Sarah, one of my newest blog friends, is on her way to China to be united with her sweet little adopted daughter, Chen Jin Lin. I’m so excited for her! Why don’t you run on over there and wish her well?
And if you see Maddie emerging from a hole in the ground while you’re there, Sarah, be sure to send her home!
Conversation in our kitchen after school:
Maddie: Today me and my friends tried to dig to China. We didn’t make it to China, though. We made it to water. Pause. Tomorrow, I think we’ll make it to China.
A few minutes later…
Maddie: But… what if we make it to China, how are we going to get back to Canada?
Me: I don’t know. What do you think you should do?
Maddie: Well, I guess we’ll have to build a REALLY long ladder.
A few minutes later…
Maddie: Once we get there, I think we’ll organize field trips for all the other kids.
Me: So… why China? Why not some other country on the other side of the world, like India or Afghanistan?
Maddie: Duh, Mom. China is COOL!
1. I think I’ve sealed my nomination for “wife of the year” award. On my last holiday of the summer (last Friday), I crawled out of bed at 5:00 in the morning to go fishing with my dear husband. Yes, you read that right – FIVE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING!
2. Here he is, just as the sun was rising over his “happy place” – his favourite fishin’ hole in the world. We’ve been visiting this place for about 16 years by now (since before we got married).
3. Speaking of which, we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary while we were on vacation in August. We’re finally getting a chance to celebrate it for real in a few weeks with a romantic getaway in a cabin that’s so close to his happy place, we’ll probably spend some time fishing there again. But not at 5:00 a.m., or it won’t be MY happy place!
4. I like fishing, but it’s mostly because Marcel is fairly tolerant when I let him look after both of our fishing rods, and instead I do a couple of my favourite things – reading and wandering around taking pictures. I only managed to reel in one tiny fish, and then I passed the rods on to him. (Oh don’t I just look so wide awake? I can hardly believe I’m showing you this picture.)
5. Here’s me doing one of those favourite things after catching my token fish:
6. If you’re looking for a good read, try “Twenty Chickens for a Saddle”. (Thanks, AP!)
7. And here’s one of my favourite pictures from the day of “fishing” – just before the sun burned off the morning mist:
8. In other excursions, in the last weekend of the summer, we finally managed to squeeze in a visit to my brother’s place (about 2 hours away) for pizza night. No trip to their house is ever complete without the cousins putting on a little parade after a visit to the dress-up box.
8. Why is it that EVERYTHING has to start up again in September? After a relaxing August, I’m just not ready for the crazy schedule of soccer games, music lessons, homework, and a little business travel thrown in for good measure. Can I go back to that lovely island off the west coast again?
9. Maddie’s comment after seeing one of her friends after a summer apart. “So, L has some blue hair now. It’s not every day you see someone with blue hair.”
10. The first day of school was fairly uneventful and relatively low stress in our house. Except for a minor meltdown over a forgotten pair of indoor shoes, and a tiny bit of stress over not knowing if a combination lock would work, the kids are all quite content and relaxed. Whew.
11. Why are there so many blasted mosquitoes around these days? Shouldn’t they have hibernated… or DIED… by now?!?
12. If I can’t get wife of the year, can I at least get mom of the year for watching soccer games on nights that are so blasted cold my fingers can barely function enough to zip up my third layer of jackets?
13. Okay, so I’m probably not wife of the year or mother of the year, but you can’t deny that I’m pretty darn lucky to be the mom of these three unique and beautiful girls: (First day of school photos, and I actually got all three of them – or at least the one that normally chafes at group photos – to cooperate long enough for a few pictures!)
You know, the selection of Sarah Palin as a potential vice president should sound like a good thing for a feminist like me. But something stinks here, and I don’t think this is doing the women’s movement any good. Truthfully, I think Sarah Palin should have been smart enough to realize that she was not being selected for her brains or her leadership ability. Nope, she’s just a pawn in the big game. She was selected because she fit a bunch of vote-grabbing criteria.
Is she a woman and can she potentially steal some of Hillary’s voters? Check.
Is she young and potentially appealing to the younger voters who might not give McCain a second glance? Check.
Is she attractive and will she make McCain look good in campaign posters? Check.
Does she offer a little “diversity balance” next to McCain? Check.
Does she represent family values to the religious right who chafe at McCain’s stand on abortion? Check.
Will she appease the gun-totin’ NRA crowd? Check.
Does she sufficiently represent a “change agenda” that might sway those on the fringes of Barack’s campaign? Check.
Cringe. If I were her, I think I’d be more insulted than honoured to be selected. But then again, I suspect she’s letting her own ambitions cloud her judgment, because otherwise (and this I say reluctantly, as someone who has always been a “working-away-from-home” mom and supports other women’s rights to make those choices) why would she subject her family to the scrutiny they now have to undergo? Why would someone choose the high-pressure, high intensity, high scrutiny life of federal politics when you have a baby with Downs syndrome and a pregnant seventeen year old daughter who clearly will need lots of love and support (and TIME) in the coming year? (And, just so I don’t sound like I’m slipping from my feminist leanings, I would feel the same way if she were a man making those choices. Pregnant daughters and Downs babies need their fathers around too.)
Honestly, I don’t think the fact that she has a pregnant daughter will make or break her ability to be a good vice president. If she’s a good leader, let that stand on its own. But I do think that making a choice to place that pregnant daughter in a fish bowl for all the world to chew up and spit out when they’re done shows some poor judgment (not to mention questionable “family values”) on her part.
But what do I know? I’m just a Canadian.
Nikki and Julie cooked supper for us tonight – without any help from the grown-ups! Pizza (with homemade crust), fettucine, ceasar salad, and oreo cheesecake for dessert. Lucky us!