This was an unusual week in our household. I worked! In fact, I’ve worked 8 of the last 9 days. Normally, throughout the year I work one day a week and am at home with my girls the rest of the time. I take the responsibility of things like cooking meals, doing laundry, getting Pearl to and from school, all that mundane and important stuff. Peter is off for the summer and so I’m able to have more flexibility in my schedule since he can be home with the kids. We decided that it made sense for me to take on a big chunk of time at work and we overlapped it with the same week that Pearl did a soccer day camp put on by our church.
The soccer camp is an endeavour that the church has run for the past several summers (with the exception of 2020) but this is the first year Pearl has been old enough to join in. She was excited to discover some of her friends were also doing the camp and at the end of the first day when I asked her how it was she replied, “Amazing!” She is definitely tired out after a long week outdoors though!
Working so much was a big shift for me. 40 hour work weeks are nothing new to me but this was the most I’ve worked in a week since becoming a parent in 2015. It’s a very different schedule. Being at work so much made work easier but homelife a bit trickier. As I expected, the girls were a bit clingier to me in the evenings, especially around bedtime. Peter held down the home front in fabulous form.
Other highlights of the week:
- Canada will soon have our first ever Indigenous governor-general, Mary Simon. This is long overdue. The governor-general is the Queen’s representative in Canada and is important in signing bills into law but, to be honest, I could not tell you what her job looks like on a daily basis. But I’m glad to have more Indigenous representation in our country, particularly in such a high profile position.
- Peter got his second Covid shot! I have mine scheduled for next week.
- Masks became optional in BC starting July 1st which can make for some tricky navigations. As a family, we are still wearing our masks in public, enclosed spaces. I wear my mask all the time at work and have found that most (I’d say 85%) of our customers continue to wear them too. I’m not sure yet when I’ll feel comfortable going without, especially for the kids who are too young to be vaccinated.
- On a positive side, 80% of British Columbians have received one dose and nearly 50% are fully vaccinated. We’ve gone several days with zero deaths and dropping numbers and our own local numbers have stayed at zero.
- We got a new kayak! Another double kayak (we plan to sell the first one) but this one is better quality and more seaworthy. Peter took the girls into the city for a day to pick it up and it happily coincided with the chance to join two birthday celebrations. Our oldest niece turned 16 and our youngest nephew turned 3 on the same day!
- The girls loved getting to ride this little train with their cousins in Burnaby!
- On Sunday we picked our first round of blackberries. We made a visit to the empty lot at the end of our road and found plenty of fruit ripe for the picking!
Happy start to a new week, friends!
Karissa Reads Books 
You Canadians are making COVID shots look cool. We’re on a massive struggle bus here in the U.S. I stopped wearing my mask after I was fully vaccinated. Yesterday, we entered the eye glass store to buy new glasses, and masks were required. Good gravy, after not wearing a mask for two months, I felt like I was going to suffocate to death. I can’t believe I trained myself to wear a mask for A YEAR. And to wear it uncomplainingly!
I’ve been so surprised at how quickly Canada has caught up with the US in vaccinations. It seems like you were so far ahead of us.
On Saturday I thought I’d walk through the farmers’ market on my lunch break. But it was really crowded with zero social distancing and almost no one wearing masks and I just couldn’t do it. I’m not ready for that yet! Since our kids are too young to be vaccinated yet, Peter and I are still being pretty cautious and limited as to where we go with them and I’ll probably keep wearing masks with them for a while longer. And as you say, it’s probably easier to keep wearing it than to have to go back to wearing it!
I think you guys caught up to us because we turned into a bunch of donkeys and won’t budge. Our vaccination rates are not good.
I was reading about Mississippi recently where there seems to be a rise in cases amongst children due to low vaccine rates in general. That’s probably my biggest fear still. I’ve been surprised by some of the people I know who have chosen not to be vaccinated but the majority of those around me are getting their shots, thankfully.
We’re so glad they loved the train! Missed seeing you but it sure worked out perfectly to have your fam join us on Saturday 🙂