Beach Bums.

I love going to the Beach.

This week, it feels like my summer vacation finally got started.

I also think that it takes me about 10 days before I start to relax.

Of course, now that I have started to catch up on sleep, it is almost 1am and I am catching up on my blog instead of my sleep.  Seems fitting.

Monday, was Centennial Beach.  What a find.  I loved it.  The only real downside is that the sand goes out forever.  I am not kidding.  For EVER.  Almost too far. Next time we come, I will plan it for when the tide is coming in.

Tuesday was Lynden City Park and then to Birch Bay.  The boys were a bit perturbed at how fast the tide came in.  Noted.

Today was White Rock. I love this beach.  Who am I kidding? Perhaps we should have just come here every day, but variety is good and I am glad that we checked out a few new beaches.  Fingers crossed we make it back to Centennial Beach on Friday - I have a hankering for a picnic with the whole family and to watch the sun go down.

Tomorrow is likely a spray park and then CW's graduation potluck from preschool.  Wow.  It is hard to believe that here we are.

Friday, local park in the morning to walk the dog since we will have Duke visiting, and then in the afternoon to the beach.

Caught by the cover, a nice surprise

At the library the other night, the cover of this book caught me.  It was a 7 day express read, so I really hesitated whether or not I should grab it, since I had already started a different book, and well, I saw it was only 250 pages so I thought - what the hell.  Worst case scenario, I take it back - no foul.

It was a lovely book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I would categorize it under "chick lit". Or belonging to what I would widely label as such.  I have never heard of this author before, and this is one of the things that I am loving about my library card - new books, different authors. I will admit to more than one geeky moment because of my library card.  Only drawback is remembering when books need to go back and avoiding late fines.

It really feels like what I have been able to read lately has really taken off.  It does help having the card, and I enjoy being able to request books and have them magically appear on the hold shelf, it is a bit gratifying.  Much like how I really enjoy having my car insurance delivered rather than trying to figure out where to get it done and making sure it happens on the right day.  That it is my BFF's mom, makes it even sweeter.

Back to the book - maybe one of these days I need to come up with my own rating system rather than a few scribbled thoughts.  I really don't want to craft long winded reviews of books, but it is nice to track how I responded to the books that I am reading since I have discovered that I really do like being able to look back in to this window of "where my head was at" and what was I in to reading at the time.

Once again, back to the book at hand.  This is a partly a love story, and partly a feminine journey of rediscovery at age 60.  I like that the female lead was strong, and was likeable, and did make mistakes.  There are some very poetic passages, and I feel like Quindlen captured something in their story that left me with a nice, warm fuzzy.  Every now and then, books like this are lovely to pick up and enjoy without having to delve in and solve life's mysteries.  A satisfying read - quick, and perfect for summer.

No snappy title coming to mind. I blame the time.

Between this series, and the Hunger Games trilogy, the quality of the Twilight series really pales beyond comparison.

This is the beginning of another trilogy in a distopian, futuristic world in which society has broken down, and the solution is to divide people in to one of five factions based on your personality type.  This book focuses upon a 16 year old girl (Tris) that chooses a different faction than the one she is born in to when offered a choice.  By the end of the book, fractures are beginning to show, and war/a rebellion of sorts by one/two factions breaks out.

Books like this do raise the question of freedom, justice, and happiness and with it, they carry their own political warnings.  I do find it interesting the current young adult novels that are popular dealing with this theme - the aforementioned Hunger Games trilogy, the Giver, and now this series.  All three have also been made in to movies.  Hollywood cashing in perhaps to huge trends?

This was an entertaining book in the way that a summer blockbuster movie is - definitely science fiction adventure and I will read the next books in the series - it was a quick read.  I am happy that Tris connected with Four/Tobias, and their shared history adds an interesting twist to the book.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I can't say that I planned on reading a lot on my vacation, but it seems that this has been a goal that is definitely being accomplished.

