a peek inside the fishbowl

18 Feb, 2019

Family Day 2019

Posted by andrea tomkins in: parenting

Family Day is a lot different when you are the parent of a 17 and 19-year-old.

Mark never got the day off, but I’m fortunate that I worked from home and made my own schedule for the most part. This was what our Family Day weekend looked like a mere four years ago. We’ve also gone XC skiing and walked in the woods and fed the chickadees. I remember making maple taffy, building snow forts (and making ice cream out of snow too!), and binge-watching Veronica Mars in our PJs. It’s a bit different now. First of all, it requires a lot less effort.

It’s reading week for the eldest and she brought two friends home with her, one of whom has never been to Ottawa before. Over the past couple of days they’ve skated on the canal, eaten BeaverTails, taken in the sights of Winterlude, shopped in the Byward Market, and gone skiing on the SJAM Winter Trail. Today, our youngest took the bus downtown with a friend. Afterward, she and I had a driving lesson. I spent most of the day writing and editing. I did my 30 minutes on the treadmill and prepped a batch of pizza dough for dinner. (I may also make bacon-wrapped water chestnuts! Yum.) I took my laptop into the family room and watched the birds flit back and forth from our feeder.

It’s a very different kind of Family Day for us now. I remember those old days fondly, when the girls were small and looked forward to whatever adventures came their way. Today it’s a bit less frantic, a bit less “oh my god, everything is closed including the LCBO,” and I’m fine with this. We made maple taffy last night and enjoyed it very much.


1 Response to "Family Day 2019"

1 | Claudette

February 18th, 2019 at 5:42 pm

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It’s still a nice day off, right? Ours are a bit older now too, tween and teen, and we took in the Auto show. Instead of running to an activity, which usually means ‘divide and conquer’, we spent a few hours wandering around beautiful cars.

You’re fortunate you can sit with a laptop someplace close to a window with birds flitting around. I love that image.

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My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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