Weekend Update

Daniel, Graeme, and I have had a lovely, relaxing three day weekend together. On Friday, we were able to do some back to school shopping for our Christmas Basket kids. They won't receive what we got them until mid-December, but still I wanted them to have the experience of new and plentiful school supplies. It seems like a family of seven, without an income, might not have that to offer their children. Anticipating and imagining their needs, piling my purchases into my cart, wheeling up and down the aisles was immensely satisfying. I wish shopping for children in need was a paying gig--I'd do it every waking moment of my life if I could. The children, ages 10, 9, and 7, will each get a new backpack stuffed full of supplies for Christmas. I bought them each paper and binders, pencils and pens, markers and crayons and colored pencils, sketch books and erasers, giant world and U.S. maps, memo pads, pencil sharpeners, glue and glue sticks, pencil pouches and folders. They will not, for a long time, have to be the kids borrowing supplies off other people in their classes. Hopefully, if they don't have it already, it'll give them a sense of school as the wonderland it is. The joy of a bouquet of sharpened pencils. ;)

Saturday, we drove out to the suburbs to visit a shopping mall and get some of our last-minute travel needs met. Graeme got new shoes--catapulting from a 7.5 to an 8.5 WIDE. His new shoes are huge paddles. We also found a children's salon, so he had his first professional haircut. They gave him the dreaded businessman haircut. I have to hope it grows out quickly, but for now it'll be out of his eyes once I start cramming warm hats on his head in Alaska. I also tried on a bunch of jeans and found some new companies/sizes that fit me. I'd spent years doing the jump and shimmy to get into my denim wardrobe and feeling totally uncomfortable in my own clothes. Now I have bigger, comfier, more matronly cuts and you know what? Fashion bedamned! I can sit down without feeling like my waistband is going to slice through to my spine. That's an awesome feeling. I can climb and clamber and sit cross-legged on the floor with my son in comfort. (And they're pretty cute, too, so it was an all-around win.)

Today was a lazy laid-back day. I got my period, full-force, which is the first time since November of '06 that that's happened. I'd forgotten what it was like, so all day I've had flashbacks to my labor and feeling like I'm having contractions. Yuck. Nice to know my body is capable of this sort of normalcy, though, after the surgery. I'd begun to wonder.

Just four more days and then I'll be on my way to Alaska!

( Photos )