Off on an Adventure

Tomorrow will be a day of firsts:

1. First time I've driven through the border by myself.
2. First time I've landed in Washington D.C.
3. First time I've rented a car on my own.
4. First time I've driven in Boston.
5. First time I've met my sister for a getaway weekend in the States.
6. First time I've left Chris alone with the kids in London.

There will be a number of other firsts before I arrive home in the wee hours of Sunday morning. First time I've seen Beth Moore speak live and in person. First time I've waved goodbye to a bus full of all the people I know in a particular place. First time I've driven back to the Boston airport in my rental car to head home. And first time I've landed in Buffalo at 10 o'clock at night to begin the long drive home. It will be an adventure! I promise to tell you all about it when I get home!

Mrs. Fix-It

I am pretty proud of myself. So I'm going to brag. Just a little. I am so not a Mrs. Fix-It. But my hubby has been away since Saturday, and on Sunday the kids noticed that the handle on their toilet was loose. I tried it and they were right. Every time I tried to flush it felt like it was going to fall off. I panicked a little bit. I tried to figure out how I was going to wait until Chris got home to get it fixed. Two whole days. We do have two other bathrooms. It's not a big deal for the kids to have to use them. But yesterday I finally broke down and lifted the cover off the tank. After close investigation I discovered that the rubber knob that holds the handle onto the tank had come unscrewed. I carefully screwed it back on, and, voila! The toilet was fixed. One whole day before Chris came home. And I did it all by myself.

An odd subject for a blog post, I know. But I'm pretty proud of myself. And I just thought I'd share it.

Maybe not EVERY day!

So you may have noticed that this fall I'm not making a huge effort to write every single school day. That's because I actually do have some days that are kind of busy, believe it or not. Like yesterday when I had Jocelyn and Tina and their babies over for a visit. Or today, when Chris stayed home from work to get some things done before he heads to Halifax for a conference. Life happens, and sometimes my blog gets ignored. And that's okay.

For me the problem is that I'm sometimes kind of an "all or nothing" kind of girl. I'm a little bit afraid that if I don't make it imperitive that I write every day, I won't write at all. So, for that reason, in my head, it's still an every day challenge, with a few misses forgiven now and then. I remember last year, when I first started the blog, Denise asked me to make three posts a week my goal. I almost never succeeded, and three posts a months was a pretty big deal. Part of me wants to say I'm scaling back to the goal of three posts a week, but I think if I do that I might just get out of the habit of sitting down every day and letting my juices flow. So the goal is still five posts a week. I'll keep trying....

But maybe not every day...

A Sad True Story

I just finished reading a short biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, written by Jane Urquhart, as part of the "Extraordinary Canadians" series. When I turned the final page I was heartbroken. This woman who possessed such an amazing imagination and talent as to be able to create such fascinating characters and stories was miserable most of her life. She spent her childhood as an orphan starved for love. Her professional career was overtaken by law suits against her publisher (which, after many agonizing years, she won in the end). She married a mentally ill man whom she did not love, and gave birth to two sons whose adolescent and young adult behaviour provided her with nothing but heartache. How did someone whose life was characterized by such misery invent the luminescent Anne Shirley? How did she dream up all her happy endings, when they consistently eluded her in her own life?

As an 11-year-old girl living in PEI, I considered myself quite an authority on all things Anne Shirley. I read all the books in a span of a couple of years. I lived for visits to Cavendish, where I could visit her home and play in her "Rainbow Valley". When Anne cried, I cried. When she rejoiced, I rejoiced. When I was lonely, she became my kindred spirit. In all the hundreds (thousands?) of books I've read, I can't think of a character whom I've loved more than Anne. To this day, there has never been a theatre production that I have loved more than "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical". I could watch it a thousand times! I can't wait until the day when I take my own children to see it. I watched the premier of the "Anne of Green Gables Miniseries" in awe, loving every minute. And I picked out all the "editorial changes" in the sequels, and declared them "not really Anne stories". I knew Anne thoroughly. But it seems I did not know Maud at all.

As an avid fan and amateur writer, I think I've always believed that Montgomery's crowning achievement was to write a book, to create a character, who is so loved around the world that people flock by the thousands to see "Avonlea" every year. And such success must lead to endless happiness, right? Not true. I'm sure that Maud rejoiced when she held in her hands each precious published work, but they did not make up for what was lacking in her personal life. Anne must be a part of Maud, to a certain extent, but she must have been the very happiest part of her. I think Anne was the hope in Maud. Anne and Emily and Sarah and Pat and Kilmeny and all her other much loved characters. It would seem that she left us with the very best part of her life. And I am grateful.

