heading back to Thanksgiving . . .

October has been a blur, unfortunately not because it's been exciting in a good way.  I've struggled not to be down about some of our current life circumstances and not to let my tensions tear into my kids.  I've battled with getting up in the morning, I avoided the phone for a couple of weeks and I tuned out by playing a pointless, strangely addictive computer game after the kids were in bed - one where you match pots, pans and other kitchen utensils.  As if I don't get enough of the real things the rest of my waking hours!  Sadly, it doesn't even declare "YOU'VE WON" when you get to the top level and discover there's no more.  That alone says - "depression."   Which isn't exactly what I'm saying . . . but I am saying it's been a hard month.  Thus the break in blogging . . . 

There have been numerous sources of stress, but the biggest, most novel, came from a Court Summons that arrived in a City of Winnipeg envelope. It requests our presence this November for not having the requested city permits for work done on the house.  We hadn't actually done this work, but unfortunately, the previous owner (the PO, for ease of reference) had violated many city building codes with grand style.   A city inspector happened to be checking out our neighbours' foundation last November and noticed the PO finishing up the back porch roof.  He quickly assessed that the side overhang of the roof could not have had a permit, as it's built connected to the fence which is on the property line.  He then assessed some other things and requested work stop until the PO had the required permits.  The inspector visited twice before the property was ours as of December 1st, continuing to leave messages for him.  What the PO knew was that this would become our problem and lying point-blank on the property disclosure statement at the time of purchase, stated that no work had been done during his time of ownership without required permits.  We were unaware of all of this until the spring -  but with tight finances, I pushed aside dealing with it until we had enough funds to go forward getting the permits.  Long story . . .   

Anyway, we fortunately have Title Insurance with our house.  In the end, we should get funds back to cover the expenses and it's good to know that our home will be city-approved so no hassles further down the line.   Apparently it'll cost over $3000 alone per pile to support the back roof, and we'll need at least three to be done!  The process to even get permits is daunting, involving hiring an engineer and consulting an architect to draw-up design plans for the back fence and porch, which requires having a property survey done (a further $850).  Plans are then submitted to the city for approval (hopefully), so we can then be given the okay for permits.  This process and the fact we'd be covered by Title Insurance wasn't known to us yet by Thanksgiving.  It took many, many hours of emailing and phoning by Steve to get things underway.  

So despite the fact that I had a really fun surprise lunch visit from my (Calgarian?) Uncle Paul on the Thursday before Thanksgiving . . . 

Iz playing peek-a-boo with Uncle Paul

Getting the subsequent boo-boo kissed all better

He's always been much-loved by kids - mine no exception!

 . . . and we had a super nice Saturday-night Thanksgiving with Steve's co-worker and her family

A & Sarah hitting it off over "100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet"

Lovely Nyomen and Paul

. . . and we had another tasty Thanksgiving Monday dinner with another of Steve's colleagues and his family (who started an experiment this summer in raising rabbits for meat, making for a fun time of bunny interaction for the kids) . . . 

. . . and we even enjoyed a nice potluck at church Thanksgiving Sunday, liking the fact that so few people were there this time that we actually got to know a couple of them better.  All of us 'misfits' without family around hanging out together.  Anyway, despite all these things, I found myself in tears on and off over the weekend.  It was the most thankless thanksgiving I've had, so overwhelmed with seemingly weighty things that I couldn't notice the multitude of big and small things to take heart in.  I did, however, manage to notice the pineapple.  Suddenly I laughed at some child's need to decorate it, which led me to thinking of my constant search for matching barrettes and hair elastics.  They are  found around the house on Thomas trains, in Barbie hair, on bed posts, around toothbrushes, etc. - any where but in the basket!  So this took the cake, uplifting my heart at the funny ways of children.  

So things aren't so dire.  I made it through my weekend.   Steve's colleague helped connect us to a wonderful engineer, who then connected us to a kind architect, both of whom have gone out of their way to help as quickly as they can.  There's been support from friends, the sun came out for a few days and there's been improvement in health (because what Mom doesn't go AWOL after two weeks home with sick kids?).  I finally got a doctor connection for the three kids, which is a huge load off my mind (still none for Steve and I, but that's another story).   There's also been a bit of lax in some of our other life tensions.  This week has been much better and I'm feeling far more my own self.  There's still stress ahead, but as good old Julian of Norwich said, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”   There always are so many reasons to give thanks and I'm glad to see them.  Since I wasn't up for saying it at the time, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.   Here's wishing you your own kind of funky pineapple in the midst of whatever load you're dealing with.

ps - Now that that's said, be prepared for some photo posts catching up on things.  Late-September and October weren't all bad . . .