One of those days…

Last Friday was supposed to be a fun day. I was spoiled with a pedicure – a Mother’s Day gift, thanks, children! – and then drove off with Daughter to Ikea, looking for some vases for my outdoor family party. I actually bought salmon pink carafes, which can be used as a vase too… Filled with some wild flowers, it should give an instant summer feeling. But more on flowers next week.

Daughter and I enjoyed a quick lunch at Ikea. I chose some on-the-spot grilled scampi (almost looked like a fancy restaurant) with rice, veggies and a coconut curry. Then we went to pick up Youngest, who was coming home to study for the weekend.

I parked hubbie’s car next to the entrance of the dorm. When all the luggage was packed in the back of the car, I asked Youngest how his last exam went. He answered while I started the car, but his response was drowned out by a strange, scraping noise, and I felt something blocking me from moving forward. I stopped the car. “The bench!”, Youngest screamed. There is a wooden picnic bench placed next to the wall (not the ideal spot if you ask me). I had hit the bench, and now it was wedged between the car and the wall. We first tried to lift the bench. It wouldn’t move, and if we forced it, we’d make more scratches on the car (hubbie’s new car!). I stepped back in the car and tried to maneuver forward or backwards, but it was obvious that moving either way would bring more damage. I saw a woman across the street and asked her for screw drivers. Not a solution either–the screws of the bench were totally rusted. Continue Reading

At the beginning of this school year, I was a little scared, dreading that new phase in life where all birdies will have flown out… The empty nest syndrome, yes! Youngest started college and would be living in another town during the week. Oldest was looking for a job, preferably abroad. And Daughter started her last year of studying, also living elsewhere. So it would just be hubbie and me on weekdays.

To comfort myself, I started listing the advantages of having more time and more freedom: less cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, ironing, tidying up and much more freedom for hobbies, courses, friends.

Very soon I realized the list with advantages was long. Filling up that extra time was easy.

With the school year now coming to an end, I can tell you I didn’t suffer from any syndrome at all.

While the weekdays are calm, the weekends are crowded. We always have extra guests, staying overnight in our finished basement. Oldest and Daughter have a steady girl/boyfriend, and they stay for lunch, dinner and sometimes breakfast. And youngest likes to bring home a bunch of friends in the evenings.  A full nest, yes.  The birdies didn’t fly that far.

In one of my other posts I told you I wrote a diary for my children. If you still have young children, this is a very personal and special gift you can hand over to your children when they are older. We take so many (too many, if you ask me) pictures nowadays, that it becomes less special to look at. And a picture by itself doesn’t always tell enough. Written memories and stories are unique. I started writing when Oldest was four. As a young mother, I felt the urge to go back to my own childhood to compare how my parents dealt with raising children.  But it was hard to do.  My mother passed away when I was young, and memories fade so easily.  I decided it was important to capture both special and also day-to-day ordinary moments in my book. I didn’t have the time to write each day, just a page every few months: a few anecdotes, some achievements, but also events on a larger scale, how the world was changing and how things could have an impact on their lives in the future. Why we, as parents, made certain decisions, which often they could not understand being a child but hopefully would appreciate as grown-ups…. I printed a copy for each child, and gave it to them for their eighteenth birthday. They were so appreciative, very grateful, and loved rereading all those faraway memories.

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