Brief Update

Hello, everyone.  It’s been awhile, I know.  I’m currently sitting in Sydney’s dad’s health food store in Berwick, Nova Scotia.  The kids and I have been here for a month, and Sydney joined us two weeks ago.  We were hoping to use this extended time with family to catch our breath before a flurry of moving and traveling and conferencing (not to mention his brother’s wedding) in the middle of July.  Unfortunately, some things have come up to keep us busy in ways we did not expect:

– Sydney’s mother is having some serious health issues, so we’re afraid that she has not gotten the relaxed play time with her grandchildren that we were all hoping for.  We’re glad that we are here to be useful, but the kids, ahem, keep us busy and make it difficult for us to contribute to the family enterprises.

– In addition, my parents gamely volunteered to drive out to New York to unpack our storage unit and then re-pack our stuff into pods to be shipped to Kentucky.  Well, the company that we were working with made some serious errors (as the official family bulldog, I’m on the hunt to rectify those) that resulted in things taking twice as long as they should and being far more taxing.  Upstate New York had a heat wave this past week, and my mom had a heatstroke while helping to move our stuff.  Thank goodness for my brother, Adam, who is young, strong as an ox, and still sunny after four days of relentless labor.  I think I might be repaying my debt to him for the rest of my life.

In good news, the kids are doing really well on the farm.  They’re a bit frustrated that I’m spending so much time in the kitchen (if only they were old enough to help with dishes and cooking prep!), but they are really enjoying roaming from one adult to another and playing in the very sandy soil on Sydney’s parents’ farm (it’s like a giant sandbox).  They have also had several great evenings with families who have children, and they’re quickly learning that every Mennonite household is stocked with toys for visitors.  They’re really enjoying their time here.

My internet time is usually limited to how long I can bribe the kids to stay out of trouble in the store with rice cakes, so I’m afraid posts will be a bit sparse for awhile.  But we are collecting pictures and hope to post photos of some of our adventures when we have a bit more computer time.

Erin