Today is an extra special edition of What’s Up Wednesdays, as I have an important announcement to make, but let’s make our way through this week’s speedlink first. Kicking things off, we have Oscar Gonzalez sharing his adventures in Disneyland with a couple of kids in tow. It seems challenging enough trying to wrangle one child through the Happiest Place on Earth, so I tip my hat to “Papi Daddy” for his courage under fire. He lives in Orange County, so Disneyland is practically in his backyard.
Speaking of family living, Andrea dispels the myth that you need a big house in the suburbs with a white picket fence. In a recent post, she explains how they make things work with a family of five in two-bedroom condo. And that doesn’t even include the dog too! The convenience of living downtown means that they have tons of amenities within walking distance and the smaller space ensures they don’t accumulate too much junk. If you have “extra” room, you’ll inevitably figure out how to fill it.
Many Vancouver restaurants, like Fable Kitchen, embrace farm-fresh, local ingredients for their seasonal menus. Going one step further, Keisha Boutilier enjoyed a terrific farm to table dinner in Chilliwack, organized by Cultivate & Co. This brought her up close and personal with where her food comes from. It’s really important to value local businesses and your neighbor farmers “who bring wholeness to our communities.” The gorgeous outdoor setting for the meal certainly didn’t hurt either.
Some events just put everything into perspective and truly make you appreciate what you have, rather than be upset about what you lost. That was exactly the case with Zach Rosenberg last week when his son and wife got into a car accident. Airbags were deployed, people were injured, and vehicles wrecked, but his family is alive. His son is scared and not sure how to process all of this but he’s alive. And Zach feels incredibly lucky for it.
The Halloween season isn’t even over yet and Vanessa Choot is already feeling a little festive. She’s giving away a couple of tickets to the upcoming Circle Craft Christmas Market on her blog. The crafty market features over 300 artisans with all sorts of unique holiday gifts, including clothing, pottery, jewelry and soap. And even though it’s a “Christmas” market, the Circle Craft event is actually scheduled for the second week of November, giving you enough time to ship gifts to loved ones living afar.
As for the important announcement, after much deliberation, I’ve decided that the weekly speedlink on Beyond the Rhetoric is no more. This doesn’t mean I’ll stop sharing the great content that my fellow bloggers are producing. I’ll just start doing that a little more often through social channels like Twitter, culminating in a larger roundup here once a month. Of course, everything is always a work in progress, so things might change again. We’ll see!
Thanks for including me in here. It can be difficult to bring the 2 kids for sure, but they have a blast and the benefit is that at the end of the day, they are exhausted and usually sleep all afternoon and through the night. It means I’m tired too, but I can get stuff done then.