children

Oooh, something shiny!

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Sometimes I wonder if people read this blog and think that my kids are the inspiration for all the creative stuff that we do.  It's a nice thought, but really, it's not true.  I get an idea, and I want to do it, and usually it's fun and engaging enough that my kids want to participate.  Honestly though, I was this way before kids. It goes like this. I get an idea.  Not a fleeting one.  My ideas are rarely fleeting.  Instead, they take hold and won't relent until I've followed through on it. Case in point:  While in Toronto, I had… [Read More]

have mama, will travel …

Posted on: by Carrie Mac
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  Not that long ago I wrote about how our kids are rarely apart, and now here I am writing about how I left Esmé behind and took Hawk with me to Toronto last week.  When Esmé was small, I took her along with me to Edmonton, and Victoria, and other authorly destinations.  Last year I left her home with Jack while I took a then 7-month-old Hawk with me to Nova Scotia, which was the first time that I'd left her overnight other than the debaucle that was Hawk's homebirth-turned-emergency-C-section.  Even then I busted out of the hospital early because… [Read More]

paperbag books

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My Auntie Ruth ... wow. She has the best ideas! The last time she was here, she brought out a couple of paper lunch bags that had been folded in half and stapled together with a long stapler. So what, right? So EVERYTHING! Once she explained what it was for, I got really excited. She uses them with her grade 3 students to make 'Me' books, with pages about their families and favourite things and such. And what makes these originally non-descript paper-bag books so marvelous? All the pockets and flaps and potential. First of all, you can't get much… [Read More]

glow sticks

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I don't remember glow sticks from my own childhood.  Did we have them?  Were they a thing?  I don't think so.  Coveted prizes in the cereal box, yes ... glow sticks, not so much. My first memory of them is from the raves I went to, almost twenty years ago now.  I remember pulsing music, heavy on the drum and base, heavy on the trance, and beyond that I don't remember a whole lot, being that it was a rave, after all.  It was the nineties.  Enough said.  Ecstatically. I remember the glow sticks, though.  Dark warehouse basements in the… [Read More]

the farm

Posted on: by Carrie Mac
1 Comment
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The other day we went to Maplewood Farm for the morning, bringing along fresh veggies for the bunnies and seeds for the birds. It's hard to say who gets more out of a trip to the farm.  Esmé loves planning and packing and doling out treats for the rabbits, and she especially adores the guinea pigs who room in with said bunnies.  Hawk loves the ducks and the chickens, and often just observes them and then screeches with glee.  He's very good about not running after them, which is ever so sweet.  Jack loves watching the kids interact with the… [Read More]

trumpet of the swans

Posted on: by Carrie Mac
1 Comment
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One of my favourite books as a child was E. B. White's Trumpet of the Swan.  When we landed in Whitehorse last week, the first thing I spotted was a large cut-out of a white swan at the side of the Alaska Highway that said "Swan Haven Open!" That's right, trumpeter swans! They're gathering in the Whitehorse area, waiting for their various nesting grounds to thaw. The lovely Rebecca's mother, Mary, is a Yukoner who knows all about birds.  She told us that a couple of scouts fly ahead each day to see if the nesting grounds are ready, and… [Read More]

Yukon, ho!

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The Yukon Young Author's Conference is an awesome two-day opportunity for teenaged writers to group together with author mentors.  They've had heaps of talented authors come up over the years (Susan Juby!  Ivan Coyote! W.O. Mitchell! Wayne Johnson!) and here I've been, politely declining for the last couple of years while my children were wee. This year when the lovely Sara Davidson (organizer, educator, pink-sparkly-goddess extraordinaire) emailed at the usual time, I said, "Yes, please!" And off I went. Sort of. Off I went, with my mom in tow so she could look after Hawk, who was going to come… [Read More]

a date with Esmé

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It's rare that Esmé and Hawk aren't together.  Esmé goes to her Lyceum class on Mondays, the odd errand by herself with just one parent in tow, and to the very occasional playdate.  Other than that though, they're a pretty solid pair. Jack and I asked Esmé if she'd like to go out on a date with just us. "No Hawk?" "He'd stay with Auntie while we're out." "But why wouldn't Hawk come too?" "We thought you might like to have some time with just Mama and Baba." "Oh. Okay."  She went to the closet to get her jacket, and… [Read More]

hungry wolf

Posted on: by Carrie Mac
1 Comment
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One of the Spider Magazines we got out of the library had a craft to make a monster head out of a cereal box.  It was pretty cool, but Esmé wanted to make a wolf, a la the Big Bad Wolf she so often hears about in fairy tales and books and stories. The first key to doing a craft with your older child is to set up your younger child with something wonderful.  In this case, a jar of elastic bands.  This kept Hawk busy while Auntie Ruth and Esmé and I set about building a wolf. A wolf… [Read More]

a prescription for terror

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Today, keep your small children from the news. Turn off your radio, and leave your screens dark.  Get off your phones, your computers, your networks. Go outside.  Dig the garden. Buy a carton of milk, a bright red apple. Take your children to the park. Resist the urge to commiserate with your neighbours about percieved danger at every corner. Talk about your plans for the summer, her new bike, his new tooth, the raccoon that keeps getting into the garbage. Don't talk about the awfulness, not while your children eat their snack. Don't talk about the fear, not while your… [Read More]
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