I picked up the book based on a text from my BFF as we exchanged random notes about what we were reading one morning.  In her typical, dramatic fashion, I was pretty much told to "read this".  Which translates loosely to "this is an amazing book and you really need to read it".

Well, she was right.  I will never look at Bees the same again.  I even think I leaked out a tear at the very end! Who was that?? What a total surprise this book was.  I was caught a bit off guard, and it really wasn't a book I expected to enjoy as much as I did.  Yup.  Once again, a good call about this book.  It will stay with me  for a while, I am sure.  Today (okay, not really the posted date but today, the day I am working some date magic again to get caught up since the last time I did a bunch of posts) when I was mowing the lawn I watched for bees as I mowed through the clover.  I didn't want to send a forager bee to the jaws of doom!  It was a quick read, and as I said, once you read this book you will never look at bees the same again.

And how is the weather today?

Hay's writing and story telling sneak up on you.

I really enjoy her books.

I wish I would have been able to read more authors/stories like this when I was doing my undergrad.

Knock that one off of the list.. almost

It was almost a family affair… next year!  Connor and I got to go up in an air balloon!  I must admit I have always been a little bit curious, and didn't expect that today would be the day that I would get to go up in one!  For a free event, this was an awesome day.  I must admit, this is a far cooler community than the one I left 14 years ago.

  Too bad you can't see Connor in the basket, and that I am off to the side. Ah well.  It was cool - slightly reminiscent of going up in an elevator. I guess the tie downs will do that.  Here is my little man, beaming as he gets to go on a cool ride around the airport.

What - a book that wasn't about the pants?

Downside of library books.

Too many good books! Not enough time…

Well, I almost made it through this book before I had to return it.  Alas and alack. I didn't make it.  I got about halfway through when my turn was up.  Since I had to wait months to get it, and the list after me was pretty long… I decided a buck a day wasn't worth keeping this book until I finished the last page.

It was good though - and eye opening about how Pixar got started and what came together to create our current golden age of animation.

Well worth a read, hopefully I will think about this again in a few months and try again and finish it off.

Inspector Banks, how nice to see you again!

Damn. I think I am getting really close to having read all of these books.  Always a consistently well written, well plotted novel.  Even when I am not really in the mood for a police procedural, these books never let me down.

It is very cool we can all Robinson a Canadian.  I also think it is pretty cool I did get to meet him at a writer's festival a few years ago and he was a lovely man in person. I miss going to the Sechelt Writer's festival this year… next year, we will need to make a point of going again..

Another book about food… funny how themes can emerge in the books you choose

To the woods!

I think I have a sweet place in my heart for this place. The first time I really spent time here was with Ken, and it must have been in our first year together.  We fed the ground squirrels at Lightning Lake, we checked out the Hope Slide, we drove to Three Brother Mountain and did part of the hike, checked out Manning Park lodge and fed the Whiskey Jacks by hand.. it was a magic day.

Jump forward a few years (??!!) and we went when I was pregnant with Brandon and spent Father's Day there with my folks.  I think I even posted about it back in 2006.  In 2008, we spent an awesome weekend exploring Hope and the area around there for a May long weekend and drove out to Manning Park on a whim. There was still snow on the ground, so we more drove in for a while and then turned around to come back since it was obviously still way too early in the season.

It really is hard to believe it has been 6 years since we have been to Manning Park.  To say we have been busy raising two kids, moving, working, and then some is an understatement.  The time has flown.  It is nice to get back out in the woods again, and to be seeing some new things, and to be exploring a bit more of BC again, and not just Washington (no matter how much I enjoy heading south it is nice to spend more time in our province).

Feeding the ground squirrels - cheeky buggers will eat out of your hand, and will also help yourself if you leave the carrot container open..

My handsome boy.

 My other handsome boy.

A little older perhaps, same breathtaking view.  It really helps even just blogging a few thoughts down. To try to remember these kinds of amazing moments so they don't get lost in the shuffle.  Our weeks go by so fast, and at times have to be so structured, it is so great to get out and do something like this, even if it means all my laundry is not done and our meals completely planned for the week.  I probably should not have spent the last few hours blogging, and thinking about books, and not doing those tasks, but it has been really nice to take some time and do just that.

