Unexpected Adventures... Playing Tourist In Your Own Province!

We just got home tonight after deciding to turn a chore into an excuse for a family getaway. I knew that we needed to take our passports to the passport office in Fredericton in order to get them back for our trip to the USA next month. The girls now need passports of their own, so with three to submit, it seemed easier to drive them there.

We endured a drizzly, damp Saturday and found out that the forecast for Sunday was going to be bright sun and fairly warm temperatures, but that Monday would be back to cold and drizzle again. We decided to call Fredericton to see if there were any hotel packages at the Lord Beaverbrook hotel downtown... and sure enough there was a wonderful Summer Sizzler package that included two queen size bed and breakfast for the family in the morning! We threw our stuff in a bag Saturday night and hopped in the car Sunday morning to head for Fredericton.

Kings Landing is the most awesome historical settlement that takes a good 3 hours to walk through. Houses from the early to late 1800s were moved and restored to recreate this settlement or farms, churches, mills, print shop, smithy, houses and general store. Everyone in the town is dressed in costume and stays in character for the period and shows what life was like in that era. They cook their meals over the hearth or stoves in the house, work the land, apprentice in the businesses etc. This time the girls were old enough to really fall in love with the place. Erin has even decided she might like to try the “Visiting Cousins” program next summer where you attend the camp for the week and act as a character during the day, learning skills from the era and even attending school in the schoolhouse for a few hours every morning. She got the chance to hold the reins of the wagon as we drove back to the main entrance and was absolutely thrilled!

After most of the day at Kings Landing, we headed for the hotel and a nice swim at the pool. We dressed for dinner and walked off to the greek restaurant we knew about in town about 5 blocks from the hotel. Unfortunately, when we got there, we and several other tourists were disappointed to find out that it is closed on Sundays! This was the beginning of our half an hour, 5 block maze chase around the streets of downtown Fredericton, desperately trying to find ANY restaurant that served something other than fast food! We finally found a great pub called the Snooty Fox and had a fabulous supper that did much to restore our spirits and get rid of the “grumpy whineys”. We headed back to the hotel for a massive game of Harry Potter UNO and then read in bed while the girls fought over who was stealing the covers and who had toes on whose side... Even in a Queen sized bed, they still managed to get on each other’s nerves until they fell asleep. My sister could probably correct me, but I don’t remember fighting with her that much over sleeping space!!

This morning, after another quick swim and breakfast, we headed off to the Passport Office under grey and cloudy skies that left me wishing I’d packed a sweater. We got through our business there with one little flaw... seems Quebec has changed birth certificate information to bring it in line with the rest of Canada and Vital Statistics... so my old Birth Certificate is no longer valid. Even though I used it to get my last passport (and it is still me) I have to send away for this new version. Sigh! If they had let me know about this when I was up there in June, I could have taken care of it then. Just as we left the Passport Office, the heavens opened, so we ran a few blocks down to the Science East hands on science center and spend over 2 hours exploring the exhibits, helping the staff move baby stick bugs onto new raspberry plant stalks to eat, setting up domino mazes etc.

On the way home from Fredericton, we stopped to explore Old Orchard Crafts and the village of Gagetown where Flo Greig, a potter whose work I adore, has her studio. Nick and I received a magnificent salad bowl of hers as a wedding present 16 years ago and have added a few pieces to our collection since then. We have always meant to try to find her studio and stumbled across it today as we tried to find a place to eat a much overdue lunch! She happened to be there when we wandered in out of the damp and it was such fun to let another artist know how much her work has meant to me! We headed home a new addition to our collection and some great memories of a village we’ll go back to explore again.

Sadly, New Brunswick seems to lag WAY behind Nova Scotia in terms of properly promoting its craftspeople and making it easy to find them through brochures, signage etc. Having been in Nova Scotia just a few weeks ago, I am saddened by the difference between the two provinces...

Now we are home again and ready to get orders off in the mail etc. It was fun to turn the chore of dropping the passports off in person into a fun family adventure and strange to think that we’ll be doing that run again in two weeks time to head down to the show in Charlotte! Where has the summer gone??

Thank Goodness It’s Friday!

Friday night is Date Night in our house and the kids are just finishing up their turn on Animal Crossing before we bundle them off to bed, pour ourselves a nice glass of our new favourite wine. It is called Terra Rosa by Jost and is a light red wine that can be served chilled. The perfect thing now that the thunderstorm has rolled through and the humidity has broken a bit. My files are at the printers and so will be ready for Charlotte. We have one model to stitch up to show off for a September release, but Nick has done as much as he can from my rough pencil sketch. I need to graph out the image in the middle for him to be able to work from a real chart for a change.

Tonight, the work stays in the basement, the Hoffman order can ship out on Monday instead of racing to the airport to catch a plane that leaves in less than 15 minutes... I’ve spent most of my week in the basement staring at a computer screen and it is time to take a break!

Life is good. I know that Laurie and Yoshi are safe, although my sister was out and about during the latest round of mayhem in London. I can’t wait to see my new nephew and my fast growing niece in just over a month at a family wedding the in Ottawa area. I had an awesome workout at the gym today and in less than 45 days, I get to be She-Hulk at Dragon*Con. Life is cool!

