Jeff came home today!! Our family is complete. I was glad that we came home first and got settled and over jet lag and that he stayed back to close up shop, so to speak. He handled the packers and movers and cleaners and final walk through. I am blessed to have a great life partner and I’m so thankful he’s home with us again. I bet I’ll be able to sleep better now!
We had a wonderful homecoming dinner with our family friends and our beloved shared Traeger smoker!!
Life is good and simple!
I Am Home.
It still hasn’t sunk in yet, but today I just got a receipt! This shirt arrived in the mail as a surprise from Marcia today. It’s proof that I really am home. I cried when I opened it and loved seeing it, thankful to be home and also feeling a bit of sadness that we don’t have our house in Holland anymore. The transition is happening and I’m in the midst of it.
I’ve been enjoying everyday, visiting with and catching up with our friends, shopping and preparing for Charlie’s birthday party next week, enjoying our beautiful weather and the beach, and waiting for Jeff to move back home.
I’ve been car shopping and having repairs scheduled for various household parts and loving on the kids and their friends. It’s nice to be back in the same time zone as my family and friends in California and to be able to pick up the phone and not think what time it is where they are before calling. I’ve been emailing my Holland friends and keeping in touch there too. Transitioning. This is what it looks like for me.
I Am Home.
Thank you, Marcia for my awesome shirt and the welcome home. xo
Today I was inspired by this article written about what we can learn from expats. Here is the link:
Maybe I’ve shared this already but I can’t remember. One of the things that being an expat did for me was give me a life sentence… kind of like a death sentence but in reverse. I felt like I was given a gift to live in the moment, to be fully aware of what I wanted to do with my life and to do it right now and not wait.
When we were getting ready to move overseas, I stopped being tired and busy. I made time to do whatever I planned or dreamed and did it. We went to Hawaii and came back the day before our anniversary. We then drove 6 hours to Southern California the next day on our anniversary to celebrate my cousin’s wedding. Before, I would never have done something like this. I would have used the excuse that we just got back from a trip and we were exhausted, and it was our anniversary and blah, blah, blah. Instead, we went. Just like that. And enjoyed our family and the journey. This type of event and thinking happened over and over again before we left.
And then we continued living like this the entire year we were expats. We lived and worked like we were on a permanent vacation. We didn’t know when our time would end, so we kept doing whatever our hearts and minds could dream of doing. We lived it up. My new motto. Sleep when you’re dead. My old motto that I still carry. I have lots of these little statements. Maybe I’ll make a list of them one day. They help guide me and remind me to live it up, love it out and have no fear.
That kind of connects to the life/death sentence. None of us know how long we’ll live, but we live our lives sometimes like we have forever and we don’t. So I chose to live it up now while I can, while we’re healthy and curious and have a thirst for experience and connection. We should live this way…fully present and aware, adapting and changing and growing every new minute. What a gift of life we all have… it’s up to us how we choose to spend our minutes.
So back to the article… I’ll summarize what I found to be the best practices that The Backpacker shared about expats:
Expats are:
* Friendly, open people eager to make new friends immediately without pretension
* Fun to be around. They are curious and want to know your story and want to know about their new culture and land
* Adventurous, risk takers, and gutsy! Expats have to leave their home land, pack up their belongings and start new. This is uncomfortable and they do it anyway. I love this – do it anyway mentality…so what if you’re a bit scared, unsure… try it anyway
* Try new things – new food, new languages, new rituals
* Have an attitude to “Just Do It” like Nike says – stop thinking about it and planning it and just do it
* Live life like you’re on a permanent holiday. Think about that… isn’t that a great idea? We have to do the work and study, but then what? Play!! Travel!! Explore!! Enjoy!!
* Love to hang out and socialize with friends, living it up
* Tend to enjoy themselves and welcome the revolving world of friends with a culture of openness. I love this and live this statement.
I miss being overseas and having the title of a current expat. I liked the experience and the friendships I made and miss them so much, even if everyone is away on summer holiday. I plan to incorporate these best practices into my daily life, living a more normal day to day life back in suburbia. I plan to keep living it up, loving it out and enjoying this beautiful world every day. I plan to fight the negativity I see in the media and continue to spread joy and love every where I go. Thanks for joining me and sharing the journey.
