Today was Oliver’s end of year concert at school. I’d post a photo but I already packed the camera.

Today was an important meeting at work that we’d been anticipating. Lucky it happened before the evacuation in the afternoon.

Today I think I broke my toe accidentally kicking my desk, after stabbing myself in the arm with a metal shelf bracket last night.

Today there was a 5.5 earthquake centered in Quebec, greatly affecting Ottawa, and slightly affecting the Greater Toronto Area. I was driving to the concert. I missed it. As I mentioned, my office was evacuated- the building was just swaying, apparently.

Today there were tornadoes not far north of us, destroying many homes and injuring some. There may be more coming tonight.

Today it actually maybe seems like we might have this house ready to list, to put up for sale after all. Today, the house looks almost good. Just needs a clean (that’s tomorrow night).

Today I took the dog to the kennel for 3 weeks, and I keep forgetting she’s not here. Who’s going to clean up the kids’ mess from dinner? Oh. Right. Me.

Today we are still packing to go away to England. And probably will be until the last minute.

Today we are worried about getting to that flight, as the G8/G20 world leaders AND protesters descend on our area.

Today we are still worried about the Gulf and the BP oil spill. Even though I want to stick my head in the sand and just worry about my own life.

Today England and USA advanced to the next stage of the World Cup. Happy for both of them.

Today…today was a lot.

I thought I wasn’t looking forward to going away on this trip. I think, actually, any escape right now would be welcomed.

(This post is probably going to be sitting here for a while. I’ll be tweeting while I’m away, of course, but probably not blogging.)

This post is totally using the blog as a baby book.

This post is a couple of things that I don’t want to forget.

This post is total exploitation of the children.

1. Singing along to “Wavin’ Flag”- Young Artists for Haiti/K’Naan

2. Singing along to the Glee cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”

3. Clamoring for attention while giving various renditions of the alphabet.

I hope they look at these in 20 years and smile like I am now.

1. I’m still super busy. Story of my life. Particularly ramped up right now. Work & life – total madness. Should be shot for even sitting down in front of the computer.

2. I really like artichoke & asiago dip. Probably too much.

3. Matchstick (a word of mouth marketing company) wants to know what you thought after you read my Maple Leaf post, which you can share with them by taking this survey.

4. I’m making lots of summer plans that involve more time away with friends – totally awesome. Except for the part where I’ll owe Mark the same time…

5.  My house is being transformed. I’m quite happy. And sort of dismayed that we didn’t do a lot of it sooner.

(with apologies to Gord Downie and crew – link to their song/video Bobcaygeon)

Often, when I am alone with my kids, I am pretty stressed out. Since having children – I am not really blaming this on them – I can’t deal with stress like I used to. I’ve lost the patience I was once known for.

But sometimes? Sometimes we have a great time.

Spending an afternoon last weekend in Bobcaygeon, a small town in cottage country north east of Toronto, was one of those times. We visited my dad, who was camping (as he does) with a whole lot of Scouts (as he does) because he’s like pretty high up in the executive of Scouts Canada now, and nonchalantly tells me on Saturday he’s now in charge of Ontario and Quebec.

Watching Scouts build rafts and tip canoes and meeting Grandad’s friends wasn’t enough of an adventure for us.

We went into town. And in town, we found Lock 32 on the Trent-Severn Waterway.  And the Swing Bridge. And the sweet little shops. And it was good.

They skipped up and down the street, holding my hands, singing “Fish and Chips, Fish and Chips”. So I found them some. And we ate in a sit-down restaurant, just us three. And it was okay.

If you ask Oliver about that day, he’ll tell you there was a water snake in the lock (he heard some other kids screaming about it). What he won’t tell you so easily is that he nabbed one of the lock masters, and asked him questions for 20 minutes, and each question was given a full technical answer. So, you know, *I* know all about how the locks work too, now. And the lock master also tried to explain gravity to him. Let me remind you he’s 4. It was funny. And awesome.  They didn’t want to leave. I kind of didn’t either.

I liked that day an awful lot. I hope we have some more of those kinds of adventures soon.

Don’t read anything pervy into that title, ok?

So June! June is crazy. June is madness at work, June is trying to put our house up for sale, June is the last few days of kindergarten for Oliver, June is a trip to England at the end of the month.

June is a garden growing wild, two new babies to gift (including one that I’ve been waiting to meet for 3 years; her parents even longer), Father’s Day, my brother’s birthday, summer time, sunny days, thunderstorms.

June is has already started to be furniture moving (hey – remember when I asked for mudroom feedback? And we just made it a better mudroom? Well, now I’m sitting on the computer in my mudroom/office. Weird.), picture hanging, de-cluttering, redecorating, hiding any evidence that we actually live here with the removal of family photos, blah blah blah.

We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we’re trying to get it done in 2.5 weeks so that we can have the house ready for people to see while we are away. Which might sound crazy, but if we are away, there are no children to leave toys malingering, and no dogs to shed their hair all around.

So I need to spend a good deal less time online for a bit. Please excuse my absence. I’m scheduling a couple of posts right now. Even though I should be sleeping or moving a table or something.

Bear with me, my wild ride has just begun…

PS – Reminder – still time to enter the Maple Leaf Foods giveaway on the review blog. Until tomorrow night. Oh crap, picking a winner and arranging delivery? More on my to-do list!!