Reflections as we move from Old Log Ct.

This evening I finally tackled the corner cabinet in the kitchen that has held baby bottles and pacifiers for 8 years now. I knew I needed to throw them away instead of move them. I’ve thrown loads of stuff away as we moved, old clothes, old toys, art work, knick-knacks, etc. However, throwing away the baby bottles is what made me actually shed a tear. This move is the end of the baby error. We are moving into our big, grown up house with our complete family of 5. I’m so thankful for Ellie, Max and Clair. They are everything.

As we build up to this move, I’ve been completely stressed out because of the inability to plan and control this. The builder is delayed and that has royally messed things ups. That said, I also haven’t been able to control my reaction to this situation; I’ve been a mess. I am sorry to my family for this.

Today I was determined that in the midst of this chaos, I would do something fun with the kids to help remind them (and me) I’m their Mom who loves them and likes playing with them. I think we accomplished this. The kids and I tried out the local trampoline park this morning after a treat at Starbucks. It was a nice time. I jumped with them. Ellie did lots of flipping. Clair and Max bounced around. It was a grand morning.

We briefly returned to packing in the afternoon. During this time I asked Ellie to clean out here art cabinet. She was moving so slow, examining each treasure she found. I kept trying to rush her forward, without much success I will say. I could tell it saddened her. I wanted to be able to give her all the time in the world; and I just don’t feel like I can. We talked about this a little. I asked her if I was mean. She just looked at me. I told her she could be honest. She said, “Sometimes.” I tried to explain why I rush through everything. The reason I gave was because Mommy is always trying to get a lot of stuff done because I’m a Mommy and I have to work. As I said it, I realized how silly and unreasonable it must sound to an 8 year old, and Ellie is a smart and patient 8 year old. I worry about the precedence I’m setting for my kids. I want them to live a life that isn’t as rushed as mine.  I am worried I will never slow down until I have too, and that my kids will reflect and do the same. I pray they choose a more relaxing path. But then again, perhaps the rush could just go away and I could just get less accomplished. I need to find that balance because in all honesty, I need more mornings playing with my kids. I don’t do it enough.

After packing we did visit some friends for an evening of swimming and relaxing. Everyone had a great time and I am so grateful for that opportunity and to be pulled as a family from the work and the crazy that is at home with boxes everyone.

So, back to moving….

I have such mixed emotions about moving. This house has so many memories for me. It is where I brought two of my three children home from the hospital. It is where they all learned to walk. It is where we have had late nights, many Christmases, visits from Granmpa Bob, where Vonita and Stanley and Grandma and Grandpa were able to come to some of their first birthday parties. This house is where they have started school, road their bikes on the same paths that I did, made friends with people I’ve known for 25 plus years, and so many more little things. Not to mention, this house was a home to me as a teenager in the midst of all the crazy I felt. There was a corner in the bathroom that had not only my kids’ heights as they age, but also Robert, Gino and Mikey’s. I am saddened to leave all this behind. Yet, in the midst of it all, I am trying to remember why I started this journey of looking at housing and thinking about moving – allergies, out of the woods, less projects, be near town, my office, David’s space, etc. Right now it all feels crazy. But as we embark on this train that started rolling many months ago, I pray for God to guide me as a Mom and our family. I pray that this choice we are making is the right journey.

Max says he’s excited.

Ellie is excited, but doesn’t want to leave the fish.

Clair doesn’t want a new house, doesn’t want to leave the fish, and no longer wants to sleep in her bed. This is hard for her.

I think it’s hard for everyone, and yet we will press on. To new adventures down the street! I can only imagine if we were moving far away. I’d probably need some medication J

Summer of 2016 Trip: Iceland, Scotland and Ireland

The big trip.... where to start. First, I wish I would've written down more stories. But, since I didn't, I did make a quick list of highlights, low-lights and lessons learned from our 3 week international adventure with our young family - Ellie 8, Max 6, and Clair 3. There's a good chance I won't go back to tell any stories, so here goes the bullet-ed list. (Let my project manager shine!)

Highlights:

