Mama's Musings

Sunlight at 4 am

Jet lag has been a problem this time. We spent the first full day yawning into our water glasses and lounging about the pool with family. The kids had a blast, jumping from the diving board (Jackson, upon his own inclination, decided it was time to jump, floaties and all!) and carousing with the adults and other kids.

Today I feel much better. We got eight hours of almost consecutive sleep. Jackson crawled into our bed at 2 am. I was grateful to sleep until 4 am. We've been going to bed at 8:30 pm, making the night almost long enough. The sun is just now rising and Jackson is wondering when he can wake up Opa Alan. We told him when he can see the sun. On the horizon at 5:45 am he could see a slit of sunlight and asked again.

I have one radio interview this morning at 9 am. Then we are off to Short Pump to help mom pick up her dress for Suzanne's wedding. Very exciting times for us here at the farm!

I love you people

For all you crazy cats out there who spend your time reading blogs like mine, well, you might be interested in this cool article about natural search engine optimization. It tells you the how and wherefore about upping your ratings. Move over Nielson -- NSEO has arrived!

I love you people who read my blog. Thank you -- from the bottom of my heart. Life is full of surprises, and if I weren't mistaken, I think the Universe has been playing jokes on me lately. It's a good thing I have people in my life who understand me. They just nod and say,

"Yup, of course this would happen to you..."

Such as when someone haphazardly writes to me about a blog post I've written on DotMoms, and she says, "Oh by the way, my children's names are the same as yours..." Jackson and Sophia? Wow. I paused. I wondered. I giggled. That's neat, I thought, writing her back a quick thank-you note. Then I clicked on her blog before hitting the "send" button. And that's where I see she lives in Charlottesville, VA. Of all the places in this entire world (and people from all over the world read DotMoms, so golly, I'm starting to feel spooked now), I see she lives where my entire family lives. And then, I find out she has German relatives, and that she has just moved to C'ville from Boston...that's where I stop in my tracks, give her the name of my books and say, "Your kids are only 3 and 1 (same age difference as mine!), so read these. You will be able to look into the future just by reading them -- you don't even need to fill in the blank with the names..."

The Universe is like that.

Like the randomness of lactose intolerance. If I were stricken with the condition,  I may have to take lactagen or some other type of digestive aid. I just love ice cream too much. My son and I are a great team. He eats the chocolate covering and I lick the ice cream down to the stick...

What would happen if I typed in "random" and "universe" in a search engine that rhymes with frugal...? Enough already. I'm punchy, it's late, and that's all, folks!

We pretended it was summer

Yesterday we went to an indoor water slide park in Ingolstadt. That way we could wear our bathing suits and not freeze. Yes, people, it snowed in parts of Germany today.

It is August. Enough said.

Today's excursion was a pony trail ride near Erding. Tinkerponyhof looked well-kempt from the outside looking in. All was well until my kids got run over by a runaway pony. Yup. Not a very good first impression. They were fine, but my trust shrunk as the morning wore on...

I'm going to write a ditty about this experience so I won't go into detail just now. Let's just say it rained, the wind whipped, and I was the one who had to tramp through the woods with the pony on the line...

Give Me a Break!

Yes, I am going to winge. It is only the first week of my children's summer vacation and, admittedly, I am already losing patience. The worst of it is that my son is still attending a morning program, and my daughter is rather easy to handle when her pesky little brother isn't around. So why am I so glum?

It is the weather's fault.

The day feels long, the hours tedious, and the weather has been cold. I'm not talking 70 degrees here, people. I am talking about 60 degrees and grey. Someone forgot to tell the Earth it is summertime in Germany.

My husband and I thought we were smart. We began summer early by going to Fuerteventura in March. We stretch the limits by going to Italy in June. We drank up the sun and cackled at the weather gods.

"You can't TOUCH us," we howled. We howled about as loudly as the easterly winds that chafed our faces at the airport each time we would arrive back home. Brrrrrrr, Germany is freezing.

My mother promises me good, hot weather in Virginia. We are attending my dear sister's wedding in a few weeks. According to my mother, it is hotter than a hen's behind after some serious egg-sittin'. We shall see.

Anything would be warmer than this. They say Iceland is nice in the summertime...