We made it back home. And the house is still standing!
After leaving France and driving back to Germany through snowy but sunny and blue skies in Switzerland – should I mention, that as soon as we crossed the German border the skies turned grey and rain started pouring down! – we were back home, surrounded by everything we know. And massive, MASSIVE amounts of laundry.
Eventually, though we climbed out of the mountains of laundry and they started disappearing and we tried to settle back into our “normal” life.
This brings me to the question literally EVERYONE has asked us: “So, how is it, being back?”
Well, it wasn’t really as easy as we thought it would be because it’s not like you come back after all that time and just go back to normal. The smart home wasn’t really so smart anymore. Some fuse had blown while we were gone and even though power was restored, our shades, lights, and millions of other gadgets were having none of it and stopped working. Thankfully we got it all fixed by now but it took a lot of time and an electrician or two.
Of course, all our friends wanted to see us and catch up. Of course, we wanted to see everyone too and it was a lot of fun to tell everyone our crazy stories.
So how is it being back? Well, it’s a little bittersweet. Fun, sad, and everything in between. Fun because it’s familiar and we get to see everyone and do everything we missed. A little sad because traveling is fun, it’s our passion, our life, so you always leave a little bit of your heart and soul out there on the road and it’s waiting and calling for you to come back and travel again.
Either way, in between wondering how we are feeling about being back, fixing the house, seeing friends, several doctor visits for checkups (and an allergy test!), checkups with our gardener about our yard, as well as the – did I mention this before? – MOUNTAINS of laundry, there wasn’t really a whole lot of time to update the blog.
I am not going to write down everything we did since we got back, otherwise, this blog will be an 8-hour read, but here are some highlights since we’ve been back home.
- we met up with friends. Lots and lots of friends. Which was really an amazing feeling. There were cakes, coffees, teas, laughter, late nights, hugs, and lots of stories to tell
- the kids started swim training and figure skating training back up
- kids participated in their annual figure skating show
- we went to Circus Krone since the kids won tickets while still in public school
- all of us enjoyed a very funny local bavarian play the theater group from a neighboring village put on
- we redid our living room and got a new couch. I might have also splurged on a massage chair.
- Chris got an office desk and chair and even his own office room to work
- Noah cashed in his 3-day trip to the “Deutsches Museum”, “Museum Mensch und Natur” and Residenz in Munich, which he got as a gift for his first communion.
Other than that we’ve been taking it as slow as we could considering all the stuff we did in a couple of weeks since we’ve been home.
We started ordering healthy meals with “Hello Fresh” again and are cooking together as a family each night, which is just an awesome way for us to stay connected even when we are home and everyone meets up with different people and goes and does their own things.
I’ve been baking a lot, which is something I’ve really missed. Being able to properly bake with all the ingredients stocked up in my pantry, an oven I know and so much space! Was our kitchen always this big?
We also threw in some game nights as well as some movie nights for the five of us and Chris and I went on a couple of date nights.
All in all, we’ve been spending time on self-care and reflection.
It’s a lot of fun to talk about what went right this trip, and what we could do better next time.
Of course, we are also talking a lot about where to go next. Right now two destinations are the front runners, but I don’t want to give too much away yet, so you’ll just have to wait a little bit. Either way, we are going to be leaving again beginning in mid-August, so still, plenty of time to meet up with friends, enjoy our yard, relax at home, go on some fun summer day trips, and – of course – plan the next trip!
Because at the end of the day, that’s the part we are most looking forward to. Traveling again.
The boss, the general, and the brains of the operation. Anya is the mom of this crazy group of misfits. When not traveling the world and teaching her kids to be decent human-beings, she likes to bake, sing, be goofy. Aside from all that she does for Five of a Kind, she is also a short term foster mother for infants in need.
She also enjoys unreasonably spicy foods and is searching for a hot sauce that is spicy enough and yet still has some kind of flavor to it.
