This week I got to go back to school. Back to my gymnastics class. And back to my swimming class. All of these made me happy!

He said

This week put us back into a lot of our regularly programmed agenda items…

Yes, Emelia was back at school to see her beloved besties and have some reconnect time with them. But this weekend also saw Emelia start off her winter sessions of both her gymnastics class as well as her swim class.

She was definitely more excited about gymnastics than she was swim class, but ultimately very happy–I think–to be back in a familiar routine.

We’ve switched her classes over to Sunday so that we could sync schedules with Danielle’s friend Kelli so that her son, Ryan and Emelia could be in same class as they were needing the move to Sunday. They have been in swim class together at the Y pretty much since they started lessons so it made sense. And in the end, getting Emelia’s activities moved over to Sunday made a little more easy as it gave us back Saturdays if I should be off on them, as well as we might miss less classes if we should be away for the weekend.

In today’s gymnastics class, Emelia picked up right where she left off. In fact her new teacher was remarking at how well she was taking to it, and how comfortable she looked. That invariably led to a conversation between Danielle and I about the Elite’s program they have at this gym and wondering if it wouldn’t be a good thing for her.

So, Danielle looked into the sort of commitments (time + money) it might take for us, and whether her coach thought she should try out. The consensus is we’ll let her see how she does this term and if she really shines, continues to adore it, and it is something that holds her gaze for the rest of this session, we’ll see about the Elite’s tryouts at the end of the term.

When she is on the mats it’s amazing to see her so comfortable and looking like she is in her realm. It’s the first thing where we’ve seen her attention stay with it and her really just “get it” in a natural kind of way.

She is definitely way more graceful than Danielle or I. And I am just loving watching her do her own thing here and get such fulfillment from it!

With Christmas being out of the way, Danielle got back into contact with her sewing friend and it turned out that the curtains for our front room would be ready this weekend. With me off today, we turned the morning into a run of errands—the most important of which was picking up the freshly completed drapes so we could get them hung up on the windows. After a couple of different trips to Home Depot, bookended around making some delicious roasted pear and butternut squash soup to take over to Mom & Dad’s for dinner, and just before sitting down to write my piece, the curtains—I am happy to say—are hanging!

And yes, I was in the mood to have a soup that Judyth, a friend of ours introduced us to years ago. Since Sundays are the usual day we try to pop over to Mom & Dad’s for a visit, we decided we’d make the soup ahead of going over and bring it over for dinner at their place. It turned out awesome and for a good portion of the day our house smelled amazing.

This week I’d wager our focus will largely be diverted on getting things finalized and in place for Emelia’s 8th birthday party to avoid bigger things (more on that, next paragraph). But it will also end with a rare Friday that both I am off work and Emelia is out of school on a PD day. So, we’re already starting to plan on that. It likely will involve some skating outdoors.

On Tuesday however, my oldest brother David goes under the knife for some open heart surgery to correct some ventricle problems he’s been having. We will have him and his whole family in our thoughts on Tuesday and wish him a speedy and full recovery. I am sure he’s got all kinds of nerves heading into this as all his family does, but the surgery is necessary, and will put him in a place where we will have him for many many more years.

Godspeed and good health, David!

She said

This week was all about getting back into routine and life in general. Emelia folded back into school with little hick-ups. She had a minor “I didn’t get enough mama time” moment in the morning but once she saw her friends and her teacher there was little struggle to get her back to school and her day to day routine.

This week was also my first week back to work after the holidays, back in the swing of working a full week and also easing in a new little boy who will start full time in a couple weeks. All in all everyone settled in quickly and we all were back in the regular routine quickly. What we didn’t hope for was the sudden plummet in the temperatures, a couple of snow storms and we knew we were in the depths of January in the snow belt. It made the school run interesting some days but in the end the kids loved seeing all the white stuff on the ground and it made the subzero temps bearable.

So now that we are back into the depths of back to school and Christmas is behind us for another year it means that we switch gears around here and move to birthday planning mode. Emelia’s birthday is so close to Christmas that we have to at least think about it in the weeks leading into the holidays so we can have things under control come party time.

This year Emelia has decided she wants a fancy tea party for her party. Somewhat easy enough, I have managed to gather some ideas on pintrest and with our friend the dollarstore, second hand stores and loaners from a ton of friends and family we have all the fixings for a full blown formal garden tea party in the middle of January.

Emelia is so excited about the whole party. She and I had a ton of fun on Saturday while John was at work getting everything planned out. She and daddy earlier in the week had designed her invitation and we made sure all her invitations were out and delivered to all her friends. She is so excited and it looks like we are going to have a full house and lots of fun. Saturday turned into a full swing of planning, errands and generally getting things underway and always keeping in mind of the budget we have set.

Sunday John had off and with Emelia back in her weekend activities the morning turned quickly into a whirlwind of errands to get things in order for the rest of the day. We had to made a dash to the south end of the city to drop off our old living room table to the people who bought it off us, grab some necessary ingredients for the soup we were making and then out to the west end of the city to get the curtains that were finally ready.

I had found someone to make them back in November but with the Christmas season and her already backed up with custom orders I knew that we would be waiting until January to have anything made. Thankfully with little hiccups we have the new curtains up and the room is that much closer to being complete. We have minor little touches to finish but those can come in time. The room has been a long process but worth it, we have slowly collected pieces that we love and I have dove outside my comfort zone with blending patterns and colours. We are pretty happy with how it is all coming together. For the first time we have a true decorated living room that we are proud to show. It is the first thing you see when you come in our home so we are happy we are love it so much.

All in all this week was full of activities, back to a sense of normalcy. And that was the week that was.