Happy New Year!

Well, we have survived a week and a half of sickness in our house, and having four children six and under home from school for almost two weeks.  Love them though I do, I am counting the days until our schedule returns to normal on Tuesday.
Unfortunately, many of the fun activities I had planned to do over the holidays have not happened.  I was willing to drag myself to the Vancouver Aquarium, though sick, on Thursday, but my three year old make clear that she felt awful and just wanted to stay home.  I guess we will do it another day!
We were fortunate to have our general good health this year, and our generally happy and active family.  Hopefully we will have a good 2011 as well.
I have been thinking lately about the last warm vacation I took.  It was to the Moon Palace Resort (http://www.suite101.com/content/moon-palace-golf-and-spa-resort-a327198) in Cancun, Mexico.  We have never taken a trip like that with our kids, but maybe in a few years!

Christmas is OVER

Well, we have survived Christmas!  This year, 'survived' is the operative word.  During the Christmas season so far, all six of us have been sick, and there has been lots of bickering and not a lot of patience.  In general, I think that it will be remembered nonetheless as a good Christmas, but it will be remembered much more fondly a few months from now!

My son and I went to see the Bodyworlds exhibit in Vancouver yesterday.  We both enjoyed it very much.  There is certainly a sense of awe in knowing that the exhibits are actual bodies, though the process that preserves them leaves them looking more like incredibly-accurate sculptures than like actual bodies.  It certainly left me with a sense of thankfulness for our generally good health, especially after seeing the preserved remains of the pregnant woman and unborn children.  My bickering children were appreciated more last night than they otherwise would be.

Christmas (Eve) is Here!

Well, the kids have now made it to Christmas Eve!  Presents are purchased and wrapped, sugar cookies are made, broken mixmaster is fixed with duct tape like Red Green would do (very appropriate to the season, I think!) and we are about ready for the next couple of days of sharing holidays with a few friends.  Although our children do and will (hopefully) have good Christmases, they are sure different than those I had as a child with both set of grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins around.

Another Beautiful Fall Day

Well, here we are on November 7, enjoying another sunny dry day.  I wasn't too excited about the time change - my children are still getting up at the same time of day they otherwise would, and it seems more depressing to see '5:30' on the clockface than '6:30' - but I hadn't fully realized the effect of the time change on the lightness of the outside world at 6:30.  What was pitch black yesterday is the start of sunrise today. 

I took advantage of the earlier light to leave the kids with my husband and make a quick (well, kind of quick) loop around Mill Lake this morning.  I did not notice before how much better the drainage is at the new Centennial Park playground (south-west corner of Mill Lake Park).  What would have been several inches of standing water previously is now just damp woodchips.  We may have to head out there again later on as a family!

Miscellaneous Information on IEPs and Special Needs Funding in B.C.

Last year I ended up spending quite a bit of time searching for various information about categories of special needs children and the funding available for them in British Columbia.

I spent some time collecting some of my information, and putting it in one article where I can easily refer to it again should I need it.

If anyone is interested or may find it useful, it should be here:
http://www.suite101.com/content/ieps-and-funding-for-special-needs-students-in-bc-a305526

My First Blog Post

Well, I've decided to start a blog.  I have thought about doing some writing for quite some time, and just cannot seem to get even a good start at anything substantial, much less finish anything, so I am instead going to compile a collection of articles on various topics. 

Bear with me while I find my way (if you so choose!) and we will see where we end up!