-
Week 13, 14 & 15 of 2024 (In Review) – Easter & April Heatwave
The weeks have flown by and I dropped the ball a little bit, so reviewing the past three weeks: Easter week and the first gorgeous weeks of our current month, April. Truly hope to be on time in about a week from now bringing us current. Man, besides this cold snap Central Europe is undergoing at the moment, haven’t we been so spoiled this year? Easter week was generally uneventful and wholly relaxing – even more so than spring break. I was so pleased that it was our little one’s first time participating in Easter traditions like an Easter egg hunt around the living room on Easter Sunday and his…
-
A Year of Life & Travels: 2023
Here we are at the beginning of another bright new year! These yearly recap posts are my absolute favorites to read (on other blogs) so I hope you will enjoy catching up with my year and seeing little Mouse grow before your eyes! It was a big year for our little family and we are so lucky to have had the travel opportunities we did! If you’re on the fence, I cannot recommend traveling with a baby this age enough, truly. New Year’s Day, January 1st, 2023 was unbelievably warm – we’re talking 18°C (64°F)! We took a long walk with friends & no coats with our six month old…
-
Postcards from Summer
Well folks, it’s already the middle of October and the mornings have officially veered into “crispy” territory. The longer between posts, the harder it is to write because I feel like I have to catch the reader up on everything, but I also know that just writing is better than nothing at all, so here I am, talking about the summer our baby was one year old and what a special summer it was. July started off beautifully with our first visit to KVIFF (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival) as a family, complete with dog and baby. It was also our first festival after the pandemic, mostly because Alex wisely…
-
Summer, Lately: Celebrations & Life With a 12 Month Old
We had a beautiful month of June here in South Bohemia. I have to say that I feel like I was so tired for at least half the month and had no idea why… until I realized that the allergy meds I am taking every other day for hay fever make me terribly drowsy. I am quite ready for allergy season to be over (still sneezing) but at least June was spent in a dreamy sort of daze. It started with a beautiful choir concert performed at a little festival in an apple orchard near Lišov. What an amazing setting and reminder (just when I really needed it) of how…
-
I Want You To Know.
Dear Our One-Year-Old Growing Little Mouse, This week you turned one! Your first year has both flown by and yet also I can recall every little step of the way, every week with every little new change that happened between last summer and now. It has been one of the greatest years of our lives, being together with you and seeing you grow. Your parents traveled to the Czech Republic over ten years ago – we decided to embark on a big adventure, partially because of the yet unsatisfied curiosity of wanting to experience living in another country and have some international adventures. I felt that there was always some…
-
The Books of 2022
I really thought I wouldn’t read that much this year. Fed up with reading a bunch of titles last year for book club that I wasn’t that interested in last year, I jumped in and did a bunch of baby/pregnancy-related reading in the first half of the year, figuring that was all I’d get around to once I had the baby. Boy was I wrong. Enter: breastfeeding sessions. I was not privy to all that breastfeeding a baby entails (in many ways, honestly). But basically, it means that every 3-4 hours, you are hanging out feeding your baby, something which takes little active effort from you, for at least thirty…
-
Year of Life & Travels: 2022
2022 was such a big beautiful year, especially compared with the two that came before it. This was the year I finished out my first full school year (not online at all!) at my new place of work. I worked my little booty off, knowing it would be the end of my free time, earning both an Intermediate Certificate in Herbalism (two years of work!) in late April and a B2 Certificate (Upper-Intermediate) in German language achievement from the Goethe-Zentrum in early June. But obviously, the biggest thing – I spent the first half of the year growing a baby! In the middle of the year, giving birth, and the…
-
Life Lately (Pregnancy) Update: Second Trimester
Happy May! This week I’ve entered the third trimester. With less than three months until our new baby joins us, things are starting to feel very real around here and I figured it was time for a bit of a life and pregnancy update. I was very lucky to spend the beginnings of my 2nd trimester at home this January and February as it was exam period during the height of the highest COVID spike we have seen yet in Czech Republic, and hide I duly did. Fortunately the situation has looked better and better, as we are no longer dark red on the map and cases are lower than…
-
A Little Ray of Sunshine: The Next Phase Begins
Our life adventuring abroad has occurred in big phases. Stepping onto a plane bound for Glasgow, Scotland with no return tickets. Moving to Ceske Budejovice and becoming gainfully employed in Europe. Getting married and coming back to the Czech Republic with renewed commitment. The post-wedding years really coming into our own here. It’s time for what will be the beginning of the next phase: We’re expecting our rainbow baby in July and we’re so excited! You might be wondering some details, so here are the questions I could think of… How are you feeling? Really great, now, at twenty-one weeks. Truly, every single day feels different. I don’t think anyone’s…
-
The Books of 2021
I made some major mistakes in my reading life last year. It pretty much all came down to being far too ambitious and picking up way too many reading projects! You might remember last year when I announced my participation in #OurYearInTranslation, in addition to trying to keep up with my book club. What a colossal mistake. I think OYIT is a great prompt if you’re stuck, in a rut and want to try something new, but that’s the thing – I was really happy with my big stack of books as it was and I didn’t really need a challenge. Honestly, I just needed everyone to leave me alone…