#TeamPowell – Mom Dad CuppaKids

Hitting Reset & The Trust Factor.

by Jenn & Chris on July 31, 2017

We Started Again. In The Middle of Our Lives.

You just gotta believe it will all work out.

We talk a lot about the universe in our world. About it aligning; putting energy into the right place; thinking positive and about trusting the flow of life.

Sure, to some it might seem all a bit Hippity Dippity (as my family/friends have been known to call it).

To me, I can absolutely 100% feel when I am fighting what should be moving along naturally in our life.

I seriously love pushing past my comfort zone. I like taking on challenges.

But trusting and letting go of what should be?

To stop worrying and let things flow to what will?

Mancora Peru beach — Letting things flow led us unexpectedly to one of the most beautiful beaches in South America. Mancora, Peru

Mancora was where we randomly saw humpback whales breaching just off the coast

Well, that’s probably one of the biggest challenges of my life.

Being totally open.

Letting things flow.

Goddamn, F#&%ing trust.

Take all of my life’s baggage, issues and protective barriers, bottle it up into one word and throw me the middle finger.

There you have it. That word is trust.

I hate and love it all at the same time.

Kids swinging swing at the end of the world — Our kids flying high on the swing at the end of the world caused me to work on some trust issues. Banos, Ecuador

Super tight spaces are not our favorite but this was a great lesson in the kids leading our trust & flow as we ventured to Pailon Del Diablo for the day

We have been home for 2 months and I have these panic moments that our trip feels like it’s floating away like a dream.

Before we came home, I cried that we were coming back to Canada.

I wasn’t ready to finish with our travels. Our family was so deeply connected and enjoying every ounce of travelling together. It felt like a special space and one I didn’t want to let go.

Yet we could sense that it was the right time. We had used up the majority of our budget, we were all starting to get tired of laundry and moving every few days and we could all feel an ache to see family & friends. (When the Acropolis came in at #27 of cool things we had done on the trip, we knew we had hit travel weary).

The kids got a chance to reconnect with friends and finish out the school year. It helped with getting ready for the adjustment to a new school, all the requisite kiss-my-ass (did I write that out loud?) IPRC, IEP, transition school meetings were had and we got things tidied up for school plans for the fall.

We came home to living a life of transition. It has felt liberating and like walking a cliff’s edge all at the same time.

We are starting our life again. Finding jobs, a place to live, and creating a plan.

In the past 2 months, I have felt like a rudderless sail, creative inspired, slightly depressed, tearfully grateful, intensely curious, over-stimulated and quiet. The quiet has been good. Taking a step back from the digital space to be fully present with people and nature has been a really healthy choice.

This is, and always will be the place that keeps me grounded – Galla Lake

But we still have had those burning questions that have been asked an infinite amount of times since we got back.

“What are you going to do now?”

This is where that damn trust & flow has played a big role in staying the course. We believed, we focused on the positive and we breathed through those moments that in the past would have sent me straight into an anxiety attack.

A lo and behold.

I am happy to share some big news for our family.

Today, Chris is starting a really exciting venture with Union Foods as the Director of Construction & Design. He will be responsible for overseeing the development of the majority of Union Station’s new food ventures with a forward-thinking, innovative company. (This is also the group that owns the ridiculously delicious Union Chicken at Sherway Gardens). If you haven’t gone for brunch and tried their Chicken & Waffles you are missing out. Trust me.

For me, I am reigniting Hart & Galla with some small upcoming events and select social strategy design for companies that fit well with our personal ethos. I am also putting it here for accountability (Gulp!) that I am working on a book proposal about our trip and plan on putting energy into MomDadCuppaKids daily. I am intent on writing more actively on this blog of personal stories, travel tips, world schooling, simplifying your life, event ideas, and special needs dialogue. My hope is to inspire people with a “hey, if we can do it, you can do it” energy and totally open to any ideas you might have.

We still have no permanent fixed address but for now that is fine.

For now, we will just Trust…& Flow.

Family Matters Real Life Travel

How Will You Tell This Story?

by Jenn & Chris on January 10, 2017

Our WHY Behind Travelling the World

Every story has a back story and it’s not always pretty.

I never really considered ourselves storytellers until this trip.

