Jenyfer Matthews

From sitting on my hands for nearly seven months to all systems GO in a few days: that’s me.

I. AM. ON. FIRE.

My husband called to tell me he’d accepted a job in Michigan last Thursday and from that moment I started planning our move. I must have sent dozens of emails over the weekend and drove up to Michigan on Monday to meet with a realtor, planning to stay three days, two nights. My hope was to find a house and, if possible, register the children for school in our chosen districts – school starts next week, September 6th.

My sister has often said that I must have a lucky horseshoe stuck up my butt (ouch!) because I almost always find lost jewelry, find things I need on sale, etc – things just seem to come together for me. I have to say that while I had hoped to find a house, even if it meant taking something not entirely wonderful for the short term, I wondered how practical it was to expect to succeed in only two days. I resigned myself to the idea that the children might start school a bit late.

The realtor showed me half a dozen houses, based on the size and school districts I specified. A couple were awesomely cool in a Mad Men way but too small for a family of four with two very active children, a couple were too small / had no yard, and a couple were just dirty and / or stinky. I was actually still considering a stinky one because it was in the school district we wanted when I went to see one final house – one that I found listed myself on craigslist.

The house was everything that the others were not: clean, well-kept, large, big yard, quiet street, the right school district, and it even has a basketball hoop in the driveway. Given what I’d seen that day, I jumped on the opportunity. I am supposed to sign the lease today and from there I will go and get the children registered in school.

I move in Monday. We’ll be camping on air mattresses until the rest of our things arrive, but we’ll be in time for school. Am I good or what?

And how is this for a lucky coincidence: the realtor took us by the elementary school I had in mind for my son and they just happened to be having a new student orientation. We walked in and had a tour, cookies, punch, and got a school pouch backpack. A nice little school and the cookies and punch really hit the spot!

I may have accomplished what I set out to do for now, but I’m not done yet: now I have to go back to Ohio and collect my things from my friend in Hamilton (near Cincinnati), then go back (come back?!) to Michigan on Monday.

I’ve put 11,000 miles on my car since March and I’m not done yet!

That’s how fast life can change.

My husband has been looking for a job back in the US since this spring. I haven’t talked about it here because it is a long, uncertain process – also, I didn’t want to jinx anything. I’m not generally a superstitious person, but why take chances?

He went for an interview at the beginning of the month that he felt went well. Then we waited, and waited some more. His summer vacation ended and he had to head back to Cairo and we still didn’t know whether or not he’d gotten the job. I didn’t know what I was going to do because I didn’t have airline tickets to go back to Cairo, but the children were going to have to start school somewhere, soon.

It wasn’t until I was driving back to Ohio, on the highway just about to arrive at my friend’s house, that my step-mother called to tell me that my husband had sent her an email saying that he had been offered and accepted the job. I finally have a course of action: we are moving to Michigan!

It’s been a long and stressful year and it will likely get a bit more stressful as we try to coordinate an international move, but at least now we have a plan. This will be the first time in a little more than a decade that all of my stuff will be in ONE place (my fascination with glassware, dishes, and purses is about to be exposed in a big way!). Exploring the contents of the storage unit we locked up and left behind in 1999 is going to be like opening a time capsule!

I started this blog in January 2007, a few months after we’d moved to Cairo and I’ve spent much of the time since sharing the things I learned about Egypt and all the fun, frustrating, and interesting experiences I had there. Now I’ll get to share the exodus.

I’ll be in Michigan this week looking for a rental house and I hope getting things set up so the children can start school on time. Wish me luck!

I decided to retrace my route back to Ohio via the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – only this time I would stop to look around a little bit. My father recommended we see the Pictured Rocks National Park and since he is not a man to make idle suggestions I figured the scenery must be freaking amazing and worth the stop.

The day we drove from Minnesota to Munising, MI was not pretty. Rain, rain, and more rain. I was really afraid that our stay would be limited to the hotel pool but the sky was (relatively) clear Wednesday morning so we set off to see what we could see.

