I am finally done high school! This week my entire friend group is celebrating being done and we cannot wait until our big cottage trip!

He said

We’re a little off schedule and out of orbit this week… But, this is by design. Normally, without fail, we post our weekly update on Sunday nights. When, happenstance gives us a holiday Monday, we have always pushed the post to Monday evening so we can squeeze just a few moments out of our week that the statutory holiday has afforded us. But, this weekend was the start of our first real weeklong vacation this year. It includes tomorrow’s Canada Day and I think the first time in some time that we have gotten a weekend off, followed by the week off and then another whole weekend off! It is going to be (and, currently is) pure bliss!

Leading up to our vacation time – I think as we were still working through the mountain of things that always need to be tended to – it dawned on both Danielle & I around Thursday last week just how much on-the-go from thing-to-thing the last six months has been. On Thursday, Danielle said to me, “we really need this week off!” and I felt that at a cellular level in my soul. The last month especially has capped off what I would call my least favourite eighteen months of being a Teeter. Our family is half the size in what feels like a hot minute and I am ready for that to not feel like the routine around here.

So Friday, as soon as Danielle was freed from work, we loaded the truck and made a bee line for the trailer with the goal of spending a week full of rest, relaxation and most importantly, reflection. We drove through a torrential rain storm that even saw us need to reroute to avoid a downed tree and hydro wire. But, after that white-knuckled deluge of rain and high winds blew through, we were at the trailer with blue skies and the start of a wonderful sunset we could watch from the deck as we made our dinner on the BBQ. We finished the night off at the fire pit and then went to bed reasonably early where I had one of my many very restful sleeps up here.

It’s already Monday night and we’ve had three straight days of wonderful weather, bike rides, camp fires, fireworks for Canada Day, and lots of time to just be. It has been exactly what we have needed, and then some! And Emelia… We’ve been keep close tabs on Emelia at home and all that she’s getting up to (work, softball, friends, parties) now that high school is finally officially over. She has been living her best life. But so have we! But the best part of this week, and coming week, for all of us, has been that there is no need for alarms in the morning! At least not for this week. And, we have earned this!

She said

John captured everything so well, it has been a brutal 2 years for our family and the last few months have been exhausting. In the last week alone we had to say our final good-bye to Helen, the last few weeks have been mentally and physically exhausting and we aren’t fully done. But for now we needed to take a breath and recharge. Last week John along with his brother Matthew had a bunch of appointments to continue the work of closing out the estate. John and I spent the one night at the dining room table going through a bunch of the files and paperwork and have made heads and tails of all of what we have and now we just keep picking away at everything.

So with all that, along with me learning a new job in the middle of this we really needed a break. We wish Emelia’s schedule would allow her to be with us but she is off making money at her two jobs and living her best life. In fact our friends Krista and Jeremy are giving up play-by-play update from her softball game that we are missing tonight. We are all burning at each end, even Emelia has had some much going on that she was so glad to put school behind her for a while. She wrapped up her exams last week and from all accounts all her grades are in the high A’s and she is leaving high school as an Ontario Scholar (average of over 80% in high school). She is so ready for this next stage of her life, but for now she is just going to enjoy hopefully having the best summer of her life.

So with all of that John and I are really going to do our best to enjoy this week at the trailer, it has been such an emotionally draining few months and this week is exactly what we needed to reconnect, recharge and relax! And that is exactly what we plan on doing!