Ridiculous funny moments with our family

Opening presents brings the usual take your time comments from the parents but this year Sissy joined in with those admonishments to her brother. Take your time! Make the moments last!

Reading the gift labels and scritchy scratchy handwriting that was on them brought the laughs after To: Kristen From: Mommy and Salty? Who's Salty... oh, that says "Daddy"! Yeah... fun times!

Not changing traditions has brought many cries from our college girl! Maybe the fact we've just moved to a new home has changed things a bit for the parents. Less energy for Christmas preparations...

Poor Nativity set folks - one visitor to the manger is now footless because Kitty jumped down off the windowsill and this visitor flew onto the floor. They are now a "plegic"! So every time she jumps up there, we holler "no more plegics"! We can't differentiate between para and quadriplegics since they are made of resin and half of the body may break if it hits the floor. Here's hoping for no more tragedies this year.

Butch and Muffin really wanted to join in helping prepare dinner last evening when we were trimming and slicing meat from the full leg of prosciutto. We received 2 of these wonderful things for Christmas and will be able to make our favorite pasta with sugo di prosciutto. Yum! Yes, Kristen, people do say Yum about food!

Watched Julie and Julia again and loved every moment of it. Cooking is a favorite thing with Kristen and me (especially together) and we holler with laughter, sing and dance while doing it. I really miss this when she returns to school!  Yesterday I tested just how high I can sing and my expression must really be something to behold based on their reactions! I passed my usual high note but not without lots of breath support and opening my mouth as wide as possible! Drop that tongue said Kristen - and it worked like magic! By jove I believe she's learned something at college!

Back to the "normal" and Christmas is coming!

Normal. What is normal? Normal is our usual schedule of life but a new home with different needs makes normal abnormal! Adjusting is required. Change is good? Change is stressful. Change is exciting. Life goes on.

School has to be structured but we don't like structure all the time... Such a struggle of inner thoughts and frustrations. Getting down to it is hard but moves along once we start. Homeschooling is interrupted by life. Only my homeschooling friends will relate to these thoughts and frustrations and ideas. Trying to be too much like normal school is not fun and not possible when doing it at home unless you take one room and make that your school room and you closet yourselves in there during specific times. Perhaps that works for some people but we haven't succeeded. Our happiest, most successful strategy is to snuggle in on the couch in the living room. Why not! Good memories will come from learning while sitting side by side on the couch with our doggies close by. I think they're learning a lot too!

The Christmas decorations are sitting patiently waiting in the garage and the corner of the living room will soon be a busy place with a big, beautiful tree. Tonight will be the time for decking the halls and transforming this new house into our home with thoughts of Christmases past and present. Only 12 more days until Kristen arrives!

Catching up on posts - Free books!!!

The doggies are outside barking - will they do this when we move? Will there be enough activity around our house to interest them?

NetGalley and free books I have found through ENT and Inspired Reads via Facebook have kept me occupied and away from sharing our exploits here in Italy. We live a quiet life for the most part. That will soon be changed when we move to the cemetery and there will be opportunities to explore outside and get to know our new home surroundings. Plus, I will have a neighbor who speaks English almost right next door!

Back to the free books though...  It is addictive! The chance to download books for free is hard to refuse. If you've seen our bookshelves in our homes, you'd understand why this is so. There are very few books I've "met" that I don't like!

I'm almost tempted to keep the "real" books packed and just keep my Kindle full. That way, it will be much easier to dust and to pack up again for the next move down the road - whenever and wherever that will take us!

Please take a look at ENT and Inspired Reads, if you dare! I've warned you that it is hard to resist and super addictive. Almost so much so that you'll only be downloading books and never be able to read them all!!!

Moving... again

A cool, crisp day in November. I remember last year sitting and taking a picture of the sunshine on the floor in our dining room. Now I'll be leaving this home to move to the new home on the cemetery grounds. Hopefulness fills my soul with the thoughts of setting up my crafts corner in the new large laundry room. Happiness fills my soul at the thought that Kristen will soon be joining us for the Christmas holiday and we will have adventures in the new kitchen together. Motivation is refilled at the thought of homeschooling in the large living room/dining room where our desktop computer will be centrally located to make online work easier. So many thoughts - I'm ready to get down to business with packing and moving! No matter how many moves we make, there is always the thought that this time/this home will be easier, better... something... yeah...

It's a Wonderful Life by Jesse Goossens

I just finished this wonderful story and was sad that it was over!  Since I am an American living in Europe, I could understand what differences Anna was experiencing with customs and the way things are done in the U.S.  I loved the small town she visited with the friendly people at every new place she visited.  They made her feel at home just as I did by reading the story.  I'd love to live in a small town just like Bakerton!  In such a short time, Anna found a home there and grew to be a part of the big family that a small town is.  I'd recommend this book to anyone who wanted to read a story that made them feel good and to keep an open mind about new things!

Reviewing books through netGalley

I just successfully downloaded my first book to my Kindle to start my new "job" as a book reviewer through netGalley.com!  I can't imagine a better way to work than to read!  All I can say right now is the book is by Wanda Brunstetter and her website is http://www.wandabrunstetter.com/.  She writes books about the Amish and also Christian fiction.  My first review will be published later as there are rules regarding not publishing them too soon before the release date.  But, that being said, I'm going to have a wonderful time reading in the meantime!

It's time for bed and it is the last evening of Summer for the Italians as they start back to school tomorrow.  As a result, we just had booming fireworks going off in the neighborhood at the assigned time of 11pm (ok it's not an assigned time but it seems to be a common time for them to let loose with many more fireworks than we would do on the 4th of July in our own neighborhoods)!  Now I hear more off in the distance.  It's time for sure to take our doggies upstairs so they can settle down for the night.  As for me, I'll be happily propped up and reading my new book for a while!

A visit back "home" in the Netherlands

Happiness is flying from Rome to Dusseldorf so you can have a mini vacation back North in the Netherlands!  This weekend is the 6th "Requiem" or Memorial Concert at the Netherlands American Cemetery on Sunday afternoon.  They are performing the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven.  We just checked the weather and they are predicting thunderstorms with heavy rain, wind and hail.  After the recent concerts that had stages collapse due to winds and storms, they will be watching this very carefully.

Meanwhile, we've been enjoying staying and John and Liz's Bed and Breakfast! A lovely dinner was had last evening at Steak Leon in Oirsbeek. Mike and I had the mixed grill platter and Liz had the liver and onions and I tasted it and it was better than liver has a right to be!  I loved it!  We came back and Mike had to work on a report and the rest of us listened to music and I had my first dirty vodka martini. It has green olives in it and anything with green olives is good in my book!  Then we drove to Kerkrade and picked up Michael from his visit with A.J.  He had a great time but hated to have to leave.  I felt that way with my visit with Lisa too!  I sure miss my girlfriends up here!

Today we are relaxing a bit (a lot) and enjoying it.  The boys are going to go hit some golf balls which cures whatever ails you.  Liz and I will relax and visit.  Later we'll go to Schinnen (the happiest place on Earth - a family joke) and shop a little.  Then we are going to Wok Paradijs for dinner.

Jeff Dunham's DVDs are a favorite with us throughout this visit.  We marvel at his abilities and have so much fun laughing at his performances.  He's so real.  It's what we all are like in real life anyway...

Keep posted for more fun in the Netherlands...