Funnies of Late

Davy: You don't know something about kids.  The older they get the crazier they get.
Dad: I do know that.
Davy: Well you don't seem to know it.

Me: I'm pretty sure *random fact* is right.
Davy: No, mom, my teacher said *this* and she's older than you so she's right.
(I actually really was right.)

Freaking out about his homework assignment to interview someone about their job
Me: You could interview me.
Davy: What does being a mom have to do with a job?
Me: *a look*
Davy: I mean, I know it's hard . . .
(Thanks, Aunt Camilla, for saving the day with a facetime interview about a real job!)

Kids being sneaky about something while my back was turned working in the kitchen
Davy to Eddy in a whisper: If Mom is watching I've decided not to do it.

Eddy: My favorite subject at school is school lunch.

During the Primary children's program at church Eddy was standing waiting for a song to begin.  He started measuring his height against that of the boy standing next to him.

Also during the Primary program he had a piece of paper given to him by his teacher that he was fidgeting with and being distracting.  When I could catch his eye I started miming for him to put it in his pocket.  It took a few times for him to understand what I was asking and when he did get it he called out, "but I need it!"

Liza Bee: Knock knock, who's there? Temple run.  Temple run who? Temple run I couldn't know you could lodel . . . I made up that joke.

Liza Bee: I'm not growing up until my birthday.

Liza Bee: Mommy, I didn't do *whatever naughty thing someone else did*.  I didn't do that.

A few hours after we walked across the zebra crossing at Abbey Road and I explained about the Beatles.  I said I would let her hear some of their music.
Eliza: You said you would show me some bug music!

While Brushing My Hair

You know, I was done tidying up the house and put everything--including my computer--to bed, ready to turn in for the night.  As I was brushing my hair my thoughts turned to real thoughts (rather than the annoying to-do-list kind of thoughts) and I just had to open up the keyboard again to write it all out.  Sometimes/Often I don't even know what I thoughts I have until they are out in front of me in black and white.

So, back to my hair.  Earlier in the evening I was going back over old video clips from our first couple years in London, remembering my short post-baby cut.  It was a very short pixie when we arrived in London.  That "mom-cut" worked for me while I was dealing with other things post-partum and in the move but it never really fit me.  The growing out was painful--not literally, of course, but in an aesthetic sort of way.  I liked pictures of me even less than usual and when I would catch sight of myself in a window reflection I had to second glance to know it was me.  Tonight I was brushing it out and realized that it is now to my shoulder blades.  It's been a long time growing, with only three or four evening-up trims in over two years.  I finally feel like I'm me again.  Not that I'm defined by my hair, but kinda.

The funny thing is, I feel like learning to love living in London and my hair being back to normal are related.  They both happened gradually, without me really noticing.  I feel back in myself all around after a few years of feeling a little lost, maybe?  I'm not sure, exactly.  I know that becoming a mom each time had me reeling, dizzily trying to find my footing again.  Only to catch my breath and start again!  And then I grew tired with Boston--not my dear friends, but other things that seemed overwhelmingly tedious and chaffed.  And then the first months in London were rough.  And then I spent the next six months in an even more bleak attitude as unmet expectations and disappointments and seasonal depression sank in.  Motherhood was kicking my butt as children went through some very difficult phases, sometimes in turn and sometimes all together.  Climbed out of all that to find that I--we all--were finding ways of coping.  And then, now.  And now we have been enjoying a golden age as my hair and our life is in a beautiful spot.

Motherhood is perfect right now.  Not that I am perfect--oh, so far from it.  But I cannot help but think that having me (and my hair, apparently) feel like my best self helps.  My body is my own.  While I loved sharing it with a kicking baby inside and a nursing baby outside, I also love having it to myself.  I am less and less afraid of tantrums.  They don't control me.  I am trying to respond less when I feel personally offended and laugh more.  I'm trying to hug more but also respect the space if affection isn't wanted at the moment.   School is a good choice for us currently, with the boys having an outlet besides me and my teaching, and Eliza being my exploring buddy.  We are in a good, good stage of childhood.

City living suits us.  The traffic noise is like white noise, a calm in the background.  Crowds don't bother us so much, or we find places and times that aren't so busy.  The rush of the pedestrian traffic on transportation and sidewalks (the pavement) finds a way around us at whatever speed we are going.  We are managing our expectations and our expenditures better.  Our home is a retreat from it all, and it will always be our home even if I never care for the house.  I regularly walk around a corner and am suddenly arrested by the sight of some cityscape of grey stone and red accents and diverse people.  I can do nothing but gasp in the realization that I am in London, this magical place I get to claim as home for a while.

All this from brushing my hair at bed time.  I guess I am expressing gratitude for a truly remarkable stage of life.  I am fully aware that this moment in time is just that--a brief spell before another era.  I welcome another phase, with its experiences and challenges and blessings.  What's ahead is exciting and scary.  We can only foresee some of the difficult adjustments we'll be making in nine months as we return to America.  We also know that life has a tendency to surprise us.  So maybe a big challenge is tomorrow or perhaps in a year the roughest patch will hit.  I don't know.  I feel that this time is a great mercy for us to get grounded and store up strength.

Simply, I love my family and I love where we are.

And now, with this torrent of thinking out I think I can go to sleep.

Scotland: Leaving a Cairn Behind

The best bit of these trips is making memories together.  When we're all crammed in a car and have no where else to go or any distractions I feel us getting glued together.  There's no where else I'd rather be.

Collin is my hero.  He takes my crazy, wildly romantic notions and makes them reality.  I finally remembered why I've had a hankering to see heather bloom in late summer.  I showed him the clip of the dance from Brigadoon that my parents made us all watch when I was a kid and he found us a spot to dance a little jig ourselves among the heather.  Note bene, it's hard to dance among the shrubs when you're not on a set!

