Will Dig Life

So... this amazing girl just hit double digits. There was a time, when I was pregnant with her, that I really had to work through my feelings about becoming a mother at all (I've linked some blog posts here). I had never been all that keen on motherhood - from my own growing up experiences, I saw children as nothing but needy and motherhood as a trap . How different it all has shaped up to be... I guess like the baby inside me during pregnancy being unable to imagine life outside, nothing I imagined was anywhere close to the reality. Because what I was surprised by wasn't the drudgery of changing nappies and constant feeding - which turned out not to be drudgery at all - but the joy and love this little being filled me with. I felt like I was coming into my own, I never felt lost or 'not enough' as I heard other new mothers lament at times... against all expectations, I felt perfectly equipped and was loving every minute. Tired as I was, I loved it and I embraced it

There are lots of 'back-to-school' photos floating around Facebook at the moment, and of course we have no such pictures to share.  I'm excited to get back to a routine, though - since July, we've been in summer mode ( Vienna for six weeks, then Norway ) and it was awesome again, but I've definitely arrived at a point where settling back in my own house, doing largely the same things week-to-week, sounds very very attractive!  So, as I look ahead into the just-starting 'school year': what are our plans? Well, we kicked things off with the annual Home Edders camp: a rather wet one this time, but the kids weren't deterred - one night they even created a mud slide and came back absolutely soaking, mud covered, and glowing with joy! And everyone deepened old friendships and found new ones too. A few pictures... Marshmallow 'stache! Lots of dogs at camp this year Marshmallow toasting In the camper But, now we're back home, it's all systems go for

After six weeks in Vienna, we returned home on a Sunday only to fly out again Thursday - this time not entirely for pleasure, at least not for me, but to work with Churchear supporting their big bi-annual conference by live translating / captioning.  For Mr. and the kids however, this was another one of those short trips for fun as well as educational purposes... I feel that seeing the world teaches kids a lot, and then of course these types of conferences in particular teach them to relate to people with very diverse backgrounds, nationalities and disabilities - all very valuable. And the beautiful thing is to see them forge connections, making friends equally with 80-year-old German conference attendees and a four-year-old Ukrainian girl who happened to stay at the same hostel. D (8) communicating with a deaf-blind Polish man by tapping on the letters on his glove I'm not planning to write lots, just a few photos and impressions - we only had five days there. I have now stepped d

It's the last night in our Airbnb - we're not actually flying home tomorrow, I made an error in the booking which means that we are checking out tomorrow but the flight isn't till Sunday! Luckily, my lovely sister is letting us stay at hers for that extra night. The past two weeks have been as hot as the first four: very very different to last year, when I quickly realised I hadn't packed nearly enough long trousers and jumpers. This year, I had it all with me and never needed any of it: 30-35 degrees day after day. Which meant we did a lot less indoorsy things like museums, instead opting for slow days by the water. Lots of such photos to come, but first, let's see what other activities we got up to. We had to do the Prater, of course, and luckily the day we chose for that was overcast and occasionally rainy (though still very warm!) which meant that very few people were there, and no queues. Much fun was had. A view - with rain coming in First ever langos - faces