Peace Venture Mama: January 2015

Moms Supporting Moms

Bry and I moved to Forest nearly eight years ago. Neither of us growing up in a place much different than here. Forest was our half-way point between jobs, friends and family.

It was hard to find commonality in our new hometown when neither of us grew up here, played sports here or worked here. We weren't just around the corner from our close friends to be able to stop in for a drink or slide into mom's for dinner on a weeknight and it could sometimes feel lonely.

Having a child a few years later gave us something in common with others around us. Becoming parents opened a gate to new friendships.

Ryker was a few months old when we ventured out to an Infant Massage session at the local early years centre. I connected with a mom there who invited me to a weekly play group she was part of and she has since become a really good friend.

Visits to the early years centre and our weekly get togethers formed a great support system for us new moms. We compared parenting notes, snacked and laughed while the babies laid next to one another chewing on toys and stealing soothers. Most importantly, we got out of the house to spend time with other women experiencing the same struggles and at the same time a new overwhelming love that comes with motherhood and I think that created a sense of sanity and security for us.

We spent a lot of that first year of our babies lives together, watching them grow from swaddled and sleeping to running around and everything in between.

We don't all see each other as often as we'd like anymore now that the babies are preschoolers. Some moms go back to work and families welcome more babies and days get hectic. When we do get together it's amongst this crazy, beautiful chaos of scattered toys, sticky fingers, racing little feet, laughing, crying, hitting and hugs.

It's not as often, but I feel we're still all connected by a bond we built as we came into this new skin. A bond built during that new, beautiful and scary state of motherhood. I'll always be grateful for that support system and these friendships.

Jan. 13, 2014

Memories made, many more to come

My mom gifted us a Memories Jar for Christmas in 2013 and we did our best to remember to fill it with notes of significance, big or small, through 2014. Capturing the moments, the fun, the laughs, the accomplishments, the beauty, the love, the milestones, the lessons and the blessings we were able to create an amazing keepsake!

•••

We wrapped up 2014 with a beautiful circle of family members who have never been together in the same place at the same time. Flying in from different parts of Canada and pulling up stools to our Florida poolside Tiki bar where we celebrated a birthday, wedding anniversary and New Years Eve milestone and created so many fun memories and firsts for the little man.

He was in the pool from the minute we arrived that first night until the night before we left. He felt the white sand between his fingers and toes and pressed seashells to his ear to listen to the sound of the ocean. We saw dolphins swimming the shore and again on a boat tour just before the motion of the water put him to sleep in my lap. We didn't let a rainy day get us down and we hit the bowling lanes for some indoor fun. In the evenings he was up late into the night among the grown-up fun playing Taboo that made us laugh a million times so hard we cried.

The first memory of 2015 dropped into the Memories Jar has been 'a beautiful sunset

with family on Anna Maria Island, Florida'.

A pretty great start to a new year that awaits the arrival of our new baby.

•••

Welcomed back by the freezing cold, through the door held wide-open to the ambition and excitement that comes with a new year, my drive is in full force as I continue to create my ideal freedom lifestyle that allows more focus on family time and chasing ventures that truly inspire me.

Here's to you and the beautiful memories and successes coming your way in 2015!

Jan. 7, 2014

Tidings of comfort and joy

My feelings around Christmas tradition have been ever changing over the years in attempting to flow with different family dynamics, and most of those changes from what we enjoyed 20 years ago have felt sad and unsettling.

This year Ryker was feeling the Christmas buzz for the first time and, as parents, it was our most exciting Christmas yet as we rekindled a child-like spirit through him.

I gave baking Christmas cookies one last chance and concluded, with relief, that I'm over pretending it's something I should enjoy and vow to replace the icing and sprinkles with traditions of magic and stillness, swapping an overwhelming sleigh-full of gifts with the strength of memories that will give my family a home. Moments, warmth, love and the glow of twinkle lights that will forever bring them a sense of comfort and joy.