Daddy's Little Girl (Write Mama Blog Hop Vol. 12)

When I was growing up, I was Daddy's little girl.

My dad bought me art supplies to encourage my desire to be an artist, long after I realized I'd better stick to writing instead of drawing.  When I was in my teens, he suggested (and paid for) folk art painting lessons.

My dad sent me "care packages" while I was in Australia and made sure I had a phone card so I could call home whenever I got homesick.

My dad taught me how to change a tire when I started driving, in case I ever got stuck on the side of the road with a flat.

My dad took me shopping to every furniture store in the city for a new desk when I was in university... and then, when I couldn't find anything that I wanted, helped me build the desk of my dreams.

My dad was the best cook on the hiking trail, coming up with delicious meals on a single-burner camp stove to keep his little hikers well-fed and happy.

My dad woke up at 5 am to check on my pet ewe when she was lambing.  He gave up Saturdays to buy hay to feed her in the winter and to shear her in the spring and to take her to meet a ram in the fall.  He held me when I cried over the loss of one of my favourite lambs.

My dad took me to Mass when I started dating a Catholic, because he said I should know what I was getting myself into.

My dad read me books—Berenstain Bears, Bill Peet, Thornton W. Burgess, Bible stories, even Chronicles of Narnia.

My dad helped me get a job at his company during my first two summers of university.  When people saw my name and commented that I must be his daughter, I was proud of that because I saw the respect they had for him.

So in honour of Father's Day yesterday, I'd like to say

I love you, Dad.

I'm still Daddy's little girl at heart.

Now it's your turn! Have you blogged about the ups and downs of being a mom—or about your dad and Father's Day? Share your posts here! Please:

• link back to my site or grab the button from the sidebar and include it at the bottom of your post (use the code and it will automatically embed a link)
• link to a specific post on your blog and not just to your homepage
• visit a couple of other posts linked up and leave comments

I will tweet, pin, and/or G+ all posts linked up! So, without further ado, here's the linky...

Behind the Blog: Jamie Lieberman of Two Happy Mamas

One of the things I love about blogging is meeting so many other great people.  For a long time, I've wanted to interview some of the bloggers whose blogs I've read and enjoyed.  Today, I'm delighted to kick off my new Behind the Blog series by introducing Jamie, a fellow intern at 5 Minutes for Mom.

About myself: I am a mom, wife, lawyer, professor and writer. (It is as hectic as it sounds!) During the school year, I teach legal writing at Seton Hall School of Law. When I am not teaching, I care for my son and work at home on www.twohappymamas.com, a website I created with my best friend.

I originally started blogging in 2006 when I moved to New York City. It had always been a dream of mine to live there, so I was very excited to document my adventures.

In 2011, when I was 29 weeks pregnant, I went into pre term-labor while vacationing in Hawaii. After quite a saga, my son was born at 34 weeks in a hospital in Honolulu. Thankfully, he was healthy and we were able to return home rather quickly. Because of his crazy birth story, I started a blog so people could follow his progress. Through that blog, I discovered I enjoyed writing about parenting issues, which led to the launch of twohappymamas in 2013.

We publish one post every day in five rotating categories: (1) wee foodie, (2) stuff we love (product recommendations), (3) etsy (our favorite artists and products), (4) fashion/beauty and (5) in the trenches (posts about parenting issues).

My favorite part about blogging is getting to write about topics I feel passionate about. I also love meeting other bloggers and learning about new subjects. My least favorite part about blogging is that the blogosphere never sleeps! I have to fight the urge to constantly check our Twitter and Facebook accounts and site stats. It can be addicting!

My advice to other bloggers is to network as much as possible and learn from all of the great bloggers out there, even if they blog about a different subject matter than you. People are generally kind and will help you out when you are learning.

You can find me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Thanks for checking it out!

 

I'm linking up with Fellowship Fridays at Christian Mommy Blogger this week.

Family Summer Holidays in 2013

Sunshine finishes preschool in two weeks and we start on summer break—the perfect time to be thinking of summer holidays.  We'll be driving back to Alberta to visit family and friends, but if we had the budget (and time) to go further, I'd love a trip to England.

If I were to venture away with the family on a cheap UK break, we could go to Butlins Resorts.  They have three different locations and offer some great family-friendly activities.  Now that I have kids, finding places to travel with them where they'll have fun and be welcomed is really important.  The Butlins website says, "We know how important family time together is so we have lots of different activity sessions that everyone can enjoy."  Sounds great to me!