Balance.  Again, it comes to trying to find this elusive thing.  That and being better at setting limits and realizing that not everything needs to be done at once.  I can spread out tasks and things to do.

Today was great.

Tonight B did karate belt testing.  I was so proud of him.  I leaked out a few of those things called tears again.  Watching how hard he is trying, and seeing him getting his legs up, and giving the best he can with his rosy cheeks and sweaty hair.  I love my kids so much.  C fell down earlier and took a knick out of his head in the shower.  Scared the bejesus out of me.  Sometimes it seems relentless, I can talk about trying to find balance and I just seem to go from moment to moment.  I wouldn't trade it, life is interesting, life is going at a crazy pace, and there are so many amazing experiences that we are getting to have as a result.  I do feel pretty blessed.

June has been a very, very intense and mostly wonderful crazy month.

Pitt Meadows Day, MIL 90th birthday and family reunion, friend getting ready to move away to Alberta, the end of the school year, changing daycares, changing schools, karate provincials, wrapping up baseball, karate belt testing, going to Winnipeg for three days, then you add in a few late nights at work, and book club, and a friend's wedding celebration, and my BFF coming to town for a short period of time and you get a really busy month.  There is apparently another 8 days left before the month is done!  I almost forgot to add in C's birthday as well.  The list has been growing all month. I am also trolling a bit for a book to catch me… I have been reading so many good ones lately and now I just finished my last library book. I need more.  None of the books I have that I have not read are really calling out to me right now.  I am going to check and see before I head up, but nothing is yelling out READ ME next.  I guess a lull was coming after the 5 weeks of great reading..

"No Man's an island. Every book is a world"

That post title is not mine - it is definitely from this book's cover, and is very close to the John Donne poem… No Man is an Islande.. which is one of my personal favourites.

I really enjoyed this book - one of those quirky books you grab because it has an interesting cover and it looks a little bit different.  What a satisfying read.  I have really been enjoying many of the books that have crossed my path this year.  I am also still loving have books magically appear for me at the library. Being connected and being able to put holds on books until your number comes up is pure genius.

I love how books and stories weave their way through this novel, and how the main characters grow and evolve as well.  I think this one will stick with me for a bit - it was also a really quick read.  There were a few places I think I would have liked to have written down some quotes (which is always a good sign in my books) and I was caught up in the story.

Finish the next one.. please

One of the best thing about discovering a new author, is reading your way through all the books they have written.  The worst thing is after you have finished reading that last book, and you have to wait for the next one to be published.  Alas and alack, this is where I am at with SAA.  I have enjoyed all of her books, and this one was no exception.  I would say that my one real head scratcher was when I was trying to figure out how the novella/e-short story she released ("Waking Kate") tied in to this novel, since there is a few year gap I think in the story.. (or at least a time break).  I would not call SAA a formula writer, but the feeling her books evoke in me is the same, book to book.  I like the memories that her books stir up - that awareness of perhaps where I come from, the idea of my people, and even the people I am creating with my children and the place we call home.   This is a story about redemption, and finding yourself.. and like the short story, is a book about Kate's waking up.  I often think that the right book sometimes appears at the right time in my life, or that I finally pick up a book from my shelf when it is the right time to read it… what has really resonated with me about this book, is that line "Waking Kate".  

It feels like I am waking up again and see the world fresh.  This last month has been emotionally intense (understatement).  So many extremes in terms of the emotional ride that I feel like I have been on at times.  This book reminded me of how I feel.. like waking up after a few years of being stuck in a crazy moment (some of my own doing) between young kids, responsibilities, changing jobs, learning limits, relearning limits, and a new one, to really trying to learn that I don't need to be superwoman all the time.  I can rest.  I can sleep.  I can slow down a little.  I perhaps can even learn how to ask for help better or set my own limits (especially at work) better.  

