~Sighs of Contentment~

We have been working hard.....really hard.....I am tempted to write fricken, fricken hard, simply to express the level of craziness to our hard workin'. Dad-e-o and I have been, as many of you know, working on our house in preparation to sell. This complete remodel has included taking down walls, rebuilding spaces, building the cabinets for the bathrooms and kitchen, building and installing all the doors and windows, laying hardwood floor and tile, painting....oh...and that lovely and utterly disgusting task of drywalling, plumbing and electrical work, lighting, creating a new bathroom, building stairs for the deck as well as a roof extension and railings...which in turn required painting, landscaping.... I must be forgetting something but you get the idea. We have done this all ourselves and 90% of it since March. Needless to say we are getting a wee touch exhausted.

But...we are nearly done!!! The excitement that is building is electric. Soon, so soon, we will have sold this house. We will be on the road, traveling with our beautiful children across Canada for around 2 months. When I look around this house I find it almost hard to believe that WE did this. Designed and created such a exquisitely beautiful space. There is no doubt in my mind that this house will sell as soon as it hits the market. And when it does....AWAY WE Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway...the whole purpose of this post was to write about my blissfully relaxing day yesterday. We took a break! (I can hear all you jaws hitting the floor) yes, we, as in dad-e-o AND I along side our children. After spending the morning hard at work painting the deck (me) and working in the shop (Adam) we put down our tools, rinsed of the sweat and headed off to the Garlic festival. Our intention was only to stay for the duration of my performance (did I mention I'm a belly dancer?) and then head back home and back into the grubbies. The performance was awesome! Astrid, Celine and I shimmied our hearts out in the blazing sun....wow, was it HOT!! Afterwards as we were driving home Dad-e-o declares that we need to go to the beach. Its far to hot to work outside anyway, he says. Alright...I'm in.....whoops of glee and delight from the back seats tell me that the troops are thrilled with the idea so home we go to put on bathing suits and grab towels and snacks.

We decide to check out Green Lake, which turns out to be a fabulous choice and only about 45 min from home. The beach is sandy, the water clear, and, you guessed it, green! We spend an afternoon blissed out in the sun, refreshed by the water and the simple pleasure that being together brings. Man, I do sooo love my family! We hadn't been there 5 minutes and Mr. Bop had a jar filled with fresh water shrimp and some kind of crazy water beetle....my budding biologist.

As the slant of the sun shifts everything to orange we head home. Everyones need for water and lovin's fulfilled. I can hear sighs of contentment as we drive, sand between our toes, hair and tangle of wind and sun. And I wonder if we would be so thankful, so truly grateful for this gift of an afternoon, had we not been working so hard for so many weeks.

Next we just need to remeber the camera!!......although I'm sure the image in my mind will stay with me as long as my heart beats!

~A tune of their own~

And so begins this account of a wild and crazy life. A life filled with the squeals and screams of small children, the barking of a dog who takes her job of guarding the children very seriously, the sound of construction as we remodel this house and prepare to sell, and, always, melody.

I am filled with melody, filled beyond full to overflowing, unable to hold it in. I sing all the time, tunes from childhood, old gospel, crazy jazz, opera, funk, R&B, folk, blues, roots. I make up words when I can't remember how its "supposed to be sung". I improve and scat, and hummmmmm. This is a gene I seem to have passed on to my lil' guys. I hear their voices. Sometimes distant and sweet, lilting on a breeze. Sometime bold and loud, obnoxious, infectious. Its amazing how there voices can, at times, drive me beyond insane. When a lyric becomes so incessant ("I like big butts and I can not lie" for instance.....thanks Shrek!!) that I it replays even in my dreams. Or, better yet, when I am at the grocery store, by myself, and I'm not only swaying (yes, the baby is at home and still I sway) but I find myself humming that o-so-catchy tune. ((sigh)) ah well, at least I have infused them with a love for music. I am sure as they grow they will continue to broaden my musical horizons.

I wonder I'll be humming in the grocery store 10 years from now??