Of Head Colds, Family Ties and Remembrance Day...

I haven’t had much energy to blog because I have been fighting a miserable head cold since last Friday that is just finally breaking up. Monday morning once the kids got off to school, I just crawled back into bed even though I had work to do. I think sometimes that investing in companies like Kleenex or Halls would be very profitable!

This was also a wonderful week for hearing from family. I’d been pestering my little brother Zach (from Dad’s second marriage) who is off at his first year of University. We’d sent a care package for his birthday that was going to arrive late but then his blog went silent for over a week and I began to wonder if our cookies had sent him to the hospital or something. It just turned out that his group project had to be completely reworked and the code for their game rewritten. (He’s at DigiPen in Seattle studying game design)

I also had a wonderful phone call with my Dad and then Tuesday a parcel arrived from my sister in Japan... a belated birthday parcel that made me squeal when I opened it and gave both girls a severe case of jealousy attacks. Laurie knows that I love Anime and hamster stuff, so I got stickers and an adorable colouring book that had Bethany in tears until I promised that she could colour a few pages with me “on days when she was really good!” (what a Mom to bribe her kid like that!) We actually coloured one page yesterday afternoon and I have never seen a more colourful bunny in all my life! Laurie had thoughtfully tucked little “unbirthday presents” for both the girls and Nick in the parcel, so she is still considered the best Auntie/Sister-in-law on the planet, but it was a bit hard to convince the girls that all the other stuff, no matter how cute, was MINE!!! Who says you are ever too old for toys, stickers or Manga (comics)??

Today, both girls took part in the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Moncton Coliseum. Bethany was quite worried because her Sparks leader had stressed how important it was to be quiet during the service. This morning there were tears as we got into her uniform when Bethany sobbed “But Mommy, I can’t be quiet because I’ve never been quiet unless I am asleep and even then you tell me I talk in my sleep sometimes and I don’t think I can do this because it isn’t fair to ask little kids to be quiet when we learn to talk and don’t know how to be quiet for more than one whole minute!” She and her Sparks group were VERY well behaved and far less wiggly than the other Sparks unit or the Brownies directly behind them. The leaders sat them down quietly whenever possible and that also helped.

Erin was quite proud today because she got to carry the Westmoreland Division Girl Guide flag and lead in the Guides. She told me after the ceremony that it also helped to have the flag pole to clutch during the one or two moments that she felt dizzy. The Guides remained standing for the full ceremony. Only one of them got dizzy enough to need to sit down, but quite a few of the Air and Sea Cadets fainted or had to be led away to the First Aid Station. Must be the heavier boots and full dress uniform that makes them more prone to passing out.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet. The girls head off to Nick’s mother’s for the weekend and I am off to a cross stitch retreat weekend (YAY!) with no phone, no kids and all my meals taken care of. It doesn’t matter than I have to pull the mattress off the bunk bed and onto the floor in order not to have most of my legs from the calf down hanging out into space... this is time to get away and stitch to my heart’s content (or design!) Nick will also have some wonderful alone time and the freedom to work at the church pancake breakfast this Saturday without worrying about the girls.

Sometimes, when we spend a little time away from those we love, we learn how glad we are to have them in our lives. Strange isn’t it.
“Let there be space in your togetherness” - Kahil Gibran