Other places I'd visit in the UK include some of my favourite authors' hangouts.  I'd love to explore the Lakes District (where Lizzie goes with her aunt and uncle in Pride & Prejudice and visits Darcy's house) and Bath (where Anne goes with her family in Persuasion and finally reunites with her old lover).  And of course there's the Jane Austen House Museum, where they are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice (shucks—now I really want to go visit this year!  Maybe I'll have to talk my husband into watching the Colin Firth version of the movie with me instead...).

There's also the Charles Dickens Museum.  Speaking of anniversaries, last year was the 200th anniversary of his birth.  The museum was only his home for two years, but he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby there and two of his daughters were born there.  It would be cool to see some of his manuscripts, especially since most of us modern writers now write on computer and will never leave behind manuscripts like that.

Hadrian's Wall would be fun to visit, especially if I get a chance to read The Eagle of the Ninth when my husband finishes it (it's the book that the recent movie The Eagle was based on).  Michael Phillips also has two books set in modern/ancient England and Scotland that I really enjoyed—can you tell I'm a tourist based on the books I've read?  Although probably if I looked at a map, I'd discover that all these places I want to visit are too far apart to conveniently explore in a week or two.  England is a small island, right?

If we did go to England, perhaps we could also visit some places where my relatives lived.  My great-grandmother sailed from England to Canada just after the Titanic sank.  My mom's grandma and my husband's grandma also had English heritage, so it could be fun to attempt some family research before going there or while we were touring around.

Are you planning a chilled out summer break this year?  Where would you like to go—if you could go anywhere you wanted?  And what do you look for in a "great" vacation place?

Book Review: The Passionate Mom (Write Mama Vol. 11)

"Mom. Was there ever a job that encompassed so much, prompted so many questions, and created so many doubts in the minds of women?" 

~ Susan Merrill 

I am always seeking to learn and grow.  For every question, there must be an answer; for every problem, there must be a solution.  Usually, I turn to books for these answers—surely someone else has faced what I've faced and can help me get through it.  Parenting has been no different.  Since early in my first pregnancy, I've bought, borrowed and read pregnancy and parenting books.  My bookshelf is lined with my favourites, but I never expected to learn how to be a mom from the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah.

As author Susan Merrill points out, the job of "mom" is a difficult one.  In her book The Passionate Mom: Dare to Parent in Today's World, she shares some of her own struggles as a mom and how she found inspiration in an unlikely source: Nehemiah.  She says, "Nehemiah had a passion for the people he loved, just as we moms have a passion for the children we love."  Using Nehemiah's life as an example, she shows us how we can use that passion for good in our children's lives.

Merrill gives moms ten P's to help them in their parenting: perception, pondering, passion, prayer, patience, preparation, purpose, planning, problem solving, and perseverance.  She calls these the "bricks" we need to build a wall of protection around our children as they grow.  As she says, "Our children need walls.  That's why God gives them moms."  In each chapter, Merrill looks at the "brick" to build these walls, as well as character qualities or "mortar" that help hold each "brick" in place.  She includes practical suggestions and personal confessions.

While Merrill gave me new perspective both on the story of Nehemiah and on my role as a mom, her book didn't really grab me.  I appreciated her honesty about her own struggles and how she learned and grew as a mom, but I found most chapters were a bit long and repetitive.  That's not to say The Passionate Mom won't speak to you; if you like Bible studies and in-depth Scripture lessons, then I recommend it.  I don't think I'll ever look at Nehemiah's story the same again.

Merrill is the mom of five children (including two adopted children) and the director of iMOM.com.  She and her husband, Mark Merrill, live in Florida with their children.  She has a variety of free resources for moms available on her website, including prayer printables and the 30-day Passionate Mom Dare (very handy for moms like me with short memories).

What people or books have inspired you as a mom?

Now it's your turn!  Have you blogged about the ups and downs of being a mom?  Share your posts here and visit some other mommy bloggers.  Please be kind and link back to my site or simply grab the button from the sidebar and include it at the bottom of your post (use the code and it will automatically embed a link).  Please link to a specific post on your blog and not just to your homepage.  I will tweet, pin, and/or G+ all posts linked up!  So, without further ado, here's the linky...

Sunshine Graduates from Preschool

Today is Sunshine’s preschool graduation.  Well, she’ll keep attending until the end of June, but today her preschool is hosting a little graduation ceremony for all the children going on to Kindergarten in the fall.  Sunshine, who loves special occasions and is very excited about Kindergarten, has been reminding us about her grad for the past two days.

