– The girls start school on Tuesday. I can’t believe it, but it’s undeniably here.
– Everyone is thrilled, especially me. I like my routines, and I’ve missed them. I have some work coming to me this week and the next, both writing work and web-related work. Yay! I love to work, I really do.
– All of Emma’s school supplies have been bought, minus one particular French-English dictionary. We were told to buy a Larousse, but all of the Chapters/Coles in Ottawa are sold out. This is the first year we’ve had to buy school supplies, and I tell ya, it’s been an eye-opener. I used to loooove buying school supplies, so what happened? I think topics deserves to be a whole separate blog posting. Gah.
– Shoes! Have I mentioned that Emma has officially entered the world of Adult Footwear? This means we pay at least $20 more for the identical pair of Sketchers we see over in the children’s department. I am definitely not ready for this.
– Clothes! My MIL came shopping with us at Bayshore. My patience runs thin in small enclosed areas like overheated fitting rooms (or maybe I’m the only one who’s overheated?) so it’s VERY helpful to have a second pair of hands/eyes/feet with us. We hit Winners, Old Navy, and the Gap. We bought some amazing clothes. The girls both have a great sense of style. And now we’re done.
– I love fall!
– I discovered the DVD cart at our local library. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE DVD cart? We borrowed Quill, a Japanese film that follows the life of a seeing eye dog. It was our first family film with English subtitles. I love foreign films, many of them provide a window into another world that is largely unnoticed by Western media, and I’ve been eager to introduce more of these non-Hollywood productions to Emma and Sarah. But I wasn’t sure if the girls were ready for subtitles. Sarah said she didn’t want to read and watch at the same time, and even Emma, who loves to read, said she was just going to follow the imagery and ignore the words. After a few minutes we realized that they WERE reading along, and following the story just fine. Quill was an excellent first subtitled film, however …. (spoiler alert!)
… the dog DIED at the end of the film. I had no idea this was coming, although I had a feeling and was making slash-at-the-throat motions to Mark as we were nearing the unfortunate end of this dog’s life. By the end I was crying and laughing at the same time, because I couldn’t believe I got such a sad movie. Emma was crying too. As far as I could tell, Sarah and Mark were dry-eyed. It was sad, very sad, but you know what, it was a good kind of sad. Dogs die. People die. And I don’t think we should hide that from our kids.
– So we’re trying to expose the girls to higher-quality film, yet the girls are watching retro Scooby-doo as I type.
– I am considering another blog redesign. I realized last time, too late, that the bird in the masthead is the Twitter bird. *sigh* I’ve also realized how important it is for me not to be using a template that everyone else is using. What does this say about me, exactly? That I’m high-maintenance? Hmm.
– I am totally loving this mom wall calendar/organizer! I wish it would just magically appear on our doorstep.
– Mark is on holidays this week. We’re planning on repainting the bathroom. And the dining room. But he doesn’t know that yet. I’m still keen on buying a leaner mirror.
– I have had absolutely debilitating shoulder pain for the past few days, achieved while moving a large piece of furniture down the basement stairs. It was so bad I was taking Mark’s prescription neck/back pain meds because the ibuprofen wasn’t cutting it anymore. Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. We went to Ikea yesterday (BIG MISTAKE, DON’T GO TO IKEA ON LABOUR DAY WEEKEND) and got lost in the crowds shopping for cheap furniture with which to fill dorm rooms and student apartments. Mark and I saw these pillows and bought them. They are ugly, and small, and they look terrible floating in our pillowcases, but I slept on one last night and LO, my neck/shoulder pain is almost entirely gone.
To summarize: Ikea cured me.
– While we were at Ikea we bought some hanging organizers for our front closet. Actually, this was the whole reason we went to Ikea in the first place. Shoulder be dammed, I was determined to deal with our Footwear Issue.* Now. So we bought two of these (in black), one for overflow shoes, the other for mitts and hats.
* The Footwear Issue is a result of our nonexistent front hall closet. It’s a sore point for me. I don’t like shoes and coats being on display for all to see, all the time, but it is an unsolvable problem for the time being. The best we can do it make it as tidy as we can.
– Last night we lit our homemade lanterns and went on an after dark end-of-summer walk around the neighborhood. The wind was cool and whistled through the tops of the trees. We talked and walked and the girls held on to their lanterns to keep their hands warm. It was a lovely, restful, way to see out the summer.
And here we are. Labour day long weekend. We went camping this time last year, which I wish we were doing again because it was such so gorgeous and soul-filling. But this year we’re not up to very much. We were going to have a BBQ tonight but cancelled it because of my shoulder issue.
As I sit here I realize I need to see the summer out with more of a bang. I don’t know why, I just do. Funny how, the older you get, the more you figure yourself out.
