One thing the kids and I realized this year is that summer vacation is shorter in Ontario than in New Brunswick. More than a week shorter this year! Cousins and friends back home finished school a whole week before my kids were set free, and while Connor and Janelle dressed in new clothes and toted new backpacks back to Lambeth Public School yesterday, most New Brunswick students didn't climb back on the school bus until today. Nine weeks. Nine short weeks that this year were carved up into three very easily defined portions. Weeks one, two and three we were settling into summer, enduring unbelievable temperatures, attending a week of day camp (basketball for Connor, church day camp for Janelle and I), and packing for vacation (with my annual case of strep throat, I might add). Weeks four, five and six we were driving to New Brunswick, visiting family and friends, enjoying my sister's cottage, and all to soon saying goodbyes and heading back to Ontario (this time with some shopping in Freeport and a visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame thrown in to make the trip more fun). When we got home I could hardly believe week seven was already here, and it was time for Janelle to head to theatre camp, and Connor and I to volunteer one more week at our church's day camp. That week flew by, and we found ourselves in week eight, Janelle still at theatre camp preparing for her stage debut as a seagull in Finding Nemo, Chris home sick most of the week, and me bribing Connor to go back-to-school shopping. Chris took most of last week of for vacation, so we decided to take a long-promised camping trip to the Pinery, a provincial park on Lake Huron. The kids were over-the-moon excited, and I was too, until I started to feel the beginnings of Chris's flu taking over. I went anyway, and slept in the tent while the rest canoed and rode bikes, enjoyed the Smores and my hubby's Coleman stove cooking, read in my camp chair, and did manage to head down to the beach for a swim. We arrived home just a few hours before the Moores arrived for a weekend visit. Thankfully they are one of the few families that I am happy to have staying at my house despite feeling miserable, knowing they are happy to help Chris with dinners and just hang out on the deck and visit and play Wizard, while our kids ride bikes and play video games and sleep in the tent in our backyard. Ellen and I did manage a shopping trip to Winners and Homesense and a girls dinner out, coming home to find our husbands had fed the kids and built a fire in the new firepit. Nothing like ending the summer with Smores and the Moores.
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| My only "Back to School" picture. My lens had fogged up in the humidity, and as usual, we were too behind schedule to snap another. |
And so here we are. The first day of school was my first day feeling a bit like myself again. Connor got the teacher he wanted, but didn't get in his best buddy's class. Janelle got the teacher she wanted, and is back in class with her friend from Grade 2. All in all, they are both happy. At least they were yesterday. Who knows what today will bring. Who knows what the rest of the year will bring, but I'm looking forward to finding out. Despite summer's disappearing act, we made some new memories, and I know that before long I'll be writing a "last day of school" post about how once again the school year has flown by. A good reminder to slow down and enjoy every moment. I think I'll go downstairs and sit on my front porch and listen to the quiet for half an hour, until my house once again will fill with the chatter of my favourite voices.
