Category Archives: Our Family

tales of everyday life

All Sorts of Things

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This winter so far has been great, I had a great christmas with lots of family over and lots of fun things to do. On Christmas day my aunt was over and we had a seafood dinner. On boxing day my aunt (my dad’s sister) was over and my uncle (my mom’s brother) and his three girls were over. My mom’s parents were also over (my Omi and Opa), so we had a big turkey dinner for 10. I really like turkey dinners because some of my favourite foods are stuffing and mashed potatoes. I got some really nice things for christmas like three computer games I really wanted, two really pretty posters, a bed canopy which I have always wanted. I also got a gift card to an online store which has some very nice things, some cookies, an itunes gift card, some money and some books. Also for christmas I am getting pet mice, which I really want! I am getting them a few weeks after christmas even though they are part of a present.

fancy_mice.jpgI am really excited about getting pet mice, I have already picked out all the stuff I am going to buy for them (the pet store’s website)I really like animals so I am just happy to be getting pets. Before I get mice my parents said I have to research them, so I did. You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I’ve learned. Like for instance did you know that a mouse’s brain in relation to their body size is bigger than an apes or a dolphins OR a human’s brain compared to their body size. So mice are very smart. You can teach them many things, like to relate a certain noise to something like food. Mice are very social creatures so its recommended that you have at least two. Mice require very little space but of course they will enjoy it if you give them more space. You should never ever feed mice acidic vegetables or fruit because it can kill them. You should also stay away from chocolate, raw meat, other animal food (like cat or dog food). You should stay away from cedar or pine bedding because it can harm their respiratory system. Mice are nocturnal creatures and they don’t live over 2.5 years. You should keep your mouse cage away from drafts and direct sunlight. I hoped you learned a little about mice that I am sure most of you didn’t know before.

Erin

Merry Christmas from the Leggett Family

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Hello to all. I thought I would share our Christmas letter with our regular and casual readers. It has been important to keep as many things as possible in the “normal” range. Given my illness, this has been quite a challenge for Kristine and the girls. Best wishes to all for a joyous holiday season and good health and happiness in the New Year! – David

Dear family & friends,

Wishing you joy and peace this Christmas! What follows is a little note from each of us.

200912230242.jpgErin: This year in late April my grade (grade7) went on a trip to Quebec city. I had so much fun. In the summer I had a great time at camp and at the family cottages. This school year I am in grade 8 and I am sure there will be so many great memories. I am on the yearbook committee helping with layout and design and in the band. We are getting ready for a national band competition this spring in Ottawa and have been asked to play in many places. My favourite subjects are drama and science. I think 2009 has been a good year!

200912230243.jpgCatherine: Last spring I got to go to NYC with my school band and loved it! In the summer I spent a month at camp in the LIT program. It was an amazing experience. I’m in grade eleven now, and mostly I like it. I have a lot of math homework, but I also get to take music, dance, and anthropology. They are my favourite subjects, so they make school better. I’m starting to think about what job I want to do when I grow up, and right now it’s between an elementary school teacher, and a cultural anthropologist.

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David: I am still in bed, but making very slow progress. Besides watching many movies and keeping up with people and events on my computer, I have kept a blog, largely on climate and lyme-related issues. One opportunity that came my way this fall was to be featured on CTV’s investigative news show W5 when they did a piece on lyme. Since then I have been getting a lot of calls, emails, and facebook contacts from across Canada. Many from fellow lyme-sufferers who were deeply touched by such a high-profile show finally giving some visibility to a disease that has taken its toll on so many Canadians, and yet for many reasons, some obvious and some unfathomable, remains largely invisible.

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Kristine: I have kept very busy being a mom, caring for David, ever learning more about lyme disease and chronic illness, keeping the home (with help from kind people) and finding time and space for myself. Work has provided lots of opportunities to grow and try new things over the year. Most of the this has been pretty exciting. One sad thing that happened this fall was that our little puss “Kootka” finally died at age 20. We all miss her, but Erin was especially attached to her.

There is a lot of pain in having someone ill for so long with so few answers and so little the system can understand or offer. But pain forces us to grow and (hopefully) sands down some of our rough spots. We are reminded at Christmas that God hasn’t just created us and set us adrift, staying aloof to our circumstances, but instead, has gotten down and dirty with us. Imagine, the life force of the universe coming to experience all the ordinariness and pain that we know as people!

Love David, Kristine, Catherine & Erin

Lyme Disease on CTV W5 takes flight!

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If you are interested in capturing a glimpse into our lives, CTV W5 has put together an investigative news piece about lyme disease in Canada. Hopefully the Leggett family part of the production will not be too embarrassing…

Dates & Times: Sat. Nov. 14th, 7:00 p.m. — repeated Sun. Nov. 15th, 12 noon (times are EST)

The CTV W5 web site will feature the show, in case you missed it or want to see it again. Once it has been posted, please consider leaving a comment at the bottom of the Lyme show page – I think there will be a link to email W5 directly about the show. The more comments received, the more likely CTV will do other news features or even followup W5 shows on the effects of lyme disease on Canadians like ourselves. Thank you all for your support. With continued effort, more resources will be marshaled against the scourge that is lyme disease. There is hope.

