Love Life - Our Grand Tour: June 2017

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Build Up in Pictures - Part 1

SEPTEMBER

Our 13th anniversary was the day we found out we were heading to England for the year. Lucky 13 for us.

After dinner we headed headed directly to the used bookstore and to the travel section.

Came home with a healthy load of evening reading.

The next day John came home with this awesome bird's eye view of our year - including lists of our kid's name-places to visit, family history places to visit, lists of literature to read. We are more or less sticking to these broad outlines.

OCTOBER

Next came the Sabbatical Proposal. Turned it it and wait.

NOVEMBER

Request approved!

DECEMBER

The official invitation from Blackfriars, Oxford. It's all coming together!!!

Buying the airline tickets! Dulles to Reykjavik, Iceland (with a stop for fun) and on to London, England.

Planning our roadtrip. Dover, Calais, Normandy, Lisieux, Giverny, Paris, Waterloo, Brussels, Amsterdam, Harlem, Rhine River, Bavaria, Salzburg, Gaming, Vienna, Krakow, Venice, Milan, Switzerland, Nevers (we are hoping to do Rome and other Italy in the Spring) and finally land safely in Oxford. Six weeks. One van. Three suitcases. Eight Loves. Unlimited awesome.

Travel Insights

I don't want to repost many things here but in this case there is really no way that I could say this any better. This article explains exactly what I think (and don't think) about travel and self-discovery. It is quite long but well-worth the time. It is thoughtful, insightful and for us, extremely relevant. Though it really is relevant for anyone as it it speaks mostly about self-discovery and seeking holiness. It articulates many of my own vague instincts that I never got around to fully realizing until I read them here. Without further ado: Against the Cult of Travel: Or What Everyone Gets Wrong About the Hobbit

Loves and Loveletts

Lex - somewhere in her mid-30's. Homeschooling mom as well as a homeschool graduate. Lives in a little Burg in the Appalachian mountains but will always have a little Michigan inside her. Mother of 6 that were born within 9 years of each other. Lover of audiobooks, praying through singing, birding, asparagus patches, and photographing kids. Grateful for the gift of community - the beauty, the ugly and the mediocre. Follower of Christ.

John - Late 30's Theology Professor, aka The Love Doctor. Always burning the candle at both ends he works hard during the day to form the future of Catholic priests and in the early mornings and evenings he carts children to and from activities and makes his wife mean G&Ts. Evangelization, providing music for Mass and adoration, sharing insights from St. Thomas Aquinas are what he's most known for in his professional life. Doing the dishes every night, dropping everything to meet us in the ER, and fixing the constant rotation of things the kids break are what he's most popular for here at home.

Anthony - Thirteen. Geography and grammar are where he shines academically - both requiring a precision that Anthony has a hard time not overusing. He enjoys playing soccer as often as possible and he stands out on his team as being a guy with his head and his body in the game - attentive and thinking. He works hard on living with equanimity as an introvert in a crowded, loud, busy home.

Rosie - Ten. Leader of "The Tribe": the three loveletts that were born within 2.5 years. She is a hard worker in school and rarely requires my help, just plugs along and gets her stuff done. She takes a lot of art classes and keeps a nature journal and I love what she is able to observe and translate through a pencil. She loves to make up all sorts of games and fun pretends for the younger member of the family. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Rosie.

Thomas - Nine and all E. Energetic, enthusiastic, eager, excitable, extroverted, exhilarated and engaged. The only trouble we have with Thomas is that it's hard to keep him busy enough - he has an appetite for life that can be overwhelming! He's been this way ever since he mastered crawling. He was off and the rest is history. Anthony wrote this limerick about Thomas this year.

My brother is energetic

His body is super frenetic

He yells and he jumps

and he gives us all bumps

But Thomas is never pathetic.

This is all true.

Cecilia - Eight. Cece is such a great "smack-dabber". Smack-dab in the middle of the family and always wanting to be part of the team. She is generous, inclusive and positive. We often call her excited, positive, can-do presence, "The Power of Positive-Ce". She has none of her older sister's innate sense of fashion and often rollicks around in outfits that make me question her ability to see colors. And patterns. And cleanliness.

Catherine - 5 going on 30. Probably the most thoughtful and caring person in the house. She is totally normal when it comes to wanting to run with the big kids and "do it myself" and other such developmental standards. What sets her apart in our family is that she is so tuned into how other people are feeling and how her actions effect them. When she throws a fit (which she still does occasionally) she is the only child to offer unprompted apologies and amends. She is our sunshine.

Gloria - 3 and THE BABY. She is well ensconced in her role - having no desire or inclination to reliquish her tyrannical hold on all the people older then her. We do her bidding and she entertains us by singing herself little songs, letting us tickle her and having big beautiful eyes and super long eyelashes.

Love Life - Our Grand Tour

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Build Up in Pictures - Part 1

Travel Insights

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