Summer in the City

Vancouver turns into a beach town in the summer. 

Despite our northern (from an American perspective) positioning, the bay here is quite shallow, so people are swimming all along the beaches until dark. Abe and Aurora have been visiting the various beaches this summer with good regularity--including our closest and most scenic Wreck Beach which also happens to be the clothes-optional spot. I however, have been swimming maybe six times this summer. Tragic, I know. I have been writing, working, and writing some more. If all goes well, I will finish the revisions on my graduating paper this week and be DONE with my masters degree. If you listen closely at night, you might hear me howling with joy and relief one night next week. 

Not only is it exciting to be done writing "scholarly" papers for a while, but I am also really looking forward to working part-time and putting more energy into other pursuits (adventures with Aurora, being able to put more time and energy into friendships here, gardening, making good food, sewing, and a million little projects I've been wanting to get to--don't I sound domestic?!). Maybe I'll finally start paddling weekly and being more balanced physically. 

I'm definitely looking forward to not having papers hanging over my head every time I have a moment to spare. That might sound like a lot of griping. Really, I feel very blessed that I've been able to balance motherhood, work and school at a world-class university. AND I'm ready to move on and apply my learning and drive. 

  I have been hired to lead two very different parent groups which I am excited about: Parent-Child Mother Goose and Strengthening Families. The Mother Goose program involves stories, rhymes, and songs with parents and small children sitting together in a circle. It is focused on building bonding between parents and children, encouraging language acquisition and literacy for kids, and helping parents connect with each other and develop support systems. I will be co-facilitating with librarians at two different food banks each week and Aurora gets to come with me--how great is that!  

The Strengthening Families Program is for families with kids 6-12 and is a focused intervention to help families draw closer together and prepare kids to withstand the pressures for drug abuse and other high-risk activities. Parents and kids have separate groups for half the night, share a meal and then have family activities based on what they've both been learning. Its been well-researched and shown to build family's communication and bonding as well as helping kids delay or completely avoid certain high-risk activities. I was trained for to facilitate this program several years ago in Washington and then my agency never put it on, so I'm really excited to be working with an aboriginal family services agency to share this program with families. 

I feel really blessed to be able to be starting work with families with these two program that are based on building family connections (and, admittedly, working to prevent a variety of troubles).      Wow, I just went on and on.....  Well, now you know what I'm up to. 

Ahhhhhh......summertime in the coastal Northwest is hard to beat. 

It's easy to forget all about the short, damp winter days.

Note the heavily loaded bike, I love how much you can bike here. This particular night we met up with friends Julia, Ugo, Jake and his visiting friend, Rie, and watched the last night of Vancouver's fireworks festival--put on by the Chinese. It was spectacular and, hilariously Aurora was awake for it. She watched intently and was still for the longest I've seen her while awake in ages.  (she is such an active little bundle of inquisitiveness these days!)

This is Ms. Aparna Rae giving Aurora her first ride on a bike by herself (in front of our apt).  She was giving off happy chirps and squawks throughout. 

[Aurora incidentally is crazy about bikes and all things with wheels which she can ride or push. She adores her bike helmet and will put it on anytime she can get her hands on it. We think she associates it with good times. ]

Aparna has been living with us this summer and it has been really, really great (at least for us:).  I have loved having another woman in the house to visit with--and gang up on Abe with.  Aurora adores Aparna.  Abe and I are both in awe of Aparna's culinary prowess. Add to that the she is incredibly generous ("Oh, Aurora was crying in the night, I thought I was just having a bad dream") and super fun to be with and you see why we love(d) to live with her. 

However, Aparna is wrapping up her masters in art education this week and tragically leaving us and her dude man for the allure of Seattle....or because she got a great job there. We are really going to miss her. 

Other occurrences in the McCune Dickerson household?

My folks are here and we are heading for a holiday to Tofino for a whole week--wahoooooo! I'm looking forward to taking them out sea kayaking and reading books and playing on the beach with Aurorita. 

Well, this has been a bit disjointed, but now you have a glimpse of what we've been up to lately.  I hope you are having a wonderful, sunny summer too.