Oops didn't realize the smudge on that first picture! We biked from
the "polder" to Villa Westend, another water area nearby, where we ice
skated this winter. About to cut into our very first watermelon since
TN last summer. Expectations aren't high for it, but we're feeling
very celebratory anyway. First day above 75 degrees in 2012!
Wow, some days just can’t get worse. Of course that’s hyperbole, given that I’m only facing a simultaneous work overload and hard drive crash. At least I’m not sick, or have chronic pain, or lost a loved one – sheesh, that really gives perspective.
So since perspective is the best medicine here, why not focus a blog post on some positive, funny, things going on around me. . . .
1. Last fall, I put some compost in a pot with a tiny rose bush plant that is in Nadine’s room. Up sprouted a squash or cucumber plant (always have a hard time telling the difference between the two). I noticed it was producing big organge blooms lately (ergo sqaush), but didn’t give it another thought. Nadine and I marveled at how pretty they were. THIS week, I’ll be darned if those blossoms didn’t turn into baby butternut squashes! How did they get pollinated? How is this little pot going to keep them going? Nadine and I marvelled a bit harder tonight as we counted 4 of them!
2. On the topic of gardening, on our rented plot, we’ve been weeding, and weeding, and weeding, and have 3 beautiful beds ready for warmer weather. In our back yard, half the bricks have been pulled up (a family affair – what fun!), and altthought it’s been nothing but sand for the past week, what a difference! It went from a very urban space to a beachy-like space. Next up, soil and greenery – big improvement on the homefront!
3. After trying (but mostly observing and quickly proclaiming, “no”), Nico seems to have found his sport. . . rugby! Thanks to his best friend and neighbor two doors down, whose father and brother play rugby, he got invited, and Danny and I were happy to see that he was actually interested in trying it out without our nudging (great start!). We watched him run, and run, and run in circles around the other kids, whose job it is to tackle those with the ball. Hardly anyone did. Every now and then he’d take a turn at tackling (the trainers take good care to teach them how to do this safely so that injuries don’t happen), and he loved that, too. Unlike American football, the game does not stop when the person carrying the ball falls to the ground. No, it becomes something of a big wrestling match – which is one of Nico’s favorite hobbies (thanks in large part to Granddad, right?). So the combination of running (avoiding getting caught) and wrestling on the ground appears to be a deadringer. He can’t wait for practice, and falls right to sleep those evenings. Another milestone!
4. Nadine has been taking a “song and dance” class the past 7 weeks, and today was the last one. The 10 or so kids put on a performance for family members, and I meandered over in my black cloud haze without even thinking about grabbing the camera. Not that it would have done it justice – what I needed was a video camera - Nadine shined! No fear of the spotlight (which I can’t fathom) – no, she just belted out each song and danced each step full of joy. At one point, she actually sang a little solo, which had me in tears. Granted, I was all too ripe for that release, but I was truly feeling happiness for my little girl, who loves to sing and dance, and isn’t afraid of being judged when entertaining others (that’s what I especially cannot fathom). I’ve heard other parents talk about this (including my mother) – when you witness your child doing something that you either couldn’t or wouldn’t do . . . it either brings up jealousy or sheer joy for your child. Man, I was definitely feeling the latter today, and aim to keep that up.
5. Nico brought home an odd report card a few weeks ago – top marks, far above national average for his age in math (we have never worked with him on the subject – he just loves it). And at the same time, a super low mark, far below national average for spelling. No big surprise there really. He dislikes spelling as much as he loves math, and getting him to study, or practice words at home is perhaps worse than pulling teeth for him (he always yanks them out the moment they feel loose, then waits m-o-n-t-h-s before the new one begins to push through). Yet, that low score got him motivated, and he aced both of his most recent “dictees” after practicing daily with us. Competitive spirit?
6. Nadine reminded me an awful lot of myself as a teenager last week (yikes! already?!) Her best friend, Maxime, came over after school Monday, and they asked if they could walk Daisy (our dog) “around the block”. We agreed on the rules (around the school only and no crossing roads except for the narrow one right in front of our house, where there’s a crosswalk). Next thing I know Maxime’s father rings the doorbell. I step outside with him and say,”they’re right around the corner – we’ll see them in a minute.” Then Nico walks by and I ask if he’s seen Nadine – “yeah, she said she was going to get Kelsey.” KELSEY!”?” he and I both yell out – because we both know that she lives across the Vergierdeweg, which is too big for 5-year olds to be crossing, even in Holland. And that was NOT part of our agreement. So we run around the (other) corner, toward Kelsey’s and there is Maxime and Daisy, waiting on our side of the big street (i.e. didn’t cross), and on the other side, Kelsey’s father is walking Nadine back across. Boy, was I relieved that I didn’t have to face Maxime’s father! But Nadine on the other hand . . . . well, she felt terrible, cried and promised she’d never do it again. I felt relieved she wasn’t hurt mostly, but also scared that she would be so daring as to break our clear agreement and do something dangerous like that. So the rest of the week, she experienced her first “grounding”and couldn’t have any playdates. You’d think we’d set a date for her execution . . . but she survived, and learned what I hope is a valuable lesson.