Namaste
“Grateful people are joyful people; the more joyful people are, the more we’ll have a joyful world.” – Brother David Steindl-Rast
Thank you Michele for sharing Shasta with me today. ;-). Thank you Val for having Christian over and spoiling him and for all the books. Thank you Christine for happy hour and my delicious succotash salad. Thank you Ling for the gorgeous Dahlias from your yard and the steam buns for Charlie. Thank you to all 6 kids who came over for dinner and filled my house with joy. I love this life right now. 😉
We made it to the beach today, my happy place. I loved the drive over highway 17 and through the mountains and down the other side. I was expecting fog, but the sun had already broken through by 11 am when we arrived.
We caravanned down with three other vans full of kids for a 14th co-ed birthday party. There were 16 kids and 4 adults.
We spent the entire day together, just chatting, watching the kids and soaking up the sun. I think I loved it just as much they did.
Kelly and Kate ordered Subway sandwiches for everyone and brought snacks, drinks and cupcakes for dessert to celebrate their children’s birthdays. I so appreciated how easy they made everything look. They thought of everything and were so relaxed. The kids had boogie boards and beach balls and had a blast being in the water together.
The water was a bit too cold for me, but I did at least stick my feet in. I couldn’t bring my paddle board as I still don’t have a car to transport it. Hopefully next week I will.
Kelly and Kate were also very diligent about keeping eyes on the kids at all times, making sure we had an active head count knowing who was where. The lifeguard came down to tell the kids about rip currants and safety. It was nice to know there was an extra set of eyes watching over our large party. And the kids were all such good, kind, considerate kids. I loved watching them all interact, especially when they all agreed to put on their party hats. They haven’t become too cool just yet!!
Life is good.
Where is your favorite place to be?
I’ve given myself a new job title.
Jeff asked me what I did today. I told him I was busy building community relations and I didn’t quite get to the car search I was supposed to because I was working. It sounded so much better than saying I arranged a play date for Charlie, and went to Suzsi’s house for coffee with the neighbors, and lunch with Val to catch up and celebrate my belated birthday. This is important work, you know!
I told him about my new job title and he asked where he could get a job like this, and I told him it was unfortunately already taken and that he’d have to continue with his job to provide for our family with benefits and money! 😉
We laughed. But I think it’s a pretty good gig. I love the work, love the people, love the hours and the benefits are priceless, and I’m good at it! I think the payoff is great – even if it’s not a financial gain. The joys of living in the moment and making connections and taking care of each other is a beautiful thing. I think every town should have several community relation managers, don’t you?
Thank you Suszi for hosting us this morning and for your delicious baked french toast. Thank you Val for spoiling me and taking me out to lunch and sharing a wonderful conversation. Thank you to Gina and Ken for stopping by to chat in the street and catch up. I love this neighborhood. Thank you honey, for letting me lean in to my chosen profession and supporting our family! And thanks to my other family for coming over for a shared dinner tonight! It’s so nice to be home again.
Namaste.
Some people have asked me what the best part of living overseas was. There are several experiences we enjoyed. We traveled to new and exotic places. We learned a new language. We immersed ourselves in Dutch culture. We made wonderful new friends and embraced daily life together.
I think that was the best part for me… just sharing time together as a family. We have always been quite involved in each others’ lives. But being in a new country had us depending on one another more than usual. Everything was new and we were sharing these new experiences together.
I have to say the best part of living in the Netherlands was the quality family time we had. I don’t quite know how to describe it, but it was different than the family time we shared at home. There were less distractions. We did a lot as a family unit, and most nights we shared a prayer, conversation and a family dinner. This was priceless to me and something that was more difficult to share back in the States with longer commute times, more hectic sports schedules, harder homework, and more volunteer commitments. Seeing my kids together now back home, I can feel and see the bond between them that we created overseas. I hope it lasts!
