Saturday musings

A rainy Saturday morning greeted me today.  Normally, I would be sad that it wasn't going to be sunny and beautiful outside but today is a perfect day for rain!  Mike is working this weekend so Michael and I have two days of mostly doing what we want to do and not "have" to do.  Mike has a softball game scheduled this afternoon - yes in January...  It's actually a special game because it is in honor of the landings here in WWII.  The Americans introduced baseball to the Italians here in Nettuno during WWII so it's fitting that they play a game to commemorate this event.  But... the rain may keep it from happening... maybe.

Meanwhile, I just mixed up a Slimfast shake for breakfast (sounds great, right?), took my medicine and settled into my chair to both write this post and catch up on what happened overnight in the world.  My laptop and I are great friends these days now that I don't find myself running this way and that.  My friends in the Netherlands know that I didn't let much dust settle before I'd be off and running to another meeting, subbing at the school, attending events for the kids, or running our favorite errands at Schinnen...  I so miss all of those trips!  The Slimfast is my easy way to try to shed some weight that I've been collecting these past years during all of my transitions from legal secretary and mom to SAHM and homeschooler in Belgium to professional chauffeur of the kids in France (to the Mougins School) and finally to uber volunteer/SAHM/PTA guru/PWOC(fun and service)/substitute teacher in the Netherlands.  I guess I never realized until I really slowed down here in Italy that it was past time to take care of myself!  So the journey to reclaim my thinner self has begun.  No need to take before pictures because the pictures at Christmas serve nicely.  I'm looking forward to success and health and energy and all of the good things that go along with this process.

Enough on that!  I've happily realized that I didn't have two copies of the book "Italian Neighbors" as I thought I did last night.  But instead, I have the book "The Italians" which is by a different author and will be very enjoyable and shed a little light or maybe a lot of light into how the Italians live.  It's described as a "witty and iconoclastic look into the Italian people."  Hmmmm, we'll see...  I just reread the back of the book and it talks about "the two Italies" -- the one that brought us all of the beauty, religion and Leonard da Vinci or the one that is prone to catastrophe, backward in political action if not in thought.  Once I finish reading this book, I'll share a review of it here!

Michael has great plans (he's still asleep... he is a teenager you know!) of playing on Star Trek Online to see what new things will be introduced this week.  He's a trekkie thanks to Mike's (and my) enjoyment of all things dealing with Star Trek.  I have to admit that I didn't add this to my TV viewing until after I got married. We have agreed though that tomorrow will be the day to tackle his essay that needs to be submitted to his teacher at Calvert School in Baltimore (thanks to the Virtual Classroom!).

I'll add a post later about our homeschooling days... meanwhile Facebook, email and my book are beckoning.