Episode 3
A Brief History of the Last Three Years
Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? February 2020, in fact, was the previous episode. Over three years ago - where does time go? I think we all know the answer to that one... So this episode is going to be a bit of a catch up, in readiness for new ones coming your way.
So, what's happened in the three years since we last connected?
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Transcript
(upbeat music)
Speaker:- Welcome to A Downsized Life.
Speaker:I'm your host, Danny Brown.
Speaker:And in the winter of 2019, my wife and I moved our family
Speaker:from a sprawling city in Southern Ontario, Canada
Speaker:to a small town three hours north.
Speaker:This podcast is about our journey to downsizing our lives.
Speaker:Lessons learned, successes earned,
Speaker:and everything in between.
Speaker:If you're looking to downsize your life,
Speaker:join us and listen for free at downsizedpod.com or wherever you relax with podcasts.
Speaker:Well, in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hello there! It's been a while, hasn't it? February
Speaker:2020, in fact, was the previous episode. That's over three years ago. We're in May 2023, as I
Speaker:record this, and where does time go? Well, I mean, I think we all know the answer to that one if we
Speaker:think back to 2020 and especially February 2020. So this episode is going to be a bit of a catch up
Speaker:as I prepare new ones to come your way and continue our journey on downsizing our life.
Speaker:So what's happened in the three years since we last connected? Well I think the big elephant in
Speaker:the room let's get out of the way now is Covid. No one expected that and obviously there's no
Speaker:explanation needed about Covid but no one expected that to happen. No one saw that coming and it was
Speaker:just it was a weird time wasn't it and I guess it's still kind of a weird time now but that
Speaker:really was a weird time, where just the whole world came to a standstill when it originally happened
Speaker:and there was lockdowns.
Speaker:Obviously there was a lot of people got very sick and unfortunately died and passed away.
Speaker:It's one of these once in a lifetime things I think or certainly one of the once in a
Speaker:lifetime things.
Speaker:We've had pandemics before but I think this is one that's really that really affected
Speaker:the world and and kind of for a while actually brought us all together which
Speaker:was nice to see. That's kind of disappeared now and I'm not going to get
Speaker:into that, there's you know, everybody's got their own point of view on on COVID
Speaker:etc but it was a strange time and we were fortunate we had just moved up here
Speaker:in November of the year before so we were away from the big city to a
Speaker:really small village as I mentioned in previous episodes, and that worked for us
Speaker:when it came to COVID. We didn't have to worry about self-isolation because it's a
Speaker:small village with only 800 families, we're already pretty isolated anyway so
Speaker:that was lucky. If we'd still been in Burlington where everybody was, you know,
Speaker:not jam-packed together but very much closer to each other, that would have been
Speaker:a different story I think and I know a lot of my friends and their families and
Speaker:friends etc they had a harder time with Covid than we did so we were very
Speaker:fortunate but the kids hated it especially Ewan. They just started making
Speaker:friends at school because they'd come into the school year halfway through in
Speaker:November, so come February/March of 2020 they'd maybe been there just about
Speaker:three months, just over three months when you take into account the Christmas
Speaker:holidays and March break. But March break turned into an extended break that
Speaker:turned into right up to summer and then turned into a whole year of the school
Speaker:being closed, online learning and all that stuff because of Covid and
Speaker:everybody taking precautions. So everybody moved over to online learning
Speaker:and Salem enjoyed it. She was fine, she got online, she just did her thing, chatted
Speaker:with her friends as usual, got on with her schoolwork etc. But Ewan really needs
Speaker:social interaction. So online for him was a big negative and it resulted in him
Speaker:drifting and losing interest in school and I don't blame him. He had five
Speaker:teachers in the space of a year because of supply teachers, one teacher was
Speaker:leaving, a new teacher came in etc. It was just a whole bunch of stuff that really
Speaker:affected him and really impacted his state of mind. So all that came to head
Speaker:in 2021 as we continued into the the lockdowns. Lockdowns were easing and
Speaker:schools were starting to think about going back from online learning to
Speaker:physical in the class learning, but that wasn't quite there yet and it all came to
Speaker:head in 2021 when I was speaking to Ewan. I could see him really struggling
Speaker:with school. He wasn't sleeping, he had really bad bags under his eyes, he was
Speaker:just looking so tired and not happy. And I sat down and we spoke and he just
Speaker:burst out a really horrible sob that he just wanted a friend and that broke my
Speaker:heart, to see my son struggle like that. That all he wanted to do was have a
Speaker:friend that was physical that he could play with and have fun with and that
Speaker:just broke my heart. So I reached out to a private Facebook group that we are
Speaker:part of up here, where it's for the local community and just reached out and
Speaker:asked if there was any parents of kids that were in Ewan's class at his age and his
Speaker:grade and two replied and that was just the best thing that happened. Because
Speaker:from there we arranged a play date with their kids, James and Adam, and that
Speaker:really made a huge difference with Ewan. It pulled him back from what I believe
Speaker:would have been a serious mental wellness issue and I am just so thankful
Speaker:that these two parents replied to my cry for help on behalf of my son's cry for help.
