One Monday Closer to Moving Day and I’m…

Doing: riding the ferry back to the island.

Reading: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Dancing in the Dark

Planning: To winnow more goods into our garage sale/giveaway pile. Chaff/wheat!. Then to wrap the rest of the wheat very carefully and put it in boxes (you know I don’t really mean wheat, right?)

Fretting About: flights to Iqaluit, ticks in Italy, ill-worded comments on Facebook, oh, the possibilities are endless if you’re a talented fretter…

Happily Remembering: surprise flower bouquets, sleepovers with seven-year olds, delightful brunches with daughters in newly discovered restaurants (okay, only one of each of these, but it was a good weekend!)

Morcilla plate at Latab on Helmcken in Vancouver, inventive, delicious, healthy food and cool cocktails

I provided my own charming companion. Grew her to seedling stage myself, and then some…

Lunch was her treat–thanks love!

Now to get on with this week. How has yours begun?

 

 
 

23 Comments

  1. Anonymous
    9 May 2016 / 6:43 pm

    Surprise presents from both sons and preparing for a long drive to see older son and his wife in Washington, DC. We have made a commitment to ourselves to take some time off before trying to resolve the final issues in Dad's estate, although my work ethic is struggling a bit. So glad you had a good weekend in the midst of all the chaos.
    Lynn

    • materfamilias
      9 May 2016 / 11:45 pm

      Lovely, those connections with your sons, and I think you're so wise to take a break from your Dad's estate. I understand the temptation to get it all done and put away, but now you're doing a different kind of work, caring for yourself and those close to you. . . take care!

  2. Linda
    9 May 2016 / 8:30 pm

    It all looks very special indeed. I had to look up Iqaluit, and discover it used to be Frobisher Bay. That is some coincidence, as my daughter's university madrigal group's favourite piece is 'Frozen in Frobisher Bay'. You can hear a performance from a couple of years ago here: standrewsmadgroup.bandcamp.com/track/frobisher-bay .
    How many sorting out piles do you have? My husband is incapable of throwing anything out – it causes him real physical distress. When we were emptying my late father in law's house I lost count of the piles. Normally one has 3 – keep, charity shop, out. My dear husband had 'keep, maybe keep, think about keeping, not sure, possibly do some repairs to then think about keeping….. 'before we could get as far as the charity shop categories (which included 'possibly charity shop but might want to keep').
    As for the start of my week – a surprise midnight phone call from son in New Zealand, to wish me happy Mother's Day (tho it isn't here), then work then daughter leaving to go back to uni for her final exams, after spending study leave at home. Wishing you a week of as much even keel as possible.

    • materfamilias
      9 May 2016 / 11:55 pm

      Yes, it was Frobisher Bay, and I'll have to share that song with my husband. He's been there a few times in the last fifteen or so years. I was only there once, for an hour in 1967 when the turbo-prop passneger flight I took (18 hours, Vancouver to London) landed there for refuelling. June, but there was snow on the ground, at least as I recall. . .
      As for sorting-out piles, your husband definitely has me beat! I've got one big plastic garbage bag for paper that can be recycled whole, a bin for paper that has to be shredded first, and a big plastic garbage bag for anything that will go straight in the dumpster. Then I've got a pile for everything we will try to sell or give away at a yard sale this coming weekend. Meanwhile, we've also been sending off bins to thrift shops in town, and when the yard sale is done, we'll send whatever is left over to them — a bit tricky from here as it will all have to be hauled to the boat and our only transportation to the boat is by bike or wheelbarrow . . .
      Was the surprise midnight call alarming at first? I still tend to panic when the landline rings in the night . . .
      Here's to even keels!

  3. Mardel
    10 May 2016 / 4:16 am

    Teary weekend here, and mostly quiet, although flowers and phone calls and a wonderful concert with friends. The tears aren't necessarily a bad thing, just a letting go and a kind of odd hello. I'm tackling a box of paperwork from my previous life I was hoping to pretend didn't exist. Actually, for all that it is hard, it is also good to say goodbye to the weight of it (more metaphorical that than physical)

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:42 pm

      So sorry about the tears, Mardel, although it sounds as though they were cathartic and even productive. Funny how that pretense that tough stuff doesn't exist never quite works out. . . at least, perhaps it does as in you needed to wait until you were ready before acknowledging that the work had to be tackled. Sending you strength for the work and hopes for joy in the release…

  4. Anonymous
    10 May 2016 / 5:18 am

    Your daughter is so nice and beautiful (as well as all your kids)!
    I went to the flower market (actually my florist :-))
    And I bought flowers
    For my mother. And me.
    And I 've got a phone call from my son
    It was a nice,sunny weekend,after all those rain (very unusually to have so much rain in april and may,but everything is so weird with weather these days)
    Dottoressa

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:44 pm

      So it was Mother's Day in Croatia as well, or were you just buying flowers as a regular lovely practice?
      Everything truly is weird now, with weather. Horrific fires dominate the news here, and even here on a part of the coast renowned for rain, we're already into summer watering restrictions…

  5. Duchesse
    10 May 2016 / 12:20 pm

    Wonderful to see these bright spots (and daughter)! Hope they help lighten the job, because a move like this consumes one's life. At least the final-stage move from the condo will be a much smaller pack… won't it?

