This and that from the last few weeks
This year, the same as other years I am involved with the school community council. Last year, I was the chair at the highschool where Hadley goes and this year I am the chair for Easton's school. I am always thankful to be involved in the schools to know what is happening where my children spend many hours of their day.
Last year I was nominated and won the Volunteer of Distinction from Hadley's school and was honored at a ceremony in October at the Board office among all the other winners from each school in the board. I was happy to be able to bring my entire family to the event where they watched me get the award on stage and then we enjoyed some wonderful food made by the school that is connected to the board office. Here we also met up with many past volunteers, vice principals, principals and others whom I have met along the way. It was so nice to catch up with all of them. I was surprised at how many people I knew! It was such a lovely night out.
Easton has taken up guitar again this year with Justin and it is so nice to hear the sound of music around the house even though he doesn't really practice, he just plays once a week. It is still so lovely.
Swimming lessons are in full swing and this time Hadley and Easton are in the same class. It is a teen class where they are trying to catch kids up from the loss of lessons over covid, so they lumped teenages together. It is nice for me to have them in the same class.
There was a LAN party in Ottawa that Brian and Easton attended while Hadley and I had some home, girl time. It was a much needed weekend of rest and relaxation for us girls and a much needed friend gathering for the boys.
Easton made the school volleyball team and attended two outings at other schools where his team battled other teams. It is refreshing to see the kids playing despite Covid making its rounds again. Speaking of, we received our latest vaccine to heighten our immunity over the winter. So thankful for science!
Easton is now on the school cricket team but they just play amongst their own school with four teams!
I have been wanting to go see Halloween lights for a few years and this year we made it happen. It was a lovely night out. It really put us in the mood for Halloween. Two days later we took the kids out to trick or treat. Hadley was a woodland creature, and Easton was a skeleton. He wore a skeleton costume that I wore back in my college years. They both wore their costumes to school and Easton even had a dance at his school which has been cancelled for a few years. I volunteered to sell candy to the primary grades and then left to give him a chance to enjoy the dance without his mom hovering.
The kids have embraced making once a week dinners this year. Easton has Wednesday's and Hadley has Thursdays. Some meals are quite creative and others are good ol' staples. Like one meal was all squares for a minecraft theme and then things like tacos, rice bowls, spaghetti etc. All good when I don't have to cook.
This past weekend I went to Shaye's for a girls sleepover and then we had a spa day at Vetta Nordic Spa where we enjoyed the Nordic spa experience. There was one warm pool, two hot pools, two cold plunge pools which I didn't take part in, cold buckets which I also didn't use, and there were three relaxation rooms where we took time to enjoy the books we brought. They had relaxing chairs with a fireplace. One hot stone room which was just so lovely, all followed by a salt scrub shower, with complimentary robes, towels and lockers.
We also enjoyed lunch at the spa which included a Finnish stew, a light chicken sandwich and a ginger cookie. Then after 6 hours of spa time, we had a Thai dinner out.
This was much needed girl time but I will say that I was exhausted afterwards.
This week Brian and I joined a floor hockey team for the first time in 17 years. We used to play before we had kids and the opportunity arose to join a team near our house. Last night was so much fun, but today we are sore! Hopefully those muscles will build quickly! It was just as I remembered it. I am so glad to be playing sports again. There are 16 regular players plus two goalies but last night it was 4 on 4 with one sub for each team and only one goalie could make it, so we used a small net for the other side and switched up ends after every 5 goals. I was sweating and it was great! Each week we will get a message if we are on the light or dark team and we wear shirts accordingly. I was against Brian this week.
Hockey is on hold at the moment, there is a labour strike with the town of Whitby, and the arena has been closed for a few weeks and there likely will not be a full recovery of ice time until December.
Today is the first freezing rain storm, so I am thankful to be home and safe. Stay warm!