Stress and Amusement. Repeat.

Tea at the Headmaster's House

The tea.

I’ve broken down… porridge for breakfast on Monday, eggs and beans on toast Tuesday morning, and nutella with peanut butter on demand. I think K2 is the biggest fan of English breakfasts. K1 will barely try the beans. Since we are trying get back to what we consider to be normal, I just resurrected my morning blender routine today. YUM! Banana, today’s berry (raspberry), almond milk, and peanut butter. That and a cup of coffee; I’m feeling great. I’ll have to look for some flax or chia to throw in as well!

K2 had a three hour settling in period with his child minder this past week. K1 was so excited to see other children and new toys that he asked to stay for a few hours as well. SOLD! I had three hours of freedom and my kids were in heaven.

This “settling in” period is very common here with everything from a child minder to a new job to a new house. I like the phrase. That’s what we’re doing…settling in. And we are actually doing it in fast forward. Most Brits are amazed at how quickly we’ve been able to purchase a car and get phone contracts, when we feel like it has taken ages. I think Dave and I just have the desire to feel settled in on all accounts. We need to hang some art, modernize a bit, and establish our routines. This will come. We need to relax and enjoy this process a bit. I think that’s possible. We waffle between stress and amusement daily.

Amusement is going to our first car boot sale Saturday morning and finding a bike for K1, a trike for K2 and Buddha statue (Peace & Tranquility) for the garden. Stress is waiting for a week to get my PIN # for my bank card only to have to have one re-issued. And it seems not much can be done without a PIN # around here!

Amusement is Dave and K1 taking an evening walk to a local pub where Dave can have a pint and K1 can climb on the outdoor climbing structures. Stress is when our Garmin takes us in circles and we can’t NOT follow it. 

Amusement is the new zip line at Gogmore Park behind our house. Dave has romanced it a bit with this video of K1’s first zip line experience.

K's World on a String

The front (street-side) of the house. Stunning, I know.

Stress is finding out that our house has a “slight” flea problem. Gross. Gross. Itchy. Gross. Poor K1 has gotten the bulk of the bites, but we’re dealing with it and our tiny washing and drying machines have worked overtime today. The previous tenants had two cats. Flea infested cats.

 

Our garden.

But…then amusement came when we took our first excursion late this afternoon to Windsor. Only a 20 minute drive and there we were on the Queen’s doorstep. We didn’t go in the castle today; running back and forth on the long walk was all the fun the boys needed. While watching them run, I had that moment I’ve been waiting for. My eyes got a little teary and my heart got squishy. Thankful for the choices we’ve made and energized for many more moments to come.

Windsor

Look closely in the left-hand corner. This was heaven for the boys.