7. Danny and I recently had a marvelous weekend date – the kids spent both nights at Henk and Tiny’s. We visited Groningen, where we both went to grad school and met back in 1991. We walked from the train station to our old house on Ebbingestraat (30 minutes or so). What a waltz down memory lane! The highlight was having dinner at the only restaurant we could (then) possibly afford – a pizzeria with very cheap pizzas. Same name, but we couldn’t believe how much the place had been improved – it looked like a real restaurant, with modern touches everywhere – very comfortable. We’d always order plain cheese or maybe spring for mushrooms, if we felt we had some extra change in our pockets. So Danny ordered the mushroom pizza, and I was in the mood for pasta. The server tried her best to get us to order more expensive menu options, but we figured we’d be pleasantly surprised with whatever came our way. We were so WRONG! The food was horrible – pizza crust just like cardboard and my plate full of nothing but thick pasta had a salmon-like gravy poured over it. Yech! We laughed and laughed at the fact that we were no longer poor students, didn’t have to order cheap food anymore, could leave half our food and not feel bad about it (not this time anyway!), even left wine in our glasses (unheard of for us). Just to rub it in a bit more, we decadently asked our server to call us a taxi (! also NOT normally in our playbook!). So despite the very bad dining experience, we throughly enjoyed the opportunity to compare our lives then to now – both fun, but things have gotten more comfortable for sure. Good ole perspective.
O.K. I feel better now. I’ll include pictures next time. A hot bath is calling my name.
I do this after every trip “home” to Tennessee – I figure my bigger family is sufficiently caught up on me and my little family, and so upon my return to Haarlem watch several weeks go by without posting pictures and updates to this blog. Here it is end of February (leap day!), and I’m realizing that I have many stories that I’d have liked to have shared. Before I know it, spring will be here, and the pictures of us ice skating on the nearby lake will be o-l-d news. At the moment, I’m tempted to work backwards, and maybe I’ll just do that.
This week has been one Danny and I have been waiting for two years – at least it seems. With the kids having only a 6 week-long summer break, that means throughout the year, they have about 3 extra mini-breaks that each last one week. Since our move, Oma and Opa have allowed us to work on our “settling in” process and taken the kids on several trips, mostly family vacation parks with a focus on either swimming or animals. They come back full of fun stories leading Danny and I to feel like we missed out on something important. Indeed we did – time with just the four of us is a very rare thing, given that most of our vacation time is spent visiting one or another’s homeland and missed family members.
So, this “crocus vacation” (last week of February) we set off to enjoy 7 full days of just one another in the relatively nearby Ardenne mountains of Belgium. And enjoy we did! To our surprise, there was no internet connection in the very spacious red cabin we rented. Can’t recall the last time that happened . . . and though it was a big mental adjustment in the beginning, we quickly realized the benefits of being truly disconnected.
The only real down sides was that we forgot our hiking guides and had no way of quickly checking the weather. So we were reintroduced to old fashioned maps, looking out the window, and asking lots of questions to locals (which Danny does in quite good French to all of our delight). Best of all, no work-related distractions!
As a result, we felt totally relaxed, and the kids got our full attention. Almost all of our time was spent walking in the woods, playing games, building with legos, drawing, enjoying local products (primarily cheese, beer, and the occasional best “frites” on the planet), cooking and eating delicious slow food dinners, sweating in the sauna downstairs, building fires in the wood stove, working puzzles, and taking a few trips, e.g. to a nearby village to see ruins of an ancient castle and where over-the-top caramelized crepes were sampled, and to a nearby indoor swimming pool. It’s remarkable to me (and telling!) how the t.v. was hardly (requested to be) turned on. Even MORE remarkable was how the sun shone our last full day, March 1, and it was warm enough to play games and eat dinner on the spacious deck – without sweaters!
As usual, the pictures can do all the rest of the talking . . .
Who am i? Partner of one, mother of two, daughter of two, sister of one, daughter-in-law to two, sister-in-law to two, niece to two, and aunt to three. Do I have family on the mind these days, or what?
