Category Archives: Goals

blogger, Family, Goals, mom of boys, musings, radical sabbatical, Wordsmith

Be Moving Back to Vernon

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These last few months, I have been thinking that our family needs to move back to Vernon…. almost ten years here in K-City and, well, I am not sure what to say about it. In the last three months, I have ran into four friends from Vernon at Costco, the ski hill, for walks and I have realized the deepness of these friendships I really miss.

I miss those friends who:

~ knew me before I was a mom

~ knew my own mom

~ I spent time working with and on vacation with

~ walked through years of change involving birth and death

~ did Music classes with me when the boys were in preschool. (Such a sweet season)

Ten years ago we made the decision to move here as Steve was commuting to K-City, 45 minutes away from our house in Vernon, and he was seeing very little of us due to long hours and evening meetings. One day, yup one day, after we moved to K-city my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Five months later she had died.

As I sit down and have a serious conversation with the family about moving back to Vernon, the boys are all a “hard no”. They were 2, 4 and 6 when we moved to K-City and this is really home for them. They have activities they love, a neighbourhood that loves on them and freedom to move around the city with confidence.

And now I remember a story from a wise uncle. Uncle John owned a fabulous apartment near Commercial Drive in Vancouver. He decided that he wanted to live a bit more freely and travel more than he already did. He sold the Commercial Drive apartment and moved into a great rental apartment on Chestnut Street beside the Burrard Street bridge and one block from the beach. His views were incredible and the accessibility to Vancouver was amazing. If I lived in Vancouver, this is the area I would want to live.

Uncle John loved living in this apartment building and weathered the loss of his parents and his sister. His entire family of origin died in a these short few years. Then Uncle John heard that his old apartment was for sale again, after being fully renovated. He jumped at the chance “to go back”. He rebought his old apartment, moved in and realized he had made a terrible mistake. He had bought the apartment “to go back” to a time where his parents and sister were alive. He wanted to truly turn back time. After a few short months, he resold his apartment on Commercial Drive for a second time and again moved back into his amazing rental apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He was really happy and realized that you never can go back.

…and now as I ponder our family moving back to Vernon, his story has become my own. Why do I want “to go back” to Vernon? It is mostly because I want “to go back” to a time when my mom was alive and we had a wonderful circle of support around us. These have been lonely few years that have developed a deep well of resiliency and perseverance on my part raising three young men without that close support and encouragement as a mom. Even today when I receive a compliment on my role as a mother, I am always surprised because it is so rare. It often brings me to tears.

So we won’t be moving back to Vernon. The show must go on in K-City for this mom of three boys now ages, almost 16, 13 and 11. BUT, you never know where we will end up once the boys are graduated and finding their own paths in life.

Have a wonderful Wednesday and love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

author, blogger, Communication, Flexibility, Goals, health & fitness, life, men, mindset, musings, time, Wordsmith, writing

Be Getting The People You Work With Out of the Bedroom

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Paint a picture in your mind of every single person you know connected to you through a rectangular gadget. Yes, that gadget that you are probably holding in your hand right now. Picture every human being that is attached to you in some way through your phone.

Intertwined.

Emotionally and spiritually connected.

Through a rectangular gadget.

Our phones.

Let’s great really specific and think about that smelly, high-pitched laugh colleague at work that you may not love that is affixed to you through your work email.

Visualize taking that person with you into bed or even sitting beside you on your night table via your phone. Do you see them?

Picture every single one of your Facebook friends’ faces staring at you as you lie in bed.

Envision every person in your contacts list wanting to connect with you about their stuff, their feelings and their lives as you lie your head down on your pillow at night.

Imagine all those people’s hands reaching out to touch you as you fall asleep.

Feeling overwhelmed with all these “connections” and faces staring at you?

NOW GET THAT PHONE OUT OF YOUR BEDROOM!

Get a good old fashioned plug-in the wall alarm clock.

Charge your phone in the bathroom.

Better yet, charge it in the kitchen or the hallway.

Just leave all those people, those tethers and those beeping and booping noises from that rectangular gadget out of your bedroom.

Because Sexy Neck works with partners all over the world, his phone used to light up like a Christmas tree all hours of the night and wake me up multiple times as the emails, texts and WhatsApp messages came in.

We have been charging our phones in the bathrooms for the last month and guess what, we haven’t missed a single thing.

Not one single thing!

I am so grateful for this new habit and I am never going to bring the outside world into the bedroom again.

