Archive | family

how we spend our days {Part 2 of 2}

November 19, 2013 at 2:24 pm

(If you’d like to see Part 1 of this little series, click here. Just for fun — and for myself in the years to come — I’m documenting a day with my family in our home in Sicily. The day also happened to be my 27th birthday!)

When I left off yesterday, it was about 11am on November 14, and Gil was still napping. Lena and I moved out to the balcony to hang our bedroom sheets from the railing; they billowed and retracted with the breeze. I asked Lena to take the dry cloth diapers off the rack for me, and she stacked them while I “stuffed” the diapers with absorbent inserts. She’s a good helper!

She found a millipede, one of many in our house.

Diapers are stuffed and stacked… and ready to be snapped back onto Mr. Gil whenever he needs them. Lena reached through the balcony to touch the dark blue sheets as they dried.

Back into the kitchen. I gave Lena a snack of frozen berries mixed with organic vanilla yogurt. We can’t get very many berries locally here in Sicily (besides picking wild blackberries in season, that is!), so I try to feed Lena mixes of various berries. She ate her snack while I washed the dishes and put them up to dry in our over-the-sink drying cupboard (an Italian kitchen feature that I love). When she was almost done, she brought me her bowl. “Can you get one more bite for me, Mama?” I scraped her bowl and found three more bites.

It’s 12pm and someone’s awake! Lena runs to him first, saying, “Gil! Aww, Gil! You got up so early, Gil!” I love how she repeats whatever she hears me say… well, most of the time I like to hear her repeat it.

On the left, this is where Gil is whenever I come into the room after his nap: pressing his head into the mesh and waiting eagerly for us to come racing in, scoop him up, snuggle him. Right now Gil is sleeping in a pack ‘n’ play in the guest room while Lena still sleeps in her crib in her room. I thought we’d transition them to the same bedroom with Gil in the crib and Lena in a regular bed after Gil was a few months old. However, it’s made more sense to keep them separated because we usually have two bedrooms at our disposal and they sleep/nap much better apart. Also, Lena still can’t get out of her crib by herself… and I am not going to encourage any escapism around here!

I quickly dress my children and pack a picnic lunch, and then strap them into the back of our Honda Civic. Two kiddos are excited for “da playgroun’ an’ yunch wiff Daddy!”

In 10 minutes we’re parking, and I text Elliott to come meet us. I love to see him walking towards us, stretching his legs after a long morning in the vet clinic and so happy to see his family! It’s a beautiful day on base, and we let Lena run around for awhile before sitting down to eat. Unfortunately, I’m learning that Lena rarely eats a full meal when there’s a playground nearby, so I’ll probably have to feed her something else by the time we get home. Oh well, it’s worth it to see her joy… so much so that we’ve made this a weekly tradition.

After the meal, I had a few errands to run in the commissary (grocery store) and NEX (military version of Target). The kid are troopers, but they were tuckered out by the time I finished! (Lena is faking, Gil is not.) Time to head home for naps. I strapped them into the car, and by the time I parked in front of our house, Gil was fast asleep. I carried his car seat to his room, slipped him out, nursed him, and laid him down, and then Lena and I read a couple of stories together before I tucked her in with a song and a prayer.

On most days, I usually get an hour or hour-and-a-half to myself in the afternoon. Precious, precious time! Some days I use this whole time to blog, other days I curl up hungrily with a book or knitting project I’ve been itching to enjoy all day. Today I needed to get various things done around the house, so off I went…

I gathered my supplies for my knitting class that night. It was the last one in a series of four classes, and I was excited to help my students finish up the hat and handwarmers they had started. I teach classes through MWR (community activities organization) on base; this was the second class I’ve taught, and I’m teaching an advanced class in December. They’re a lot of fun!

I also folded and delivered some laundry…

… and put the clean, dry sheets on our bed. It won’t be long before I’ll need to change out the light blanket for our toasty-warm feather duvet for the winter months. Our house has no central air and electricity is prohibitively expensive in Italy, so it gets cold in the wintertime!

I walked back into the kitchen just as the sun lit up the valley below Mt Etna. I love this enormous kitchen window; it’s like having a painting on our wall that magically transforms with the changes in weather and seasons.

I frosted cupcakes for dessert that night… and might have treated myself to an extra one!

And finally I prepared dinner, because I wanted to have everything ready by 5pm so we could eat before I left for my knitting class at 6:15. I put the final touches on this delicious recipe, made baked potatoes according to this great tutorial…

… and made my favorite salad: greens with dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, and goat cheese, and usually finished with a blush wine viniagrette.

And then the kids were up and Elliott was home! How did I only take two pictures of Elliott all day?! But there he is, handsome stranger.