Sure, Chris and I like to talk in stories. It’s fun and entertaining and most importantly gets people laughing by the end. Something for us that is ultimately the end goal.

Now my grandmother. She’s a storyteller.

In fact, she was the best storyteller of us all.

My grandmother was most indeed the matriarch of our family. The older sister and the “second mom” to a large family growing up in the prairies. She was given the job early in life to care for her 6 younger siblings, becoming a provider for the family at a time when she should have been playing instead of working. She was sweet, stubborn and with an incredibly strong work ethic. Her get-it-done-and-do-it-well ethic was one she imprinted on our entire family. But she loved to have fun. Her laugh was so big and contagious, it either had you in tears or one of you saying “I’m going to pee my pants!” or both.

Her life was her family and the art of storytelling was something she shared with her siblings, her children and her grandchildren. Trust me, you end up at one of our family reunions and nobody ever just recounts a moment. Vast, broad strokes of details are painted along the way. The story weaving back far enough to set the stage: providing minutiae like smells, clothes or even weather to give you the background you needed to see the whole picture and to feel like you were there.

It was an important part of my grandmother’s stories.

But Why?

So you could understand her WHY to every story she told.

As a kid, I would get frustrated. I was impatient, too young to understand the time it took to create that background, instead feeling she was going on and on. Ugh! Grandma! Always feeling she went much farther than necessary for the story’s conclusion.

As I got older, and she came close to the end of her years, I wanted to sit for hours to listen to those stories. I understood the foundation she was laying. I wanted more time to gobble up every morsel of a story she was willing to give. To hear them often, so I could remember them when she was gone. So she would stay close in my memory through all of her beautiful stories.

Our WHY

A few years ago, we adopted a mantra to Come Before Winter. The concept simple. Do whatever it is you have been thinking or dreaming about now because you never know what tomorrow brings. At that point we had known too many people affected with disease and too many passing before they had a chance to live a full life.

It changed us as a couple and as a family.

We took trips. A lot of them.

We created memories. A lot of them.

Travel became a priority.

Taking our kids to Scotland to visit many relatives on my Uncle’s 92nd birthday was so special.

Multi-generational trips to Disney World with Grandma. A trip to Scotland & Ireland with my parents. Seeing Carmen (an opera very special to my family) at Lincoln Center in New York, a 40th birthday in NYC, Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Doing a Yoga Retreat with dear friends in Nicaragua. Meeting up with childhood pals in Quebec City.

Climbing Kilimanjaro to celebrate our 10th anniversary was a milestone we both loved achieving

We pushed far out of our comfort zone and it felt really really good.

The decision to do these was very intentional. We are blessed for the rest of our years with all the special moments we created with people we love.

Watching my Dad’s joy over showing his grandkids his home was an important part of our family story.

But these last few years have not been without struggle.

In 2014, on the day we were leaving for Mount Kilimanjaro, my Grandma passed.

When she left, I felt like I had lost one of my “persons”. Those people in your life who love you unconditionally. Your biggest cheerleaders. Ones where the connection to them feels deeper. The love pure.

But 2014 was full of life. We lived and loved big. We took on challenges and celebrated milestones. We conquered, we achieved, I turned 40 and we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. The time we spent with family and friends was time we will never regret.

When one of my best girls asked if I would meet her in NYC for her 40th, of course I said yes. How often do you celebrate a milestone like that?

Then 2015 made way to become a very difficult year. Like every other family we were running like mad chickens, over-committed, and busy. Just so busy.

I challenged myself in business. To build, to create more, do more, get bigger and in doing so, created an absolute wreck of a human being. I made decisions that went against my intuition and EVERY time got myself kicked in the ass. I took on some big financial risk during this growth and didn’t sleep for months.

Then in May of 2015, I lost another one of my persons. One of my dearest friends passed away suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Always one of my biggest cheerleaders, she was a wise old owl who was able to look (& talk through) all sides of the story when considering options. Yet she pushed me to be fearless and bold. Forever answering “yes!” before I even finished with “Do you think we should..?”

I always felt lucky to have had her as a friend but I wish I had told her more how much I valued her friendship, love and encouragement. Her loss made a deep cut to many who loved her. To this day, there is still a huge gaping hole that sits open in so many of us.

