Feb
2023

Starting countdowns again!

I happy with how first term went! Excited for second term, tomorrow!

He said

Well after all the birthday shenanigans of last week, this week was a lot more quieter and easy-going. Emelia was wrapping up her last week of her first semester of Grade 10 which mean every morning from two Fridays ago to this Thursday she was going to school for the regular start time, but then done for the day at the end of her first period by 9:45am. Basically each subject had final projects to be presented or tests, but no exams. And, on Thursday, she chose to go again to try and get some extra credit for her Math class. Friday was a PD day so Emelia and her friend Ashlyn spent it at the mall and Indigo.

Emelia has become quite a voracious reader—all inspired by her friend Ashlyn who is a lot like Emelia in many ways. They met through Cheer, and happily enough, her family lives near The Sherwood’s. Reading was always a challenge for Emelia and was one of the first signs of her learning challenges. As we found her the right supports and awareness it definitely made a huge impact in school for her—especially when she got to high school. But, reading was never the thing that really caught on until this year when she found a series that really caught her interest, The Summer I Turned Pretty. It is three book series and she burned through those and is now onto the next in the series by the same author. We couldn’t be happier that reading has finally stuck for her and I think we have her friendship with Ashlyn to thank!

With it hitting February this week, there are a couple things on my mind. First, of course is whether I will be able to get in at least one outdoor ride this month to give me the pathway to making it all twelve months this year. And with the forecast this week it is looking like very strong possibility with an entire week of temps of 0º or higher—7º on Thursday! Let’s hope that by this time next week I am celebrating getting that done. It’s also meant that I have started looking ahead to the spring and summer to what races and events I might do. I’ve already locked down the epic Paris to Ancaster race which is the first ever Canadian Gravel Championships! But, I am slo looking to what other events I can do, trying to have a mix of new and ones I did last year, keeping to the one event per month, mix.

But the other thing that getting into February has brought about is the countdown to camping season! As of today, we are officially 85 days out—2 months and 25 days to be even more exact. However, if we’re let in the weekend before May as the 1st falls on a Monday, it will be even less. (It will mean navigating around the Paris to Ancaster race as it is that weekend, but we will sort it for sure!) We’re excited on the side of winter where the sun starts staying up later, and later. Wednesday, when leaving work at 5pm the sun was still up and was still trying almost to 6pm! It all means that we’re headed to a lot better weather and times! More biking and more campfires!!

She said

This week for Emelia was busy but different. Since covid the public school board in our area is still opting to hold off on term end ‘exams’ but replaced them with term ending assessments. Some of Emelia’s teachers treated the assessments like exams so she got a chance to get a taste of balancing a lot of school work all due at once and a bit of a hint of the stresses of exams. She was a bit stressed but for the most part took it like a trooper. All in all she had another successful term and is still sitting with a strong A average. We are proud of how hard she is working!

Another stress for her this week was some big changes at Cheer. Last week all the parents in Emelia’s stunt group got a call from one of the owners to discuss some big changes to our group. There had been some safety concerns about some of the stunts falling and the worry that it was going to potentially cause some serious injuries. What this meant for our group (Emelia, Olivia, Payton, Emi and Charlie) but we knew it would be a big adjustment.

We came to practice to see what this all meant. There were some pretty big emotions around the changes but with some more practices even though the girls would rather be stunting together in the middle stunts there have been some creative changes that have given the girls some new ways to be featured in the routine. Emelia is bouncing between stunt groups and has a fun tumbling line with Emi and Olivia that we hope will result in some amazing photos. We are two weeks away from Ontario Championships so we cannot wait to see how it all comes together and hope all the changes will result in a great performance and results!

For today we are shifting focus for Emelia, tomorrow she starts her second term of grade 10. She is excited for her new classes and being in classes with some different friends. Cannot wait to hear how her first day back goes!

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