Aaaakkkkk!

There aren't enough hours in the day! They've all been swallowed by a big creamy poodle pup! And in fairness by a busy adolescent son, a cottage that needs closing and a house that needs to be wrangled back onto the rails so it can run without having to be pushed along like a dead weight!

The first week back from a summer away is always crazy with laundry because it all has to come back here to be done. Our last trip home before September was early August so I had weeks of dirty cloths plus I change all the bed linens to flannels after Labour Day and the many, many beach towels we use swimming also have to be done. Add that to the linens and towels and soiled clothing waiting for me here at home and it means about three solid days of work to get it all done. (I have yet to tackle the backlog of ironing!)

The cold I complained about last week ended up sending me to bed (one pillow under the head, the other over it)  for two days.  Unheard of for me but I know of a couple of other people who had the exact same strange set of symptoms (dizziness!) and they too were sidelined by it. Having said that, Darling Daughter and Number One Son both had it with much less drama so I should put some of my experience down to being ancient.

As for the dog, he has been wonderful and at the cottage where he spent his first six weeks with us, he has come to be almost effortless to manage.  Back in the city though he had to get used to a whole new set of very different aspects of "normal".

At the cottage, we are always all together and largely live in a couple of rooms.  Here at home people come and go, we are much more spread out, and the sounds of the house were unfamiliar to him. Hence he has spent much of the last two weeks pacing around after people and trying to find somewhere to settle without having yet discovered where his favourite spots might or should be.

This was all commensurate with his new found interest in toilet paper (just nibble the bottom corner and start walking - the thing follows you!) So I too was frequently moving about the house to make sure he didn't get into any trouble while he settled in.

Another pup-related challenge was that his face and feet were disappearing - 'being steadily swallowed by creamy white curls yet I had not sourced the necessary tools to manage that nor had I attended the grooming session back at the breeders that would enable me to use the equipment to alleviate the problem. Resolving that issue took two full days. Another day was required to prepare the area in which we want him to take care of his, shall we say, personal business,  at the back of the yard behind a big maple tree. Meanwhile the largely neglected gardens and lawns around the house were screaming for attention. Chaulk up two more days outside.

Of course there was virtually no fresh food in the house and anything prepared in the freezer had been consumed by the city bound folks in July and August so I had to at least begin to attend to that as well.

A couple of brief visits with my mom, taking my turn to host the weekly coffee group and a back to school gathering of squealing girls and ravenous boys were also on the agenda as well as two full Friday to Sunday weekends back up north when I took my long neglected knitting but left the pattern at home not on one occasion but both times!

I'm worn out just reading the above account of all of it!

Thankfully as each of these big tasks gets wrangled into completion I feel closer to being able to get back to a more usual routine. The dog will of course continue to be an additional feature in my days but like anything it will get easier.

I spent a couple of years researching this purchase before we made the leap into owning a Standard Poodle and had sorted out, in my mind just how things would work, where they could be stored, how to work in the walks etc. so even though its a lot to contend with right now I know things will be manageable in due course.

Most of the surprises he has brought into our lives have been pleasant and some will no doubt occasionally find their way into the odd post but I want to get back to knitting, and to blogging about that.  The two seem to go together for me very nicely. I miss them both and I miss corresponding with other knitters that blogging and following blogs allows me to do.

Yesterday as I canvassed my tribe for the detailed plans of their coming week I discovered that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Number One Son will be away at a Leadership Camp, Darling Daughter will be working at the University Fair and My Beloved has Client events each and every evening. So, I've put a great big target on those quiet evenings without having to cook as "getting-back-to-my-knitting" nights.

I'm so out of touch with it I'm not sure what I'll be working on or how I'll attack it but at least it seems a reasonable goal to plan on focusing on it for three glorious evenings in a row!

For now though, its back to the Laundry room - the ironing awaits!