Mother's Day

It was a lovely Mother's Day weekend despite the rain.

DS2 and gf came home. We had a family supper last night followed by a game night of Settlers of Catan.

I definitely need to work on my vegan recipes. DS2's gf is vegan and I know almost nothing about that style of cooking.

A little wine. A fire in the fireplace. and family.

We had hoped today to go to the cemetery to see mom and dad but with all the rain, the roads leading into the country cemetery would be slick with mud.

Packing up the room

Today we got news that we will not be back in the classrooms before the end of the school year.

It was a tough piece of news to digest.

I really was certain we would be, in some format.

It would have been hard to break that to families, but once again, the government chose to share the info as a news release rather than looping the education section in first. So frustrating.

We were told in staff meeting today to make an appointment to go into the school and clean out our classrooms and prep them for summer.

Today was open so I went in today and so did one of my teaching buddies.

There is one classroom between us so when he got there, we visited for a few. SO good to talk to someone face to face. I can't describe it. Then we would go in to start packing things up. One of us would yell HALLWAY!! and we would go out to chat again, a good 12 feet between us. Lather rinse repeat a few times.

He was done quicker than I. Man I need to downsize the stuff I have. Dozens of boxes and baskets full of things and what have I used the last few weeks? my laptop and a box full of resources.

I look forward to the floors being done and getting to come back again to put it all out. I never did do that properly last year. Between dad's death, the funeral and the family fall out, my head never got in the right space to do so. And I felt it for months.

So this year as soon as we have the all clear I will go in, even if it's July and take a couple days to unpack and set things up properly and make my lists.

Who knows what fall will be like but this is one way I can control a few things.

Back to work

We are starting to get into a rhythm with this home school.

Up, a bit of online Professional Development, a bit of time on the treadmill,  then a staff meeting.

After that I work on putting assignments up for students and holding help sessions for those who need it. I have less than half my class participating, and only a few of those are actually doing all of the work.

Happy Easter

Well DS is officially out of self isoation.

His gf came up last night. She has a month left of work at her temp job in a law office and then she will be here for good.

DS cleaned the house ahead of her arrival.

The spent the morning shopping and cooking and were coming over here for Easter Dinner

Definitely a quiet one due to Covid. DS2 will stay up with his gf. We aren't sharing space with any other parts of our family, so just the four of us.

DS and gf made springrolls and a dip along with a salad. We did up a ham and the fixings and I made a cheesecake.

It was so good to have people in the house. Laughter. Noises. Watching DS play with his cats. Food cooking.

It was our first Easter celebration in this house. I gave a bit of reflection to mom and dad and all the celebrations we have had in this house. I couldn't think of it too much or it is just too darn hard.

I have to say DS is quite a cook. The springrolls were delicious. He used to be such a picky eater but all his travels with hockey around the world have opened up his palate more.

We watched a movie after supper and had a fire downstairs and then went home.

Our district traditionally does not have school from Good Friday and all of the next week, and the government of SK has decided this will continue forward. So a week off online learning for us.

Woot $ news

So as of today, I am mortgage free!

I am flashing back to an episode of MASH where Colonel Potter learns his wife has scrimped to pay off the mortgage. She then sends him the mortgage paper and he has a little ceremony to burn it.

Well it wasn't quite that dramatic.

We were down to $2000 ish on the mortgage. There was enough in the buffer they build for our 2020 property tax to pay this off with a little extra left over. The trick - I would have to save between now and June 30 to have the money to pay our property tax.

Compared to many of you our taxes are lower which is due to living in a small house in a small town in the middle of the prairie.

DH and I had done the calculations and we figured we could do it. Redirect the mortgage payments and use the bit of left over and voila!

I signed the necessary papers and they would have the documents mailed to me. Much less exciting than Colonel Potter but still.

I am now the owner of two houses with no mortgage. Just tons of work to be done and the bills that go to maintain it.