It helps that the kids are older.  I am relieved my stint as a board chair is almost over. I am glad I know where my kids are going to school in the Fall and that we have all of our weeks in order for the summer and covered well.  Both kids should have an awesome summer.  OMG my youngest starts kindergarten in the fall and both are in a new school and a new daycare, close to home. I will commute solo soon, and I will have a more regular schedule.  I am sure there will be chaotic moments, but I am hoping they are a little less crazy that what the last two years has felt like.  It feels like more stability is coming, which can only mean that perhaps I will be able to make a change within my career to apply my skills in a new way.

Waking up.  I can roll with this theme for a while.  

I need to get back to jogging again.  Once again, a semester start up that has thrown my regular routine out the window. I really feel like this is the next element to take back.  Exercise and work.  Crashing through limits with exercise, and better defining my limits with work and working better within those.  I should maybe bookmark this post to come back read this.  I am not superwoman.  Having a deadline that doesn't work and just working harder and more hours doesn't make it a realistic deadline. I have to speak up and stop trying to make it better by taking it all on.  /repeat as needed.

A-M-P-S

This is taken along the Red River, near the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Reading this book, felt like the "right place, right time".

Toews is a great Canadian author, and is a very profound, elegant writer.  Her books aren't always happy, but they are still a pleasure to read.  This book also took place partly in Winnipeg (which I can now say that I have experienced in a very limited way since I was there for three days for a conference), and had Mennonite sisters for lead characters.  Which was also interesting since there is Mennonite history on my mom's side, although her family originally settled in small town Saskatchewan when the west was opened up for Homesteading.  Therefore, the timing was good for me to read this book, and it was a very thoughtful read.

I am glad that I don't suffer from depression.  I really wonder about that black dog sometimes, and how some people struggle so much with it.  I have my pity party on occasion, but nothing like some people I know do.  This book delves in to doe pretty hefty topics (depression, single parenthood, aging, suicide, to name but a few) but this book remains hopeful (really) throughout.  It does have a more or less happy ending, and is a worthwhile read to pick up.

Not quite as original as the first...

Perfect read for a long plane ride across Canada.  BC is very interesting from the sky.  As is Alberta.. in the beginning.. and then the blocks of green start to flatten out, rivers meander and are interesting, greens seem to fade to browns, and then you arrive in Winnipeg.

This was one of the books I choose to read while I went away on conference. I figured I had a fair bit of time to myself waiting in airports (transfer in Calgary) and then in the air, and at night, that I would get some reading done.

It was an entertaining book, but not quite as novel as the first book. If having read several books by SAA in the last two years and I haven't gotten bored and really latched on to a formula… this one felt a little more formulaic and it is only book two by this author.  It was still really interesting, and crazy how different elements come together.. think Tarantino meets book.  Fun, but not quite as quirky and novel as that 100 year old man tale. (grin)

Jump in to this world...

What a welcome surprise! I think I have mentioned that I have been stumbling upon some pretty rewarding books in the last while, right?  This is one of them.  It is also part of a whole series!

This is a lovely period book that is placed in Northern Ireland after the second war (I believe).  It is about a young doctor that has just graduated from University and is deciding whether or not to become an assistant GP to a 'country' doctor.  What a great book.  This is a book about characters, and stories, and about how health weaves its way through a life, and how folks get on in small towns.  A really enjoyable read and I will slowly work my way through more of them.

Food and literature, can you go wrong?

Yes, of course you can wrong.  Just not in this case.

What a great book.  I was NOT expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did.  What a great read.  It will be interesting to see what they do with this one as a movie.. this makes a few that we have read pale in comparison.

This is a great story about a passion for cooking, for food, and how a young Indian boy comes a great Parisian chef.  Totally unexpected, well written, and a pleasure to read.

Food, and our stories, are such an important part of our lives.  How we cook, the meals we share, is so important.  Equally important is how we craft our own story, how we internalize it, and then retell it to our kin.  Using revisionist history, it has been a month since I read this book (and a lot of experiences it has felt like) and what I remember most is the feeling about this book - well written, very interesting, and I never lost my interest.

