by Heather Plett | May 24, 2007 | Maddie, rain
The pot of gold may very well be at the end of our street!
Maddie’s ready to start digging for it.
Right after she’s finished skipping through the puddles. 
Eventually, the sun came out, the rainbow faded, and it was time for some swinging.
Conversation just before the following video was taken:
Me: Maddie – you’re going to fill your boots with water!
Maddie: I KNOW! That’s a GOOD thing! That’s what I’m HERE for!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GB6YEbI9jA]
In the end, the boot became a bucket for pouring water on the teeter-totter.
I think I found the gold – somewhere beneath the layers of mud on her face when she climbed in the tub.
by Heather Plett | May 23, 2007 | politics
My kids want to stay up late tonight. Not because there’s a movie they’re dying to watch. Not because there’s a sporting event that they can’t bear to miss the end of. Nope – they want to stay up so that they can watch the results of the provincial election. They’re pretty sure they won’t be able to sleep until they know who will be Premier. And their daddy (who’s currently out of the house volunteering for the candidate of his choice) couldn’t be more proud.
Yes, that’s right, our kids could very well be the only kids in Manitoba who begged to turn on the TV tonight so that they could watch the polls coming in. They know who’s running for every party in our riding, they can spout off the names of the leaders of all of those parties as though they were the finalists in American Idol, and they can do a bang-up job of mocking most of the campaign ads. And they can even tell you who Nellie McLung is and what year women got the vote in Manitoba (the first province in Canada, by the way.)
Thanks to Julie’s project over the weekend (which ended up consuming almost the whole family – yes, I suppose that makes us geeks), they could even list some of the policies of the four parties. Probably because our family already has a reputation (the same teacher marveled at Nikki’s political knowledge last year), Julie was invited to be the “director” of the mock election in her class. That meant that she had to prepare posters for each of the candidates, research the policies of all the parties, and prepare ballots for the whole class. (None of the other kids had work to do over the long weekend.) She did it as happily as some kids might have planned a birthday party or designed a video game.
Yeah, okay, so we’re raising little nerds. That’s perfectly alright with me. They get so caught up in the political machine that even a walk in the rain couldn’t deter them from joining me at the polls earlier this evening (okay, so the truth is, the rain added to the appeal – at least for some of them). For the first time ever (they’ve been to every federal, provincial, and municipal polling station with us since they were born) they were shooed out of the ballot box by a crotchety poll clerk. “Just in case they go to school tomorrow and tell everyone who you voted for.” Um – whatever. The sign on our front lawn was probably a good clue if any of their friends had really cared in the first place – but thanks for looking out for my privacy, Mr. Crotchety Poll Clerk.
Gotta go now – the election results are coming in…
by Heather Plett | May 20, 2007 | birthday
I turned 41 today.
Who knew 41 could feel so young?
Who knew I’d still know so little about the meaning of life?
Who knew I’d still have so many doubts and insecurities?
Who knew I’d still often feel like I’m just “playing house”?
Who knew I’d still get zits and blackheads like a teenager?
Who knew I’d still dream about “what I’m gonna do when I grow up”?
41 feels anticlimactic after 40. Last year there was a big party to celebrate. There was a new nose-piercing to mark the day. There was a jump out of an airplane to prove I’m still young and very much alive and haven’t lost my risk-taking abilities.
Today there is little other than an occasional “happy birthday” greeting or phone call, a supper with Marcel’s family, and an afternoon of quiet and perhaps even boredom. The weather’s unpleasant, two people in the family are sick, and there’s not much to do that can be done inside and doesn’t cost much money. I think I’ll go curl up under my blankie and read a few pages until my eyes drift shut.
Maybe I AM getting old if an afternoon nap is a suitable way to spend a birthday afternoon.
by Heather Plett | May 19, 2007 | Toronto, travel
I just returned from another business trip in Toronto. This is what I wrote in my lovely room at The French Connection bed and breakfast…
It is good to be here. In this place.
Good to wander on Queen Street where the city pulses with life.
Good to meander along the path at the bottom of the ravine where trees and bird song muffle the sounds of traffic far away.
Good to sleep in this lovely bed with smooth green sheets, while stripes of muted light reflect on the ceiling above me.
Good to eat with Karla and Mark and meet the beautiful and longed for baby Nate. Good to see them so in love with each other and their son.
Good to light the candle at the end of a long day and sip on a cup of tea brewed in a pretty white teapot.
Good to finally realize, after a long walk on the first day, that I have finally left the baggage of delinquent designers and projects past deadlines behind me for a while.
Good to eat Mexican food with Dan and talk about the places the open mind wanders.
Good to eat the bountiful breakfast Diane provides at her stylishly set table with the faint sounds of Vivaldi softening the room.
Good to talk to colleagues and associates with common visions and ideas, as well as common bumps and bruises.
Good to have lunch with Uncle Menno and to hear him use the word “repulsive” as his personal reaction to churches that won’t let women lead.
Good to wander in the drizzly rain with and without an umbrella.
Good to ride the subway, to hear the screech of the brakes and click-clack of the tracks, to feel the heartbeat of a traveler in my veins, and to watch the myriad of people coming and going.
Good to meet Sam and Pauline, fresh from Kenya, so out of place in their high-rise visitor suite in downtown Toronto but such gracious hosts even here.
Good to eat Indian food with people who have wandered the world in many directions and always found a way to value their place in it.
Good to be alone and let the solitude clear the clutter from my mind.
Good to feel confident and alive and on the road to something important as I present my ideas again and again to fresh faces at each meeting.
Good to listen to music in my room and let it move and soothe me.
Good to talk to travelers around the breakfast table – the American who left the air force, the Italian woman expecting her first baby, the Belgian computer programmer who surprises his colleagues by choosing b&b’s, and Diane, our host, who has traveled the world, lived in Africa, and found her calling making other travelers feel at home in her own comfortable space.
Good to feel equally comfortable surrounded by people or wandering alone.
Good to eat Diane’s fresh homemade croissants.
Good to wander around the mighty castle on the hill, committing the images of flowers to digital memory.
Good to find four good books at the Goodwill Store for a dollar each.
Good to be confided in by a new friend and kindred spirit.
Good to curl up in bed reading Of This Earth, almost as though my dad were reading over my shoulder, chuckling at the memory of his own Mennonite boyhood.
Good to have the fullness of these experiences and then go home to my beloved.
Good to be alive and feel it.
by Heather Plett | May 14, 2007 | parenting
In some of my favourite moments today, I got to watch my children pour their hearts into some of their favourite pastimes.
Like playing soccer…
planting a garden with Pépère (using his back-saving contraption)…
and dancing!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SnzTm5o3M]
Watching my sister parent also ranks as one of my favourite things to do.
Maddie’s ready to start digging for it.
Right after she’s finished skipping through the puddles. 
I think I found the gold – somewhere beneath the layers of mud on her face when she climbed in the tub.