Crazy Days

It was a crazy and interesting one today. Busy and while a good day, not the smoothest. I began by writing a note to one of the kids' schools that I'd been putting off. I got it done - a very good thing - but I got caught up in it to an extent that made me run late getting Vivace to preschool. Granted it was just 5 minutes late, but it seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day. I didn't run late again but I felt hurried and behind.

I then went for an hour long walk/talk w/a friend. Our conversation was at times very enthusiastic, and so was our walking it would seem. It's a good thing to walk, and I need to get into the habit on account of our upcoming trip, but I'm clearly not used to it, and to do so for a full hour wore me out! My legs were jelly when I got home and my feet never quite recovered.

The conversation we had was definitely franglais - it was all over the map language-wise and I so totally love that. Both of us being bilingual is fun. We intend to speak French when together, but we end up in English often. It kind of just flows back and forth. When I don't know the French, she helps me, and vice versa. I learned that "porch" is "galerie" - like an art gallery! How cool is that (we were admiring several porches as we walked). One of the things I enjoy most about talking with her is that we share the same faith in Christ as our redeemer, though we don't attend the same church, and the bulk of our conversation yesterday revolved around "thorns in the flesh" and suffering and happiness and contentment and God being "bigger than our circumstances" whatever those may be. You can see how it got exciting. An awesomely encouraging time (which is part of why I didn't feel the walk 'til afterward). So the tone for the day was a good one, but still not smooth.

The trip to the grocery store after pre-school was nuts. I had been on the fence about going at all today, and wished afterwards I had chosen to wait. You see, it's under construction and literally every day something is moved around. They are expanding and renovating all while staying open for business 24 hours a day. The end result will be awesome and we're starting to see glimpses of it, but getting there has been interesting and there are still months left until completion according to the big plan. Every week we try to have fun and treat going like a "let's see what's changed this week" adventure, and getting what we're looking for is a scavenger hunt. But the owner of the property (not the store) decided yesterday was a good day to repave the parking lot. What a nightmare (balancing that w/construction equipment - yikes). First I misunderstood the signs directing me, then after sorting that out, I got stuck and had to back out of an awkward situation, and then I couldn't find a spot anywhere. Two-thirds of the parking lot was blocked off - kind of ridiculous. There wasn't room for parking at all. I don't know what they were thinking but hopefully it's done and it won't happen again. I was so focused on trying to find a spot and getting out of the "mess" that I didn't even notice until after we were done shopping that I had parked on lovely new pavement. And then inside the store finally got to me. I couldn't find things. Maybe I didn't have the right "adventure/scavenger hunt" mentality yesterday but between the newest relocations (milk was in one place, the bakery totally displaced, the cheese in a new location, but obviously a temporary one and nowhere near the yogurt or the rest of the dairy....) and simply walking more, I was done in. My list was so totally not in the correct order b/c of everything's topsy turvy location and I must have walked back and forth across the entire store multiple times in search of things. I think I left w/o getting everything too - we had just had it. Oh well. I did keep to the budget at least!

So the rest of the day went similarly; I got done everything I needed to do, and it was "good" but w/lots of extra walking (we seemed to have a back and forth kind of day), I was tired, and little obstacles and unplanned things happened at every step. I got a deal at the school book fair (but was missing a kid for a while while he got himself confused about where he was supposed to be and failed to connect w/a parent to trade kids at the appropriate time to boot), Andante's parent teacher conference went great (but we got interrupted every 5 minutes w/another child needing to use the restroom or get a drink), and no one has any more nits or anything so I think we're done w/the lice - yay. Today was the two-week point! If we have anything after this, we likely picked it up again. So I'll be watching... but praise god we appear to be over that.

The craziest thing happened on the way home from home group (weekly bible study). Deer. We're fine, the car's fine, and the deer might even be fine (we didn't stick around to find out but we think so). But god sure reminded us that he's the one who determines our steps. There was a small deer in the middle of the road so we slowed down and began to swerve to the left so as to miss it. I saw the big doe (I think) off to the left coming right at us. She was huge and when we slowed down, she paused and then kept coming so we sped up a little and went between the little one and her and she just ran right into us full tilt, hitting right into the back left side of the car (Papa Bear thinks it was right behind him on the door to the back seat.) I was bracing myself and looking to see if there were more deer to dodge (and praying fervently). There was a big loud smack and everything seemed to be fine (Papa Bear thinks he saw the deer keep going) so he kept driving, feeling very blessed but very alert and full of adrenaline. That was close but again, everything went fine.

I was so glad when we got home! And today is now all but over - hope tomorrow is not so crazy (and no more deer thank you!)! Good night!