Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. In Canada Thanksgiving is always the second Monday in October, and historically has been time to give thanks for the harvest and other fortunes in the past year. I'm not sure how many good fortunes the world as a whole has had in 2020, but all things considered our family has been one of the lucky ones, and we do have much to be thankful for. I have been able to work throughout the pandemic, and Andy has had some casual teaching jobs as well. We live with my parents and so have lots of help with childcare and zero financial stress. Sure, we missed out on some holidays this year, but we know that we'll be able to holiday again at some point. So even though we'd all like to see the back end of 2020, I recognise that we still have it pretty good.
The Thursday before Thanksgiving weekend my school was closed for two days because one of the kitchen staff tested positive for Covid. The staff member had not been in school for nearly a week, and had little contact with most staff and students, but our administration decided to be extra cautious and close the campus so they could do a deep cleaning of the school. Now that we are all comfortable with teaching online it was actually quite easy to switch to online learning for two days.
Although I've enjoyed being back at school I was kind of happy to have two days of working at home. I don't mean that to sound insensitive... OF COURSE I would rather that a colleague wasn't ill. However I had caught a cold from the kids and was wondering if I should even go to school myself, so it was a bit of a relief not to have to make that decision. Sleeping in for an extra hour in the morning and having no commute was also a bonus.
Thursday morning I didn't have any meetings scheduled, and I could have spent the morning catching up on paperwork... but how boring is that?! It was a gorgeous sunny morning, and being mid-October our warm and sunny days are coming to an end. So instead I joined Andy and Ollie for a morning at the lake, reliving our favourite summer activity. We got coffees and breakfast sandwiches from Kerr St. Cafe, and then spent ages with Ollie throwing rocks into the lake.
We finished our morning with a walk to the yacht club, stopping to play in the leaves. It was such a lovely morning and SO MUCH more fun than sitting at home on my laptop.
In the afternoon I did have quite a few meetings, but managed to sneak in a 25 minute walk around the marsh during Ollie's nap, getting caught in a small rain shower!
On Friday I had a busier morning with a few meetings but I still managed to accompany my dad, Andy and Ollie on a hike through Mount Nemo. I took one of my meetings in the car, catching up with the other three on the trail when I was finished. I managed the other two meetings by finding a quiet seat along the trail to talk to some of the students I work with. Oh the joys of doing all your work via Microsoft Teams! I never want to go back to full-time working from home, but it was a nice change for two days.
We had a great hike together. The weather was perfect and Ollie did a lot of walking himself. The leaves are starting to change colour so we were treated to some beautiful views looking out from the cliff.
We stopped for lunch at a cafe in Milton with outdoor seating and didn’t get home until after 1pm which is late for Ollie. He was overtired and super resistant to going down for his nap and didn’t end up falling asleep until nearly 2:30pm! Thankfully my next meeting wasn’t until 3pm so I managed to sneak in a bit of yoga before going back to work for a few hours. Another perk of working from home!
On Friday we also found out that in our region of Ontario we are going back to some Covid restrictions. Case numbers have been slowly rising since the beginning of September and there are now more cases every day than there were in April. Like many places going through a second wave, the demographic of people testing positive is much younger than the first wave, and therefore there are not as many deaths which is one good thing. As of Friday there is no more indoor dining, cinemas, casinos and gyms for the time being. Luckily I wasn't really going to those places anyway, but it is terrible for those that will lose their jobs. Ok, Covid, I think we've all had enough of you now!
Saturday morning we visited
Stonehaven Farms in Campbellville. They have a pumpkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkin, along with tractor rides and a corn maze. Lots of Covid safety measures were in place. We had to wear our masks the whole time and on the tractor ride there were partitions so everyone had their own little section of the tractor. Doesn't Ella look happy to be on the tractor? Haha. She gets so annoyed when you try taking her picture sometimes.
We picked out a big pumpkin that my dad will carve for Hallowe'en, and we also got the kids two smaller pumpkins, which Ella is obsessed with.
While Ollie napped I took Ella on a scooter ride and visit to the park, and her new pumpkin friend came along. It had rides on the scooter, went down the slide, swung on the swings, and was played with by all the local neighbourhood kids at the park.
We took it easy Sunday morning, starting the day with a big brunch.
Andy and I then cleaned out the kids playroom, which was getting overrun with lots of little toys that didn't have a home. Where do they all come from?! It was a day long project but it now feels more spacious and organized and is much easier to tidy, so it was well worth it. I listed a few baby toys on Facebook marketplace and it was all snapped up pretty quickly. It always feels really good to get rid of stuff!
That afternoon Andy took Ella out for a nature walk, and they collected some pinecones, leaves and sticks to make a centrepiece for our Thanksgiving dinner. Of course the mini pumpkins were also included in the decorations. Very festive!
We had a small turkey dinner, with roasted squash, brussels sprouts, and roasted potatoes and carrots. It was just the six of us for Thanksgiving this year, no other family could come and eat indoors unfortunately.
Monday morning we did go and visit my cousin though. (My favourite cousin and number one reader of this blog!) She recently moved into a new house, a move out of the city to a smaller town in the Niagara region, with a huge yard that is framed by woods on two sides. They have a great fire pit that we relaxed around all day, making it feel like we had escaped to someone's cottage.
Much to the kid's delight they also have a ride on lawnmower, so they had a great time riding on the tractor. We have a lot of farm books so Ollie was pretty thrilled about it.
We were planning on just staying for coffee in the morning and driving home in time for Ollie's nap, but we were having such a good time that we decided to forgo his nap and stayed pretty much all day.
After a day where Ollie has missed his nap, everyone is convinced that Ollie will sleep in the car. It was around 6pm when we left, so he was probably exhausted. But no. This kid just does not sleep in the car. We had just under an hour long ride and he was awake the whole time. It's mind boggling!
The long weekend, plus the two days of working at home, really made me feel like I'd had a good break from school. We had gorgeous autumn weather the whole time which also added to the feeling. It was back to reality on Tuesday, but quite manageable as it was only a four day week. How good would it be to only work four days?! I always read articles like
this one, that discuss all the benefits of a four day work weeks. I really wish the idea would catch on... maybe one day! We can dream!
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