November 23, 2009
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{gothic playground}
We love to cycle into town & run around this cloister garden. It’s a lovely quiet spot where locals take their lunch breaks & there are always tourists snapping pictures.
Today though, {surprise!} it’s raining. Terribly. There are a few things that trigger homesickness: days upon days of rain is one of them. Ah well…
So while I’m not the biggest fan of Thanksgiving, I do always miss being home. The autumn weather, spending the day with my family & of course! Eating all of the super yummy vegetarian sides. We tend not to travel over for it because typically we go for a big trip in December {which is coming up!}
This year a few of us ‘mericans are getting together for a potluck. These are the times when I am truly grateful for the group of non-Dutchie girlfriends I’ve made {who, btw, did a wonderful job at making sure I drank enough Thursday night}.
This week we are meeting 2 young college students from Viet Nam to talk about hanging out with Little Man a few hours per week to play & speak Vietnamese! I’m also going to get tutored a bit. We are hoping to make our first return trip when Little Man is 5, so if I want to get down some basic phrases, I better start now ;) We are excited at the prospect of our guy hearing Vietnamese on a somewhat regular basis & these students seem quite enthusiastic.
Last week we got our expected letter from the local health department with the schedule for H1N1 immunizations for all children 1-5 years old in the country. Each city is doing it by postal code- we are scheduled for tomorrow between 10-11 at a huge convention center downtown. I can’t wait to experience the chaos!
Did I mention that it’s raining?
November 20, 2009
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Little Man
Hans
Good health
Happy marriage
Family
My dearest friends
Living in Holland
Living in The United States
Being a vegetarian
Flowers
Trees
Travel
Love
Our home
Our cats
Oceans
Voting
Children
Ice cream
Chocolate
Kindness of strangers
My AP blogging mommies
Art
Frida Kahlo
Big East Coast American cities
Europe
Viet Nam
Freckles
Animals
Autumn leaves
Snow
Seashells
People who donate money & time to good things
Small Blessings
The sun & moon
Books
Belgian beer
Color
Rain
Music
Mommyhood
What have I learned in 41 years {or at least am still trying to}? Sweating the small stuff really is a waste of energy. Taking a deep breath helps. Passing judgment without knowing facts is not cool. Pointless complaining sucks. Patience really can be a virtue. Being truly grateful for what I have. There is at least one Blessing every single day {in addition to my beautiful son}. Turning 41 isn’t so bad.
November 12, 2009
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Thank you for the well wishes!
{hans gifted me with this beautiful spool of ribbon (& yogurt covered strawberries…& rose napkins) }
We celebrated St. Maarten’s day- the neighborhood kids carried their lanterns & sang at the doors; grownups passed out candy. Hans took Little Man out with his beautiful little lantern from Hanoi & I stayed home on candy-duty. Little Guy got a big kick out of it all- had it down quite fast! Go to door, sing, get candy. Funny though, he had no interest in eating any of it…probably because he doesn’t really know what candy is {!} I saved a few pieces & hid them away for an occasional treat {uhm for him, not me…}
2 of our friends were sweet enough to hang out at the house so Hans & I could go out to dinner. It was sooo nice to sit quietly, have a few drinks, eat yummy food & talk. Of course, it was mostly about how cool our little boy is :)
{a very blurry shot from our front balcony of the kiddies with lanterns}
November 11, 2009
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{3 years today}
{& counting}
{I married the best guy eva}
***
Today also marks 8 years since I moved to the Netherlands. 8 years. Despite all of my traveling before that move, I never imagined I would actually be living here. In Holland.
{me, in ireland visiting family one month after arriving in holland. i dragged hans with me & my parents met us there as well. i remember clearly on this particular trip i was riding high on being excited & completely freaked out}
(2 months in}
{my first oma fiets}
{so carefree it seems!}
{really…}
{i (half) kid to him that we never have a selection of good pictures of us because he’s always doing something weird with his face}
{i could go on but a certain best guy eva might get annoyed}
{okay. 1 more because it’s super mushy & there’s no weird face. us dancing @ our second wedding in the US 2 weeks after the civil ceremony in NL}
xox
November 10, 2009
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The days are flying by & overnight it seems as though everyone is getting into holiday mode. It’s doubly dangerous for us because the yearly Dutch holiday sweets start now & that means I’ll be tempted daily straight through from here to the States to the end of December.
Pepernoten, Speculaas, Olie ballen…they are all making an appearance everywhere we turn {!}
Then endless homemade Italian Christmas cookies courtesy of my mother…
We are looking forward to sharing the season with Little Man in two countries. The arrival of Sinterklaas here {& my angst over the Piets…I am still struggling with how to ignore them}, a party with Hans’ family, & Santa Claus in the US with mine…the lights, music, decorations. Yay! Hopefully I won’t gain too much weight. The only inspiration I have to be mindful is the fact we will be spending part of our trip on the beach; therefore I’ll be digging out my bathing suit.
***
{there were blue skies on saturday but not today}
{lovely flowers from my guys to brighten up the rainy day}
November 8, 2009
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{squeezing as much productivity into a studio day as possible}
{4 snowy white &}
{metallic on one side}
{bright flowers on}
{the other }
{sweet pillow covers}
Now if I could get some more sleep
Wear my hair in something other than a ponytail {when it’s down, Little Man looks @ me kind of strange as if he doesn’t recognize me}
& funny, while sorting the laundry the other day, I noticed that the 2 guys had more clothes that needed washing than me. That means a: they are blowing through too many items or {more likely} b: I am wearing too many repeats. These would be articles with clay, cracker crumbs & other food things ground into them.
no complaints :)
