We had our first sailing trip of the year (thanks to Dani and Toryn letting us borrow their boat). We did a quick trip to Sidney Spit for a BBQ. The kids and I were all a little rusty, but everyone soon got into the swing of things again. Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to explore some of the local islands this summer.

So Zoe had this mysterious full body rash last weekend, but not really any other symptoms except for being a little bit achy the day before it appeared. Three days in, I started trying to get some answers but one nurse, one doctor and one natropath could only conclude that it seemed like an allergy to something – perhaps to the naturopathic remedies she’d been taking for three weeks to try and shake her One-A-Day migraines.

The consensus was, that whatever it was, probably wasn’t contagious so I sent her back to school the next day. After school that day she came home with a notice saying “Fifth Disease is going around the school”.

This was a new one on me. I thought I’d seen everything after 17 years of parenting, but apparently not. The symptoms fit what she had perfectly. Helpfully, by the time the rash arrives, it’s no longer contagious. Naturally, it’s spreading like wildfire around the school. In fact, you can spot the kids who are just getting it by their red cheeks.

Fortunately, it seems to be a very mild illness and nothing to worry about.

I did something new last week – I had my first session with an executive coach to work on direction for my business(es).

As you can tell I haven’t done very much blogging on here, however, I’ve been more diligently blogging on rethink9to5 which is a website exploring alternatives to the traditional 9-to-5 working life. My most recent posts include:

• What to Do If You’re Not as Productive as You Promised
• Women In The Workforce: Why There’s More to the Glass Ceiling Problem
• Shipping Breast Milk Is Not a Win-Win!
• What Does Flexible Working Mean?

I’m starting to wonder if I’m a feminist.

We spent this weekend beginning to plan our road trip to the US. Last year we did the East Coast and we’ve driven up and down the West Coast quite a few times. This time we’re aiming somewhere in between. We’re thinking of making a loop from Calgary down through Yellowstone all the way down to Arizona, then West to the Grand Canyon/Vegas and back up via Reno. Who doesn’t love 70 hours of driving?! Maybe we’ll find a way to get Aly insured on the SUV so we can split the drive between the 3 of us (too bad it’s not a couple of months later or we could have roped Toby in too!).

It should take us about three weeks. After that Aly is headed 13 hours north for a week-long rangers camp in Smithers, BC (wow, this province is big – Smithers is only about halfway up!).

We had a lovely end to the weekend at Garry Point Park in Steveston where we were surrounded by blossom and the calmest waters we’d ever seen there.