Have a wonderful Friday night!!!

Crawling Through Files...

Sometimes this is the stage of the design that I hate the most, even if it is one of the areas I am most qualified to do (and one where I am able to save myself some money). Being a graphic designer lets me layout all the files and hand a CD over to my printer camera-ready, but the larger the files or the more complex the design, the more chances there are that you will overlook something important, miss a spelling mistake etc.

I get to the point where I peer at the screen or at artist’s proofs so many times, I can no longer be objective about them. I grab friends, teachers and sometimes even total strangers to look over the proofs, begging them to read them through in case there is an error. Most times, I find them about 3 days AFTER they come off the press as I am folding them to send to distributors. Sometimes it is eagle-eyed stitchers who notice things as they are stitching them while the design is only a few weeks old. (You know who you nimble needles are!!) Then there is nothing to do but grit ones teeth, scream loudly in the basement where the neighbours can’t hear you and call the funny farm, post corrections to the website if the FTP is cooperating and then hope that next time you will catch everything.

Back to peering over files to avoid the basement screaming in a few weeks if at all possible. This is the only cool place in the house. Poor Wuffles is still upset about living in a fur coat through a Canadian summer, but at least our dwarf hamster is down here in the basement with me!

Tea With The Dragon...

This past Saturday, Moncton played home to a new needlework show. I had been asked by fellow designer, Jo Gatenby of X’s & Oh’s who organized the CNSS, to do an afternoon event that ended up being called “Tea with the Dragon”. It was great fun trying to explain to people, who didn’t understand exactly what I do for a living, what the event was all about once they’d seen the posters around town. Several people I know asked me how long I had been involved with Dragon Boat Racing!!

It was really fun to spend time with the people who showed up for the event, despite a glorious summer Saturday outside. Nick and I had driven back into town from Nova Scotia, where we’d rented a cottage for the week to share with my Mom and John. They stayed with the girls at the tail end of a drizzly week to enjoy the sunshine and beaches while Nick and I drove back for this special event. Our local shop even got to premiere Dragon of the Deeps fresh from the framers!!

What fun it was to spend time with those who gave up their Saturday afternoon to share tea and goodies, laughter and stories with this dragon. It was such fun to meet new fans, new colleagues and to look out at the audience that included some of the wonderful stitchers I have grown to know over the years through the spring and fall retreats at Camp Wildwood. Seeing your smiling faces around the tables meant more than you will ever know!!

As much fun as it was to unplug for a week and even end up totally out of cellphone range, vacation and escape time ultimately is made more precious by the very fact that it can’t last forever. I’ve come home feeling recharged, replete with lobster and other great meals, card gamed out, slightly sunned and far more in touch with my whimsical side as I explore a new passion... painting rocks found along the magnificent beaches here in the Maritimes into fantasy landscapes and magical wizards. I have plans for these in the fall and am having great fun bringing out what is already trapped there in the rock. Best of all, no one will be able to slap these suckers on a scanner and share them!

So it is good to be home in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, though I miss those ocean breezes. This is the weather we thought would never arrive back in the depths of January. Canada is such a country of extremes!!

The Essence Of Summer...

I remember what summer felt like as a child... open days of possibilities, fluid time and warm sunshine.

My Mom and John are down for a visit and our adventures are recapturing that sense of endless possibilities that I remember from the summers of my childhood.

We need to all take the time to just PLAY. For designers, artists, writers and musicians, I think it is crucial to be creative in ways that have nothing to do with our “job” so that we remember what is is to play and to get lost in that creative spirit that was so effortless as a child. Children turn any opportunity into a moment for pretend or impossible adventure. Good movies or novels carry you away into other worlds. The simple act of unplugging from a daily routine can help us remember that each day holds a thousand possibilities in it for change, adventure, creativity, compassion and imagination.

What magic will you create in your todays and tomorrows?

Tragedy and Relief...

I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with one of those “panic attacks”... a rush of adrenaline and fluttery stomach then the long tossing and turning to try to get back to sleep. They sometimes happen before tradeshows or big events when my list of things to get done feels a bit too long. Sometimes they have happened when tragedy has stuck someone that I know, so I am always a bit jumpy when they happen until I find out that everything is OK.

I dozed off a bit but woke up before everyone in the house and snuck down to work on the cross stitch design that I’d worked out in my imagination while trying to fall asleep. Funny how some designs just flow out onto paper so easily when others take over 2 years to get just right! The queasy feeling persisted and then Nick turned on the radio as everyone got up and heard about the explosions in London!

I’m not sure if my feet even touched the stairs as I flew down to the kitchen to dial my sister, Laurie, who is now living in London with her husband for the next 5 years. We turned on the computer as well in case we couldn’t get through by phone, but luckily, she answered the phone and we were all able to hear her voice. She is staying put today and watching the news for updates as so many of us here in North America did on September 11th. After the sense of optimism and celebration that Live 8 and yesterday’s announcement of London winning the bid for the 2012 Olympics, this is a sad reminder that the world can also be a dark and scary place.