• Each and every playground from Iceland and throughout Scotland was a treasure to the kids. Kids traveling can take such little culture and make something of it. Instead, it's doing the everyday fun things with Mommy and Daddy, whilst seeing how they are different in different places that really does make them happy.
• Falkirk Wheel was impressive with it's engineering and the kids enjoyed the activities there such as walking on water, driving water boats, and of course a playground.
• Cilzean Castle followed by dinner in Ayr by the sea was definitely my most memorable day with the kids. David was so excited to take the kids there and made sure they had loads of time to explore caves, rocks, water puddles, and the ocean underneath the castle. It was picture perfect and really adventurous. Ellie and Max enjoyed puddle jumping in their wellies and seeing in the caves. They were so proud of themselves. Clair went with the flow and enjoyed the exploring as well. I enjoyed taking loads of gorgeous photos. Grannie enjoyed showing the kids a special place she used to take Dolan and David. Great fun and highly recommended.
• Kids spending extra time doing the day to day with Grannie in Scotland was special. They each enjoyed an opportunity to bake something at Grannies. Ellie made amazing chocolate chip cookies, Max Spider man cookies, and Clair some delicious fairy cakes. 
• The moderate temperatures for July couldn't have suited our family better. We hate the heat and were glad to be out of the hot and humid Maryland temperatures for July, enjoying 60s and 70s.
• We visited a new country, even for David and me. Seeing Iceland and exploring the city and the country side treasures was truly energizing. The kids didn't blink much about the fact that signs were in another language. The only really challenging thing was that it didn't really get dark, and Clair wanted to be away with the sun was awake.
• My return to Dublin after 12 years was such a great time for me. I loved exploring the city and seeing what's changed and what hasnt. I loved having crepes as my still favorite little crepe shop in the world each morning. I loved familiar shops. I loved touring the city on a bus. I loved backtracking around the city and visiting my old stomping groups. 
• Seeing everyone was fantastic - Grannie, Millar, Dolan, Sarah, David's friends in Glasgow - Dorian and Family, Farah, Helen, Bobby and Aoife
• The looks on the kids faces when they enjoyed something new, or remembered something from a previous visit.
• Reminiscing about David's childhood and family. Giving the kids a chance to know their Scottish heritage.
• Grannie wanting to babysit freely and often. David and I enjoyed a couple nice evenings out. 
• Learning that although visiting is great, I am glad that our family didn't relocate to Glasgow right now. It's not for me. I was happy to come home as well!

Low lights:

• Losing my new iPhone was really depressing. Despite everyone's best efforts, the phone was lost somewhere between Grannie's flat and ours after a long day in Edinburgh. Many photos and videos not backed up were also lost. That is sad.
• The frustrations of travel, along with my germophobic tendencies and the uncharted territories meant that I often lost my cool with the kids stepping out. I regret that. I hope this isn't what they remember about the trips. 
• I didn't sleep well; that was hard.
• Clair didn't sleep well; that was hard and a big part of why I didn't sleep well.

Lessons Learned:

• I need my systems - things have a place, the kids know that things have a place, the kids need my systems to keep me sane. I need my systems to keep me sane. It's hard thinking about the details of the mondane and coming up with a new system for where to put the shoes, dirty clothes, tooth brushes, bags, stuff, etc. every couple days. We didn't move as much on this trip as the one 5 years ago, but it was still too much for kids this age.
• Living in a place with 1 bathroom with this family at this stage is not only painful, but risky at best. There are too many people with weak bladders and undeveloped warning systems!

What did I miss the most?:

• My bed. I love my bed!
• My car. And the silly little back up camera that makes parking so darn easy.
• Country music. There is none, even in Scotland, to be found!
• Iced Coffee. There are too many places that don't have ice there. Really? Really?
• My washer and dryer to keep the clothes clean. Yes, that's a sign of young kids and a old sole. 

Hopefully this list allows my adventurous side to show through even with some of the mature Points of View around Home Sweet Home!

The summer of 2016

There is so much more to share about the summer travel we did. I am slightly disappointed I didn't get to more blogs then Day 1. My excuse will be losing my phone somewhere in the middle of the trip. This meant the blogger app went missing with the phone, and writing them became more troubling. None the less, I should have. About 6 weeks later and much of the vacation is fuzzy thanks to the project that awaited us when we returned (the new house, settlement, packing, another settlement, moving, and so much more).

To summarize the vacation, 3 weeks away was a lot of work. We moved every 3 days, except for the last week in Glasgow.  Our itinerary was 3 days in Reykjavik, 3 days in Inverness, Scotland, 4 days in Dublin with the kids with Grannie, and 8 nights in a flat in Glasgow with many day trips.

For me, returning to Dublin after 12 years was the personal highlight. I still love that city and would welcome the opportunity to live and work there. I think I could easily be convinced to stay.

For the family, I think the highlight was the day at Culzean Castle outside of Ayr in Scotland. This is not far from where Bob grew up. It was nice to see the area. The kids loved being on the beach and exploring. The day was gorgeous. Everyone was happy and we had even a good meal.

The kids were troopers. Some days were better then others. I hope they look back with fond memories such as driving the boat on Loch Ness whilst looking for the monster or one of her babies, playing at the Castle, baking with Grannie, playing at the nature park, enjoying the local parks in the cities we wondered, seeing the great wonders of Iceland, and hopefully even the silly sleeping arrangements and the adventures of flying and traveling.

They did great on the planes - thanks to the movies!

The one challenge was getting Clair to sleep when it was light nearly all the time. One night in Iceland she lay in her bed for 3 hours with the eyes wide open, propped nearly by toothpicks as she was exhuasted. But each time i tried to tell her to go to sleep, she would say "But the Blue Sky is still awake Mommy." We needed that girl some black out curtains!