We opened presents and cards before dinner, where there were many fun surprises. I was so excited to get this sweater from my parents, which I’ve been eyeing for awhile. There were other gifts and gift cards from sweet family members, including these books and immersion blender (thank you, Elliott… soups all winter!!!):

And then we feasted, and then we ate cupcakes! I couldn’t find a birthday candle for me (and Lena) to blow out, but my family did sing me “Happy Birthday,” Lena with a gigantic smile spreading across her face as she realized we were singing one of her favorite songs for a real birthday, not just for fun. I love them so.

And that is where I forgot to keep taking pictures… oh well. After dessert we dashed around in a flurry as Elliott bathed the kids and I put food away, and then I put Gil to bed and raced out the door. The knitting class was so much fun, as was coming home to find my hubby had once again cleaned the kitchen. Elliott and I spent a quiet evening together, reading and talking as we always do, thankful for this peaceful time at the end of the day.

I know I’ll look back on these days and probably be amazed by the simplicity of our lives. I will remember being bored at times, overwhelmed at others, and often numbed to the joys because of the endless needs of my young family. But I hope I also remember that I knew I was richly blessed, and that I was very happy, and that I was so well loved.

9 :: in a picture an hour, Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, family, home sweet home, life lately

how we spend our days {Part 1 of 2}

November 18, 2013 at 3:58 pm

Right before Gil was born, I did a two-part blog series documenting a regular day at home with Lena. I knew those days were precious, and I wanted to capture the whole day in images as best I could (mostly for my own sake!). Little did I know that Gil would be born the next day. That really was the very last day in that stage of our lives.

Just like last January, change is on the horizon for us now. We will only be in Sicily for another 8 months, and after that I don’t know where we’ll be or what my everyday life will look like. I could very well go back to work, and/or my children might be in school or daycare. Who knows?

There is also change in the weather here, as the autumn winds begin to whistle around our house on the cliff and the fields below us once again turn lush and green with the winter rains.

And there is change in our children. They are not the same from day to day or even moment to moment. When I took these pictures last week, Gil preferred to scoot everywhere, hoisting himself forward on his two arms and dragging his legs behind him. Now, just four days later, he’s marching around on all fours with military precision. Lena has probably learned 10 new words. How can I keep up with all this change?

Of course the answer is that I can’t keep up with it. I can only enjoy these fleeting days filled with growth and development and constant newness. So, in order to capture a little bit of these days for my memory, I grabbed my camera on the morning of November 14th — my 27th birthday. It was a special day in some ways (hot breakfast and cupcakes and presents, oh my!), but in others it was just the same as most others, because sameness — rhythm, routine — is necessary with young ones.

How we spend our days is, after all, how we spend our lives. (Annie Dillard)

So here is a day in our lives.

On that morning, Elliott let me sleep in… which was blissful! We’re terrible at going to bed on time, and so we end up getting 6-7 hours of sleep most nights. It just isn’t enough for either one of us, but we are starved for time to work on projects and spend time together after the kids are in bed, so I doubt our bedtime will change anytime soon. To cope with this, we’ve started helping each other sleep in, which makes a monumental difference in our attitudes.

As soon as I stepped into the living room, Lena ran towards me holding a birthday card, her face lit up like the sunrise and words bubbling out of her with excitement. She showed me the balloons, heart, and letters she and Elliott had drawn together, and then she opened up the card to show me five globs of scribble, which she pointed to in turn and described as, “A blue lion… and a red lion… and a yellow lion… and a green lion… and a… a pink lion!” Except “lion” was more like “yion.” You could have cleaned me up off the floor with a sponge; I totally melted into a little puddle of love.

I scooped her up and took her back to bed with me for some snuggles while Elliott disappeared into the kitchen…

… and returned a short while later with breakfast on a tray! Hot coffee, bacon, an egg, and two pancakes (one with syrup and one with Nutella and banana, just the way I like them). He then took Lena and left me to eat and read quietly in bed. For some reason, this seemed like the very height of luxury to me right then. I didn’t have to jump up to grab anything, and I didn’t have to feed anyone but myself. And I could read! “Honey, that was wonderful,” I told Elliott, “We have got to treat each other to it more often!”

Elliott had to run out the door to work, so I took over duty in the kitchen. He gave us each a kiss and dashed out the door as we made plans to see him later for a picnic on the playground.

Out the kitchen window, I drank in the view of Etna, the volcano that dominates the eastern Sicilian skyline. On winter mornings there’s barely a cloud in the sky. Breathtaking!

My little ones were finishing their breakfast. They are both huge fans of pancakes and eggs, a treat in our house!

Lena and Gil love to “snuggle” in Gil’s bed, where they play with toys, roll, and tumble. Lena particularly enjoys this because it’s the only time she gets to have a pacifier (Gil’s, of course), which she still misses very much. Sometimes she seems so mature, and sometimes I see glimpses of the little girl that was Gil’s age… wasn’t it just last week?!

