Tag Archives: mom of boys

Boys, Family, Parenting, Wordsmith

Be Living with Teenage Boys 

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Three weeks ago our youngest turned thirteen. The boys are now thirteen, fifteen and seventeen. Three teenagers in the house! I am not sure if what I am going to say next would be true for a family with mixed genders, but as we add a third teenage boy to the fold, I am noticing some patterns:

1️⃣3️⃣ – He wants to be more independent, but this independence often leads to boredom and then whining. He is embarrassed now when I drop him off to activities and doesn’t want me to stay.  Big feelings exist on the daily and we create space and honour those knowing this is “normal”. Bedtime tuck-ins are still mandatory and asked for every night.

1️⃣5️⃣ – We have solidly moved out of the early teenage stage and our 15 year old is now wanting his “mommy” again.  He is asking me to attend and actively watch every activity and loves one-on-one time.   He is making efforts to connect with others again, but still has big emotions, especially related to his siblings. Bedtime check-ins are a must and every night he asks, “Are you going to tuck me in?”.

1️⃣7️⃣ – This young man is almost an adult. He independently does most things and no longer wants any help with editing his writing from his wordsmith mom. The first few times that I did offer to help this year, he became minimally annoyed. (He is not one to move quickly to anger or sadness.). Our oldest now goes to bed later than us and is often the one saying goodnight to us, if we are still awake.

As we welcomed our third teenager into the fold, I now can internally say, “Oh, I have seen this before!” while I share a big mama hug and then gently correct a rude word or inconsiderate behaviour with a smile in my heart at these beautiful, incredible, growing boys.  We have always said that we don’t want to raise “robots” or “sheep”. I think we have done that!

I wonder what you remember about being a teen or what your journey with your own teens is like?  I am enjoying every second of this house of teenagers as I love change, evolution and watching people become their best selves.

Happy Friday amazing friends. Love what you do.

🤩 Joanna

Boys, Teaching, Wordsmith

Be Driving a Jeep for a Week

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Growing up, did you have a dream car? Please let me know because I am genuinely curious about you.

My dream car: I have always wanted a Jeep, until last week. At my high school, there was young man a few years older than me who had a Jeep YJ. I can still imagine it ripping into the parking lot with music blaring every morning as I walked up the path to D.P. Todd Secondary. 

Ever since, I always thought that Jeeps were a “really cool car”. I wanted to own one until my car got rear-ended a few weeks ago and the rental company gave me a Jeep.

Yes, it looks like a “really cool car”, but it was a rough ride and remarkably uncomfortable. It’s amazing how you can take something for a drive and suddenly your whole life perspective can shift. I will never be able to look at a Jeep in the same light again.

Sidenote: Anyone guess the topic that I am using my Jeep metaphor to now talk to my boys about? Don’t judge things from an external vantage point, especially when choosing a partner for life.

Happy Thursday amazing friends. Love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

blogger, Goals, musings, Wordsmith

Be Adding More Fun F’s to 2024

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In early January, I posted five F’s that were my goals for 2024:

1️⃣ Fitness

2️⃣ Have Fun with Friends

3️⃣ Find Fantastic Fiction

4️⃣ Flourish in the Fine Art of Frosting a Fabulous Cake

5️⃣ Frolic Across Canada

I feel eager to share that that I am rocking and rolling through the top 3 F’s. 6 workouts done, lots of fun with friends and I have been reading some fantastic fiction. WOOP WOOP! We have our first birthday in the house in April, so I have a few months to find someone who will lead me in the art of frosting a cake and our frolicking across Canada dates are booked! Can I get another woop woop?

I had left my goals out on the kitchen counter for a week or so and suddenly I started seeing more F’s for 2024, so I have added to my list.

Here are the latest F’s I am excited about for 2024:

🤩 Faith-filled, festive fun with the boys: I have been trying to play more games, plan more get togethers and surprises for the boys the last few weeks. It’s brought a beautiful lightness and joy to our home.

🤩 Flourishing romance with Sexy Neck: After Steve was able to take a whole two weeks off at Christmas, the first in seven years, I realized how much I really missed spending time with him. We have been enjoying working out together, doing projects together and talking about daily life on a regular basis. What a gift!

🤩 Fun with Finances: As a girl who loves a good spreadsheet budget, this is a really fun activity for Steve and I to do together. We are updating our expenses and especially looking at our grocery bill and “extras” that we spent our money on. I am excited to see what shakes down and how we can save and give away more. Earn more, give more! That’s fun!

And that’s all folks, just a little update on the F’s goals that keep morphing into more in twenty twenty-four.

If you have a word or goals or some F’s to share for 2024, I would love to hear them. Big hugs to you all.

