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Archive for the ‘Family & Friends’ Category

To Show That They Existed

Posted in Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Identity, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, tagged collective memory, existence, expat life, Expatriate Archive Centre, expats, family, friends, hospital, illness, leave your footprint, legacy, love, making the world a better place, memories, mortality, Mother's Day, parents, remembrance, rootlessness on May 13, 2012 | 14 Comments »

Everyone wants to know, deep within, that their time on earth meant something to others. That their being here mattered. They mattered. It is human nature to want to leave your footprint on the world for others that come after you to see. For some, it is through their betterment of the immediate world around them. Think Mother [...]

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Happy Queen’s Day

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Holidays, Netherlands, tagged bands, carnival, celebration, drink, Dutch, Dutch national holiday, food, music festival, Netherlands, orange, picnics, Queen's Day, Queen's Night, street parties, The Hague, yard sales on May 3, 2012 | 10 Comments »

Never let it be said that Dutchies don’t know how to party. Seriously. Never say it. I’ve written about Queen’s Day before, and having celebrated the Dutch national holiday for the third year running, I can only say that it continues to amaze me. There’s something about it that makes me happy, and I’m not even [...]

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Welcoming Party

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Dutch Life, Family & Friends, Netherlands, Travel, tagged airport, arrival lounge, arrivals, balloons, clown nose, departures, flags, flowers, helium balloon, kazoos, music festival, noisemakers, parking lots, passengers, Schiphol, travelers, welcome home, welcome signs on May 1, 2012 | 24 Comments »

Every now and then I’m reminded of a cultural aspect of the Netherlands that is so very different from the US that it practically screams ‘this is SO different!’ This morning it was my journey to Schiphol airport to pick up Husband from his latest trip. Now first let me say that I love Schiphol [...]

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A Delicate Balancing Act

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, First Year Blur, Light Bulb Moments, New to Nederland, The Animals, tagged Albert Heijn, balancing act, bravery, cat, change, Charley, courage, expat life, expat transition, isolation, limbo, loneliness, Netherlands, new expat, tightrope, walk the ledge on April 28, 2012 | 20 Comments »

It was a chance encounter yesterday on a crowded street that sent me back in time. As I turned the corner onto our nearby shopping street affectionately known as ‘the Fred,’ I caught a snippet of conversation. The young woman was seated at one of the outside tables of a local restaurant, twirling her forefinger along [...]

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Multitasking Overload

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Emotional Resilience, Exercise & Sports, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Life Balance, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Writing, tagged children, college visits, competing demands, emotional resilience, exercise, expats, fitness, health, parents, sandwich generation, sleep, TCKs, Telegraph, university search, writing on April 20, 2012 | 16 Comments »

A few days ago I wrote of the challenges many of us face being sandwiched between generations. Just like everyone else, we expats do our best to care for, raise and guide our TCK children to adulthood(and beyond) while also staying connected to and supporting our aging parents. We just sometimes have a few wrenches thrown in due to our lack [...]

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Sandwich Generation, Expat-style

Posted in Blogging, Change, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Travel, tagged children, elderly, expats, needs, parenting from afar, parents, sandwich generation on April 14, 2012 | 6 Comments »

Recently I caught up with a couple expat friends, enjoying koffie while sharing the latest on comings and goings. Spring is in the air, along with blooming trees, blossoming flowers and plants, and the necessary but dreaded pollen. Students are getting antsy, ready to break free of their daily grind (oh, if they only knew!) of classes, course [...]

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Please Don’t Tell My Mother

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Life Balance, United States, tagged ACC Tournament, basketball, conversation, dinner, eat together, family, Tar Heels, University of North Carolina on March 10, 2012 | 8 Comments »

I did something last night that was bad. Very, very bad. I knew it was wrong at the time, yet I still went ahead and did it anyway. What is it that has me feeling so uneasy, so guilty, so… naughty? Husband, Daughter and I brought her laptop to the dinner table last night and [...]

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The Upside of Humor

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, tagged adventures, funny, giggles, humor, humorous anecdotes, jokes, knock knock jokes, laughter, Malta, smile on March 1, 2012 | 22 Comments »

You know what I realized yesterday? Humor is funny. Really funny. Let me rephrase that. I’m not talking about dark humor, sick humor, mean-spirited at the expense of someone else humor. I’m referring to your all-purpose humor. The good kind that makes you smile or giggle or even laugh out loud. It feels good. Humor has [...]

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Versatile? I’d Like to Think So

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Writing, tagged blogging, expat blogs, Expatlogue, fellow bloggers, unexpected traveller, Versatile Blogger Award, writing on February 12, 2012 | 26 Comments »

  Imagine my surprise when I learned that I’d been the recipient of the ’Versatile Blogger Award,’ bestowed upon me not once but twice (!) this past week from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Many thanks to the talented duo Expatlogue in Canada and Unexpected Traveller in Belgium. No, you don’t receive a vast sum of money or a [...]

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Where There’s a Need, There’s a Way

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, tagged brain cancer, live in the moment, needs, pain, suffering, wanting on January 5, 2012 | 16 Comments »

Those of you who are kind enough to follow along here know that just before Christmas I learned of a dear friend who had emergency surgery in early December to remove a brain tumor. It’s been 18 months since I last saw her, and a good six months or more until I get another chance. [...]

