Tim Chan's Blog, page 2

Tim’s Top 5 Reads from 2020

Just as I did 2017, 2018, and 2019, I made it one of my goals in 2020 to read one book a month. I exceeded my goal to reach 20 (the extra time during this COVID year and my digital detox both helped). Here’s a list of my top 5 books from 2020:

Favourite Memoir

[image error][image error]The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Bob Iger

I couldn’t put this book down and read it in 24 hours. It’s a captivating memoir by Disney’s CEO of how he started at the bottom...

The Book that Changed My Year (and Probably My Life)

The first book that I read in 2020 ended up changing my life. Sounds dramatic? Let me explain and I’ll let you decide. In January, I picked up Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life (affiliate link) by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. It was a book Tim had asked for last Christmas but its pretty teal cover called to me and I stole it before he had the chance to crack it open. Little did I know what would come as a result.

Olive holding a copy of Designing Your Life, in fr...

Olive’s Top 5 Reads in 2020

For 2019, my reading goal was two books a month. This year, my goal was 3 books a month. I exceeded my goal this year by completing 38 books (with a few more partially read). This doesn’t include all the books I read aloud to my kids at bedtime. (Hello, Next Best Junior Chef Books 1, 2, and 3, and Unusual Chickens books 1 and 2 – all of which I read out loud twice…!)

Looking back, what surprised me is that 16 of them were audiobooks. I never thought I would enjoy audiobooks but thanks to our...

Launching my Art Career (and my Kickstarter Campaign)

At the beginning of 2020, I was looking at the year to come, and thinking about what I wanted to invest in.

I was really challenged to take the artist part of me seriously, to not just treat it as a hobby, but to pursue it as a career. I realized that if my life were to end and I looked back at my life, I would really regret not living into that integral part of who I am.

I also decided that to focus on skies and clouds. Part of the reason behind it was that I looked at my past work an...

An Example of Dying Well: My Dad’s Final Gift to Me

In the morning on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, after a relatively uneventful night in my dads hospital room in the palliative unit, I heard his breathing sharply slow. I hurried over to his bedside and gently caressed his head, watching intently. His inhales and exhales were irregular and drawn out. Inhale. Long pause. Exhale. Another long pause. Inhale. Even longer pause. Exhale.

Is this the end? I asked him. Is Jesus coming for you?  A small tear glistened from the corner of his eye. Here we...

Parenting Resources

We get asked about book recommendations from time to time so here’s a compilation of books that have helped us as we navigate parenthood and seek to be intentional about our lives.

Understanding Calling

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer

Personality

Quiet by Susan Cain
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron
The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine Aron

Child Development

The Whole Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel
The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine
The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine

...

Tim’s Top 5 Reads from 2019

Just as I did 2017 and 2018, I made it one of my goals in 2019 to read one book a month. It was the first year I exceeded my goal to reach 13 (partly spurred on by the voracious reading of my wife who read 30 books). Here’s a list of my top 5 books from 2019:

[image error] [image error]Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell wrote this book as a response to the rise of policy brutality against African Americans in the United States. He was unsatisfied with...

Olive’s Top 5 Reads for 2019

For the past few years, we’ve kept a sticky note on our fridge to track which books we’ve read throughout the year. This year, I set myself a goal of reading two books per month. Thanks to both kids being in school as well as discovering audio books from our local library, I managed to exceed my goal and read 30 books! Here are my top 5 picks, listed in the order of which I read them:

[Note: Affiliate links ahead, which means we get a few cents when you purchase through our recommendation....

Why I’m Not Doing Advent Photos This Year and What I’m Doing Instead

“What will you be doing for Advent this year?” a friend asked me. She knew that for the past three years, I have engaged in an Advent Photo-a-Day practice, reflecting on a prompt word each day and capturing it in a picture.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “It hurts too much. My heart is still tender from the grief of my dad’s passing.”

In previous years, the season of Advent had been a source of joy and consolation for me. I looked forward to the anticipation and the gentle, dark time of waiting....

How We Do Allowance With Our Kids

Once in a while, while chatting with friends with school-aged kids, the topic of allowance comes up. “How do you guys do it?” we’re asked. We aren’t financial gurus by any means but we do have a little system in place that will hopefully instill some basic financial sense in our children.

Our system is based partly on how Tim’s dad (former accountant) taught Tim, and partly on a short, practical book called, Money-Smart Kids: Teach Your Children Financial Confidence and Control[image error] (affiliate li...