Mieke and I were reading this series of fairy books that she likes. She reads one page, I read the next, and so on. I'm not a fan of these books because I don't consider the story, characters, or writing compelling in any way, but the girls love them so I agree to get Mieke up to speed so she can read them on her own.
Anyway, Mieke's reading along and she comes to a line where Kirsty says, "I hope we don't run into those goblins again." Mieke stops, marking her place with a finger.
"Mama," she said, "I know they're going to run into those goblins again."
"You do?"
"I'm sure of it. But the writer of this book should make it not so obvious, make it so you think they will run into the goblins but then they don't. Or make you think they won't, and then--surprise!--they do. That would be more exciting. The writer should really do that."
"You're right. She should."
We kept reading and sure enough...goblins.
Mieke just shook her head. "These books are all the same."
Friday, October 18, 2019
Monday, August 29, 2016
Back Home
Well, we've been back home from our European vacation for 10 days now and it's been more of a whirlwind than when we were travelling. I guess that means it must have been a relaxing vacation. Already we've said Bon Voyage to my sister, sending her off on her great Asian adventure, we've been camping at Timothy Lake, and we've been to my family's annual swim party down near Eugene. As usual, it was a blast.
The kids only managed to stop swimming when Steph brought out the snowcones. There's Paul in the water feeling much more like himself...and look at that wavy new hair! Linda calls it his chemo perm.
Michiel is back to work today. The kids have one more week of freedom. The house is a mess of half-unpacked, half-organized things. And I keep finding spiders in the bathroom. Big ones. I'm beginning to think Jo, Jim, and Tash (who stayed in our house while we were gone) left something more for us than tp and extra towels. There's not a spider's nest you forgot to tell us about, is there, guys?
The kids only managed to stop swimming when Steph brought out the snowcones. There's Paul in the water feeling much more like himself...and look at that wavy new hair! Linda calls it his chemo perm.
Michiel is back to work today. The kids have one more week of freedom. The house is a mess of half-unpacked, half-organized things. And I keep finding spiders in the bathroom. Big ones. I'm beginning to think Jo, Jim, and Tash (who stayed in our house while we were gone) left something more for us than tp and extra towels. There's not a spider's nest you forgot to tell us about, is there, guys?
Saturday, August 6, 2016
A Few Pictures From This Last Week
Tomorrow we head to France for a week of camping, castles, and oh...Paris. Here are a few pictures from this last week:
We climbed the Peperbustoren in Zwolle, a church tower with a spiral staircase composed of 236 steps. Even Mieke made it to the top by herself!
Happy kids modeling their new slippers:
Getting around the Dutch way...in a bakfiets. Boy, I wish we had one of these!
Annabel surfing the canals of Leeuwarden:
We climbed the Peperbustoren in Zwolle, a church tower with a spiral staircase composed of 236 steps. Even Mieke made it to the top by herself!
Happy kids modeling their new slippers:
Getting around the Dutch way...in a bakfiets. Boy, I wish we had one of these!
Annabel surfing the canals of Leeuwarden:
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
The Little Things
When we get back home, and the routine of a new school year starts, the kids will look back on our trip and one of the first things they'll remember is this:
Trampolining in the rain. They all got soaking wet (kletsnat, we would say in Dutch) and loved every minute of it.
They may not remember the churches and cathedrals, the castles and towers, the old city walls. But they will remember that the neighbor let us borrow the trampoline because his teenage boys don't use it much. They'll remember helping to set it up in the yard. They'll remember racing to jump on it every night after being excused from the dinner table. And they'll remember that one time when a warm rain fell, and they didn't think we'd let them, but Papa joined them, and they jumped and jumped while the water sprayed up all around them and fell down on top of them and they got wetter and wetter and they wanted to go on jumping all through the night.
Back home in Oregon, they will sometimes watch the rain fall and remember that joy of lightness, that bliss of flushed cheeks and shining eyes, and they'll wish they had a trampoline so they could recapture that time when they were truly happy.