Beautiful memories like this make me happy

The grief of losing her mixed with massive business ups and downs created a level of anxiety and depression that I didn’t even know I was going through until much later. Most days, I felt like I was suffocating. When I think of those times, I often picture the Sea Witch from the Little Mermaid darkening the waters, growing bigger and bigger until she took over the whole screen. An ominous black liquid cloaking over me to the point of being unable to breath.

Outwardly, I was functioning because I felt I had to. Because it was expected of me to just “get over it” and to “relax” over the money invested in the business. Privately, I was having severe anxiety attacks that would scare both myself and my husband. They would happen as the kids slept or were gone for the day because somehow one of my ill-placed measures of success was not breaking down, truly breaking down, in front of them. On the other side of an attack I would end up feeling so exhausted that even sleep (& the desperate need for it) became part of the vicious cycle.

In September of 2015, We (ok I, with reluctant family members joining in) decided to do the Kon Mari purge. It’s a process I can’t recommend enough. Not necessarily because of the “Sparking Joy” piece but because getting rid of stuff clears your mind. Downsizing and letting go of so much of our crap helped immensely in releasing associated feelings connected to the past and got us moving to the future.

To start your way through a Kon Mari purge, here’s our start.

But something was still not right.

The purge helped collectively reduce my claustrophobic feelings, the big business decisions were done for the year but we felt like we weren’t living big anymore. Just going through the routine. Just busy people.

We had always talked of a dream of traveling the world. There were HUGE signs being sent our way that kept saying Do It Now! Come Before Winter! but that notion, that idea of making the leap felt SO big.

Too Big.

Yes, it can be Scary as F*ck. It can also be the most invigorating, exhilarating decision of your life. It is hard to believe that a year ago (at the start of 2016) we made the concrete decision to travel the world with our kids.

I am telling you this story not for sympathy or empathy but for you to see you are not alone. Everyone has a back story.

It’s for you to see our WHY behind the decisions we made to get here.

We want to tell you stories through our travels so that you can come along with us. We want to paint the picture so that you might be inspired enough to head down a similar path or travel somewhere you had never even thought about.

We all create imaginary barriers about why we can’t go somewhere. For us, we thought The Galapagos was too expensive. We are here to tell you it is entirely possible and one of the places we would recommend you to consider.

We want to tell you stories that are raw, real and honest. Ones that help you feel safe in taking that leap. Ones that makes you laugh. Taking chances to live the life you want. The one you deserve.

100% it can be scary as shit. But it means you are LIVING it.

And that’s all that counts.

So tell us, what is your WHY?

Kids Corner Travel

Did You Know The Incas Were Thought To Be the Sons of the Sun?

by Jenn & Chris on December 5, 2016

Fun Facts for Kids from Around the World

Spencer Says:

…..Guatamala, Bolivia then Argentina, and Ecuador, Chile and Brazil!!

Are you a lover of Animaniacs? Because I am! I learned all the countries of the world from one of their videos called “The Nations of The World”. It’s pretty cool since we are travelling the world as a family and have been in a number of those countries and learning new things.

One of those countries is PERU where we visited Machu Picchu.

Did you know that Machu Picchu is the home of the Incas and known to be the sacred place of the sun?

The Incas were the “sons of the sun”. Get it? Lol.

They were a culture a long time ago in the 1400’s who were very smart and made really cool buildings. The incas were a conquering tribe, whose empire stretched across modern day Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.

According to the Inca’s, the sun gave life. When they built their city it was based on the sun’s positioning against the mountains to determine the seasons, the orientation to ensure maximum sunlight, the moon and the stars.

The Inca’s were super good at farming and agriculture. The levels you see at Machu Picchu are called terraces they used for gardening. Coca leaves, peanuts, potatoes, chilli peppers, sweet potato, passion fruit, avocados, apples, tomatoes and other foods were all grown there.

We have learned a lot about farming in Peru. Terraces are very different than what we have at home in Canada

There was a time when the Spaniards (who were called Conquistadores) came to take over the land but because Machu Picchu is high up in the mountains, they never found them. However, the Inca’s and their culture still got destroyed during that time and that was the end of the road for them.

