Fab Five Friday

I'm feeling a little blue about leaving Florida in 10 days.  It's hard to explain.  I am VERY excited to see our faboo friends and fam back home, but my gut feels conflicted.  We have had a really great 4 months down here and it's amazing how fast your head and heart can turn a place into "home".  My emotions are all over the place.  Unfortunately, I don't have time to articulate today. 

So, instead, I will make a (quickee) Friday's Fab Five list.  A list of things that make me really want to go home.  NOW. 

Things I Miss About HOME:

1)  Babysitters.  It's been a while since Big R and I have been able to go clubbing on the town.  I miss being able to hang out as adults.  I miss being able to pick up the phone to dial the memorized numbers of one of our precious sitters and beg them to play with Ellie for a few hours so that Richard and I can go out.  I also REALLY miss my daycare provider.  Of course, I miss the ability to let HER deal with Ellie's "unacceptable attitudes", but I also really miss chit-chatting on her doorstep every day.  She's a very cheap therapist!

2) My "Kids".  Richie and I are high school youth leaders in our church and we are madly in love with those monsters.  Every Thursday night, my heart cries a little bit, knowing that they're all together without us.  Those crazies bring me MUCH joy.

3) Canadian News.  I know I could log onto the CBC's website every day and familiarize myself with Canuck Happenings, but it's so much easier to just turn on the TV and watch it.  I miss me some Pedro at 10pm.

4)  Sobey's bread.  I haven't found a good bakery down here yet (Einstein's Bagels notwithstanding...they don't sell actual bread), so I've succumbed to buying pre-packaged Nature's Own Honey Wheat, which is CRAP compared to a fresh loaf of Sobey's light white.  With mom's homemade rhubarb jam.  Oh my.  I'm salivating.

5)  My job.  Admittedly, it has been nice to have some time off.  I could get used to sleeping in.  I could get used to going to the pool every morning.  Heck, I'm even reading A. LOT.  But, I don't feel the same sort of satisfaction as after a long, hard (and maybe even productive) day at work.  I miss conversations with co-workers.  I sorely miss the students.  I miss Richard doing half the housework because we're BOTH working outside-the-home jobs!

Good things await me in 2 weeks.  Yup.  Good things.

PS: There are so many PEOPLE I miss, to the point of heartache, but it would simply take too much time to list them all.  So, to my family and friends who weren't mentioned in my list, it's not for lack fo missing-ness that you were absent!

The Nature of Things

I am not a nature freak.  I'm not even a nature lover.  In fact, I shamefully border on being a nature hater dis-liker. 

If I had to make a "Horrible Ways to Spend My Saturday" list, it would definitely include:

Hiking.

Gardening.

"Real" Camping (doin' the whole tent thing).

Going to the zoo (which combines TWO of my least favorite things: nature and animals).

Etc, etc.

Here in Florida, we've been shacking up in a beeooteeful townhouse.  The interior is awesome, but the grounds are equally as stunning.  I often go out on the balcony in the evening to breathe in the warm air and take in some of the landscaping loveliness.  The best part is that my sole responsibility is enjoyment.  No mowing.  No trimming.  No planting.  No weeding.  And when it's nauseatingly hot outside, I can open my curtains and enjoy the gardeners' hard work from my air conditioned vantage point.

Believe me, I am not looking forward to the yard work that awaits me back in Canada.  Hmph.

Every once and a while, though, I surprise myself.  Sometimes, I succumb to the beauty of God's creation and actually enjoy taking in the "little things".  The BIG things are a give-in.  Even nature-dislikers are awestruck by the BIG things.  When in Vancouver, I often found myself staring out Ellie's hospital window. The view of the Rocky Mountains was truly breathtaking.  Every time we go to the ocean, I have to stand at the shore for a few minutes and simply marvel at the waves.  More than once, the northern lights have caused me to stop the car at the side of the road.  Rockies, Atlantic Ocean, Northern Lights...BIG things.

But, I actually have it in me to marvel at the little things too.

Things like the duck who made a nest right by the pool.

The duck who laid eggs in the nest she built by the pool.

Things like the crane/big bird-thingamajig that I saw in Macy's parking lot the other day.

Things like the purple tree.

Things like the cute little white church on 436.  The church I drive past every day on our way to therapy.  The church that sits quietly and unassumingly in between Florida Hospital and Costco.  The church surrounded by tropical, mossy trees.  The church with red doors.  The church that steals my breath every time I drive by it. 

Mmm.  These are things that have made my heart smile.

Maybe, then, it's not that I dislike nature; I just dislike working in and with it...

Wish You Were Here...

Oh blog.  Sweet, sweet blog.  I'm so sorry for neglecting you.

You are missed.  You are needed.  You are my therapy and there have been so many times I've wanted to spew through you.  But, sometimes it's difficult to connect my tired brain to my cyber mouth.

Forgive me.