Settling In

Thursday brought a sense of normalcy and routine following our settling in day. Up with the family, preparing the children for daycare and school, making Keira's lunch, saying farewell to the parents scurrying off to work, and heading out the door to walk with Keira to school...and all before 8:30. Cayden is not convinced that time at daycare should be part of his day. He's gone with Mom, nonetheless!
With their new home and a much shorter walk to Holy Trinity Church of England Junior School, I was back home in no time; Observations from the school yard... school uniforms of crisp green/grey and white make the decision of what to wear a non debate; hair longer than touching the shoulder requires either pigtails or ponytails...on Thursday, ponytails won out! Children accompanied by guardian or parent wait at the school gate until 8:40, allowing for supervised yard play for 15 minutes prior to first bell. I was most impressed as my 7 year old granddaughter introduced me friends and classmates, explaining that I was a visiting grandparent from Canada.
The settling in process means a walk to the High Street to check out changes that have occurred. As in Canada, Blockbuster is gone! In its place...Domino Pizza has arrived! There are still lots of small lunch spots and coffee shops to visit. Costa and Starbucks seem to be the nationally recognized brands. For grocery shopping, Sainsbury has the largest store in Marlow, followed by Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. With refrigerators that are about 33% of the size of North American standards, grocery shopping is almost a daily routine! Online shopping/delivery is routine here. Ordered in the evening, the groceries are delivered the following day at the established time...5 minutes or more late means the shopper gets a £20 credit for the next order. Now there's a model that Garfield Weston should emulate!
The Marlow weather over the first few days has been quite similar to what our Ottawa friends have been experiencing. a lot fog in the morning, quickly burning off and presenting warm days with blue skies. Daytime temperatures have been in the 18-20 degree range. Late afternoons/early evenings have been spent playing on the 'green', a large open space across the road from the house. The new house has provided a wealth of neighbours and similar aged children with whom Keira and Cayden get to play. This is a significant departure from their previous residence, where they found themselves to be the only children.
We are quickly learning routines that will need to be followed when the childcare role commences in earnest! In addition to the regular items, there are school related and after school activities with schedules that need to be adhered to. The good news is that for the most part all activities are within walking distance from home. The daily routines include accompaniment of the children to and from daycare and school. I should be wearing Marion's "Fit Bit" to track what has become a much increased daily number of steps!
Now that daily routines are established, we move into our first weekend...and preparation for parent departure to Jamaica. The real purpose of the first leg of this trip is about to commence!