Christmas in July

Dear July,

thank you for blessing my Dad with his

76th birthday.

(I'm glad my Dad's here to witness everything below.)

Croc family

Thank you for the gift of

an incredible first young women's camp experience

as a leader with stellar young women.

(I feared that role for years!)

Thank you for my acceptance to be a 

Masters student

at

Wilfrid Laurier University

in the

Masters of Arts in Community Music Program.

(That was completely unexpected)

Thank you for my André,

for inspiring me to apply for school 

and seeing me through the application process.

(That was completely expected)

Thank you for granting 

André's

architecture license 

on my birthday.

That was one of the best birthday gifts!

(especially after many birthdays of working hard towards this together)

Thank you for granting me my 39th year on this earth.

(After cheating death many times,

I couldn't see anything in my life past 30.)

Thank you for surrounding me

with incredible 

friends (old & new), family & animals

that support me in so many different ways.

(I'm beyond blessed in this area)

Teaser for my next blogpost. 

With much Love & Desire

to give back,

Daisy

Northern Falé IV

School has ended and home school begins.

In our house, that means ample room to

create, create, create.

My kids and their house-dreams.

Their dreams are big but helpful in understanding 

their desires for our new home.

The kids have been having fun creating their 

house-dreams in Minecraft

I asked Melaia, 10yrs. old, to send me a few pics

to post on my blog. She sent me 30.

Here's a few: 

We'll start in Melaia's room(s).

Reading/Library solarium attached to her bedroom. Trust me. It's only the beginning!

Two perspectives of Melaia's room. The 1st floor. Yup, she created two floors to her bedroom.

Melaia's bedroom. 2nd floor. Glass floor. Yup. You can see down to her BEDroom.

Melaia's 2nd floor bedROOM. She created so much space, she doesn't know what to do with it.

In-house Architect's critical analysis:
(by André Arseneault)
The extra room creates a nice vista of the beautiful landscape.
Melaia clearly enjoys the freedom of movement
with a simple palette of materials;
clean and modern.

Kitchen table in Kitchen

In-house Architect's critical analysis:

A homey and warm feeling with the wooden chairs.

A very different feel than her bedroom. 
There's not as much wood in her bedroom(s).

Lots of room for guests.

We'll most likely need a few more posts for Melaia's other pictures.

It was quite the extensive collection of perspectives.

To be continued...

Northern Falé journey continues... I,  II,  III, V & VI 

Northern Falé III

We have a century old double brick home.

A past owner painted over the brick. 

Depending on how the sun is shining, the paint can look white. 

Our kids would describe our house as white. 

Truthfully, the paint colour is an extremely pale mint green.
To me, the colour screams
"beach house".
We either need a beach implanted on our street
or a new colour. 
(I want the beach!) 

The brick has made for an awesome backdrop to some amateur photography that I've taken of my family.

I've always wanted to re-paint it.

In-house Architect says that's a no-no.

Painting deteriorates the brick quicker.

You can see clear evidence of that here:

Model: In-house Architect, André

Under the paint, the brick is greyish. 
I actually like the natural colour of the brick.

It doesn't matter what I like because André is 
planning on going all-out Modern.

Apparently, the cost & environmental impact of peeling off that paint is worth the transformation into modern century home.

No worries. 
As depicted in the pic above, 
in-house architect has thought about this long and hard. 
He's come to a final decision. 
Modern cladding. 
Right on top of the brick.

What's cladding? 
The clothes you wear are cladding over your birthday suit.

This ancient brick bod of a house will be fitted & dressed 
in a fine, brand spank'n new suit.

André gave me a little sneak peak 
at what cladding is inspiring him lately:

3333 SW Marine from Bentley Images on Vimeo.

I'll gladly take the car & garden with the new suit.

Northern Falé

Northern Falé II
Northern Falé IV
Northern Falé V
Northern Falé VI

Architecture Throwback & Forward Again

In 2004 we had two kids, boys, 2yrs. old & a 1yr. old.

André was in his 4th year of Architecture at the 

University of Waterloo, School of Architecture.

There's a Rome term during the 4th year of studying architecture.

We were barely scraping by as students, with two children, while in school but André's professors encouraged André to go to Rome. This incredible school supported us every step of the way. Professors advised André to gather money from all possible resources - savings, loans, family, etc. They encouraged us to make the sacrifices needed to go and partake of the 
invaluable education that was the Rome term.

We begged our families to support us. 

Our families helped us get to Rome. 

They were hesitant, as it was a significant sacrifice on their part but they did it.

We made it to Rome because of our incredibly supportive and trusting family.

Rome changed our lives forever.

History came alive. Ruins told stories of people, their lives and their communities. Layers of life lessons, both individual and collective, gushed out through the study of architecture within the layers of new buildings growing out of the old. 

Rome was a cultural feast.

We drank deeply from it's historical waters.

We played where the Romans played,

We walked where the Romans walked.

Our family changed forever in this historical playground.

Today, we reap the rewards of such a rich education and personal sacrifice. André has completed his architectural exams and as of February, has successfully passed each of the intensive exams.

He has achieved his goal of becoming an architect but we know that it didn't happen without the support and sacrifice of many people along the way.

