One Month

We passed the one month in Canada and three weeks in our own home mark this week...

• We've all been sick now - and Grace is still without a voice and Dad is still coughing Mom awake each night
• Despite that, we've managed to host or be hosted 6 (!) times over the month, connecting with old and new friends
• Yeay! Aiden is signed up for and will start (a week late) the spring homeschool co-op term on Monday. This is the new generation of the co-op Grace and Jasmin attended.
• He also joined the homeschooler's class running concurrently with the women's Bible study mom is going to, and hopefully there is some overlap of population and new friendships can grow.
• We've enjoyed the library access, having visited 4 different libraries so far - getting plenty of reading material for sick days, and a keyboard for Grace to do her courses.

We've also felt some of the first pangs of homesickness for our "other home", missing people, the simplicity of constant warm weather, familiarity of well-worn life routines, and other tidbits of our life there. In Aiden's words "When will this feel like home?" We know it takes awhile -  certainly much longer than a month!

And then...

 And then...

- it's March Break and we miss a week of youth, etc. Hopefully not too much momentum is lost.

- Aiden got sick with another Canadian winter bug so we missed a play date opportunity

- Grace got her G1/beginner's! Not that she's eager to start driving, but for ID purposes currently. When Jasmin turns 16 in June, they'll do driver's education together.

-  Jasmin joined her longtime friend for a birthday day trip to Park Omega. They had a fantastic time observing wolves, foxes, deer, caribou, etc.

- Mom's been troubled by a sore foot (probably plantar fascitis) that has been painful on again off again since November. Hopefully now we're settled she can get it seen to. We miss the DNS physio on the other side of the world that was treating it effectively...

- Dad has continued to plow through the administration grunt work of setting up life here and reconnecting with people.

- Aiden finished his math and Bible courses for the year. Amazing work considering what long time of monumental transition we've just come through!

- Imma made plans to come for a short visit for Aiden's baptism; Imma and Mom are very happy not to have to wait until June for proper hugs☺️

Finally Home!

 In the last week we've...

- finally moved into our own home

- and unpacked, rearranged, sorted stuff, and made the house livable

- played in the snow multiple times (at least the kids have!)

- went skating and sledding (again, the kids)

- ventured downtown to restore our Ontario health insurance

- enjoyed the delight of random memories coming back as we re-explore our house and neighbourhood

- took at least three zoom meetings

- reveled in the availability of creamed honey, cheap-ish Nutella, tortilla chips

- gotten reacquainted with Canadian grocery shopping

- begun the discovery process of what a good household budget looks like and the changes we will need to make

- reconnected with various church groups (youth, etc.)

- started to re-engage with things put on hold by our move: PhD, SAFE consulting, etc.

- researched and got a working phone, internet, etc.

- met new and old friends

- begun the research and planning for Jasmin to foster a dog

- begun looking into driver's ed for the girls

- finished setting up? Not quite, but nicely close🙂