Moving to Ireland: Grocery Look Alikes
There are certain things I take for granted about life in the United States. Going to the grocery store is one of them. I have my routine. I know where everything is located. I know what’s a good deal. I can cruise through the grocery store on autopilot grabbing the items we use most frequently. In my experience, the hardest thing about moving to Ireland thus far is the mental effort that every single little thing, like going to the grocery store, takes. Even though I can thankfully read the labels, I can’t cruise through the store on autopilot. How do I know if Tomato Sauce A or Tomato Sauce B tastes…
Happy Birthday Junk Whisperer
The Junk Whisperer had a birthday yesterday. She’s going to be SUPER glad I’m mentioning this milestone. And she’s probably wondering if I’m going to share that EPIC photo of her showing my kids how to do a cartwheel. I’m not. The thought did cross my mind though. Briefly. Ever so briefly. I simply want to wish her a very happy birthday and a year full of blessings. And hopefully international travel. To a little island called Ireland. I also want to tell her thank you. Thank you for sharing her life with my dad. I can go off on these adventures because I know he’s not alone. Thank you…
Matchbox Car Magnet
Guys! I did some crafting! First time since we moved to Ireland. It felt good. So good. Plus, it was a 2-minute project, which is my favorite kind of craft project. Do you remember the sheet metal United States map I made for my son? It’s still one of my favorite projects. At the time, I thought it would be cool to make tiny magnets that my son could put on the map to show all the states he had visited. I just wasn’t sure how I was going to execute on that idea. Then we moved to Ireland. I should have made a world map. Ah, hindsight. It’s always there when…
Irony, Thy Name is Child
I mentioned my kids have really grown up this summer. Further evidence of this happened last week when my son decided to make his own lunch. Apparently the chef was too slow for his liking. His “take matters into his own hands” approach suited this chef just fine. He got out the bread, peanut butter, jam. I stayed in the other room with my eyes averted and my ears plugged. My son is a relatively picky eater. Among other things, he refuses to eat the crusts on bread – any bread. It drives Handy Husband nuts that I indulge him by cutting the crusts off. My logic is less bread is wasted this…
Burl Wood Table
I grew up on a farm. Now, I can’t speak for all farms, but I can speak to my experience. When you have a lot of barns and outbuildings on the family farm, it’s easy to put stuff in these buildings because you might need it someday. That’s not hoarding. That’s, uh, that’s being practical. Waste not, want not. That sort of thing. I can also fix almost anything with baling twine, but that’s a farm story for another day. When the Junk Whisperer (aka my stepmom) came into the picture, she started unearthing these long forgotten treasures while cleaning out the farm’s outbuildings. Thanks to her hard work and ingenuity, I…
Moving to Ireland: The Great Purge
Handy Husband and I have moved A LOT. We are no stranger to packing up our stuff and moving across town, across the state, across country. Moving across an ocean to a foreign country was new for us. Bring. It. On. The biggest warning you will get when moving to a European country from the United States is the homes are a lot different than what you are used to. “A lot different” is code for smaller. Unless you are uber-wealthy, a typical European home is going to be a lot smaller than a typical home in the United States. Americans must not heed The Warning because The Warning was repeated ad nauseam. You…
Moving to Ireland: A Day Out and About
Can I get a hip-hip-hooray for Friday? I have a bunch of posts in progress to share with you, but I just wasn’t feeling it for today. Instead, I thought I’d just share some random pictures. These all happen to be taken the day we got the keys to our new house, but have nothing to do with the new house. In the last month, we have become quite adept at taking the DART train. We’ve taught the kids to swipe their own train tickets and to read the signs so they know which train we are taking and when it is due to arrive. Tourist Tip: The trains are marked with their final…
Moving to Ireland: House Viewing #3
If you’ve been following along on our house hunting adventures in Ireland, then you’ll know that House #1 and House #2 were a big, fat bust. I hate to spoil the surprise, but if we are connected on Instagram or you ran into my dad, then you already know “third times a charm” is now my favorite phrase ever. House #3 is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath semi-detached home located in a small coastal village about 30 minutes south of Dublin. Semi-detached is just a fancy way of saying it’s actually attached on one side and thus a duplex. This home was built in 1966 and thankfully has had some updates since that…
Clothespin Holder
I know this is no way to start a Monday, but I have laundry on my brain. I trust yours is all done, folded and put away. Mine is hanging on the line. For the first time in my life, I bought clothespins to use for their intended purpose: hanging clothes. What a novel concept! (These are just like my clothespins.) It got me to thinking about the Junk Whisperer’s (aka my stepmom) laundry room. She has a super cute vintage clothespin holder made to look like a dress. It’s darling, right? When I visited her home earlier this summer, I mentioned off-hand that it would be fun to make a clothespin holder like…
Moving to Ireland: Temporary House, Floor 2
After Monday’s awe-inspiring pictures of where we stayed while we searched for a permanent Irish residence, I didn’t want to leave you hanging over the weekend without showing the 2nd floor of this home. You’re welcome. (You can read all about the first floor here.) Let’s climb the stairs to the second floor. Ask me how many times the kids took that stair turn too fast? Go ahead. Ask. Once each. Alright, my son might have done it twice, but his danger streak runs a mile wide. This townhouse is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home. At the top of the stairs you can turn right to the bathroom and one of…