Other things they will remember from the trip, those everyday things that might not make it into a scrapbook:
Trampolining in the rain. They all got soaking wet (kletsnat, we would say in Dutch) and loved every minute of it.
They may not remember the churches and cathedrals, the castles and towers, the old city walls. But they will remember that the neighbor let us borrow the trampoline because his teenage boys don't use it much. They'll remember helping to set it up in the yard. They'll remember racing to jump on it every night after being excused from the dinner table. And they'll remember that one time when a warm rain fell, and they didn't think we'd let them, but Papa joined them, and they jumped and jumped while the water sprayed up all around them and fell down on top of them and they got wetter and wetter and they wanted to go on jumping all through the night.
Back home in Oregon, they will sometimes watch the rain fall and remember that joy of lightness, that bliss of flushed cheeks and shining eyes, and they'll wish they had a trampoline so they could recapture that time when they were truly happy.
Other things they will remember from the trip, those everyday things that might not make it into a scrapbook:
- getting to eat hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) and nutella and other yummy sweet stuff on bread every morning for breakfast
- getting to eat vla (a sort of pudding, only better) every night for dessert and Oma taking them in turns to pick out new flavors--dubbel, strawberry, blanca, stroopwafel, speculaas
- watching cartoons every morning when they wake up
- riding on the back of a bike with feet in the saddlebags, or dangling free in Alexander's case
- trying to squeeze into the baby bathtub because Oma and Opa have only a shower. Really, even Alexander tries to do this.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Echte Nederlands
Real Dutch. That's what this post is about. Sure, there's cheese and windmills and klompen and stroopwafels, but what happens when you get beyond tulips and coffee shops?
Well, one thing that happens is spekken. This is a sort of marshmallowy candy that is soft, pink & white, and pure sugar. Spek is the Dutch word for bacon. What this candy has to do with bacon, I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps it is the pink and white that is reminiscent of marbled fat? Mmmm. Isn't your mouth just watering?
We all felt a bit sick afterwards.
Another thing that happens is Sjoelen, an old Dutch game were you slide wooden discs across a wooden board and try to get them into four different slots, each earning you different points. It's a fun game but I haven't yet got past the sliding-as-hard-as-I-can-in-hopes-that-something-will-go-in strategy.
Another thing is Ijs van Co, which is this hugely popular little soft-serve ice cream place that Jeanni's parents used to take her to when she was little. The lines were long but moved quickly because there were about seven teenagers packed into this little hole in the wall and serving up ice cream. Annabel and Mieke got two ice creams because their first servings were small, and well, Oma and Opa need to spoil them!
Well, one thing that happens is spekken. This is a sort of marshmallowy candy that is soft, pink & white, and pure sugar. Spek is the Dutch word for bacon. What this candy has to do with bacon, I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps it is the pink and white that is reminiscent of marbled fat? Mmmm. Isn't your mouth just watering?
We all felt a bit sick afterwards.
Another thing that happens is Sjoelen, an old Dutch game were you slide wooden discs across a wooden board and try to get them into four different slots, each earning you different points. It's a fun game but I haven't yet got past the sliding-as-hard-as-I-can-in-hopes-that-something-will-go-in strategy.
Another thing is Ijs van Co, which is this hugely popular little soft-serve ice cream place that Jeanni's parents used to take her to when she was little. The lines were long but moved quickly because there were about seven teenagers packed into this little hole in the wall and serving up ice cream. Annabel and Mieke got two ice creams because their first servings were small, and well, Oma and Opa need to spoil them!
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Maastricht
Two days ago Michiel and I had a little day-trip getaway to Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands.
Here is het Vrijthof, the big central square. Check out that red bell tower!
I also dragged Michiel to an art museum, the famous Bonnefantenmuseum full of drawings from the Renaissance. And also some modern art--some cool and creepy and some of it, well, let's just say it was a little too modern for us. This one was cool...the only piece of art work in the museum's central dome:
And the whole reason we were there was to meet dear friends from Innisfree! Stephanie and Olivier from Belgium on the right, Jamie and Christian from Virginia but visiting his parents in Germany in the middle, and then us. Such a fun group!
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
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