1/2 July Bits and Pieces

 Jasmin started her university this week! So far she thinks it easy and fun. Of course, that likely has to do with her new required set up of large drawing tablet/monitor and the license to draw just about all the time...

Yesterday we had the excitement (!?) of a local tornado - as in it was mere streets away. Mom and Dad were out at a meeting most of the morning. It began raining as the meeting broke up so they ran into a restaurant to wait it out (they were on bikes). While sitting there, mom idly watched the storm clouds, observing them start to circle, watched awhile, then pointed it out to Dad. At that moment, we all got tornado watch alerts on our phones. So we watched a funnel cloud form! Fortunately this one didn't touch down. Once they got home, we all looked at local news and discovered at least three had formed and one had touched down. Thankfully the damage was fairly light as tornados go. Still, at least 5 families couldn't sleep in their home last night. Our kids started counting up their brushes/experiences with natural disasters and concluded they just needed a tsunami for a complete list.  No problems waiting for a long time for that to happen near where we are, for sure!

Mom and Dad went away for a weekend (so many trips away this summer!) and the kids stayed be themselves. They survived fine - likely mostly because Mom prepared meals for them and gave them a list of when to eat what, as they are notorious for simply forgetting or not getting hungry enough to feed themselves!

Sunday our foster dog managed to get our of her crate and eat a bag of chocolate while we were out at church potluck...and this after bloodying her paws on the bedroom door while we were at church... so Mom unexpectedly had to spend the evening at the animal hospital... to be told they wanted to keep the dog overnight. And then it took us until Wednesday to actually get her back because communication was lacking: the hospital transferred her back to the shelter without notifying us, the shelter didn't mark her chart as free to go home so we couldn't get her when we went on Mon after tracking down where she was, etc. And now she is on meds to hopefully control her separation anxiety so she doesn't go so crazy when we're gone. Hopefully that doesn't affect her adoptability as she is a great dog otherwise.

Halifax/Hatchet Lake Week!

We snuck in a week's stay in Halifax with family Wednesday to Wednesday! 

Since we flew and had no car to get around, it was a true vacation - we slept in, went swimming, kayaking, and walking/running; tried out hot tub evenings; played board games, laser tag, hide n seek with cousins; talked a lot; reacquainted ourselves with Uncle Arran's pancake suppers, Imma's lunch soup for sore throats, donairs and Scottsburn ice cream...

And took basically no pictures :)

Dad was sick with a cold just before we went so wore a mask on the plane. During our stay there Mom unfortunately woke up a little sicker each day until she lost her voice and was drinking copious amounts of tea in order to swallow without wincing - and travelled back in the mask instead of Dad. She got it much worse than Dad though, as she is still recovering.

It probably didn't help that our already red-eye return flight was delayed for over an hour so we got home about 3am and had to wake for a full next day :}

Despite those things, it was a wonderful, restful week. A little too short to come back fully rested and ready to work hard, but long enough that our car and house felt strange and not quite home to us all over again. 

And since we know that we will be heading back there again in October for longer, we don't feel too badly about not meeting the many friends whom we want to reconnect with while we were there.

All in all, a lovely love gift of the Father to us.

In-Between Week

 Last week we were away. Next week we shall be away again. This week of in-between, we have been busy catching up and aiming to getting ahead...

Grace working hard to finish her university semester work a bit early so she can have a proper vacation next week.

Jasmin getting in lots of dog time with Willow and trying to clear the decks of waiting drawing commissions and writing tasks.

Aiden crunching with his programming course, and trying to get in as many afternoons of park soccer as he can.

Dad and Mom working at the back log of admin and household tasks as well as juggling current.

And a few end-of-school year things we've been invited to: a home school moms' evening together, Adventure club's ending BBQ, a youth group finale.

And then... a week with family, and enforced rest as we'll be there without a car :)

June!

 
At the end of year picnic for Aiden's co-op, we did the usual - as well as some more normal things like frisbee and soccer and picnic food!

And the tree was so inviting, even Mom couldn't resist the climb :)

We also got to stay for the reptile intro show that was so well done that everyone was drawn in from toddlers to grown ups - and we all learned a lot.

Mom and Dad then took the kids to our friends' house where they stayed for the week while Mom and Dad went for a Leaders' Reset retreat at Ellel Canada. Apart from the hard work of some inner healing, they got to enjoy canoeing, restarting running, and an overabundance of delicious food.

 

And, when we reconnected, we took everyone to a rock climbing gym for a combined birthday party. We unfortunately flustered the front desk by showing up with 7 climbers, but everyone had fun in the end, and we topped it off with a joint cake and party chips. Unfortunately, Aiden didn't get to enjoy it fully because he was in the beginning stages of a voice-stealing sore throat.

And this is June begun - but there is more to June yet as we'll be ending it with a week with family also! A lovely love-gift from our Father, who knows our needs and desires.