Have Sunday funday and love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

Aging, health & fitness, musings, radical sabbatical, Wordsmith

Be Doing Five things for Fun! (Happy 2024)

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I love listening to podcasts when I fold laundry or am doing some other routine tasks. One of my favourites right now is Mel Robbins. I listened to this particular podcast on the weekend. The focus was on six questions you can ask yourself to have the very best 2024. I won’t get into the nitty gritty about what she shared because you can dive deeper and listen, if you are compelled, but I did want to convey that for 2024: I am going to bring the FUN! (And yes, I have a fondness for fine alliteration, so prepare yourselves for this linguistic journey..)

Here are five things that I want to do for pure FUN in 2024:

1️⃣ Fitness : This fall, Sexy Neck and I went back to the gym together for the first time since we lived in Bad Saulgau, Germany. YIKES! That was interesting to think about and realize how long again that was. For my personal fun fitness routine, I want to lift weights three times per week and then have fun adding in walking, cycling, skate skiing and downhill skiing. All just for fun!!!

2️⃣ Have Fun with Friends: I want to host, organize or become involved with a game night or book club again. When I lived in Vernon, I organized a wonderful book club with seven other very diverse, intelligent, fun women. We chose eight books to read and we met to talk about one per month. Once a year, we also met to do a retreat. Moving to KCity in 2013, while having a 2, 4 and 6 year old, plus supporting my mom with cancer, made the book club fall to the wayside. I simply lacked the mental space to continue to organize it. Let’s see what I can make happen for 2024.

3️⃣ Find Fantastic Fiction: I love reading books, but I often bend towards non-fiction as I love to grow myself. This year, I want to find some fun and fantastic fiction books to put into the mix. I already Gael 10 good old “mind candy” books on hold from our fabulous library.

4️⃣ Flourish in the Fine Art of Frosting a Fabulous Cake: My mom always made the best cakes for the boys’ birthdays. Two years ago, my goal was to simply make all the boys cakes from scratch. This year, I want to be able to decorate them well too! (Anyone know someone that could teach me? I don’t want to use fondant, but good old icing!)

5️⃣ Frolic across Canada (Yukon + Quebec) and perhaps even enjoy a far-flung trip to enjoy the beauty of skiing in Japan: These are three trips that are on our radar for 2024, on top of our regular jaunts to Vancouver for sports. I am wanting to do these three trips as JC goes into grade 12 next year and these are places we have always wanted to go together as a family. Bring on the 2024 frolicking!

And that’s it folks. Enjoy these last beautiful days of 2023 and pray about what the future of the year two thousand and twenty-four, since Christ, could bring. Our Heavenly Father loves you so much and has a beautiful plan and purpose to your life. My one ragged, righteous, and radical life is proof of that. I am skidding into the end of 2023 with a smile on my face at all the non-coincidences that have happened this year.

Happy Wednesday and love what you do.

xoxo Joanna

cancer, christmas, Family

Falling Snow and Fluttering Butterflies (10th Anniversary of the Legacy my Mom Left)

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Reliving ten years ago these last few weeks has been a very tender and vulnerable experience for me. I have cried more times than I can count. I have felt so much sadness seeing grandchildren with their grandparents as it has showcased such a profound loss that my sweet boys have endured these last ten years with losing both their Nana and Grandma alongside watching how their Papa’s grieved. I have felt like a failure as I have tried to weather all these big feelings while being a present wife, parent, employee, colleague, neighbour…all while preparing for Christmas. The circle of support around me, again, I have purposely made smaller so that I can show up entirely authentically, just as I am, in this messy human experience that we call grief. (Any other grief sojourners strongly dislike these three words: How are you?) Our golden doodle, Winnie, has been especially close to me, often with her head on my foot (or on my lap when she gets invited on the couch!). 

Today is ten years since I wrote these words below. My mom, aka Super Nana’s, presence is still felt on a daily basis and her legacy truly does live on through our five lives and many others who knew her. For this I am extremely grateful. Thank you to my “salty” friends who have walked these years with us step-by-step in person and with us from afar. You mean the world to us. Thank you to everyone reading my words today, I am incredibly grateful for you.

I love you,

xoxo Joanna

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Crisp fresh fallen snow as I step outside.

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Dad has been by her side throughout.

He watched her last breaths.

Dad greets me at mom’s door.

There are beautiful butterflies on the door. (This is hospice’s symbol that the room is not to be disturbed).

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My big cousin by my side.

We step through the door.

Peace enfolds.

Mom is warm and quiet.

She is wearing a shirt with butterflies on it. (I think I need to lie down with all these symbols of snow and butterflies!)

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Her body is at rest.

Death has come to her body.

Thursday, December 26th, 2013 at 7:00am.

