-
Weeks 40-44 of 2024 (Year in Review) – OCTOBER, Lately
When I tell you why I couldn’t manage a Week in Review post last month, please believe me when I tell you that the situation was as dire as they come — my dear two-year-old son decided to go on a nap-strike. After fourteen beautiful months of napping gloriously since he was an infant, those days are over. There has never been a bigger fuss at the merest idea of having quiet time or a nap. The kid has made his position completely clear and will only fall asleep in the day when completely bored or exhausted in the pram. For anyone who doesn’t have kids, just imagine that for…
-
Week 38 & 39 of 2034 (Year in Review)
The middle weeks of September were challenging, to say the least. I first saw some inklings that there was a very severe weather event blowing our way mid-week 38 and when the rains came, they came. They arrived. It started raining sometime on Thursday and didn’t stop until later on Monday. Not only does that seem like a downer, everyone was predicting it would flood and there were warnings to prepare for floods at the level of 2002 or 2012. We filled all fillable containers in our house, made sure all bathing and washing of anything was done and felt nervous the entire weekend as I anxiously monitored the situation…
-
Life, Lately: Autumn With a One-Year-Old
Happy autumn! I thought a catch-up was overdue, so here’s what’s been going on with us lately here in South Bohemia – life on maternity leave with a seventeen-month old toddler. THINKING… When I get free time, my mind is just a jumble of the hundred things I have been wanting to do. Writing it down in my planner, a series of random papers or a Google Doc has been saving me. Right now, Mouse is have an unusually long midday nap and I’ve been frenetically choosing activities: have lunch, pay bills/life admin, weekend plans… but then “which learning tower should I buy?”, I need to plan Christmas things already!,…
-
Life Lately: And That Was Autumn With a Baby
Now with a five-month-old, I can barely sit at a computer for more than ten minutes each day – I’m embarrassed that this post took me about two months to finally publish. I am really taking to heart “sleep when the baby sleeps” so my very few minutes of free time is going to rest and self-care. Sometimes I manage to write a whole e-mail. With an infant that is demanding more and more attention daily, that is definitely what’s working for me right now. With Alex back to work in mid-September after about two and a half months as a new little family, things have reached a new level…
-
Autumn Celebrations + A Delicious Drink {Recipe}
I am already beside myself with excitement that the holiday season starts in two weeks! After last year’s Christmas market cancellation, I think I got my sense of joy and whimsy back and I’m ready to enjoy the coming season to the fullest! I couldn’t believe that in the single-digits of November the market was already under construction in the square! I have already smelled the ceremonial first waft of spiced punch, a phenomenon which happens every year and is always ceaselessly thrilling, as the punch stands are already out and blazing with business. Alex was joking that every year we have the same conversation, “Are you excited? It doesn’t…
-
The Spooky October Film Series, Part VII
What are your Halloween traditions like? Mine entail a near devotional spooky film every Sunday night in October in the lead-up to the holiday… however, it can’t be any of the same films we’ve seen in the past several years! It’s not too hard to think up different films that still perfectly fit the Halloween bill if you’re myself or Alex. This year, as I’m also reading Dracula, I was really feeling the vampire theme. I was, however, not allowed to bring Twilight into the mix (I guess on my own time…) so this is the list we came up with this year. I hope it helps spark some Halloween…
-
Autumn, Lately
This year hasn’t been a banner year for the old bloggity-blog by any means. It’s hard to write when a) you are doing a million things and this space has frankly taken a back burner, b) there’s too much to put online, or c) somethings that are going on, you wouldn’t want to put online anyway. It’s also dispiriting when your favorite blogs on the interweb have a) gone dark or b) gone behind a paywall. (If you’ve got a cool blog or know of one, holler at me in the comments because I’m out of ideas!) I miss blog reading. Remember the days that everyone would post their daily…
-
A Little Post about Olomouc, Czech Republic
We took a little “hello fall” trip at the end of September to Olomouc – a city in the Moravian region of the country (about five hours by train from Budejovice) that has long been on our travel list – a very handy thing to consult when you’re not sure what your next destination will be. A city break made the most sense seeing as the epidemiological situation at the moment wasn’t not bad and just in case it goes sideways again, it would be nice to spend time in a city. Also the fact that it is in a completely different area of the country was exciting – it’s…
-
Autumn Lockdown Feels Like
Do you think optimistic, positive people ever just… lose it after awhile? I consider myself one of those and was wondering when that breaking point would come. After holding it together so well since lockdown started in March, I’ve had more work than ever before (none of this Corona free time) and I guess last Sunday, in mid-late November it all sort of came to a head. It came to me today that of course our Christmas trip abroad would be cancelled this year – it would be folly to go through with it. I thought of all the sadness and destruction that 2020 has wrought. I wondered when I…
-
Sunday Baking: Pumpkin-Spiced Babka
I’ve been pottering around the Internet so long that I’ve been cooking from recipes and cooking blogs that now have ceased to exist. (Does anyone remember Whole Living, circa 2010ish? Goodbye, all those recipes!) This moment is a bit of a tragedy when you really need that recipe that you’ve been using forever, but is suddenly unavailable. So (by request!), I wanted to share with you a fantastic seasonal baking recipe I’ve been baking from for the past couple of years. To be fair, this year’s Great British Bake Off reminded me about babkas during the annual Bread Week, but this one’s in a beautiful, festive wreath shape. If you…
