I'm getting itchy feet.

Ya hear that, world?  Do I need to say it louder than a whisper of keys tapping on a computer? 

I'M GETTING ITCHY FEET!!!

I want to go somewhere else. Live somewhere else. Experience a different rhythm to my days and nights, and hear a different language and smell different food and, and, and...

We are exploring different options, to make this happen.  (Shhh, don't tell, but we're still (very faintly) hoping (against hope) that something unique and cool comes through. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But the excitement of possibilities and probabilities made our hearts go all a'flutter, and now, how do we sit still again?)

Deferred salary leave has been started again.  Streamlining and purging and renovating the house are very active works in progress. 

I need a place to go. An adventure to target.

Suggestions, anyone? 

It is the twilight of this day (the light gone, early, to dusty grey)

Children are playing, outside, the noise of their delights softly muffled through the cocooning walls of my home, leaving me undisturbed, yet aware of the tenor of play and boys' emotions.

I am soft, happy, drifting...

alone yet not lonely

with my little people, just on the other side of the walls

soon to come crashing through the doors, 

rousing me from my soft deliberations 

once again the hub of their world.

(Oh, what fun and lightness to just sit inside, and listen for a while. Alone.)

International Women's Day

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.  In celebration of this day, on her Facebook fan page, The Feminist Breeder asks:    Today, on the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, I'd like to celebrate all the multi-tasking mamas raising babies while raising awareness. What are you celebrating today?

  My answer?   I am celebrating our success in advocating for second language education in our small rural community, and contemplating how much more direct political advocacy is required for proper funding for both education and health care in our province. Onto the next!!

On to the next, indeed.  It is not enough to advocate for Second Language education, have the program start, and then fail to advocate with our government officials to properly fund ALL education.  It is not enough to be displeased with class size, and express displeasure to the school administration, which is merely working with the funds that are allocated by the provincial government.  We need to act now.

 The need for awareness and advocacy regarding our public education system and our public health care system is growing, particularly at the local level.  I have to reconcile myself to the notion that if I want "things" to be better, at any level, then I must be a part of the change, not just a whiner sitting on the sidelines.  If I am displeased that the student-teacher ratio is on the rise in the classrooms in our schools, then I must work with others to educate ourselves on the reasons behind this increase, and advocate within the general population and with the politicians that hold our government purse-strings for meaningful change.  (Hello, elimination of the ability of School Divisions in Saskatchewan to set their own Mill Rates, anyone? And subsequent underfunding of the provincial education system since then, because there was not an adequate policy put in place BEFORE the changes were instituted?)  We can't yell at the educators in our schools, particularly if they haven't the funds to even consider hiring new teachers.  They are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.  We are the ones, the parents and citizens that are interested in investing in the human capital that will make up our future, that must shake ourselves out of our apathy and entitlement, and start advocating for real change.

We can't yell at the front-line workers in our local health care system because there are no medical appointments available to us.  They didn't set this system up. They are doing the best they can with what they have to work with.  We are the ones, the patients and advocates of other patients, that must shake ourselves out of our apathy and ridiculous sense of entitlement, and start advocating for real change. 

We must have examples ready to submit to our health ministers and our education ministers on the local, provincial and federal levels, and shine bright lights of unbiased and demanding query, so that as they proceed in improving the system, we can watch them with each step they take.  And if they lose their way, we are there, watching and demanding that they back up, fix it, and keep going.  

We must become active participants in our government and the decisions they are making FOR us at every level.  We MUST.  If we don't like what's happening now, how will it ever change?  If we don't step up and say ENOUGH - we value education and health care, stop destroying them!, who will??  If we don't act now, who knows where we will end up?  Lets make noise, and back it up with suggestions and ideas!!  Yes, it will be hard and will take a lot of time, but seriously, what's the alternative??  If you aren't ready to settle for less than we have now, will you join me in advocacy? Let me know. Before there's not much left to work with.