Since they were safe and happily playing in Gil’s bed, started a load of laundry in our tiny Italian washing machine. Afterwards I moved them to my bed for more snuggles as I got ready for the day.

Gil’s gets busier by the day. Drawers, cupboards, and doors are his favorite things, and he loves to open and close them and see what’s on the other side.

Caught ya!

I moved into the bathroom, and they followed me… and disemboweled my toiletry bag. Lena found something for her lips…

I caught Lena jumping on the bed — a forbidden but also an irresistible temptation for her! — and moved the group to the living room rug, where we keep a rotation of toys. Gil pounded one of the cat’s toys onto a vintage Fisher Price xylophone, which I was stoked to find at a ~~junk~~ antique fair last week.

Lena asked me to help her make a “choo-choo train,” which is a line of blocks that she can then roll her cars over.

Gil found an actual choo-choo train.

Siena, our constant companion. I have been so grateful for her tolerance and even fascination with my children as they’ve grown. She lets Gil almost smother her before she disentangles herself, and she has always been gentle but firm in letting the kids know her limits. She’s eager to be right on the periphery of our activity, a quiet shadow following us around the house.

After this, it was about 10am and Gil was ready for his morning nap. I changed his diaper, zipped him up in a sleep sack, and then nursed him on the guest room bed. Lena — who is not very good at amusing herself — quietly slipped into the room and snuggled up next to us, doing her best not to talk. After a few minutes I laid a drowsy Gil down in his bed, and Lena and I tiptoed out of the room.

In the kitchen, clouds obscured Mt Etna already.

Lena read a library book while I gathered ingredients for carrot cupcakes. I had to teach a knitting class at 6:30 tonight, and we like to eat and put Gil to bed before I go. Because of this, I needed to have dinner ready by 5pm. I wanted to make it special — it was my b’day! — and fun for my family. I’ll cash in on my birthday reward of a husband-cooked meal some other time!

As the cupcakes baked, I mixed spices to marinate the meat for this incredible recipe…

… and chopped onions, tomatoes, and peppers as part of the criolla salsa to accompany the meat.

That’s about half of the photos from that day. I’ll pick up tomorrow with some cloth diaper-folding, a visit to base, my task list during the kids’ nap time, and a birthday dinner!

6 :: in a picture an hour, Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, family, home sweet home, life lately, Mt Etna

a visit to Cefalu

November 4, 2013 at 3:56 pm

Hello again! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We laid low at home, enjoying time together as a family and doing lots of reading. I inhaled this novel over the weekend, which is masterfully written and partially set in Italy. We also visited the beautiful Casa delle Farfalle (Butterfly House) on Sunday afternoon as a family, eating a picnic outside first and then admiring butterflies in the greenhouse afterwards.

Picking up where I left off last time… a few weekends ago, after our wonderful lunch in a castle, we had an evening and a full day left of our family getaway. We drove into the pretty coastal town of Cefalu in northern Sicily and found our apartment, which we’d rented through AirBnB. We love renting apartments and skipping hotels mostly because we feel like we have a much more authentic local experience and because they are usually more affordable and practical with little kids. We rented this great apartment just across the street from the beach. Center of town, three bedrooms, balconies over looking the ocean, a full kitchen… and all for less than any decent hotel room I could find.

Other than Sunday lunch, I packed all the food we’d need for the weekend in a cooler, and that also streamlined our travel with little kids. There are really few things more stressful in life than a delicious dinner in a great restaurant that you can’t enjoy because it’s past your poor kids’ bedtime, especially if the only person to blame for that stressful situation is you!

On Sunday evening and early Monday morning, we explored the beach near our house. I loved the old city wall filled with apartments along the water.

This cutie is 9 months old now and loves to go on walks. He starts hyperventilating with excitement if he sees the Baby Bjorn. If you set him down in order to put on the baby carrier, he will inevitably believe he isn’t going on a walk after all and will burst into a heartbroken storm of tears.

After adventuring on the beach and a break for Gil’s morning nap, we vacated our apartment and headed out on a walk up La Rocca, the steep cliff towering above the city. The walk was immediately beautiful, and we felt miles away from the beach as we ascended into pungent pine forest.

View from partway up La Rocca.

Gil is in his element, Lena is taking a welcome break. I was a total dummy and only packed one baby carrier, so Lena had to walk up the whole way. She let us know this was not her idea of a good time…

… so this happened towards the end, and this is definitely her idea of a good time.

Break for lunch after the ascent. We were surrounded by ruins from ancient Greek and Roman times. (P.S. I married the best-looking guy!)

Looking up the coast of northern Sicily towards Palermo.

The view straight down the cliff was of the main cathedral (which we visited right after our hike) and the stunning blue of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

I spent awhile helping Lena walk along a rock wall as Elliott (and Gil) took pictures of the view. Lena’s wearing Saltwater Sandals, the one pair of shoes that I bought to last her all summer long for every event (weddings, beaches, hikes, play dates, and Sunday services). Because they are white, waterproof, sturdy, and made of beautiful leather, they were the perfect choice!

