Franglo

As I wait for the bar to open on the train, I will write the second half of the last couple months.

I will start with this thought : It takes a village to raise a child – Africain Proverb

In addition to the renovation craziness, it is also competitive dance and cheerleading season. The oldest is on two competitive dance teams (ballet and contemporary) plus she was doing a solo in contemporary. This means multiple trips to the studio to ensure she get the practice required for competition. The middle one is on a competitive cheerleading team which means she has both tumbling and cheerleading practices each week. Thankfully the youngest (boy) is enrolled in recreational rock climbing at the local rec centre.

As I mentioned before, I am also working on my linguistic skills so I will be able to communicate with my family and hopefully at some point work in french. I am attending conversation class at Concordia University every Saturday from 930-2 pm. Throw in commuting time, on Saturdays; I am up at 7 and out of the house by 8, returning around 3:00 with a brain full of french. I am almost three months into the new job, so there is a mental fatigue that I am just generally experiencing right now with two steep learning curves.

Normal weekends with the kids are insane and require coordination of pick ups, drop offs, meal planing, household chores and cooking. My spouse is a full-time taxi driver on the weekends. When I am home, I am the Anglo house keeper and cook.

Competition weekends add different level of craziness because the kids needs to be different locations then what fits into the traffic patterns. This is where I am so very thankful that my spouse has a good relationship with his ex and that they have put aside the issues with their relationship and have come together for the good of the kids.

I am thankful, that she is willing to help out on weekends where she is supposed to have off. With three kids, this woman deserves sometime off. I know everyone will say, that you have a love for your children and it’s not work but honestly it’s exhausting. Kudos to the single moms out there, you really are superheroes for keeping it together and not losing your shit.

A few weekends ago, we had a situation where a dance competition required my spouse to overnight in another city. I had a 5 hours exam on the Saturday for the final french class of this set. Our cheerleader had tumbling class from 5-7 and on the Sunday I had to execute a local event with one of my colleagues. I was solo parenting on Saturday night, not something I am used to.

The weekend was insane but I had so much fun with the kids. I came home from school on Saturday, my spouse was already gone. I had time to quickly cook the meat before getting ready to drop our cheerleader. The boy came with us, and him and I hit the grocery store on the way back with him from the cheer gym because neither of us had time in the week to stock up. My plan was lasagna, we finished shopping, I came home and assembled my dish, put it in the oven and went to do the pick up. Dinner was ready for when we got home after 7. It was the weekend of St.Patricks day, this Anglo has an Irish last name so we needed to celebrate; my plan green cupcakes. We finished dinner and baked green cupcakes.

Sunday, I was thankful for the assist from the ex, she came and got the kids and shuffled them to activities. I went and worked for a good portion of the day. This was a fun day, I got to meet the Montreal Canadiens mascot and one of the players and execute a kids hockey camp for our clients. I had a bunch of happy kids at the end of it.

I picked up the kids at 4pm from the matrimonial house. I had some time to have a really nice chat with the ex, yes we have a grown up relationship I have no reason to dislike her. I was a little ambitious this weekend and decided to teach the kids how to make sushi and let the kids ice and decorate the cupcakes, our Sunday night. As crazy as this weekend was, I really enjoyed the solo time I had with the kids, it rare we get this bonding time alone.

My other half arrived home at around 7:30, he was equally as exhausted as his day started at 4 am with dance competition prep.

This girls weekend is my escape from the crazy, I splurged and put myself in business class. So I am enjoying a glass of wine, a nice meal, it will be an afternoon at the spa, dinner and dancing. I have an opportunity to write. Sometimes this Anglo needs to be reminded what life was like before domestic bliss.

I think absence also makes the heart grow fonder, he is solo parenting for the next 48 hours. The Anglo maid and cook has hung up her apron and left the kitchen. Next week back to the crazy and back to school but for now I will sip my merlot and forget the world.