This is part of why we love community.

We know what community has done for our family 

and we're determined to pay it forward.

This weekend André will be hosting another Jane's Walk in Uptown Waterloo.

This year's Jane's Walk will be dedicated to Leejay Levene, an aspiring architect, who tragically lost his life during a routine wisdom teeth extraction. Leejay was only 18 yrs. old and was on his way to the 

University of Toronto school of architecture. 

I have no doubt that he would've been a successful student and architect.

How do I know?

You can see it in his art - 

which will be on display at the Central Library Art Gallery 

from May 7th to May 27th, 2015.

All proceeds from sales of Leejay's Art & $10.00 calendar will benefit the Kitchener Public Library's future "Teen Tech Livingroom" at the Central library.

How else do I know that Leejay would've been a successful architect?

Look at his incredibly supportive family & friends.  

Like Rome, they continue to build on the successes & tragedies of the past.

HairPlay teaser

Over a year ago I wrote a post about lemons and shared with you how my Mum used to find a lot of joy by washing her hair with lemons - just like she did while growing up in Samoa.

It reminded me of the many, many hairstyles that my Mum sported and I promised you that I would post pictures when I got a hold of them from my Mum.

Over a year later, my Mum brought all our family pictures 

to our house for me to utilize.

(That's #IslandTime for ya!) 

They arrived last week and I have a few for you today with the promise that I will post many more once I scan them. They need proper scanning to truly appreciate how awesome my Mum's hair was...all without hairspray!

Centre: Mum, before children in Samoa. Island hair. All-the-way!
Left: Mum sporting her amazingly natural beehive. I have no idea how she did it. She's loving her first baby.
Right: Mum leaving the hospital with baby #2 sporting a beehive with a braid.
How does she look SO good after having a baby?!?!

Northern Falé II

To say the least, 

my kids are very excited 

to build our new home.

After living in our "student villa"

for over 12 years,

we're all feeling ready 

to make the

house of our dreams

a reality.

My kids have house-dreams too.

I've asked them to

design their dreams for our home

in Minecraft,

a popular kids building game.

First up is Rémi, 12yrs. old:

Rémi's redesign of the front of our home.

In-house Architect's critical analysis:

(by André Arseneault)

The front entry and generous porch space 

is obviously important to Rémi.

Réminds me somewhat of Frank Llyod Wright's 

style of Architecture.

Rémi's redesign of our kitchen.

In-house Architect's critical analysis:

Clearly lots of space for guests

and 

lots of space for eating.

A very social space as Rémi included books.

Nice view out to the landscape beyond.

Rémi's redesign of our kitchen table in a new diningroom.

In-house Architect's critical analysis:

I just see table.

Here's someone who likes to eat.

Clearly a Hobbit!

More to come!

Stay tuned!

Northern Falé journey: I, III, IV, V, VI 

Polski

These are *not* doughnut holes. Not even close! Read on!

People used to ask me if "Daisy" was my nickname. Nope. That's my true blue, through and through bona fide birth-given name. My Mum's highschool friend was named Daisy and she looooooved her friend's name and wanted this name for me. 

I've had few nicknames throughout my life but a good friend, who wanted to highlight my Polish heritage, would call me "Polski".

"Polski" made sense.

My last name (at the time) was Podeszwa (pronounced POh-dEz-wAh in English. pronounced POh-dEsh-vAh in Polish). 

I loved my last name. It took me awhile to love it. Growing up, on the first day of school, I would sit with my head down on my desk, filled with anxiety, while the teacher went down the class list:

Sarah Adams? "here!"....Karen Brown? "here!" Jason MacDonald? "here!"....Daisy Po...Po...Po-desk...Po-zed...Po-zzzzwah (in my younger years, roars of laughter would erupt from the class depending on the phoenetic acrobatics that would come out of the teacher's jumbled mouth) "PODESZWA!" I would call to help out. The teacher would stick to "Daisy" and quickly move on.

Growing up I was told that "Podeszwa" meant "heel of the shoe". Our close teenage friends would bug us saying that's why my brother's and my teenage feet stunk so bad. Hahahaha! Good times!

I wasn't sure if the translation to English of Podeszwa was really true, so, I just googled "Podeszwa" to see what I would find. I cried from laughing SO hard! In "google images", there's a seemingly endless supply of pictures of the bottom of shoes or heels of fancy shoes/boots. So. Many. Different. Kinds. Of. Shoes. Once again, I literally "LOL"! Try it! What images come up for your last name?

I have SO many pictures of my brothers and I working in a garden & Dad's stories of his trips to Poland, 
visiting all the farms, that this picture perfectly defines being Polish to me.
Here are the Podeszwa kids, with Dad Podeszwa, soles of our feet covered in a garden, working. 
I bet my younger brother "watered" the plants after this pic!

I also found an "English translation" on the net for "Podeszwa". Here it is: 

sole {noun} [sports]
So there were no longer shoe makers, but now there are people slapping soles on people's shoes.
sole (of the foot and of shoe) {noun}

So there you go! "Podeszwa" is the "Smith" of Poland! Funny short story: my brother married a Smith. Yup! True short story!