Be free.

Be really free.

Let me know if you decide to give this try.

Sleep well my friends and love what you do!

xoxo Joanna

author, blogger, Boys, Business, dreams, Education, encouragement, fun, Goals, homeschooling, love, mom of boys, Teaching, Wordsmith

Be Finding Your Dream Job (A letter to my boys)

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To my Blue Crew,

I want to write this letter to each of you after a few years of working in my “dream job” as an online teacher as I know you have watched what has unfolded for me as a mom and teacher.

Right now you want to be a movie producer, a truck driver/inventor and a RCMP Member or Conservation Officer in the K9 unit. I am so excited to see what unfolds for you hardworking, heartfelt human beings.

My dream job involves working with and inspiring other human beings, particularly young people starting with EACH of you three boys. From teaching my first amazing job in Cherryville to teaching in Switzerland to working in the online system, my career journey has been an interesting one. How did I find all my dream jobs for each season of my life?

First and foremost, I wanted to find a job that I could work around you and daddy’s schedule. Someone had to “hold down the fort”.

Second, I wanted to work within my passions of learning and growth.

Lastly, I wanted to ensure that the exchange for my time, which is our greatest currency, was in balance with the money that the job was going to pay me.

Family first.

Life long learner.

Time for money.

What will be important for your dream job? The clearer you are, the quicker the job will come. It was only after you were born and I stepped away from the education system that my journey towards my dream job began.

Family first.

Life long learner.

Time for money.

As with any dream job, there is always, always some friction involved. The friction or “emotional heat” can be caused by a colleague that you work with, by one task that you don’t particularly like or even how your mind can’t settle down after your work day ends. For every job the friction created is different and you will have to make a conscious decision if these “rubs” are worth it to pursue and go after your dream job.

Go boys.

Find your dream job.

Be aware of the friction.

And have as MUCH FUN as I am in my job.

God bless everyone that reads this blog post and especially bless our growing boys: 15, 13 and 11 year old young men.

Have an epic Wednesday folks and love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

author, blogger, Christianity, Education, encouragement, Family, Flexibility, Goals, God, homeschooling, mom of boys, positivity, school, Wordsmith, writing

Be Saying Goodbye to Home Visit + Report Card Writing Season (2023)

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When I worked in the classroom in the campus setting as a teacher, I always felt this sense of angst that I wasn’t spending time or even had enough time to get to know all students equally. I felt like I was NEVER enough.

In the campus system, almost 95% of my time was often spent with 5% of the students.

Sad, but true.

BUT, I came up with a system to at least waylay my own personal angst. For each day of the week, I would focus on 6 of my students and genuinely asking them questions and talk with them. The chat would have been a few minutes to 5 minutes with each of these six students, but I felt closer to my goal of truly “knowing” my students. 5 days per week times 6 students = 30 students in my class. BUT, I was only spending about 5 minutes consistently, authentically communicating with each student each week.

Sad, but true.

As an online teacher with the school that I have a contract with, I am asked to do 3 home visits throughout the year. I also will Zoom with families a few times, on top of these home visits, to stay connected and in tune with any “successes to build on” or “struggles to shift through”.

As of Tuesday, I completed writing report cards after meeting with my eighteen families (39 students in total) between Kamloops and Oliver, British Columbia, plus many towns and cities in between. The total distance between Kamloops to Oliver is around 275 kilometres (170 miles). In the last few months, I spent about forty hours in my car plus over forty-five hours then writing report cards.

Not ideal, but worth every second.

At these home visits, students will read with me, show me work they are proud of and we will talk about math. I will go over their personal goals that we set for the year in September. (This is ALL on top of the weekly/biweekly learning samples they share throughout the year via the sharing platform, Seesaw.) I meet puppies, listen to piano, play basketball, have tea parties with homemade cakes, play Lego/blocks, cook, make crafts and I even paint with some students at their homes.

Overjoyed and true.

I spend HOURS upon HOURS with my students and their families throughout the year. I am privileged to be invited into peoples homes to see “behind the scenes” of the learning that is taking place. It is within this family unit that I am truly given a picture of what learning is like for the student: How they fit within their sibling unit, how their parents work with them and even how things are set up in the home, are all important for learning about how our children learn (in the online world and the campus education system).

Overjoyed and true.

Sometimes people wonder why I have chosen this path for my teaching career and how I can work with so many students.

