Maybe it’s the time of year, closing in on Xmas as we are right now. Maybe it’s the adult onset ADHD I seem to be developing. Maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve been sick and am now feeling overwhelmed by all my blessings. I started out today thinking I was going to blog about bargains this weekend, or maybe the Santa Claus Parade in London tomorrow night. But then I started doing email and I began chatting with someone I hadn’t really talked to in a long time. I started telling them about all the wonderful things my eight-year-old…
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You could probably say it’s been a really sucky week at the Schuck house. In fact, I’ll go one step further I think we’ve redefined the sucky week here at my house. You know your week is sucky if you are finally getting over the H1N1 and feeling better slowly and then doofus driver guy pulls a U-turn from the righthand side of your vehicle, swerving directly in front of your van so that you jam brakes on and slam into doofus. You know your week is sucky if you spent a whole day getting lovely insurance crap worked out and rental vehicle in place.…
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Many days special needs parenting is a challenging proposition. It’s weighing do I go to work out of town for the day and Some of you may know I went to Toronto for a speaking thing yesterday at a press conference. Sometimes I do this when someone calls me to advocate for an issue I care about then I do go out of my way to attend press conferences. That meant my husband took my kids to and from school and took the day off work. I went to the event – not my first rodeo. Press conferences and speaking…
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The most horrific thing imaginable to most parents is the death of a child. Perhaps that’s why so many of us were deeply saddened and worried by the death of Evan Frustaglio, a 13-year-old hockey player who fell ill and died of H1N1 shortly after visiting London last weekend for a hockey tournament. The handsome looking young Toronto boy, scarcely old enough to have been called a teenager fell sick so fast and deteriorated quickly, then he began to come around again – only to die in his father’s arms during a bath at his home. Today was the funeral for the young man…
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I did a quick search on twitter this afternoon for something called the NaNoWriMo because there was so much chatter on the topic and I found out that this is a rally call for National Novel Writing Month. This is, for various reasons, not something I will partake in. I have a bit of trouble with the let’s write as fast as we can just to spit a novel out school of writing. Call me uncool. Don’t care. There is also a NABOPOMO in reaction to this which is national blog posting month. Closer to my heart is what I…
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Very few could argue with the title of this book, Character Is The Key, by Sara Dimerman. It is to many parents an obvious goal of good parenting, teaching a child moral fibre and building great people, leaders and compassionate adults. But how to get there? It is so easy to get caught up in the daily ins and outs of parenting that character-building could easily be a topic that is neglected or placed on a backburner. For this group, Character Is The Key, subtitled How To Unlock The Best In Our Children And Ourselves, could be a worthwhile guide causing one to…
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I sat through an interesting parent conference the other day intended for those who are in their school parent teacher associations or home and school associations or parents seeking to become more involved in education. The topic at first seemed cut and dry but the speaker from Saskatoon got me thinking about the role of parents within their child’s school and how best to spend my time within the various committees, boards and non profits with which I am involved. Dr. Debbie Pushor, of Saskatoon, told a cafeteria full of parents attending the Thames Valley Parent Involvement Committee’s yearly gathering…
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This is a super quick Friday roundup of events in and around London, Ontario this weekend. I don’t usually do this but as I tallied up all the things happening here this weekend I began to get really excited and wondered what I will have to forego as a result of a jam packed social schedule. So here it is: a very big craft show starts today at Western Fair and runs all weekend. Also there at the same time in the special events building is the annual London public library Friends of the Library book sale. I have never…
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I was never really a huge fan of Halloween until I first became a homeowner and then became a mother. Now, I know what all the fuss is about and I truly enjoy the decorating, the leadup, the choosing little costumes, sometimes even sewing them myself. And what’s not to like about candy. The best part of the night for me is handing the candy out. I adore seeing the neighbour’s children all dressed up and find there’s something fun and magical about the whole affair. So from the start when my tots were young I looked for ways to have…
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So it seems in the wake of a massive Ehealth screwup in which it has been established that billions of provincial dollars were wasted, we have the Ontario government declaring war on children. Huh? That’s right you read that correctly. War on children. In today’s London Free Press article Children Safety At Risk Over Funding Cuts, Patrick Maloney reported that Ontario’s many Children’s Aid agencies are facing massive funding cuts. London-Middlesex Children’s Aid Society will see $1.2 million less this year from the province. Elgin County will receive an estimated $307,000 less. And the list goes on throughout the province. It has…