Maybe over time I will write a couple more stories down, but for now, the 3 week European Adventure will be know as that, and A Great Family Adventure!

Travel day 1 down

This morning we ventured out as a family of five for a long vacation over in Europe. The day started at a normal time in the US and ended at about 2 AM local Icelandic time. The kids actually did fantastic on the journey. There was a lot of TV watching. But we made it through the whole flight without any tears! Props to the kids!

Ellie and Clair were both very vocally excited about the flight. At one point Clair looked at me with this man said this plane will never leave. But it did. 

Ellie was so excited to have unlimited access to a TV with movies, that she didn't get a lunch to go to the bathroom. On the other hand Clair was there at least six times. So I think she made up for her sister not going. 

Arriving into Iceland everybody was confused by the daylight. Ellie told me she wasn't impressed by the fact it would never be dark. I was impressed. It's been something I always wanted to experience. 

It was about a 45 minute ride into town. We had a nice driver who got all her luggage in and took us till we thought was our location. We unpacked, walk down the hall, went to open the door, and the man inside are supposedly room open the door and said how can I help you?

You can imagine at 1 AM with three kids and 15 pieces of luggage and tow, I wasn't pleased. Thankfully this was a very nice man from Boston who was happy to help us find where we needed to be. He was very friendly. Turns out our place was a block across the street. After one trip with the kids and David following up with about two or three trips to get the rest of the luggage we were finally in our. 

A little disorganized trying to unpack 10 bags and find what I needed to get the children in bed quickly, but it was accomplished in about 15 minutes. Clair was out after hitting the pillow for about two minutes. I think Max and Ellie took about five minutes. It took me a long time to fall asleep, the light sky was a bit alarming really. 

The one thing clear make sure to make Clair before falling asleep was that mommy would sleep with her and daddy would sleep on the couch. She's a funny girl. They have been telling her for the past two nights that she couldn't sleep in our bed at home because she would get to sleep with mommy on vacation. She didn't forget those promises. 

I woke up at 8 AM local time thinking it was noon. I was wrong. I walked around the Street trying to find a coffee shop, nothing was open. I finally found a small supermarket that charged me at least an arm and a leg for some berries a couple yogurts water and a little chocolate. Welcome to vacation! They always told me Iceland was expensive. Today we are off to explore the town. Tomorrow we will do the Golden Circle tour, which is supposed to take you to all the great Icelandic geographic tourist spots.

Three year old well child visit!

My gentle giant passed her well child checkup with flying colors! 

She's off the charts for height, and a perfect weight for her height. She's smart, social, physical, and mostly impressed the nurse when she read her letters to prove her eye sight. She was confused at the silly pictures and the nurse thought she had eyesight issues. I asked her to use the letter chart. The nurse looked at me like I was crazy and then gave it a whirl. Clair read the whole line straight away without hesitation. I was so proud!

The nurse looks at me and said, "that's a first. She's the first 3 year old to ever do that!"

My girl is awesome!

She gave our favorite doctor Dr. Clarence a hug before we left. 

Confession: I enjoy coaching softball

A couple years ago Katie convinced me to sign Ellie up to play softball with Erika. Shortly after, she was convinced to coach and I agreed to help. I was clueless but was game. It took 2 years before I felt confident enough to enjoy it. Finally, this year, I did. Four seasons later it was fun for me and I think Ellie too!

She's turned into a little first basement enough to even make the allstar team. Not only is it fun to see Ellie grow, but I'm amazed at how fun it is to watch the other girls grow over these two years as well. What amazing thing it is to see other kids grow and maybe have had some influence on it. It's awesome when they are proud of themselves. 

This year's All-Star game was very intense. Our girl started off ahead, then we fell behind, and then we came back and had an awesome six inning and one! My blood is pumping so heavily during this game. It was so excited watching the girls. We were not the top-seeded team, but we will talk seeded team together. 

Meeting Colleen and Roberts Baby

Yesterday the kids and I took a road trip to meet Robert and Colleen's first born, Peter. He's not quite two weeks old. 

Each of my kids was thoroughly excited for this trip, even though it meant over four hours in the car, they were excited and didn't once consider not going. I love their hearts!

We all couldn't wait to get our hands on Peter. The smiles that came on their little faces as they saw him, held him, and touched his little person was amazing. Peter was a good sport and I think he enjoyed meeting them too even though he was hungry. He was patient with them. He even enjoyed trying to nurse on Max's little shirt. 

Thank you to Colleen and Robert for being so sharing with Peter and allowing the kids to hold him. They were gentle and that is great, but I know it's hard to trust the little ones with your precious new bundles. 

I wish we lived closer so we could go back. I don't think I got enough of my own snuggles in :). Each time I got my hands on Peter Ellie started in with her sweet look of- it's my turn right?