Freedom and Miracles

Will the wonders never cease??? But first the back story.  Somehow, out of six people in my family, I am the only one who likes tomatoes.  I mean, really people.  Did anyone get my genes????  It is at the point where they eat salad (well, some of them eat salad) and then everyone tosses their pile of tomatoes on my plate.  More for me, but really guys, you don't know what you are missing.

Yesterday three of the kids are home from school, and I tell them they need to pack their lunches for the next day (since some of them have netball that evening, I figured we would get a jump start on the chaos)  So, they proceed to take out basically every food that we own and start concocting some elaborate meals.  I am not actually sure what they all packed in the end, but I know that my youngest daughter has a lunch bag that now looks like the game  tetris.  Everything is in it's own container, and all was arranged to fit perfectly (at least she inherited that trait from me).  Okay, then they all abandon the kitchen area which they mostly cleaned up.  But I see a can of olives that was just opened, and said child who left that said they needed a big container for them and couldn't find one.  I go to find one, and am about to dump the olives in, when I see this.

I mean - really???  She used my precious coffee scooper to scoop olives.  These kids have no respect for sacred vessels!!!!  I call her down and we have a laugh over it.  We are in the kitchen chatting and she sees a container (which is heart shaped) of yellow cheery tomatoes.  She opens it, washes one and pops it in her mouth, as though this is a normal snack for her.  I was like, hold on, what just happened??  We agreed that indeed, this is the land of miracles!

Okay, while all of this is happening, eldest child is at hockey.  He is desperate for more ice hockey, but roller hockey is what is available.  I dropped him off at 5pm, at some random high school, not far from his high school, as the coach said to do.  Well, it was about 7:20pm and I am like,okay Arielle, don't panic.  You are only in a strange country, where your child only partially speaks the language, he has no money, but he has a phone and a bus pass and he is fairly street smart.  Try not to panic as you imagine what could have possibly happened to him.  Finally, you get a call at almost 7:50pm.  He is alive and no, he would prefer to take the bus home with his school bag, and full hockey gear, rather than get a ride from the parent who is already in the car dropping other kids off at netball.

He arrives home alive, packs his lunch which is much less of a production.  This is the child who once (twice) ate watermelon including the rind, so he is easy to please.

And what is netball you ask?  Well, it is sort of like basketball, but not.  It is some Australian or Canadian or South African sport.  My girls arrived home sweaty, claimed that almost everyone else was a giant, but said it was fun.  And the best part - it is within walking distance (except they got lost, so they had to come home and we had to drive them) and so normally, they can handle that on their own.  Miracles!

Next up  -little guy spending almost two hours at school between classes and his activity.  Apparently this is a normal thing here.  The kids hang out, eat lunch, wander, play games, and then go to their activities.  I still hold his hand when I walk, so this requires me to let go of my baby a bit.  Hopefully he stays out of trouble (and the sun, because if you have ever met him, he is so white that he almost glows), eats his elaborate lunch, looks at the watch I put in his backpack and arrives at Robotics.

And I won't even tell you how happy and horrified I am that one daughter and her new friend agreed to wear the same outfit today.  OMG, is she channeling my sister or what??