Parting is such sweet sorrow

I had to put Bram on the plane this morning to fly back to Yellowknife. It's so hard to live away from my kids. However, Rose will arrive back home tonight after Chorus Tour. Even if she does live in the dorm, at least I get to parent her on a daily basis. I have trust in God and rest with Bram in His hands, however. It is difficult.

The dog died

Lloyd phoned the kids last night to say that Pepsi had died. He hadn't been home when it had happened. Rose was talking to me and said rather plaintively, "My best friend died." Bram didn't say much, but I know he's feeling it too. It is very sad.

Just so tired...

Well the quizzing tournament was very good. Friday evening I was able to drop off everyone at home/dorm by 10:30 pm or so. Saturday was a very long day, however. I started picking up people a little before 8 am. I dropped that last ones off at the dorm at 11:20 pm. Then I still had to get home and put myself to bed.

Not too surprisingly perhaps, I am a little tired today. There was a congregational meeting this afternoon, but I skipped out on it and went home and had an afternoon nap instead. I figured that if I had stayed, I would have had my afternoon nap regardless, and this way, at least I was comfortable while doing it. Usually when I have a nap, I sleep for an hour, but this time I slept for two and am feeling a little groggy now.

How did the kids do in quizzing? Well our team had decided to move up from the B quizzing to the A quizzing, which is substantially more difficult. It's a rare thing in the A quizzing for the quiz master to finish asking the question as someone has generally jumped to answer the question before he has more than a few words said. That being said, they did pretty well. They ended up on the consolation side of the A competition and did tenth on the consolation side. They quizzed in seven different games; while when they had been in B they were eliminated after only three games (B doesn't have a consolation side). That made the switch worthwhile for them.

Because we have five quizzers on our team, and two of the quizzers were feeling really intimidated by moving up to A, we told them that we'd find an alternative for them. You must have at least three quizzers to make a team, and unless you go to having alternates, a team has a max of four quizzers. So Tim (the other coach) checked around and made arrangements for them to quiz with another partial team from Saskatoon, Erindale. However, one of our quizzers ended up in the hospital and couldn't come to the tournament at all (please keep her in your prayers), but Shea, who is a novice quizzer, quizzed with Erindale. That team ended up first in the B division - so way to go Shea! That was very exciting.

Home Alone

Jordan has been living with me; taking one high school class and one college class at Western. He's a good kid. Doesn't play his music loud; actually has really good taste in music;usually cleans up after himself; is pretty responsible. However, Jordan has gone to S'toon for the weekend and I'm home alone.

It feels pretty good. Except... how alone am I? Rose came over for supper and had me take her out for some things she needed. So that was tonight. There's no school tomorrow, but Joe's supposed to come over for me to help him with his (way overdue) paper(s) in the morning. I'm supposed to have an extra practice with the Bible Quiz group in the afternoon because we have a tournament all weekend. The Bible Quiz tournament will start Friday evening, and run all day and evening Saturday. Sunday is the usual; church, potluck, church meeting, Bible Quiz practice.

So much for a quiet weekend home alone.

Sleeplessness

I woke up a little after two this morning and have been unable to get back to sleep. At five I finally gave up and got up. I leave for my piano lessons at about 6:45, so it just gives me a little extra puttering time in the morning.

It's not so bad to have the occasional bout of sleeplessness. It allows me to pray for the people God puts on my heart. It lets me realize how dependent we all are on God. It lets me count my blessings. Finally, it lets me get an earlier start on my day. None of those are bad things.

It only gets bad when it happens too many nights in a row. I'm trusting that won't happen.

Lost and Found

I had an appointment today with a speech/language pathologist to learn about vocal hygiene. That's because I had those six weeks of laryngitis in December and January. The appointment was at 11 am at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre.

Seeing as I don't really know my way around Regina, I did what I usually do: typed Wascana Rehabilitation Centre into google maps, and printed out the directions. I followed them carefully and ended up at the Science Centre.

I had left with plenty of time to get there, but had to stop and buy gas on the way, and then as I initially had the wrong directions, it took me awhile to find out where I actually should be going. I was only 10 minutes late - but that was as a result of prayer, because the directions I got at the Science Centre weren't as clear as they could have been. I'm thankful I did find the right building though, made my appointment, and found my way back to work.

Time Change?

I see by some other people's posts, that it must be the time change this weekend. This will be the first time in 20 years that I haven't had to worry about that. There are some really nice things about living in Saskatchewan.

New Skirt

Rose had so much fun finishing her kimono that I realized that I really hadn't sewn for quite awhile. So I bought myself some fabric and made myself a skirt. I'd post a photo of it, except that I'd have to remember what safe place I put my camera so I wouldn't lose it. It's three different fabrics, sort of colour blocked on a diagonal front and back. The original pattern had the colour blocking, but only on the front, so I redrafted the pattern as I couldn't see having a solid back to the skirt. I'm quite pleased with the whole thing.

I splurged last night

I was out buying groceries and I bought myself a pot of mini-daffodils - they were under $5, and they look so nice on my window sill!

What a nice weekend!

It's Sunday evening, and looking back over my weekend, I can only thank the Lord for his tremendous blessings. If I had stayed home as I had wanted to, I don't think I would have been blessed as richly.

Rose and Thess came over and sewed Saturday afternoon. Rose came back Sunday afternoon and is now nearly completely finished her kimono. She has maybe an hour's more sewing to go to be done. Thess is working on her wedding dress. We got it cut out and most of the skirt sewn, so she's doing very well too. One thing I really appreciated about both girls was that they were very independent and didn't need a lot of help. I've been teaching beginners for so long, it's really good to have some sewers who were more independent.

I visited a bit with cousins on Facebook Saturday night. (I can sort-of find my way around it.) It was good to talk with some cousins that I haven't visited with for years.

Sundays are always my favourite day of the week. I slept in until 7:30, then practiced piano until it was time to go to church. I think my witnessing went over ok with the teen girls. (How do you know for sure?) After service Ruth asked if I could "host" the regular potluck at her house (she had the meal ready to go) as she had forgotten that she and Walter had been invited out to lunch. So that was a no stress thing. Go to someone else's house, where the meal's already prepared, and host it. So I got to have some good visiting in again, then took Rose back to my apartment and had a nap while she sewed.

About the time Rose was getting frustrated, I woke up from my nap and was able to help her with her sewing, then took her back to the dorm. Had Bible quizzing practice tonight. Made fruit salad for it, which went over really well, so when I got back home I made up another batch. (I've got all of this fruit that was on clearance from the grocery store that needs to be used up.)
I have to admit that I really enjoyed the fruit salad, but now my tongue has broken out all over. Oh well, it should be better tomorrow.

I've finished up the evening by practicing piano again. And, it seems to be going a little bit better - or at least I'm not getting as frustrated. So that's also good.