The city of Maccu Picchu was lost for 460 years, discovered in 1911 by a professor from Yale, named Hiram Bingham. Can you believe there was only one piece of gold found after its discovery? Someone had gotten there first!

Did you know that Hiram Bingham was sponsored by National Geographic on the expedition to Machu Picchu which is SO NEAT because we are National Geographic Kids Ambassadors!!! I really love researching stuff with them and especially like facts about Blue Whales, Airplanes and cool places to go.

Hiram Bingham FOUND Machu Picchu as part of a National Geographic Expedition!!!!!!!!!

Today, Maccu Picchu welcomes over 3 million visitors every year, and must work to make sure that the site is taken care of and not effected by too many people. We don’t want the ruins to get ruined!

Spencer LOVED climbing around the ruins (WHERE ALLOWED :) — Spencer LOVED climbing around the ruins (WHERE ALLOWED 🙂

Spencer is 10 years old and 1/2 of the Cuppa Kids part of this family. He has a heart is full of gold and because of his Autism, sees the world so differently than most. He believes there is so much good out there and everyone is meant to be kind and friends. His passions include this trip, airplanes (especially the Airbus A380), family & friends. Spencer’s curiosity, generosity and kindness has won the hearts of many a person we encounter as we travel. We joke about creating the #SpencerFanClub but there really and truly is one starting to emerge.

Travel

Lessons Learned While Traveling the World as a Family

by Jenn & Chris on November 11, 2016

We are two weeks in to this Round The World experience and already we have “learned” so much in the process. How we function as a family, how to school on the road, how to long-haul travel, the uniqueness of different cultural behaviours, different foods and 1,001 new & exciting discoveries have all been added to our repertoire.

Under the guise of life lessons mixed with travel experiences, I will list a few that we have already taken note of that will help both the global backpacker and the week long family vacation.

Write down where you are staying (on paper)

I know this sounds a little simple but we got caught with this the very FIRST day of our trip.

My partner in crime as we strolled around Quito

Spencer and I are early birds, so we left the AirBnb we had arrived at late the night before in search of coffee and breakfast first thing. I had opted to do an Easy ROAM day. This is an option TELUS (a Canadian cell service provider) offers as a solution to utilize while traveling. For $10/day you can simply use your phone similar to how you would use it at home. No panic on giant roaming charges. All in for $10. We are finding that we are opting for ROAM days on days where we are relying on Google Maps, Trip Advisor, AirBnb, Skyscanner or Booking.com. We love the ability to function like at home except here’s the kicker, sometimes phones don’t cooperate. As we were out and about, my phone started doing wonky things and suddenly just shut down. Which wouldn’t have been a problem, save for the fact that I had no memory of where we were staying. Nor did we have a way of contacting our crew. If it hadn’t been for Spencer remembering a landmark and the directional view we had been looking at it from the apartment window of the AirBnb we might still be wondering the streets of Quito.

Everyone’s got something to give

Case in point with Spencer guiding the way above, we have discovered the best way for us to work as a team on this journey is to respect that all our family can contribute. Spencer has been using mad skills searching for flights (which for a kid obsessed with airplanes is right in his wheelhouse) and has found us cost-savings of almost $3000. Lauren in the meantime is our Accoms expert. Given a budget and couple of parameters (we all agree wifi is ideal), she has been diligently searching out places to stay in a number of upcoming destinations. She saves to the wish list and as long as it nets out review and cost wise we book. Her last two choices, the Blue Door Housing in Quito and the Hostel Princesa Maria in Banos have both been awesome selections. Daily, we also appoint a decision maker. This means that ultimately if we can come to a decision or need to make a choice, the decision maker gets final say. It has worked for everything from attractions to go see or lunch spots to choose and gives the kids a sense of responsibility for the group & budget.

Blue Door Housing - A fantastic place to stay in the heart of Old Town Quito — Blue Door Housing – A fantastic place to stay in the heart of Old Town Quito

Trust & Flow

Things might not work out the way you expect it, but that is becoming part of the fun. It’s not worth getting all up and excited about delayed flights or missed opportunities. When we just let go and trust the flow, things always seem to work out for the better anyways. Our flight was delayed 5 hours coming home from the Galapagos but it meant the most extraordinary experience of an almost entirely empty plane for us to enjoy.

