So, as of Monday, Jamie has officially quit his job. Crazy. We're really going to go ahead with this plan. Wow. We're excited and a little nervous and a little overwhelmed by all that we have to get done this summer but most of all, just really, well, excited! So much more time together, and to ourselves. A chance to reconnect, spend quality time together and to remember what our other passions are. And a chance to travel again - yay!!!!!

And although everyone at work is sad to see Jamie go, and stressed out by losing one more building consultant, the reactions have also been surprisingly positive. They recognize it as a good thing for Jamie, and he's been told many times how much he'll be missed work-wise, but also socially. They have also assured him that they'd be happy to hire him back at any point. So he feels good about how that is going......and after 4-5 weeks of finishing things off/training up people to take over his jobs, he's out of there!

Now to turn our heads towards finishing up the house, selling it off, fixing up the Barth, getting rid of all our stuff, setting up storage for those pieces we can't part with, plus camping at all our favourite spots, swimming at our favoured swimming holes, hanging out at our special beach locations and spending as much time as possible with dear friends. As with most major changes, this is definitely feeling bittersweet for us. But overall, I'm just really excited!

Okay, so we STILL have not found our DVD remote. This is getting really annoying. We went to watch a DVD lastnight, but could not turn our subtitles on. The other day I got on my hands and knees, thoroughly cleaning the main floor and cleaning under all the furniture, looked in baskets, put stuff away - and no luck. I also have two books that I need to return to a friend, and you guessed it, I can't find them. Perhaps we've become a little overzealous in our decluttering?!!!

Luckily tonight we have a family coming over for a sleepover and late night boardgame session, so we're inspired to clean the rest of the house as well - hopefully we'll have better luck on one of the other floors!!!! If not, at least we'll benefit from a clean house. For a day or two ;-)

Jamie's blogging!

So, after hearing mutterings from Jamie all about this amazing book he'd discovered in his search online about composting toilets, called The Humanure Handbook (with 255 pages of crap - you KNOW you want to read it!!!!), and then the ranting about how our society is fecal-phobic (huh?!!) I've finally convinced him that he should start writing his own blog. So, he's going to start blogging! And I promise, not all he talks about is crap. Te he, couldn't resist that one!!!! Go give him a warm welcome, I for one am very curious to hear all that he has to say!

Okay, so for anyone who knows me, I'm fairly obsessed with children's literature. I LOVE it. We go to the library at the end of our street about 3 times a week, and I often max out the kids cards, between information books and DVD's, novels that I wish I could spend more time reading to Kea, books by the newest illustrator that we all LOVE, and board books for our destruct-o toddler. I also have been known to pick up a book or two for the kids, and every birthday or holiday celebration is marked by a special book picked out for that child. Right now we are all obsessed with Lauren Child who is a British writer/illustrator with a tonne of books under her belt. (Check out her website, it's quite fun too!) Kea really likes her character Clarice Bean, and we've begun reading her chapter books. Tiegan, of course, loves Lola from Charlie and Lola - they're quite alike in many 4-year-old ways! And I just love it all - the great artwork, the caring sibling relationship, the quirky British humour, the sweet stories and when we're watching Charlie and Lola DVD's, I just love love love the little kids voices speaking with a British accent!!!!! I've recently discovered activity books as well, which remind me a lot of the anti-colouring books that I grew up with. I may just have to get one for myself to do with the kids!!!!

Of course, today I heard of one more book that I'll OBVIOUSLY have to get for my girls' bookshelf......what a very important message for them to grow up with! I'm glad that someone FINALLY took it upon themselves to write and publish about this topic.

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Ryland sitting on driftwood
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Today was a very typical day for us, in that no day seems to be like another and we weave in and out of learning, playing and hanging out. Ryland had been up a lot during the night, so I tried to stay in bed as long as possible this morning. When I woke up, the kids were listening to Harry Potter on CD and playing Playmobile. They finally managed to drag me out of bed when they declared that they were going to pass out from hunger - and though I sent them downstairs for fruit there was none in their reach.

So, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed in order to make some coffee and we all voted on waffles. Tiegan helped crack the eggs and measure the buckwheat flour, while Kea read and reread her Maplelea catalogue , scheming about how she could make more money to add to the $6 she has accumulated in allowance. Then we decided to see how some of the seeds we had planted are doing, and drew/photographed the changes we observed. Kea practiced her violin, I continually pulled Ryland off the dining room table as he can now climb up on all of our chairs EVEN THOUGH we have them on their sides to prevent his climbing, and tried to do some dishes.

