So Xander has discovered "cuzzles", which loosely translates from Xander into English as puzzles. When we delve a little deeper we discover it is also defined as: I can ignore my mother because I'm doing something "brainy" instead of doing something "destroy-y".
Felicity starts Kindergarten on Tuesday. The entire summer has been building up to this moment. In fact, I feel now like that moment, over six years ago, when I decided to move to Chilliwack and fell in love with my husband and he went to Depot and we moved to Gibsons and now we live here? The circle will be complete on Tuesday when Felicity walks into that sacred classroom for the first time with her I-cheaped-out-so-she's-stuck-with-an-Ikea backpack and her $40 sneakers (I get the irony) and her recycled DuoTang and pencils in her Disney Princess pencil case (again, more irony) all held together with a sturdy box I brought home from work and then stamped - STAMPED! - and glittered and ribboned. Seriously. Kindergarten has brought out my crafty side. David kept feeling my forehead and checking my iPod for devil music that may be affecting my mental state. The dining room table was covered. It was a crafty, stampy, glittery, ribbony warzone, and for a moment I felt like those moms you read about who make their own bread and grow their own carrots and milk their own grain-fed goats so they can make goat cheese for the PTA meeting over which they will preside as President of the Mommy World. I even cleaned up after myself.
My first thought when I got home from camping was winter gear. My head was full of parkas and -40 rated boots and mittens and mitten liners and long underwear. And not just because it's freezing cold here, but because having spent one winter here I know that winter will soon be upon us. I have to admit that even though I'm not looking forward to the darkness, I'm really looking forward to the snow. It stays for a long time, and it's really cold, but it transforms this ugly little town into something beautiful, and for over half the year this is not a bad place to live.
The only thing I want more than to be able to quit my job now is to be able to get the job I want when we move. I've actually started my degree three times but apparently that doesn't count for three years of study. I've really only got about one year of music classes left, but in order to do that one year without driving my family crazy I need to do work-work and school-work all at the same time. I know see why, when my parents were both working, in school, and raising four kids, my mother said "don't EVER do this". Sorry, Mom.
I have camping pictures. I will post my favourites soon. Okay, soon-ish.
