“This is just a drill”

Posted in Moments of Motherhood, Parenting by

How did your lockdown drill go today, kiddo?’
‘It was OK, but I just don’t like doing them.’

On Saturday, March 24, thousands, if not millions, of students and their supporters marched and took a stand against gun violence. I’ve been contemplating airing my thoughts on this topic for quite some time but have never been able to put everything together in a cohesive manner. So, while this post may be a bit of a jumbled mess, I think it’s still an important matter to address as a parent …

Never did I think growing up that there would be more than just fire drills at school. What has happened to society where it is required for students of all ages to practice lockdown drills as well?

The quote at the top of this post is actually an exchange between Isla and I, about a month ago when her school had their second lockdown drill of the year. I can understand why a 5-year old wouldn’t like doing the drills, and I have to give her teacher so much credit for being able to calm the imaginative minds of 20 kindergarteners during these drills. When I asked Isla what she thought of them, she said, “It makes me feel like there’s a savage animal in the school…” It’s a sad truth when it happens for real.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to explain to children why they need to have these drills to begin with. Once upon a time, fire drills were the only thing we were required to practice two or three times a school year “just in case.” To now have to practice being quiet and pretending your classroom is empty incase there’s a “savage animal” in the school that wants to hurt you … it’s just heartbreaking.

It hurts that society has come to a place where these drills have to happen, and so, so many things need to change before our children can go back to just practicing fire drills. There needs to be more than just finger pointing to stop these tragic events from reoccurring. How many more people need to die before the US government goes, “Okay, enough is enough?” Lives matter more than centuries-old amendments.

I hope that one day my daughter won’t have to do lockdown drills and that she can go back to not liking normal things, like roasted broccoli and cleaning her room. That one day she doesn’t have to worry about savage animals running through the halls at the school. That one day we can go back to just having fire drills.

One day needs to come soon.

Weekend Update (Spring Break Edition)

Posted in Spring Break, Weekend Update by

It’s back to reality today as Spring Break is over and real life resumes … at least for the next four days as the Easter long weekend starts on Friday.

We had a wonderful week off and while we didn’t tackle everything on the Spring Break list, we still had a great balance of lazy days and fun activities! Here’s what we ended up getting up to during our break:

{Monday}
The girls and I headed out to visit some friends at their farm out of town for the day! It had been far too long since we had seen them last, so everyone was super excited to get together. Isla and Norah had a blast being “farm kids” for the day, feeding cows, petting quail, and collecting chicken eggs. They were both thoroughly exhausted when we got home, so I call that a good visit!

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{Tuesday}
Isla has not one, but two birthday parties to attend this week, so we went out to choose some birthday presents for the guests of honour! After that we went to the Dollar Store and the girls picked out a couple of “treats” for themselves; Isla got a couple of crafty items to keep her busy for a couple of hours, and both her and Norah got Shopkins toys. It was just enough to keep them busy while I worked on finishing up some homework that was due, so I call it a win!

{Wednesday}
We had a bunch of errands to run downtown and then we met up with my mom and her coworker for lunch. The rest of a day was fairly lazy: We watched copious amounts of Netflix and cartoons and rested as we were also all battled colds.

{Thursday}
I decided to make it a lazy morning and we popped popcorn, cozied up on the couch, and watched the movie Ferdinand. It was a really cute movie and I think the girls watched it three more times before our rental expired! After Norah’s nap in the afternoon we went out and ran a few quick errands in a friggin’ monsoon, and then we resumed living the lazy life at home.

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{Friday}
This was probably the busiest day of the week! I had an exam to write first thing in the morning and a job interview in the afternoon, so the girls both hung out at Kyle’s mom’s for the day!

My exam went fairly well and I felt pretty good leaving it. I had a little bit of time between that and my interview, so I enjoyed a little bit of quiet time at home by myself before getting ready for my job interview…

Full disclosure: I applied on a bit of a whim for this job and didn’t really expect to get a call, but low-and-behold, I did! I’m not sure how things will pan out, but I’ll put it down for experience since it’s been a loooooong time since I’ve ever interviewed for a position. (The last interview I had was for an internal position at the paper, so that was a solid 6ish years ago.)

