Month: September 2017

Don’t Rush The End of Summer

Posted on by Josef Havelka

I know that it’s that time of year for parents and children.  Back to school! It’s a great time and all, but I don’t want to be in such a hurry to get through this year.  Summer is still in effect- even if only for a few days officially. 


Autumn will kick in, with it comes Thanksgiving and Halloween.  Then it’s winter with Christmas vacation and New Year’s. Spring hits us pretty quick as the kids get more time off before finishing out the school year. Only to start Summer all over again.

Each day will pass us by quickly as we plan for the next one.  My wife was surprised that I didn’t want to do much but chill out during my last vacation at the end of August.  The biggest thing for me was to experience a change of environment in order to relax. I couldn’t have done it had we been at home the entire time.  Some new projects or workload would’ve been added as the days went on. I wouldn’t have been able to just chill out.


I have come to realize that not every moment needs a purpose.  Not every minute needs to be filled up with activities. Even as the kids begin another year at school, I hope they find a few moments of nothingness to enjoy in amongst the hectic schedule that we have all become accustomed to.

I don’t really want summer to end- but it has to. At least more memories to be made over the year are still to come. Let’s just try and savor them a bit more.

Shift In Focus

Posted on by Josef Havelka

My wife and I have come to a conclusion: we need less stuff cluttering our home. We are just inundated with belongings. Our home has become a catch all for things. Paraphernalia that her family or my family have decided necessary for us to possess or keep. 


Sometimes it’s even the newest toys and games that we all desire that takes over our home. (I’m looking at you Skylanders, Amiibos and Lego Dimmensions). The hardest part is saying no.  No to the freebies, no to the newest trend, no to spending money on junk. Sure, we now have stuff to show for it. And my family is pretty damn good at keeping things in near mint condition. 


Time to do away with wanting all of those possessions. We are going to attempt to become minimalistic. Both in our home and what we desire.  The big focus will be maintenance on our home and travel.  Lots more travel.  My recent vacation really made me appreciate how much beauty there is in the world.  We were really only a few hundred kilometers away from our home but still experienced wonderment. There is so much more to experience if we just venture a bit further. 

Time to start pinching pennies and those travel points. Life isn’t long enough to just be rooted down. I’m getting excited about the ideas.  So is my family.  

Look out world! 

The Havelka’s want to take you all in!

Back To The Weekly Grind

Posted on by Josef Havelka

Tonight I am back to work.  My two weeks vacation flew by. It was crammed with some great memories and adventures, but duty calls.


Heading back to work is nice. I really enjoy my job and the people involved. It’s also a great way to fund the lifestyle we have come to enjoy. I was speaking with my brother-in-law the other night and he feels it would be a good opportunity for one or more of my children to get into it as well. I tend to agree.  However, I also know that they should get out and enjoy some freedom prior to getting right into a career out of high school.

Personally, I enjoyed life after Grade 12 ended. I didn’t want to make anything with my life, nor did I ever see a future in front of me. Every thing I did and everyone I spent time with was more important to me than making plans for my life. So I lived life. I fell in love. I realized it was all that mattered. Shortly after, things began to just fall into place.

Even today, I wonder how I got here. How did I get to be in charge of people’s lives? Or responsible for millions of dollars of products to be moved every day? I used to pump gas for elderly ladies in Oldsmobiles and get in trouble by my boss for not offering to wash their windows. I used to stock shelves and even mopped puke off of floors. I have no shame in my past. I worked odd jobs but they never defined who I was. 


Now a part of who I am is in my job. I have no qualms about saying that. I put more effort in making life good for my family and making life good for those around me than I ever did before. I have no idea what the future holds for me on the railroad. What I do know is that the days/nights I spend at work- I enjoy. The thought processes to meet deadlines, the challenges to maximize outflow. The craziness of all the other railroaders and hearing about the lives they are working towards. I enjoy those shifts because they fund the time I spend away from work as well. Which is equally as important.

