a little shack wacky

I smiled when I saw this silly photo on "Meanwhile in Canada's" Facebook page, as I'm with a good chunk of other Canadian's this year - we are ready for Spring!!  And this past week marked its official beginning, but not really.  S was to take the Greyhound bus to Calgary Thursday night but he returned home at 11:00 p.m.  The bus wasn't running.  Due to the big snow storm that hit the Prairies that afternoon, there were too many highway closures and dangerous conditions, so even the next morning, nothing was leaving.  With the train not departing until Monday and a last minute flight being far too expensive, it meant he had to cancel his work week away.   My brother and his wife had also planned to drive out during their Spring Break, but that trip has had to be postponed to summer due to this long winter.  Something to look forward to once again, so we took it well.  Besides, I want them to LIKE Winnipeg, which it'd be easy not to right about now.

Last weekend, S was busy co-leading the annual Building Bridges event (which brings together Indigenous and non-Indigneous people (mostly Mennonites) to eat, share some ceremonies and listen to teachings from a First Nations elder over two days).  I remembered that last year, I was taking photos of the kids that day and it was really nice out.  It was -20 with major wind chills Friday evening when I took the kids this year.  It stayed that way for much of the past week with even more snow, so its a relief to have had a few days of sunshine and weather around -5.  Now I know why much of Canadian small talk centres around weather.  I've been reduced to it myself . . .

The bonus of last week's event was briefly hearing the guest speaker,  Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations or "Chief of all the Chiefs" as my kids kept referring to him.  Iz loudly wondered why he didn't look like a chief, obviously having adopted ideas from books and perhaps Playmobil already.  In fact, it reminded me of last Valentine's Day when the kids had gotten little Playmobil figurines instead of chocolate:

We had gone out to join with mostly First Nations families and individuals that day for a march remembering Canada's murdered and missing women (see old post here), and Ai had looked at the gathering of people.  Pointing at a man, he had pulled his Playmobil figurine out of his pocket and excitedly said, "Mom, there's a First Nations man and I have one, too!"  It was embarrassing and reminded me of why some people boycott Playmobil as stereotyping, racist toys.  Anyway, Ovide Mercredi was an amazing speaker - articulate, humorous and with much to share about the challenges facing Indigenous people in Canada.  Looking good for 71, which makes his cute Mom how old?

Ai was looking rather cute that night, too.

With S working all day Saturday and the weather being unkind, we spent the morning at the Science Gallery, taking in a show at the Planetarium, too.  I'm so glad we renewed our membership to the Manitoba Museum - its been used many a weekend this season!

Iz's favourite - making mini animation scenes with the plastic dinosaurs. 

Ai's favourite game - simulating eating food off trays the way astronauts do.
He could easily spend an hour at this station.

Too bad it's blurry!

One other highlight for the kids last week was having our BC friends, who used to live in Burns Lake while we lived in Granisle, come for dinner.  They'd loved-up my kids when they were babies

and they did again Monday night.

Our quick visit with Lee and Gerald reminded us of just how much we miss old friends and people who care about our whole family.  We felt the pang of living far from our parents after they left . . .

On the note of parents, two Wednesdays ago was one of giving thanks for my Dad's health.  He had prostate surgery that morning and thankfully, he did really well through it.  His doctor was confident the cancer was contained.  Hooray!  He'll be recovering for a good while, so you can pray for him when he comes to mind. But we were all relieved for such a good outcome.  I was obviously feeling a little anxious throughout the morning, as I managed to clean my oven, fridge, the insides and above my kitchen cupboards, etc.  First time for some of those things since I moved in over a year ago! You know the kids have picked up on my worried mood with the response from Iz when I get the post-surgery phone call from my Mom.  As I'm answering it, she's asking:  "Is Grandpa alive?"  Me, so Grandma can't hear:  Shh - of course he's alive.  "Good.  AI___!  Grandpa is still alive!"  Oh my.  I obviously hadn't prepared the kids that surgery isn't such a scary or dangerous thing (or at least that it wasn't in his case).

And so I'd love to be able to be near my parents at times like this - and not just because I want a break from the snow.  Incidentally, it was snowing as we walked to church this morning.  But I have to say that today, our large amounts of snow and the cold didn't seem quite so depressing.  Ai saw a small chunk of brown grass exposed where a digger had cleared some snow.  He was so excited.  It matched how thrilled I felt to see bare pavement on the main roads two days ago.  There is hope that we will one day be really outside again, maybe even on a bike in the next couple of weeks.  It's been a long time coming . . .