The view through an old window in the ancient ruins.

Family!

A pretty kitty we found at the end of our hike. We wanted to take her home!

Vespas and a cute boy in a straw hat.

It’s a little hard to see in this picture, but three kids were sitting on three different balconies talking and helping each other with their homework!

Walking through Cefalu after our hike.

We found the cathedral with La Rocca looming behind it.

Cathedral and a cute girl in a straw hat.

And pistachio and chocolate gelato. Not a bad end to a lovely trip!

6 :: in family, Italy, Sicily, travel

Sunday lunch in a castle {Caccamo, Sicily}

October 30, 2013 at 3:23 pm

In our family, I am the one who is usually eager to travel and explore, whereas Elliott is grateful for weekends to stay home and rest. I’m home all week, so when the weekend comes, I’m like, “Get me outta here!” But I know how much Elliott loves quiet time with his family; he will spend whole Saturdays building block towers and having dance parties with Lena and Gil. Therefore the greatness of his sacrifice was not lost on me when he offered to take a Monday off and let us travel somewhere over the weekend. I might have done a happy dance.

After a little research, we chose to go to Cefalu (cheff-a-LOO) on the northern coast of Sicily. On our way there, we decided to detour to the mountain town of Caccamo (KAH-kah-moo). Our guide book raved about the lunch served in a restaurant below a castle, and we know Sunday lunch is a tradition in Sicily. We made it to Caccamo in time to explore the castle before stuffing ourselves on a huge four-course meal.

View of Caccamo as we walked up to the castle.

There was a mountain bike race ending right at the foot of the castle, right outside the restaurant. Mountain bikers were everywhere, including the castle, and one of them was kind enough to take our picture.

Also… ahem. Lena was fascinated with this ancient toilet.

Lake, valley, mountains… so much of the scenery reminded us of California.
Also, I love my cute family!

Hand-painted floor tiles.

Inside the Great Hall of the castle. On the other side of the room was a huge fireplace and windows overlooking the mountains and valleys.

You catch a glimpse of the ocean to the left. What a setting!

And now… time to eat! I loved the brickwork and the decor. All the baskets are very distinctly Sicilian and are woven by hand from strips of olive wood.

Gil is eating so much now, and we are hoping he’ll fatten up! He’s still hanging out around the 10th percentile for weight. He ate a lot of our delicious meal, which included the traditional four courses: appetizer plates, two kinds of pasta, meat and salad, and cannoli and espresso for dessert. Definitely more food than we could possibly hold! There is nothing like a traditional Sicilian meal, eaten slowly over 3 hours and washed down with vino della casa.

Of course, everything was about 5 times more stressful for us than any of our neighbors because of our tired little kids, but Lena and Gil did pretty well, and we were grateful we came. Around 4pm we buckled them back into the car, and they were asleep before we left Caccamo!

Up next… photos of our beautiful weekend in Cefalu.

5 :: in family, Sicily, travel

a post-wedding getaway to Chincoteague

October 7, 2013 at 3:26 pm

Elliott’s family has been visiting Chincoteague for about 20 years, long before I was ever in the picture. Somehow we have missed these family vacations since we got married, and so this was my first time to see this beautiful corner of the world. What a peaceful place! The quiet water rising and falling with the tide, the herons and egrets dipping and diving for fish, the sunrises and sunsets that turn the marsh grasses golden and haloed with light. After the joy and excitement of Eden and Charlie’s wedding, this was a sweet way for all of us to settle gently back to earth before going on with our regular lives.

Morning on the dock.

Kayaking with David… which we chose to do at low tide. Whoopsies!

The brave kayakers, tired but victorious after shoving ourselves through mud and battling the wind.

Gil and his Grampa

Peekaboo! Auntie Jess found the perfect place to hang her hammock.

Giggles with “Unca Davy”

Thank you, Seth and Tracy, for the awesome outfit Gil is wearing. Lena also enjoyed it back in the day!

Ready to go for a bike ride!

Erika and Jonathan (happy anniversary, you two!!!) pose by the map together…

… and then Jess poses with her future husband.

For Harry Potter fans, this has something to do with Harry Potter.

The whole gang. Photo taken while biking one-handed behind them and making them all look over their shoulders… thankfully none of us crashed!

Sunset.

Daddy and his girl.

A Chincoteague pony! Looks kinda like Misty.

Cutie patooties.

All the siblings played two games of Settlers in less than 24 hours. Elliott somehow won both of them.

Last but not least, we watched a rocket go off from the NASA station! Can you see the glow in the sky that is reflected in the water? It was headed for the space station. I didn’t even know we had a space station. Did you?