Happy Monday! I had intended to get share this post last Friday but last week turned into a total gongshow. June is always chaotic (at best) in our house but this one has really taken the cake. The weekend before Peter took off for four days and three nights to summit Mt. Baker. This has been something he’s wanted to do for years and years (probably the entire time I’ve known him). He found two buddies who also wanted to do it and so together they set a goal, got into shape, took some training courses, and made it happen. They left Friday night after work to drive across the border to Washington. (You can see Mt. Baker from our house on a clear day but it’s in another country.) He came home Monday evening, exhausted but fulfilled.
Obviously I knew I would be solo parenting in this time and that’s generally not a huge deal. Friday night, the girls and I made chocolate milkshakes and watched The Princess Diaries.
On Saturday we took the dog for a long walk, all the way to the Farmers Market downtown. Pearl and Rose popped into a store on their own to make a purchase while I waited outside with the dog. We strolled through the market and bought macarons and then ate them in a public garden nearby. Pearl lost a tooth! We walked home, stopping at a garage sale on the way.
Both Saturday and Sunday were beautiful so after church on Sunday, we went to my in-laws and spent some time at the beach before having dinner together. Monday was back to school and work and while Peter had hoped to make it home earlier, he arrived back Monday evening. Only to turn around and leave for a camping trip with his class on Wednesday morning.
All of this was planned but, somehow, I was not as prepared for his second, two night absence. Add onto this that one of my staff called in sick and suddenly I was working days I hadn’t planned as well as longer shifts. (Thank goodness for another co-worker who also stepped up and helped cover shifts.) When I work longer hours, I normally try and prepare in advance and think more carefully about meals etc. Last week we made it through eating Annie’s mac and cheese and frozen pizzas and thankfully my in-laws were able to help out while Peter was away. Poor Peter came home from camping on Friday, made an appearance at a retirement party, coached Rose’s last soccer game of the season, and collapsed into bed that night. We made it.
The girls have been really enjoying the first 2 Harry Potter books so I made a little after school Potions class for them!
Most of our extra-curriculars are finished for the season now so although Peter and the girls have two more weeks of school, we are feeling a little lighter.
I have read hardly any of my 20 books of Summer so far but here are a few quotes from what I have been reading. Reviews to come!
Ninety thousand volumes gone, some of them original and single copies. Our past, but also – oh, the beautiful wooden tables where I had turned the pages of my textbooks, and my brothers’ textbooks! – the future. And it was gone.
– V.V. Ganeshananthan, Brotherless Night
But Thou art God, and knowest all;
Dear Lord! Thou knowest me;
And yet Thy knowledge hinders not
Thy love’s sweet liberty
Frederick William Faber, “The Pain of Love”
It took the government and the Tigers together to make our lives so small. I remember how my three brothers, who loved music and art and libraries and school, became quieter as the call of militancy grew louder. Their jokes dried up, as though politics had sapped all their humour. As siblings we had cupped our hands around those tiny flames of shared laughter: the intimacies of family habits and histories. But then the lights winked out across the peninsula, as boy after boy I had known and loved was extinguished or gone. – V.V. Ganeshanthan, Brotherless Night
8 thoughts on “Quotes of the Week (Vol. 4) and other Life Things”
That does sound like a very hectic week! Glad things have calmed down a bit. I have only read one of my 20 Books of Summer so far (but this is peak dissertation marking season, so not a big surprise; things will be a bit calmer from the end of the month). I love that quote from the Faber book.
I’m listening to one of my 20 books right now and trying to read a couple of others. But nothing has really caught my full attention right now.
I felt like I did great on my first stint solo parenting the other week but then was completely unprepared for the second stint! Even though I knew it was coming. Add in that my work went crazy and, yes, it was hectic! Glad to be on the other side of it now!
I know the big argument right now for women not being able to be stay-at-home moms is that every household needs at least two incomes, but I feel like this is a good example of how every household really needs two partners just to get everything done together. It doesn’t matter if the stay-at-home person is Mom or Dad or whatever. There really does need to be a team to keep the kids in the house going!