There was more to see in the local area that I would have thought, given how small the town is. I decided that I wanted to do the Pictured Rock boat tour in the afternoon because that particular tour time included the Spray Falls. That left the morning open to do the glass bottom boat Shipwreck tour.

Confession: I love boats. I probably would have paid someone just to take me out on a boat ride. Adding shipwrecks into the mix just made it all that much sweeter and scored me major Mom-points with my little man.

(Click any image to enlarge)

The children and I choose to sit up the upper deck – sun and scenery, duh!

I took this picture from the upper deck of the boat. So, I was probably at least 12 feet above the water level and according to the tour guide the shipwreck was 5 feet below the bottom of the boat. How clear is that water???It looks close enough to touch!

A much clearer view from the glass bottom. It’s amazing how much is left after 140 years submerged.

A historic lighthouse in Grand Island, in the Munising harbor. Was it a beautiful day or what?

I would love to do one of the kayak tours of these rocks – so beautiful! Maybe next time

All in all we visited the sites of three shipwrecks, all in shallow water. Between the scenery above and below the water it was a thoroughly enjoyable tour.

The children and I made a quick trip back to the hotel for lunch and to change into swim suits: the tour guide had pointed out a pretty sand beach nearby that I decided we should visit. Kids are a bit like dogs: they behave best and are happiest when they’ve had ample playtime / exercise!

Is that a pretty beach or what? I am so used to rock beaches on Lake Superior I was a bit disoriented by the sand and the pretty colors in the water from the shallower depths. It looked more like the Caribbean so I kept expecting salt spray!

In hindsight, I probably should have flipped my tours. The glass bottomed boat never leaves the protected waters of the harbor so it runs rain or shine – not so for the Pictured Rock tour boat. When we arrived at the ticket desk for the Pictured Rock tour, we were told that they would only do a 1/2 tour because of wind and waves – at 1/2 price. We wouldn’t see most of the rock formations or the Spray Falls but since we were leaving the next day, it was a 1/2 tour or nothing. We went for it.

The way the sky looked by the time we boarded the boat, I thought we might have a Gilligan’s Island scenario on our hands. I could see why they cut the tour short when we left the shelter of the harbor – with nearly 6 foot waves, it was more of a thrill ride than a tour. The children were howling with delight as waves slammed into the boat and spray hit us. We were some of the only people who stayed on the top deck the entire ride (in spite of rain).

This, Miner’s Castle, is the only formation we saw. I could hardly even get a picture with the boat tossing the way it was. The crew were busy handing out barf bags. What a change in weather from the morning!

After arriving safely back at dock, we tidied up before dinner, and then spent the rest of the evening at the hotel pool. The children swam while I warmed up in the sauna. It was cold on the boat!

When we left yesterday morning, the sky was dense with dark, gray clouds and the waitress at breakfast warned us away from the beaches because of wind and riptides. I guess we can consider ourselves lucky to have had such a nice day – and gee, I guess we’ll have to go back sometime and try that Pictured Rock tour again!

Considering just how much I hate to say goodbye to people, I seem to do it with great regularity.

Goodbye to friends and family in the US when I leave for Egypt; goodbye to friends in Egypt when I come to the US for a visit (or an evacuation!). Goodbye to friends in one place when I go to another. You get the idea.

Most of the time I can jolly myself out of the poignancy of the farewell by focusing on the good time ahead. It doesn’t always work so well when you have children who hate to say goodbye as much as their mother does or when you aren’t exactly sure what you are supposed to be focused on next.

Life is still uncertain.

Ah well, I have nothing to complain about really. Just feeling a bit blue because summer is once again over and we are still adrift.

Today we’ll focus on enjoying the beauty of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – a relatively easy task given what I’ve seen so far.

