As I write, the day after Christmas, I sit here on the landing of the top floor looking out over the ‘front garden’ enjoying the gift of being here in Ireland. Within my range of sight is a bathtub used to feed the various sheep, cows and horses, which roam the pasture across the road from our front door. There is one house I can see, which belongs to Pat, and his four children, who grew up here on Baltyboys Upper (Baltyboys, Irish for Boystown), the peninsula around which lies Blessington Lake. Then down the road from us is my friend, Catherine's house. Her husband grew up here, along with his 10 siblings, and now she raises her 5 kids here and runs a B&B! A lovely, very hard-working woman.Now here 14 months, we count every day as a gift, in the hopes of not taking for granted the beauty in which we’ve found ourselves. Even while Paul has a 40 minute commute to work in Dublin, and the kids and I have a 20 minute drive to school the opposite direction, the choice to be in the country was not a difficult one. Home has become a place of beauty and peace as well as a refuge from the world and we’re grateful for it every day.
Our move to Ireland has provided many wonderful opportunities, both to explore the landscape and countryside, which has been tremendous, as well as develop friendships with people from around the world, even in this relatively small country, approximately the size of Indiana with only two thirds it’s population, as well as to receive visitors from near and far, with whom we’ve been able to share their company, and our experience.
First Christmas in Ireland...(L-R) brother Manahi, dad Whaanga, Natasha, Paul, Elijah, Auntie Christina, below, Joshua, Sasha and cousin Samuel2008 in a [long] paragraph: The year opened with a wonderful holiday visit for Christmas 2007 with Natasha’s family: her brother Manahi, his wife, Christina and their son, Samuel, as well as Natasha’s father, who stayed through early January. That was a lovely time followed by visits from Stefan, a friend and business associate of Paul’s and then new friends Cedric and Cathy from South Africa. In late January, we headed south to Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula, where we stayed in a lovely house loaned to us by Brendan, a work associate and friend of Paul’s. What a gift. We were minutes from a horse riding place where we had a truly local and close-to-the-earth horse ride tour. It was a fabulous trip! Later in March, over the Easter break, we headed North to the coast near Belfast, then up to the Giant’s Causeway, a truly unique geological phenomenon at the northernmost tip of Ireland, then around the north coast heading West, down to Donegal, then further south down the Western coastline to Connemara, which has become one of Natasha’s favorite places on earth! The coastline is beyond words. In April, we welcomed Paul’s family, his brother Steve and sister-in-law Julie, along with his mother, Carol, who stayed with us through the Spring until June. We had a great time with her, sharing our life in the Irish countryside. In July, Natasha’ mother and step-father, Robert joined us for 3 weeks, after which, in early August, we returned to the States for a month, for work and play…Paul to work in San Francisco, and Natasha and the kids to play in Oregon! Fortunately, Paul was able to join us for a couple days, so it wasn’t a total wash. That month was a wonderful time to catch up with family and friends, many of whom were from our local Eugene Steiner/Waldorf school, where the kids had attended since Kindergarten. Upon return from a month long holiday, real life inevitably returns, so back to school it was! Joshua to Class 6 (6th grade) and Sasha, Class 4 (4th grade). Routine is a good thing, so the return of rhythm and structure made the tradeoff of relaxed summertime okay. Lastly, a must-be-mentioned trip that was the highlight of our year was a 6 day trip to Paris in November for, all but Paul, the very first time! That was a fabulous, wonderful and spectacular trip where we did all the must-see touristy things: Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Place du Tertre, le Louvre, and Notre Dame. Each day was dedicated to one of those places…we knew we had only scratched the surface. It was wonderful to see the kids take in a culture where they didn’t know the language. They were enthusiastic and so interested in being there and taking it all in. It was also heartening to learn that …our kids travel well! Yea! Equally exciting for Natasha was to dig up her old college French and being the one to get the family around because she was the only one who knew the language! Yikes!
The family continues to grow, as they do, by leaps and bounds.