Kisses, kisses and more kisses.

I lay my head in her arm in disbelief.

In peace.

I lap up her presence.

I am enveloped by her love.

Tears slide down my cheeks.

My sister arrives.

We walk to the hospice living room.

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We light a butterfly light.

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Place mom’s special card on the mantle.

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M reads Psalm 23.

Dad talks about his sorrow and gratitude.

The boys arrive to an empty room.

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OC says. “Nana with God.”

A red rose is on the counter.

We say our goodbyes.

On the memory Christmas tree we write Nana’s name and we take an angel home for our tree.

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Then we lace up our skates and head out into the outdoors that Nana loved dearly.

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I love you mama!

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radical sabbatical

Be Writing a Christmas Letter 2023

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I have ALWAYS sent out Christmas cards. I love the physical act of looking for and purchasing special cards plus writing a personal note as I think of the friend that I am sending the card to.

This year, I was inspired by my friend, Rae Swire, to write a Christmas letter. Last year, I really appreciated reading the update on her family and the highlight from her year.  I believe that everyone has received theirs in the mail now, so here goes the digital Christmas letter.

Drum roll…. the first ever Cann family Christmas letter! I pray it brings connections and community through what I chose to share.

Merry Christmas 2023

Family ~ Change ~ Fun

These are our words from this year!  We have made changes to create more family fun time and we are reaping the benefits as we finish off the year. We continue to love spending winter weekends at our Apex ski condo overlooking the t-bar, summertime around the background pool as well as time golfing, biking and horseback riding at a trailer we inherited from Steve’s family that is on the sixth hole of the golf course at “The Ranch”.   With the age of the boys, we feel grateful to have found the perfect balance of activity and leisure time.  We enjoyed a fifth summer hiking adventure with our good friend’s, the Sharpe’s, who have kids the exact same age. Both Steve and I moved into new jobs this summer. We were devastated by the wildfires in our city, which burned down the church camp the boys have been attending the last few years.  In the fall, we enjoyed a 3 day trip to Disneyland and clocked over 70,000 steps and went on over 50 rides! 

Family Update:

  1. Steve – continues to love backcountry skiing, the Canucks, spending time with the family and is now coaching U14 Club volleyball. After spending time in International Educational since 2004, Steve resigned from his position in Kelowna and now works up the road as a Vice Principal at North Glenmore Elementary School. He even has a song about “Mr. Cann”.   Steve took his last International work trips to Germany, Halifax and Thailand last spring.  He dearly misses this calling, but is enjoying this season at home and working on his health. 
  2. Joanna  – I am in my  fifth year homeschooling the boys and I love every second being able to design their learning. I added on a new role to my work with Heritage Christian Online School  and I am now the Regional Administrator for the north overseeing 15 teachers and 400+ students north of 100 Mile.  I had the opportunity to do a northern road trip with Colby and Owen for work in October.  It’s been a dream come true! With the busyness of all the boys, health has taken a bit of a backseat, but we have joined a gym so that we workout regularly now and we are loving ski season, both alpine and nordic. 
  3. JC (Grade 11)  – attends school at Kelowna Secondary part time doing Math, Science and electives plus HCOS doing online English, SS and other electives he can’t get at the campus school. He played ultimate frisbee at KSS and got his Learner’s license in April.  Since starting Trampoline gymnastics two years ago, Jackson has had incredible success. He competes in all three events: trampoline, double mini and tumbling. In July, he qualified and competed in his first Nationals, which was held at the UofA.  He stayed in my old residence at Lister Hall and competed in the Butterdome.  This year, his goal is to qualify for his first International competition.  In Jackson’s free time he loves making movies, refereeing soccer and hanging out with his brothers. 
  4. CC (Grade 9)  – currently has many diverse interesting including: spearfishing, F1, racing go-carts and doing taekwondo. Colby is two belts away from being able to test for his black belt.  He competed in Trail, Salmon Arm and SFU. This year, Colby started his journey with braces, refereeing soccer, found a wonderful Youth Group, finished his red cross swim lessons and continues to work with his voice teacher, Janel, to write his second album. Colby sang a song live on the radio  and got his first stitches in a ski crash!  Colby continues to learn at home, but this year he is attending a one day class that covers Science and Social Studies. 
  5. OC (Grade 7) – loves Lego building, Star Wars, RCMP, dogs, playing with his brothers, skiing and soccer.  This year, he also tried taekwondo and is playing Club volleyball for the first time.  He also decided to start playing the trumpet and takes weekly lessons.  Owen also loves learning at home and attends a one day in-person class. 

In 2024, 

This summer, we are excited to be taking a trip to the Yukon with our new-to-us 16 foot Hybrid Cubs trailer.   Both Jackson and Colby will be in high school. We don’t foresee any work or school changes, other than that!  