First, I truly feel like I can help inspire and support my students because I have time to sit with them, listen to them and learn from them.

Second, I really get to “know” my students, which was never possible in the campus system I worked in. In the campus system, I always tried to see/meet my students outside of the unilateral learning environment of the classroom. I always volunteer coached, ran chess club, did breakfast club and spent extra time on the playground to try and get to know my students, but I never felt like I ever had enough time or ever got to know how they fit within their family.

Last, the online learning world gives me time because I oversee each students program individually, yes one-on-one, while their parents or even grandparents on the ground working directly with the students and also managing any behaviour. What a gift! My students don’t exist within a classroom setting with other students, I am working directly with them. Their learning plan is individualized and truly their own.

Sitting.

Listening.

Learning.

Knowing.

Being.

Individual.

Students.

The gift of one-on-one time!

I am NOW enough.

Overjoyed and true.

I am grateful for the time with each of my families these last months of home visits. I am blessed to write report cards, yes official documents about each of my students, detailing all the amazing things that they can do and things they will continue to grow into.

Thank you Jesus for calling me back into this world in 2020. I am eternally grateful.

Have an epic Sunday folks and love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

P.S. We also had a Ministry of Education Inspection on the day BEFORE our report cards were due. This means that everything needs to be up-to-date in our student portals including all communication notes and individualized student learning plans. It was seriously “full on”. Time to sleep and ski now!

Aging, blogger, Boys, Christianity, dreams, Education, Family, Goals, God, homeschooling, humour, Jesus Christ, life, love, men, mom of boys, Parenting, radical sabbatical, school, Self-help, teaching, Wordsmith

Be July of 2022

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What happened after the “Radical Sabbatical in Europe” Joanna? I have been asked this question many, many times in the last 2.5 years. November, 2019 feels like a few months ago. So much has changed, hasn’t it? I wonder what has changed for you?

First, before we get into the newspaper headings from our lives, I want to send you a big hug with my eyes with the few more well-earned wrinkles around them. HUUUUUUG!

Second, here’s a few highlights since November of 2019 (and WordPress cut off my blog because I had used up all my storage!):

  • We are now on year three of our Radical Sabbatical and we are calling it “Best of Both Worlds”. After living at the ski hill for TWO, yes count them TWO University school years, we moved back to the city in May of 2021. We have been living here in the city and commuting on weekends to the ski hill, hence “Best of Both Worlds”.
  • The home learning life continues. We are going into year four of learning outside of a physical school setting and I truly wish that I had done it when the boys were younger. The boys are thriving and finding their true passions. The boys and I work together, as a team, each morning on specific learning mostly related to writing, numbers, French, Social Studies and Science. Afternoons are full of outside time, art, music, making things in the garage, hanging out with neighbours, classes and activities. It truly is a richer life than I could have ever expected. (Future blog post coming on the pitfalls and blessings of this type of learning!)
  • Sexy Neck has changed jobs! He moved back to the city where our house is to be one of the leaders in charge of a large 400+ student International Program. Coming from a program he led with 100+ students, this move has been a huge shift for him and our family. Yes, we are still happily married and we celebrated 25 years in May. WOOP WOOP!
  • In the spring of 2020, I was getting asked many questions about home learning and as a teacher, I felt called to head back into a school to help other families. Next year, will be my third year working with Heritage Christian Online School (HCOS), working with 15+ families per year (@40 students). I guide each student’s learning, meet with them, suggest resources and report on each child’s learning twice per year. I have done this job previously in 2015-2017 and I feel a real “calling” to be with this school, at this time, working with my exceptional, lovely, amazing, fellow home learning families.
  • Another questions I often get asked, are you still with Isagenix? Yes, yes, yes, yes. I am a lifer and we enjoy the #isalife every single day. My life sharing Isagenix looks a bit different now, as it fits in the corners of my days behind my faith, family, friends and teaching, BUT I will always be passionate about health, helping people with their goals and guiding people on how to use the Isagenix products. After doing 12 events in 5 years, I don’t see many events in my future, but one thing I have realized in these last years is that I truly love one-on-one contact with other human beings. At the events, I would have preferred to be stacking chairs or helping people register or wiping down sinks in the bathrooms that speaking or standing on a stage. I love these products and the people it has brought into my life. If you are one of those people that has asked me about Isagenix in the last 8 years, I am truly blessed that you asked, trusted me and shared your health journey with me. Yup, I am truly a lifer.
  • “The boys” are now going into grades 6, 8, and 10 in September. I cannot honestly even explain the growth that they have had the last 2.5 years. Our oldest is now taller than me! Our middle guy is going for his blackbelt in Taekwondo and our youngest is thoroughly enveloped in learning about Policing and being a Conversation Officer. They are such fun kids to hangout with too! More coming on “The boys” soon.
  • December of 2020, we introduced Winter, a goldendoodle, into our family of five. Winnie is truly each of the boys’ first love and they shower her with attention, walks, cuddles and lots of time together while they learn at home. (If anyone remembers our labrador, Summer, the name will make perfect sense!)

