Monday morning, first weekend lessons

Whew, this is done!

The first weekend is over!

That was long, intense and....Terrifying!!

We managed to stumble through our first day with another couple and our instructor on a Sonar.  But let me tell ya, I spent Saturday night with a splitting headache and feeling as though I were on the boat still rocking away!  While I didn't have seasickness, I felt queezy laying in bed!

We both felt like we had been thrown into the deep end, and couldn't swim.  We are in way over our heads!  But we are going to manage, right?  It'll getbetter, right?

Sigh.

Sunday morning did not start well.  What is a sailboat with no wind? A sitting and roasting duck!  After lunch the wind picked up andwe were off to a turbulent start.  Stronger waves and wind one person after the other heeled the boat with noideahow to right it, and our instructor wasn't talking.  He was enjoying the ride and said there is nothing to worry about. None of us like heeling at all!!

Then it was my turn to skipper.  It was stormy off shore, very rough for my comfort and I did not want to skipper.  I was finally getting the commands for which direction to head when I heeled so badly that we took on water!!!!  The intructor helped, my hubby released the mainsail and we righted our selves, but the damage had been done.

I was now terrified of every movement, I was shaking violently and couldn't stop crying, but I tried hard to keep it together.  Twice more it started to heel and my panic and anxiety became too hard to control, then it heeled again!

After it was righted I lost it, I yelled stop the boat, the instructor said its okay, i'm right here with you, and i replied frantically that I needed to stop the boat.  I was hyperventilating, shaking, and couldn't open my eyes.  I did not want to see what was happening.  Hubby took over the tiller but had to forcefully get  my hand off because I was clutching it so hard and was paralyzed with fear that I couldn't move!

The crew went to work to reef the main sail, and slow theboat down while I sat there freaking out, trying to breathe!

I knew I needed to get it together to help, they were trying to do two jobs instead of onewhen they were learning how to do just one!!

I am shaking just writing this out to you!

I was able to get back into focus, slihtly to takeover controlling the mainsail, and help lowersail when approaching the marina.  But I couldn't talk to anyone, unless I needed to answer a command. I wasn't embarrassed per se, but stuck in fear.

So, I get home to my family asking me if we were ok, because there had been a tornado warning.  Can you believe it!! No wonder the wind was psychotic!!!

Both hubby and  I have to decide if this is really what we want now.  This was scarier and harder than we bargained for.  Are we really cut out for this?
We will finish the last weekend, but I'm not so sure any more.  Maybe a motor yacht would be a better choice for what we are looking for.

Can you believe how long it's been??

Yes, we are still here!

I haven't gotten back to this blog because there hasn't been anything to tell you about...until now!

I have signed up Hubby and myself for our very first sailing lessons!  Yahoo! They start next weekend and let me tell you...I am nervous!

I was sent the 'reading material' that is needed or the course and they kindly asked me to read it over before coming to class.  Holy Crap Batman!  This is going to be harder than I thought!

I mean the terms alone and the items they belong to are hard enough to remember, but with less than two weeks to study them all, I am shaking in fear!  What if I forget which is which?  What if I screw up?

Sigh, I need to remember that I will not be alone on the boat, that my 8 year old has taken two weeks of Tackers already and will be taking two more this year and he still remembers what he learned!  I know I can do this too!

I am going to post again after our first weekend and tell you all the gory details of how it went for both of us!

Wish us both luck!

I wonder if my hubby remembers "spinnaker" today? He called from work last night just to ask me!

Happy Purging!

I can't believe it's October! Here in Canada we just wrapped up our Thanksgiving.  Means much less here I think than it does to the US, but it is a holiday weekend nonetheless. 

Our disastrous summer plan fell through, for now.  Finishing renovations and selling in the summer didn't pan out, as there was so much more to do than we thought! Isn't that always the way?

We have so much of our stuff in an expensive storage facility that we only wanted for a few months, so we have begun to bring boxes back home by the car load.  I can't imagine how we collected so much crap!!

Slowly and ruthlessly we are taking out of the box only to wrap it up and put it back in the box and drop it off at the nearest Value Village. ( a charitable retail store of used goods) I love being ruthless!  Hubby is having a harder time with it.  I have very little rules. 

                                        Rule #1 Have you used it in the past two years?
                                        Rule #2 Is it valuable? Sentimental? Meaningful?
                                        Rule #3 Will you use it in the next 6 months?

This helps with my two phase process.

Phase #1  Take an item, any item and look at it asking yourself those three questions.  If you feel you can't part with it anyway, put it in a box and put it in a closet or find a place for it among your things.

Phase #2 Go back to that box a week, a month, or 6 months later and ask those three questions again.  Did you use it?  Did you even think about it?  Donate it if someone else could still use it or give it to someone you know that would want it.

That's it! Clearing out your things takes time because we have formed attachments to our stuff, whether we really needed them in the first place or not!

Do this for yourself and feel the freedom of release!

Anyway, I hope this gets us in the right frame of mind to keep doffing the crap!

