I love Wednesdays.

     Today began with a few surprises.   First, Isaac couldn't find any jeans without any holes in the knees.  That's not the surprising part.  I just bought him 2 pair just before Christmas and already he's bust through them.  He asked me to search while he watched from his warm bed.  Sure enough, no intact jeans but ho now, what's  this black rectangular thing??...THE iPOD!!!!!!!!  We'll not question the reason for it being there. 
    Yesterday, we were all in quite a fug having played an annoying game of musical beds all through the previous night.   I finally fell asleep at 2:00(this happens to me about 12x a year, about every 28 days...) and was  in no mood to put up with kids who didn't  care to tow the freakin' line the next morning.  Of course everyone felt that way and there was a lot of "He's looking at me!" screaming and general shenanigans.  After the Math marathon was over Tobin and I worked on a Change.org online petition for his basketball court campaign for Councilor Morelli.   He really had started out excited about this authentic writing project back before Christmas but when he began to realize how much PR work it was going to be to get people to sign the thing he began to hate it a little and said so.  Then Mom went a little bit batshit and chucked all kinds of pearls of wisdom at his face about following through with things and putting more effort into things instead of scraping by doing the bare minimum etc.   I then went to my room to read a bit and relax, away from earshot of the word "Mom."   Anneke broke the tension by sitting on the top step outside my room playing a blues-y tune on the harmonica.  It was so ridiculous, it was hilarious and I went downstairs to clear the air and have one of our fireside chats by the register.  Then we took a much needed outing to PetSmart and watched the staff at Doggy Daycare endlessly throw balls to 10 dogs in a small room and  we discussed the importance of getting an education.
     Back to this morning's surprises.  After choosing the jeans with the smallest holes for Isaac to wear, I went downstairs and checked my email and Facebook.   A neighbour  posted the news that Councilor Morelli had actually died just this morning.  I shared this with Tobin and you should have seen the guilty smile of relief spread across his face.  Ward 3 has lost a faithful representative of 22 years and our heart goes out to the family....but Tobin is off the hook for getting 100 people to petition the man to build a basketball court at Gage Park.  Mysterious ways, indeed.
      This morning was hike day and we walked around Coote's Paradise with 5 other families.  Chilly, but great to get outside and spend time with friends.  Tobin spotted a new kind of duck in the water and got to add it to his Bird Life List that he decided to begin.  A  Bufflehead, as far as we could tell.  Coolio.
      Straight after hiking we arrived at the Perkin's Centre to pack Good Food boxes.   Vegetables that are sold at a cheaper price than in the store, by the box so that more people can access fresh, and as much as possible local produce.    Anneke really shines at this.  I never have to double check her work.  She's more on the ball than I am in working efficiently at a task like this. 
       Off to trade kids now since we switched out pairs of kids for our weekly playdate with the kids' besties.  And we'll listen to Jim Weiss narrate Story of the World all the way in the van and learn about  those crazy Frankish kids Clovis and Clothilde and what they were up to in the founding of the nation of France.  5 years of listening to this series in the van now and the kids still ask for it.