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Week 21 & 22 of 2024 (Year In Review)
I sometimes feel like laughing inside that I chose this year, this “last year of my maternity leave” year to do this blogging experiment. I suppose it’s because sometimes I feel like maternity leave feels a little bit floating and aimless a lot of the time, which means it always feels weird to write about, but I know, truly know that these are days I will look back on super nostalgically. As we get ready to celebrate our little Mouse who turns two in less than a week and I busy myself with gathering the presents (I am far too excited) and cake recipes together, I am definitely already feeling…
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Week 19 & 20 of 2024 (In Review)
I can’t complain about early May – my spring fatigue and illness were over and it was birthday week! My early May birthday fell on a Wednesday this year but we were still able to make a one night getaway trip to Cesky Krumlov – the obvious choice for a fairytale experience within a thirty-minute drive. The actual day was pretty overcast but still did all the things such as plenty of outdoor time, coffees, playgrounds for the little one, sushi for a celebration dinner — it’s always what I request. This year I treated myself to a stay at the Zamecka Apartments at the very foot of the castle…
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Week 16, 17 & 18 of 2024 (In Review) – Summer Trip Plans!
The last few weeks of April were odd ones for me as I was ill (the one-two punch of a flu followed by a cold) there was snow and just getting over the jarni unava (spring fatigue) I surely had at the beginning of the month. With the coming of May, it’s certainly all good now but the photo (above) perfectly illustrates the frustration and just overall meh feeling. Just trying to throw on purposely the weirdest winter coat I own to run out and do errands because who cares. You know the “idgaf” vibes. Between all of the illnesses I unknowingly went to Costa Coffee (in our town) for…
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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…
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Week 11 & 12 of 2024 (In Review): Vienna
Happy Easter, friends! Last week was a continuation of all the good things from Week 10 as we took a little trip for a change of scenery to Vienna. We haven’t travelled anywhere since October and coming off of how magical Rome was last March, we wanted to have at least a little holiday on my last maternity leave year over spring break. Not having travelled since the little one was 16 months old and is now 21 months old was a great excuse in itself to do so. We want to raise a flexible and adaptable child who can sleep and be at other places without raising much of…
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Week 9 & 10 of 2024 (In Review)
Spring is in the air! Buds are noticeable, the first blooms are out, plant growth on the forest floor has begun, nests are furiously being built in trees all around us (peep the one above). But it’s been a beautiful past two weeks of crisp, sunny days were wonderful for being just normal winter weeks of the year. Fully embracing my maternity leave days this year (balanced with a wee bit of teaching) has been going so well and although we’ve weathered through colds cycling through everyone in the house and some health challenges here and there, they have been beautiful. Last week was particularly, accidentally magical. Baby play dates…
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Week 7 & 8 of 2024 (In Review)
Even writing week in review posts is proving to be challenging but it’s a special exercise this year only so I hope you are enjoying them so far! The past two weeks brought us Valentine’s Day, which is always a fun week to observe. It was a little bit cold and windy but I had a little coffee date with my Little Man in the monastery courtyard. It was fun watching him wander around. He’s in that phase right now where he’s discovering walking around outside and every single thing is new and exciting. The other day we all went on a family walk to a playground — the first…
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Week 5 & 6 of 2024 (In Review)
It’s nearly mid-February and I’m feeling the urge to settle as deep as possible into winter before March, when it still is very much winter but everyone seems to have spring on their minds. February is still true winter so I’m embracing the hot chocolates, movies, diving into books, flannel pajamas and plentiful cups of tea and coffee. Our little M suffered from a a particularly wretched cold in Week 5 so we kept our activities to almost nothing besides some daily fresh air. You feel so bad for the little ones who don’t know how to blow their nose! Fortunately that’s done and we’ve been able to do our…
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The Books of 2023 (Annual Book Post!)
It took me ’til February, but here it is! This was a great reading year for me, if 32 books with a 3.9 star (out of 5) average says anything about the it. It was a fantastic mix of memoirs, non-fiction, engaging novels and a sprinkling of parenting books thrown in for good measure. No book clubs or anything mucking up my choices (although they can be really fun sometimes). Mostly I read while breastfeeding on my Kindle but being able to read in bed again at night also helped a lot — man have I missed it! Here’s a sampling of the best of them… and really there were…
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Week 3 & 4 of 2024 (In Review)
Last week was a light and abundant week of loads of baby activities. We visited two different baby cafes and the time outside the house (when we finally manage it!) always feels good for both of us, I think. If you’re not sure what I mean by “baby cafes”, these are entire cafe spaces completely dedicated to babies and toddlers. There is usually play equipment, things to climb on and loads of toys strewn about while also having tables and chairs for mamas to have a coffee and chat. There is a cover charge per child over one year old (usually). We are so lucky to have three or four…