Speaker:And now he's thriving, he's just so good, he's in grade seven now approaching
Speaker:the end of that year ready to be in the final year of elementary before going to
Speaker:high school, so he's really thriving which is awesome. In other news I lost my
Speaker:job. Covid cutbacks at the agency I worked at because of client cutbacks
Speaker:resulted in me losing my job in March, end of March I think of 2020. So
Speaker:everything happened in March basically. Covid really kicked off, the schools went
Speaker:into lockdown after the March break and I lost my job at the agency. And because
Speaker:no one was hiring, because there was a lot of uncertainty about what was
Speaker:happening in the workplace, nobody was hiring. So times were really tough.
Speaker:Thankfully the Canadian federal government helped with their CERB
Speaker:package and that was for non-workers during Covid which gave you a minimum
Speaker:amount of dollars every month for a period of up to five or six months I
Speaker:think it was, if you needed it. Now that did have to be paid back at some stage
Speaker:but this was tax-free, interest-free, not like a loan but it was a help package, an
Speaker:aid package that was to tide Canadians over until, you know, things kind of
Speaker:hopefully got back to normal, work was picking up, places were hiring again etc
Speaker:the country was opening up. That really helped, that kept us going through what
Speaker:would have been a really tough time if we'd just been living on Jaclyn's
Speaker:wage. But it all turned out for the best. In September of 2020 I got a job with
Speaker:Captivate which is a podcast hosting and distribution platform and I love it.
Speaker:The people are so nice, they're so good from the top down. It's a small team:
Speaker:there may be 10 of us in Captivate all told so it's a very close tight-knit
Speaker:team. All 100% remote so that benefited me obviously, and they're based in the UK
Speaker:so it would have had to have been remote - that would have been a long long commute!
Speaker:But, yeah, Captivate just... they've helped me rediscover my love for media, for
Speaker:creation and podcasting. I've been podcasting for a few years but on and
Speaker:off for all of the time, they really helped me get my love back for it and I
Speaker:love the job that I do, it's awesome, so I was very fortunate there. At Jaclyn's
Speaker:company they moved to 100% remote. All offices closed down temporarily and
Speaker:slowly reopened up to whoever wants to go back, but the people that want to stay
Speaker:remote working can continue to be remote working so this is what Jaclyn's doing,
Speaker:she's 100% remote. She's at home full-time working, obviously full-time,
Speaker:at the same job but able to do that from home which she loves. It allows her to do
Speaker:so much more, be much more productive and she gets to spend more time with the
Speaker:family, because she was commuting down to Burlington every now and again and maybe
Speaker:spending a few days during the week down in Burlington. So she was spending time
Speaker:away from the family. That is now over, if you like, and she's 100% here so that's
Speaker:been really good. It's also been bad, not bad but different I guess, et me
Speaker:rephrase that, having both Jaclyn and I at home all day. On the plus side, we're
Speaker:both lucky to work from home and that's enabled us to help kids with school
Speaker:during lockdown, obviously, but also get more stuff done around the house as
Speaker:opposed to leaving until weekends, which normally would have been our free time,
Speaker:and that's made us feel less pressured to get a whole bunch of stuff done at
Speaker:the weekend, which then makes us tired for the start of the week/back to work
Speaker:etc not a good mix. So it's really positive we could both work from home
Speaker:100% remote of the time. Different in that we're always around each other now
Speaker:and anybody, any couple that's always around each other 24/7 you know there
Speaker:can be times when it's not ideal. That's not to say that, you know, we've been
Speaker:shouting and throwing stuff at each other that's not our style, but it has
Speaker:been a little fraught at times. Just the basics of not feeling like you have your
Speaker:own space where you can just disappear, and you don't have to worry about
Speaker:someone else needing something or whatever. And that's a really poor way of
Speaker:trying to describe it but that's the kind of thing that we've been finding
Speaker:was a bit of a mindset change to get used to, both of us being in the same
Speaker:place all day. But you know what, it's been fun getting used to that change.
