Friday, March 19, 2010

I love this time of year. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting warmer and the world is full of hope and newness again. It is time to order seeds for the garden and book time off for the summer.
This is what I am in the middle of doing. The kids and I are planning a couple of excursions this summer. Both to islands. The first one we know well and love, the other we are hopeful that we will fall in love and make some fabulous memories.
St. Joseph's Island, Ontario has many wonderful memories for me from my childhood, I spent most summers there. We have family and friends to visit and the joy and comfort of being 'home'. The 18-20 hour drive is a little daunting after out trip across the country, but it will be nice to be driving in the summer rather then the winter! This adventure will be taking place in July.
In August we are hoping to head to Prince Edward Island with our bikes in tow. The island is said to have some great biking trails that we are anxious to explore. We will soon begin to get ourselves ready physically and I am still trying to come up with a way to make Tommy's trip comfortable. A bike trailer will be good, but we may have to make some modifications. I will keep you posted on how this goes. We are open to any suggestions!
Now I am going to check out those seed catalogues...something that doesn't need much care maybe....
Happy planning!

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Travellin' Mom

When I was a little girl my Mom and I would jump on a Greyhound and head down the open road to my Aunt's house. I loved this time with my Mom. It was just me and her and what felt like all the time in the world. She would pack us fun treats, and we would look out the window at the world passing by, find pictures in the clouds over head and tell stories and visit.
I am sure my Mom has different memories of these trips, but I loved them. Maybe that is where I got my passion for travel.
Now I am the mom. I love to pile everyone into the van and go on grand adventures! Whether it is a day trip to the beach or farmer's Market, or a trip across three provinces it is all good.
My children, Jasper-13, Lily-11 and Tommy-9 have grown up this far with their adventure backpacks at the ready. We have made some great memories driving down the road.
We are now on one of our Grandest adventures yet. In the middle of February we loaded all of our belongings into the back of a U-haul, left all of our friends and family and begain a 5 day trip across Canada from Alberta to our new home in New Brunswick!

My hope with this blog is two fold. One to keep our loved ones in our lives and to record our experiences in this beautiful part of Canada. And two, is to report on our travel and experiences from a wheelchair point of view. You see Tommy does all of his exploring from the comfort of his chair. We are always on the look out for wheelchair access and places where we can include all of our family in the fun. Tommy is not one to be left behind. Infact I'm not totally convinced that he thinks there is anything different about him and I'm not going to be the one to tell him!

So if you would like to share in our adventure please feel free to jump on board make yourself comfortable and come along for the ride.

Passion fruit

Inside Tommy's locker this morning was an ugly, beautiful passion fruit. If you have ever seen one, you will know what I mean. It was left there by a wonderful new friend of mine. Last week some how, we got talking about passion fruit. I have never eaten on before. My friend has and they are one of her favorites. And this morning after the weekend this sweet person thought of me and left me this little gift.
It was the reassurance I needed to know that Tommy is in good kind, thoughtful hands.
You see, this morning I took Tommy to school. It is the beginning of week two at his new school. It is an adjustment for all children to start over. Making new friends, meeting new teachers, getting use to new schedules...And for Tommy it is even more so.
Tommy isn't able to ask questions, like...'"what are we doing next?", "when do I get to go home?', "who is that?", What's your name?". And walking away when he is uncomfortable or wanting to go somewhere else isn't an option either.
So it is no wonder that it has taken him a whole week to let me leave him. It has taken him that long to feel comfortable and for his Angels, I mean Aides to feel they were ready as well.
Tommy has 3 wonderful people working with him (one of which left me the treat!). Two are with him everyday and one is training so she will know him if a sub is needed.
I hope they know what an important job they are doing and the difference they are making in our lives. They have helped to make our new start comfortable and joyful. I hope I can remember to do the same for someone else.