Happy March you beautiful people! Here is what I am wondering:
If I were to write a New York Times #1 bestselling book, what do you think I should write about?
Have an epic Wednesday and love what you do.
xoxo Joanna
Tag Archives: book
Be on a Radical Sabbatical from Vimy Ridge to the Armpit of France to Brussels, Belgium
WARNING: Nylons and short skirts are back in style over here (coming soon to North America), Canada Goose jackets are more popular here than in Canada, jogging is a huge deal over here, bikes and biking paths rocks and yes you can eat too many croissants. Cleansing tomorrow!
Monday, November 4th.
5 hours of driving, broken into two parts.
13,560 steps.
1 baguette.
1 shake.
2 bags of cookies.
4 yogurts.
2 bags of Whey Thin protein crackers.
2 E+shots.
1 bottle of water.
All used as sustenance for this day of transition.
From France to Belgium.
From past to present.
From past dreams to present-day dreams.
We left our cozy, sweet sixth floor Paris hotel room on Monday, November 4th to start out European road trip after picking up this sexy station wagon:
We had two special places we want to show our boys: Vimy Ridge and Harnes, France (which will be furthermore known as the Armpit)
First, Vimy Ridge. A place to remember. A place to learn. A perfect place to be in November (or any time of year!) We went through the tunnel and the trenches, soaked up the information in the new museum and had a private tour of the monument. God even gave us a rainbow, like He did on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
When we lived in Harnes for one year, I used to come running on this land, given to Canadians from the French because of the significance of this Ridge during World War One. Being back in this place as a mother, I was touched by the Mother Canada statue at the front of the monument and all the mothers that have been affected by war. I am grateful for our country. 🇨🇦
After Vimy Ridge, we made a quick tour of the town where Steve and I spend our first year of marriage. Steve was playing professional volleyball for Harnes and I played a bit and coached ten year old boys volleyball. We found the gym with the cement floor and our old apartment across from the canal and coal excrement hill. I wish we had a video running as we drove into the village. At the time, we were surrounded by great teammates and didn’t realize what an armpit that we were living in. No train station. A little rough around the edges, a bit smelly and really in the middle of nowhere. An armpit.
We arrived in Brussels around 6:00pm. With time to checkin to our uber cool, mostly young person’s Meininger hotel/hostel and wander through Brussels and find an awesome Italian restaurant. We closed down the place!
Bonne Nuit sweet friends from room #401. (Every room number is an individual work of art here!)
November 5th
10,396 steps walk
A quieter day at our hostel hotel.
Buffet breakfast (9.50 Euros for each adult and 4.95 Euros each for the boys)!
Yes, we did have Belgian Waffles. The boys were very surprised there wasn’t any maple syrup.
We had a morning of math and writing in the common area then zipped to our old favourite discount grocery store, Lidl, to pickup food so that we could make lunch and dinner ourselves today.
The arcade games behind us have been a huge hit. Old school driving games and some pinball too.
From living three years over in Europe, we knew that concrete ping pong tables are at every school and almost every park. I tucked four paddles and some ping pong balls into our suitcase. We plan on many days of playing. We had this ping pong table one block away.
Today was CC’s turn to plan an activity and he researched and chose the chocolate store, Leonida’s.
CC didn’t find any chocolate that he liked!
These chocolates looked like a white mushroom with a chocolate, caramel filling. Wow!
We then walked and visited the famous Mannequin Pis. I hesitate to even post a picture because the surprise we received when we visited the statue….hmmm… maybe I won’t post a picture. Nah, I think I will leave the Mannequin Pis as a surprise for all of you.
After visiting the statue it was time for dessert before dinner – more Belgium waffles and some ice cream too!
We finished off the time in the city with a few handstands in the City Hall square and listening to some beautiful accordion music.
Evening was spent cooking together with four other multicultural groups and talking about a hilarious reality tv cooking show in a hostel where no one speaks the same language and there aren’t enough pots, plates or cups to go around. Plus, you are so tall that you keep bonking your head on the vent and one burner on the stove keeps randomly going on. After the hilarious and hot kitchen, dinner tasted good.
Goodnight from Brussels. What a spectacular view our room has looking across the canal towards the city and the lit up Ferris wheel.
November 6th
Our last full day in Brussels, Belgium involved wandering, waffles and a wonderful adventure to pickup our superfood nutrition from a friend of a friend who we had it delivered to. More room in our suitcases for presents for friends.
