Saturday errands

Today was one of those unspectacular and banal, but also important days of getting ready for what the French call "La Rentrée" (the start of the school year). In my past 13 years in France, I have observed that the lull and calm pace of summer is suddenly transformed into hyperspace speed in early September. Now that I'll have 2 kids in school in just a couple of days, I understand the shift even more.

My agenda today included:
--Vacuuming the apartment while the family was in the park.
--Banking.
--Getting my monthly travel card going for this month after having cancelled it for June, July, and August.
--Buying a new swimsuit for the swim classes, as my one of the past 3 years is on its last leg.
--Buying a new money belt, which I carry my wallet and cell phone in when I'm travelling in Paris and beyond.
--Buying backpacks for our 2 kids who'll start school.
--Buying a TV channel box for the TNT cable coverage that our apartment building now has.
--Trying to hook up the box, then realizing that I needed another trip to the store to get the connectors.
--Light grocery shopping at Auchan.
--Mixing and feeding mix vegetable cereal to our 7 month old for supper.
--Loading and running the dishwasher.
--Receiving a phone call from Miriam, a German friend who lives in our neighborhood and who is holding one of our sets of keys.

Yesterday's blog entry ended prematurely with one of our kids waking up and needing attention. Yesterday's projects included:
--Sorting and organizing mail from the last 3 months.
--Telephoning our health insurance company, then writing a follow up letter to them and asking them to reconsider physical therapy charges for my wife, as the provider is an actual licensed physical therapist (in French, it's "masseur kinésithérapeute").
--Receiving phone calls from Tricia (our church's new intern whom I'm overseeing) and Jim Beise of la Fonderie.
--Banking.
--Answering the door for Antoinette, a French friend who helped water our plants this summer and who dropped of our second set of keys.

It's good to have these days to get some of our lives in order before our son starts school on Monday and our older daughter on Tuesday. We'll also register our baby daughter for the Monday morning swim sessiions and our other two for an afternoon session on either Tuesdays or Fridays. We'll need to be thinking about a birthday party for our nearly 3 year old daughter, as her birthday is September 12.

It's good to realize that God is here during the banal days, as well as during the more exciting days. I hope that the preparation during these less exciting days somehow helps things go smoother during the more exciting days.