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What are Table Topics? It is the portion of the Toastmasters meeting where everyone gets randomly called to come up to the front and deliver two-minute speeches where the Speaker has no previous knowledge of the question. This activity teaches the importance of learning to respond quickly and intelligently to impromptu questions where the answer should be structured like a prepared speech with an introduction, body and conclusion. The Speaker must answer the question even if he/she knows nothing about the subject by using his/her imagination. So every toastmasters meeting, there is a roster of roles that need to be filled in order for the meeting to take place. Roles such as Chairperson, Toastmaster, Evaluator, Grammarian, Word Master, Quiz Master, Uh-Uhm Counter, Table Topics Master, Timekeeper, etc. Every week since I joined I've been trying a different role each time so I can be involved, engaged, and feel like I'm participating even though I'm terrified of being calle...

Guess what today was?!! It was the first day of my photography workshop!!! :) As a special treat for the staff, we were given "Wellness Dollars" at work. It's a set amount of allowance that staff can use towards self care. It's not a rigid criteria, the only condition is it's not spent on alcohol or basically anything that would be considered unhealthy. Other than that we were encouraged to be creative on what can contribute to our wellness. And creativity was exactly what I went for. I chose to sign up for a photography workshop. A beginner one. I had always been insecure about my knack for visual arts -- or lack of, that is. After all, how would you feel if you were a daughter of a famous artist and you couldn't draw if your life depended on it? That did not of course mean that I was not born artistic. I do well in graphic design and have a keen eye for design in general, I just can't draw. There are just some things that one doesn't have skills ...

Just came back from our first middle school visit. We visited Cedar Hill Middle School. It's a school known for it's good music program and well... proximity to my office. LOL. I wasn't sure what to expect. But as I suspected, they didn't focus on academics because lucky enough for us, Canadian educational system does a pretty good job making sure the curriculum and quality of education is consistent within the public school system. So really the public school will only mainly differ by their extra-curricular activities and teachers. I also have got to stop judging presentations based on their production value. Some people are just do not care to be creative enough. Anyway...  Raine was SO excited. He read every hand-out word for word, he applauded enthusiastically after every student speaker and performance, and he held on to the school map and led me to every unlocked room the school had to show off. At one point we walked over to a Grade 8 classroom and he said...

Don't get too excited, it's not like I partied all night or something... Friday night. Went home early, the kids were at grandma's, Eduardo had to ref a basketball game... I got a few hours to myself. How would I like to spend it? The up side of my coaching program and my little Joanna Research Project, I had been more aware of my priorities and how I would like to spend my time. So lately, my preference on what to do during my free time had been to opt for activities that respond to the weak areas of my life pie chart -- which, as a side note, I have to say has been phenomenal. The difference in my mood, patience and peace of mind is like night and day. AND I'm more inclined to genuinely smile a lot, plus had been less sarcastic. Amazing! Anyway, I digress -- so not the point of this blog post. So my choices were: go work out, attend a special Toastmasters presentation at the University of Victoria, go work on some PAC stuff, or stay home and watch tv. I chose ...

Going back to my delinquent blogging, I suppose I never told anyone that I finally officially joined a toastmasters group. Yup that's right, it's been four years since I first checked out what toastmasters was all about and had meant to go back... but it took a little while to clear my schedule. SO yes, on the first Monday of December 2016, I've decided to commit and make it official. This was another result of my coaching program. I had identified professional development as a so-so area in my personal development and with the exception of choir, I also identified personal hobbies/interests as almost non-existent in my life. So toastmasters was the perfect solution. Again, it appealed to me because it enabled me to achieve multiple things at once. One of the activities during toastmasters is the Table Topics portion of the meeting. Just as a reference, this is what it's all about: "Table Topics Speaker. Table Topics is a long-standing Toastmasters tradition...

Yay, I did it. Made it to a yoga class, like I said I would... two months ago. It took me a month to remember to ask Eduardo go dig up my yoga mat that I had only used twice, eleven years ago, and then it took me another month to finally clear my schedule to make it to a class. Let me back up a bit to give you a little more context. As a result of my delinquent blogging, I failed to share that two months ago I started participating in a coaching program with a former boss of mine. We ran into each other at a fundraising workshop and she told me that she just finished her coaching certificate and wondered if she could practice her new skills on me. Seeing that there was nothing to lose from taking on this opportunity, I gladly committed. Our meetings were all held over the phone and lasted anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. It was always quick and to-the-point which I really appreciated, and I learned so much about myself, led me to be honest and in touch with my inner self, and m...

Woohoo! Made it through the first week of 2017! There's actually more to celebrate than just surviving through the first week of the New Year. I feel like if this first week is how every week should be modeled after, wow I'd be in a really good shape for the rest of the year! The 'Joanna Research' is in full swing right now. And although I'm in the early stages of data gathering, I'm already discovering and learning so many things about me that I had not been aware of before. I won't give examples right now as I don't want to spoil the suspense of my findings at the end of the month. Let's just say it's going super amazingly great and it's resulting me into being more organized, energetic, mindful and well-rounded. In the past seven days, I feel that for the first time in a long, long time, I'm actually in control of my life and fully taking charge. I've been attending leadership workshops but what I failed to identify was, befo...

Today's the day that I fulfill my promise to Raine. Of course when I told him six months ago that we will start researching middle schools for him in January, I didn't really mean on the first business day of the New Year... but evidently, my keener subconscious was ready to get working. Raine and Bell attend South Park Family School. It's a non-catchment school within School District 61, which is the only reason that we, who live 15 kilometers away and out-of-district, are able to go to school there. Well, that plus we've had the kids wait-listed there since they were born. It's an awesome school and couldn't have been more perfect for nurturing my kids in their formative years. But the other thing that's special about it is once you graduate from there, you can essentially choose whatever middle school you want within the district. So this has been the big question since kindergarten -- when the times comes, do we continue to attend school in the Victori...

Happy New Year! This quote really resonated with me when I first read it. It brought to my attention that nothing we choose to do each day is insignificant and no matter how mundane, contributes to a bigger picture, whether it's for myself or someone or for something else. I really should make a conscious effort to make every day count. This year, I am committing to get to know myself better. Somehow in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the last few years, I have lost a clear idea of who I am. Perhaps I changed and evolved so much that I was not able to keep up with understanding the new version of me that was developing. I have decided to embark on a research project about myself. For the month of January, I will gather data about what exactly I spend my time on and rediscover my values. Perhaps this little exercise will help me see clearly which activities I enjoy and should keep up, which ones I no longer love to do, the areas I need improvements on, what I ...