Important Lessons

Okay, as we tackled another day of taking down wallpaper, I learned a few important lessons.

1. Taking down wallpaper can be fun. When you're standing on the ground.

2. Watching someone else who is taking down wallpaper while standing on a stepladder is much easier than being the person who is taking down wallpaper while standing on a stepladder!

3. That, even me, a girl (!) can take responsibility for taking down the wallpaper in a whole room*. My room was the bathroom (soon to be the kitchen) and I am ever so proud tonight to know that I did it all by myself, stepladder and all!

And so, while our pile of 'taken down wallpaper' grows ever higher, we are inching our way towards the end of the first 'thing to be done' on our list.... and that feels good!

Hoping you're feeling good, too,

Robynxxxx

*Though, okay, I didn't need to do the ceiling...as we're going to add insulation.

Let the games begin!

Hello there!

Okay, so the kids are fine!

Emma's convinced she's a 'georgeous princess' and Jack is as happy as ever on his bike, and all the more so because he can now pedal freely around the garage underneath our "new" house.

We've now started work on our "new house." We haven't done much so far. We've only pulled the wallpaper off the walls in the stairway and a bit in the living room. Goodness, though, it feels good to have started!

Emma and Jack are helping as best they can... soaking the old wallpaper with water so that Ben and I can tear and scrape as best as we can. Reassuringly, this first task is moving relatively quickly... and that's a good thing because we have a lot more left to go before we're done.

The electrician should hopefully be starting up soon and then from there the plumbers and builders should follow suit. If everything goes to plan, that is....

Hoping your plans are going, well, to plan where ever you are in the world,

Robynxxxx

Happy New Year 2012

Hello there!

I just wanted to take a minute to wish you all a very happy New Year!

I hope 2012 will be a peaceful and meaningful year for you and that you'll be able to fill the hours, days, and months with both projects and quiet moments of rest.

For our part, our BIG project is the house... as we returned from our holiday with Ben's parents, we swung past the house to collect the mail and to say hello to its quiet walls. As we drove away, to come back to our rented home, we couldn't help imagining how good it will be one day to come home to our true home.... for that dream to become a reality, though, we have to wait... and realise the hours, days and months of 2012 will also be spent being together as a family, working madly, and resting peacefully. At least, that's what I hope for us!

And so, however you spend 2012, I hope you spend it well!

hugs,

Robynxxxx

Snow is falling, all around!

Hello again,

Okay, smile, when Ben read my blog yesterday and realised that I didn't think that it felt like winter, he packed us all in the car and took us for a drive.

I would like to say that it was a long drive.

But it wasn't.

We were only in the car for 20minutes or so but, because we live at the foot of the Vosges hill range, we quickly gained altitude and came to the Champs de Feu . Only the fields were anything but on fire... as they and the roads were filled with snow!

We didn't stay for long (as I hadn't brought the right clothes....) but we we had enough time for a snowy walk, to make snow angels and to realise, yes, it truly was winter in the Vosges.

Then, after a change of clothes and some hot chocolate back home, we met up with friends in Obernai to visit the Christmas Market... and so, after cups of hot wine, watching the kids going round on the carousel, petting Santa's donkey, snacking on bredele and mannele, and visiting the local church with all it's Christmas decorations, I finished the day well and truly feeling we were in the heart of an Alsacian winter!

Love n snowy hugs,
Robynx

Moving Times

That's it!

Our lives have changed. We are no longer living in our apartment in Mutzig and we've bought an old house to renovate in Molsheim. As the renovations will take at least 6 months, we're renting an apartment (just next door to our old apartment) until the summer holidays. There's so much to be done that it's hard to imagine that we'll be able to live in the house by July but then, as my dear friend Melanie recently wrote, "if your dreams don't scare you, then they're not big enough!'

In the meantime, all is well. The Christmas holidays have just started, though it's so mild that I'm having a hard time we're realising that we're actually in December. One sign that the months have passed is that the kids have changed again. Emma can now get out of her cot, go to the loo, and get dressed by herself. It's really funny to get up in the morning and to see her living her own wee life. I told her recently that she was my "sweet pea" and she replied curtly, "No, Emma, Princess Gorgeous. No Sweetpea!" Also, she'll tell anyone who listens that she'd like a "bigger, better bed." For that, though, she'll have to wait until we're in the 'new' house. Thankfully, she has her big brother to distract her until then. Jack is doing grand and has written a full list of requests to Santa Claus, via one of Santa's helpers.. who, helpfully, also works at Jack's playschool. He's still living in the world of Flash McQueen but, now Cars 2 has been released, his world goes far beyond Radiator Springs. The upside is that he can recognise the French, English, Japanese, and Italian flags. The downside is that he looks at me strangely if ever I try to tell him that the 'Stars and the Stripes" is the flag of America and not of Flash. Mums, what do they know?

