The year that has been

The year is drawing to a close. Christmas is Tuesday; and there's less than a week and a half left to 2007.

I wish I could say it's been a great year. To be honest, moments of joy have been sparse, at best. On the CBC program "Q" last night, Jian Ghomeshi was talking about how the British have a small obsession with the "Christmas Day single"; it seems the single holding the No. 1 spot on Christmas Day is a big deal. If you've seen the movie "Love Actually", this is a subplot of that movie.

My end-of-year music obsession is somewhat different. I usually try to find a song that sums up the year's events, or the overall feeling I have when looking back over the year.

This year, the award goes to a beautiful song by Semisonic's Dan Wilson; it's from the "Maybe This Christmas" compilation and it's called, "What a Year for a New Year":

What a year for a new year
We need it like we needed life I guess
Last one left us lying in a mess
What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

What a day for new day
And our star shines like a miracle
And our world is almost beautiful again
What a day for a new day
New day

What a year for a new year

What a night for a sunrise
And we thought the dark would never end
Reaching out to try to find a friend
What a night for a sunrise
Sunrise

Soon we’ll be lying in our beds
And new dreams will fill our heads
And the old ones will be ended
Hope we’ll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace
Wipe the teardrops from our faces
Oh! What a year for a new year!

I'm not a total Scrooge, of course; I'm looking forward to Christmas with B and the kids, and I think it will be a "rewarding" one for us all, in terms of the superficial. I'm just finding it difficult, these days, to keep a good perspective and look to the future with much optimism. Rather than my usual (or former) "This'll get better soon", my mindset is more, "Good grief. This is never going to change, is it?"

...Hope we’ll forget about this place
Let it go without a trace...

Update

I absolutely promise a real update on my life, soon. I hope within the next 48 hours or so. :) It'll be worth it!

Summertime, and the living is...

With no disrespect to Gershwin, summertime does not equal easy living. Maybe it's easier not to have to bundle up with several layers of innerwear, outerwear, footwear and the like; but I fidn myself constantly dashing out the door to work, soccer games, board meetings, interviews, daycare drop-offs, day camps, summer school...there's nothing easy about it.

Updates: Hubby got a job. Woot! He'll be baking; but he starts at 4 am. Before the buses run. Yeah, nothing easy there.

J is doing awesome with soccer. He's had about six games so far; and this past week, he was the goalkeep for the first time. Despite the rain and wind (we were soaked to the skin) he did an amazing job! There were probably about 25 shots on net (the other team had a couple of kickass forwards - this is U7, remember!) and he only let in four goals! The overall score was 4-3. He was proud of himself and I was proud too!

C is...well, when it comes to terrorism, she could give any Islamic fundamentalist a run for his/her money. She is my beautiful girl; but, being 3, she's quite convinced that her way is best, and seems to have boundless energy to expend in defense of her position.

The thing about our kids is that they got a good dose of stubborn from each of their parents. :) It will definitely serve them well in their adult lives, but right now, it certainly requires us to parent creatively! I say this with all love and good humour.

Board meetings & interviews: I was honoured earlier this spring to be invited to join the board at Sexual Assault Centre Kingston, where I have volunteered for a couple of years. I attended board member training just last night; and I am feeling energized and enthusiastic about the group of women I'll be serving on the board with. Also, SACK is hiring a new volunteer coordinator, and I am on the hiring committee; so will be helping conduct interviews with candidates. This is a pretty exciting time for the organization, bringing in new energy and a fresh perspective on the group! It's all good!

J will be going to a summer school-type daycamp later this summer, put on by the school board. He did an AMAZING job this year of bringing up his marks. We were absolutely thrilled with his final report card - almost every single mark was brought up; where he had a B- last term, he had a B this term, and so forth. I don't want him to regress over the summer, particularly with his reading and writing which were his biggest challenges. So he'll be going for two weeks and hopefully that will help prevent slipping.

Coming up: Hubby's sister and her husband will be celebrating their 10th anniversary next month with a party at Korner Stone Kastle, a beautiful B&B in Verona owned by our friend Steven Johnston. I am helping her plan and organize the event; and hubby is catering. Check out Steven's website here. If you're looking to stay in a B&B in the area, the Kastle is a gorgeous early 20th-century home with two wrap-around porches, a beautiful, relaxing garden, and nicely-decorated, comfy rooms. (Steven's not paying me to say this, honest! :P )

So - sorry, George; but I respectfully disagree with your assessment of summer living. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)

I have nervous tulips

Okay. What is with the weather? It's April 12 - and we've had more days with snow this month, than days without snow. Last fall I actually got my arse in gear to plant some bulbs (tulips, crocuses; I think maybe some hyacinths? I guess I'll find out), and they have poked their heads up, but every time they start to stretch up a bit, they get snowed on. They're scared to grow; and, frankly, I don't blame them!

Last weekend I put up a little green wire fence around my bulb bed, as I noticed people walking through it. My attempt was half-arsed at best and the fence had fallen over within a few hours. My neighbour, with whom I share a walkway and the flower bed, has been good enough to put up a nice little white plastic one to keep people out. Thanks, Brad & Jenn! (Yeah, not that Brad and Jenn, obviously)

Hubby and I have a date night tomorrow night. Woot! We desperately need it. I think we're going to go see Blades of Glory and then hit a restaurant.

Tired.

I am having trouble sleeping. I don't know why. It's unusual for me to have trouble getting to sleep, but the last four or five nights have been brutal. Last night it was after 1:30 before I finally got to sleep. It's brutal.

Home

Back from Toronto. Can't tell you how glad I am that I don't live there. I was so glad to get home last night and just chill on the couch with Brandon, see my kids this morning... It's fun to visit once in a while, but with throngs of people teeming everywhere, all the time, Toronto is just not my style.

Hooray for Kingston. Congrats and welcome home to the young man (whose name I totally didn't get) who I sat beside on the train last night, who was returning to Kingston and to his wife after 5 weeks visiting Rome, Italy. Now there's someone who may even have been more happy to get home than I was.

There's no place like home.

Taking a few days off

Well, I'm officially on holidays; yesterday was my allergy study which I *really* didn't count as holidays. Definitely not a holiday.

Tomorrow I have some stuff to do around the house, and some shopping to do to get ready for my trip to "Trawnna". Tuesday morning I'm going with J on his school field trip; they are going to a conservation area to see how maple syrup is made. J already knows how, having an great-uncle that does that very thing north of the city, but he's looking forward to it nevertheless.

Then I get back from there, and I catch the train to The Big Smoke at 2:30-ish. Won't be back till late on Wednesday; and then I'm going to tackle the basement on Thursday-Friday. Lucky me. It won't know what hit it.

So I'm going to take a few days off from internet et al, aside from checking bank balances, etc.

Catch ya on the flip side. :)