After saying “au revoir” to Daddy who will be working in Berlin and Düsseldorf for the next two days, we decided to try and find the Ferris wheel that we have been watching out our window in the evenings. We found the Ferris wheel plus stairs and concrete barriers to do parkour on, a construction site to watch and eat more Leonida’s chocolate at, a skateboard park, and many poles to “kong”. (To think I didn’t even know what konging was a week ago!)
It was CC’s choice for our meal today and he chose a waffle place. Imagine waffles with anything you want on them or in them. Our oldest had a smushed waffle sandwich with hamburger and cheese plus one with caramel for dessert, the other two had ham and cheese and then one with whipped cream for dessert. It was a memory making meal and a favourite for our boys. If you are travelling in Belgium or France with kids, Waffle Factory would be a safe bet for the family (as long as you aren’t looking for any fruits or vegetables!)
After our waffle meal, we went on a cross city journey to retrieve our super food box. This beautiful soul below received our package and allowed us to pick it up at her house. We are looking for partners in Belgium if you know anyone who lives there and is into helping people get healthy and wealthy!
We finished this day off with a hallway workout and a few more races on those old school video games in the common area.
Oh and I have to show you one of the bikes that captured my heart. I love this country for their biking culture: the trails, the bike shops, and the bike themselves.
November 7th
Gooood morning from Brussels and goodnight from Frankfurt, Germany.
3 hour and 58 minute drive.
18 minutes in the Netherlands.
1 stop at the awesome “rest stops” on the side of the Autobahn. 50 cents for the toilet.
Side note: I was surprised at how many Burger King’s, Starbucks and McDonald’s are now available at these Autobahn rest stops. Twenty years ago, these rest stops were a highlight because of their uniqueness and you never knew what you were going to get.
We did get yelled at for not knowing that the ketchup dispenser had a foot pedal, so that kept things real for us.
Oh ya, on our way out of town, we had CC’s last choice for activity: Driving to a RC Car store, apparently the last RC car store in Belgium. The owner, Bernard, was THE BEST! We were able to hear stories about his story, his family, his businesses and all the trophies that lined the entire store. It was a blast. The boys were super happy and CC was pumped to walk away with a race car he can fix up.
After enjoying the RC car store and our Autobahn experience as well as seeing many churches in the distance, we arrived in Frankfurt!
We are pumped to be staying at Monopol hotel across from the Hauptbahnhof with a breakfast buffet, free mini bar, a bathtub and a hotel that has a door that swings out. (It’s the little things that these boys are finding interesting!!)
After checking in, we took a cruise across the street to the train station to have our first German pretzel and see what a train station looks like. It was as spectacular as I remembered. The book and magazine store was delicious. I loved watching people bustling around and the whooosh as the trains pulled into the station.
Guten Nacht sweet friends. We love you ♥️ and if you have made it to the end of this entire blog post air hug 🤗 and high five!! Leave me a comment so I can send them to you!
Be on a Radical Sabbatical in Paris
October 31st, 2019 – Paris
The Radical Sabbatical in Europe begins.
3 flights.
22 hours.
Pure excitement for the screens with movies, tv shows, podcasts, games and music on the seat in front of us.
Plus wifi while flying through the air too!
1 yummy airplane meal.
Copious amounts of water.
Lots of veggies from home, 2 meal replacement vitamin-shakes so no one gets a bungled up but.
3 hours of fitful sleep.
1 lost water bottle.
1 lost hat.
1 Uber drive.
1 random security screening and tears from our eight year old. (It is the second time he has been randomly selected for hand swabbing)
10:05am Arrival in Paris
1 hotel in Montmartre that actually looks exactly like the pictures in the online photos. (Hotel Migny Opera)
Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris and very close to our hotel.
Danone pudding cups. Oh man, do I love these delicious things. I would never eat them at home, but the dairy products and bread here are just oh so delicious.
Gotta love parks that have workout equipment. Plus fooseball, two playgrounds, a fenced in soccer/basketball area plus a ton of benches to sit on.
Amazing multi-purpose random parks where Sexy Neck ends up in a “dip” contest with other dads.
Hot Crepes. Who loves Nutella?
Pain au chocolat. Oh my.
In bed at 5:00pm to get our bodies onto this new time zone.
November 1st, 2019
14 hours of time in bed.
We made a mockery of the incredible French breakfast buffet and showed our boys where our love for jam, ham and cheese on bread came from.
We have the smallest elevator in our hotel! This is an actual real-life photo.
