Sort of, kind of, just in time; the house is maybe ready. How's that for a definitive statement. At midnight last night my husband and I stopped trying to figure out where to hang the remaining pictures and just stopped. It had been a long day for both of us and it looks like this weekend will get crazy. In other words - for us, life is returning to normal.
Have I mentioned I'm a Brownie leader? Brown Owl to be exact. A position of authority amongst the 7-8 year old girl set. It has it's perks, I am often recognized by one of my girls (or their siblings) while out and about and the sound of a piping little voice calling " Brown Owl!" can give me an instant smile. It also has it's down side. When Nichelle was flying up to Guides and Miriam was in her second year of Sparks I joined the Girl Guides like many many mothers before me. There's a kind of unwritten contract that when your youngest joins it's time for you to help out too. And most leaders kind of follow their daughters through the various levels. Which is fine but it doesn't make for a lot of consistency. So when Miriam (and I) went up the rainbow to Brownies and the then Brown Owl informed me she was soon moving on with her youngest - I decided that I would remain behind when Miriam flew up. And I have. This is my third year as an Owl and I'm starting to feel the rhythm of the position. And I've made another choice. To remain Brown Owl until Audrey and Shirley fly up to Guides. That means I still have 5 more years of meetings, crafts, songs, campfires and cookie selling.
Cookies Cookies Cookies! Twice a year we sell cookies - it's our major money making venture and we love to sell cookies! I ordered an abundance of cookies this spring. And this is the weekend we start selling them. There are several ways to do this. Tradition #1 - Door to door sales. A great way to get out and get fresh air and exercise along with saying hello to your neighbours. Tradition #2 Let a parent take a case to the office. (Very popular with leaders but less so with employers.) Other ways to sell - find a group of hyper excited males (sporting events are good locations). They're in the mood to scarf down a box or two immediately. Stand outside a popular store and accost the incoming traffic. They always promise to get you on the way out. Or the tried and true - buy a case for yourself and use them for the next six months in the kids lunches. Regardless of how you sell them - a Brownie leader has to first collect them from her depot, count, organize, distribute the cookies; collect the money, count the money, lose someones money, find it a week later in a plastic baggie stuffed in back pocket because it was handed to you when your hands/arms/brain were filled with something else and eventually bank all the money in time to do it again next fall. This is not necessarily a part of the job I love.
So this weekend I'm out at crack of dawn patrolling the street with a van filled with cookies while my Brownies move along the streets doing door to door sales. That wouldn't be so bad if I had looked at the right calendar when I agreed to doing it this weekend. Because you see it's also the first time our church is having a special Saturday morning event for the younger crowd. Messy Church - something I agreed to participate in and (bonus) not be in charge of. Instead that honour goes to my sister-in-law Judy - and she's got it all under control - but she was counting on me to be there to help out (as all the parents are doing).
But that's not all. Remember my in-laws. They arrived Wednesday and since last year's visit we have added a bathroom, redoing the laundry room in the process, repainted and spruced up the playroom, and of course just painted the living/dining/entrance and hallways of the house. My mother-in-law is chomping at the bit to see it. And she has to wait until Friday. I would normally invite them to dinner ( and have the day to finish cleaning etc) but Friday night my sister-in-law is throwing a Pampered Chef party which she timed so our mutual mother-in-law could attend. And heck I want to go too. So it'll have to be Saturday evening for dinner I can't ask her to wait until then - so I'll invite her over before the party - except I have to collect the cookies from our designated depot and this time it's not a stay-at-home retiree, but a working mom - so I can't get the cookies until 6:30 and the party starts at 7, so that pushes my mother-in-laws visit to the afternoon cutting in on my cleaning time. Argh.
As for the rest of the weekend - there's an antique show in Ottawa where a vendor who specializes in the pressed glass my mother collected is attending. It's a perfect opportunity to ask for their opinion on how best to sell my mother's collection ( and maybe arrange an assessment.) I had plans to go down on Sunday and I had asked my mother-in-law if she'd like to attend. Great she'd replied. I was thinking an afternoon just the two of us and my husband could get a little shopping in and drop in to see my mother. Maybe make dinner.
And then the phone rang. It was my very best friend, my "little sister" Nancy. For some years now we have been separated by the fact she lives in downtown Toronto, and I in small town Almonte. We visit when we can, arrange weekends away in cabins, talk on the phone and exchange FB statuses to keep up with our lives. Last year she bought a farm not more than 90 minutes away.I'm delighted to have her so close by - but they haven't yet moved in. She and her husband are taking a year to wind things up in Toronto and prepare for their new lives in Parham. And apparently the last time they were at their farm they left one of their cars there and now need to retrieve it. So she was calling to ask if she took the train to Smith Falls, could I pick her up and drive her to the farm. And she's was thinking she'd arrive at noon on Saturday. This is my best friend. Of course I'm going to say yes - I just need to figure out how I'm going to do it.
How to be in three places at once? First I have to get Miriam to her cookie selling rondevous and that means she will come to mine where another mother who has both a guide and a brownie will drop off the brownie and collect my guide to deliver them to their spot and then return to sell with us. When asked which he preferred to do, my husband chose to come find me on the streets selling cookies, then he can bring my son, and we'll swap places. He'll sit in the van doling out cases of cookies while Arthur and I head to church and then after I've done my activity at church, I will flee leaving Arthur there, return to my moving depot and swap back with my husband who will then collect Arthur at 11:30 and drive to Smith Falls to collect Nancy and return here with her. That way I get a visit with her, she'll stay to dinner and overnight, and the next day I'll drive her to the farm and then my mother-in-law and I can go to the antique show which is in the opposite direction. My dear darling husband, upon hearing the plans, offered to drive Nancy to the farm and do the shopping and visit to my mother on the way home. I think that's how this weekend will work.
Yep it looks like our lives are filling up with the usual craziness. Now if this stupid cold would disappear.
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