My prayers go out to everyone involved and all those who have been struck by this tragedy... as well as prayers of Thanksgiving that Laurie and Yoshi are all right!

The Magic of Grandparents...

Canada Day weekend was such a blast!!! We went camping on Prince Edward Island in the backyard of one of our best friend’s parents and got adopted by the whole clan for the weekend. “Nanny Harrington” bakes far too well for me to live anywhere within walking distance of them! The kids played on the beach for hours, visited a petting farm and held baby bunnies and kittens, watched fireworks over the North Rustico harbour until almost midnight, raced on red dirt roads, played soccer on a homemade field against the grown-ups, ate lobster and mussels galore and had a wonderful weekend with their friends.

Now, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Mom and John for a summer visit. All day long it has been “how long until Nanny and Grr get here?”. I’m just not used to having them home, under foot, when they are this excited!! Of course, I am also excited too because Nick and I are going to disappear for a night, tomorrow night, to celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary one night early, so maybe I am eager for them to get here too!

Mom tells me that being a grandparent is full of all the magic and less of the pressure of being a parent. It is nice to know that someday I will be driving MY girls crazy as I spoil THEIR kids rotten!

Celebrating Your Country...

Tomorrow is Canada Day and we plan to celebrate it in the birthplace of Confederation, Prince Edward Island with some very good family friends. We’ve checked the tent, packed plenty of sunscreen and bug stuff, but I need to get my web site updated for the weekend before I go. Nick has taken off his watch for the summer since he officially finished at noon yesterday. This year may take a little longer to unwind from, but this weekend away should help.

For most of us in Canada and the USA, this weekend (Canada Day for us on the 1st and the 4th of July for my family and friends in the USA) is one of get-togethers, celebrations and also, some patriotic pride in our countries. This year, while I still feel incredibly glad and privileged to live in a democracy and in a country with as many resources, opportunities and wealth as Canada, I cannot suppress a twinge of regret.

Canada’s Health Care System USED to be the envy of many countries. We used to be a country that prided itself on taking care of our sick, our elderly, our poor... We used to be a country that built great rail and roadway systems, made sure that green spaces were protected, invested in science and education so that our futures would be bright...

Sadly, our country seems to be placing more emphasis on business above all, rewarding the friends of those in power and of cutting “costs” (ie. education, health care, etc.) while still wasting MILLIONS of tax dollars on frivolous things.

My girls are learning to speak out for causes they believe in and that they have a place in any democracy. They drew posters and we went as a family to a City Council Meeting to protest a land swap that will see over 23 acres of the park near us turned over for commercial development. They are frustrated that their lives are affected by a bunch of “grown-ups who don’t care about the bunnies and squirrels whose homes they’ll be hurting”. But they are also learning that their actions can be noticed. The whole group of supporters trying to stop this “done deal” clapped when the girls posters were praised in the council meeting.

What does it take to turn a country around? I’m not sure. I do know that it begins with each individual doing their best to make their town or community a caring one. It grows stronger every time that someone speaks out against injustice or tries to correct a wrong. ... and it blooms into something beautiful every time a group of people remember to look towards the future with a vision for what a country could be instead of just reacting day by day, crisis by crisis. Let’s all take time to dream this weekend!!!

School’s Out For The Summer!

I remember that ineffable sense of freedom. Coming home on the last day of school with my report card in hand and the sense that the whole summer stretched before me full of possibilities to play, sleep in, read and draw.

Today was a blaze of summer glory, despite a weatherman’s prediction of thunder showers and rain. The girls brought home their report cards and bags of papers that look as if they have been shoved into desks all year long. Our neighbourhood gang of bus stop moms and kids gathered at one person’s house (thankfully not mine this year) for a party this afternoon as we nibbled on wonderful food and watched the kids race around with water-soaked sponges to lob at each other or bounce on the trampoline. The kids topped off the party with bowls of ice-cream sprinkled with “pop rocks”, a type of candy that fizzes and explodes in your mouth.

How different to look at summer through an adult’s eyes. Why do we lose that sense of wonder and play so easily? Is it because our routines are interrupted without school to keep things on schedule? Is it because most adults wish that they too could have a long summer to rest, recharge and just play? Perhaps we tend to romanticize that freedom a bit as well because I can remember all too well those mornings of sheer boredom once I had run through my initial list of things that I wanted to do. How long will it be until I hear my girls complain that “There’s NOTHING to DO!!” ???

After my rant and sadness at the beginning of the week, I come full circle to a sense of peace. I have had the files removed from the site thanks to a supportive contact in Russia. I have let my colleagues know about who can help protect their designs and even if those files spring up somewhere again, I have stood up for my rights. I only wish that one of the infringers who really felt they were doing nothing wrong had the courage to use their own identity so that we could see who a court of law would side with. I guess that is why so many of them lurk behind false identities and petty words.