In our travel with our boys, we have realized one event per day is the perfect balance for us.
Today’s event was a Natural History Museum our eight year old picked out.
From the hotel.
On the metro.
To the Jardin des Plantes.
A misty walk.
A longer line than we are used to.
It was awe. some.
From the garden and zoo surrounding the museum, to the century old building that house the museum, we were in awe.
Then another metro ride to the Champs d’Elyssee for dinner.
14,862 steps.
3 metro rides.
One where I saw a man watching Steve buy our metro tickets. Then I saw the same man go through a turnstile with a woman, pickpocket her phone out of her jacket then proceed to give it back to her. I have learned that pickpockets use distraction and bumping into people to take things. The women didn’t even know he had gone through the turnstile with her. She thought it was just sticky.
5.5 hours of walking, talking, holding hands.
1 museum.
1 French dinner at Alsace restaurant.
1 priceless second day in Paris.
November 2nd
18,971 steps.
3 sweaty subway rides which were a nice reprieve from the cold wind.
1 canal boat ride along the Seine River.
3 bottles or Orangina and hot drinks by the “contained” Notre Dame Cathedral. There were high barriers around the property. We told the boys they will definitely have to go back.
Back to our hotel and 118 steps up a spiralling staircase to our room for a pre-dinner rest. We chose to be on the sixth floor. Steve and I decided that we will choose a place with a ton of stairs when we are 70 years old to keep us active!
Dinner at the highest point of Paris, Montmartre beside the Sacre Coeur.
Another beautiful day in Paris.
Cobblestone under our feet.
A quick pop-in to the LEGO store for the boys and H & M for me.
November 3rd
2 more Metro rides today.
We went to my favourite museum on earth, and it was free because it was the first Sunday of the month. If you love museums, checkout their free days and always note what day they are closed. It’s usually one weekday.
Off to my pick for this part of the trip: Mussee D’Orsay.
Two hours in the Museum D’Orsay was a hit. We climbed up to an observation deck on the fifth floor of the old train station and we asked the boys to see if they could recognize any of the artwork as we wandered around. We had a fun treasure hunt. But, I will admit that the biggest hit was the free virtual reality machine that gave the boys a two minute tour of the museum from the train station’s development over time.
16, 673 steps.
Over 700 of those steps straight up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.
Up in the day and down in the night is highly recommended.
Also, instead of accessing the Eiffel Tower from the plazas, come in from the side on Avenue Silvestre de Sacy. My boys found the sellers quite noisy and strange when we came from Pont d’lena yesterday to check out the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower truly was an inspiring and incredible place to visit and I know it will ignite many future conversations with our family.
At 6:30pm, we arrived back home to our hotel for a simple picnic dinner while writing in journals and looking at and sharing photos amongst our devices.
We are very grateful for this day!
We saw concrete evidence of art in action and what a “rough draft” and “final copy” looks like! Yup, always a teacher!
We discovered a rose placed on a fence below the Eiffel Tower that reminded us of our beloved Nana in heaven:
We stumbled into an obscure Starbucks after a very rainy walk from the Museum D’Orsay to the Eiffel Tower:
The sun came out for our trip up and down the Eiffel Tower and we even saw a rainbow🌈:
Steve and I have THE BEST travel partners in the world!! No complaints. Easygoing. Flexible. Great communicators of their needs. And so MUCH FUN!
This Mama’s heart is overflowing.
🚙 Today, we are off to visit the town used to live in in Northern France and also Vimy Ridge. Then Brussels, Belgium tonight for the next three days.
Be Wondering About Writing
As I wonder and wander through my daily life and hangout with my peeps, many of you have asked, “What are you going to be writing next?”
A few of you might now be wondering, “What do you mean next? What happened to the book that I have been editing for the last year?” Well this happened:
I decided that this beautiful book about finding freedom on the inside and outside as a human being was just for ME! And here is the book cover:
Yup, it took me slightly over a year to edit and I decided to put this little baby into the filing cabinet. And I feel free! It was just for me. It has been an incredible year of growth and seeing it written on the pages of a book over twelve chapters has been humbling and freeing! I released it into the filing cabinet and for the last two weeks I have been wondering what WILL I be writing next?
I write every morning to pray and meditate over. I write to hold and create my vision. I write to pour out from within. I allow my words to come out from pen to paper without judgement and without stopping. It just flows from within, uninhibited, flowing wherever it wants to go. I write to edify others. I write to pour out inspiration on facebook. I write because words do matter, they are the sword of the spirit. They come from within and wield power. My sword is covered with white chocolate and is meant to be sweet and easy to savour. I pray my words always fill the sweet spot in your soul!
