What to pack.

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It's Thursday. A cool, cloudy, breezy day. We have been enjoying the cooler weather this week and the rain! Tys and Jori are pretty much finished with school for the week. Tomorrow is ice skating, which Tyson has already decided to opt out of. He can't keep his feet from blistering, so the experience isn't much fun for him. Darin has some errands to run, so maybe he'll choose to go with him instead. That is, assuming we will be able to get to the rink tomorrow. National elections are next month and there have been protests in different parts of the country, and today they came our way. I think the protest was something to do with taxis and a lack of service delivery in the community. We could see smoke from burning tires and all the schools were closed, but there wasn't any action on our side of the highway. Who knows what tomorrow or the weeks leading up to (or after) the election will bring.
Hanging out before school
Darin and Jori are picking up food donations since the Take Action driver is having issues on his side of town and couldn't leave. Tyson has friends over and they are dancing and listening to music. I have been practicing my Spanish on Duolingo, which has become a bit of an addiction for me! It is crazy how much of my high school Spanish is coming back to me, and also how much of the grammar I've forgotten. The kids and Darin are also learning Spanish as Darin needs it for work and it will be a useful language for the kids to have experience with.

We've been having a lot of conversations about our upcoming trip to the states. We talk a lot about the fun stuff we'll get to experience, but also try to prepare the kids for potential curve balls, like the fact that people have changed since we were back 2 years ago, which means relationships and interests may have also changed. We've all changed as well I am sure. As an adult, the emotions that go along with living in two worlds can be tricky to juggle, so I sometimes feel inadequate in trying to help my kids prepare for transition.

We are also planning to take some of the stuff we've collected over the years back to the states with us. The week we arrived here in 2011, the kids turned 5 and 7, and this June they will be 13 and 15. They've gone through a lot of stages and had many interests, but have also put (some) childish ways behind them for now, but want to make sure these childish loves are not thrown away or lost. So, Papa and Gram, we hope you have some room in your crawl space for stuffed animals, school papers, and a few different collections that have accumulated over our years here. Jori has already started going through her things, and it is bittersweet to see my baby girl packing up doll clothes and Barbies. She is even thinking about bringing her precious Charity and Niecie to the states. We'll see what she decides.

Jori age 5.
Lots of growing, changing, packing and preparing going on around here, that's for sure.

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