Monthly Archives: July 2012
a momentous birthday
Certainly eighteen is that. And yet, as tremendous as this milestone is, it passed in a fashion fitting our Alannah. It was peaceful, unassuming, simple, sweet.
If you have yet to raise up a child to adulthood I can tell you this. It is much like standing on the pier. All your work, your prayers, your hopes and fears, all lead you to this place where together you bid farewell to shores of childhood and turn to gaze out upon this vast ocean that is their future in this big world. Sometimes this voyage begins in a storm of independence. Sometimes it is more floating out to sea. Sometimes it involves a bit of ebbing and flowing for a bit, going out into deeper waters each time. It just depends.
This journey is as unique and individual as we all are. I feel blessed to have watched it all unfold for a fourth time, my first with a daughter.
I had not expected to be sick the day before her birthday. There was a little scrambling the day of. We cooked together. Spinach salad, penne pasta with snap peas, perfectly marinated turkey breast. Recipe below though I will tell you she mostly humored us with the penne since she eschews most things with strong flavors.
Pasta and Sugar Snap Pea Salad
2 ounces penne pasta
3 ounces sugar snap peas (about 1 cup)
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp canola oil
¼ tsp grated gingerroot
¼ bell pepper. cut into short, thin strips
¼ small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro
the landing
Growing older and growing up
Please join us for some recent thoughts on both over at Suscipio:
http://www.suscipio4women.com/2012/07/25/one-big-frothy-mess/
(no Internet at home yet)
crossing the channel
Calais to Dover courtesy of Alannah.
We crossed the channel two ways. Moira and I intended to fly ahead of the rest of the family to open the house and get beds set up etc. When we arrived at the airport we learned our flight was delayed… by 8hrs. So she and I settled into the little Ryan Air airport for the better part of the day while the others drove to Calais. In the end, we arrived at the house at exactly the same time, all of us with stories to tell.
Here is theirs…
The ferry was like a floating parking garage with restaurants, shopping, and play areas.
lunch……. what else?
the white cliffs of Dover
still hopping on the tree
Summer daylight lingers long this far north, making it hard to convince children the day is done. This evening with no rain kept big and small outdoors while I was inside beginning to dress little people for bed. Their daddy came back to fetch them out again to show us what he and the boys had found in the tree outside the window, a beautiful ring-necked pheasant roosting just overhead.
Our landlord tells us the bird has long been resident in that tree. Owing to this tenure, Allen discussed rules for good neighbors with the children. No pestering of the bird will be tolerated he explained. He was here first after all.
I am so glad he has decided to stay.
"In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see,
the bird still hopping on the tree,"
from Bed in Summer, Robert Louis Stevenson
special delivery
Look what arrived at the door today…
Ok just kidding. (But hey a pun lol! ; )) Yeah, I am a little punchy. That was the girls discovering the mail slot in the front door which they thought was quite cool. Bigger news was that today the movers arrived with our things. It was a very full day – the movers and we were begging for mercy tuckered out by 5pm after 8 or 9 straight hours of unloading. End result is that all the furniture is reassembled and set up in all the rooms and we are functional.
Only glitch was the bookcases did not fit well so the book unpacking will be a little tricky. We have radiators on most walls and windows on the rest. So my large IKEA cases were a no-go. We will be scouring yard sales for smaller cases to disperse throughout the house. Around here the boxes are all full of china and books. Do people buy other stuff? <g>
Alannah and I found their cardboard trail very funny. Have I mentioned we are easily amused? It's the little things folks. That's how you get through yucky days. Find something to laugh about. <g>
Speaking of which. Funniest thing I unpacked today? Rice. Like…… this paper wrapped handful of loose dry rice. Hello?
Oh and a side note – I have always tried to answer every blog comment personally by private email but it is taking FOREVER to load pages on my phone. So if you leave a comment, please check back there in the next day or so and I will try to respond to things there in one fell swoop. I hate that. Just so you know. But I hate it when bloggers don't respond to comments either and never wanted to be that. So just bear with me til we sort out the internet issues. Best I can do right now. : /
There are about 5000 phone calls, appointments, forms, and miscellaneous 'things-to-be-done' involved in an overseas relocation. Someone asked where we were in that process. Well, somewhere around #3000 I think. <g>
Although we are still in Europe, all of our outlets are different so none of the appliances work here. The car has to have a light kit installed within a few days to make the lights tilt the other direction since we drive on the other side of the road. At this point only one of us is currently driving in this fine land. I need to do this. I need. to. do. this. But gosh darn, it feels really odd going the other way on these narrow roads. I didn't much like driving in my own country for that matter. And on that note I have to take my new drivers exam this week. Wish me luck…
The telephone and computer will not be fully set up for a few weeks. We got new cell phones (those don't transfer either) but it seems all our machines will have limited internet access. I am ok with that. In fact I think it's a blessing. After accounting for online school reporting and mail, it definitely curtails surfing to next to nil. No matter what they tell you – ignorance is too bliss. I mean it <g>
( a new hat to go with my new digs ; ))
We are still figuring out all of our doors and have had to release a couple kids who were stuck inside rooms. Every door has a different handle, mostly wonderful old Bakelite turn knobs with cast iron plates and skeleton keys. They don't all shut right and some need a good shove to open again. And I actually really love all the above. <g>
The garden is shared with a large population of plump pigeons which lends a park-like feel to the place. They are mostly sedate though when you jog along the lane you flush them out of the trees which is a little startling. We have also seen a few pheasants in the yard and near the trees in the fields.
Tomorrow morning the movers arrive with our household goods and we return the loaner things to the base. It will be a good thing to get this over with quickly, but I admit I am not looking forward to this part. We worked very hard to organize on the other end however and I will let you know how that works out on this end. You know, in the spirit of, "If you can't be a good example at least be a horrible warning." : )
meeting the horses
Although Julie Andrews suggests we start at the very beginning, I am jumping into our English adventure somewhere later. These pictures sum up the past few days which have been thoroughly exhausting, mentally and physically, but which ended with this – a little girl at the side yard fence, showing me which one she likes best. The mares are named now (never mind what names they may have had previously ; )) and have already begun to hurry over when they see Moira come outside, knowing she comes bearing gifts of apples or carrots.
Our long, tiring journey ended here, in the garden of an old Georgian farmhouse on an organic grain farm. It is very like being dropped into a James Herriot novel and I feel incredibly blessed for the peace found in the evenings exploring this rambling place. I hope you will enjoy exploring with us.
temporarily
We packed up our home last week and have been in a temporary furnished rental until we leave. It has been a bit of a culture shock for us all since it is right on the main street of a much larger town. When you say "on" the main street in Germany that means you have the street, then the sidewalk (no grass between) and the wall of the house juts straight up from the edge of the sidewalk. The master bedroom is streetside, downstairs so its a little unsettling to hear the sirens and trucks roar by within feet of the bed.
The house is decorated in a, um, global theme. There are buddhas, African tribal statues, Chinese vases and a certain glass tubed contraption used for herbal inhalation of semi legal substances. ahem
the shower has its own remote control. I swear it looks ready to beam you up. There are lights in the ceiling – blue and yellow flashing lights. Ceiling of the shower that is. Along with the radio.
this is the groovy upstairs lounge.
this is the toy environmentally friendly washer. When you open it you see the above.
When you press the button it unbuckles and looks like the below pic. You fill it and close it back up to wash. It actually works well for all six items of clothing you wash.
You just need to be patient because those numbers indicate how long the wash cycle takes. : )
And this man is in the back yard. Why not?
Starry Sky Journal 