Christmas Day

Christmas 2010

On Christmas Eve, we attended the Family Mass at the church, and Fr. Sjaak was telling the kids the story of Christmas during the homily. After that, we stretched the evening with a late dinner, a visit to the neighbours, picture taking, and hot chocolate by the fire until we finally opened presents when the clock struck twelve. Merry Christmas!

Found a sitter!

I came to work bright and cheery for once because I finally have a sitter at home!Inspite of the stressful period, I really appreciated the help and concern people gave, especially other moms who completely understood how important it was to keep my sanity intact and immediately spread the word to find help. Through a friend of a friend of a friend, we found Natalia (she’s Polish) to watch over the kids for the summer.

Last Thursday, we visited the Philippine Embassy (www.philembassy.nl) with Debbie and her daughter, mainly because Debbie heard there was a visiting artist who was doing portraits. I registered our family in the embassy, hoping (to vote in 2010!) to get to know the Philippine network here in Holland eventually.

Summer term ends in ASH

I really like ASH but still miss my old school. And sometimes math in ASH is a bit harder. Not like my old school. A lot of things are different except for some subject like social studies. I still learn about community and government. - Justine

During these last few days of Justine in the American School, they have enjoyed each other’s company with picnics at the beach and parties. She even had her first sleep over at her friend’s house last weekend, Niamh who is half Irish and Scottish. Quite an interesting story how the sleepover happened as a peace offering after a slight misunderstanding during their silent art auction in school. In the end, turns out the girls acted out in friendship, which us parents agreed that it’s better for them to experience these things and work things out on their own.

Here are a few highlights from school, with captions by Justine.

Still on the matter of child care

As calm as I may seem, I have been extremely stressed out these past few weeks searching for childcare with Justine’s school ending this week. A lot of friends were kind enough to help tap through their networks, however we haven’t found anyone suitable yet to do full day, full week sitting for the kids.

I also had a full day workshop today, which I’ve requested our childcare advisor for support. However that didn’t fall through and at the eleventh hour yesterday, I was desperately calling Ludy if she knew someone who was just available for today. Ludy has been working here (legitimately) for about 13 years now, and then offered to pick up Jacob herself since it was her day off! She is such a lifesaver!! A temporary solution, but took a load out of me and gave me hope.

I was telling this to my colleague Karen, who also shares motherhood challenges with me, and she said aren’t we glad that there’s still some humanity left in the world. : )

Buying secondhand

We will be moving to the permanent house by month-end, however all our stuff is still back in Manila and not leaving til next week! From then, a month or so by sea, then another 4 weeks to clear thru customs, which means that I’ll have our basic furniture by late August. We wanted to move during the summer to adjust to the new neighbourhood before school starts, especially for Justine to do the regular bike commute to school and around town. So I was determined to make the empty house as liveable as possible, before all our other stuff arrived.

Jacob turned 4

Jacob has turned 4! His teacher Mr. Sadler made him a special birthday hat, and Mrs. Aartsen helped with the candle-blowing in school.

Surprise fiesta

My sanity is slowly disappearing as I search for the right child care for my kids. Summer is coming in a few weeks for Justine, and it is not typical to find any after school care for kids over 4 years old.  It costs so much (compared to what we are used to), and although there are options, it will still depend on your personal preference. So you’d usually go for a nanny, au pair or baby sitter. Today I’m still pretty much stressed out over that.

International Day at the British School

International Day at the British Foundation School yesterday, with Jacob in barong.

Picnic in the forest

Reymond has gone back home already : ( leaving me (alone with the kids) to begin the relentless search for child care…

Meanwhile as the weather was improving, the kids and I took our bikes out to Haagse Bos in search for the perfect picnic spot (which is definitely much easier than finding child care).  What I love about living here is, other than it being extremely bike-friendly, they retain a lot of parks and playgrounds in the city.

When in Belgium

Earlier in the week, we successfully found the house that we wanted to move into. I have to say it was the name of the street that landed it for us (because Reymond wanted it). So we anticipate to move in there come July.

Meanwhile, we spent the weekend lazing and travelling across to Belgium to exercise our taste buds and have more flavourful dishes, especially the meats, mussels, chocolates and waffles. The kids are looking forward to going back during mussel season, which I’m told are months with an ‘r’ in them.