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Me

a bit about

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I love reading the About Me page. It's filled with history, individuality and a back story. And everyone has a back story. This site is here to offer encouragement, to share some hope and to build community. I've lived through tragedy, loved wholly and learned to parent mostly by winging it. Years ago, without knowing anyone else who was doing it, my husband and I decided that I'd homeschool our kids. Wait what?! What an adventure those 17 years were. Oh, some of the questions I've gotten over the years...Now, the kids are older and I have the time to write, share some attempts at wit and most importantly, to encourage other moms along your way, however your About Me page might read. 

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Throughout my childhood, my family lived in Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and back to Ontario again - 9 houses, 7 schools, across 3 provinces by the time I'd finished high school. My dad was in the moving business so maybe he thought, "Hey, free move...Let's pack up!" Moving across the country a few times forces you to grow a lot - new friends, thick skin, adaptability, and a resolve to never EVER smoke after being stuck in a Pontiac Parisienne, windows shut, cruising along the Trans-Canada Highway with two chain-smoking parents for days on end.

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My parents both immigrated to Canada from Holland as young children and so wherever we made our home we always had rich ties to the Dutch community (gezellig, oliebollen, liefje - fond Dutch words in my memory bank :). They raised us to believe in God, to laugh often and to always have the coffee brewing for the continuous stream of pop-ins that made their way into our kitchen. 

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On Valentine's Day in February, 1986, just two months after moving to Ottawa from Manitoba, my parents said good-bye to the four of us kids as we left for school. They were driving to the Niagara area for the weekend to be reunited with much of my mom's side of the family while my older sister and I stayed at home and my two younger siblings stayed with family in the area. On their drive home the following Monday, our parents were in a car accident that took both their lives. I was 14 and my siblings were 16, 12 and 7 years old. Obviously, this changed the trajectory of our young lives forever... 

​I've done some travelling, worked hard for two university degrees and met lots of memorable people along this life's journey. The most memorable of them all was a fantastic quesadilla maker, who I married only 11 months after our first date. Twenty-five years later, Tony is still the better part of me. We've managed to grow our three little children into their late teens and twenty-somethings with only one broken bone between the the lot. We live in the tiniest little stone schoolhouse you ever did see, built in 1862, five years before Canada was even a country. We 'survive' with one bathroom, no garage and being in each other's faces and spaces ALL the time. And we wouldn't change a thing. OK, yes we would. I have a list in my daytimer. But for some reason we just LOVE this little place and its history and the property it sits on and the location and how it forces us to be in each others faces and spaces ALL the time. Tony and I picture ourselves here for a long, long time. 

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I love my veggie garden, I go woozy over my row of peonies in June and if there's any old wooden furniture lying around, I'll get my sander out to make it into something new.

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Thanks for reading. Thanks for your comments, questions and encouragements. I look forward to getting to know you, in person if possible. The coffee pot is seriously almost always on :)

Julie

PS. A lot of people enjoyed reading about our homeschool journey through my kids lenses. If you're interested in Abby, Lauren and Lucas' perspectives, you can find them here. 

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