Making the most of what’s in front of us…

The last few months have been a learning experience for our house. Tim and I have learned that it was not our best parenting moment when we decided to stay home this winter because Hunter wanted to… WHAT WERE WE THINKING???  Who gives their kid the trump vote?? Hunter, who proudly claims that winter is his favourite season, doesn’t understand why we are not as thrilled as him when we wake up every day to a wintery world outside.

Since we are here, and winter won’t be leaving any time soon, we are trying to make the most of it… We hit preseason snowboarding at Mt. Sima in November, where they did a very impressive job building a terrain park on the bunny hill. We’ve never seen that many people on the rope tow! Tim and I have opted to go hiking instead of hanging with the mob of youth on the hill.

We skate with the Homeschool group for 90 minutes every Thursday and there are a core group of kids, Hunter included, that play an ongoing shinny game for the full 90 minutes. This has become Hunter’s new passion and we are often also at the rink on Wednesday afternoons for public drop in. The best part is that it runs from 3:00 – 4:15 so we often have the ice to ourselves!

We participated in speed skating lessons in November as part of a home school program with the local speed skating club. It was a fun learning experience for all of us and motivated Hunter to learn the skill of cross-overs.

We’ve had fun getting out on a local lake a few times with friends and playing boot hockey. The temperatures have been unseasonably warm (-5c to -10c) and that makes it much more fun to run around for hours outside. As part of Hunter’s new found passion, he’s the first on the ice and the last off.

This week Hunter started a carving class with the Northern Expressions Carving Studio. This is another homeschool program that we decided to organize based on the fun we had carving this summer. Day one was all about learning to draw the core first nation shapes. Eventually the kids will create paddles, bowls and inlaid plaques.

While it’s definitely not life at the beach with some surfing and biking sprinkled throughout the day, we are doing our best to be accountable for our own happiness and make active choices every day. I won’t pretend that it’s easy… it’s a conscious challenge that we are invested in!