Then the girls got involved in an elaborate game with their Maplelea dolls, involving tights, leotards and 'school' (which usually involves Kea yelling at them and insisting that they practicing handwriting. I dunno?!!!) I took advantage of their busy-ness, and the fact that Ryland was playing with my cell phone, to pack snacks, finish up dishes, grab a shower and get dressed.

Lunch, and then packing us all into the co-op car at the end of the street to head to the beach. We had signed up for a field trip through the Young Naturalist Club all about pond peeking and beach exploration, so met a few friends at Spanish Banks to spend a sunny afternoon getting mucky and finding all sorts of critters (a perfect way to celebrate Earth Day!) I've uploaded a few photos on flickr, though I'm finding it exceedingly difficult these days to take photos on outings, with Tiegan often needing an extra hand, Ryland unhappy to be on my back for long, and many dangerous situations (like water and drop-offs) that he is constantly drawn to. However, I keep trying!!!!!

Following that, we made a trip to Kids Books in order to pick up the second book of Harry Potter on CD, and we also discovered a new history series called The Canadian Flyers so decided to try a few of them out. When we got home, all of the neighbourhood kids were home from school, so they played together in a backyard, gathering herbs and plants and making potions for an hour or so. Ryland napped so I read and puttered, and then when Jamie got home he took all the kids out for a bike ride while I warmed up dinner. Bath, books and bed, and now we're just trying to convince Ryland that he too should go to sleep. What is with toddlers who are too busy to sleep?!!!

Anyways, I know it sounds crazy busy, but actually I found today a perfect mix of quiet time at home, and fun outings with friends. I'm hoping the sun sticks around for a few more days!

How our journey to homeschooling began......

I was picking the girls up from the local community centre childcare after Ryland's Mother Goose class last Thurs. I ran into a mother there who I knew when Kea was very little, and we hadn't seen each other for years so we spent a few minutes catching up on our lives. The subject of homeschooling came up (NOT because I brought it up - I tend to avoid bringing it up as I hate most of the awkward conversations that follow. However, now that Kea is 7 1/2 I'm noticing that it is increasingly obvious as she's never in school, so it inevitably comes up) and the mother IMMEDIATELY got very defensive about all the reasons that she couldn't possibly homeschool and why they chose to send their daughter to french school so that she could learn her mother's native tongue, and how perhaps one day they could try it but she doesn't know if she would have the energy, etc. And the conversation just brought home to me yet again why I really resist discussing the subject.

So, I would love to start sharing more of our philosophies here, and more about our journey so far, but under one condition. I'm going to write about what is working for our family, what seems to make the most sense to us at the time (recognizing that it all changes over time), and what we believe in. It does not mean that I feel it is the best for ANYONE else, I don't feel I sit above everyone else, nor do I think our decisions are the best possible decisions ever. Some days I wonder if we wouldn't all be happier living someone else's life - I don't think there is a perfect answer, just what works for each family. We are on a journey to figure out what works best for the five very different personalities making up this family that we call the Five McKays, and I'd like to share many of our thoughts without feeling the need to get into the awkward dance of defensiveness, insecurity and envy. Okay?!!!

And with that long preamble.....

I had always thought about having babies, from the time I was 10 and was witness to my baby brother's birth. I used to pore over baby magazines, read Le Leche League materials, and watch other families with their babies. I knew I wanted lots of kids, and I had lots of ideas about how I wanted to raise them. At first it had a lot to do with natural parenting, homebirthing, breastfeeding, cloth diapering and then as my first grew and I continued to read and meet with other parents, I began to think about schooling. I always assumed that I would send my kids to school. I looked very seriously into Waldorf, though came to terms with the fact that I loved the younger years there, and I really love the esthetics of Waldorf, but ultimately it was too expensive, too far away and I wasn't thrilled with the older years. I looked at various alternative schools, and also fully agreed with the philosophy of supporting your neighbourhood school - walking to school, having your kids home for lunch, and getting very involved to make it a better school. Then I met a few homeschoolers and began talking to them. Hmmmmm, what they were describing sounded great to me too. Although kindergarten looked fun, by grade 3 and 4 the joy in learning seemed to disappear for most kids. I didn't want to be fighting over homework in the evenings, I would miss my kids during the best hours of the day, and something didn't sit right with me about my kids spending huge chunks of their waking hours sitting in boxes with artificial lights and learning things they didn't really care about.

