Tag Archives: library

Walt Disney World Excitement For…

Posted in Daughter, Son, Things I'm Excited About by

 

 

 

My kids were counting down the time all morning until we went.  When I told them it was finally time to go, they both ran out to our “sexy” mini van and strapped into carseats like pros.  They were asking “are we there yet?” with so much glee in their voices, I chuckled while giving them a play by play of how to get there; how much longer the 4 mins drive would take.

 

You would have thought that we were going to Walt Disney World or some other trip of a lifetime but we weren’t.  I had finally received a bill in my name at our new address, so we were finally able to … get a library card! I even got each of them their own library cards for their birthday tomorrow…shh, don’t tell them. ;)

 

So, we piled into the car and drove over to the library, where they ran to the front door of the library, I reminded them that they needed to be on their best behaviour, they opened the door and started exploring. Being in a small town now, the main library is smaller than the main library in the city we just moved from but they were happy to see that the relatively large kids section was still filled with books, CDs and DVDs.  We introduced ourselves to the librarians and staff, and my daughter told them how excited she was to be there, and then the rest of her and her brother’s life stories, including that they are twins. ;)

 

Their father and I would take the kids to the farmer’s market and library almost every Saturday of their lives when they were younger, and participate in play groups at the library.  As they got older, we weren’t going every week, but we would still go regularly.  Even after we split, we both still take them to the library.  The library is as important to their father as me…he used to own a bookstore.

 

I went to the library all the time as a kid, and made my way through the Nancy Drew series as fast as possible.  It drove me crazy though when the next book in the series was already checked out because, for some reason, it never occurred to me that I could just skip it and read it when it came back in. 

 

My grandfather who lived in England even had a library card at that library too.  He came to visit for 3 weeks every year and would borrow books during his visit too.  I have fond memories of coming home from school and he was sitting in “my” chair in the living room, reading a book, and smoking his pipe. To this day, the smell of a pipe reminds me of him, and I smile.

 

I hope that my kids have fond memories of the library when they grow up, and that they will instill the same love of reading the library in their kids.

Proof of “Never Say Never”

Posted in Reflections by

 

I left my small hometown of 2,000+ people when I was 18 to venture across the country for post-secondary education.  My parents “ruthlessly” sold my childhood home (How dare they?!) in the summer before I left and moved to a farm before I visited for Christmas break of first year university.  So, I packed for university and packed everything else I had for their move.  I left my hometown saying I would “never move back until I owned my childhood home again”.  Well, never say never.

 

Fast forward 16 years.  I moved back across the country, got married, have amazing almost 6 year old twins, am now getting divorced, and the kids and I have moved to the family farm; back to my hometown.  In the past 16 years, I have lived in 2 provinces and 3 metropolitan areas, and am now getting reacclimatized to small-town living. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that library is open every day of the week, but not the number of hours in the day as it is in a city.  I was shocked to see the sign on the front door of one of the satellite library locations has Wi-fi!  Having said that, the family farm also has Wi-fi…but I digress…

 

There’s only one Early Years Centre BUT, it has OFF-SITE playgroups at various parks in the area, with staff and one volunteer from the centre to help the parents in attendance with their kids, and set up different activities.  It also has a special needs-specific program offered every Thursday morning, which was nice to attend this week to start meeting other parents of children with special needs in the area.  Staff at the Centre are so excited because “there’s a new family in town”.  DD is even attending one of the French programs, that is run by a family friend whom I babysat for as a teenager.

 

I forgot that people here tend to get married and have children earlier than I did.  I remember some friends were surprised that I was going to university to get an education (gasp!) rather than a husband (double gasp!).  It seems that many of my childhood friends got married by 21 or 22, had their first child within a year so now that we are all in our mid- to late-30s, they have pre-teen and teenagers while I’m chasing after almost 6 year old twins.  It’s a very strange realization to find out that I’m an “older mom” here.  I talked with my best friend from highschool tonight, only to find that her son is now 12 years old – he’s still 5 in my mind; my almost 6 year olds are still babies in her mind.

 

I’m having a hard time getting used to the slower pace for everything here.  Everyone works REALLY hard (my dad has cut, turned, bailed and stored more than 100 bales of hay this week, on his own…and it’s “just” a hobby farm – my parents still run their own business full time!) but the panic and stress inherent in city life just don’t seem to be here.  People actually drive the speed limit or under (you mean it’s not just a “guideline”?) here, which feels very foreign to me.  Having said that, you can get everywhere within a 15 mins drive so really, what’s the rush?

 

In the end, I think I will have to change my original “never move back until I own my childhood home again” to:

“I WILL own my childhood home again…someday”.