And I have felt so slack for not posting here more often.  The beautiful spring weather is keeping on getting warmer.  The nights are light until about 10pm right now.  (At this rate - I don't quite see the need for daylight saving time since it is so light so late!)  This makes getting children into bed quite a challenge as they forget that it really is late and they want to keep playing all night!

The Canadian school year is drawing to a close with only about 3 weeks left to go.  It is odd for me because I feel everyone else's rush to have things completed.  It reminds me of term 4 when I used to teach in Australian schools!  It feels kind of the same.  I am quite looking forwards to having a little bit of extra time out.  I'm not sure that we will take too much time off.  My children tend to just drift back into doing activities anyway.  Learning is such a part of our lives that we just don't switch from it really.

Here is a nice story for you!  From early this morning we had planned to go to the local rec centre for some physical education.  We weren't decided between iceskating and swimming.  As the morning progressed and we had missed the public skating session it looked like swimming would be the obvious answer.  At lunchtime my husband had to take the lease car in for exchange and when he returned he looked really ill and needed to stay home for the rest of the day.  I waited around to see if he might need to go to the drs...thus missing the mid afternoon swim session.  So we all decided to go to the evening session. 

We were only in the pool for a few minutes and two little girls around my daughter's age were swimming nearby.  The older girl asked my dd if she might like to play with her and her sister.  My dd a little shy said she would like to and they all started to play together.  I sat and watched and laughed along with them as they played under some buckets that fill with water and then at any second will tip onto the unsuspecting person below.  During the afternoon the oldest girl was quite chatty and it seemed that all 3 girls had really hit it off with each other. 

I was hoping that these girls might live locally as my dd is often surrounded by lots of boys and really looks forwards to play dates with other little girls.  I am also aware in those moments that there have been times in the past where I have made connections that later turned out to be unwise.  So I prayed in the pool that I would be shown a clear and unmistakable sign that this connection was for everyone's good and I decided to refrain from offering details first.  I left it to God to work out. 

The mother came over and she began telling her daughters it would be time to leave soon.  The oldest girl pleaded with her mother that they were all having such a good time that it would be wonderful if we could all get together once again.  So the mother turned to me and said, "We live locally - do you?"  I answered yes and she told me they lived in the next community (suburb in Aussie terms) over - which I know a little.  She asked if perhaps once my dd had finished school for the year if perhaps we might be able to get together in the summer.  I said to her, "Actually we are a homeschooling family."  Her face lit up and she said, "So are we!"

I was overjoyed and she lived so close.  She offered to go and find a pen and paper and provide me with her details.  I said I would be happy to swap ours also.

In the brief conversation we had we had both noticed that we both didn't have Canadian accents.  As it turned out her sister lives within an hour's drive of my sister-in-law's hometown in a US state!  We plan on getting in touch next week with a view to setting up a time for our little daughter's to play again! Thank you God!