unedited

Rhonda asked me in an email whether i was heavily editing my blog these days or if Canada was as good as i was depicting :-) LOL. I guess it's a little of both. To be sure, it's more difficult to be as "painfully" honest in my observations here where i'm surrounded by people i've known for my whole life and where there are obvious white elephants prancing about in purple tutus. I was happy to be able to attend the church picnic last Sunday, where we enjoyed fantastic weather (apparently the 2nd nice day of the season). I'm looking forward to next Sunday's opportunity to participate in person in the last discussion session on the book study i've only participated in via email and e-book. I'm looking forward to more days of sunshine (much different than African sunshine, i'm realizing, less harsh and thus more tanning benifits :-) and the camping weekends we have planned for the last weekend of June and the first weekend in July when we'll go up north to attend the EMC Conference.

This last week we've worked on our basement suite, unpacking boxes of dishes and small kitchen appliances, going through boxes of momentoes and letters that i've collected since i first went abroad in '94. Letters from family and friends while i lived in Germany then, and afterwards, letters from friends in Germany to me in Canada. Then letters when i lived in Lithuania. It amazes me, as i leaf through these stacks of handwritten letters how much people cared about me in my absences. I remarked to my mom how often my grandma peters had written me while i was away and she was surprised at that. It has surprised me over these past 10 years how vast and varied are the people with whom i have corresponded. I am thankful for them... even though i was forced to burn most of the letters and cards of the past 10 years this past weekend. I simply cannot keep/store that many boxes of letters and cards when i dont have a home of my own within which i can stash these things. Believe me, the crates upon crates of photo albums chronicling my journeys across the nations over the years are giving me no end of frustrations: they take up so much space, and yet i cant possibly burn them! Anyway, i've culled a sufficient amount for now in my opinion. Yesterday my mom and i began going through the half filled 2-car garage in earnest, culling the "junk" and reshuffling the stuff we want to keep and store for another 10 years before we throw it out. ;-) We're debating between having a garage sale or just bringing it all to the thrift store.

Judah continues to enjoy working on the downstairs suite with grampa and, more especially, doing the landscaping work with the tractors. I'm somewhat uneasy with him running around these machines (this is the small tractor, the big one came later) and i realize that my small-town girl senses have been lost.


Josh wanted photos of the Hot Dog items i listed earlier, so here's some photos of Judah enjoying cheerios in the morning. He no longer wakes up at 6am and wakes up grama and grampa. He's in bed until almost 9 these days, since he cant be cajoled into bath and bed before 9pm when the sun is still high in the sky at that time of evening (or, night, as we would call it in Mada). I have yet to take a photo of me taking the laundry out of the dryer to post for Josh, since that was the highlight of the Hot Dog items i posted. :-)

Sunday we hosted a bridal shower for Lara, my brother Eric's fiance. Since we went together to buy her dinnerware set as a gift, my mom had this (what i thought was a) brilliant idea to have all the guests bring their bridal dinnerware to put on display so we could see the change of styles through the years. It was neat, i thought.

We continue to wait on the arrival of the last bits of carpetting that are to go into our suite downstairs. Once that's in the fridge and stove can be brought down and we're set for independant living. I'm not sure i'm ready for that since one visit to the shops reminded me of how insanely expensive everyday living is here in this country. Egad!

One thing i do notice when i'm in Canada is that i hardly feel i have a child when i'm here. Perhaps it's that Judah has spent most of his life in Africa, so i identify Canada with being without children. But mostly i think it has to do with the fact that there are so many people around who Judah wants to play with and spend time with that i find myself without anyone to entertain or cuddle with on a daily basis. It's nice, in a way, but i'm looking forward to the return of routine when we'll feel more like a family again.

Rhonda sent me photos of my garden in mada, which i havent seen since mid March. , i miss my home there, i have to admit. It's nice here, to be sure, and i'm glad to be missing Madagascar winter, but i do miss my home and my things there and friends. Alas. The tensions that come from becoming "third-culture" are at times tiresome.