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April & Maycember: an insane spring

April & Maycember: an insane spring



Where is the lie?

Poisson d’Avril

From Easter weekend onward, our life has been absolute chaos. On of my best friends moved from California to Ontario and settling her in and getting her set up has been a priority. We picked her up from the airport and the next day we hosted Easter with our friends the Lytles and our friend Kri joined for a bit of Pysanky as well before running off to her own dinner party.

I had a bunch of health things happening all at once, which led us to a variety of medical appointments at a variety of diagnostic clinics and specialty doctors. I also had signed up to take part in a study for PLS patients so that was…a lot of clinicians.

We headed to Toronto for a weekend for a friend’s 50th birthday, leaving our kids alone for the first time (they were fine). We rented a car so that we could leave them our car and took off first thing Friday morning. I was able to use points to book the hotel, which was nice because we basically spent no time in our room at all. On Friday night we headed off to a friend’s new home in Clarendon, which is the most charming old farmhouse upgraded in all of the right ways. They are on a nice piece of land with gardens and a small forested area behind them and it was lovely to see them and their new home. We ended up having dinner at Slabtown Cider, which was in the middle of nowhere but yet, still packed solid? It was amazing.

Saturday morning was Dim Sum in Toronto with our friends Cory and Laura (and their incredibly charming children!). Mr. Tucker tried – and enjoyed – chicken feet for the first time. After it was back to the hotel for a quick nap before heading to our friend Susan’s birthday party.

The party was super fun, we met some great folks and played a game called Salad Bowl which I highly recommend because it basically requires pens, paper, a timer and a bowl. Like our own parties, this one had adults and kids of all ages and everyone was so kind and lovely. I laughed a lot and had some great conversations and we stayed later than we normally would have until we drove Susan back to her condo. Her husband had purchased a bunch of Châteauneuf-du-Pape for the party and I didn’t realize that the reason it was so smooth was because it was at a price point that is beyond my social class. It was lovely though and I didn’t go overboard so I feel less badly about being an absolute unrefined toad.

After the trip we settled into our “normal” busy schedule except this year The Eldest was chosen to do All-Star Band! It’s basically a super group of band kids chosen from every school in the city for their ability to play. She had to practice every Thursday night for 6 weeks (on top of her two mornings of band practice with the school band) that culminated into one incredible concert evening. It was amazing how 6 weeks of the top performers from across the city is on such a different level from the regular school band.

Oh, and of course we had our regularly scheduled events such as hockey games, Roller Derby for The Youngest, Muay Thai 2x a week for Mr. Tucker and jamming with his band every second week on top of Trivia Nights and dinners with friends and…it got worse.

May showers and flowers

We planted a bunch of lovely tulips in the fall so it was nice to see all of that hard work pop out in a splash of colour in May! It’s good because we had to walk by the front garden a lot as we went back-and-forth from the car to event to home to back into the car…ad infinitum.

Maycember is no joke but here it lasts until…well…this week.

We had tickets to our friend’s band’s 20th anniversary party but then the Ottawa Charge made the playoffs and our entire plan went off of the rails. We even spent The Youngest’s birthday at a playoff game – which was fun – but super chaotic as we had to wrap up cake with the family quickly before scurrying off to Kanata. I had also planned to host Judy’s 50th birthday here as a pool party and…you guessed it: playoff game. We bailed on our guests after a few hours and told her to lock up when she left (we discussed it beforehand! I didn’t just announce it and leave!).

We did have a sweet 16 party for The Youngest though, and we had a bunch of friends over and they played games, ate mounds of pizza and cake. Sadly, she had a major dental surgery that week so it was a lot for her.

We did manage to win 2nd place at a charity trivia night where we scored $500 for the Ottawa Food Bank, so that was a great night!

Dragon boat started up in the middle of the month as well and while I loved being back on the water with my amazing friends, it felt like there was very little room on our dance cards for any other things.

On top of all of this, my Stepson was in the process of opening a new restaurant and was working insane hours, moving into a new apartment and so he would pop in for coffee early in the morning before he shuffled off to his 17-hour days. We have seen him more in the past 4 months than we have in the past 6 years and it’s been great!

The Youngest interviewed – and was hired – at a city theatre camp this summer and it looks like she will be working as a hostess at the Stepson’s new restaurant when school ends as well. The Eldest got hired as a supervisor at her wading pool so increased pay for her as well. It also meant many evenings and weekends of job-related training on top of school and her extracurriculars as well.

June: the end is…nigh?

I feel like we may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now?

We managed to eat twice at Stepson’s new restaurant and it was incredible each time. He takes such pride in what he does as a chef and it shows. I am glad to see that the reviews are amazing and that people are really enjoying it.

It’s the end-of-the-year stuff for the kids as well. The Eldest passed her DELF and The Youngest passed the OSSLT (not that there was any danger of either of them failing). The Eldest had her Spring Band Concert as well, her very last one. I am a bit choked up about that – after four years in band, it’s the last one.

Speaking of – The Eldest graduated high school! Last Thursday we watched our grown, adult child accept her diploma and came off of the stage to join her friends for photos. She is off to university in the fall and will be staying in residence so it is our last summer together before she starts her life as an adult. On one hand I am glad and so happy for her. On the other, it is the end of an era and I certainly feel a ways about that. Next week is prom and her and her friends have rented a hotel room and have tickets to both prom and after prom. The dress is bought, the heels are borrowed and she got a beautiful necklace as a graduation gift so she is well prepared.

Next week dragon boat goes back to only one night a week, the kids will finish exams and start working and the summer will officially begin. I often forget how chaotic this spring season is and I am glad we are facing a more calm, poolside-oriented summer.