CTV W5 will have to wait …

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Initial estimates from CTV were a bit optimistic! October 31st will NOT happen. The W5 Lyme Disease investigation (featuring “yours truly”, Kristine, Catherine and Erin) proved to be more of a complex challenge than anticipated. The producer says we are looking at a likely time frame around early January. It will be a full half hour, and aims to blow the lid off of Canadian inaction on the escalating epidemic of lyme disease. You could be next, so be watchful, learn whatever you can about it, and ask our doctors and governments to treat it seriously. Above all, keep well 🙂

Summer reflections

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IMG_1110.JPG Time flies! Summer was always my favourite time, as I wrapped up my school, ensured that timetables, programs and facilities were ready for the fall, and said good-bye to my staff as they left in stages through early-mid July. Then came the barbeques, golf, the family camping trips, visits to family cottages, and the inevitable return to school mid-August to oversee final preparations to greet students sporting a new polish and shine.

Certainly many things have changed over the past five years! Kristine has been a Mental Health Nursing Practice Leader for over four years, and has been very successful in her role. Catherine is turning 17 this winter and is really enjoying her time at the arts-focussed school. Erin is a proud senior in grade 8 at middle school. As a newly minted teenager, her opinions are seldom unheard and more vibrant than ever 🙂

IMG_1080.JPGThis summer has seen a lot of activity come and go, in spite of my daily needs for attention and care. Erin and Catherine spent about a week or so with each set of grandparents, and even got to see their cousins (Craig’s girls) for almost a week. Devil Lake was never so frenetic! Kristine even got to spend a few days there with her parents and our girls. Catherine spent a month at Ontario Pioneer Camp as part of the Leadership Training program. Erin was at Pioneer Girls’ Camp for two weeks. Both girls had a wonderful time!

Although it pains me at times to talk about it too much, lyme disease has been difficult – any which way you look at it. Being bedbound confines me to a virtual prison. I get to hear about the world and even see it through my window, and that has to be enough for the foreseeable future. Being this way also makes a lot of friends and family feel physically and emotionally awkward. What does one say? Reminders of healthier and more active times aren’t easy for others (nor for me), and often constitute unwelcome intrusions into a life that doesn’t handle the mortal limitations and “surprises” that are part of the human condition. And a bit of a downer to see me like this.

For me, the good news is that I have found ways to be useful, especially given the wireless connection over my laptop mac. This blog is one of them – I even dabble a bit with twitter and facebook. Other computer “projects” include keeping the family organized (iCal, OmniFocus, EagleFiler, Circus Ponies NoteBook, Punakea), keeping up with extended family and world news (Mail, Safari, NetNewsWire), converting analog audio/video family archives to digital, organizing digital photos (iPhoto), working on family history/genealogy (need family input!), etc… The limiting factor each day is the profound cellular fatigue which constrains my every movement and portions out only very limited energy at a time. Managing this extremely low energy ceiling is part of every day life. Embracing the challenges seems a lot more useful than moping about it all. I would like to write a blog series on my experience with lyme disease, although I am not sure that many readers would welcome such a personal story and frank assessment of one of the most serious and exploding health issues that we face today. It is quite likely that about 200,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians are infected each year by the bacteria causing lyme disease (see the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation ), but this remains largely hidden due to the insurance and medical lobbies and control over the flow of information, a political policy vacuum, inadequate and very misleading official Canadian testing, and a general reticence to tackle such a silent and complex debilitator. It has been quite a journey, from the initial medical confusion, to the inability to lead a school any more, to the long-term treatment failures, to the condition I face now, to the ongoing struggle as we have sought out alternatives that are credible and have helped others.

I look forward to progress along the health front, and memorable times for our family this fall. Maybe I can even find it within me to laugh for no reason at all.

As Norm Papernick said,

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.

Gardens, lawn care and “family time”…

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Garden Tulips

Wow! What a spring! Without the withering temperatures in April, May and even so far in June, and with lots of rainfall, the flowers in our gardens were and still are absolutely beautiful (the lawns look pretty good too). Kristine took lots of pictures so that I could see what it looked like outside. The tulips and various other spring flowers were in full bloom and bold with colour. These tulips look like fucia (spelling)… I think. Or because I am a guy, maybe I should just stick with “pink.”

Both girls have been helping Kristine quite a bit to keep our lawns and gardens looking pretty good. It looks like our long-term focus on environmentalism has become part of life around here.

I know that I have forgotten something, but here is what has been going on outside this spring…

  1. Kristine put nematodes on our lawn in May, and will repeat again in August. Keeping the lawn watered for 10 days after each application helps to ensure that the nematodes survive and get rid of the white grubs. Catherine and Erin helped to keep the lawn well watered. Nematodes are a little easier to find this year since Toronto now has a long overdue prohibition against using chemical insecticides and herbicides.
  2. Just recently Kristine cut the lawn and spent a lot of time trimming and pruning back the chinese elm hedge around the front lawn. Looks really good!
  3. We decided to put in a full vegetable and herb garden this year, in addition to the four or five flower gardens which Kristine plants and maintains. I think that the girls have also helped keep the weeds somewhat at bay.
  4. Erin spent some time yesterday helping her mother with weeding the lawn – I hear she actually enjoyed it!

The exciting part of all of this isn’t just that the results look great this spring, but also that I have improved enough that Kristine has enough time to actually do something she enjoys – for the most part 🙂 – and also that Catherine and Erin seem to enjoy helping (perhaps maturity, society’s increasing environmental awareness, the Michelle Obama White House “garden” effect).

Looking forward to the gardens as they move past spring blooms and into different flowers (lilies, etc…) and growing vegetables. Maybe even “ultra boy” tomatoes in July!