When I was kid, my brothers and I would look forward to sitting down together for Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights. For a few years, it was a hallowed time in our family, as it was quite often the only time during the week that we kids were allowed to watch TV.De tird [...]
This summer, Heidi and I took our kids to Ontario to visit my family and to go to the place where I grew up. There was a high school reunion (I’m not saying how many years…) that we centered our trip around. The reunion was fun, but equally as fun was taking my kids around the [...]
When I was a kid, I remember vividly the excitement that our family experienced when our parents told us that we were going to “go out” for supper. It was a big event! My siblings and I would all get excited about what the restaurant possibilities were.Survey says...We would start to throw out the usual [...]
Last week our entire staff spent 24 hours together on a retreat where we were enriched by the music and stories of Steve Bell. Steve is a Christian singer/songwriter who recently completed an album called Pilgrimage. It’s a great album and shows off his incredible musical abilities. He has found a passion and a gift that [...]
The memory of our first visit to Abbotsford comes back to me at this time of year. It's open enrolment time right now and the principals (especially Roy Van Eerden) are spending large amounts of time touring families through our school. They are walking new and prospective families through our hallways into the classrooms and [...]
Heidi and I decided to get married in a vineyard—an active winery that makes quality wine. The sermon of the wedding ceremony included some messaging around Jesus’ very first miracle of turning water into wine and we participated in our very first communion together as a married couple—in front of a whole "host of witnesses." [...]
Allow me to share with you a true story about a workshop I was in recently. Perhaps something like what I describe in the following happens to you as you listen to a speaker in a workshop: The title of the workshop was “Architecture Always Wins,” and the leader of the workshop went on to [...]
DEAR TRENT, In your last blog post, I had hoped you would try to be a little more personal in your writing and a little less, well, deep. (Some of us are not quite as cerebral as you.) You asked at the end if you had succeeded. Unfortunately, if I was your teacher, you would [...]
Birthdays at the Siebenga House When my siblings (one older sister and two younger brothers) and I were growing up together, we would run downstairs on the mornings of our birthdays to read “The List.” Yes, we did look forward to the presents we would get (although I’m not sure I remember any of the gifts [...]
Am I that parent? Am I pushing my kids towards things that I wish I had been successful at? Or worse—am I steering them towards areas I think they should be successful at, that they might not even love? I always claimed I was going to be the kind of parent who allowed my kids to [...]