I have missed a lot here and I know it’s a relatively boring update that is me just listing the busy-ness of our lives but that is just the way it’s been. I think there is a lesson here about how people always say that you “have to retire to something,” but honestly, I have such a full life that I’ve never found it difficult to fill my days with stuff. I’ve paddled, I’ve gone on trike rides, I’ve swam in The Puddle, I’ve hung out with friends, I’ve parented, and I have read HELLA books.

As usual, there are things I want to expand on, stuff I have missed mentioning and a few things I am still working out how to write about. But I am good, the family is good, and life is great. Nothing more to say except I need more naps.

Spring has sprung: a life update

Spring has sprung: a life update


I asked Mr. Tucker to buy me this for Winter Solstice & he did!

It’s hard to not think of spring and fall as seasons of transition. Spring still has elements of the winter such as the odd day of snow and fall still has days where the sun is out and it is warm and clear. Summer and winter tend to be more delineated – at least where I live – where winters are snow, darkness and blowing wind & summers are all humidity, long days, and blazing sun. We generally tend to follow the seasons here and mark each one as it transits through the year. I highly recommend books like Mrs. Sharpe’s Traditions for those of you who enjoy Victorian Americana celebrations that fall on the more Christian side of things. It’s full of crafts, poetry and information about the holidays and seasons. I read Winters in the World this year about the seasons in Anglo-Saxon England and it was also a lovely, enlightening read.

After a year of having a broken foot and two surgeries I am eager to get out and about and enjoy the fresh air. Mr. Tucker has fixed up my trike (#bless marrying a man who used to be a bike courier) and we have been going out on walks around the neighbourhood. I hate how much I miss going outside when I am forced to stay inside. Winter is an absolutely tragic season for me because when you have mobility issues it can mean getting stuck inside when it is really icy out. I actually enjoy winter and grew up in the 80s where your parents forced you outside no matter what the temperature was & I also clocked many years skiing. I am seriously thinking of investigating accessible skiing options but I am afraid that like most things for disabled people, it will be cripplingly* expensive.

But it’s spring now! As is our monthly habit, we have done a craft and games night, and because it was March, it was Easter-themed. It was, as usual, amazing. We emailed our orders into Holly’s Hot Chicken (which is great if you need a gluten-free option and/or just like delicious food!) which our friends picked up on their way over, we did some fun Easter crafts & egg decorating and then we played Telestrations. It’s sad to think that in a few short months the eldest two kids in our group are off to university! Until then, we will try and squeeze in as many games nights and pool parties as possible.

Other than that it has been just watching PWHL games, the Women’s World Hockey & I even got sucked into March Madness, rather unexpectedly when it came on right after a WWH game! I got suckered into buying a subscription to The Sports Network to watch the WWH and so I figured, why not? Well OF COURSE I was hooked and watched the final on Sunday (like almost 19m other people). It was just so fascinating! I don’t know if that means I will end up loving the WNBA but I did enjoy it!

I have such a love/hate relationship with sports, namely, hockey. I grew up loving hockey and watching it. Like many other Canadian families, my brother played it and I went to a few of his games as well. In University I lived in an apartment on top of a pub and my friends & I would regularly win tickets to hockey games as prizes on Trivia Nights. When you are a poor student you enjoy any free entertainment that comes your way! But over the years, my love for the NHL lessened. Size-wise, it is an absolute BEAST with 82 games per season for each of the 32 teams – not including the Stanley Cup. But on top of that, the last game we attended we saw them switch out the ads along the boards on the commercial breaks. That was just wild to me. I had grown up with stories of my uncle remembering when tickets were cheap and you could bring a boxed lunch into Maple Leaf gardens. Don’t get me wrong – I grasp the enormity of putting together a pro sports league it is just a shame when the cheap seats for an NHL game (standing room only) are $50 in the nosebleeds. That is just out of range for many families.

Watching the PWHL play, fill arenas and get more sponsorships is a bit of a bittersweet experience: I want this league to succeed so badly, I want them to get advertising dollars! But it also weirds me out to see a paper towel company sponsor a power play. It’s conflicting to simultaneously want them to succeed but hate the price it will take to make it work. I am not an idiot – we live in a capitalistic society, for better or for worse – and the league can’t run just on Mark Walter’s big bucks alone, in perpetuity**. That said, we’re renewing our tickets for next year.

WELP. The condo still hasn’t sold. Lots of great feedback from the viewings but it’s been up for 2 months. I know that it’s been an average of 90 days for sales of condos lately and I am sure everyone is waiting for the Bank of Canada’s rate cuts*** but I am still impatient. It feels like the path forward for us is riding on this one deadweight to be out of our hands. I’m crossing my fingers that I have a better update soon!

Meanwhile, Mr. Tucker are working on a plan for our lives while we wait for the condo to sell. There is no point sitting around wallowing about things not going according to plan when there is so much living to do. Since spring is here and April is a wee break in-between our children’s birthdays I have asked them to not make a ton of weekend plans so that we can sort some things around the house.

Mt Tucker and I are planning some outdoor chores this month but spring is also a good time to tackle things like going through all of the rooms of your house and making a master plan on what to fix, clean, organize and decorate. We also want to plot out our garden bunkies to take advantage of what may be a very hot, dry summer. The plan is to stay home and have myriad pool parties and friend drop-in days!

We also did manage to catch the solar eclipse yesterday! It was 99% totality here which had to be good enough because we didn’t want to drive an hour south. The kids had the day off so they cleaned the house and watched the eclipse. It was a good day!


*I didn’t intend that pun but I am leaving it because it fits nicely
**I mean, he probably COULD afford it but every parent wants their child to leave the nest
***Kept at at 5% at the announcement this morning. Whomp whomp.