Balancing act

Balancing act
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Not much of a Mother's Day on Sunday. I got about 45 minutes to myself (enough to compose my last blog entry). Then I had the urge to be outside. Since our house-hunting disaster (long story), E had the urge to be Mr Fix-It, so I took off with the kids for a short walk and left him to door-varnishing duties.

The attractions of living in the village are (a) walking to downtown, (b) being near the train tracks without them actually interfering with traffic (a la Chelsea), and (c) walking to the river.

We indulged in the latter. It wasn't a hot day, but the shade by the river (behind the cider mill) was refreshing. On our walk, we went past a brush pile of lilac bush cuttings, so Tess & I helped ourselves (mmm...lilacs).

Tess spent the afternoon at her Baba's on Saturday, so her Dyeda was on her mind all day Sunday. My MIL has, naturally, pictures of my FIL all over her house, so Tess came up with some poignant and pointed observations on our walk.

"I hold my flowers up to heaven for Dyeda, but they don't disappear. Doesn't he want them?"

"I wish I were an orphan so I wouldn't have to worry about you and Daddy dying before me." (?!?)

Being that my mother had the kids when my FIL passed away, I asked her not to tell Tess as we wanted to leave that for us to share. But of course she had to start a discussion about religion and heaven with Tess -- can't blame her-- so she used the "my Father has many mansions" verse as a basis for her discussions.

So now Tess wants to know what kind of room her Dyeda has in heaven, and what she can have in *her* room when she gets there (eep), and whether or not our rooms will be near each other when we're all up there together.

Later rather than sooner, we hope.