Mark and I are enjoying a nice quiet morning together after Granma Penny took the kids to her place last night...we got to go to the CUPE Solidarity pub night (fun and informing...) dance to the musical stylin' of our friend DJ Randy Handfulls...and sleep in too! bliss :)thought I would also take some time to update everyone on the status of home, work and family: family first. both of the kids are in a time of change...Sasha becoming more and more a toddler - her play has become more creative and exploratory and her new favorite thing is colouring (something she wants to do all the time she's not asking for stories or running around...and unlike in this pic...she is most often colouring on carpets, walls, tables, drums...) She continues to amaze us with her evolving personality, skill and cognitive development!
she is still a girl of few intelligible words...but she is ALWAYS understood.Penny just shared a good story on how Sasha expresses her desire to go out...she puts her hat on her head, walks to the door and hollers...simple and to the point...who needs words? lol ;)
with Sasha learning something new every day - she can identify many colours, letters and shapes, knows many objects in any of the books on her shelf, understands so many clear requests and can express her needs well with signs, gestures etc. - such great fun to be a part of! even if she does keep us really on our toes now - teehee
a time of change for Che who is becoming more and more a teenager...and now into the high school experience! so far so good and he seems to enjoy it. probably helps for him to have a few more options, and we'll learn more about the program he is in and what his days are like on Monday when we get to meet his teacher.
Che is also fundraising (here he is busking at the Trout Lake farmers market for donations) to participate in the Lance Armstrong Tour of Courage bike race for cancer research. He and his mom have created a team "the Howlin Cats" to race together but they need more money to join. If you would like to help Che out please visit this linkhttp://www.tourofcourage.ca/site/TR/?pg=personal&fr_id=1030&px=1060321
to download pledge forms or make contributions directly to his profile. I love his Jedi write up! :)
these days I'm trying to stay focused on the positives in our life - first of course is Sasha and Che...and gratitude continues for the friends and family who provide stable support for our emotional and mental health. This is now all that is stable in our lives. We are not alone and we are loved. Do not underestimate the power of positive thinking...especially when it is boosted by positive feedback from loved ones ...this is the only reason i'm not really stressed right now and why I know in a couple of months we'll be back on our feet again and everything is gonna be just fine...
that said, there are 2 significant changes we are facing now...first is the new homeowners have asked we be out by December 1st at latest so the home search is now a priority. the timing sucks so bad as we are not in a good position to deal with a rent increase (which is a reality as wherever we end up we know we'll be paying at least a couple hundred more a month) and moving costs at this point.
perhaps if we had skipped our family vacations to spend all of our time on the picket line, and at least one of us got another job we'd be more financially prepared for this...but we are in agreement that the extra quality time we've had as a family has been far more important and have no regrets about any potential debt load incurred as we stand up with our unions for negotiations in good faith...ahem
which leads us to the second big change...the talks are off again...so the strike continues...
what we were informed yesterday by our bargaining committees is that the City has decided they won't make any commitments on job security and they have now turned to the Minister of Labour to deal with it...not looking promising though some are hopeful a mediator may still be used before the tactic of forced arbitration that would send us back to work with none of our issues addressed.
(sunday update: the province told the city they had to bargain in good faith and therefore would not be stepping in...very good thing!)
even without my concussion my head would still be spinning from the sheer overwhelming force we seem to be up against. most folks on the line are now ready to ramp it up and start participating in some direct actions that would finally give attention to what it is we're standing up for...
there is a very legitimate fear for job security and a threat to public services in general. this power struggle to protect all things public seems to have become the new thread connecting all my life together at the moment. with CPEN it is about defending public education and the rights of learners. with my union it is about protecting public services at the community level. both struggles are to protect what was fought for so that I could have access to higher learning and good jobs. those rights are no longer guaranteed for our kids...but I'm not letting go of them without a fight!
more strike updates & home search news to come. Mark and I are both feeling committed to doing more action oriented stuff so things will continue to stay interesting...
something fun and interesting for me was on friday (before the fun of the pub...lucky me to have such a great day!) i had a super time traveling the town and participating with a little concertina (a very old school format of political protest using street theatre to get your message out) performance called "The Foot" after performing at the art gallery and at central library, we heard the city had lifted the media blackout...so we decided to take our show to the CBC - here we are!
we had plenty of people come out and say "what have you got for us?" but they probably knew more than we did at that point...so we just said 'we're here to share our show!'
and CBC actually came and filmed it for your viewing pleasure :)
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/bc/ondemand/video/STRIKErally.wmv
("the Foot" was written by Diana who is leading our group)
i'll end for now with my new favorite quote:
"A dream that I dream alone is only but a dream.
But a dream that we dream together is reality."
Raul Seixas
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