Sunday 31 January 2010

Many Words for a Good Week


See that light coming back into the house? That's another kind of new year for me. And that light arrived at the same time as a whole cascade of good things.

It started with an amazing community dinner. We had taken a break from the monthly community dinners in December, so it was good to gather with familiar and new folk, laugh in the kitchen, and eat hearty.

The next day my friend Tanya (who lives on the opposite side of the city - is it wrong that I not-so-secretly hope when they have to move they can't find a place in their neighbourhood and come to the east end? Hey...hey! Over here - it's cheaper here! :-) visited with her two (really lovely) kids. We re-connected, ordered Thai food and just hung out for the afternoon.

Saturday, well, last Saturday was a real treat. I had finally signed up for.....sock knitting! Woolen socks are right up there for me with chocolate, a thorough foot rub, and good sex, and I kept telling myself that it couldn't be that hard to learn. Bought a book and everything. Ignored book and sighed over expensive wool socks. Envied my friend Katharine's sock knitting prowess. Finally splurged (i.e. spent money on myself, which never happens without the prerequisite guilt) and signed up for a sock knitting class at The Purple Purl. It was indulgent and perfect and I'll write a bit more about it soon. This is the very first sock I knit, which Safiya is keeping for The Bump (which is what she calls her little brother-to-be). It is ridiculously small and I am inordinately proud of it:


Sunday a dinner with long neglected friends who Safiya adores. Anna and Carla leave this imprint on me, a kind of saturated, vivid emotional prism of light that does the heart wonders. Sustenance for Refik, Safiya and I came in the form of wonderful food, crazy laughter, surprise musical talents, and oil pastels. Our collective creative endeavours from that night now have a place of honour on the playroom wall:


And then last Monday came a crazy day where somehow things fell into place and a friend selflessly made the day so much easier. "Hey - no worries, Safiya can hang with us until Mr. S. can pick her up." "Hey - why don't you borrow our car?....and my cell phone." This from someone whose days are more hectic than mine. That help enabled me to in turn to be there for someone else, and I'm overwhelmed in a good way and constantly grateful.

And, on that same day, she gave me this:



Come on. It's a crocheted thyroid! It's beyond awesome, and I clutched it all day, a talisman to remind me where strength really comes from.

Then it was another great community lunch, a happy playdate for Safiya with a friend, and her circus class on Wednesday (where I witnessed her struggle with the idea of crazy groups of kids but also get in there like a dirty shirt and proudly master some new moves). Thursday I dragged her to a free lunchtime Canadian Opera Company concert ("I don't want to go!) which was so wonderfully crowded that we had to sit on the floor. She was mesmerised, as was I. Afterwards we tried a new sushi place and eagerly discussed which concerts we'd be able to go to in the following weeks. That day I also watched her swim. I mean really swim. It was short 'cause she's not quite mastered not swallowing the whole pool yet, but her little legs kicked and I could see where grace is going to soon emerge from that new-ability-awkwardness.

End up the week with a Friday-house-full-of-kids and good conversation, good homemade food, and just goodness all round, top it off with a Saturday where I wore grown-up clothes to a fabulous dinner at our friends' house with other grown-ups and our kids played and we stayed up late talking and then walked home on a just-past-full-moon night, and that will get you here.

Here. Safiya and Mr. S. went swimming together today. I sewed and listened to a little Ms. Reynolds. There was baking. Safiya requested to have that "really yummy soup" that we made together for lunch at dinner again. And, the house is clean. There's nothing sexier than a husband scrubbing the bathroom tiles in his boxers and socks :-) I'm also exhausted physically and have wicked heartburn, 'cause that's what The Bump does to me. I probably won't sleep very much tonight because of said heartburn.

But it's all good, and I wanted to write it down, and then go and dream of it....