Speaker:She's also found her niche in crafting and making stuff with her Cricut which
Speaker:is a machine that lets you create designs for wood, metal, etc as well as
Speaker:make badges, pins, ornaments, wooden gnomes, a whole bunch of stuff, door signs etc and
Speaker:it's been really cool to see her find this and really go with it. She's super
Speaker:creative, which I knew she was creative but I never knew she was this creative
Speaker:so it's been really cool to watch her designs and that come to life and we've
Speaker:got a whole bunch of them around the home. She's sold some to friends, family and
Speaker:work colleagues and I'm currently helping her build a website to sell
Speaker:locally at crafts events etc so it's been really good to see her take that
Speaker:and run with it and I know it's something she's super passionate about
Speaker:and it'll be cool to see where she can take it. Ewan and Salem's also grown so much
Speaker:in the last few years which is to be expected, but they've really grown and
Speaker:not just in age or height or anything. Although Ewan is now a teenager, where
Speaker:did that come from? But they've just developed personally in so many ways.
Speaker:They're both super active athletes - Ewan's got his soccer now, he had soccer
Speaker:before he moved from Burlington and he's continued that up here, but now he's
Speaker:playing for a proper rec team, a development team which is the next stage
Speaker:between playing as a hobby game and hopefully going to the pro leagues. And I know
Speaker:that's really something Ewan wants to do, and currently to make that happen he has
Speaker:to travel two hours for games and practices etc which is a big commitment.
Speaker:But it's something he really wants to do and he's doing it really well. He's off
Speaker:to Florida at the end of the month, at the end of May, to compete in an
Speaker:international tournament at Disney so that's gonna be super exciting for him
Speaker:and I know he can't wait for that. Speaking of Disney, Salem's already there -
Speaker:she went to Orlando earlier this week with her mum and she's with her
Speaker:cheerleading team competing at the World International All-Stars at Disney, and
Speaker:this brings together over a thousand teams from across the globe that compete
Speaker:in the cheerleading competition. Salem's group performs tomorrow which is Saturday
Speaker:as I record this, so I'll be sure to update you in the next episode how she got on
Speaker:but she's super excited. Jaclyn's been sharing lots of photos and pictures of
Speaker:the trip and Salem looks in her element so that's awesome. We've also been able
Speaker:to spend a lot more time going around the neighborhood getting to know people
Speaker:after a delayed start. That includes spending days and evenings at the lake
Speaker:which is always nice, and with friends who have a cottage up here. The scenery, nature and
Speaker:just everything around us continues to blow us away. There's always something
Speaker:that makes us catch our breath, whether that's a deer coming up to the house to get
Speaker:some food or just the natural world around us. It really is, I can't put into
Speaker:words how stunning it is and we are so fortunate to live here and be able to
Speaker:experience this and we're grateful for that. Part of that is allowing our garden to
Speaker:grow and turn into a little nature reserve. Back in Burlington I used to
Speaker:really look after the lawn and I'd get my little strimmer out and cut straight
Speaker:edges all down the edges and and make it super prim and pristine, and that's gone
Speaker:out the window. We don't want to do that. We want to make it as nature intended. So
Speaker:there's no beautiful lawn, we've not got a messy lawn, but there's no beautiful
Speaker:lawns. I don't cut it, you know, once twice a week or whatever, I leave it at least
Speaker:two, three, four weeks maybe at a tim,e and the same with our flower beds and bushes
Speaker:etc and we allow them to grow out, and that's allowed a very cool ecosystem of
Speaker:nature to live in our yard. We have all sorts of birds, little animals, chipmunks,
Speaker:deer and a lot more. It does help that the warmer weather is finally here after
Speaker:a particularly heavy winter and the plan is to expand time on the lake. I've got a
Speaker:kayak and Jaclyn got a paddleboard last year and we just need the kids to
Speaker:get their own and then we can go at any time, with the lake less than a 15 minute
Speaker:walk from our house. They do have a little plastic kayak but that's probably a
Speaker:little bit too small for them now. Certainly too small for Ewan and maybe
Speaker:Salem I'm not sure. So that's something that we want to get this year. Salem
Speaker:really enjoyed testing out Jaclyn's paddleboard last year, so we may get that
Speaker:for her, and I know Ewan prefers the kayak so we'll see how it goes. I know I've
Speaker:probably forgotten a few things but so much has happened that that's
Speaker:understandable. I'm looking forward to getting back in the saddle so to speak
Speaker:with this podcast, and also bringing on Jaclyn and hopefully the kids to
Speaker:talk about their own experiences and thoughts since moving here, given all
Speaker:that's happened in the last few years. There's a lot to catch up on. Until next
Speaker:time, live happily.
Speaker:If you enjoy A Downsized Life be sure to share it with friends and family and
Speaker:others who might enjoy it too. And we'll see you next time.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