As we drove along the narrow road we saw this pull out over a look out that had loads of rock piles.  I thought it was so random, but beautiful.  We made our own cairn to represent our family--one for each person, stacked--and left a little piece of ourselves behind in the highlands.

While we didn't make it to the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, we did stop to admire this beautiful fall in Glencoe.  Eliza asked if fairies live here and I'm sure they do.

The green--the green!!  It's a feast for the eyes and soul.  I'm not at all sure about this funny little beehive structure as it didn't have any sign of a door or even a covered in doorway, but it suited my little Bee to gather flowers around it.

I wanted to pull over every few feet, seriously.  Collin is the best sport about doing quicky U-turns and waiting for me to finish my gawking.  We had to make the train home on time so I tried to be careful about how many times and how long for each stop.  If these were just side-of-the-road views, I can hardly imagine what hiking in past the usual routes would show!

Scotland: Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye was all that I hoped for.  I only could wish a few more days to enjoy and explore.  There is a remarkable castle at the entrance to the island called Eilean Donan.  We saw it in the early morning as the sun was rising but the tide was low going to Skye and again in the late afternoon as the rain was approaching and the tide high as we left.  I loved seeing it in two moods.

We drove directly to a furthest finger of Skye, seeing the Old Man of Storr from the road, to our main goal.  The Faerie Glen at Uig surprised us all by being absolutely fabulous.  The weather helped--we got so lucky!

The Faerie Glen is as green as can be, surprisingly so when most of the surrounding area is more of the barren, heather covered moor land.  The hills come up out of nowhere and the erosion has crafted them into otherworldly shapes.  Sheep graze freely.

The main circle, with a goat's skull in the middle, had no rocks marking its path.  It sometimes does, as I'd seen in pictures and from the spots of brown in the grass.  The rocks are up for grabs to make any number of other spirals, however, as we saw many of different sizes and personality.  The boys quickly joined in the creating.  It'll sound silly, but there really was a magical feel about the place.  It was grounded yet fanciful, earthy yet whimsical. 

Sadly, Eliza was out of spirits.  Or rather, in a very bad mood.  She whined almost the entire time until we finally figured out one of the things she was frustrated about.  Instead of making a spiral she really wanted to make a fairy pool--like a swimming pool?  So once we sorted that out she finally was distracted from her grumps and we could enjoy the rest of the time.

Collin made a perfectly lovely stone bee, and Eddy filled it with flowers.  I saw several people taking pictures of it as we were exploring other parts so now Collin's magic is in other people's travel diaries too.  So funny.

On our way to Coral Beach we sensed the rain coming.  Pressing on and prepping ourselves to experience and revel in some true Scottish weather we continued.  The beach was a walk in wellies away from the car park.  Along rugged black shore, through cow pastures, and up and over to a very small stretch of white coast.  Coral Beach is not really coral--it is made of crushed bleached skeltons of Red Coralline seaweed (also known as Maerl).  It was beautiful and fascinating and I'm sure on a sunny day you couldn't stay long enough.  However, we had three very cold and long-suffering children after only a few minutes.  The rain hit just as we were leaving and the walk back to the car felt miles longer!

We decided, as the rain lashed down en route to our final destination, that we probably better skip the Fairy Pools this time around.  I couldn't imagine it going down very well at all and knew we'd already had such a wonderful opportunity to enjoy Scotland as a family.  Can we go back sometime?

Warmed up a bit by the car ride back down the island and seeing the weather temporarily just misting, we did stop for a short walk over the bridge at Eilean Donan Castle.  The kids acquiesced quite nicely, considering they are sick to death of castles.  (I'm grateful when they decide to be happy with what we're doing.  Little lessons in choosing your attitude when you don't have full control of you situation.)

I was not ready at all to go home to school starting and Collin working and traveling.  I love our real life too, but I sure long for the ultra-real life on our trips together.

Scotland: Glencoe and Glenfinnan

I had high expectations for Scotland, which I know can be a recipe for disappointment.  The thing with Scotland, though, is that even the highest expectations don't quite prepare you for how beautiful the country is.  I do some research before we leave, but leave a lot of it up to chance as we are in a place.  We passed through Glencoe, not really knowing anything other than it was a pretty part of the country.  Well, it is a fabulously beautiful part of the world.  Collin stopped off at a visitor information spot and discovered that an outcropping near by was used by the MacDonald clan to meet in times of emergency.  Collin's family claims descent from the MacDonalds so we figured we'd be welcome.  It was about a mile walk round trip so we found the trail head and marched on in.  It was the perfect little hike for our clan to get to Signal Rock.  We lunched picnic style on the top.

Our intrepid explorers had to face obstacles of mud and treacherous slopes (not really) where walking sticks came in handy. 

The children foraged and Davy presented me with a lovely wild flower bouquet.  Those flowers are so precious to me, though they don't last long.  The ultimate symbol of childhood.

And then we drove and drove along lake side and through forest to arrive just in time at Glenfinnan Viaduct.  The steam trains were expected by the fans--how many Harry Potter and how many vintage steam engine I won't venture to guess!--sitting among the heather up on the hillside.  We joined them and were very soon rewarded with the sound of the whistle as the train approached and then it chugged into sight in all its glory.  Eddy asked, "is that the REAL Hogwarts Express?" ready to believe it was.

I'm not sure we would have known or cared to go if we hadn't been Harry Potter fans, but since we did make the effort I'm glad.  It was a fun experience to climb up in the purple-dotted hills and see a blast from the past.