Living in Ireland: A Trip to the Hardware Store
A warning for all of you organized types – the pictures in this post may be disturbing. Now, for the rest of you, let’s head to the hardware store! My little village in Ireland has a small hardware store. It shares space with the post office. I’ll let that sink in. I can buy stamps and then walk three steps over and buy caulk for my shower. I can’t buy the caulk gun though because they are out of those. And have been for MONTHS. Details, details. As a side note, it’s not unusual for post offices to share space with other businesses in Ireland. I have a friend whose…
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Happy List: #21
Happy Good Friday! This week I shared the most recent books my kids and I have read together. Plus, how I’m teaching them how to type. It doesn’t actually involve me teaching, so they are knocking it out of the ballpark! Here’s what’s on my Happy List. Good Friday Newspaper Ad I thought you might like to see an example of how grocery stores in Ireland advertise for the Easter season in the newspaper. At the last count in 2011, 84.2% of people self-identified as Catholic in the Republic of Ireland, so you can see why advertisers are choosing to speak to one specific religious group. Also, fun fact. You…
Quick Tip: Teaching Kids to Type
Do you remember learning how to type? Was it on a computer keyboard or a typewriter? I must have been in that transition period during the mid-1990s because I learned both in high school. While I may be in denial about how much time has passed since then, there is no denying I have two sweet children who will need to learn to type much sooner than I did. Between homework and computer games, my kids are doing more and more that involves typing. Train research, anyone? Watching them do the one-finger keyboard peck is oh, so painful. For my 6-year-old it is often accompanied by the “how do you spell” question and then a…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 3
I was snuggling with my son at bedtime recently and thought he’d fallen asleep. I was enjoying the quiet and psyching myself up to do that slow slither out of bed to avoid waking him. Just as I started to stretch one leg off the bed, my son suddenly says to me, “Mom, I had a good day at school.” Sometimes I second-guess our life choices and then one of my kids will say something like this and I think “Phew. We’re okay. It’s all working out.” I was certain he’d had a good day because it was Active Week at school and they had done tennis and gymnastics that particular day.…
Happy List #20
Hello! My kids have a half-day at school today…the excitement was palpable in our house this morning! But the angst over the one toy they could bring for “toy day” was…intense. This week I shared the gorgeous spring flowers that are blooming in our Irish garden. All thanks to my green thumb, I’m sure. Actually, I think the blooming flowers are proof that nature finds a way. I also walked you through the “should I, shouldn’t I” decision of switching to linen bath towels. Decision was probably the wrong word there. Maybe indecision would be more apt. Here are some things I’m not indecisive about! Old Fireplace I don’t know…
Living in Ireland: Spring Flowers in Our Yard
Can you believe it is April already? Time sure is flying! Last April we visited Ireland for the first time. It was rainy, windy and miserable. To which we said, “Yeah! Let’s move here!” Now that I have an Irish winter under my belt, I can say spring in Ireland means the rain is…a little bit warmer. Ha! There are nice days too. More than you’d think. One thing I’ve learned is that the Irish do not squander a nice day or a nice hour. I’m a quick learner, so I try to follow their example! Sunday was super nice here (upper 50s Fahrenheit – practically summer weather), so I spent…
Linen Bath Towels: Should I Make the Switch?
I keep tripping over linen bath towels. Online, not literally. In my own house I’m tripping over regular cotton towels. Note to self: put towel hooks at height where kids can reach them. It has me wondering, should I make the switch from cotton (terry cloth) towels to linen towels? I know, I know. It’s a big question for a Monday. Real life changing stuff here. Photo by Anthropologie – More bathroom photos According to what I’ve read, linen bath towels are more absorbent than cotton towels. They are faster drying, so no musty smells. They take up less space. They last longer – up to 30 years! Craziness. Apparently, linen towels get…
Happy List #19: “Snow Day” Edition
It’s a snow day of sorts here in Dublin. No, we don’t have actual snow, but we have the second best (or is it worst?) thing. We woke up this morning to a public transportation strike, which makes getting to and from school a real pain. Handy Husband called me from the train station to tell me everyone was frantically trying to get a cab into work – with mixed success. There was no warning about this strike, so everyone was caught off guard. It’s a little chaotic here today. It seemed like a good day to surprise the kids with NO SCHOOL! If you want to know why we…
The Great Guitar Hanging Debacle
I’d like you to think that all of our home projects go off without a hitch. We don’t encounter any unexpected challenges. The husband and I always agree about the ideal method of approaching a project. We always come in under budget. Heck, we probably make money because we find a suitcase of $100 bills hidden in the walls – every time. Furthermore, my husband reads my mind when I have a vision of how I want something to look. It saves so much time with the communication process. Doesn’t this happen in your house too? Hahahahahahahahahaha. Real-life home projects with your real-life significant other are slightly less perfect than that. At least, they…
10 Tips for Surviving a Parade With Kids
Let’s talk parades. I LOVE parades, which just proves I’m a complicated individual. I don’t enjoy hanging out with large groups of people. I’m not very patient. And did I mention ALL. THE. PEOPLE? Yet, I love parades! It’s probably nostalgia knocking on my door. I remember going to a 4th of July parade as a little girl with my grandma and cousins. I remember exactly where we’d sit on a curb with a few trees doing a terrible job of shading us from the July sun. I remember cowgirl princesses on horses and beauty queens in convertibles doing that elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist wave as they slowly passed by. There were restored hot rod cars,…
