Tim and Olive's Blog

I used to be a ballerina.  Not a professional, but a pretty darned serious dancer.  I danced for fifteen years, beginning at the tender age of 3.  And towards the end of my “career,” I was at the studio 7 days a week, dancing for 1.5 to 3 hours a day.  Looking back, I can say that ballet was woven into the fabric of my being as only something that played a part of my most formative years could be. Read More

Now that we’re four months into parenthood, there are a number of practical things I’m super glad we did in preparation for having a baby.  At the time, I wasn’t sure how much they would matter, but in retrospect, these things helped preserve our sanity to greater or lesser degrees.

Read More

Meetings can be oh-so-very boring. I have sat through my fair share of dull, uninspired, and ineffective meetings at work and church. And I have often wondered (while sitting through such meetings) why so many people go through the motions when it seems like a royal waste of time.

Read More

When Tim proposed to me, he gave me a set of boxing gloves.  I remember opening up the gift and being quite shocked.  Was this his idea of being romantic?  Then I read the written note attached to them: “Our relationship has had its share of fights, challenges, and difficulties.  And we have and are continuing to learn how to work through these. The boxing gloves are for us to share.  One for you, one for me.  We will fight together.”  Suddenly, even a diamond ring could not have been more romantic!
Read More

Although Allie didn’t know what was going on, she did manage to choose the 6 winners for our “Name-That-Expression” Contest! Watch the video to see who won (it’s pretty entertaining, at least we think so, haha).

There were 6 winners in total. If you won, just email me with your mailing address.

 

 

 

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/DGhPGaR60Fc”]

Olive and I are continually amazed at the people who are reading our blog. Last week, a UBC business student that I mentor told me that his classmate showed him our blog. I’ve heard from friends that say they love reading about Olive’s experiences as a new mother. A small group member told us her colleagues at work follow our blog. And one of my colleague’s friends (whom we have never met) messaged this to me on Twitter: “@timtchan you and Olive’s blog is really inspirational and encouraging! Thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts!”
Read More

I’ve often wondered if there is any significance to recurring dreams. Is it a sign of things to come? Is it a reflection of things that I worry about? Is my subconscious trying to send me a message? Is God trying to use these dreams to speak to me?

There are three recurring dreams that I have:
Read More

Without realizing it, I had slowly become a coward.  This week, God invited me to step out of that hiding place and really live again.

Ever since I burned out at the end of 2007, I somewhat unconsciously swung from go-with-a-gusto approach to life to self-protection mode. (Visit here for my blog dedicated to my burnout experience.)  I think it’s natural and understandable that I reacted to feeling utterly depleted and spent from life by being careful with how I used my time and energy.  But I was gently shown this week that the pendulum had swung to the other extreme.  I had, in a way, over-corrected.
Read More

Being the idealist that I am, before I had Alena, I imagined our feeding times to be like this:  myself as a gentle, nurturing mother looking affectionately at the sweet babe suckling at my breast as we nestled together in the rocking chair.  A week after we brought her home, that picture could not be farther from reality.  Well, everything except for the rocking chair.  It was 6am in the morning, she was thrashing about and crying, I was hysterical and crying, and milk was everywhere but in her tummy.
Read More

Welcome to the Name-That-Expression Contest! We have 6 fabulous prizes to give out for the winners of this contest. Why the heck are we running a contest? Mostly for the fun of it. Also because we get bored in between the feeding and diapers and laundry and washing and changing of the baby. And we like giving away stuff.
Read More