Summer is definitely on the wane here in northern Minnesota. It was 47F when I woke up this morning… brrrr! Time for me to head a bit further south – back to Ohio (at least for now). I am glad to say that in spite of iffy weather forecasts, we were able to have one last wonderful weekend before I leave tomorrow.

I take my children to the Alpine Slide at Lutsen Mountain once every summer – I am so lucky I have children to use as an excuse because I might look a bit odd spending the day out there zooming down the mountain on my own! It is such a fun thing to do. It had rained on Thursday night and was looking pretty cloudy and gray Friday morning but we lucked out because it was clear in Lutsen. The only thing we had a little trouble with was wind – they shut the ski lift down a few times because of it. It didn’t slow us down for long though. I always mean to count how many times we end up sliding and I always forget to do it when I’m caught up in the fun. We were there for a little more than four hours = LOTS OF SLIDES.

Saturday morning we headed out to an inland lake to play in the water. It was another beautiful day, though it was a bit chilly when clouds would pass by. I finally tried out the paddle board my step-mother bought this summer. I was doing pretty well standing and balancing on it until I tried to be cute and do some yoga poses on it. I’m lucky that she got pictures of the poses and not of the splash I made as I slipped off and fell in the lake!

Sunday’s weather was looking iffy again but we decided to go back to the lake anyway. Why not? It was cool enough when the clouds blew past that I wasn’t inspired to swim however – I stuck to my kayak and wore a fleece pullover!

The clouds rolled in thicker and thicker throughout the day, but we never felt even one raindrop.

What a beautiful end to a wonderful summer.

For anyone keeping track, I’ve gained at least five pounds this summer and the children have NOT finished the math workbooks I purchased for them to do for practice. So much for self-improvement. Oh well… there’s always tomorrow!

The summer has zoomed by… where does time go? We’re here in Minnesota for just a few more days before make our return trip to Ohio and then… well, the “then what” portion of my life is still up in the air.

So, instead of worrying about things I can’t control, I am distracting myself with fun stuff.

This week we stopped at a place I have passed countless times on my way up and down the North Shore: Kadunce River. Now that I’ve been, I can’t imagine why I waited so long to investigate.

There is a nice trail along the river that eventually connects up to the Lake Superior Hiking Trail system. We didn’t go that far, but you can believe that I’ll be back.

The children were more interested in playing in Lake Superior where the Kadunce River empties into it – it was a windy day and the waves were impressive.

I know it looks more like the Atlantic Ocean here, but you’ll have to take my word for it – this is actually Lake Superior. A man who arrived as we were leaving, wearing his wet suit and carrying a surf board! I can only imagine how frigid it must have been on such a windy day, but that didn’t deter my children one little bit. I had goosebumps just sitting on the shore watching them!

Have a great weekend – I intend to…

One thing I have really, really missed since we left Egypt so abruptly in February are my twice weekly yoga classes. I did eventually buy myself a yoga mat but I am just not disciplined enough to use it as frequently as I should when left to my own devices. I not only had a wonderful yoga teacher in Egypt, but she actually used to send me text messages demanding to know where I was if I ever missed class. As a consequence, I rarely did.

So when the urge to do a little yoga struck the other day, I decided I didn’t actually need a mat. Apparently a large rock will do in a pinch.

Good to know I can still do the stretches, though I doubt I could make it through a proper class anymore!

I don’t look too bad here but don’t let it fool you: I was doing pretty well on the whole gain-weight-in-the-summer issue until this week. It was the raspberries that did me in. I’m going to have to do a lot of rock yoga to peel off the pounds that have crept on…

My husband ran out of jam late last week and was reluctant to pay $$ for a small jar of organic jam at the local whole foods cooperative. Instead, I suggested we go pick some raspberries and I would make some.

It’s been a very good berry year – we spent nearly four hours picking berries in the brush and there are still tons to be had. It was hard to stop actually! It was only the mosquitoes and my aching muscles that forced me home. Just look as this bounty:

Who knew that picking berries could be such a good workout? The Warrior I yoga position (an extreme lunge) is a very good position for picking berries growing deep in the brush. You also get to practice good balance while doing the lunge on a rotting log lest you end up face first in the bushes!