Well, what I do know is that we're going down to Cagnes sur mer to spend Christmas with our French family! So, if I'm having trouble believing it's December now... just wait until I arrive in the land of palm trees and walks by the sea. I can't wait, though, and I'm sure Santa Claus will find us wherever we are and despite the fact we rather seem to be on the move at the moment!


And so, wherever your home is right now, know that I wish you the very best of Christmases and a very Happy New Year :-)

love n hugs,
Robynxxxx

Rock the Statue Green!

I am really (really) proud of my high school students who made this video so they could enter the 'Rock the Statue Green' competition, a competition which calls upon French and American schools to produce art to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Statue of the Liberty. The theme? The Statue of the Liberty and the Environment.

I hope you enjoy it!

Smiles,
Robyn

Happy Birthday Jack

This is Jack's "YES, I'm FIVE" smile...

and

"yes, I've got a Cars' sticker stuck to me forehead but I don't care" smile :-)

Jack had a grand birthday, with presents and cake and a cool party with some of his friends... but he also had a cute wee sad moment. It was the end of the day and he was getting ready for his bath when he caught sight of himself in the bathroom mirror and starting crying: Maman, look, I'm not five... I'm still four. You lied to me, I can't be five...LOOK, I'm the same as yesterday. I'm still four!"

Then, one week after his birthday, we moved from our apartment to the apartment at the other side of Jack's bedroom wall. The reason is simple, our apartment is sold and our new house is just about bought (we should get the keys in the next couple of weeks). As we've about 6months renovation work to do in the house, we're going to be renting until (at least) the summer. So far, so good as our new apartment is very similar to our old one, cosy, comfortable and a complete mess of kids toys most of the time.

:-)

hugs n all that,

Robynxxxx

October Holidays!

Hello there,

Some of you might be wondering if I've stopped this blog.... but, no! It's not true! It's just that the days are so busy that I just don't have time to scribble down the details (at least, that's how it feels at the moment).

Stop shaking your heads... I'm not being slack, honest. The days really are that busy. Let me explain...

To start with, we've sold our apartment and so we're in the midst of packing up our things and getting things ready for the BIG move.....

Next door!

What? Yes, we're moving into the apartment next door... or, rather, across the wall. That is, we're going to rent the apartment which is located at the other side of Jack's bedroom wall until....

The old (read: 1759) house that we're in the process of buying in Molsheim is renovated... or, at least, is in a fit state for us to live in safely and happily. I'll tell you more about that 'project' once all the paperwork is finalised, as I don't want to jinx anything.

In the meantime, life continues at its usual hectic speed!

For instance, can you believe that Jack will be 5 in just a few days time? I can remember writing the blog announcing his birth as though it were yesterday and so I can hardly believe our big kid really will be, officially, big. And not just big, grand too. For I continue to adore him in all his proud and joyous daftness. The best thing is that he's (finally) discovering Emma as a friend and not 'just' as a little sister. Of course, what that really means is that he's discovered that he can boss her around and position her as his 'underling' in all things game and play.

Emma, though, doesn't care... as she loves feeling BIG, too. She loves dressing herself, going to the loo, and generally being Emma. She so different (and yet also somehow similar) to Jack. She goes to bed with 2 babydolls, 1 talking doll, Noddy, Lala, and an armful of other teddies and toys. She can spend an afternoon dressing them up and feeding them... but is equally happy playing with Flash McQueen as Jack plays out life in Radiator Springs (from the film Cars). Emma's sitting beside me now, colouring in a 'beha' (bear), as Jack watches Tinkerbell on TV. The fire's on and the trees outside the window are as orange and brown as the flames licking the charred wood that's warming us all on this cold, clear day.

Later on today we'll go for a walk... or, at least, I'll walk while Emma and Jack take their bikes. We have time for such fun this Wednesday because we're on school holidays (myself like the kids) and, goodness, it feels good to forget the alarm clocks and packed lunches for a week or two!

So, wherever you are in the world, I hope you're doing well and that your days are as busy and as rich when you want them to be and calm and quiet when you're ready for a bit of rest!
hugs,
Robynxxxxx