Sunday, September 20, 2009

We're Grounded

Why no posts?

Simply put, no travel.

Our home, in a city often described as "a great place to raise kids" (which it is), is our home base. A great place to come home to after a long trip. A sanctuary. All of that. But after so much traveling, we looked around one day and realized that home base was getting a bit crowded. We are nearing the end of a renovation process that began in mid-May, and believe me, it's getting OOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLllDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDdd.

A few years ago I took the girls' playroom to make a home office, which reduced us to two bedrooms. Over this past summer, I had moved my home office off-site. My freelance work (voice over recordings) can only be done with a reasonable amount of quiet, so working during construction was pretty much a no-go.

We are so close to the end now, but the disruption of a major renovation is not unlike our semester in Antwerp, only without the nice sightseeing to distract us. We have lived in a kitchen-less house for a month now, doing dishes in the tub, coughing from dust, and greeting various and sundry workmen in our jammies each morning at 7:30.

When is our next trip? Who knows! For now we are just hanging in there during the finishing touches, and corresponding with our Belgian friends, who are talking about coming here again next summer--no objections from here!

JieJie and MeiMei are doing well by the way. JieJie talks about wanting to do a job where she can travel someday, so it seems she already has the travel bug. MeiMei is much more of the moment, though she certainly doesn't object when we start talking about that next trip.

For the time being, we are content to make lists. Here's my list--places I think would make a good trip with the family:

Walking tour in the UK (John says the Hadrian's Wall trip would be on his list)
Sweden - homeland tour for me
Prague - we have friends from there
Greece - my high school friend's husband is from Piraeus
Caribbean...thinking of a 40th birthday moms only trip in 2010, but we'll see...I can't very well go if budget precludes a family trip, eh?!

LG

You can search FTJ for past posts, e.g. China info...

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