times of transition

I can't believe it...this my 101 post since I began this blog. The contrast of life since I found out I was pregnant (first post) and today is crazy, but in a good way. hehe. And our baby has come along way so far. Here's Sasha before starting her first full day in the over 3's side of her daycare!

A whole month ago...and though she still toys with the emotional dilemma of wanting to be a big girl while she still wants to be "a little bit of a baby", overall she has been a pretty happy camper with the big kids. This will be the first of many transitions for her from the top to bottom of the 'age group' 'experience level', etc. So many hurdles we learn from in life, and so far she has proven adept at these curves in her path.

She tends to internalize things for a bit while expressing her shy side, but once she has made up her mind about something she is amazingly articulate on her thoughts on the matter and how she thinks things should happen. Look out if you have a different way of doing something...you're in for one heck of a debate. lol

The highlights of our February began with a nice damp Chinese new years parade. See how much the kids enjoyed it? Actually they do love the dragons and many other elements...but their tolerence for hanging out in the rain has its limits. as do ours!

Some good news to share on Sasha's progress with her vision. Her new lens prescription is not as strong as her old lenses, so her vision is officially improving somewhat. Now she can't argue with us over the one hour patching a day because we simply say that Dr. K's advice was working and we're gonna stick with it until we hear otherwise. It certainly doesn't hurt, and once the patch is on she forgets about it and would wear it all day if we didn't notice. She's learning to pick her battles. One at a time, hehe

Mark earned some brownie points by organizing a date night for us on Valentines day. First time ever he came up with an idea (live music featuring local talent we haven't seen, at the Main over dinner & drinks, a nice walk) organized it and covered child care for the evening with Grandma...all before telling me a thing! teehee. nice surprise and it was a wonderful night out and sleep in next day much needed.

I've been lucky to have a few other nights out this month (exhausting social life I have I say). An evening of networking, hugging (gotta love a huge room full of people who like a good squish!) and inspiration from the thoughtful speaker Maher Arar at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) fundraiser for our friends at the BC office (celebrating 12 years of hard work busting the myth that there 'is no alternative'! love'em!) Then I finished the month with a girls night out with two of my fave ladies Kirsten and Kristen over fruity drinks and yummy food at the Reef!

In between was a group brainstorm at the pub over bevvies and snacks with our Saucy Side Productions team. I'm feeling super confident in the proposal changes that have developed in the past few months for "Educate Me!?", and very happy to have Flick and Dave as members of our team! We're just about ready to resubmit our whole package...

Most of my spare time this month was concentrated on updating the CPEN web site for launching our 5th Anniversary membership drive! I am thrilled with the progress of our organization, and that the principles express in the Charter for Public Education continue to provide a basis for meaningful dialogue in communities all over the province and beyond. It's quite exciting for me having been a part of it all from the beginning, but I'm even more excited about all the things we'll be doing in the future. You know you can find updates here...but you can also visit the new site - get a membership and be a part of the movement too!! ;)

I feel like I'm working a lot these days, but its all stuff I love...how lucky am I? I'm also lucky to have hours to coast along on at Britannia so I don't have to leave quite yet. With the hiring freeze in the city, a cutback on auxilary hours all over the place, and a horrible time to be looking for work...so I have revamped my resume and am on the hunt for stability in my employment. Hah...what's that?

Even exciting community projects are facing instability...and the garden I so enthusiastically mentioned in my last post has suffered a setback as the lease arrangements fell through. drat. I was really stoked about that, but I think the organizers have some tricks up their sleeves and we've not seen the last of them yet! I'm on their list and eagerly await news on what they're up to next...aside from all the great work Evergreen is already doing! hmmm, maybe i'll just send a note to the Vancouver Greenest City Action Team to ask they look into a new space for them...

At least we still have our awesome tiers around our patio to garden in...so next sunny weekend will involve a mega clean up our garden tiers to prepare for planting our new crops! (our patio has suffered huge neglect and is full of dead plant debris) We learned a lot from experimenting last year, and I'm eager to get an early start this year to maximize our potential food harvest success :)

too many words...need more pics. ok. I'll insert a couple of random Sasha in motion pics: singing in the tub and chasing me down the street. lol


I maintained my commitment to carry through on the weekly actions from my Mothers Acting Up agenda. Ones I accomplished by the end of this month were: buy nothing one day deliberately to feel what it is like to chose to do so...and reflect on www.thestoryofstuff.com -> check (and I have been spreading the gospel of the Story of Stuff for a while now. one of my fave resources, and also my 'polical view' on my facebook profile, hehe); contact your local politicians to make them aware of your support for the Millenium Development Goals around poverty -EndPoverty2015.org and here I will add another great link to check out, the in my name campaign and video), and an education for all children - sendmyfriend.org and campaignforeducation.org -> partial check (joined the online campaigns, drafted note to politicians needs to be sent...gettin' on it); read Dr Suess to children on his bday (march 1st), to teach the importance of compassion, fairness and playfulness -> check...Sasha is a big fan of Dr Suess :)

Next week is the celebration of International Women's Day. I want to express some love & gratitude to all the women of courage who have shaped the positive alternatives for women of my generation. A legacy I aim to build on to benefit my own daughter, and the other young women-to-be in our tribe. And love & gratitude to all the women in my life who have inspired me and continue to do so. Cheers to the strength you provide ladies! :)


I'll finish off my February update with some pics to highlight the wonderfully faboo weekend in Whistler with the ladies of my Petrich clan!

I booked a car for a weekend and Sasha and I had a road trip with Tanta Christa. Monica had found a 2 bedroom suite for us to stay in, and our suite was sweet! Sasha and I slept in a king bed and I couldn't believe with 2/3rds of it to herself she actually fell off the bed in the middle of the night! omg! but she was fine and fell back to sleep in my arms within about 30 sec. like she didn't even notice.

Our cousins supplied a wonderful dinner, an awesome waffle breakfast (thanks to chef Deano), and we all had a great time chilling together and also splashing around in the hottubs and pool under the snow just outside our door. A gondola ride to the tubing park, Sasha's first tube ride - on an icy slope...and her only comment at the bottom was "too fast". wanna go again? "no thanks". so she hung with Monica while I got to do a couple more runs with Cheyenne from the big hills. fun! Lunch in the village before our road trip back to Vancouver...what a marvelous quality time! Can't wait to do that again! :)



(notice the little amount of snow on our first trip up...and the almost whiteout of the snow on our 2nd run!)

Mark missed out on the fun in the snow due to his double workshop Sunday for Board members of our co-op. It was a great learning experience for him, and gave our Board some great motivation to move forward on a bunch of things in the year to come. Seems we also need a plan for transitioning off funding from federal housing grants, as all of these agreements will come to an end by 2020. I need to educate myself a bit more on all of this...glad one of us has the time to be involved in it! And thankful to our family who watch Sasha for us on nights we are both busy working/meeting. I know we go to a lot of meetings because Sasha now includes "meetings" in her repitoire of play activities. "You stay here and play while I go to a meeting" she says...oy. Wonder if she remembers all those Kensington community association, CPEN and other meetings I used to bring her to when she was a babe?

I'll have lots to update on by end of March...the first week alone is full up of fun to come!