I also have a sense of Joy and Wonder. Dragon of the Deeps has been such a pleasure for me to stitch. Even though I am painfully slower than my model stitchers, it has given me great satisfaction to watch this design come to life beneath my needle. I can’t wait to see what the reaction will be to this pattern in Charlotte. I am also glad that I have a career where I will be able to enjoy some of the summertime with my children, even if it means doing most of the work at night or when they spend some time playing together. They are at such a fun age!!

So here is a toast to the arrival of summer holidays for our family. I can’t wait until Nick joins us after HE finishes working on Wednesday!!

FInding Hope Through Tears In Song...

The transition to reality after being away is never easy. At least the girls were excited enough about seeing their friends and all of the last week of school activities to get up out of bed even when their bodies were still on EST.

The first day of summer here was glorious and the kids ran through “Ollie” an octopus sprinkler after school with some friends while the moms tried to stay out of the way and chat on the deck.

Not to bad... but then I needed to send an e-mail off to close down a Russian site that had 36 of my designs on their pages for trade or sharing. A Dragon Spotter had reported the site to me while I was up at Mom’s, but since I didn’t have my contact’s e-mail with me, I waited until I got home, not knowing how much was up on the site.

Tonight it drove me to tears. For whatever reason, I just sat there and bawled. At that moment in time I thoroughly understood Teresa’s decision to take a break from cross stitching. Why pour so much of yourself into a design and pay to have it printed when someone can steal it and share it will others so easily?

I took a break to watch this week’s Canadian Idol and called in to support the young girl from New Brunswick, but as I watched her chase her dream, I felt even more discouraged tonight that after almost a dozen years of designing, I certainly had far less to show for all my efforts in terms of financial stability than someone who had spent the same amount of time in another job. I called my Mom, just to have her say “awwwww”, which sort of helped, and then got down to work on some graphic files for a client.

I put iTunes on in the background on my other machine and one of the first songs that came up was from the Touched By An Angel CD... the song Testify to Love by Wynnona. When it hit the line of the words “Every corner of Creation lives to Testify” I felt oddly comforted with the sudden knowledge that I was being true to what I have always felt called to do... create images.

If the ones that I make in cross stitch are more vulnerable to technology, I will keep shutting things down, speaking out, trying to find ways of protecting my work better etc. I will also continue to explore other, less vulnerable ways of using my images, but I will not let this take away the joy that I have in creating things that try to make the world smile, or hope, or dream a bit more than they did before.

I will learn from and be inspired by those around me facing adversity with such incredible courage, instead of watching how the world encourages “having it all” regardless of who you hurt.

Fatherhood...

It’s Father’s Day today and we have to head back home on the train tonight. The girls called Nick this morning, sad that they couldn’t be with their Daddy on Father’s Day and yet delighted to spoil their Grandfather, Grr. Not having had children of his own, he inherited my brother, sister and I in our late teens and has merrily thrown himself into the role of grandfather with complete abandon.

My own father gave me far more than someone to look “up” to (I still do because he tops me by almost 5 inches!) I learned how to dream impossible dreams from Dad, how to imagine worlds beyond our own through science fiction and fantasy, a love of travelling to new places and meeting new people and how to sing Tenor harmony to name a few of the things that spring to mind.

I was glad we had the chance to see my grandfather in Montreal this visit. It is wonderful to still be able to have a Grampy around in this year that I turn 40. I have been hoping all day that there will be some good golf on television for him to watch.

Father’s Day is also when I think about the people that cae into my life through my marriage to Nick. Since Nick’s parents also divorced and remarried, Ken and Jerome became new people to appreciate in our lives.

Today, half a world away, my brother Dave also celebrates Father’s Day with Owen Charles and Anne safely home from the hospital. I wish him sleep enough to be able to function at work tomorrow and the joy of having all of his now larger by one family under the roof together at last. Sleep will come again eventually!

I also think of my sister’s husband, Yoshi, who has embraced his role as uncle in a totally different culture with such grace and enthusiasm. Whether playing Barbies and Uno or discussing Pokemon and Disney movies with his nieces, he is adding a richness to their lives that they treasure.

Father’s Day is not just a celebration of biological procreation. It is a day to honour the many men in our lives who build us up, grant us wings, challenge us to be more than we are, soothe our souls, inspire us, nurture us, enchant us, make us giggle or simply add richness to the tapestry of our lives.

Happy Father’s Day!

Missing The Connection...

Funny how sometimes being apart can make you appreciate someone even more. This has been a tricky year with Nick taking a Vice-Principalship at a rural K-12 school about 40 km (20 minutes) from home. We remained a one van family by choice, but that also meant juggling things around sometimes or the girls and I taking the occasional taxi. I also learned to cope with longer hours on my own with the girls. Most mornings, Nick left before 7 am and got home after 5 pm. I know this pales when compared to what most parents in major centers lose to commuting time etc., but it was quite a switch from the family schedule we had the year before.

Since I was lucky enough to marry my best friend, I also found it hard when I couldn’t do much to help him adjust to what was less than a welcoming atmosphere at the new complex. It made me mad to see how hard he was working to help solve problems and not really getting the support he needed. Especially when he had gone down to that school at the request of the District, giving up a nice position at a great school in order to help the District as a whole.