Lastly, tonight, I wanted to tell you that I will again be regularly blogging, sharing the journey that I have been on these last few years and also what’s coming. I realized the other night that often we talk about the pregnancy, baby and toddler stage way more than the teenager stage. Who remembers talking about breastfeeding, first foods, which diapers to buy, organic crib mattresses, milestones, toileting and so much more ad nauseam? As our second guy turns 13 this weekend and we are going to have two teenagers in the house, I want to use this energy they are creating by talking ad nauseam about this important stage in children’s lives. Strap yourself in folks, it is going to be a fun ride.

I love you all dearly, back soon! (well at least sooner than 2.5 year. HAH!)

xoxo Joanna

author, blogger, Goals, musings, poetry, Watercolour, women, Wordsmith

Be Clear

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Looking back. 

What do you see? 

I see fear. 

I see lack of confidence. 

I feel the fear of rejection. 

I feel unhappy.  

Looking now with clarity. 

What do you see? 

I see joy. 

I see boundless confidence. 

I feel spicy. 

I feel love. 


Isn’t it amazing when you get really clear about what you want to see and feel? 

Isn’t it amazing when you get clear on the definitive destination of your daily life, family life and career? 

It is magnificent! 

The most beautifully created cake, meal, castle, gown or jewel cannot compare to how I feel right now in my life. 

Tapping into my core feelings every day thanks to this beautiful planner: 


Releasing tension and living with intention throughout my day thanks to the beautiful gift Brendon Burchard has given through his High Performance Habits book. 


Quiet in my soul. 

Stillness. 

Sureness. 

Deepness. 

Knowing. 

Being in my soul.  

Loving. 

Ease. 

Peaceful. 

Bliss. 

Now, off to change some lives through a great big brown box of super foods. 

😘 Joanna 

fun, Goals, mindset, positivity, Self-help, women

Be Creating the “Body Bliss Project”

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I have witnessed throughout my entire life that one moment could change everything…

One conversation.

One phone call.

One parking lot meeting.

One moment in time.

Last week, I had one of those moments.

Sexy Neck and I were discussing my business and all the incredible people that have come into our lives in the last two and a half years.  I talked about all the incredible mentors and leaders I have met, especially all the inspiring women.

Joanna

After my mom died, my most inspiring woman left the earth.  My mama who constantly thought about helping others.  The woman who would show up sweaty at my door asking for water because she has just biked 70 kilometers for a cup of coffee with a friend.  Super Nana who did so many exceptional and thoughtful things for my boys that I couldn’t even begin to list them.  My ever-present friend, volunteer, incredible cook, amazing party thrower and always up for doing something out of the ordinary.  She was my most AMAZING inspiration as a woman.

Until now.

I realized that these inspiring women have flooded my life.

Moms who are present with their families and incredibly in love with their men. Women who swim, cycle, run all for fun.  Ladies who laugh, love and who are exceptionally “light” to be around because they know themselves, are themselves and can completely be themselves.  These are the inspirations that circumvent my life.

And now I have an opportunity that I didn’t see coming.

One phone call from someone that I met early on in my life as an entrepreneur.   A fun-loving, heart-centred Aussie physiotherapist.

She shared a vision for a project.

I asked a few questions.

I knew that this was exactly what I had been waiting for.

A project created by leaders Down Under and the Great White North.

Body.

Mind.

Spirit.

For women.

By women.

Creating personal transformations as a collective unit.

Using the same super food nutrition and intermittent fasting to live out these transformations.

Being a part of a global community of healthy habits in body and mind.

Boosting each other up.

Creating sweaty selfies.

Playing water tag.

Celebrating wins.

Picking each other up.

One day at a time.

90 days in total.

I am so fired up about this project that I can barely sleep tonight.

One team.

Women who will change the world around them.

Through the Body Bliss Project.

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