Chill

I took this photo this week.  It's a "sleafie"

It illustrates what happens to my face, my skin, when the mercury hits the minuses and the furnace starts to blast.

No amount of oil of anything would combat the total exodus of every moisture particle in my face, hands..... any exposed skin.

It's been very chilly this week and bathing in moisturizer is expensive I would imagine so I do what I can to combat the dry, redness...... I should have shares in chapstick..... but there are days I feel like my face is a crunchy leaf about to crumble into pieces.

But on these days where my red nose could be employed if Rudolph falls ill if it were not for my watery eyes as my contacts try not to freeze onto my eyeballs ...... on these days, this chapped face and these chapped hands are a small price to pay........ for bright, sunny days.

Oh the bluey blueness of the cloudless sky, the final end of Fall colours, the crispy, smoky, night air, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the snuggling down under the covers ahhhhhhh at the end of the day......

It has been lovely.

And in our house....very busy...... The Fall has blurred by and now December is staring me down.

Last week was as zooey as short weeks always are.  Always.  I had grant deadlines and the system kept crashing.... I taught an ECE evening class for a friend on Thursday and Friday I helped Allan prep for a Robotics competition on Saturday that all us Byres were at......all day.... except when David left to play a cup soccer game (which they won 3-0) and Lindsay went to work.....and then both kids babysat last night!  I became one with my Mazda booting back and forth across the City - Mom's taxi is about to start charging!

David's robotics team made the quarter-finals and in a total heart-stopping heart-breaker lost by one point!  So close.  I was so impressed with how far they have come and how good their robot is at playing the game and also how well they conducted themselves after the loss.

How cool is their school gym?  Go Wildcats!

Allan  with David's teams robot

Programming the bot

We are so very proud of Miss Lindsay who got a new job in a tightly contested application and interview process and will very happily be working in an Out of School care program with early elementary kids two afternoons a week.  This is great experience for her as her future goal is to be a child psychologist.  Speaking of which we continue trying to navigate the post-secondary application process - I am thinking there is a niche market for a post-secondary broker service....like a mortgage broker..... you go in... state your goals, marks, budget and the broker finds the best places, submits the applications which then come in their droves and we simply pick the best fit and Voila! Anyone want to step up?  Anyone?

Fisher Allan was out at it again today while the kids and I went to Church and then I cooked up another big batch of bolognese sauce to help get us through a couple of dinner times in the busy week ahead.

Lindsay has her first 4 shift week of work while keeping school work going, Allan has dog class with Spanner, David has soccer and I am off to see Fleetwood Mac with a good friend on Tuesday.

Before another week arrives we will have a quiet, cozy night in, start up the gas fireplace and have pancakes and sausages for dinner.

The temperatures are rising and the rain will be back and while my face will be happy we will be eagerly awaiting the return of the cold and the bright and the sun, chapped faces and hands be damned!