by Heather Plett | Aug 1, 2006 | Uncategorized
We’ve all heard horror stories about nosy, intrusive in-laws who don’t know their place or don’t offer much support. Well, you won’t hear any of those horror stories from me.
I am blessed when it comes to in-laws. Truly blessed. In all respects – in my own family (sisters-in-law and brother-in-law) and Marcel’s. They are good people – all of them.
Yesterday, we celebrated Marcel’s parents’ 45th anniversary and his dad’s 70th birthday. Once again, I was reminded how lucky I am to have married into a good family. They are loyal, supportive, kind, generous, trustworthy, and gracious. They have always supported me and treated me well. They have done alot for us in our 13 years of marriage. No, they’re not wealthy and cannot shower us with material goods, but they give us a great deal of moral support which is worth alot more than the financial support would ever be.
In celebration of this special occasion, we honoured them in the way that we all knew would mean the most to them. We kept it small (they HATE to have a fuss made over them and are not fond of big parties), we didn’t make them the centre of attention (except for a small announcement by the train conductor), and we didn’t spend a huge amount of money on them. Our special day was spent riding the Prairie Dog Central, a delightful vintage train that takes you out into the country and stops at 2 small towns where there are farmers’ markets and small-town entertainment. It was about as good as it gets – a slow pace, a picnic lunch, a few treats along the way, and a day spent with their children and grandchildren.
Today, after the festivities were over and most of the family had gone back to work, Marcel and I and the girls went to help his parents with some of the yard work. They still have a big yard in the country, and it’s getting harder and harder for them to keep up with all the work. Marcel’s been helping them out a fair bit lately, and today, since I’m on holidays, I went along.
It’s a little hard for Marcel to watch them getting older. His dad is having trouble with his legs. Instead of walking to the garden at the back of the property, he rides his lawn tractor back and forth. He still keeps a big garden (partly because he likes to share the bounty with his kids), but it’s getting harder and harder for him to maintain it. Julie and I helped pick peas today, and later Marcel’s mom said she thought he enjoyed the company as much as he appreciated the help. Either way, I’m glad we did it.
There was a golden moment this afternoon that I wish I’d had a camera for. I was the last one in the garden (the heat was getting a bit unbearable for Marcel’s dad and Julie) and when I walked back to the house, Marcel’s parents and our three daughters were sitting in lawnchairs under the shade of a big maple tree. They were shelling peas together, talking and laughing as they did. I just stood and watched for awhile, feeling so blessed to have these good people in my life and my daughters’ lives.
As they get older, their world is getting increasingly smaller. They don’t go out much, can’t get around as much as they once could, and never travel farther than the city where we live (about half an hour from their place in the country). They don’t feel the need for travel or expensive things. They have few hobbies (Dad loves his garden and his lawn tractors, Mom reads the newspaper diligently). Their lives are fairly simple. But they are content with what they have. They’re happy when their children visit, and their greatest joy is their grandchildren.
They’re not perfect. They’ve made mistakes along the way (name one parent who hasn’t). But I thank God for them and for the many ways they’ve blessed me since I joined the family. I am lucky to have them as in-laws and my children are lucky to have them as grandparents.
(And now, if only Blogger would cooperate, I’d add a picture. Maybe later.)
by Heather Plett | Jul 30, 2006 | Uncategorized
Thanks to the generosity of my father-in-law and his bountiful garden, we shelled, chopped blanched, and bagged four bags of peas and eight bags of beans today. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s a start.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a gardener. It’s true. I don’t have the patience for it. When we first got married and bought our first house, we had a garden for awhile, because I just thought that’s what you do when you start a family. After all, I was raised by salt-of-the-earth farmers with Mennonite work ethics and values – surely I could at least manage a garden. Once we started having kids, though, and I kept working full time, I gave up, realizing I wasn’t very good at it and it was just adding unnecessary stress to my life.
But I’ve realized, despite my lack of gardening skills, that I quite enjoy the “laying up for the winter”. There’s something so grounding and “earth-motherish” about storing away food for your family.
I’m enjoying it so much, in fact, that I might consider trying a vegetable garden again next summer. I may have come up with a solution. I don’t mind the planting or the harvesting, but I suck at the maintenance stuff. Julie really enjoys gardening, and so she may have her first mini part time job. I told her I’d consider hiring her to keep the garden from dying and the weeds from taking over. Between the two of us, we might be able to make it work.
by Heather Plett | Jul 28, 2006 | Uncategorized
I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks. Initially, we’d planned to go on a family trip. At first we’d thought of going east – to visit our nation’s capital (Ottawa) and maybe make it as far as the coast. We almost always travel west and have never taken our kids east. But then our budget didn’t match our vision, so we had to scale down. Instead, we planned a trip west again – to Calgary and then to Abbotsford, B.C. – because we have lots of friends and family along the way and could spend less money on accommodations.
Alas, it was not to be. Lift just got too expensive. Around the same time we found out our childcare for Maddie for the coming year was going to cost us a couple of limbs, we also found out we owed our highly-paid-pump-‘em-out-like-an-assembly-line orthodontist an additional $3500 to put braces on Nikki’s teeth. (Yes, I said ADDITIONAL – he’s already gotten more of our money than I care to part with. And no, our insurance doesn’t cover it.) Add to that Marcel’s tuition for the coming year, and all those other pesky expenses (like making sure our children have food to eat) and our trip plans went the way of the dodo bird. Extinct. Kaput. Bye bye.