Oh gosh, I have so many thoughts about this! We’ve done it on a single income and made it work but it can be hard and we made a conscious decision to live really simply. In the past year, I’ve worked more than I have since before Pearl was born and were more financially comfortable but I feel like there is a constant tension of how to balance everything. And I don’t work full time! I honestly don’t really know how parents of young children who both work full time do it! I can’t give 100% to my family and my job at the same time. And that’s with a very supportive, hands-on partner like Peter. But I think mothers still feel an expectation/pressure that fathers rarely do. Peter might feel overwhelmed at times but I feel guilty and I think that has a lot to do with the expectations our culture lays on women.
I think what happens with two full-time incomes is that kids get left home alone a lot.
That’s certainly how I remember it being handled when I was a kid. Most families I know now end up spending a lot of money for after school programs or daycares, at least when their kids are still little. I’m fortunate to be able to work my schedule so that I can pick my kids up from school three days a week but I recognize it as a privilege a lot of parents don’t have.
My mom and dad left for work every day, including the summer, and my brother and I were just home alone. It was not good, but what could you do? Even if my mom stayed home with us all day to keep an eye on us, it’s not like she could take us all over the place and entertain us, not especially if you’ve cut down a whole income to stay home in the first place.
Day camps are really common here – a lot more so than I remember them being when I was a kid. Parents who need summer childcare rely on them a lot but they can be shockingly expensive. My dad had a home office at various times when I was a kid so I usually stayed home with him. But he was working and I was still largely left to entertain myself.
Karissa Reads Books 
That does sound like a very hectic week! Glad things have calmed down a bit. I have only read one of my 20 Books of Summer so far (but this is peak dissertation marking season, so not a big surprise; things will be a bit calmer from the end of the month). I love that quote from the Faber book.
I’m listening to one of my 20 books right now and trying to read a couple of others. But nothing has really caught my full attention right now.
I felt like I did great on my first stint solo parenting the other week but then was completely unprepared for the second stint! Even though I knew it was coming. Add in that my work went crazy and, yes, it was hectic! Glad to be on the other side of it now!
I know the big argument right now for women not being able to be stay-at-home moms is that every household needs at least two incomes, but I feel like this is a good example of how every household really needs two partners just to get everything done together. It doesn’t matter if the stay-at-home person is Mom or Dad or whatever. There really does need to be a team to keep the kids in the house going!
Oh gosh, I have so many thoughts about this! We’ve done it on a single income and made it work but it can be hard and we made a conscious decision to live really simply. In the past year, I’ve worked more than I have since before Pearl was born and were more financially comfortable but I feel like there is a constant tension of how to balance everything. And I don’t work full time! I honestly don’t really know how parents of young children who both work full time do it! I can’t give 100% to my family and my job at the same time. And that’s with a very supportive, hands-on partner like Peter. But I think mothers still feel an expectation/pressure that fathers rarely do. Peter might feel overwhelmed at times but I feel guilty and I think that has a lot to do with the expectations our culture lays on women.
I think what happens with two full-time incomes is that kids get left home alone a lot.
That’s certainly how I remember it being handled when I was a kid. Most families I know now end up spending a lot of money for after school programs or daycares, at least when their kids are still little. I’m fortunate to be able to work my schedule so that I can pick my kids up from school three days a week but I recognize it as a privilege a lot of parents don’t have.
My mom and dad left for work every day, including the summer, and my brother and I were just home alone. It was not good, but what could you do? Even if my mom stayed home with us all day to keep an eye on us, it’s not like she could take us all over the place and entertain us, not especially if you’ve cut down a whole income to stay home in the first place.
Day camps are really common here – a lot more so than I remember them being when I was a kid. Parents who need summer childcare rely on them a lot but they can be shockingly expensive. My dad had a home office at various times when I was a kid so I usually stayed home with him. But he was working and I was still largely left to entertain myself.