Did I say it was a good berry year? It was really hard to make myself stop picking when I kept finding clusters of berries this big, so ripe they were practically jumping in my bucket!

I not only got a jar of jam out of our harvest…

We got a fantastic pie as well.

If I ate too much dessert this weekend, I have no one to blame but myself!

One of my favorite summer pastimes is haunting the local thrift stores in the town closest to where my father and his wife live. There are two: one only accepts slightly higher quality items and charges accordingly and the other is attached to the local recycling center so you just never know what you might find in there – some times you really have to wonder what people are thinking!

So far this summer I’ve found some real goodies in the recycling center shop: a snuggly pair of fleece pajama pants, a pair of new red leather sandals, a couple of vintage table cloths, and two ceramic tiles from Turkey (marked 1971 on the back) to name a few. All of those items cost me less that $5 together and I get a real warm, fuzzy feeling when I find something that I like for next to nothing. Talk about recycling!

I had a somewhat different experience this past week however. I went in to snoop around, just to see what treasures were there, and came across several bags of afghans. It’s no surprise to see a couple of afghans at a thrift store – you always see them. But this was four bags stuffed full which I could only assume came from the same donation. I started to wonder about the person who made the afghans. I knew an older lady in town who was a crocheting fiend and was always making afghans. Had she died? And if that was the case, did her family think so little of her hobby that they just gave away all of her hard work without a thought? Several of the afghans looked totally unused. There were two or three adorable baby afghans in the bags as well.

I was standing by the afghan bags, wondering what to do. I hated to leave them there but then again, I am not exactly in a position to start adopting afghans when I don’t have a home at present. I ran into a friend and I pointed them out to her. We started to dig and in the process I also found a full sized, handmade quilt. We pulled it out to look at it and another lady paused and shook her head. “That’s why I don’t give my quilts as gifts. If I made a quilt and it ended up in the thrift store for $.35 I would die.”

Happily, my friend agreed with her and she not only selected several pretty afghans but took the quilt as well. She probably paid $2 for all of them.

The incident disturbed me for several days and I couldn’t quite pinpoint why. I’ve often noticed groups of purses that seem similar in style and wondered if they’d been donated because someone died and it hasn’t bothered me the same way. I was simply thrilled if I found one I liked for next to nothing. I think the afghans bothered me because of the hand-crafted nature of these items. I too would die if one of the quilts I’d spent hours, days, months making ended up in a thrift store one day.

I suppose it boils down to a question of appreciation. It doesn’t really matter if the afghans end up in thrift store if they ultimately end up with someone who does appreciate them, even if they do only pay $.35 for them…right?

A friend of mine who teaches English as a second language has been recommending a book to me, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, for years. I trust her judgment and her taste so why have I resisted her suggestion? I guess it’s just perversity. I’ve been disappointed many times by books and movies with mass popular approval so I tend to resist or at least approach such things with extreme skepticism.

I still might not have ever read the books if my father hadn’t had a stack of them which had belonged to my grandmother. I had already run through my own stack of summer reading so I gave them a try.

As my friend so wisely predicted, I loved them. I’ve read seven of the series in just over a week.

Imagine a book that is a cross between the commonsense of Agatha Christie’s character Miss Marple and the cozy, slice of life portraits of English village life written by British author Angela Thirkell – only set in Botswana. Beautifully written, the books are much more about the “traditionally built” character of Mma Ramotswe and life in Botswana than they are about any serious mystery plot and I gobbled them down in short order.

(Apparently they appeal to lots of people the same way because when I looked on Amazon for the link to the books I see there is also a TV series and a movie tie-in book. Glad I didn’t know that before!)

Now my only problem is that I am out of fresh books to read and I still have a few weeks left of summer vacation…