With the school year almost over, and the objectivity of having spent a week away at my Mom’s, I can now see what a great learning experience this year has been for Nick. Even the darker moments taught him things about how he will or won’t run a school once he has a chance to become a Principal. It has also re-affirmed for me why I chose the type of career that I did while the girls are younger, so that I can be there when they get off the bus and help them with homework etc. Yes, sometimes that means staying up late to complete work after they go to bed, but they won’t be this age forever. Rereading my Mom’s collection of For Better Or Worse comic anthologies has reminded me of that.

It is great to know that after almost 16 years of marriage and 21 years of being together, I can miss someone so completely. I have missed all of the chats with my best friend this week, even though we have tried to call each other amid the chaos. Nick very rarely gets that “alone head space” time that I do when I go to trade shows or have an empty house all to myself during the day to get work done. I hope it has been restful in some way for him as the hectic pace of school closing time tries to run all teachers ragged.

When you marry someone, you really do create a bond/fusion of two lives that, if you work hard enough, are lucky enough and support each other enough, stands apart from other family bonds. You remember and love those who gave you live and with whom you grew up. You love, nurture and raise your children until they go off to have lives of their own. But through it all, around it all and in spite of it all, remains the bond that you forge as the years go by. I can’t wait to get home to my friend, my partner and my love!

Our Family Just got Bigger!!!

What an exciting day! Owen Charles Aikman was born at 11:45 am this morning in Lausanne, Switzerland and we’ve already seen pictures via e-mail. The girls are thrilled to have a new baby cousin and “Aunty Dragon” is counting the days until I can hold my new nephew in August when my brother, his wife Anne, Juliette and Owen come to Ottawa for my cousin’s wedding.

I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in a family where connections are important and blood matters, but Nick and I have also had the wonder of having new people join our family as all of our parents remarried after divorces and in my case, I ended up with a new brother and sister!

Family can be ties of blood, but there can also be people who come into our lives and hearts who become as close or closer than family we are born into. The ties that bind us are what make our lives richer... and Owen Charles is the latest treasure in our lives. Welcome into this big, bright, wonderful world with all its adventures and challenges. I cannot wait to meet you in person and watch you grow up!!

Making The Time To Make Memories,,,

Considering that I will be turning 40 this fall, it is kind of impressive to still be able to visit my grandfather whenever I get back to Quebec. This morning, we packed up all of the ingredients for lunch, car toys, books, knitting (I get car sick if I stitch in the car, but my stitching came along too!) and headed off to Montreal, about 2 hours away from Sherbrooke. We ran into heavy rain and big city traffic about half an hour out of the city, so we were almost 40 minutes later getting to his house than we’d planned.

Grampy still lives in the house that he and my grandmother bought more than half a century ago. It is the only house from my childhood that I still have any tangible link to, since Nick and I have now lived longer in our own house than in any place we spent time as children. At 93, Grampy is getting a bit frailer and a bit more absent minded each time I see him, but what a gift for both of my girls to have such detailed memories about their great-grandfather. He was the one to inspire 3 other generations of art loving people and we had a great time doing some sketches to leave behind for him.

The brief hours of the visit flew by, but they were filled with hugs, photos, laughter and memory making moments before the long drive back to Sherbrooke. Was it worth spending the 4 hours on the road to be there today? Of course! Each visit is made more precious by the knowledge that this pilgrimage will not last forever. I spent time as an artist today capturing some of my favourite spots or architectural elements around the house forever on film, and time as a granddaughter, with my arms draped around thinner shoulders, capturing the moments and memories forever in my heart.

The Magic Of Taking The Train...

The girls and I arrived safely in Quebec EARLY this morning after a wonderful train ride up to my Mom & John’s. Both girls just love taking the train, especially when we can get the bedroom with the 3 beds. When I looked at how long the school year was this year and how badly Nick needed time to do all the end of year paperwork, file writing etc., I decided that instead of going to Columbus and leaving him in charge of everything, I would pack up my work, pull the girls out of school for a week and leave him with an empty house, no fixed schedule and the chance to work late or eat out of a pot over the sink to save on dishes whenever he felt like it.

So as soon as Erin’s last school project for report cards was completed, we got ready to go! We boarded the train last night before supper in Moncton and waved goodbye to Nick, then settled into the sleeper room. Bethany has to take the couch that converts into the bed because I need place to hang my toes over the end of the other bottom bed and Erin always claims the upper bunk bed, but this time she was kind enough to let Bethany come up for a few minutes of play time.

Our meals were included on this section of the trip because the only way the 3 bedroom car was available was as part of a special “touring package”. It meant that we went down to the dining car for dinner (a luxury we probably would have avoided otherwise) for a wonderful gourmet meal. They did have a children’s menu for Bethany that offered her a small personal pepperoni pizza, a glass of cherry kool-aid and a pudding cup, but not being used to the rocking motion of the train caused an immediate kool-aid catastrophe on the first sip. Boom! Bright pink drink all over the nice white linen napkin in her lap and halfway down her shirt. She began to cry, of course, in that 6 year old mix of sadness & embarrassment spurred on my by cry of “Oh, Bethany!” but then a lovely waitress came over to comfort her and told her that often SHE was a mess by the end of the night if the train lurched while she was serving food! She brought Bethany another warm roll to munch on and made such an impression that Bethy went up to her later to say “Thank you for making me feel better!”.

