From Across The Pond, Day Ten

Saturday, January 2

Today is our last day here at the rental place. Initially, we had planned to visit Gala's castle, but alas, a plague has befallen the house. Three of the inhabitants became very ill last night- a certain leftover chicken dish is the suspected culprit. Luckily, our family did not eat the chicken, so we have been spared. Our fallen friends were feeling too crummy to get out of bed until afternoon, so it was a quiet day. The morning was sunny, and we were outside reading books and exploring around a little bit when Vincent suggested a short drive to an antique store. He was bored. Of course, we were up for it.

Who could have predicted a little chicken coop outside the shop?

I generally think of antiques as small breakable things, but there was tons of stuff here, most of it fairly indestructible. Still, we had a "no touch" rule, which was mostly observed.

Jon made a new friend.

If you can't beat 'em...

"But Jubi doesn't even know how to drive that!" Zephyr protested when she climbed on.

One of the biggest challenges of this trip has been being the only people with small children. The way the house is organized, there is a large room, where there is a TV, which seems to be on nearly constantly. We intentionally give our children very little "screen time," and when they do watch something, we are pretty judicious about what they may watch. So, our kids have watched more TV in the past week than they've watched in their entire lifetimes up until now- easily. I try to console myself into thinking it's valuable for them, since much of it is in Dutch.

When we just can't take another minute of it, or when it's grossly inappropriate, or the other guests lose their patience with our children's occasional chattiness, our options are very limited. We can be outside until about 4 pm, when it gets dark. So, at that point we're relegated to our room, where we have very limited materials for entertainment. We brought six books, and I think we're all pretty tired of them. We've made good use of the Yahtzee board, as well, but still, the evenings have been stretching out into what seems like endless hours. Our location is rural, so there's no little coffee shop on the corner to walk to for a pastry. The hot tub has become less of a hot tub and more of a tepid tub as the days have passed, so it's not as motivating to brave the cool night air if a nice steamy bath doesn't await. As I write, Zephyr is in front of the TV, watching a Simpson's episode. Sigh. Zephyr asked me yesterday if I was homesick. "More like lifestyle sick," Jon explained. European vacations have their charm, but our return home will also be welcome.