I was quite torn, and finally decided to just try out homeschooling for Kea's kindergarten year. My logic went that it would be easier to put her into school for grade one, rather than pull her out if it wasn't working after she'd gotten used to school and made her friends there. The one thing that made me lean more to homeschooling than school was all of the literature about how busy kids were these days. I am adament that my kids have lots and lots of free time to play dress-up, playmobile, muck around in the back yard and live full, imaginative lives. And there's no way they could do all of that if they went to school AND did all of the extra-curricular things that they loved so much. So it came down to either they go to school OR they continue with their extra-curricular activities. And ultimately, it was school that seemed like the bigger waste of time so we chose to keep them in all of the extra-curricular activities that they loved so much, give them tonnes of time to play and learn as young kids need, and keep them out of school. Obviously the kindergarten year went very well, and now Kea would be in grade 2 if she were in school, and she has declared that she never wants to go to school. And of course, the further along this journey we go, the more I read and the more I watch my kids, I am coming to peace with the fact that this is the right decision for us.

And I think I've written enough for now - there's so much I could babble on and on about, and I will in future posts, but for now, a brief overview of our beginnings! Feel free to ask questions, and I'll try to answer them on another day when I feel inspired!!!!!

Yay, spring is back!

Ryland, busy making mud
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Today was a lovely day spent out-of-doors in the bright sunshine. The girls both got new bikes, and then they spent hours hanging out in the hammocks, planting seeds and creating magical potions in the cauldron. Ryland was somewhat interested in the sandbox, with all of the trucks and dinosaurs Tiegan loves so much, but ultimately he spent hours just stirring water, playing with the dirt, and then discovering the joys of mud! I can't believe how old he's looking these days - almost 14 months, and totally 'talking' at us, running at full speed, insistant that he can do anything the girls do, and such a character!!!!!!

So, most of the snow is now gone. This morning the kids woke up bright and early, and excitedly sought out all of the winter clothes I'd so hopefully packed away a couple of weeks ago. They romped around for a couple of hours, creating sculptures and snowpeople, throwing snowballs and slipping and sliding along our deck. Then by this afternoon, Tiegan, Ryland and Jamie were at our local park, enjoying a beautiful sunny spring day again. Such odd weather.

Kea and I were at the ballet this afternoon - this month it was Peter Pan and I really thought they did a good job of it. Not so much great ballet during it, but a lot of fun with the sets and the storyline. A fun ballet to take the kids to!!!

Still no luck in finding our remote. Perhaps if we keep on cleaning, it'll appear. Today I found two purple crystals hidden deep in a pocket, a long forgotten t-shirt and lots of play money. More to add to our decluttering pile!

One of my favourite blogs did an activity with their kids that sounded like a lot of fun - inspired by this website, they left all sorts of fun messages in library books, on bus benches and coffee shop cream stations. Perhaps the next time we do a trip to the library I'll inspire the kids to leave some art - I like the idea of giving someone a smile and a moment to pause during an otherwise hectic day!

Jamie is sitting next to me researching composting toilets for the Barth. OH, we can build our own. Hmmmmm, we could put food scraps into it. Ummmmm, what would we do with the "compost" for over a year?!!!!

And those are all of my thoughts at the end of a long day. My throat is sore and I'm determined to go to bed early to make sure it doesn't develop into anything more. There's a brutal but quick stomach flu going through the city that I keep hearing about and I'm just waiting for it to hit our household. It seems every play date we have, the next day one member from that family is puking, and today Jamie's park buddies just emailed to let us know that yup, one of the girls is puking tonight. That's 4 kids we've played with in the past 7-10 days, odds are we're gonna get hit soon!!!!!!!! Really time to find that DVD remote control, if we're going to be stuck on the couch.....

Uh, okay.....it is April 18th today, we are well into spring with cherry blossoms everywhere, tulips and daffodils, getting ready to celebrate Earth Day in a few days. And we just looked out the window and it is SNOWING. Huge snowflakes, sticking to the ground and at this point there's already 3-4 inches piled up. CRAZY!!!!!

