Today is an absolutely gorgeous day out - feels like summer, yet the cool in the morning and quickly-setting sun in the evening remind us we'll soon find heaps of leaves on our lawn and begin craving hot cups of herbal tea and pumpkin everything.
This will be a photo-free post since I've largely delegated photography duties to my much-talented and enthusiastic Dear Hubby. I don't have access to his photos, and since he is spending his time doing things of account today, I shall not bother him to sort and load for me. And most of you have that Facebook thingy so you've seen all the pictures anyway.
Most of our activities wrapped up the end of July and early August, which was perfect, because the garden really hit its stride around then and we took a quick trip to Ooohhh Canada (you have to sing it, to the tune of their national anthem, really, you do). We went to the zoo (bears! camels! lions! --- more about the lions soon) and the kids had so much fun there. It was sooo hot that day, but we still had a lot of fun admiring all the animals. The polar bear exhibit has been majorly expanded and we were able to watch the bears swimming and playing, from a clear tunnel under their pool. Also cool - snarling lions, a walk-in kangaroo exhibit, and watching pelicans try to chase down the last of their lunch. At the end I went to change Baby's diaper and developed a huge nosebleed (it's really, really hard to fasten a diaper onto a squirmy toddler with one hand), which resulted in a lot of messy laundry and me clutching giant wads of paper towels to my nose, hoping no one was going to call us in as a domestic incident. The lions made a significant impression on our daughter - she has been obsessed ever since. She spent most of her time in the hotel room picking up the phone to call Papa to tell him about the "lines". (OK, it was really, really cute --- "Papa. Line. Rarrrr.") Now, instead of "Camel" being the answer to just about every question, "Line" is also an acceptable answer.
"What did you dream about last night?"
"Camel." pause... "Line."
"Who took your hair clip out?"
"Line."
The main focus of our visit was the city's annual folk/culture festival. We managed to make it to two cultural events each evening - Belgium and French Canada the first night. We went to the Belgian centre in honor of some family members and learned a bunch about their history, and that Belgium has the highest tax rate of any country (40%!). Lots of yummy, yummy Belgian fries there, and beautiful lace samples. Hubby enjoyed a delicious Belgian beer. The French-Canadian pavilion was one of our favorites for the entire weekend - delicious bison/wild rice meatballs and a dessert of which I can't find the name - was like a rich, caramelly/cinamonny sauce. The music was superb.
Next day we hit the regional natural history museum - The Boy's particular request, he remembered it from our visit a couple years ago and insisted on returning. It was a little more exciting this time with an exuberant toddler, but we tried to find as many animals as we could, and that helped. We visited the Israeli and Serbian centres that evening - also very interesting. The lower-budget centres had the best food by far, since it was all authentic and homemade by the sponsoring people. We made a quick exit when someone got overwhelmed and had an upset stomach... again, hoping no one would confront the ugly Americans.
Children's Museum the next day, which was a big hit with the younger half of the family. The water display was immensely popular with Baby and The Boy spent most of his time in the big train (again, he definitely remembered it from a couple years ago!) and the pint-size Harley Davidson shop and cycle simulators. Then off to the Scottish Heavy Games - caber tossing, sheaf heaving, and kilts everywhere. The Boy got to try tossing a mini-caber and it was really something else to see all those heavy things flying through the air. We agreed, however, that Scots are feisty, because who wouldn't be contentious if one had to eat their food and listen to bagpipes all the time. Last of all we visited the Brazilians - the boys ate real churros and I had the most delicious coconut ice cream. I hear there was martial arts and Carnival dancing, but I wouldn't know because Baby lost it for good there. She was rather spunky (of course) throughout our stay, and we disconnected the hotel phone for reasons 1) to prevent her from making multiple front desk and emergency calls and 2) to prevent Stephen Harper calling and telling us to please, please never visit his country again, eh.
The highlight of our trip for me was being able to go to Mass at the Church and Shrine dedicated to St. Gianna Beretta Molla, my heavenly friend who found me and hasn't let me forget her care and patronage. The Shrine was very recently dedicated, and included a visit from St. Gianna's daughter, Gianna Emanuela. It was special and blessed to be present there, reflect and pray, and bring to mind again the small, daily sacrifices of love Gianna made for her children and husband; her sainthood wasn't made in a day and a single sacrifice. It was important to hear again her call to live each moment out faithfully, if not always gracefully. To know Gianna came home from work tired and made supper for her family, that having small children she sometimes struggled to have prayer time and to focus - these things speak to me and give me hope that God can do something with even me.
Much of August was occupied preparing school, school, and school. I spent two full weeks preparing activities for Baby, in desperate hopes of trying to engage and occupy her during our school hours. I'm not at all crafty, so most of what I came up with took a long time and is yet half-you-know-what, but I don't think she'll notice. We are having moderate success with the activities and many are still in reserve for when the excitement of these wear off. Then another couple weeks to prepare school for The Boy. I'm very, very indebted to my mom who rescued me from tears, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and helped me identify priorities and materials for the coming year. I didn't leave enough time to get ready for my school job, which hasn't been great. In past years I have been able to get the skeleton of my online courses organized before the start of the semester, leaving the time I need for my clinical courses, which really eat gobble up the hours. Less successful with that this year which has made for some early mornings and late nights. (I'm blogging now only because my online course management system is down. Guess I'm not supposed to grade today!)
Our late August and September weather has been beautiful. No frost yet, so have had tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. We've been loving the garden-fresh edamame Mom grew this year, and amazing how many veggies the kids can plow through in a meal. Thanks to Grandma I had extra rhubarb to stock this year, which is super because Baby's favorite food is Greek yogurt mixed with rhubarb sauce - she ate three bowls yesterday, calling it "ice cream". The Boy is still my cucumber man and also loves our new Asian Green Bean recipe, at least now that we got the sauce nomenclature cleared up. When grocery shopping one day, I mentioned we needed to find Hoisin sauce for the recipe, to which he reacted vehemently negatively. He thought I said "Poison" sauce and was intending to do in the family, apparently.
God is good and we are counting our blessings daily - beautiful children, new things to learn every day, good jobs, the love of our families surrounding us, comforts beyond our needs, funny and piquant things uttered by small mouths from big hearts, good books to read, and an overflowing dose of grace daily poured out.
