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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Delicious Days

When you live in my part of France (the North), you learn to drop everything and head outdoors when it's sunny and above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  And though we've still been having a mixed bag in terms of weather, there have been some lovely days that inspired me to pack up Juliette and go to a park.

Such a peaceful moment at the duck pond.


Do you see the bunny-shaped cloud in the middle?  Reminds me of The Runaway Bunny book.

 
Making "cakes" with flower petals and such at the greenhouse.

Me getting a bit of sun on my legs in the fake turf outside of Ikea. 


 I took this one myself holding the camera backwards.  I'm near my favorite blue flower, lobelia.


I love peonies.  This one was outside Remi's grandfather's retirement home and smelled just divine!


Meanwhile the last month has brought two birthday parties from my North American pals' kids.  Juliette and I got to go to an indoor playground and a farm visit for these two parties.  Interesting thing we North American moms have noticed is that the French moms, with just two exceptions out of the say, ten invited for both parties, just leave their kids at the party and pick them up after.  It seems odd to us but I guess it's yet Another Cultural Difference we have discovered.  So now the question is what to do for Juliette's birthday as it falls in July when most people are on vacation.  Must put my thinking cap on.

Luckily work has been picking up and I've realized again that working makes me feel better.  I may not always be wild about teaching but for the most part I do like talking to my students and helping them discover things.  I certainly feel better at the end of  a day when I've worked a bit. 

My Juju is still a joy to me but there are times I'm not such a model parent and I lose my patience and yell more than I should.  Nearly five is still a bit far from the so-called Age of Reason (six or seven) and many a day she will whine about something that seems so insignifcant to me.  She'll make it her mantra (like, I want a doll, I want a doll....) until I want to scream and sometimes do .  Then she'll make up silly songs in her little voice and I just want to squeeze her and put some of that cuteness in a bottle and keep it forever. 

Ah, such is life but we keep on going.   And a sunny day does make it seem a little better.