Category: travel

  • Not a Vacation: Part three.

    Due to recent events, including a certain husband splitting open his knee and being out of commission until further notice, blogging once again has been put on the back burner.  On the front burner: taking care of the kids, an injured partner, and animals.  Overall, channeling all my energy into being present and being aware […]

  • Not a Vacation. Part two: Not a Plan.

    An aside:  Sorry for these late follow up posts on our trip.  It feels a bit anti-climactic now. Sigh. Chris had to leave unexpectedly as soon as we returned from our trip to California so needless to say it has been quite the week without him, managing my first time in the jungle with the […]

  • love note no. 21: dear spring.

    Dear Spring, Last week, to begin our “Time” unit, my son and I talked about the seasons.  I copied a poem on our little whiteboard that described a season. #5 closed his eyes and I read the poem aloud to him.  I asked him what he saw and to guess the season.  He then painted […]

  • love note no.16: dear caterpillar.

    We have began a new chapter in our family adventures here in Costa Rica.  And we have been busy maintaining connection with our daughter who has been living abroad. It is unfamiliar emotional and logistical territory – piecing out my heart while navigating time zones. I haven’t written any love letters here in over 6 weeks.  Every time I started […]

  • love note no.14: dear ball of yarn.

    Dear ball of yarn, We find ourselves together at the break of dawn on a terrace in an apartment in the middle of Barcelona. Unlike the other four balls of yarn before you, you aren’t wound up so tight.  Perhaps they weren’t either. Perhaps it was just me that tightly wound, trying to tug and […]

  • how my dreams came true.

    Do you know what that moment feels like when you realize that all your dreams have come true? I had this moment this morning when I went downstairs and saw this: An empty house and my daughter studying for her first university exam. (In fact, she is writing it now as I write this post.) Before […]

  • a lesson in permission.

    My sweet child turned 18 a few weeks ago.  EIGHTEEN. Whoa. This post is about what she has taught me about boundaries and permission.  (I know that every child is different but I want to share what I have learned about parenting this teen.) Back in December, my oldest daughter came home from her art gallery […]

  • the art of the unsettled life.

    I don’t like that word – unsettled.  But that’s all I have felt this month which is why I haven’t written here in awhile.  I have about a dozen drafts of stories about my trip but my mind keeps jumping too far ahead into the future to really be here to reflect on our awesome […]

  • a lesson in life support.

    My husband went on a 10-day surfing trip to the pacific coast of Costa Rica.  We stayed behind in the Caribe Sur.  He had never been away from us for more than a week. The 10 days without him felt like I was on my retreat again. I know you may be wondering what that […]

  • an apology + an update.

    We are back in Toronto after two months abroad and I owe you an apology. In the previous post that I wrote about a month ago, I promised to post sooner. It has now been a full moon’s cycle. I apologize for the absence, the cliff hanging, and the neglect. Costa Rica, specifically the Caribe […]