And I'm adding all the L. M. Montgomery books that I haven't read to my reading list for this fall. So I can learn a little bit more about the very best parts of my favourite author.

With a Little Bit of Fairy Dust...

There are some things, well many things really, that we are able to do because we live in London that we wouldn't have been able to do a year ago. This weekend we experienced on of them: we took our children to the Stratford Festival.

I've always wanted to see a play at Stratford, and this summer I had heard wonderful reviews (both published and spoken) of this year's production of Peter Pan. Chris and I started talking about it on the way home from NB, after we picked up a brochure at a tourist info centre just inside the Ontario border.  Stratford is only an hour from our home, so it would certainly be easy to take the kids to an afternoon or evening performance. That night I started looking online for tickets, and was able to get us some fairly good seats for the Sunday matinee. We decided not to tell the kids for a while, but I was convinced they would be excited.

Just a few weeks ago, one of the neighborhood boys told Connor and Janelle that he was going to see a play about Peter Pan. Connor came in and excitedly told me all about it. Connor and I had read Peter Pan and Wendy together a few years ago, and both of the kids have seen the movie Hook, so they are familiar with the story. It really is a story with something for everyone. Boys love the pirates and the lost boys, and girls are fascinated by Wendy and the mermaids and the fairies (although Mariana will be happy to know that both of my kids remind me often that Tinkerbell is a bad fairy!) Connor and Janelle immediately started asking if they could go see the play, too. I didn't tell them the good news until just a few days before we went. I couldn't contain my excitement any longer!

We weren't disappointed. Everything about the play was magical, and watching my children's faces as they took it all in was the best part! When Peter first taught Wendy, John and Michael to fly, I could tell that Janelle wanted to join them and fly right off to Neverland. An in the second act, when the pirate ship appeared out of the mist and seemed like it would keep floating right out into the audience, I thought Connor would turn inside out. Chris and I both love professional theatre productions, and we enjoyed it as much as the kids did. It was worth every penny of the ticket price.

It truly was a magical day.

My Favourite Faces

I was originally going to add this picture to my blog to show off my new kitchen island. I love it and it makes my kitchen far more functional. But when I really looked at this picture, I realized that the island is not the focal point. The three precious faces who eat, do homework, and cook at the island are the best part of this picture. Just looking at it fills me with love and satisfaction. I'm alone in the house today, enjoying the peace and quiet with a good book, and soon noisy voices will fill the halls of our house. But I can't forget how blessed I am. These are my three favourite faces. They make my life awesome.

Thanks to my sweet sister-in-law Lori for the use of this great picture!

Field Trip Mom

Yesterday was Connor's first field trip of the year. It was to Western Fair, which is London's (larger) equivalent of the ANE or the Fredericton Exhibition. No, the kids didn't get to ride the rides, but they did do some pretty cool stuff. They saw an ultrasound of a pregnant goat, they watched a milking machine working, they saw an awesome "Birds of Prey" show, they touched a crocodile, and (Connor's favourite) they saw a demonstration of how manure is used to generate electricity — among other things. It was very interesting, and showed the kids why Western Fair actually exists (ie. not for rides), and I'm glad I got to experience it with Connor. However, I began to wonder when the teachers are going to get sick of seeing my face every time they go on a field trip.

Since we've moved, Connor has gone on four or five field trips, and I have accompanied him on each one as a parent volunteer. When he asked me to go this time, my response was "Connor, do you really think I should go on all the field trips?" He assured me that he really wanted me to go, so I did. And while I was there I noticed something.

All the same moms go on all the field trips! These faces are beginning to become very familiar to me. Sure, there are occasionally a few dads sprinkled in among the moms, but in general it is the same women that volunteer for every field trip. I'm not alone. I realized that this is how I'm going to get to know people. These are the parents of my children's friends and the people whose concerns are the same as mine. We share a lot in common, and we will be thrown together often, so we might as well get to know each other!

We arrived back at the school an hour before dismissal time. As I was driving out of the parking lot, I invited one of the other moms to join me for coffee. She immediately accepted and hopped into my van. We had a lovely conversation over cappuccinos at Tim Hortons. As we drove back to the school to collect our children she promised to return the favour soon.

Maybe field trips are as good for me as they are for my kids...