the Blethering Spot

I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.

“There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

Congratulations, Leah and Ryan!

• Number of flights bumped: 2 (very good indeed)
• Number of times got in Executive Class: 1
• Library books left on the plane: 2 (terrible)
• Minutes on the beach before being offered Ganja: 8
• Pina Coladas consumed: 250
• Hours spent in the hammock: 6
• Sunburns: 1 (excellent)
• Jamaican Cooking Classes taken: 1 (major highlight!)
• Poolside / dining room games participated in: How To Talk Jamaican, Newlywed Game, Jamaican trivia, Table setting race, Singing challenge, Bob Marley trivia
• Mosquitos trapped in room the last night: 3
• Bites received: 3 million
• Minutes spent worrying about looking chubby: 6 (excellent)
• Adrenaline rushes in kayak: 40 (major highlight!)
• Frequency of new foods tried: daily (Curried Goat, Ackee and Saltfish, Fried Plantain, etc.)
• Number of times regretted not going to Greece: 0

Just read this on Jenny’s blog, and got excited to do my own blethering about it! Okay, it’s a meme, but I was interested in her answers, and there is enough hubris in me to make me think you might be interested in mine:

1. What are your current fixations? God’s grace (sounds like I’m putting it on, but it’s actually really tripping me out – just when I think I have a bead on it, I discover another area of the Law at work in me)
2. Why do you live where you do? We started out coming here because of my husband’s job, (after looking on a map to see where the heck it is) and have stayed because of our friends and our church.
3. Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art. I’d have to say the second movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11 No. 1). Holy smoke-okee.
4. What should everyone shut up about? Celebrities. Hello! Who cares who’s plucking their eyebrows different these days?!! My own life, and yours, is WAY more interesting.
5. What traits do you most like and most dislike about yourself? I like that I know a little bit about a lot of things (jack of all trades, master of none). I hate it that I seem snobbish to people.
6. What advice should you have taken, but did not? “More ice cream? Doesn’t that give you HWCs?”
7. What do you think of when you think of Canada? Immense pride… home… freedom… Peter Mansbridge.
8. What is your vital daily ritual? Mascara, English Breakfast, my new KJV.
9. What was your most memorable day job? Chambermaid / Laundry girl at a dive motel, age 17. Creepy doesn’t begin to describe this place…
10. How do you spoil yourself? Not being able to think of a quick answer to this question indicates a problem!
11. What do you fear most? Losing my sister.
12. What makes you want to take it off and get it on? That’s so none of your business.
13. What has been your strangest celebrity encounter? I once checked in Diana Kra11, and she totally snatched the boarding pass out of my hand at the gate and just sashayed out to the aircraft, like she was all that. (which is true) It was kind of a shock because she [used to be] rumoured to be so extremely self-effacing and nice.
14. Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them? Nicodemus. I’d serve pork, boiled in milk. (just kidding!)
15. Given the opportunity to choose, how would you like to die? At a ripe old age, with some hunky male nurse hanging around, besotted by my charm. HAHA!

Last Sunday, we told our kids about going to Jamaica! Here’s the scoop:

1. I made a jigsaw puzzle (by gluing a printed-out tropical picture onto thin cardboard), on which I printed “We want you to come to Jamaica with us!”
2. Using index cards, I made up ten clues for a treasure hunt. They were simple riddles, such as, “When people step into me, they’re dirty; when they step out, they are clean. What am I?” (answer: shower) In each location, I hid the next clue and a piece of the puzzle.
3. At the end, when they had all the pieces, they had to put the puzzle together, and read the surprise!

It was a lot of fun. The kids danced in circles, screaming with joy, then ran to pack their suitcases (a mere week in advance). I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but a friend of ours said later that half the fun in family trips is the anticipation. If we had waited until we were at the airport, it would deny them all the fun of lying awake, thinking of our trip.

Horray! I am very pleased.

Still to be done over the next two days:

• Get U.S. money
• get travel insurance
• photocopy passports (for our just-in-case backup plan)
• fake tan
• find sandals
• send away homeschool samples for grading (it’s report card time!)
• lose 25 lbs

Re: the last point — I tried on all my summer clothes, and just about had a conniption. My husband had to come upstairs to see what all the hysterical sobbing was about, but somehow his feeble “you look great!” didn’t ring true. However, I’ve decided (after reading Shan’s last post) that my best plan of attack is simply to get someone to help me do up the zippers, and just refrain from looking down. I am going on holiday to relax, not to fret myself into a tizzy over a couple extra rolls. As a favourite co-worker used to say, “Warm in winter, shady in the summer!”

On my night table:

On my agenda:

On my To Do List:

In the classroom:

On my mind:

“We are all strangers in a strange land, longing for home, but not quite knowing what or where home is. We glimpse it sometimes in our dreams, or as we turn a corner, and suddenly there is a strange, sweet familiarity that vanishes almost as soon as it comes. . . We are homesick not so much for something that was, and was lost, as for something that will be, and is to be found.”

- Madeleine L’Engle

Check out Michelle’s homesteading pics from the big homeschool day! My kids were thrilled, they had a blast. Michelle turned her basement into a Pioneer kitchen, lanterns, woodstove and all. And you can imagine how pleased I was to let Michelle do all that hard work, while I stood in front of a big computer, basking in the glow of the bright electric lighting at the airport. Thanks, Michelle!

Only a week and a half to go until we jet away into the sunset! We’ve decided on Jamaica, mon. In fact, we have decided to take the all-inclusive plunge. All-inclusives haven’t really appealed to me before, but this time I feel like I just want to climb into a hammock and stay there for 5 days, with nothing but some sunscreen, an umbrella drink and a book to keep me occupied. And an all-inclusive resort in Falmouth Bay sounds like just the ticket!

Here are the highlights of the package:

• a resort nanny – Now, this really blows my hair back. We’ll have our very own nanny assigned to us for the week, who will make crafts with the kids, take them to the kids club (where there are SCUBA classes, olympic pool games, glass-bottom boat trips, reggae dance classes, games, library, crafts, etc) and generally look after them. Obviously we aren’t planning to wave goodbye to them on the first day, and collect them on the day of departure, but this will really be nice when I feel like sleeping in a hammock (see above) and they want to play in the water. Right on!
• SCUBA certification. I’m totally excited about this, because it’s something I’ve never done before.
• one of the resort’s restaurants is a Jamaican jerk chicken / jerk pork place. I’m not sure why this is a source of such inordinate excitement for me, but it is.
• windsurfing, kayaking, snorkeling, etc.

We still haven’t told the kids that we’re going. They know that we are going to Jamaica, but they don’t know that we’re taking them along!

I don’t know how we’re going to break the news. My sister suggested doing a treasure hunt at home, where they could find little holiday items – sunscreen, sunglasses, bathing suits, and then finally a note that says, “We’re going to Jamaica!” or similar. Alternatively, we could go to the airport, telling them we’re going to pick up Nanny, and then surprise them. Or I guess we could be boring, and just tell them straight out. Personally, I like the treasure hunt idea best. What do you think?