As we move into this new year, we pray that this letter finds you full of hope, peace and love!  As the boys grow older, we truly see how precious each day (and year) is and are really living each day to the fullest!  We are grateful for your friendship in this world we live in.  

Xoxo Joanna + the blue crew. 

Sidenote: This is post 48 of 50 for 2023… Eeeek, I am going to reach my goal of writing 50 posts this year. Thanks for coming along on the ride.

author, Boys, home learning

Be Destroying English for Another Generation

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Anyone that writes a blog, I would think loves to write. I know that I truly love to write! It is the way that I process. I truly having fun playing with words…

But, back in grade 11 English, I stopped writing. I was a flute-playing jock who spent most of their time in the gym, with friends or in the band room. In my free time, I loved writing down quotes I came across and writing in my journal. I wrote every single day as a 15 year old.

But, I had a grade 11 English teacher that shoved, pummelled, and used literature to criticize students at every turn. You were never “good enough” and you were called out when you weren’t. We were made to memorize and perform Macbeth out loud. As students, we had to read and reflect on the haunting and odd book, Lord of the Flies.

Can you imagine my heart as I now watch my grade 11 son, 32 years later, reading and experiencing these same two books? Week by week, I am watching his love of literature being sucked out of him and his love of writing being taken from him. Why must students’ focus on having the correct formatting for quotes? Why must students’ write down quotes verbatim from a book? Why must students’ write an essay with a hideous word count that would be more directed towards a student that wanted to study and deepen their understanding of English literature? Why must we use the same books as 1991?

Love a duck folks!

Love writing.

Love speaking.

Love communicating.

Share your words.

Share your story.

Share who you are.

And Google the rest!

Lord, please break the cycle of the use of literature that doesn’t bring insight or inspiration for this generation of students (nor my generation either).

And that’s all from me folks.

Happy almost December and love what you do.

XOXO Joanna

Boys, mom of boys, musings, Parenting, radical sabbatical, Wordsmith

Be Watching A Phenomenal Amount of Youtube (Mom of Boys)

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I remember shortly after my boys were born that a mom friend advised me to try to join my children in their play. We were already an active family that loved to cross country ski, walk the dog, eat together, read together and play board games together. This very sage mom friend who was a few years ahead of me was very wise in her advice as she knew what was coming:

Technology.

Screens.

Computer games.

Movies.

Minecraft.

And yes, “Youtube”.

I am very grateful that I learned a long time ago, when the boys were little, to try to always join them in their “play”. It’s been a truly and very fun unexpected journey.

Our current favourite Youtube channels are:

Mark Rober = An engineer who used to work for Nasa and Apple. You may have heard about the backyard squirrel maze or glitter bombs. If you haven’t definitely check him out.

Dude Perfect = A group of five Christian men who met in University and now do trick shots and short skits. We did a “Dude Perfect” birthday for our oldest 16th birthday this year. It was a hit!

Jet Lag, the Game = This is a group of three young men who play real life “board games” around the world. We support and watch them on the streaming platform Nebula and always watch the new shows together. *Some swearing and one of the young men often gets drunk as part of the game.

Fidias = We got hooked when Fidias was trying to get a hug from Elon Musk. It is interesting to see what he comes up with and how positive he is.

Mr. Beast = I am sure everyone knows about Mr. Beast and his huge budgets for making videos. He is a young man who has a passion for creating and has been blessed by this creativity. He has so many channels and the main one is good, but there are some videos we don’t watch. The boys are excited to try his chocolate bar: Feastables.

Max Fosh = This is a new favourite from England because of his wacky ideas – sneaking into things, “Welcome to Luten” sign, buying a traffic circle… He’s light and fun!

On top of these channels, all of our boys have started their own Youtube channels following their passions. Their work is my ABSOLUTE favourite as I watch them film and edit these pieces of art sharing from their heart.

OC (11 years old) = Our youngest loves Lego and doing creative custom builds. Here are some of his amazing creations at “Brick of Lego”: https://www.youtube.com/@BrickofLego

CC (14 years old) = Our middle guy thoroughly enjoys talking and sharing his love of cars! He’s got a channel called C Cars that he started many years ago and has recently started adding to: https://www.youtube.com/@CcarsYT

JC (16 years old) = Our oldest doing what he loves most, flipping! jcanflip is his channel and he flips for every subscriber he gets and posts nightly at around 10:00pm PST. https://www.youtube.com/@Jcanflip

What are your current favourite Youtube channels? Please share as we love adding to the things that we can watch together as a family.

Have a funday Sunday folks and love what you do!

xoxo Joanna