First day of school in 2020... the Oliver edition

Today was Oliver's first day of school. Grade 5... wow! Nicka starts tomorrow and Alexander goes back by the end of the week. Honestly, I am still caught off guard with this whole return to school. Everything seems rushed... heck, I usually have everything labelled and organized a few days before their return (what can I say? I am a school supply geek). I found myself rushing last night to put Oliver's name on all his school supplies. No new shoes. A kind of wrinkly t-shirt. Just remembered to get him to wash his hair last night. It is, however, not only me being unorganized... it is the whole situation. Don't get me wrong... I am not blaming his school or teachers. Far from it... they get extra kudos from me. By rushed, I mean that we just literally went from shut everything down-pandemic-stay home-self isolate-how many people died today-how many people caught coronavirus today-daily press meetings to a sudden opening of everything. It seems rushed. Everything seems too rushed. This summer just sped by without any sort of transition or easing in process. Maybe it is just me? Not too sure. Before leaving home this morning, he chose his mask for the day (with a back up carefully packed) and I reminded him about the extra hand sanitizer in his bag. Andreas reminded him about keeping distance and to wash his hands regularly. Welcome to 2020.

Anyway, was Oliver happy to go back? His words say no but his face upon seeing his friends this morning said otherwise. 

Where did the summer go?

All of a sudden, I am back at work. What the heck happened to summer? Summer, I had such hopes for you! I thought that you would bring something positive to 2020. I thought that you would be there for me.... What happened? Last night, I found myself watching geese flying... and probably in the wrong direction. I am getting emails from the boys' schools. The pick up date for school supplies is next week. I am preparing my online courses for fall 2020. Where are you going, summer? I still need you!

My week plans have now been modified to include: more sitting in the sun, putting a bottle of rosé on ice and enjoying more evening walks. I need to absorb as much vitamin D as I can, while I can.

Summer, so far your visit has been pretty quick. Think you can drag it out a while longer? Much appreciated xox

Another 10 random facts

1) I am coming to terms with being the kids' social life scheduler... even during pandemic times, their agendas are more full than mine ;)

2) One more thing to include in "strange things to happen in 2020": our garden is producing the smallest tomatoes but the largest zucchini that I have ever seen.

3) Our neighbourhood is being overrun by crabgrass. Another plague...

4) I ordered the brightest orange slides ever and I love them.

5) I have come to the conclusion that I will make a good retired person.

6) I honestly gave up on mascara.

7) I have a re-occurring dream where I have to run to catch the train, despite the fact that I haven't been on a train since March 12... the day I bought a month pass and the day before the universities shut down #themostexpensivetriphome

8) Our neighbourhood is also overrun by Japanese Beetles. Another plague...

9) Now that I have to look up at 2 out of my 3 sons, it amazes me that I actually gave birth to them.

10) I am hoping that my favourite coffee shop downtown will still be there when I have to go back into work again.

About last weekend

Oops... I never made it to do a Monday post so it will have to be a Tuesday one instead ;)

I know that we are still in COVID times but, if you went by how full our schedules are getting, you wouldn't know it so much. The weekend was filled with soccer, football, deck building/renovating (Alexander's project for school... I am not complaining 😉), trampoline jumping, gardening, humidity and being thankful for a big umbrella!

Wishing you all a happy Tuesday xox

Back from the Thousand Islands

We're back 😉

In short: our trip was awesome! We (our family and our close friends, the W family) rented houseboats (one per family... not just because we're still socially distancing 😉 but having 11 people on a boat with only one bathroom would be nuts 😉). We traveled through the beautiful Thousand Islands- Canadian side, of course, because the border is still closed. If you are interested in checking out the boats, see this link. Spending our vacation on a houseboat was really fun... it was like being in a cosy retro cottage on the water. The really cool part was that if you wanted a change of scene, you just moved your little home... without having to pack up and change hotels! Bonus!

We visited 4 different islands in 7 days: Mermaid, Macdonald, Camelot, Gordon, back to Mermaid (the boys loved the swimming and fishing there) and the last night in Clark's Marina (check out was 9am so we decided to head in early... and go to a restaurant). Each of the islands are a part of Parks Canada  (link here) and I have to say that we were all really impressed with how clean and well-maintained each site was. We docked our houseboats and enjoyed what each island had to offer.

The best parts of the trip were being able to spend time together as a family and with friends, enjoying beautiful scenery, having the chance to relax, good wine and good food, a cosy environment, sun, someone who makes awesome Aperols... I could go on forever!

The bad parts.... well, just A bad part... water snakes... that is it. They don't bite (I guess that this fact could also go into the best parts of the trip) but they are pretty freaky (pictures here). Yes, I can speak from personal experience as one decided to sun on my shoulder while I was hanging out in the water, talking to W family mamma. I guess that I should be happy to interact with wildlife but, honestly, I could have done without 😉 I am laughing about it now.... maybe not so much then 😉 I am sure that W family mamma got a good laugh watching me 😉. By the way, I only saw the snake on one island- Camelot- the other islands were clear! I made sure to check it out 😉

Would we do this again? Absolutely! Would I feel good recommending this trip (especially considering I see some of you in real life where you can get even with me)? Definitely! If I haven't convinced you enough, here is a photo spam. See for yourself ;)

xox