Four days working with three days off? That’s the lifestyle I am loving now. I see my family more which sounds crazy because technically I’m spending more time at work. 

One Last Item?

Posted on by Josef Havelka

Back to school shopping was completed yesterday. Most of our supplies have been the leftovers from years gone by.  Saving money 101! Don’t throw it out or give it all to the kids at the start of the year! We have found that oftentimes the supplies requested aren’t all being used throughout the year.

We have a cupboard under our stairs that we have named “The School Supply Cupboard” – it’s a very original name. It also looks like it was ransacked and looted. No one wants to clean up, so it’s barfing out the contents everywhere.

We still needed a few things this year from Staples and Walmart. As I entered Staples, I remembered my childhood of back to school shopping. The K-Mart near us would have a list of the schools and the supplies needed to be picked up.  There wasn’t much selection back then- so nearly everyone had matching items on the first day. Sure, some of my fellow classmates had fancy pencils or pencil toppers, but nearly everything was the same. Nowadays there are too many options.  Many being far too expensive.


The last item we needed for our daughter going into Grade 8 was a cellphone. Giving a phone to a child isn’t ideal. But with the amount of after school activities and the difficulty of communication ahead of time, we knew this was a necessity. We had done the same for our oldest daughter when she entered Grade 8. Of course our two year contract was up on her phone as well, so she wanted an upgrade. Both of our daughters each now have an iPhone 7. A better phone than my wife and I at the moment.  My wife originally didn’t want to allow this. But with news that an iPhone 8 was coming out soon, she was ok having a lower model until the release date in a month or two.

These phones were the last big expense prior to the start of the school year. Next week, I’m pretty sure there will be hundreds of more dollars being requested. Ugh. It leaves me to wonder:

Why is free public education so expensive?

Back to School!!!

Posted on by Josef Havelka

I can’t believe how quickly summer ended.  The weather was hot. The kids stayed active. And my last two weeks have been spectacular. We went to Vancouver Island, Powell River, camping on the west side of Harrison Lake, and finished it with a couple of days at Great Wolf Lodge.


We also enjoyed hanging out with friends and family, tasting beers, a horse show, swimming in various rivers, lakes & pools, Parkour, reading books, walks, fresh fruits & vegetables, plus movies and video games galore to name a few more.  This past summer was another great one that everyone enjoyed. Now we are looking forward to the start of the school year.


Music classes, drama, art, and photography will take center stage as our children enter their next year at Langley Fine Arts School. This means a new instrument- or two if one or more child chooses to try something different. We may need to update photography equipment- my father-in-law donated a bunch of developing equipment, so we may have to make a dark room. I love photography, so this could be a new hobby of mine as well…

Outside of school there has been a few changes. No more cheerleading for our middle daughter. She has decided to return to Speed Skating in an effort to make it into the BC Winter Games. All of our kids are leaving piano lessons (sadly 😢) but they are wanting to pursue other musical passions. Such as guitar and drums! As the school year unfolds over the next month or so, I’m pretty sure more clubs and groups will be wanting to be joined by the kids.


I really love all the fun stuff we do together. I’m also really proud that my children want to take on new challenges as they get older. Promoting their education is a big deal.  Over the past few years, my wife and I constantly talk with our kids about post secondary education, scholarships, and their future successes. Even with our youngest going into grade 6, we still want him to focus on his future goals.

Throughout the school year there will be challenges. Some will be scheduling conflicts. Some may be financial conflicts. And of course, some will be motivational conflicts. Like how do you get your child to do homework when sitting in front of a screen would be so much more fun? Or how do you explain that even if they don’t like the way the teacher teaches, you still have to complete the work assigned? Almost every parent has these problems to face. Some parents face bigger issues that are much harder to talk about. Just remember that we’re all in it together. Oh yeah…

It’s almost back to school!!! With 3 exclamation points.