Sigh. Sometimes, I get discouraged with how much everything costs and how far we are from “getting ahead”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the decision to go from 2 incomes to 1 so that Marcel could go to school, nor do I regret the choices we’ve made to simplify our lifestyles and cut out some of our superfluous expenses. It’s just that sometimes I wish it were easier. Every six months or so, we look at our expenses and try to figure out what else we can cut to make it a little easier to make it to the end of the pay period without draining the accounts dry, but by now it feels like we’ve cut pretty well everything we CAN cut. Extra vehicle? Gone. Cell phone? Cut. Dinners in restaurants? Almost entirely extinct (except maybe once every six months on special occasions). Camper? Sold. Cleaning person? History. Vacations? Not any more. Electricity? Perhaps we could light our house with candles. Water bill? Don’t think my colleagues would appreciate it if I cut out showers.
Before you say “c’mon Heather, grab some perspective – there are people starving in Africa and you’re whining about a vacation” – yeah I know. I KNOW. I’ve SEEN those people in Africa. I’ve even delivered food to them, remember? I’ve met people like Paulina who barely have enough food for their kids, let alone a table to put it on. Believe me, my whining is not without some measure of guilt. But even though I’ve seen it, I still get bummed out when, once again, we have to tell the kids we won’t be going far from home this year – AGAIN.
Oh, I’ll get over it. And I’m sure we’ll have a perfectly lovely vacation right here at home. We’ll go to the beach, go for bike rides, visit our family, go camping (in a tent) near a lake somewhere – trust me, we’ll have fun. I just wish it were the more EXPENSIVE kind of fun, that’s all.
Trying to make the best of it and maintain a good attitude, I’m going to the bookstore at lunch time to buy this book. We’ll plan some interesting day-trips and in the end, I’ll probably say “oh this was JUST AS MUCH FUN as a visit to the coast would have been!” I hope.
p.s. On a happier note, an article that’s basically the same as this post appears in this week’s edition of the Western Producer. (Sorry – unless you’re a farmer in Western Canada, you probably can’t get it.) So it seems that, even though the money gods have thumbed their collective noses in my direction, the publishing gods are smiling at me. Now if only the publishing gods would convince the money gods to work together so that I’d get paid some real money for what I get published. I’m not talking the kind of money that buys me a couple of books or takes our family out for a rare meal in a restaurant – I’m talking the kind of money that pays for braces or preschool!
by Heather Plett | Jul 26, 2006 | Uncategorized
Well, our fabulous childcare plan is unraveling at the seams. Kari is still very willing to take Maddie in the afternoons, but the plan hinged on getting her into the preschool program that Kari’s daughter is going to in the mornings. Turns out this preschool program, which is offered by the local school division free of charge to people like Kari who live in the neighbourhood, will cost us $4000. Yes, FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! That’s $20/day for a half day program. That’s almost as much as Marcel’s university tuition! And this is the public school system, not a posh private school.
What doesn’t make sense is that in our school division, there is no free preschool program offered, as far as I know. The only option we have is the preschool program through the local community centres. And you have to pay for that. So here we are, living in the same city, with the same provincial education system, and she gets a free program in her neighbourhood, and we get nothing. Zippo. Nada.
For that kind of money, we might as well rent a cheap apartment in the school’s neighbourhood, use that as our address, and give the space away to a homeless person. At least we’d be doing a good deed in the process!
The kicker is that there are spaces available in the preschool program. Spaces that probably won’t be filled. But rather than let our kid in for free like the other kids in the neighbourhood, they’ll leave the spaces open. Sheesh.
Anyone have any ideas how to challenge the system?
by Heather Plett | Jul 26, 2006 | Uncategorized
It’s been so long since it rained around here that the girls and I couldn’t resist running outside and dancing in it! 
by Heather Plett | Jul 25, 2006 | Uncategorized
First of all, just let me say thank you for making a great product. My husband is thoroughly enjoying his new toy. He’s already downloaded hundreds of songs, and because there’s so much room, he even downloads a few for our daughters to enjoy. His great enjoyment of his iPod is obvious when we see him wandering around the house and yard singing at the top of his lungs to the music that’s only in his head. Last night, he was lying on the couch chuckling, and though it looked like he’d misplaced his marbles, it was simply because he’d added some Monty Python to his iPod. So trust me when I say that your product is much enjoyed in our household.
There’s just one tiny niggling thing I’d like you to address though. I’m wondering, with your access to vast numbers of brilliant electronics engineers, if you could possibly consider adding a new feature to your iPods. What I’d like to suggest is this… do you think you could install an automatic “wife speaking” shutdown mode? Here’s how it works – in all other respects, the iPod works like normal, but the minute the wife (or spouse, perhaps) begins to speak, the sound is turned off instantly and the wearer of the iPod is left with only the lovely sounds of his wife’s voice in his ear.
You see, I’m a little tired of talking to myself when I THINK my husband’s in the room attentively listening to me. I’ve said some brilliant, thought-provoking things, only to discover that he never heard a word of it and I might as well be talking to the drapery. I’m also getting a little tired of waving my arms in front of his face when I need his attention, and I’m SURE he’s a little tired of me tugging the earphones out of his ears and shouting “Hey iPod boy!”
I’m sure you wouldn’t regret adding this new feature to your product. Think of all the parents who would be thrilled to be able to use a “parent speaking” mode and actually get the attention of their engrossed teens. I know a few parents, and at least one wife, who will be forever in your gratitude. You may even sell a few extra to those parents who have been reluctant in the past.
So what do you think – can you do it?