After dinner, we went for a ride in the observation car to watch the sunset near the Baie des Chaleurs. Erin, or course, was hoping to see the famous burning ghost ship, while Bethany was more interested in the new game of Pokemon Emerald that I’d purchased for us to play on the trip. Knowing that excitement would keep them awake and wiggly, I didn’t push the jammies until almost 9:30. They wanted to have a paint the nails party, but I managed to explain that Mommy couldn’t possibly do a good job while the train was so wobbly. I am severely challenged at putting nail polish on when everything is still...

Finally, around 10:15, both girls each told me a story before I told them one and we all fell asleep to the rocking motion of the train. Waking up at 5:30 am to get a quick breakfast (also included in our ticket price...so worth eating) wasn’t too bad because Quebec is on EST... so it was 6:30 for us. I am sure that we’ll all be in bed early tonight!!

In A Perfect World...

• Meals would be nutritious, taste good and cook themselves.

• It would be more acceptable to be happy than rich.

• Garden beds would remain weed-free.

• Clothing would recycle into inert matter so that a machine could spit out a clean outfit
every morning that fit perfectly and was guaranteed to be a colour that you look good in.

• Technology would always work when you needed it to instead of causing you to want
to beat your head against the screen.

• People would have more respect for the world that sustains us.

• Grocery shopping could be done on-line and delivered to your door by a smiling
person who would have been as picky on your behalf with produce as you would
have been at the store.

• Schools and hospitals would have all the money they needed.

• There would be such a thing as Tribbles (but they wouldn’t reproduce that fast!)

• We would all finally realize that EVERYONE is “different” and that there is no “US”
because then there has to be a “THEM”.

• Chocolate would contain NO calories or fat.

• We’d ba able to see the real light show of the starry skies overhead every night, even
in the cities, to remember how very small a part we are of a much bigger picture... then
make a wish on the brightest star.

Roots and Wings...

I’ve been rushing around trying to get two out of print designs ready to switch over to the full colour cover format before I take the girls up to my mother’s for a week. School doesn’t end until the 27th of June here, but once Erin turns her last major project in tomorrow, most work that counts will be done. At this point, getting out of Nick’s hair so that he can get all the paperwork done before the end of the year at his school, spending time with my Mom and immersing the kids in French for a week far outweighs the stuff that they will miss at school.

Activities are also winding down at last. Erin’s piano recital was last week, Guide Camp amid swarms of nasty black flies was this past weekend (no, the dragon did not go and get bit this time!) Bethany’s Sparks closing was last week and Erin’s final Girl Guide meeting is tomorrow night (I guess I should now say tonight!). Luckily we have started writing everything on one central calendar. Last week, there was a conflict over events that we only discovered after it was too late to get a sitter!

Erin had been asked to try out for one local swim team and after two sessions, which she enjoyed immensely, we began to realize how tricky getting to the other side of town was going to be during rush hour traffic for a 6pm evening practice. Tonight, she went to the practice of the swim team that meets at Université de Moncton’s CEPS building. It is a bilingual swim team, but much of the coaching and instructions are done completely in French. She was determined to try swimming tonight even though she was still tired from camping this weekend so that she could have a second session with them on Wednesday night before we leave on Saturday to visit Quebec. By the time we get back, the pool will be closed for cleaning and the coach’s evaluation would have to wait.

I doubt I could explain how I felt tonight to anyone who has never been part of raising a child or watching one grow. I looked down at Erin trying her hardest in a new and challenging situation and felt this wave of admiration and astonishment. I felt a bit like a bird peering at the Mockingbird chick that hatched from the egg in the nest. Could this child who is constantly running, jumping and now hauling herself through the water in all kinds of strokes really be the child of someone who was always picked last for every team? I have only fallen in love with physical activity in the past 5 years. Before that, I always wanted to sit and read, draw or stitch.

I have two daughters that constantly amaze and enchant me. I hope I am always able to give them both roots and wings. I hope I can support them in their wild and crazy dreams, encourage them to at least try a new challenge to see if they like it and comfort them or help pick up the pieces when something truly becomes impossible or unreachable.

I’m still chasing new dreams in this my 40th year...

OK! This is getting too philosophical. Time for this dragon to head to bed!

Soggy, Croaky But Satisfied...

It was a wet, cold miserable long weekend here in the Maritimes. We got over 4 inches of rain on Sunday and I kept checking the street to see if any animals were lining up two by two anywhere! Luckily, though we did get quite the pond in the backyard, it didn’t come near the windows to my basement office. We ran the pump for a tiny bit just to get some of the pond water out to the front of the house. I can see a bit more terra-forming in our summer plans!