Our tour plans to Otavalo the previous Saturday didn’t work out (one of the kids were sick) but we ended up experiencing Otavalo in a far more intimate way 2 weeks later with an extremely knowledgeable tour guide. Alejandro not only showed us the market & gave us detailed facts on the indigenous population and local customs but also took us to a local Ecuadorian hole-in-the-wall that served amazing authentic food for $3/plate. Trust & Flow is a big part of who we are.

Getting a chance to see these colours and touch the beautiful textiles of Otavalo market was an experience we will never forget

We can learn something every day.

This has become a mantra for all of us on this trip. We are learning so much about our family. We are learning so much about might be able to help change the world. We are learning so much about how we are all connected. We are exploring. We are adventuring. We are challenging ourselves daily. Whether its about where we are or who we are, this has most definitely has become our global classroom.

Learning the transit habits of an iguana

Discovering the family dynamics of Sea Lions on the Galapagos

Changing the World Family Matters Travel

Why National Geographic Is To Blame For All Of This

by Jenn & Chris on November 3, 2016

& How we are using Nat Geo as our best tool on the road

One of the most vivid, core memories I have as a child is running down the hallway of my grandparents house. Their dark blue, psychedelic carpet and powder blue bathroom sink stamped forever in my brain.

As my cousins and I play hide and go seek, I head to my favourite place to hide. A waist-high closet you had to crawl up in to at the end of the hall.

As I pop open the closet door, a secret world reveals itself to me. Stacks upon stacks of yellow bordered magazines sit at the base of the closet and I suck in my breath out of sheer wonder of it all .

National Geographic.

I’m not sure if my grandparents realized the gift they bestowed on us. Years of a National Geographic magazine subscription opened so many doors to discovery. Different cultures, natural phenomenons, extraordinary animals and a global group of people & their ways of life kept me company for hours. I was hooked. Every time I stayed over at their house I would sit in the closet, eagerly devouring so many incredible stories of our world.

Our love as a family for National Geographic runs deep.

For my husband and I, it feels as much a part of our youth as pet rocks and smelly stickers.

For our children, the legacy has continued both traditionally and in an entirely new way.

For them, this whole wealth of information was introduced through a series of National Geographic Kids books on everything from ocean life, blue whales, sea turtles and Weird but True facts. These books are phenomenal and I can’t express enough how good they are for learning with your kids. We weren’t able to take the books on the road (*ahem*: 2 backpacks people..2 backpacks only for 8 months) but when we do have wifi, we are in fact tuning in from the road to the National Geographic Weird But True TV series that recently launched as both kids continue to love these quirky facts & are making it a game in searching their own on the trip.

How often do you find a real shrunken head in a museum along with directions on how to shrink them? Found at Solar Intinan beside Mitad del Mundo

Why blame National Geographic?

A beautiful piece of Autism is to become so deeply enamoured with a subject matter that you can’t hardly talk about anything else. Through the years of managing Autism with our son, we have seen many an obsession. When he started exploring those National Geographic Kids books, it created a love so deep for our oceans, for Blue Whales and for those “cool facts”, it became his go-to topic of discussion. It was a phenomenon to witness and one that we were happy to support his exploration of.

DYK: The highest density of Blue Whales is off the coast of Sri Lanka?

Neither did we. Until we heard about it for many, many months.

When the dialogue started about this round the world trip, that fact, was one of the first parts of the conversation. “What if we could take Spence to Sri Lanka to SEE the Blue Whales first hand? Can you imagine?” “How can we utilize both kids love of animals as a way to connect and engage with them?” “What if ….”

And so it began.

Nothing better to talk through volcanos and tectonic plates than by trekking up one on horseback. 4100m on Pinchincha

The New Way

If you want to get creative and engage kids, I can’t recommend enough following National Geographic on Instagram and SnapChat. Living and working in social media, I have to say their social engagement is some of some of the most impressive brand work I have ever seen in the social stratosphere. I started showing our daughter the incredible imagery & stories they post daily. As a 9 year old who is nowhere close to having an Instagram account (but thinks it’s wicked cool), it has become a way for us to get her engaged and create meaningful dialogue on different elements of the world.

