What a life changer it is to work out of office close to home! Literally - 5 minutes away from Chinchillas's daycare! 4 days out of 6 I will be going to the office nearby, for the next 6 month at least - that's so many hours saved on commute given it takes around 1.5 hrs a day to drive to Lakewood in traffic!
On the other hand, I am glad I took the chance of going through entire Shakespeare works last year, when I had it. I just got my Odyssey CDs from the Library, and I'm at end of Disc 1 out of... 12 and it's hard to tell how I'm going to cope with it listening just 2 days a week. And then, there's also Iliad to cover this year...
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Back from first resort family vacation.
Classic vacation with 2 toddlers full of digging holes in sand and building sand castles, putting on layers of sunblock morning and evening, running to and from waves, finding shells, watching pelicans, ships and boats, and admiring a few local cute animals who were all, for simplicity, called "squirrels".
Good preparation helped a lot. We brought just enough clothes to survive a week, having had 1 laundry done mid-way (Arthur got sick just before leaving and was periodically throwing up over me on the way to Cancun. He woke up perfectly healthy the first morning in Mexico though). Chills loved their new sandals with lights, swimming trunks, hats and UV-protecting T-shirts (ordered in bright Orange, which worked out great to spot one of our kiddos at a distance). Arthur's responsibility was to carry in his toddle backpack their beach bucket, spades and cups, a boat, a submarine and 2 cars. Yep, we brought our own stuff, and that was one of the best decisions for everything was durable, used on a daily basis and could be conveniently put into the bucket and carried around.
Food deserved a separate compliment, for Chills could always find something to enjoy. Even for the kids that eat literally anything- the variety was ample. For the first 2 nights, they asked pasta for Dinner- of course, something that's not often offered to them at home :) On the third night they asked for ribs and more interesting yummy things with their pasta and the pasta remained almost untouched :) But all the time through the vacation they enjoyed ribs, meat, soups, veggies and fresh fruit to the extent that I was beginning to worry coming back to simple home menu will be hard for them. Fresh watermelon, passion fruit and "pink" ice-cream were daily must-haves. And a sudden discovery as food that they can eat non-stop was... red caviar. Even though for neither of them this was the first time they tried it - but they both must have the "red caviar savoring" gene as on those few nights the buffet served caviar - they would literally eat as much there was in front of them. And if they were in the middle of a desert when I finally made it to the caviar and brought some to the table - they would stop in the middle of their ice-creams, grabbed soup spoons and quickly attack my plate. And once there was no caviar left they would return to their ice-cream as if nothing happened.
Another thing I was happy they enjoyed was mini-disco after dinner. Their social life definitely started early - they loved to be dressed up in their cute evening shirts and look sharp, loved to be part of the action on stage and especially loved getting candy treats after the dance. Only apparently they decided not to repeat the movements they were shown, and do their own dance instead - something less energy consuming and making them look cool and mysterious.
Now that this first trip is done, it will only get easier. Next step is to renew Arthur's passport this summer or sooner, and then - to decide if we can attempt trips to Canada and Spain by the end of this year.
Good preparation helped a lot. We brought just enough clothes to survive a week, having had 1 laundry done mid-way (Arthur got sick just before leaving and was periodically throwing up over me on the way to Cancun. He woke up perfectly healthy the first morning in Mexico though). Chills loved their new sandals with lights, swimming trunks, hats and UV-protecting T-shirts (ordered in bright Orange, which worked out great to spot one of our kiddos at a distance). Arthur's responsibility was to carry in his toddle backpack their beach bucket, spades and cups, a boat, a submarine and 2 cars. Yep, we brought our own stuff, and that was one of the best decisions for everything was durable, used on a daily basis and could be conveniently put into the bucket and carried around.
Food deserved a separate compliment, for Chills could always find something to enjoy. Even for the kids that eat literally anything- the variety was ample. For the first 2 nights, they asked pasta for Dinner- of course, something that's not often offered to them at home :) On the third night they asked for ribs and more interesting yummy things with their pasta and the pasta remained almost untouched :) But all the time through the vacation they enjoyed ribs, meat, soups, veggies and fresh fruit to the extent that I was beginning to worry coming back to simple home menu will be hard for them. Fresh watermelon, passion fruit and "pink" ice-cream were daily must-haves. And a sudden discovery as food that they can eat non-stop was... red caviar. Even though for neither of them this was the first time they tried it - but they both must have the "red caviar savoring" gene as on those few nights the buffet served caviar - they would literally eat as much there was in front of them. And if they were in the middle of a desert when I finally made it to the caviar and brought some to the table - they would stop in the middle of their ice-creams, grabbed soup spoons and quickly attack my plate. And once there was no caviar left they would return to their ice-cream as if nothing happened.
Another thing I was happy they enjoyed was mini-disco after dinner. Their social life definitely started early - they loved to be dressed up in their cute evening shirts and look sharp, loved to be part of the action on stage and especially loved getting candy treats after the dance. Only apparently they decided not to repeat the movements they were shown, and do their own dance instead - something less energy consuming and making them look cool and mysterious.
Now that this first trip is done, it will only get easier. Next step is to renew Arthur's passport this summer or sooner, and then - to decide if we can attempt trips to Canada and Spain by the end of this year.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
I completed my first scuba dive in 5 years.
Since 2012 I was in a constant pregnancy-breastfeeding-pregnancy-breastfeeding mode, and then Chills were too little, and now, years down the road, I managed to schedule a dive and what's more important - during Chills' day nap time. Priceless.
Surprisingly enough, not all the skills were lost. Actually, none of the skills were gone but a good chunk of the vocabulary was. I could do the basic exercise, assemble my scuba set, but a regulator... what the heck is a regulator?! Oh, that stuff that was in my mouth for the past 45 minutes? Oh, thaaaat regulator!..
So, my wetsuit soaked the water of the Caribbean once again and later, on the boat back to the shore, I noted the dive did not trigger my asphyxiphobia and muscle memory serves me well. Indeed, when I was last diving I might have been thinking that was the most insane thing I had ever done. Did I have a clue that I would soon have 2 kids back-to-back, pass CPA exams, switch from Global Mobility to PA, become a columnist on time management and efficiency, start learning martial arts and would go through a good dozen of other life-changing revelations? Every experience changes me. I am a different person from the one I was 6 months ago, let alone 6 years. And yet - here I am, my wetsuit, aviator sunglasses, salty breeze and sun in the face, wide grin and salt in the hair... That indescribable state of being - not "me" but still me...
Surprisingly enough, not all the skills were lost. Actually, none of the skills were gone but a good chunk of the vocabulary was. I could do the basic exercise, assemble my scuba set, but a regulator... what the heck is a regulator?! Oh, that stuff that was in my mouth for the past 45 minutes? Oh, thaaaat regulator!..
So, my wetsuit soaked the water of the Caribbean once again and later, on the boat back to the shore, I noted the dive did not trigger my asphyxiphobia and muscle memory serves me well. Indeed, when I was last diving I might have been thinking that was the most insane thing I had ever done. Did I have a clue that I would soon have 2 kids back-to-back, pass CPA exams, switch from Global Mobility to PA, become a columnist on time management and efficiency, start learning martial arts and would go through a good dozen of other life-changing revelations? Every experience changes me. I am a different person from the one I was 6 months ago, let alone 6 years. And yet - here I am, my wetsuit, aviator sunglasses, salty breeze and sun in the face, wide grin and salt in the hair... That indescribable state of being - not "me" but still me...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)