It's been a hot minute since I've written about life in the frozen North of 60. We have survived the dark and the freeze and there is daylight starting to reach across the sky at 5:30 in the morning and it's lingering until roughly 10 at night. The weather shifted suddenly to warmer a couple of weeks ago and the melt has been quick and intense! The wind is helping the water evaporate, even though it also brought in more chilly temperatures too.
Easter is upon us! Just wrapping up the long weekend where it actually felt restful and like a weekend! Hubby and I intentionally slowed the days down; we had lots of church (Hubby filled in at a local church for Easter Sunday), not a lot of shopping, some family volunteering, and lots of walks. Advance polls were open today so Smarty and I exercised our civic duty to have our voices count; Hubby did his through work last week and this was Smarty's first election as an adult. So exciting!!
Work and school have been busy for everyone, with the weeks feeling pretty long sometimes. This sunshine is absolutely helping with the days and now the countdown is on for summer. Only 9 weeks left of the school year here!
Girlie got her first job aside from babysitting! She is only 1 week into her new role and so far she's enjoying it. Monkey is busy staying active with soccer through school a couple of times a week. She had such a blast with the volleyball and basketball teams, I'm glad she's choosing to stay active with her peers.
Today the whole family went to the SPCA to volunteer and walk a few puppies; I am happy to report we did NOT bring home a new fur baby :) though a few hearts were stolen by wagging tails and smiley puppy faces.
I have some seedling started for planting in our garden boxes one the snow and ice are gone from on top of them. I suspect it's going to be more than a few weeks until it's safe to put them into the ground.
We are approaching the 1 year anniversary of when Hubby and I took the trip up here to look at our housing and it's hard to believe a year is nearly gone. This is a place so different than any other we've lived in and the challenges of any transition and move are still very real, though they are settling down. We managed to get a very brief trip down to Alberta during our spring break and that was incredibly helpful in a lot of ways. We had some heartbreak as we saw friends and had to say goodbye again, but there was a sense of “it's going to be good to get home” as we were driving north again.
Home isn't the place we live, it's where our little family unit rests; it's where the Floofs are and where our beds are. Home is wherever we happen to land for however long we land for. We're just finishing up with the month of April, which is the month of the Military Child; the flower that represents the Military Child is a dandelion – they plant themselves wherever they land and they flourish. Looking back at the years we have now called home to 10 different addresses since Hubby and I got married. Only 5 of those have been while he's been in the military. Our children are building themselves into some amazing people, not only because they are amazing and wonderful kids; they are gaining some amazing life experiences that a lot of people don't get to have. Part of that is because they are dandelions :)
There are no actual dandelions growing here right now, the ground is still too frozen. But the seeds are flourishing regardless.