The girls and I have all been fighting horrid colds and sinus infections, so we’re a coughy, croaky bunch. Maybe it is all the cold and damp that have made this start to 2005 so wicked for germs. We seem to all be on the mend at last, so perhaps it was better to have a quiet weekend indoors after all. Nick couldn’t tackle any of his outdoor projects, but did replace the taps in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom. Our house is now almost 17 years old (we’ve been in it for 14 years now) and so we’re getting into that fix it or move stage. Nick often laughs when I insist on staying partly because of all the early leaflets out there with our street address on it rather than the PO box. I’m also just getting my backyard to where the perennials are nicely balanced and would hate to have to start over with just a square of green grass!

It was very ironic that on the same night as the American Idol finals, I went to speak to Erin’s Girl Guide troop about what it is to be an Artist. One of the Second Year badge components has the girls learning about what an artist’s work/job entails, so I brought along my portfolio and shared some artwork with them. I say ironic, because here were two young people who had spent the past 6 months singing their hearts out in front of the public eye to win a title that would bring them fame, fortune and probably great riches. I actually used them in my talk to the girls to explain that when you really want to do something, even if you have a lot of talent, it still takes work, practice and lots of determination. It doesn’t just come magically. I also pointed out that for every famous person who becomes a “Superstar”, there are lots of other people who make a perfectly good living doing what they love as their job.... singing in a production on Broadway, doing back-up vocals, putting on shows on cruise ships or at theme parks (I can almost hear Simon’s comments now!) The point I was making to the girls is that with any creative job such as acting, singing or art, you have to work at perfecting what it is that you do and sometimes making your OWN way to get noticed rather than waiting for someone to “discover” you. A very big part about making a living from your talent actually has more to do with being able to look after the everyday things like paying bills, collecting on accounts, sourcing new clients or promoting yourself.

It was incredibly satisfying to sit there and share with them that I first decided to “draw pictures for my job” when I was 11 years old.... almost 29 years ago. It hasn’t always been easy or as lucrative as some people imagine, but I have been blessed to do what I love to do for my career. Sometimes I use paint, sometimes I use the computer and sometimes I use thread... but I have created images that have made me smile, touched other people and will last longer than I do.

That is what I always wanted to do as my job!

Wounded Dragonlets...

I’ve just about had enough of the Canadian Health Care System in the past week. The fact that so many cuts have absolutely cannibalized what used to be the pride of our country while millions of our tax dollars were spent funding bogus Sponsorship events in Quebec or lining the pockets of politicians and ad executives is enough to make me SCREAM!

Thursday night, Erin had her first mountain bike accident and we spend over 4.5 hours in the Emergency Department of the hospital, 4 of which was just waiting for a chance to get down to X-ray! She was scrapped up and shaken, but the right hand pinkie finger that she landed on with most of her weight was just badly sprained rather than broken. She has it “dummy splinted” to her ring finger and we’re waiting to see if the swelling will go down. Nick felt horrible because he was the one who took her out to the trails so that they could both try out their mountain bikes and apparently Erin’s front tire caught his back one as they came down a slight hill a bit too close together. Considering the fact that there were people in the Emergency department who’d been there for over 7 hours, we got off lightly, but it has left a very sour taste in my mouth to see the Prime Minister who campaigned on fixing health care beg for more time in office until the full extent of the Sponsorship Scandal is known.

Friday night was family activity night at St. Pat’s right after Nick and I finished our deep water running class, so we dried off and met the girls in the gym for some summer fun of badminton, beach balls and frisbees. Unfortunately as Nick tried to show Bethany the neat trick of “skipping” the frisbee off the floor first, she rushed forward to try to catch what she thought was a low throw and the frisbee bounced right up into her bottom lip, curling it over the bottom teeth so that they went right into her lip and started the blood flowing everywhere. Bethany is like her father and goes absolutely WHITE at the sight of blood. I don’t think I realized how many freckles she had until they all stood out against her pale face! We got some ice and managed to staunch the flow of blood, but her lip puffed up like crazy which scared her further. “Can lips break forever, Mommy?” she kept asking. I explained how fast mouths heal and sure enough by this morning at the bus stop, there was hardly enough to show off to her friends except on the inside of the lips where the scraped area is trying to make new skin. Poor Nick felt horrid and hardly even cracked a smile when other people started teasing me that I would be next! Had she needed stitches, it would have been HIS turn to go sit for hours at the hospital... if I’d been able to pry my little Bethany possum from my body.

Now the house is quiet on a grey, rainy, cold May morning. It looks and feels more like November outside unless I take in a deep lung full of air. Then I can smell the wet growing things making the most of this moisture. I have paperwork to sort through and a missing receipt to find in the chaos of my office. We received a damaged pile of patterns on Friday from the US Post Office that looks like HALF of my last Hoffman shipment in pieces, so I am hinting for the insurance receipt that seems not to be in the postage file. Sigh! I think if I wrap my claws around something warm and put on some good tunes, I can pretend that I am actually looking for treasure in the piles instead!

The Mothers In My Life...

