Off to Retreat!!

What a busy week!! Erin is presenting her science fair project that she did with her friend across the street today, so our home has been a whirlwind of magnets, printouts and helping glue the backdrop together for their Electromagnetic Crane. Bethany had pajama day at daycare and then Dr. Seuss day with lots of great books read. I started to learn how to do Butterfly in swimming and boy is it hard!!

Now I am off to retreat tonight to meet up with 60 - 70 women for a wonderful weekend of stitching and fellowship. The fact that there will be a nice fire going in the main lodge as we set up our stitching circles will help counter the fact that it was HAILING this morning!! It has now turned to snow... and I think this will be one of those weird Maritime springs that only lasts 2 weeks. We’ll go right from winter to the high 70s in just a few weeks and “poof” it will be summer.

Bethany is feeling sick this morning. If she’d eaten breakfast, I would have suspected that it was just a case of “I’d rather stay with Nanny and Grr here than go to daycare...” but her throat seems to hurt too much to swallow, so I’ll try to have her seen by our doctor before I head off late this afternoon. Nick still gets jumpy about me going away and kids getting sick since he dealt with chicken pox alone last fall while I was in Toronto. It’s wonderful to know that Mum and John will be here to help this weekend.

I was trying to explain to Bethany WHY I needed to go away when she said it wasn’t for work. There is something totally selfish about taking time just for me, but I need this retreat twice a year to recharge those “me” batteries so that I can be a better person, wife and mommy. It is just so wonderful to have no fixed schedule, no interruptions, no meals to cook or laundry to do and even no e-mail to answer (though it does pile up!). Time to just sit and chat with other strong women, time to indulge in the sheer creative PLAY of stitching or doodling new designs for as long as I want is sheer heaven.

I know I need a piece of that right now!!