We cannot find the remote control to our DVD player. Which is only slightly annoying, as we can press play on the actual DVD player, we just can't change the menu to watch any of the special features. Tonight we tried to find it, and in our searching we discovered 3 dirty spoons and a ball inside of a drum, a playing card in the guitar, three cars in our book basket, but no remote. It seems that our third toddler is a very busy stasher. Any ideas where he might have put our DVD remote control?!!!!

36

Kea's birthday card to Jamie
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

So, Jamie turned 36 on Tue - closer to 40 than 30. Somehow that seems like a big deal, I don't know - 40 seems like one of those ages that will take AGES to get to when you're young, and then before you know it, you've accumulated a marriage, a house, three kids and there's 40 staring you in the face. Crazy how fast time flies. I'm just glad that I get to deal with many of these emotions vicariously through Jamie - I'm still MUCH closer to 30 than I am to 40!!!!!!

Usually we have a big breakfast in bed for the birthday person, with gift opening and song singing. But on Tue. Jamie had to fly off to Victoria for the day, so instead we celebrated in the evening with his requested beer, pizza and kung-fu movies! Of course, it was specialized beer from a local brewery, fire-oven pizza with roasted vegetables, and "Shaolin Soccer", hardly a classic Kung-Fu movie, but all fun nonetheless!!!!! May 40 seem so young many, many, many happy and healthy years from now.

Ryland's new water table

Ryland's new water table
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Okay, so with some of Ryland's birthday money we picked up this fun water table for him to play with on the back deck. My vision was of it giving me some free time to do other things while he was happily occupied pushing boats around, creating currents and lifting blocks with the crane. His vision, however, was of ONE MORE thing to climb upon and give his mother heart-attacks with! AGGGHHHHH!

Hello all!

Just wanted to post, despite my complete inertia and absolute exhaustion, to let you know that we're all alive and very well, just pretty preoccupied with daily life as a family of five. Phew, lots of needs to be met!!!! However, I've been thinking of lots of things that I'd like to blog about, and Jamie's even talking about contributing so we can make this a true family blog, so hopefully there's exciting things to come!

For now, though, it's just me, rambling on about our weekend. The sun shone, the snow of the mountains beckoned to us from our bedroom window and so we spent Sat. cross-country skiing on Cypress Mountain. INCREDIBLE. A perfect way to spend a Sat. Left us a little sunburned and with sore legs, but contented nonetheless! Even little miss Tiegan had a blast, she was such a trooper slogging her way up hill after hill after hill, all on the promise of what goes up must come down. And boy does she go fast when she decides to go down!!!!!! (Kea was at a sleepover on Bowen Island, so she missed this final taste of winter for a while)

Today was a stay-at-home, skip-out-on-the-kids-symphony and play-with-neighbours kind of day. Everyone met up at Julia and Nate's house in order to swap seeds, plant a bunch, dig and scheme about sharing mulching tools and chainsaws. The kids ran from yard to yard, playing, mucking about in the dirt and scoring food wherever they could. And I had a full day of cleaning and sorting, which sounds dull but felt so great, almost therapeutic!!!!! Plus, I was able to listen to the radio UNINTERRUPTED while I puttered, and I rarely had to consider anyone elses needs! Just what I need to feel refreshed for a Mon morning!

Okay, now off to crawl into bed (with aired out blankets and freshly washed sheets - I love the smell of sheets hung out on the line. Yay for spring!) to read my book. Happy Monday morning to you all!

Jamie and I have been watching the first couple of seasons of a TV series called Weeds, about a widowed suburban housewife who turns to selling pot to bored housewives in order to make ends meet. The first season I found a little boring and predictable, though I loved the music and the premise intrigued me. The second season I'm enjoying much more - lastnight Jamie and I were laughing our heads off about this great snippet on masturbation (be forewarned that it is a bit vulgar!) and I now want to hold onto the link for when Ryland gets to the age when we need to 'have the talk' with him!!!!!!!

American Eagle

American Eagle
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Okay, so I've finally uploaded the U.S. portion of our recent travels, and you can check the photos out on flickr.

We've been back for almost a week now, and it seems surreal that we were ever gone! Though it's taking me a little bit to get back into the swing of things here - it sucks to have Jamie at work every day! We're really enjoying our weekend together, lazing about and catching up on various projects. Spring cleaning as it were!!!!!