Now what am I going to write, I wondered? And then I remembered these beautiful journals! Letters to my boys that I started writing when I was pregnant with each of them. Letters that I wrote daily or weekly about what I was observing as I have the privilege to watch them grow. Writing between a mama and her boys, from my heart to theirs. I stopped writing when my mom was living with cancer and since 2013 these journals have moved homes and sat in a cupboard. And now as I have been set free from the book I completed, I am now going back to my boys. Backwards to move forward. Slowing down to speed up. Writing to them, for them and with them as I watch them grow!
If writing isn’t your thing, what will you wonder about and where will it take you?
Wonder.
As you wander.
Be a human being.
Be present.
Be awake.
Be.
Enough.
Be Rejected
Sit with me today and ask yourself if you have ever been rejected. I mean really rejected, back-turning, door slamming, get the f* out rejected? I also want to talk about the simple rejections that happen every single day as we live our lives.
Have you ever been dumped?
Rejection.
Have you ever applied for a job and not hired?
Rejected.
Have you ever apologized and had that person never speak to you again?
Rejection.
Have you put in a business or book proposal and received a denial letter?
Rejected.
In the sadness, anger and humbleness of rejection, what do we find?
A new way.
A new path.
A new resiliency.
A letting go.
Or holding tighter.
A fortitude to persevere.
Or a desire to walk away.
Rejection is a true gift, a branch of the gifts of grief.
It is ready for us to unwrap in every rejected moment.
We can choose our path with rejection.
We can envision rejection as a branch of a metaphorical tree.
Ponder, with me, how this gift of rejection can help us grow!
Perhaps rejection has come into our life because we have been growing roots in places that weren’t in rich soil. We may have needed more light rather than darkness. Or maybe something or someone new may have been needed in our life to bring us new living water. Rejection needed to create space. Our branches may have needed some pruning so that we could have new growth in our life.
Rejected.
Rejection.
Light.
Growth.
Life.
All symbiotic and much needed in our lives.
Gratitude today for EVERY time I have been rejected in word, thought or deed.
Life-giving.
Gratitude-living.
Rejection.
Be rejected.
Be Finishing our Summer Reading
Nine months ago.
Seven books.
Aslan, the lion portraying Jesus.
Stories interwoven.
Cupboards opened.
Magical conversations with my eight year old day after day.
Short times of reading over time to completing seven wonderful books.
With gratitude to CS Lewis for sharing his gifts.
Writing takes discipline, like anything that produces fruit in our lives.
Now off to work on my summer body and ponder our next series!
Be Creating a Full Time Family
A family where we can choose to spend most of our time together.
A family where the children have equal time with both parents.
A family that can be full time living life together and part time at work.
My personal definition of a full time family.
A place where we choose our schedule and money is of no consequence. (What is money anyways, but a concept of trading money for time.) We are working very hard, every day to create residual, freedom income. Sexy Neck is working with a contractor to create a rental home on our property. I have launched a book into the world and I love coaching people using nutritional systems I love. The company gives me rebates for supporting and loving people to reach their individual energy, performance, weight loss, healthy aging or even financial goals.
My dreams continue to become reality as Sexy Neck and I walked our boys to school together today. As he is an educator with similar hours, I can count on two hands how many times he has been able to walk with us to school in the last four years.
I will hold to my full time family vision, not knowing ‘how’ it is going to unfold. My mom’s death taught me that sometimes we can’t just figure things out, we must walk them out.
With excitement.
With gratitude for each day.
With moments like this.
As a full time family.
Be Editing a Book
Have you done something that you find unbelievable?
I live in ‘unbelievable’ right now on a daily basis.
I have spent the last few months pouring my thoughts onto paper through mind maps, on the computer in paragraphs and through old journeys from when I was younger.
And now I am editing these words. Pouring over them with my heart and mind. I am ensuring that every words represents my message and would make my boys (and my mom) proud.
I am very grateful for Sexy Neck who edits for me nightly, my plethora of friends who are waiting to walk with me as editors and those brave souls, Karen and Rick, who edited my introduction and conclusion already.
I am not sure what form this book is going to take, but I do know that I love living in the ‘unbelievable’ realm.
Living.
Dreaming.
Wondering.
Pouring out.
Getting poured into.
Editing a book.
"Be" ENOUGH 