I Really Have Nothing to Say

But I keep getting comments on my lack of blogging. Really, I do not think what I have to say is very interesting. I also do not think our lives are particularly interesting right now, aside from the fact that we are Americans living in England.

So let me just ramble on a bit and maybe you'll quit asking me to blog when I have so little blog-able material.

Let's see .... the kids are busy home schooling every day. Joshua has finally seen the beauty of setting an alarm and getting up to start school before anyone else is in the school room. He gets three or four subjects done BEFORE breakfast. Aahhh. That has helped in the complaints department. He often complained that he had to work so much longer than Gillian. Now, they finish about the same time - right around lunch time. Nice.

Last Monday Patrick had the day off so we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We looked at the outside of Shakespeare's house and the outside of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company. We stopped and got coffee at Nero's. Remind me never to get coffee there again. It's all sugary sweet and yuck. Costa Coffee is MUCH better, and there was one right down the street if we had walked a little further.

We looked for the Teddy Bear Museum that the guide books told us about, but we couldn't find it. We asked at tourist information, and she told us it had closed down. A shame. So instead we went to a teddy bear shop. The kids spent some money there and got some little stuffed animals. Aidan convinced Patrick to buy him "George" of "Peppa Pig." I am almost certain none of my American readers have any idea what I'm talking about. Let's see if I can find a YouTube clip. Look! I found one!
So that's George. And Aidan now has a stuffed one he takes everywhere and sleeps with.

After that, at the shop-owner's recommendation, we ate lunch at a pub called The Dirty Duck. That was awesome. Just because I loved the name of the pub. And the second awesome thing about it is that it is the pub where all the actors from the RSTC go after performances. There was a plaque just inside the door pointing to the "Actor's Bar" and there were autographed theatre posters hanging all over the place.

I had the ploughman's platter which I've never had in England but figured I needed to try. The ploughman's platter consists of soup (cream of broccoli this day), whole meal bread and butter, yummy, stinky cheeses, apricot chutney, a slice of ham, and a small side salad. Yum. The boys always get bangers and mash. I don't know what we're going to do back in the states without those sausages. They are Aidan's favorite meal.

Let's see, what else, what else.

Even though I got Patrick an awesome iPod Classic for Christmas last year, he still only had about 17 songs on it until I got a hold of it this weekend. I set up Household Sharing for our iTunes accounts and now Joshua, Patrick, Gillian and I can all share each other's music! Which is great for pretty much everyone else. But I'm not really into what they listen to. Gillian's iPod is full of things like The Lion King soundtrack, Camp Rock, High School Musical and Seeds Family Worship. Which I enjoy, but not really on my iPod.
Joshua mainly has Drake and Josh, iCarly, and The Suite Life TV episodes on his iPod mixed in with a little music. Mind you, the music he has is pretty rockin. Nanci Griffith, Billy Joel, U2, Johnny Cash,the soundtrack to The Longest Day, and I managed to get a little Led Zeppelin on there for his perusal.

Patrick's iPod classic was pretty much just wasted gigabytes until I got a hold of it. He had a Christmas playlist from last year, some music I GIFTED HIM including some DMB, Wynonna, and the new Norah Jones. That's pretty much it.
But now, well, now he has a full new 750 songs from my music library complete with new playlists. We're all enjoying the "Easy Listening" playlist right now as I type this on our iPod speaker station. Norah Jones, The Swell Season, lots of Vitamin String Quartet, Alison Krauss, Ray LaMontagne.

You know, I love our new iPod docking station with the remote control, but I hate that the remote only works for the actual station and not the iPod. Like, right now is this awesome song playing and I know I want to listen to it again. Can I just pick up the remote and hit repeat? No. I have to get up off my butt and hit the button myself. Truly, what is the point of the remote if I have to do this?

So do you see how the fun just never ends in this house? And how little I really do have about which to blog?

Now, in a couple of weeks, after our week-long trip to the south of Spain with my sweet sister and her family I am sure I will have some super duper pics and stories about which to blog. We're going to go to Gibraltar while we're there! We'll be that close.

Until then, blog on, my friends.

More Snow!!!

Unbelievably, we woke up to about four more inches of snow this morning. This is particularly unheard of in this part of England. It has literally brought everything to a standstill. Patrick didn't go into work because there is no parking (no plows to plow parking lots).
He rode his bicycle yesterday with relatively little problem. He had to weave his way in and out of vehicles inching along, and it was slick and icy. But to do that again today would have been absolutely treacherous.

So we had a nice day at home all together again. The kids still had to do school (one of the drawbacks of home schooling - no snow days!). But then spent hours outside playing.

We had soup and hot chocolate - traditional favorites for snow days.

Amazingly, our grocery delivery was still made. I was certain they would cancel. We gave the driver a big tip for that - normally they don't accept tips at all, but he took it today.

There is no such thing as plowing the roads here, so we have a snow-covered street and no idea what it's like on the main roads. I tend to think they're probably bad. We're not venturing out tonight to find out!

Holidays, Schmolidays

Aidan thinks it's Christmas again because it snowed today. He kept waiting to make a snowman on Christmas Day. For some reason he has it in his head that when it snows, it's Christmas. And vice versa.

We had a wonderful family celebration. It was nice to be just us, although I always ache with missing my family during this time of year.

At dinner one night I explained to the children, with tears in my eyes, how I love Christmas because of the reason we celebrate, but I also struggle because it is one of the biggest reminders of how much I miss my mom. I told them how she always over-did it. She would put up two Christmas trees - one for each floor. Our last Christmas with them, Patrick spent hours putting lights up as she directed. And the piles of gifts under the tree - well, we were spoiled rotten, that's for certain.

Aidan finally realized recently that he's never seen my parents in real life.

"Your parents are DEAD?"

"Yes, they're in heaven."

"Huh. Cooool." (His latest word - not always appropriately used, as well as "weird")

This year, for some reason, the holidays were harder than they have been in a long time. I don't know why. But I really missed my sisters brother and family back home. I wished we could all be together.

On the other hand, we're in England, and I am thankful for that! We've had such great experiences here. We have grown so much - all of us - in many ways.

So, Christmas was great with just us. New Years' was full of fun parties and lunches with friends and get-togethers.

Back to the grind now, thinking about the year ahead and what it will bring. Thinking about the changes we want to make in our lives as we seek to grow even more.

Except for today, which was brought to a screeching halt by the appearance of about 3-4 inches of snow. Schools closed early, the grocery store shelves were bare, events are canceled all over the place.
We just stayed home and played.
The final reading of our Advent book - Jotham.
The centerpiece I picked up in downtown Cheltenham on the High Street.