In~tention

It feels like forever. As much as I love spring, love the anticipation of waiting for the first green shoots, the first opening of plump new buds, the first hike without a scarf and mittens to ward of the bitter wind... it seems some days like it will never come. I've got some reason to feel so this year, as I await the newest arrival to our family. The weather seems to mirror my moods - bright and cheerful one day, chilly and blustery the next. Some rain in between seems to help freshen the earth and shed some anticipation. Today was a blustery day. Nothing seemed to go well. It's discouraging to feel so overwhelmed with things to do and yet to feel so frustrated that I can't seem to make progress on anything more than just getting through the day. I find myself craving color, craving sensation, craving time to create and explore. Perhaps this is a signal to find time to just be. To settle into being all of the parts of who I am while knowing that everything about my life ...

I still don't know if anyone really reads the musings here, but some encouraging words from a friend prompted me to get my fingers moving. It's been a bit of a wild ride these past weeks and I'm just starting to catch my breath. January was a blur - I thought I was really prepared for G to be away again, but my optimism proved to be wildly misleading and so the first month was a slog. It seemed I couldn't get ahead of life enough to look up and see what was coming next. Then in mid-February, just as we were adjusting to him being home again for a few weeks, we got news of a new addition to our family. The 'telling' suddenly seemed like an overwhelming prospect. Adoption is like that I suppose... every milestone is met with anticipation and excitement, but also the prospect of responding to dozens of well-meaning questions about the whole process. We were also really aware of wanting to share the news with Amelia in a way that supported her processing it before ...

It's been one of those days... the ones that make you wonder what in the world made you sign up for this budget package when you could have really used the all-inclusive. Started out with Am insisting that she was too sick to go to school. Given that I had a high priced consultant here from Vancouver today and had promised to drop everything I had planned for the day in order to facilitate the project work we needed to do (including a driving tour of all neighbourhoods and discussion of development options for new housing density)... having a sick child seemed like a bad joke from somebody who wasn't really paying attention to the reality of my crazy life these days. By the time I had figured out how I might work out a plan for sick kid day, our tenant showed up with the news that his fridge had died quietly in the night. Fortunately, this cheered sick child up and by the time said tenant left Am was climbing on him and begging him to paint her room pink today. Ok - so apparent...

As usual, December was frantic so Christmas cards weren’t in the ... never mind. I’m justifying it as our attempt to be more eco-friendly. The attached photo isn't very wintery, I know, but it's virtually the only one of us all together. It’s a representation of the last few months, as much as a fact that we never seem to remember how to set the timer on the camera so one of us can run around front to get in the photo. Despite our lack of documentation, it's been a pretty good year. Glen enjoyed being home with Amelia for the spring and summer and spent lots of time volunteering in her Kindergarten class at Kwaleen Traditional Elementary School. He also did some substitute teaching in a variety of schools and volunteered in a few different classes to get a feel for the education system. In September he headed off to Prince George to fulfill his long-time dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. He spends Sunday through Thursday in classes and has been coming home ev...

We've been down with multiple nasty viruses since before Halloween. It seems like such a blur that I can't believe it's been two weeks. We lived through it, thanks to calm heads and a few other elements that shouldn't be mentioned. Regardless, I'm cautiously optimistic that we're on the recovery road. Four weeks left in the semester and I'm actually starting to feel like I've got a handle on the routine each week. Teaching still puts me over the top the weeks I need to do that, but that's coming to an end soon too. I've relaxed my housekeeping standards and have fewer clutter melt-downs, though I long for a day or two at home to purge the house of stuff I know won't even be missed ;-) Haha! Thankfully I've gotten accustomed to a more structured existence, and though I still long for spontaneous moments I find I now have to plan them. Sheesh. I'm not so good at it and generally get myself in trouble because I haven't planned them, ...