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Love, Peace, Action

Posted in Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Light Bulb Moments, tagged 2012, call to action, Christmas, family, friends, holiday season, love, New Year's Eve, peace, resolutions on December 30, 2011 | 12 Comments »

  If you’ve come looking for a succinct list of New Year’s resolutions, you’re in the wrong place. I wish I could be of more help, but unfortunately I’m not quite there yet. Believe it or not, this is actually one of my favorite times of the year because to my mind, it truly is a [...]

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Celebrating an Adventure in Expat Land

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Netherlands, New to Nederland, Travel, United States, tagged adventure, California, expat, ICTY, living overseas, Netherlands, The Hague, US on December 28, 2011 | 10 Comments »

  Earlier this week we had a wonderful celebration of sorts. Despite being late December, we weren’t celebrating the Dutch Second Christmas (Tweede Kerstdaag) or the British Boxing Day. Instead, we were celebrating the end of Bryan and Danielle’s (current) adventure in Nederland. I first heard from Danielle back in the summer when she contacted me [...]

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An Unexpected Change in Plans

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, United States, Writing, tagged brain surgery, brain tumor, Carolina pines, chemotherapy, Christmas, family, friendship, loved ones, planting a seed, radiation, writing on December 24, 2011 | 19 Comments »

  It’s Christmas Eve day. The aroma of my Jamie Oliver-inspired gravy wafts gently throughout rooms regaled in ornaments, decorations, pine boughs and tiny lights. Another half hour and I’ll start lighting some candles. Carols are playing softly in the background while Daughter and Husband work diligently on a holiday puzzle. But this is not the [...]

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Balancing the Holiday Scales

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Culture & Customs, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Netherlands, tagged appreciation, celebration, Christmas, Christmas tree, decorations, family, friends, holidays, New Year's, ornaments, rituals on December 22, 2011 | 6 Comments »

    It’s been a fairly typical ten days for Yours Truly’s family here in Nederland in the run-up to Christmas and New Year’s. By that I mean lots going on: some of it getting done, some on its way to completion and woefully behind on a fair bit as well. Given that Christmas comes on the [...]

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Thanksgiving Gratitude

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture & Customs, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Holidays, Writing, tagged appreciation, giving thanks, gratitude, Squidoo Thanksgiving Magazine, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Deconstructed, turkey, writing on November 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »

    It’s always interesting trying to explain the important holidays of your culture to others.   Some carry over easily, such as religious holidays like Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah and Ramadan, even if the specific ways in which they are personally celebrated differ a bit from country to country.   Many countries recognize various aspects of society on [...]

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Writing for the Collective Good

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Netherlands, Writing, tagged editing, expat life, Expatcalidocious, international community, Jo Parfitt, monthly newspaper, Simone Branson Harper, The Hague, The Underground, wordgeyser, writing on November 17, 2011 | 6 Comments »

‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley’ Poet Robert Burns’ famous quote basically means that even the best laid plans can head south, go awry, fall to pieces. Recently I’ve been reminded of this sage advice. While (almost) nothing goes on my schedule that I don’t agree to, I do not completely control [...]

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Coming Out of the Writing Closet

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Authors, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Guest Posts, Turning Points Book, Writers on Writing, tagged author, Corrie Ten Boom, fear, God, Holland, Jo Parfitt, Kate Cobb, Qatar, Sarah Koblow, stress, Summertime Publishing, TheTurningPointsBook.com, Turning Points book, writer, writing on November 2, 2011 | 6 Comments »

The following is a guest post from my lovely friend and fellow co-author of Turning Points: 25 Inspiring Stories From Women Entrepreneurs Who Have Turned Their Careers and Their Lives Around (Kate Cobb, editor, Summertime Publishing, 2011), Sarah Koblow. Sarah lives with her family in Doha, Qatar and blogs at Count Only Sunny Hours. You can catch [...]

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Halloween Holland Style

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Netherlands, tagged candy, Gry Tina Tinde, Halloween, jack-o-lantern, The Netherlands, trick-or-treating on October 31, 2011 | 6 Comments »

Have I ever mentioned that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year? Outrageous costumes, pumpkins, witches, trick-or-treating, chocolate, candy corn, ringing doorbells, accumulating a candy haul of momentous proportions, little boys and girls proudly displaying their costumes, bobbing for apples, dried cornstalks, dressing up, jack-o-lanterns, deciding who you want to ‘be’, parties, [...]

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Feel a Change Comin’ On

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, tagged Bob Dylan, college, different countries, different time zones, empty nest, expat life, global parenting, parenting from afar, university, writing on October 17, 2011 | 10 Comments »

I’ve had the lyrics from that Bob Dylan song swirling around in my head these past few days. Have you ever felt that change is in the air? I don’t mean piddly little stuff. I’m talking about momentous change. The kind of feeling like you’re standing on a precipice: nothing but open air in front of you and rocks [...]

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I Just Called to Say

Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, tagged butt dialing, cell phone, concern, injury, phone call, sick, worry, writing on September 22, 2011 | 19 Comments »

I was typing furiously when my cell phone rang. Glancing down at its screen, I saw that it was Husband calling. That’s odd. I thought he was downstairs. Despite being in the middle of a particularly tricky scene in my novel, I reached for the phone. Husband and I have never been the kind of [...]

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