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Jack and Henry

15 Things To Know About Andrew

15 Things To Know About Henry

The Maples started with Andrew and I.

We met in highschool, were the best of friends, except for when we weren’t (as so often happens with teenagers) and then we fell in love.

Actually, that’s not quite the truth…

We went to school together and the first time we went out with a group of friends I spent the entire night sitting in a cold bus shelter in downtown Toronto, talking to him (while the rest of our friends were inside a warm and toasty coffee shop eating cake and drinking coffee).

I left that night thinking, as I rode home on subway, “Gosh, I could see myself marrying that guy!” Of course, I knew absolutely nothing about what that REAL commitment meant, then dismissed the idea entirely as a silly fantasy, but yet after 4 years of friendship, and 4 years of dating, we did finally tied the knot!

Since then, Andrew and I went on to become very entrepreneurial for a couple of really shy kids without much of a circle of influence, and as we continued to finish our university degrees we built a thriving, online business that morphed into selling millions of dollars worth of products and services online – all this before social media exploded into the social conscience and took over the world!

With our marketing business we created a large customer base and through our websites and blogs, our customers came to know us and our family.

Then a few years ago we took a step back.

A major death in the family, a new baby and a move (all in that order) occupied our time (and our emotions) and so we took a break from our online business to concentrate on our family and ourselves.

We had to learn to navigate in a new world without someone very close to us, and for those of you who have lost a parent, I think you know it is a very confusing place to be. You are grief-stricken, missing all that could have been and at the same time acutely aware of losing the anchor and the most important witness to your whole life…

It shook us to the core.

That year was unbelievably hard, and sometimes I don’t know how we got through it. Our parental death occurred at the very beginning of the year and our sweet, second born came to us at the end of that same year.

I think in some ways he saved us because having Jack to care for, and Henry to look forward to brightened our days and filled them with sunshine whereas otherwise we would have surely drowned in what was paralyzing sorrow.

Luckily, because of the type of business we ran, Andrew and I were able to automate most of our systems and step away for a few years to concentrate on us.

In those years, we realized that we needed a new chapter in our lives, and so following what we believed to be our authentic selves switched gears.

We still work our online business, but instead of working on the marketing and building businesses, we no longer travel for work as much (we would travel monthly) but we now are building our passion projects online – documenting what we love and who we love. Our businesses have allowed us to do that and so we are forever grateful.

When we first started working from home all those years ago, when we didn’t even have any children, we knew that because of the way Andrew and I live our lives (literally, almost together all the time – and more time is what we crave with one another) it was just a natural extension that we would want our kids with us as well, and so here we are.

As some of you may already know (especially if you have been on one of our subscribers throughout the decade) we homeschool our children. Actually, I homeschool Jack and Henry is about to officially start.

Having them home with us, has been one of the greatest joys of mine and Andrew’s life and documenting what short time I have with them before my babies are grown and creating a space for them to flourish and feel loved will be the most important thing I will ever do in my life – Andrew agrees.

We are so blessed to have been given the chance to guide these beautiful souls in their own journey through life, and I want to make sure that I am always doing the best I can by them.

If you’ve read to this point, I want to thank you. Sometimes I ramble (ask my boys, 😂 ) but I just wanted to share what’s in my heart, that I don’t often get to express because life as we all know, gets very busy.

So, now that you know more about us, and our sweet little family of 4 plus our fur baby Stewie (our 14 year old rescue dog) be sure to connect with us, because we want to know more about you!

And for fun, in my work, and even on Jack’s on channel, people often will play 15 Things To Know About Me – so I asked each of our family members to do it, so that you would get to know us better. Of course, Henry needed some help, but I loved the list he came up with and have written it down as it was told to me! 🙂