Saturday evening our friends invited us  to their house for some time out of the house with the kids playing in the garden and an early dinner. She said her mom, Theres, would be providing the food!  Her mom brought a beautiful spread of cheeses, smoked fish and bacon, bread, vegetable soup and a wonderful strawberry rhubarb dessert!  The boys played with their buddy Anna in the garden and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. By dinner time they were covered in sand and had to be hosed down. It was a really nice afternoon and a much needed break from our prepping for the packers. We felt so spoiled and taken care of!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daniela’s mom kindly agreed to share her recipe for the wonderful dessert! I will get back on here soon and share it! Saturday we are picking strawberries so I may wait until Sat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And as if this didn’t spoil us enough Daniela is the one who took the boys yesterday and brought dinner. And our friend Merve is delivering dinner tonight. Some other friends, Karen and Andy are having us tomorrow night to get us out and away from the boxes.  It’s funny because when I wrote this post a few weeks ago I was writing it about us taking meals, it never crossed my mind that we might need them. It has been such a blessing this week when I feel like I am wiped out and distracted. It’s going to be so hard to say goodbye to our friends!

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No worries, we are still alive and well! Last week was dominated by garage sale prep and squeezing in outside time whenever it wasn’t raining. We have had a rainy few weeks and we are some sunshine and shorts weather. I see people writing about Spring coming to an end in the US and we haven’t really seen ours yet. On top of the “waiting on Spring funk” Owen has temporarily launched back into his 5 AM wake ups. I say temporarily because it just can’t go on. We have gotten through it before and I know it is somewhat teething related. This too shall pass, but we are tired!

Here are a few pictures from last week….

 

 

 

 

 

 

cereal is much more fun when it is crushed and poured while mommy is busy cooking and distracted

 

 

 

 

 

 

these shutters were on an old farm house we passed on a walk…wouldn’t they look beautiful on my wall. I wonder how much the farmer would want for them?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

beware of these leaves!! They cause and itchy reaction with white welts. we know from experience.Luckily our friend knew exactly what herb to pick to rub on it and relieve some of the reaction!

 

 

 

 

 

 

eew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

amazing view!

 

 

 

 

 

 

cookies to sell at the garage sale!

 

 

 

 

 

 

the garage sale was semi-successful, we sold all of our big stuff but had lots of little stuff left. We plan to put out a table at the upcoming neighborhood sale that we just learned about! After that it’s off to goodwill!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and on Sunday morning after our long week when we thought we couldn’t go on we were serenaded by this spectacular house band that revived us for a new week!

ps-more coming this week!  House updates from back home as well as a post I have been working on about taking meals to friends!

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Following our family bowlathon we headed to Brussels. The boys did great and the ride was relatively uneventful. Well until just before we arrived. Twenty minutes from Brussels as the boys began to be really antsy and STARVING a car to the left of us hit a guard rail and began flipping in front of us. The car was completely crushed but the girl was pulled from the car and able to “walk” away from it. We were all very shaken up and obviously very thankful to be alive. It all went in slow motion.  And I highly recommend saying all of those meaningful things to family when you are not in the middle of a traumatic situation because you really are kind of focused on staying alive.

Back to Brussels… Our friends the Burke’s lent us their house complete with a black lab (and their Colombian maid that stayed to care for the dog). We didn’t use the maid but the boys loved pretending that they had a dog for the week. We stayed in Brussels the entire time and took day trips throughout the area. It was so nice to have a cozy home to come home to a cook normal meals in the evenings. After our day in Brussels Owen was obsessed with “fwench fwies” and waffles. He was disappointed to have eat normal food in the evenings.

We spent a very chilly, rainy day exploring the city in Brussels. Here are a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

super super long baguettes

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the waffles…

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the chocolates…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

some like to savor chocolates….some just go for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

tintin reminds me of my brothers…they used to read them when we were in boarding school. I hope our boys like the books too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“it’s right there, can’t you see it?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this statue was much smaller in real life than we imagines. Jackson thought it was pretty silly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

he was puzzled by the giant chocolate version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

time outs occur even in Europe despite all of the recent media about European parenting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I will try to hop on and share our day in Brugg. It was probably our favorite city so far!

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When Seth mentions a trip for some reason as soon as I am over being bummed that he will be gone I launch into my list of what I should try to accomplish while he is away.  I am confused at how I plan on accomplishing more with less help but somehow I think free evenings will help me accomplish superwoman achievements. What on earth gives me the desire to surprise him with a potty-trained child, losing 5 lbs from not cooking him great meals, complete classes for my continuing ed, host a tea, work on DIY projects, finish articles for a deadline with World Moms and continue to keep up with normal life stuff without my super husband?!? Well, this week I have been oscillating between supermom and damsel in distress.  I am embarrassed to say leaning much more towards the damsel in distress.

There have been moments of: icing mini lemon cupcakes for a tea with a crying baby on my leg; being up all night for 2 nights with a very sick baby;  taking long walks to wear out energetic boys; letting the boys stay in their pj’s extra long; a half completed continuing ed class; hardly any fresh veggies; little sleep (wait I already mentioned that); silly boys telling terrible knock knock jokes and getting a good laugh; a kids kitchen that has been nagging me for a DIY marathon; more sunshine than last week!!!; lots of yoga pant days; wanting to cry when I hear Seth has stepped foot in Trader Joe’s and target without me and LOTS of missing Seth and missing being there to make big decisions on the house.

Enough complaining!! Twice now my friend Daniela has offered to have the boys. On wed she walked them to the zoo. It allowed me to get a few things done without people on my legs!  She has been a God send. Today we are working on getting into the doctor. Our doctor is not working this week so hopefully we will get in easily somewhere else and Owen will be on the mend soon.

Only one more day until Seth makes it back home! Hope he skips the movies on the plane and takes advantage of the sleep!! I might be flying off to a deserted island when we meet him at the airport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps- the great news is that spring is coming!!!  This is a picture I took last year….reminds me of what is to come!

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