On Feb.12th, 2015, I popped onto Facebook. Two interesting things happened:

1. A friend of mine, who served her Mormon mission in Poland, began posting "Fat Thursday" (in Polish, Tłusty Czwartek) pictures. She smothered her Facebook page full of Pączki (Polish pastries, very much like doughnuts) pictures. My mouth was certainly watering by now and with every picture, this treat was looking very familiar. I thought I never tried this treat before but my watering mouth told me that this treat was familiar.

2. My brother's Mother-in-law, yup, the "Smith", posted a website to my brother with a photo of my Dad's older brother's gravestone on it. My brother has been gathering his family history and his Mother-in-law found the gravestone, of my Uncle that died as an infant, online. Weird! How could it be "Fat Thursday" and my Uncle's discovery day in one? I was particularly excited because I had just recently gathered information about my Uncle Charles from my Dad. I could confirm the identity of this grave stone because I had just written down my Uncle Charles' birth & death years and the cemetery that he was buried in. Everything on the site was correct. 

I then shared with my bro's Mother-in-law the story behind that stone. You see, my Dad had recently replaced his older brother's stone. I thought he replaced it because it was worn down. My Dad is 75, so that would make his brother 77. I called my Dad again and my Dad shared that he replaced the stone because "Podeszwa" was not spelled correctly (no surprise there!). Also, My Uncle's first name, Charles, was not included on the stone. My Dad did this for his older brother, the brother he had not even met. This story had always touched me. After hearing about it again recently, I was even more determined to get back to my home-town, in London, ON, to see my Uncle's new stone but here I was seeing it for the first time on the internet. A stranger had taken a picture of it and uploaded it online for this exact purpose. So that people looking for their lost loved ones, can find them online. I told my Dad that the stone for his brother was now online. I wasn't sure what he would think of that. He simply said that it was amazing. Just amazing. At the time that my Dad put this stone together, I was busy with little ones and did not have time to support him in this worthy cause. His efforts seemed to go unnoticed and unheralded. That bothered him. In fact, he wanted to be there when that stone was laid but the nuns at the cemetery had neglected to notify him of the stone's replacement. This never sat well with him but all seemed to wash away when his efforts were validated by a volunteer who took time to take that picture, upload it online and now his son, who lives on the other side of the country, and his daughter, have viewed the stone.

Many of you know that I lost my fourth baby, Isoefa Alofa. It has been six years since we lost him and I have not yet had the heart to put his stone together and placed at his grave site. I felt like the time was getting closer and this would probably be the year. When I saw my Uncle Charles' stone, I knew for sure this would be the year. I want my baby's stone to reflect my Uncle Charles' stone. I'm ready and I now look forward to this special moment. 

Through my baby's loss and the loss of my Uncle Charles, I feel closer to my Nana, my Dad's Mother. She died when I was little but I remember her very well. I feel her loss. I feel for her loss and now I feel that much closer to her.

I Love this picture of my Nana. She looks SO Polish to me.
The dress, the hat, her strong body.
Nice legs Nana!

So, when I jumped on twitter later in the day and saw this tweet from one of my favourite local European bakeries, Nougat Bakery,

Nougat Bakery @Nougat_Bakery · Feb 12

Paczki - all day long #FatThursday #delicious

 

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I couldn't take it any more! I called the bakery, made sure they still had Paczki (they did!), and then called my husband to pick them up on his way home from work.

My husband arrived soon after and our family sat around the table learning about Paczki (pronounced pawnch-ki). This Polish delicacy is traditionally served on Fat Thursday, the last Thursday before the Catholic Ash Wednesday, where Lent begins along with the ban of lard, sugar, eggs and fruit, until Easter. These beautifully simple ingredients are used up together to create this brilliant fruit-filled bun. I must learn how to make them. I carry all these ingredients in my home. All-the-time. Why wouldn't I? I'm Polish!

Paczki!

We tried 3 different kinds of Paczki; Rose (rose-hip jam.lovely!), Raspberry and Advocat (like a boston cream but better).

The table favourite? Without a doubt, it was the raspberry. Each Paczki was beautiful and delicious and would win my dessert heart. However, the raspberry seemed to burst in our mouths with depths of flavour that perfectly complimented the fluffy pastry. It made us all wish there was more raspberry!

Raspberry Paczki.
Heaven!

For me personally, it was a rich taste of something familiar. I think my Dad has bought a cheaper version in the past or I had them as a young child with my staunchly Catholic Nana. Either way, the taste was a taste of home and on Fat Thursday, I felt closer to my Nana and my Uncle Charles. It was a special day and I thank my friend for honouring her time in Poland by posting those pictures and I thank my adopted Mother-in-law for finding Uncle Charles on Fat Thursday. It truly was a Fat Thursday - fat with the spirit of loved ones and cultural heritage. 

My Valentines Day is dedicated to my Nana Podeszwa, 

who suffered the loss of a child, 

on her own, in a strange new country where she began building 

her new home and future. My Valentines Day is also dedicated to my Uncle Charles, who I know enjoys eternal glory 

with his humble Mother and Father. 

Much Love,

your little,

Polski