What Moms Need

Today I blogged over at Canadian Writers Who Are Christian. Go there to read my post, What Moms Need.

While you’re there, read posts by other Canadian Christian writers.

And for all the mothers reading my post, may you be blessed with love and time with your family, yes, even with long-distance calls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother on her wedding day

Book Signing this Saturday, May 4th for Once Upon a Sandbox

I am excited about my book signing at Waterloo Chapters this Saturday, May 4th from 11 am–1 pm, in Waterloo, Ontario. Come and get your copy of Once Upon a Sandbox and get it signed. The book makes a great gift for Mother’s Day for a mother, sister, aunt or grandmother as well.

Waterloo Chapters, King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario.

Go here to listen to my interview with Robert White at  Faith FM’s Art Connections

From my publisher’s website:

A marvellous family friendly book that will lift your spirits. Once Upon a Sandbox, by C. R. Wilker, is a warm and gentle memoir about family life on a farm. It is about the farm and the individuals, the personalities, and the ties that bind them to each other.

Whether it’s helping to whitewash a barn, hoeing endless rows of vegetable plants, or driving a tractor to prepare for spring seeding, there’s plenty of work to be done. Through this collection of prose and poetry, reflect on the realities of farm families, their connection with community, weather and economy, as well as being stewards of the land from which they make a living. This is a fine story to which anyone will relate. Read more here.

speaking at Kitchener Kiwanis Club, November 2012

Once Upon a Sandbox was a finalist in the 2012 Word Guild contest

Thank you again, Deborah Pryce, for your delightful art on the cover of my book.

A race or a team?

 

Here’s a letter I had forgotten about, one I wrote  in late 2009 when I was President of our Toastmasters club, the Energetics. I just unearthed the letter today and thought it was worth sharing.

Most organizations, I think, go through times of losing members and losing momentum. I’m happy to report that by the end of that year, we had gained momentum again and grown our club considerably. Here, for others who may be feeling discouraged by low enrollment or participation, is that letter.

 

Dear fellow Toastmasters

Two meetings ago, our theme was “Slow and steady wins the race,” a lesson we get from Aesop, a 6th Century B.C. Greek writer, who wrote The Hare and the Tortoise. He wrote entertaining short stories and fables that were meant to teach a lesson.
http://www.online-literature.com/aesop/

The tortoise, a rather slow moving creature, challenges the hare [rabbit] to a race. The hare sneers at the tortoise for his crooked legs and slow movements, and he brags that he can win the race easily. He accepts the challenge, assured that he can win. He leaps on ahead, while the owl, who is judge, and all the forest animals eagerly watch the race.

Hare had used so much energy bounding ahead that he decided to eat some carrots alongside the path, and then, since tortoise is still so far away, to take a nap beside the path as well. All this time, the tortoise plodded along steadily. Hare woke from his nap just as tortoise approached the finish line, and for all the hare’s hurry, owl declared the tortoise the winner of the race.

I thought how much that lesson compares with our Toastmasters journey—the slow and steady part. It might take awhile to get that Competent Communicator designation, but week after week and month after month of practice moves a member further along.

We are not to compare ourselves with others but to progress along our own course with the help and encouragement of the others. We learn from the others and not in isolation. The race analogy fails here. We are more like team members who work together to achieve something we cannot do alone. We are in a course alongside others who are also learning and growing.

If we continue along steadily, week after week and month after month, we will surely reach our goals. We will become better communicators and leaders. We are not in a competitive race to reach our goal, as the Hare believes. If one person takes two years and another member takes one to achieve the CC or ACB or whatever designation one chooses, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we join in and learn.

There has to be action and learning and cooperation among members. When only a few carry the load, they get tired and discouraged. When they get discouraged or drained from doing too much, the whole club suffers. Our club needs all of its members. And yes, I know, we have a life beyond Toastmasters.

Let’s renew our energy, beginning this new month of December, and continue on through the rest of our Toastmasters year, to reach those personal goals, and at the same time support others who are working toward theirs.

Sign on to the club website and put yourself in roles as often as you can. Work toward those goals you’ve set for yourself or challenge yourself to a new one for 2010. Let’s make the rest of the year a team effort where everyone wins. Game’s on!

