1.  Fall planning in full swing here.  

Fall planning is making my head hurt.  I realize sports are inevitable and even likely have redeeming qualities as well. 

Probably. 

I am not relishing the prospect of filling our week up with "must be there by" times and places however. 

2. We have landscaping.  

This is new.  Try as we may have there was precious little of that on the raw prairie. What little there was got systematically beaten back by chickens and wind.  Here we have beds however, which I am endeavoring to weed and maintain. The first sweep through of the weeds was brutal.  They had a whiteknuckled grip on the soil and some we could only hope to cut at the root as deeply as we could dig.  We cleared the bed and I made a mental note to revisit it each week, only to wake up the next morning and find dozens of baby weeds sprouting. Dang. But the pleasant surprise was that these little upstarts had spindly little roots and came right up with gentle hoeing.  

I am sure there are myriad analogies here.  Does anyone else think of scripture while gardening?

3. Overheard this week:

"I am going into the wardrobe to see if I come out in Narnia!" We have ten wardrobes in lieu of closets.  Our boys have read a lot of books.  Enough said. ; )  Unless you want to hear about my awesome family closet.  I did it.  I love it. 

4. The bird watching has really ratcheted up several notches here, though not in the ways I expected. 

 Green and trees = birds.  That was a given.  Killer birds?  Bit of a surprise. 

It started with a walk on one of the miles of bike/foot trails.  When the girls and I came back to the village an American teen passed and mentioned that there had been several attacks on that trail by some very territorial birds of prey.  We took it with a grain of salt til I was chatting with my neighbor who had gone jogging on the same trail days later. Her husband was far ahead and something hit the back of his head, knocking him off his feet.  He turned to see a hawk-like bird coming back with talons outstretched. Had a bloody gouge out of the back of his head to prove it. : / 

When we moved to this village last week we ventured onto another trail.  This one has a sign which I am pretty sure says – Beware of Killer Bird. <g>  There is a large home in the village with a massive bronze sculpture of a prey bird mounted out front. I am sure there are some good stories here someplace.  Stay tuned!  

5. Mmmm, mmm, gouda.  

Happily rediscovering Dutch cheeses.  I am ruined for cheddar.  Which reminds me of our last stay here.  A friend of mine from Holland had come for a few days. I fed her cheddar.  She looked at the plate with a puzzled expression and said, "What is that?"  I said, "Cheese."  She says, "Why is it ORANGE??"  ah the fun that is cross cultural relationships lol. 

6.  Also rediscovered Gilad of Bodies in Motion.  Anyone else do cable fitness in the 90's?  The video shop on base has several of his dvds and I picked one up remembering watching the show back in the day.  I do not remember feeling this way the day after watching the show back in the day.  Owwwwww.  

7.  

"I'm looking for a miracle in my life
and if you could see
what it's done to me..."

– Moody Blues 

Look for them. They are there.  God bless!