Tea Time Chat

 

Where did the summer go?

This is the last unofficial week of summer. The kids go back to school next Tuesday. Where did the time go? I had so many plans for this summer, and somehow a lot of them just seemed to evaporate.

We spent very little time at the trailer. In fact, I’ve only been down to the beach once all summer, which seems almost impossible. We did a little bike riding, but certainly not as much as we usually do. I’ve been trying to figure out what took up all the time.

Then I started adding it all up.

I was away for almost a week crafting with friends, which was definitely time well spent. But a big part of the summer was taken up with getting my mother moved into her new assisted living home and helping her get settled.

And when I say “getting settled,” I mean everything that comes along with a move. There was cleaning out her old apartment, appointments with her old doctor and her new doctor, getting her TV and phone set up, taking her shopping multiple times, taking her cat to be groomed, and dealing with all the other personal appointments and little things that come up when you’re helping someone get settled into a new home.

So, when I look at it that way, I guess it makes a little more sense where the summer went.

The other thing that has taken up a surprising amount of our time has been cleaning out and purging our own house. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of things and sold quite a few items on Facebook Marketplace. It’s amazing how much time it takes to get rid of stuff!

Trip Planning

We’ve also been busy for several months making all the arrangements for a big family trip this fall. I’ll share more about the who, what and where in an upcoming post.

There have been a lot of decisions to make with the family, itineraries to finalize and bookings to arrange. At times, it has felt a little overwhelming. All told, we’ve had seven different flights to book, 5 accommodations to find, along with another nine bookings for transportation and tours.

Hopefully, it’s all booked now and we can stop planning and just look forward to the actual trip!

Girls’ Trip

Before that trip, I have a girls’ trip planned for next week. A friend is turning 70, and to celebrate, we’re heading out to Alberta for five days to enjoy some time in the Rockies.

I’m pretty excited about this one. It should be a wonderful few days with good friends, beautiful scenery and, hopefully, lots of laughs.

In Other News

My mind, and apparently my social media feeds, have been consumed with the trade war going on between Canada and the United States. I could probably spend an hour talking about the subject, but since this is supposed to be a light-hearted Tea Time chat, I’ll leave it at this:

I’m so proud of our Canadian Prime Minister and his cabinet for the way they are standing up and fighting for the Canadian people. I’m also proud to see how Canadians have overwhelmingly pulled together and are standing in support of Canada.

Hanging on to the Last Bit of Summer

Usually about this time of year, I start looking forward to fall. I love the colours, the crisp mornings, the smells and the much more reasonable temperatures. I’m normally quite happy to say goodbye to summer and welcome fall.

But this year, I don’t think I’m quite ready to let go of summer yet.

Maybe it’s because the summer didn’t turn out quite the way I had imagined. Maybe I feel like I still have a few things left on my summer list. Or maybe I just need a little more time to sit at the trailer, ride my bike, walk down to the beach and enjoy these last few weeks.

Whatever the reason, I’m going to hang on to summer for a little while longer.

Fall can wait.