I was lucky to meet the team from National Geographic at the Mom 2.0 Summit conference last year. In sharing stories of our plan for this Global adventure, we had the incredible fortune of being named one of this year’s National Geographic Kids Ambassadors. This role is a cornerstone in our global adventure and in fact has made far more of an impact than we ever thought possible.

These lovely creatures are native to the Galapagos but are being watched do to invasive species affecting their mortality rates. It's been hard to know that we, as humans are directly responsible for the demise of so many incredible animals. — These lovely creatures are native to the Galapagos but are being watched do to invasive species affecting their mortality rates. It’s been hard to know that we, as humans are directly responsible for the demise of so many incredible animals.

We have already begun to change.

The only way I can describe it is noticing that everybody is pregnant when you become pregnant. I sense us already far more AWARE of the impact we as humans can have. Everything from how we travel, cultures, environment, climate, mother nature & more, we are discussing it often. Exciting and uncomfortable all at the same time, it feels like a necessary part of our journey to feel this discomfort in order to learn how we might be able to make a difference.

I jokingly blame National Geographic for all of this but I couldn’t be more grateful. Somehow connecting with them this early in the trip has opened our eyes to a more significant and deeper experience. So yeah, I blame you, National Geographic and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Real Life

To The Friend Who Doesn’t Want to Be a Burden

by Jenn & Chris on August 24, 2016

The Return of Real Friendship

We were out for dinner, catching up on a long overdue series of updates on what was happening in our lives. Social media lead the prompts as we reviewed what we “knew” of what was going on with each other & asked more top of line questions. As you described a heart-wrenching account of a situation with your child, you started to cry. The pain and heartache I saw in your eyes told your story far deeper than you could possibly share. And then you said those words, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to burden you with all of this”.

Oh my lovely. As if listening to a dear friend share their sadness (& with that a possibility that we could provide some small relief by talking it through) would be a burden?

But we all think like that these days don’t we?

The advent of social media, one in which we send status updates that accrues barely 1% of our lives, has added an extra layer to our onion.

Taking a risk and peeling it back to tell the honest goods? The straight up truths? The aches & pains that are normal & natural parts of going through life? That’s too much rain on someone else’s parade.

Only its not.

That’s real friendship.

THAT is the depth & breadth by which you can measure one who truly is a friend. The person who is wanting and willing to get into it with you. The ones who can give you a sense of comfort in talking through the ugly, the messiness of all of it, the stigmas, the joys and the sorrows.

But the catch is, you need to feel comfortable sharing yourself (& all your warts) with your friends. It’s icky sometimes, sure, but walking through your issues with a friend can make the difference between life is over and life has tremendous possibilities. You often just need that different perspective to weigh in on the problem.

Over the last couple of years, I functioned through a pretty serious case of situational depression and unsettling anxiety attacks. It took me a long time (& a lot of trust with some very special friends) to admit or talk about any of that because I too didn’t want to be a burden. When I would dip my toe in and mention it to someone, the amount of times I got back “but on Facebook you always look like you have your shit together” was pretty astronomical. OY. Listen, we ALL have burdens. Everyone has things/crap/shit they are dealing with and absolutely nobody is posting their entire life’s story on social media. If you are like me, I don’t believe in adding more negative content to an already full internet cesspool. So I only try to bring positive in the things I say online.

This summer, we made extra efforts to reconnect with those dear to us & work on peeling back the onion to the way it used to be. To talk, openly & honestly about what’s going on. Those “burdens” we have been so reticent to share are nothing but in our heads. The moments we have embraced together before we go away seem to have a special sweetness to them. We know these are memories we will carry with us on our trip, filling our hearts with gratitude and love.

Friendship needs more than the occasional text, snap or status update. Like any relationship, they need to be fuelled & fanned to continue that flame. If you truly are a friend to someone, think about how you can reach out to them and reconnect. Work through each other’s issues together. Talk, cry, hug and laugh through it all. Talk for hours. Lend your ear to listen to a friend so that they might feel comfortable doing the same.

I don’t want another status update of you. I want you (warts and all :))

Let’s get back to reality.