Sunshine working on some art she brought home from preschool.

When my husband first suggested preschool a couple years ago, I was dubious.  We’ve always planned to homeschool our daughters, so I didn’t see why we should send them to preschool.  Then, in the space of a couple weeks, several families from several different groups of friends all raved about the same preschool.  The preschool was really close to us.  I knew Sunshine would really enjoy it, and that would give me a couple afternoons a week to study (since Lily napped during that time).

We registered Sunshine for two afternoons a week last year.  And I was right: she LOVED it.  At the same time, she was taking swim lessons and gymnastics and a music class, but I soon noticed that preschool was her favourite activity.  She brought home lots of art and talked about her friends and sang songs that she’d learned there.  She enjoyed some cool opportunities, like exploring a local beach and hosting the preschool guinea pig.  And I enjoyed the quiet house while she was out and Lily was napping.

Sunshine ready for Wacky Hair Day at preschool

This year, we put Sunshine into preschool five afternoons a week.  I liked the fact she has a consistent schedule—every day we have to get ready to go at noon.  That seems to work great for our little social butterfly, who is ready to go to preschool nearly every day (including Saturday and Sunday if she could).  Lily no longer naps during preschool, but I’ve discovered that, like me, she’s a bit of an introvert who needs some quiet time during the day.  While her sister is at preschool, Lily enjoys reading books, playing in her room, or colouring.  Sometimes, we go grocery shopping or paint together, but more often, she wants to do something by herself.

This was especially apparent to me during Christmas break.  The first week was fine; we had Christmas stuff going on, plus the girls were sick for a couple days.  The second week was... well, not fine.  Most of Sunshine’s little friends had returned to daycare.  She still had another week off from preschool, but there was nothing going on.  I ended up with two grumpy girls: Sunshine was bored because she didn’t get her social time and Lily was upset because she didn’t get her quiet time.  I soon realized I needed to plan some activities for Sunshine and some quiet time for Lily.

Sunshine holding a painting of Rapunzel she did at preschool

For September, Sunshine is registered in Kindergarten and Lily is registered in daycare at the same school.  I have one year left to finish my degree (and seven courses to take in that year), so having them in full-time childcare makes sense.  Lily, after seeing Sunshine go to preschool for the last two years, is very excited that it’s her turn to go to “school” too.  And Sunshine, hearing her friends talk about Kindergarten, is also excited about it.  We’ve toured both of their schools and they frequently talk about September.

I have mixed feelings about Kindergarten, just as I did about preschool.  I've seen that preschool has been good for Sunshine, and I've learned more about her by sending her there.  If we do start homeschooling her, I know some things I'll have to keep in mind to help her thrive at home.  Right now, we are taking each school year one year at a time—what works best this year for each of them and for our whole family.  Sooner or later, I still believe the answer will be homeschooling, but for the past two years, preschool has been a good thing.

Did your children attend preschool?  How did you make that decision?

Explore: Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site

On our whirlwind trip to Alberta and back last week, I had the chance to stop at the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site.  Rocky Mountain House was founded in 1799 when the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company both sent men out to build forts and establish trade with the local tribes.  Today, the archaeological remains of the forts can be found a few kilometres away from the town.

Driving up the road to the interpretive centre, we could see the bison paddock and the playfort.  The land is flat, with lots of spruce and poplar trees, and contrary to the name, you cannot see the mountains.  Once I'd paid my admission, I started hiking down the road towards what was left of the forts.  The NWC fort is now a grassy meadow with a few trenches and holes to show where the walls and buildings would have been.  I stood in the middle, looking at the rocks indicating where chimneys had been, and tried to imagine how it looked two hundred years ago.  It was smaller than I'd thought it would be.

From the NWC fort, the trail continued down the hill along the river toward the HBC fort.  This fort has been "outlined" with iron bars to mark the walls and wood boxes to mark where the buildings would have stood.  Signs explained more about the fort, based on the information that historians have been able to gather from fur trade journals and archaeology.  Even the identities of the forts—which one is which—is guesswork, based on a comment in Alexander Henry's journal about the HBC fort being on the flood plain and the NWC fort being on a hill.

I followed the trail along the swollen North Saskatchewan River back to the interpretive centre.  Chickadees and other birds sang in the trees and poplar fuzz floated through the air.  I imagined being a fur trader—or a fur trader's wife—here two centuries ago, when the river was the highway and this was a meeting place for many different groups of peoples.  Today, there are places to camp around the river and a fence to keep the bison out of the way.