At the end of this month Hubby and I are celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary with a trip to the Bahamas!  Oh WOW!  I've never been to this kind of island, so I am very excited!  We even have my parents babysitting for the whole time at home!

Why do I tell you this??

We are going to try to find a sailboat for a day trip!  it wouldn't be too smart of us to wish to live-aboard to then find out we hate to sail!!!  So we need to test out our sea legs for a few hours to give us a better idea of how it feels, and to see if this is a good fit for us to aim for!

If not I may be changing the name of our blog!  lol

Well, off to my other blog http://thr3ewomen.blogspot.ca/ I think I may post my recipes there to keep from hanging on to more paper!

Happy Purging!
Sylvie

One Week Down...36 more to go!

Some of you may not know that for the past 5 years I homeschooled.  Yah, I know, you are so patient, how could you do it! I never could...yadda yadda.  Get over it! anyone CAN IF they try.

My boys are this year in grade 7 and grade 3 and decided to join the working force of back to schoolers, so this is the end of week 1.

Funny part is my oldest still has yet to start.  maybe next week when they figure out that homeschooling in Ontario does not have any rules, monitoring or testing. 

Going to the gym has to wait until next week, and packing lunches for my picky 8 year old is awful!  I'll keep trying but he comes in the kitchen in tears to tell me all the treats his friends are eating that he isn't! think cookies, candy etc.

well, no learning for boating this week not even swimming, now that they are going toschool our swim lessons aren't happening with our homeschool group, sigh. when this all starts to become a routine I will look into weekend programs.

Health..or the lack of it.

It seems that with the more documentaries about food that I watch and the more books and blogs I read the more I realize that I, as well as my family, am not...well...healthy.

We don't have chips or candy in our shopping cart every week, we do have cases of pop.  We don't have boxes and boxes of frozen meals or snacking foods, though we do have some that Ihave chosen as healthiest.  Fruit snacks shaped as penguins, crackers, granola bars, dried fruit and nuts, organic animal crackers even!

We try to eat fresh produce and lean meats, rice, pasta and bread.

So, how then do I spend soooo  much money on food and still have little to show for it...and why do we all feel drained of energy, cranky a lot of the time and some of us (ahem) holding on to much more weight than we should be????

I am not too sure, but I can relate how I feel to what I eat...if I am paying attention that is.  I wonder if David Gillespie and Dr. Robert Lustig are right and it is the sugar.  GAHHHH coffee and pepsi gone forever!!!!  Deep breath calm down lets look into this a little more first.

Youtube video on sugar by  Dr. Robert Lustig...check...holy crap.
Book...Year of no sugar by Eve O. Schaub....check....nuts.

Book... Sweet Poison  by David Gillespie...I am in trouble now!

Anyone have experience in quitting sugar?? My family may revolt! I have difficult eaters in my house...how do i go about cutting sugar!#$%

 

Sailing....Really??

I guess from the title of our new family blog you know that we are talking about sailing. 

But what about it?

We are starting with lessons for the kids this summer.  August to be more precise.  Small sailing dinghies for them to learn on and some maybe more able.  By the time Alex and I get into taking classes of our own the kids will probably teach us a thing or two!!

1 thing I always wondered.....BOW ..... is it pronounced B- OW (Ow! like I hurt myself) or B-OHW (like bow tie??) Comical, I know, but I still wonder.

We've been perusing the magazines at Chapters....Holy there are a lot on sailing and boating!  Hubby seems to gravitate toward the catamaran's.  Interesting.  While they may not rock as much in rougher seas, I wouldn't want our size or width to be precise to stop us from docking.  Lessons first though!

Maybe in September or we'll have to wait for next summer.  Boo... I hate winter hold ups.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

Welcome!

This is the start of our journey to Who Knows Where!  

I have to admit to this being a number of years in the making.  A few thoughts, a few conversations and a large number of blogs read later and we are finally putting down our "options" to a piece of paper.

What does this mean exactly?

We are planning what we want to do with our future....our near future to live more fulfilling lives.  we also hope that it will give our kids more fulfilling lives.

So, to start, I will introduce the key players.  I am Sylvie, mom, wife, homeschool teacher.....and too many more things to add here! (I don't want to bore you!)  Then, there's my hubby, Alex; oldest son Alex, 11, (AJ for this blogs clarity); Chet, 7, our middle son; and Max, 2, our youngest.  We also have a Jack Russell named Jenny.

We live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In. A. Condo.  GRR.  No, we are not happy.  Was that hard to guess?     This past December we had the joy of spending two weeks in Florida (our first time) and then came home to the aftermath of the Great Ice Storm of Dec 2013/Jan 2014.  We were blessed to have missed it by mere hours, but had no choice BUT to come home.  And since then we have wondered "What in the world are we doing???" 

Alright, I may have lied a little....this wasn't the first time we asked ourselves this important question.  But the difference was THIS time.  You see, this time we have a plan!


I will share soon!  Stay tuned!