Friday's thoughts

August 19, 2006

Have I mentioned before that I love summer?? I've always thought I was a spring and fall gal. But this summer has been spectactular. I think my new found love for gardening is part of it but whatever the reason I'll take it for what it's worth and enjoy every sun drenched day this summer has to offer.

This morning started off early, like 6 am early. I only get up that early for international flights but today was an exception seeing as it was the first morning launch of the the Great Falls Balloon Festival . I got up a few minutes before six, woke up the kids who had laid out clothes the night before, and we were out of the house in 10 minutes. The sky was kind of hazy this morning and not that picture perfect sunrise sky but the launch was beautiful nonetheless. This has become an annual tradition for me to get up early with kids on this one day of the year. Every other day it's doubtful you'll find me out of bed before 7am.

We came home from the launch and had breakfast with Damien. He then proceeded to descend to the basement (he took the day off) to work for the day. Oh yes, I haven't posted this yet but Damien is doing renovations in our basement. Normally our basement is rented out but our tenants left earlier this month and we are using this opportunity to do some much needed improvements. We have a new tenant moving in Sept 1st which has meant Damien is currently working 2 jobs. Starting last Wed. Damien's spent every evening down in the basement working or at Home Depot. Saturday and Sunday were no exception. Amazingly he's not exhausted yet and thankfully he's made good progress. Well maybe he is a bit exhausted but he's holding up well. I on the other hand am exhausted by this schedule. I'm the full time parent all day and all evening. I know it doesn't sound like much but I'm so used to Damien's help in the evening with supper clean up, getting kids ready for bed, tidying the house etc... I'm tired with all of this but know it will be over the beginning of September and we just need to press through and get it done.

What we're doing in the basement: We've gutted the bathroom except the tub. Damien's rebuilding that area - new studs, new drywall, new floor boards (it's a raised floor), installing a fan etc... He's also rebuilding the laundry area which was attached to the bathroom. There was only a washer hook up and he's putting in dryer vent. Then drywalling that area as well. Prior to this that area was all held to together (barely) by paneling, odd little pieces of 2x4s nailed to random pieces of wood, with large holes in the flooring - just downright nasty. In addition to this he's ripped out all the old carpet, lino and tiles and we'll be installing new flooring throughout the whole basement. We'll also do some painting and other cosmetic stuff. Our new tenant will be helping with some of this work.

Back to today... After lunch and some gardening I took the kids to the local beach. Now perhaps there is a bacteria outbreak in local lakes that I don't know about because we were the only ones there. Granted we arrived late in the day and it is balloon festival weekend. Whatever the reason, the water was beautiful and having our own beach was a treat. I read my mag while the kids played and then I joined in for awhile and eventually built a sandcastle for Brienne. Have to admit I'm not very good at that. I bore easily building sandcastles and returned to my magazine rather quickly. As the afternoon wore on,

the day just became more idyllic. The water calmer, the sun more golden, the crickets started their evening chirping. And I stopped to just watch my children play and was overcome with gratitude. Gratitude for summer, for where we live, for peace, for healthy children. I wanted to freeze time right there - my sunkissed, swimming, happy children, my heart content...

Now I'm at home, supper dishes needing to be cleaned up, bills to be paid, messy rooms - life. Damien laughs at me that I can vacillate so much from one extreme to the other. So ecstatic about something and then really tired, discouraged, bummed out etc... just a few hours later.

Well I think that's about I have to say for now. It was a golden summer day and now I'm exhausted and need to go to bed.

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