Went by so fast, what did I read again?

I will easily admit this - I am a fan.  I think reading this meant more since I read Chris Hatfield's book earlier this year.  This is a book about the Canadian and American space agencies working together to help increase their public awareness.  The lead characters of this book are working to move the percentage of folks that would rather go for "lunch" than watch a "launch".  You can't help but reflect about what Hatfield was able to do for space exploration with just how he was on the space station.  I think it has been since 1986 since I cared that much about what was happening (or for that matter KNEW) about CSA/NASA.

Fallis' humour is refreshing.  I really enjoy his books. I will read them as they are published and I know he will be attending one of my favourite writer's festivals this summer.  Who knows, maybe I will get on a ferry and just go for a day trip.  Crazier things have been known to happen.  It is also a week night.  As above, crazy things have been known to happen.  Hmm. Maybe I will get lucky and my Aunt will still be living on the coast…

Forty one and a day.

Maybe not quite completely accurate in terms, but this sums up the spirit of the moment.  I really want to just throw down some thoughts since it is around my birthday.  I find that one of the best parts of having had this blog for as long as I have, there is a lot of history embedded here.  Even if I have just alluded to certain events, left some out, concentrated on the books I have been reading lately, there is still a bit of my story within these pages.  Together, they amount to quite a bit.

I am enjoying my 41st way more than my 40th.  If 31 was anticlimactic and my 30th a lot of fun, it was the opposite this time around.  Last year felt so chaotic, this year feels so much more settled, or I am must less chaotic.  Almost.  I am in a better place at work. Or I am making it a better place.  I have been promoted (in a way, I will believe it truly once the job reclassification has gone through).  I am more confident than I was a year ago in my role.  I have almost completed my Child Care Society Board commitment.  A few more months, and we are good.  Our kids will be going to new elementary schools and daycares in the fall, and I think it is the best thing for them.  We don't have a lot of plans for the summer, but we do have some time off.  I am hoping that next year will have much more camping, and much more excursions, and this year to really be the one everything comes together.  We really didn't plan a lot in terms of trips since we really needed to figure out the kids, and what was happening in the fall.

We finally painted our family room, and got the fireplace fixed.  We may even get a fence put up this summer.  I  haven't been for a run for about 3 weeks, and it is bothering me a bit, but it has been a semester start up, we have been short staffed (of course), and there has been karate and baseball and work and birthdays and family events.  Oh my!

What do I hope for in the next year?  To get some kind of physical activity most days of the week. I would like to start up my jogging again and do at least another 5km run (read jog).

I really want to try stand up paddle boarding.

I want the kids to settle in and really enjoy their new settings.

I want to get out camping, continue to read good books, continue to knit, continue to encourage my kids to be active and enjoy reading as well.  I want to get Connor swimming and skating.  I want Brandon to continue with the sports he is enjoying.

I want to feel more caught up.  After putting everything back after painting our family room.. I realized it has been a year since I last sorted most of our bills.  I would like to be more on top of things - to do something with our photos, to keep on top of a few more things.

I want to see a few new places.

I hope the bulbs and seeds I just planted in our garden grow.  I am so happy we made the changes to the front yard, and for the work done in the backyard.  It feels like I am changing our space and bringing new life to it.  I find it amazing we can cart out a whole container (large one at that) of green waste every single week.

I want Ken and I to continue to get out for some dates.

A year from now, I hope we have gone on a family trip outside of the normal confines of where we have been going.  I hope to be a little fitter.  I hope to just be more excited about Summer and what is next and just to keep on building on what we have.

Forty. And One.

Forty One does not feel or look nearly as ancient as I thought it would more than twenty years ago.

My youngest. Almost five.  The weeks and months and years are flying by.

My oldest, almost eight.  I am speechless, I was I really a newlywed and 7 months pregnant this time 8 years ago?

My family.  I am blessed.