It was, despite the pounding 40 mm ( almost 2 inches) of rain and high winds, quite a wonderful Mother’s Day! I woke up early in the morning to the sound of the rain and wind lashing against our bedroom window. The sound of running water always produces a rather predictable result with me... and I needed to leave the warm coziness of our bed for the bathroom. Peering out into the back yard, I could see that a rather large pond was forming at the end of the deck and so raced downstairs to be sure that nothing was coming in the basement windows again. The sound of Mommy thumping down the stairs in her bunny slippers woke the girls, who were then in a panic about getting my Mother’s Day gifts to the table before I got there. They decided instead to pounce on me the moment I returned upstairs and present me with presents in bed! They were quite keen to serve me breakfast in bed as well, but the thought of bits of Shredded Wheat finding its way into my bed sheets or frozen blueberries hitting the duvet cover were enough to have me begging for breakfast at the dining room table “fancy restaurant style”. I was ordered to remain in bed until they were ready. When Nick and I were called down (after much cupboard slamming and thumping sounds), we found the table set up for a romantic candlelight breakfast with the frozen blueberries and milk in their own special containers and water in fancy glasses near our lovingly pulverized Shredded Wheat biscuits. Erin explained that the candles were left alone because “they weren’t allowed to touch the matches yet!”

Erin and Bethany both sing in the Sunbeam Choir at church. They repeated their new song from last Sunday night’s concert where many of them got stage fright in front of such a huge audience. Bethany had missed her closing solo entirely and had to repeat it under prompting from the director, so this morning she was in an absolute panic that she would “mess everything up and ruin it again!” I explained that making a JOYFUL noise did not mean making a PERFECT noise... but when one of the boys doing a solo right before her failed to get out of the way to let her to the mike, she missed her cue during the first practice and promptly burst into tears. She and I spent minutes cuddling while the senior choir practiced their number. One of the older girls in the Sunbeam Choir who is also quite shy, like Bethany< came over to tell her that she got scared too having to start off the whole song. With encouragement from everyone and some clever blocking by the Choir director to get one boy away from the mike as soon as his turn was done to make room for Bethany, things went much better during the second rehearsal. When it came time for the performance during the service, everything went beautifully. Erin’s confident solo carried all the way to the back of the church and she anchored most of the piece without overpowering everyone else. Then, as the end drew near, Bethany approached the mike, took a deep breath and out came this lovely sweet voice to close off the piece with her solo. As soon as she was done, her face split into this radiant grin that I could just make out through the tears of pride and joy streaming down my face.

After church we raced home to check on the backyard, run the pump for a bit and then grabbed the lobster out of the fridge to head down to spend the afternoon with Nick’s Mum and Jerome. We had a wonderful feast with homemade rolls, light salads, lobster and a lovely low-calorie dessert she’d created. They’ve been losing weight steadily since Jerome’s heart problems at the beginning of the year, so it was nice to have a meal that satisfied taste buds without making us feel stuffed. We curled up in the living room and Mum (I stopped calling her by her first name recently because she really is my “other mother”) showed me how to turn my 10 skeins of wool into balls. I’d spent almost 2 hours grumbling and untangling one skein the night before to wind it into a single ball. As I held the wool skein on my hand, she showed me how to create a ball of yarn that I’d be able to draw the wool from the center instead of the outside. It does cut down on the amount of escaping and rolling your ball of wool does as you knit!!

We drove home before dark past swollen rivers and almost flooded roadways to call my own Mom and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. I then tucked Bethany into bed, got Erin set up for her 20 minutes of French reading and disappeared down here to reflect on Motherhood and the women who have mothered to me in my life.

I have been blessed to have a Mother who took the time to make things with us, left little notes, inspired us to find our wings even as she longed to keep us close to home, showed us that it was never too late in life to try new things and always made us feel loved, even when we fought with her. Her example gave me so much to draw from as I became a Mother myself. She still chuckles sometimes when I call to say “SORRY!!” for stuff that I did as a child now that I can see it from the parent’s perspective!! While she told me many times when I was young that I would understand better when I became a Mother, she has never said “I told you so!” in all the years that have proved her right!

Instead of a “Monster-In-Law” that some describe, I found in my husband’s mother a wonderful lady whose creativity and pursuit of excellence I can very much understand, whose compassion and determination I try to emulate and whose objective tenderness I have come to appreciate and treasure since it comes without the parent/child ties that sometimes get so tangled. Between Mum and Mom, I have great women to keep my own journey through Motherhood a bit saner.

There have also been other strong women who have “mothered” to me at various times in my life whom I also think of on this special day. Mothering does not necessarily have to involve the act of giving birth to forge those ties of heart or spirit between lives. The physical act of bringing a new life into this world does not create a Mother in the truest sense of the word... I doubt that I could ever put it into words that would do justice to the power, the empathy, the compassion, the vulnerability, the sacrifice, the separation, the terror, the pride, the fears, the joys, the dreams and the depth that true motherhood calls forth from a person who “mothers” to another. Those gifts and memories, those deeds and bits of wisdom become a part of my own Motherhood tapestry that will someday weave on without me as the thread is picked up and continued on.