the study at York

Most of you know that my boy is enrolled in the DIR study at York U - well, we've officially completed the first round of assessments. First of 6 rounds. Crazy. Every 6 months we complete the entire assessment battery - including an EEG. We have practice caps / nets to wear around the house to get him used to having something tight and cumbersome on his head. So far, despite having huge sensory issues, he loves it. Check him out...

The best part? I get to wear one too!!!

Talk to you soon.

this week

Watched a lovely movie called "The Princess and the Warrior". I always forget just how much I love foreign films, until I see a good one. Then I want more and more and more subtitles... pretty funny actually.

We went apple picking at Chudleigh's. What a blast! It amazing how much the kids love to do things outside. We played for hours, and had nothing but fun!

Life is too short, my friends. Do things that you want to do with people you want to do them with!

Talk to you soon.

just a trim

Yup, I got a haircut. Still longer than Lucy's hair, but maybe shorter than Sarah's... Hmmm. Actually, it's most likely the same length as Miss Butler's hair, because that's what always happens when I get my haircut.

I'm a little stressed about all the apostrophes in that last paragraph. The more I look at them, the more incorrect they seem. Ah, the never ending battle in my head about proper apostrophying.....

Talk to you soon.

2 and a 1/2 through 62

My kids love him. My mother-in-law loves him. Danny Michel. Valhalla. www.dannymichel.com

Miss Butler - tell Paul to check him out.
Matty - give him a listen.

Love all of you.
Talk to you soon.

the passage of time...

Or, how is it possible that Jake is almost 12?!

The family and I spent Sunday at a baseball tournament in Brampton. It was good ball - no flower picking, no spinning around the outfield. Cleats, pads, cups and all. And the 'game well played' hug had Jake and I standing near even. Crikey. He's growing up (metaphorically speaking) and he's growing up (physically speaking). As he continues to grow, I just hope we can all keep up with him.

We owe it to him.

Talk to you soon.

Life happens

Sometimes no matter how strongly you rail against it...

I work in the field of acquired brain injury, and have been with the same agency for just about 10 years. 9 1/2 of those years were in the residential department, supporting clients in group home settings, doing rotating shift work. We are trained to create and respect boundaries with our clients, something I am not so great at (anyone who knows me has most likely had their space invaded by me!) When you work closely with and care for people for that long, in their homes, sometimes as their surrogate families, affection happens. Love happens. Along with compassion, empathy, fatigue, anger, frustration, and, oh yeah, love.

I found out yesterday that a particulary special individual with whom I worked had a very serious heart attack. I went to see him at the hospital today in the Critical Care Unit. He is in a coma, and will likely die.

Despite being pretty experienced at losing people I love, each time it happens feels like a train wreck.

Talk to you soon.

love the rainy days

Consistency. I enjoy it more than I can say. Possibly because it is hard for me to attain consistency in many areas of my life, and even harder to maintain that consistency once I get there!!!

Season to season, I do so love the rain. And I love that my kids ask to go out and play in the rain. We had a most successful treasure hunt today on our way to play at the park - in the rain! We collected wet pinecones, wet acorns, wet rocks and wet leaves. Nothing that comes from a store could have meant any more to them than the treasures we found on our rainy adventure.

And we played in the puddles, too.

Talk to you soon.

The time is now

It feels like the right time, to take some time, and just share some thoughts every once in awhile. The title of my blog is an hommage to mon frere, who set me up with a blogger account last summer, and I only used it once. You were, as always, ahead of your time, dear Matty.

I spent some time today, ruminating on things.

Seems that so many people in my world are ridding themselves of things, myself included. In the process of whittling away at my stuff, I was thrilled to discover that treasures abound. And while things and collections no longer rule me, there are things that make my heart sing. Like this piggy bank.

Talk to you soon.