Along the trail to the forts are several places where you can stop and read or listen to more information on the forts and the people who lived there.  Down by the HBC fort is an exhibit about north canoes and the routes fur traders would have taken to get furs and trade goods from Montreal to Rocky Mountain House.  Again, the canoe was smaller than I'd expected, knowing how many men and how much cargo it had to carry up and down the rivers.

Near the interpretive centre is a Metis camp, a York boat, and a playfort.  The fort is a replica of a fur trade fort, built mostly to give kids something to play in.  I didn't explore the trail on the other side of the centre, where the "newer" forts had been built after 1835 as I was running out of time to explore.

In the interpretive centre, I took a quick look at the exhibits.  There was a fur trade room, murals on the walls, mannequins showing what men and women of the fur trade would have worn, a birchbark canoe and a replica of David Thompson's map, and a bust of Thompson's wife Charlotte Small.  There were also some interactive exhibits for the kids, including dress up clothes and a magnetic York boat that kids could "load" with barrels and fur trade supplies.

Because I walk fast and read fast and had a brief time to spend there, I covered everything in about two hours.  The interpretive centre provides a map of the grounds which suggests that it takes two hours to tour the outside forts, plus extra time to read the exhibits inside (most of which I skimmed because I've read or learned it elsewhere).

I was quite impressed at how kid-friendly the exhibits were, as we've been at a lot of museums with our girls where I'm trying to keep them busy while reading stuff they aren't at all interested in.  Admission was also very reasonable (around $10 for a family for the day).  If you do head out to Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site, I recommend taking a picnic lunch, as there were many nice places to relax and enjoy the park while you're visiting.

Book Review: The Offering by Angela Hunt (Write Mama Blog Hop Vol. 10)

I love fiction that delves into motherhood and tackles all the emotions we feel as moms—or the issues we face.  Some of my favourite novels about moms include Come Sunday, which looks at the loss of a child, and The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which tackles the issue of special needs children.  Angela Hunt's latest novel The Offering is a similar story about a mom who faces some tough questions as she tries to do what's best for her family.

Mandy is a military wife who works part-time at her in-laws' grocery to help pay for her four-year-old daughter's music school tuition.  With only a half-finished college degree, Mandy can't get a better job, and on her husband's salary, she can't go back to school.  Then a chance conversation at the grocery store provides the perfect solution: be a surrogate mother.

Mandy talks her husband into the plan, finds a surrogacy agency, and chooses her intended parents.  She endures the gruelling process of getting pregnant with someone else's baby and then breezes through her pregnancy, just as she did with her daughter.  Then the tragedy she's feared for years hits and Mandy's world is rocked.  She pulls into herself, hiding from the pain until a chance letter gives her something to fight for again.  But Mandy must ask herself whether what she wants is worth the fight—and what is best for herself and her children.

I had mixed emotions as I read this novel.  Angela Hunt delivers a powerful story, drawing us into Mandy's life and emotions.  I found it easy to identify with Mandy and her desires for her family.  Even though most of the plot is explained on the back cover of the book, I found the twists and turns of getting there fascinating.  I knew next to nothing about surrogacy before reading The Offering, so it was interesting to learn about it along with Mandy and to go through the process with her.

However, as a Catholic, I have issues with surrogacy.  Intercourse is meant to be unitive as well as procreative, and surrogacy and IVF separate those.  Mandy's journey illustrated some of the side issues associated with surrogacy, including sex-selective abortions.  I can understand the desire to have children—I grew up always wanting kids.  In the novel, Mandy's sister-in-law also faces infertility, but she can't afford IVF and surrogacy and eventually adopts a little boy.  So all three women go through the ups and downs of wanting children, dealing with their emotions and desires in different ways.

Angela Hunt is one of my favourite authors.  If you want a novel that entertains you as well as makes you think, I recommend The Offering.  Angela has written over a hundred books, including The Fine Art of Insincerity and Five Miles South of Peculiar, and is also a popular speaker at writer's conferences.  Her latest passion is photographing dogs waiting for adoption at the SPCA.  You can find out more at her website.

Do you have some favourite fiction about motherhood?

Now it's your turn!  Have you blogged about the ups and downs of being a mom?  Share your posts here and visit some other mommy bloggers.  Please be kind and link back to my site or simply grab the button from the sidebar and include it at the bottom of your post (use the code and it will automatically embed a link).  Please link to a specific post on your blog and not just to your homepage.  I will tweet, pin, and/or G+ all posts linked up!  So, without further ado, here's the linky...