Can’t wait for Jeff to get home and join us. The movers came last week and the house cleaner is finishing up tomorrow. A few more steps before he journeys back to us and life can resume as “normal”, whatever that may be as a family.
Saying goodbye to the Aunties and cousins, Hartley style!
Playing in the pool together, not wanting to go home… I love it!!
Life is good! Live it up.
My parents left today. We have a tradition of running down the street and following the car, as they drive away. We stop at the corner and yell, “Thank God!!” It’s an expression of relief, like they’re finally leaving, as well as a thanks for the visit and have a safe journey until we meet again. It’s also a way to not cry as we say goodbye, by making a joke of it. It’s kinda silly, but we all love it and do it every time.
Goodbye, Mama and Pops!
Running with the bulls
Thank God!!!
Thank you for being here to welcome us home Mama and Pops and for spoiling us. I’m so glad you were here and we’ll miss you!! Safe travels. xo
Sometimes a picture is worth a 1000 words…so they say.
So today Ill leave you with a few summer fun pictures and less words. I hope you enjoy them and your summer days.
Pool snacks
Warming at dusk.
Being loved is the best feeling. Period. There is nothing better. Nothing.
This post is a bit personal, but aren’t most? We’re still resettling and it’s the honeymoon stage, and I’m loving all the attention being showered on my family. Thank you for all your shared calls, emails, texts and love and visits.
My parents drove up to my house to prepare for our arrival this week, as I’ve already mentioned. Seeing my kids love on them and tell them how much they’ve missed them and love them, is so nice to see and hear. The love dance is swirling through my house in little moments and details and it fills my soul. For example, I loved just watching Charlie work with my dad on fix-it projects around the house.
My friend Julie had coffee and snacks waiting for us this morning at her house. The kids played while the women chatted and sat and enjoyed her beautifully remodeled house and sunshine out on her patio. I’ve missed days like today and am so happy to be back and in her kitchen again…the best part of the home!
Tracy came by with her kids on bikes and asked if Charlie wanted to go to her house and play. Of course, he gladly went off and had a great time with his friends, riding his bike with them. Thank you, Tracy!
Julie and her kids stopped by with my favorite artichoke dip and stayed to chat for awhile before we headed to the pool.
Our swim club has a Friday night potluck BBQ that we all enjoyed with April and her family. I learned to play Bocce ball with the little ones and made some new friends while playing. Mom and dad joined us too, and it was great to sit outside and NOT have to cook or clean!!
Marilynne stopped by and dropped off a dinner for us. She’s been making a new Japanese curry and told me about it and I had mentioned I wanted to try it sometime. There she was with a delivery on my porch! Thank you ML! You spoiled us and it was quite delicious!
And the best part of my day was when my sisters and nieces arrived from Thousand Oaks. They drove 6 hours to come and see us and met us at the swim club. We went out to the parking lot to greet them and couldn’t stop hugging! It’s been almost a year, you know! Way too long for me! I’m thankful they drove the distance to be with us.
Reunited and it feels so good!
I am loved and I am thankful! Love y’all!
xo
Today is 7-11, the 11th day of July. in America, there is a convenience store called 7-11 and on 7-11 they offer free slurpees, which are frozen shaved ice slushed flavored with syrup. They make people smile!
Related to 7-11, but in a totally different context, I have a funny story to share. One day I was yelling about something at the dinner table, and Charlie started yelling back at me – “Mom, relax. 7-11”. And I yelled back at him to do whatever I was asking him to do, and he kept saying “7-11, 7-11. Mom, you’re being craZy!” And the more he said this, the crazier I got.
Later when I calmed down, I asked him why he kept saying 7-11 to me. He said that I needed to be more mindful and aware of my breathing when I started to feel frustrated. He said I had to breathe in for 7 seconds and then blow out for 11 seconds to calm my body down. He learned this in school. He’s so smart! Who says you can’t learn from kids? He was right and it works, after you let go of the idea that your kid is frustrating you and teaching you something meaningful at the same time!
Go practice breathing in and out the next time you feel frustrated and let me know how that works for you.
7-11
Namaste.
here i am 