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:35 pm

      Yes! It is absolutely all-consuming! And yes, the final-stage move will be much smaller, although of course it will involve the folding-in of all the stuff we'll be storing for the next few months.

  6. Lucille
    10 May 2016 / 1:42 pm

    Ticks in Italy? I need to know more so I can fret too.

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:36 pm

      It's not my story, and I don't want to invite horror stories that might dismay the ones whose story it is. Let's just say there was hiking, there were critters found, there were critters removed, and all seems to be well except for the resonating heeby-jeebies! 😉

  7. Catherine
    10 May 2016 / 4:23 pm

    I probably have a PhD in fretting. Your daughter is lovely and has a look of you. We had glorious summer weather at the weekend in the UK (Spring seems to have been squeezed out as we went straight from winter to summer, briefly). It has now made its appearance with cool weather and rain today.

    We spent a glorious weekend, walking the dogs in the nearby bluebell woods, attending a concert of Bach's Cantatas in a beautiful, ancient Suffolk wool church, and chilling out in the garden with a bottle of cold white wine, listening to the birds singing. Bliss.

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:38 pm

      It's a skill finely honed by experience, right? And one must have a native talent for it, which apparently I do. Husband doesn't, which is probably all to the good.
      Your weekend sounds absolutely splendid, everything a spring weekend should be. . . Now I want to get to a concert of baroque choral music!

    • Catherine
      11 May 2016 / 4:59 pm

      One of those rare weekends when everything came together. I hope you get to relaxing concert very soon!

  8. Anonymous
    10 May 2016 / 6:02 pm

    If there was an Olympic fretting team I could be the coach…..so I completely understand adding new worries to one's repertoire. Having grown up in a tick-y area I am very unbothered by ME getting them, the grandson or the dog with a tick really scares me. Fortunately logic does not intrude on fretting.

    Good wishes for continued progress in your packing!

    ceci

    • materfamilias
      10 May 2016 / 7:48 pm

      There was a small person involved and a bigger one and if I could have crossed the big pond in a single leap and invited the teeny little critters to move house, I'd happily have suffered them on me. We've been inundated by warnings here to associate ticks with Lyme disease, although percentage-wise, I suspect the risk may be overrated as a corrective to all the years when the opposite has been true. . .
      Fortunate that logic does not intrude in that the fretting can continue, without interference by logic?

  9. SmitoniusAndSonata
    10 May 2016 / 10:40 pm

    Aren't one's grownup children a delight !
    ( Not that mine weren't delightful when small , but lunch with them now is more relaxed somehow … )

    • materfamilias
      13 May 2016 / 4:08 pm

      It's such a different delight, and yes, eating out with them is a completely different kettle of fish!

  10. Ceri
    11 May 2016 / 9:16 am

    My week has started — as my last full week of work before I retire at the end of the month! And I can hardly wait as it feels exactly the right thing to do now.
    I have a summer of family and friends planned and a possible month living in Florida (with a daughter and grandson and son- in- law working on a project there) which is my first step in trying to fulfill an ambition — to spend some time LIVING abroad — to be a traveller rather than a tourist. Not sure that Jacksonville would have been top of my list for that but — I'm sure its as good a place as anywhere to start!
    Good luck with the rest of the packing.
    Ceri in London

    • materfamilias
      13 May 2016 / 4:07 pm

      Squee! I'm late answer this, and now your last full week of work is done! Congratulations! I'll be so keen to hear where your retirement takes you. Florida will be a great start, especially if it gives you extra time with a grandchild. I've always wanted to spend more time living abroad as well, and I'm really hoping that once this move is done we can prioritise that goal.

  11. Rosie
    11 May 2016 / 10:40 am

    My weeks begun well thanks…sun shining 🙂 I've recently had a weekend away with my daughter and other girls in our family which put me in a very happy frame of mind ..We had so much fun, enjoying the time with each other.
    The boys in my family are estatic as our home town football team has moved back up to the Premier League! I'm now busy planning a visit to Bath "en famille" to celebrate my husbands birthday! Wherever we are, I'm always happy when we're all together….lots to be thankful for.
    Glad you've had some good times with your family too and that packing etc seems to be going well if somewhat time consuming!
    Enjoy the rest of the week Frances.
    Rosie

    • materfamilias
      13 May 2016 / 4:10 pm

      I'm so late to answer that the week has already been enjoyed and we're on another weekend . . . Do forgive, please, and thanks for the comment

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