Anyway, after the interview I picked the girls up and we ordered Chinese food for dinner. Kyle also brought me home a Blizzard as I was fully willing and wanting to eat my feelings that night.

{Saturday/Sunday}
Saturday was Kyle’s only day off, so Isla got to hang out with him for a bit and go for a “noisy truck ride” while he ran some errands in the morning. Norah and I hung out at home and she was being especially miserable. I ended up putting her down for a nap just after 11 and she slept for a loooooong time! Clearly she needed it. Kyle’s aunt and uncle came over for a visit in the afternoon, and we also had friends staying the night as they were in town for a wedding. Also, another one of Kyle’s friends came over to play some SNES Classic, so we ended up having a pretty good visit!

Sunday I had to go pick up a patio set Kyle found on Kijiji, so I picked up his uncle as he was the “hired muscle” and dropped the girls off at my mom’s. It turned out to be a great set for an awesome price, and we’re happy to finally have some furniture on our deck! (Now if only the weather would stay warm …)

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After we got everything unloaded I went back down to my mom’s for some lunch, then the girls and I came home. Norah fell asleep on the way home, so Isla and I hung out in my bed and watched Netflix until it was time to get dinner in the oven.

That’s about it! Now it’s back to the grind and a busy few weeks as Isla heads back to school and dance, and starts swimming lessons for the next 5 weeks. No rest for the wicked, that’s for sure!

How is/was your Spring Break? Do you get one or two weeks off?

Race Recap: The Spring River’s Run Off 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by

I wouldn’t say that this past Sunday’s run was the race that I was training for, but with it being the first of the year I suppose that it is true!

This would be the first “competitive” 5k I’ve participated in and to say I was anxious about would be an understatement. I mean, I had a look at how many people had signed up and I instantly got nervous. I perhaps will have to not pay attention to that in the future so I don’t psych myself out, but regardless, I ended up being pretty damn happy with how everything went.

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Obligatory pre-race photo, courtesy of Kyle’s mom.

The sun decided to come out and DEAR LORD THANK YOU, because it was so cold otherwise! I’m glad I decided to wear a long sleeve and grabbed a sweater to wear before the race started. Spring may be in the air but winter is definitely still lurking about like a creepy uncle. So, yay for sun! I was also thankful for the nice, flat course because hills are actually the devil and I haven’t trained for them at all. (One day I will, I swear.)

There were about 20 participants in the 5k portion of the race and we started about 20 minutes after the 10k runners. (Which included Kyle and his stepdad.) Three runners immediately took off flying and I lost sight on them by the 1k mark, but I stuck with my plan on just pacing myself and not burning out too soon.

My feet were freezing and I couldn’t feel my toes for a bit, but I felt pretty good up until about the 2km mark when my knee started bugging me a little and my side started cramping up, so I slowed myself down for a few metres. By this time a lot of the 10k runners were also coming through to finish, but as I’ve mentioned in the past, the running community is amazing and had nothing but encouraging words as I trucked along.

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Somewhere between around the 2km mark, clutching that cup of water as if my life depended in it, haha! (Photo by David Graham)

Nothing was sweeter than seeing that “1km to go” sign and I managed to keep my pace going and felt strong heading toward the finish line. My Fitbit clocked me at 29:59 but my official bib time was 29:04, a new PB for me! I ended up finishing 5th in the 5k and 2nd in my age group. (Hashtag: Humble brag, lol!)

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All that technical stuff

We hung around for pizza, door prizes (I won a toque and Kyle got a restaurant g/c), and awards because Kyle and his stepdad both medaled!

So, overall, I’m super satisfied with how I did. I wasn’t sure if my early morning treadmill sessions would be enough but I suppose I proved myself wrong! Now I plan on taking a short break from training to let my poor legs recover before I start training for the next one!

Oh, and a huge shout out to the Kamloops Ridge Runners for putting on this event! I cannot imagine the logistics behind organizing a road race, so thanks to them for doing such an amazing job! I’m looking forward to the Blackwell in May!