Respectfully,

Your President

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Open Doors Waterloo, a Toastmasters initiative

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Huron Natural Park, photo by James Woo, Clickr Photography

Saturday Snapshot–Tea and Tales in March

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The program and favours for Tea and Tales by Carol Leigh Wehking and Brenda Byers, storytellers from Baden Storytellers’ Guild

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brenda and Carol Leigh, the storytellers, at the Wired-up Pug Cafe and Bistro, Cambridge, Ontario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A celebration of World Storytelling Day, an international storytelling day for telling stories in many places.

 

Saturday Snapshots, hosted by At Home With Books. Go there to see more pictures and post your link. Photos you or a family member have taken. Keep them clean and appropriate for all eyes.

 

Photos on this blog are by C. Wilker, unless otherwise noted.

Is it spring yet?

Yesterday we had rain, snow, sleet, thunder and lightning all within a few moments of each other and some at the same time. Odd, but I guess it’s spring.

Photos by L and C Wilker

Saturday Snapshot–Signs of Spring

Frost on the plants this morning

My footprint in some of the remaining snow

Tulip stems? Wait and see.

Daffodils soon to come in our front flowerbed, and narcissus on the right

I’m ready for spring. How about you?

Saturday Snapshot hosted by At Home With Books

To participate in Saturday Snapshot: post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. Go and see what other pictures are there.

Life and Arts in Kitchener Post: Tell Me a Story

Life and Arts in Kitchener Post: Tell Me a Story

Today (March 28, 2013) in the Kitchener Post, an article and photos about our World Storytelling Day concert at the Waterloo Region Museum and the meaning of storytelling.

http://www.kitchenerpost.ca/whats-on/tell-me-a-story/

This photo by C. Wilker.

Photos on Post site by Meredith Taylor

Canadian Writers Who Are Christian–Looking Forward to Spring

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for spring!

 

 

Today I blogged over at Canadian Writers Who Are Christian, as I do once a month. Today my post is about waiting for spring. Read it here.

You may also enjoy posts by Peter Black, Laura Davis and Glynis Belec and more.  Come read what we have to say and leave a  comment for the writer.

 

 

Carolyn R. Wilker

available from Fanfare Books, Stratford, Ontario; Merrifield Book Shop, Woodstock, ON, and from the author

www.carolynwilker.ca

Saturday Snapshots–Still Snowing

February photos and here we are in March and though the banks of snow have diminished during some milder weather. Our picnic table had a foot of snow on it and nearly a foot around it, and since it’s in our backyard, we don’t need to shovel it. Today it’s snowing again.

The host of At Home With Books for Saturday Snapshots asks that photos be by the one posting or by a family member and that they be appropriate for all eyes. Go there and link with host and then go on a tour of the world in photos.

Circus theme at the Museum–Science under the Big Top

This week at  the Waterloo Region Museum   many have experienced the Circus theme: Science Under the Big Top. Planning it for February to May was a smart move on the Museum’s part since March Break was in the middle. It gave families something special to do on the March Break.

Staff told me when I arrived, as storyteller for the day, that one  thousand people had already come that day. That was Tuesday. Indeed the theatre filled soon after a staff member announced storytelling time. Eager children awaited the stories, and parents, grandparents and group leaders with a band of children there for a day camp. They participated in the stories that called for actions, and they listened until it was time to move again.

On Wednesday I took a preschooler to the museum. Many activities had been designed for school-age children, but there were activities that even a preschooler could engage in with some assistance.

We read a circus story in the dress-up area and tried on clown hats and shoes. I thought we might stay there a little longer, but there was so much more to see… and hear

What’s behind the curtain? We didn’t find out since there was a group of people around it.

We’re looking down through an upper story glass window.

acrobatics in the air

Walk the high wire (wearing a harness, of course)

Granddaughter wanted to try this, to get dressed for it, but there was no harness small enough.

By pushing buttons and pressing pedals, we could put a circus movie on the screen, complete with music.

We had fun with this one, even seeing a lion tamer at work.

Shooting a ball from the cannon–a combined effort

We enjoyed this activity as well.

What’s holding up the train? Peepholes to look through.

Though no animals were to be found, except on video, it was like being at the circus, with the music, activity and excitement. And soon all good things makes a young one tired and so we concluded our visit with a treat from the concession stand out in the foyer, and we looked out the window at the engine in the village.

You can see more photos of the activities at the museum website.

Photos on this blog are the copyright of C. Wilker.