weekend?  I’m asking because I was only made aware of this wonderful event a couple of years ago.  It’s now an annual tradition for our family, and one that I treasure for so many reasons.

Every year around Earth Day, the valuable Burlington Green committee sets up an online registry whereby residents can choose an area of the city to focus their cleanup efforts, or join a larger group effort, of which many neighbourhoods plan in advance.  The City even provides cleanup supplies and disposes of waste items collected.  There is a celebratory BBQ afterwards and a compilation of cleanup pictures distributed at a later date.

Last year, we chose to clean up the ravine that was directly behind our house. In a matter of a couple of hours, we had pulled four drum-liner garbage bags of waste from the ravine and its stream.  I was amazed at what a clear impact we made in such a short time and impressed with the impression it made on my kids.  This year, in a new house and new surroundings, we decided to choose a place near and dear to our hearts; we chose “Worobec beach.”  Now, you will not find the name Worobec Beach on any official maps, but we’ve found a small secluded stretch of the Lake Ontario shoreline only a 10-minute bike ride from home, and made it our namesake.  It’s our little treasure in the city, our happy place.

We spent about an hour at Worobec Beach, wearing rubber boots and work gloves, combing through things that had washed up onshore and things that had blown in from the park or the road.  We picked in between the boulders that lined the shoreline, and the trees that give Worobec Beach its secluded privacy.  Although not as garbage-riddled as last year’s ravine cleanup, we did manage to fill one garbage bag right to the brim, mostly with plastic bottle tops, straws, and empty beer bottles.

We made a difference.  My kids saw the obvious implications of their hard work.  They learned about their environment, contributing to their community, and the value of working together.  All while basking in the sunshine and their parent’s pride.

I encourage you to sign yourself up for Burlington Green’s Eco-News so that you don’t miss this valuable event next year.

IMG_3392

April, May, June

2 Comments

My youngest child is heading off to Junior Kindergarten (JK) in September.  In Ontario, children are registered in JK the year that they turn four.  Kindergarten is a two-year, play-based curriculum, and it became a full-day program across the province in 2014.  So, in just a few months, off she will go to join her brother in the everyday school world.

She’s ready.  I, on the other hand, most certainly am not.

When my son was born in 2009, I chose to take a huge step back from my career.  I had only been in practice for a few years at that point, and it soon became clear that I could not operate a clinic and be at home with my son as much as I wanted to be.  Something had to give, so I sold my clinic in 2010 and have worked as an Independent Contractor, running my business within a business, since then.  In 2013, after my daughter was born, I found my BSSC family and planted my practice roots.  Now here I am, for the first time in seven and a half years, preparing to go back to full-time hours. The chapter of my life with young children at home, a chapter that seemed to stretch endlessly before me, is in fact, coming to a close.

My husband and I have always altered our schedules to work opposite hours so that one of us can be at home with our kids.  For the first three years, that meant just my son and I had our mornings together, and for the last two years it’s been just my daughter and I.  But she and I only have three months left of our girls-only weekdays.  My husband is a teacher, so will be back at home starting in July, as will my son, who is finishing Grade 1.  Just April, May, June, and then the page turns.

They say that the days are long but the years are short.  And they’re right.

Here’s to twelve more weeks of what-shall-we-do-today mornings….