Fall Break 2018: Revisiting St. Émilion, France

We are back from a wonderful Fall break trip with Nana and Pops to the Dordogne region of France. Our second year living in Europe, Pete bought me a Lonely Planet Guide called France's Best Road Trips. Boy did that book make me drool! So many beautiful places to see. I was drawn to the Dordogne region by the descriptions of the food and scenery. Then an expat friend posted photos from her family's trip there (they've been a number of times) and I was sold! Just a matter of fitting it in with all of the other trips we wanted to take. Fall break seemed a good time, out of the crowded tourist season.

Cheap flights were in and out of Bordeaux, 2.5 hours west of where we stayed in the Dordogne. To break up our trip on the first day, we spent the morning in St. Émilion, a picturesque town that we had visited two years prior on our trip to Bordeaux/San Sebastian with Auntie Rach. It was as pretty as we'd remembered it and not feeling the pressure to see the town, we lingered over lunch in a pretty square while the kids ran around burning off travel energy.

Lunch spot down below. 

I didn't forget how steep the town was! Glad to have two walker on our hands now. 

My New Normal

While the kids have been settling into their new school year, I have been settling into my new normal. My previous job, counseling for Recombine turned CooperGenomics, had been slowly phasing out in the spring and ended completely this summer when the company stopped offering their carrier screen panel. In January, my sister contacted me about a possible consulting position with her company for an Alzheimer's clinical drug trial. I started in March so the timing was perfect with my other job ending. The only catch is that I need to work East Coast hours. So I make myself available two afternoons and four evenings a week, after the kids are asleep until around 10:30pm. The spring months were tiring, working evenings and then still staying home full time with Maeve 3 days a week. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel though, and now it is here!

It has been an adjustment working in the evenings, giving up the time I would spend with Pete or friends or just decompressing on the sofa after the evening bedtime routine. But the tradeoffs now are so great. With many of my friends home full- or part-time, I am able to do my socializing by day. Lunches, a spa day, matinee movies, shopping, daytime pilates classes, chaperoning school trips, kayaking in the bos, vegging on the sofa by day instead of by night. Interspersed with running our home, taking over all of the grocery shopping and meal prep duties, travel planning and blogging. The days go by in a flash! I've given myself the first half of the school year to reap the benefits of this situation and then I will tackle some of the more pressing things on my to-do list: catch up on continuing education credits to maintain my certification, begin learning Dutch, look for some additional daytime work.

Knowing that I would have more free time on my hands this year, when a mom at ISA asked me to be a representative for the USA community at ISA, I decided to give it a go. I am one of the group's least involved members due to my work schedule, but the activities have still been keeping me busy. The year starts with a bang with the USA welcome coffee morning, the international coffee morning, USA Parent's Night Out, and the big event- Trunk or Treat, which happened on Friday night. I wanted to be more involved at the school and to give back to the events that I have enjoyed the past four years. I also thought that with the US looking like an a$$clown to the rest of the world these days,  I could help be the face of America and show that deep down, we are still good people. The ladies on the committee are awesome so it has been a lot of fun.

At the USA Welcome Coffee at Lauren's beautiful home. 

At the International Coffee Morning at school, representing the US of A. We were stationed between The British Isles and Germany, which was a dangerous place to be with all of their delicious treats! 

Trunk or Treat Night (Post to follow)

October Beach Evening

Saturday we had a beach evening! We were not going to let a 79 degree day in October go to waste. The plan was to go and have dinner at one of the beach cafes in Katwijk and watch the sunset. This was everyone's plan it seemed and we couldn't get a table! Luckily, there was a kibbeling (fried fish) stand at the beach entrance so we turned it into a beach picnic instead. That sand gives the food a much needed crunch 😉 Dark winter will be setting in soon and I was so grateful to have this day! And watching the sun setting over the ocean is the perfect way to end any day. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Pizza Boat Cruises

If you repeat an event twice, does it automatically become a "tradition?" I hope so! The past two Sundays we've been invited aboard the Josephine for a pizza dinner cruise with Captain Brad and hostess Audra. The kids are at an age where boating is fun and no longer just a stress of "will they fall in??" We set off from their mooring outside their house in the red light district and meander slowly to De Pizzabakkers in Plantage, where Pete gracefully gets out of the boat and returns with hot pizzas. The kids then spend the rest of the boat cruise silently chowing down. It is heaven. 

Last weekends sail. A bit chilly, but sunny. Superman was aboard! 

 

The dancing ladies

 

 

 

 

Last evening's cruise was cloudy, but warm!