Another non crafty post. Just a quick update on what has been going in my corner of the world.
Hard to believe its March already. Wow. And around here in Ontario, we are a week away from March Break for the kids. Laura is anxiously awaiting to here from a couple of universities she applied for. she heard back from one already. Dave and I are finishing up packing up my mom's apartment, next up is arranging a storage locker and movers to transport her belongings.
It was strange packing up her apartment. Packing up someone's life, and she is still alive but unable to make the decisions of what stays and goes. And all the photos I have found has me excited and overwhelmed. I have about 4 large boxes full of photos and memorabilia. We have photos not just from my sister's and my childhood and onward, we have heritage photos from my grandparents, great grandparents. All kinds of memorabilia such as immigration papers from both my parents (they came over separately and met here in Canada), letters my dad wrote to my mom when they were pen-pals (he lived in Houston, B.C., my mom in Brockville, Ontario). Last weekend I came across the last letter my dad received from his best friend just before his friend was picked up by the Nazis and subsequently died in a concentration camp, Unfortunately it is completely in Dutch, I need to find someone to translate it for me and the other stacks of letters written by my grandparents. Sorting through these boxes and organizing everything, is a huge project that I will be working on for a long long time. Being the scrapbooker and having always been fascinated in old photos and documents, it is an exciting project that I am most definitely looking forward to.
Last weekend we took the kids to Woodstock with us to visit my mom and help with some of the packing. At the end of the day they were fighting over this object pictured below. This little treasure has been used as an umbrella stand for as long as I can remember. It has always sat by the door to the home we were currently living in. I knew what it was and thought it one of the coolest things ever. My kids have always seen it, but never knew what it was. I handed it to the kids and asked them what they thought it was, Daniel right away said, "It's a mortar shell casing!" Ding Ding!!! We have a winner. My dad picked this up in Holland. Not sure if he picked it up after or during the war. I am sure there were hundreds of these laying around at the time. We know it is an allied mortar shell since the writing is in English on the bottom. And the kids fighting over who gets this item ensued. I ruled for now it will be in a common area of the house.
Hopefully by the end of this weekend the apartment will be completely packed up and ready for storage. When this is done that will be one huge item on my long to do list scratched off.
Thank you for visiting my little corner of the blogging universe. I would love to hear from you!!
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