Back from break

If you have bothered to check this site at all in the past while you might have noticed that I took a blogging hiatus.  The summers here are very busy with all the kids and both parents at home.  Projects that politely waited the school year suddenly need doing once July rolls around; vacations need to be taken; newborns need to be fed; older kids need to swim; and the house calls out for general care and maintenance.  So, we spent the summer ripping up carpets, painting floors (yes, a poor fix for an expensive problem), painting walls, painting trim from other summer paint jobs, putting up clothes lines and so on and so on and so on.  The house looks good but we are all tired and, strangely enough, ready for the rhythm of the school year.

Today was Joseph's first day of school (senior kindergarten).  I brought him for his 9:10am interview and was greeted by his teacher who was wearing the exact same dress as I was wearing.  I imagine the transfer of authority from mother to teacher will be aided by this wardrobe detail.  Joseph was incredibly subdued.  For those of you who know him, please pause to pick your jaws up off the floor:  I was amazed too.  He was asked to find his name on the wall and after pausing momentarily at Jane he easily found Joseph.  He excelled at his colours (only confusing pink and purple) and moved on to identify one quarter of his numbers including one which he mistook for the letter p.  I decided not to mention that I had attempted to homeschool him.

Sarah decided to finally move her bowels after a number of days just as Joseph began to draw a self-portrait complete with bones but no arms.  His teacher pointed out that one can't usually see one's bones and he grabbed the green marker and quickly scribbled a t-shirt with only one side glance at the new authority in his life.

Isaac remained at home with a friend of ours who was visiting from Texas, Fr. Mike Minifie:  an old friend from Dave's seminary days and the best man at our wedding.  Amazingly Isaac cooperated in this babysitting venture; the previous day Isaac dove from the backpack carrier when Fr. Mike attempted to help with child carrying on a hike in Algonquin Park.  Instead, Fr. Mike walked with Joseph who kept saying, "This is the most boring hike ever."  Then we thought that we had lost Joseph and, once found, Fr. Mike said, "Well, that went from boring to briefly terrifying to pretty uneventful in a matter of minutes."

So, I promise to keep updating and upload pictures of our now three month old, our vacation down east and many other summer adventures.  Life passes too quickly.