Wretched rainy Tuesday

You can tell this is a slow week for me, can't you? Because I'm actually blogging again. Don't worry - that will change. It's just a quiet dip.

Our weeks packed with extra-curricular activities are filling up. Kid#1 has archery, speed skating and fencing. Kid#2 has gymnastics and piano. Both are trying out for the competitive soccer teams (we'll find out in another week or two how that went - neither are optimistic. This is the wake-up call they get going from being a solidly good player on their own house league team to trying-out for positions against the top 20-30 kids in their age range across the city... Good thing to learn now!)

Otherwise, we seem to have settled into the morning school routine fairly well. Both boys are good at looking after things like getting all their schtuff together in their backpacks and managing their own agendas, lunchboxes, various school books and so on. Seems like those years of training might have paid off?

Of course, as a friend recently pointed out, we're in that sweet spot between sunblock and snowboots. I can just usher the kids out the door in whatever they are wearing - no need to scramble to find sun hats and apply the SPF60. Also, no need to scramble and find the hats, mitts, coats and boots. Definitely a seasonal sweet spot!

(Though - Kid#1, who is pre-teening, is adverse to any extra bits and pieces and tends to venture out into the natural environment wearing just whatever he was wearing inside anyhow, so maybe there are blessings in that too...)

May the raindrops today not fall on your head - unless you want them to.

Sunny Saturday

Kid#1 at soccer try-outs. This is the third time (I think) he's tried out for the competitive team. He's got perseverance, but not that aggressive edge that the coaches are seeking. We'll see how it goes. Almost erupted into an argument this morning about whether or not *we* (the parents) wanted him to go try out or not. I can't count the number of logical fallacies in this, but what I think it boils down to is his own ambiguity about trying out. At the try-outs in the past, he has been hovering on the edges of the play in what might otherwise be called "strategic positioning". He puts himself in the position of being passed to by another player on his team. However, while he's a good defensive player, he doesn't do the offensive moves and rarely goes after the ball when an opposing player has it. My sense of these coaches is that they like to see players go in for the attack, which Kid#1 doesn't do. That said, I admire that he's trying out again so we'll see.

Kid#2 goes this afternoon for his competitive team soccer try-outs. Kid#2 has the passion for the game (and the sportsy temper to go with it) and is a lot more coachable than Kid#1. Also, Kid#2 has the distinct advantage of trying out in the first year of the competitive league. Kid#1 missed that because we were in Boston, so he was trying out the first time against kids who already had a year of competitive play.

So Kid#2 has a decent chance of getting on the team so we may become bona fide soccer parents. Still no mini-van.

Stay tuned...

Family vacation - so did it get better?

Sorry to leave everyone hanging. It's been a busy time, and while my plan was to update the blog every couple of days while we were on vacation, that just didn't work out. Two reasons: sometimes we were out of wifi range (e.g. camping) and when we were in a hotel, we just all crashed asleep at the same time (except for one night when I had to write a report for work and I worked in the dark but I still think the glow of the laptop screen kept the kids awake...)

You may, at this point, be asking why bring a laptop on vacation?

To which I reply, doesn't everyone?

But seriously - I knew I had to write this work report and I ran out of time to do it before leaving. Also, we didn't exactly book accommodations ahead of time (because we were so weather dependent) so it was just easier to hotwire and such as we went. Not the way I usually like to travel, but hey - I'm becoming more flexible with old age.

So did the holiday get better? From a car point of view, yes. It didn't explode, so that was good. Also, we're amazed at how much we saw on basically one tank of gas. Our little Echo  might be slowly dying, but it still gets good mileage!

From a family point of view, well it was status quo. The kids fought daily - maybe even hourly on some days. I didn't sleep well on any night, which added to the stress and exacerbated my natural uptightness. Not a good thing. Some activities (La Ronde and Valcartier water park) were definite winners. Some activities (wandering Old Quebec City and touring La Cite d'Energie in Shawinigan) were less so. (Excusez-moi d'avoir manque des accents... I can do them in Word, but my keyboard shortcuts don't seem to work so well here on Blogger...)

One thing I will say - the Best Western in Quebec City has the worst hotel restaurant I've ever been to - and that's saying a lot. In some ways, serves us right for being lazy and wanting to stay in the hotel for dinner, but it was over-priced bland food with extremely slow service, considering we were nearly the only people in the restaurant.

The other thing is I really wish my kids were more adventurous eaters so we could go to restaurants that serve more worldly cuisine. Kid #1 will eat basic North American fare - hamburgers, steaks, chicken, etc, but nothing international except for plain pasta. Kid#2 will eat cheese omelette, grilled cheese sandwich, plain cheese pizza, plain pasta and, occasionally, chicken fingers. Honestly, I have listed all of the main courses that restaurants serve that he will eat. And usually restaurants don't serve cheese omelettes. Just one of these days, I'd like to be able to go to a Greek or Chinese restaurant with my kids and have them not complain. I'm thinking maybe by 2032. Maybe...

We got home on the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend, as I was coming down with a brutal head cold. I'm so glad we gave ourselves Monday with nothing to do (except consume copious quantities of cold-fighting medicine and vitamins for me) because we needed the break from our vacation! Does anyone else ever have that?

And now we're back at school. It's been four days, the kids have good teachers, and so far so good! Fingers crossed that the next 10 months work out so well!