Summer visit to Eugene, Oregon
Waterfalls in the Wicklow Gap...Joshua turns 12 in less than a month. He is a delightful young man, continually impressing us with his kindness and thoughtful acts toward his siblings, as well as his interest in doing the right thing. He is in love with his little baby brother, who is quickly, and sadly for his mother, leaving his babyhood…entering the world of toddlerhood, looking for words for this and that to describe…will get to that shortly. Joshua is an incessant, voracious reader – interested in subjects of all kinds. He loves school and learning. He loves to cook, his latest focus being chocolate chip cookies and pancakes!...which is a delight to his mother, who will happily eat them (the former, mostly!), along with the rest of the clan. He also started piano this year, who, along with his sister, have discovered the joys of playing a specific song …often. It endears us to them as we hear their enthusiasm for the latest piece of music their teacher, Seth, brought over for them to learn, Hedwig’s Theme, from the Harry Potter movies. While it’s quite advanced, they’re so interested in learning it, they keep practicing it over, and over and over! Go Seth!
While currently in a winter hiatus from sports, Joshua has spent much of this past year involved in Irish sport: Gaelic Football and Hurling. Run by parent volunteers, we’ve been very impressed with the commitment to their children’s activity, as well as the distance to which local teams will travel to play. Being small teams, and in order to play to any challenging degree, Joshua’s teams have been known to travel one hour each way for a match! He comes home wiped out and enthused, but ready for the next game. So, while there is no lacrosse to be seen, Gaelic and Hurling have filled in his athletic pursuits in grand form!
Enjoying a 'rest stop' at Mannin Bay in ConnemaraSasha, who turns 10 on the 11th, continues to delight and inspire with her kindness and interest in doing the right thing. She, like her big brother, is a great help with her little brother. She loves to sing, dance, play the piano and read. She tells us that if she did horseback riding (her next quest) that she would love horseback riding!...that’s the next thing to look into this year. She loves school and taking in all that her teacher will teach her. Sasha also loves to cook, with apple crisp being her first creation and it’s gone from there! She and her dad, along with Joshua have the annual tradition of making parker-house rolls for the holidays as well as apple pies!...these have provided wonderful memories of the festive holidays.
With joyous enthusiasm, she runs up the hill at the Rock of Cashel
Picking apples in the back garden...one of the latest autumn discoveries...
Summer visit to Eugene...the only real heat we got all year!
Elijah, currently 20 months, has quickly left babyhood and is moving into the world of the wandering, curious toddler. He loves to find words for everything around him, so at the moment, “stone” (what sits at the head of our bed), “blue” (the color of the sky), “stop” for everything, “daddy“ (the word for all men) and of course, “mommy” (the universal word for ‘I need help!’) rank high in his growing lexicon. He has a delightful disposition, much to the gratitude of his family, Mummy in particular, who is conscious of the ongoing school delivery and pick up time, which have become a part of his life. A full day’s round trip totals to 80 minutes (there and back, twice) ouch!, but thankfully, he takes this in stride. He’s got his animals down: he knows what the cow says, the sheep and the horse…these being regular features in his walks, hopefully offsetting the ongoing car time. We have also been discovering a growing talent in facial expressions. From the moment he was born, we could tell that he was very expressive, but at this stage, it seems to be turning into a flair for the dramatic. Dramatic in the sense that out of the blue, he’ll randomly pull a very funny face, then do it on cue, of course after seeing our extremely positive reactions…then it’s just plain funny, and he’ll do it again and again. He has also started singing. We heard him humming Jingle Bells the other day, and he likes the chorus to The Three Little Kittens (“meow, meow, meow, meeeow”).
All the way around, we love this little boy every day…his ready smile and his helping hand serve to delight us continually.
March of 2008, en route home from Connemara with his newly purchased bodhrán from Malachy Kearn's place in Roundstone.
Natasha's life is full of the care and nurturing of growing and hungry children (oh boy!), doing PR work for our school here, as well as striving every day to do some of her fibre work, making sweaters for children, which she has been working on for some time. More on that to come in the near future. She continues to love life here in the country, the driving notwithstanding and is she is daily grateful to Paul for making it possible, as he’s the one who takes on the daily commute. Outshining the downsides on the road, the country walks, landscape and proximity to nature have been invigorating and inspiring! We know why people choose to live here, and this place in particular is quite spectacular. If you’ve seen the movie, PS I Love You, there is a scene where the three women are in a rowboat (not a great movie, but it’s filmed near us!). The lake their floating in is our very own Blessington Lake!...so the scenery in their backdrop is the view from, at a distance, the front of our house. Making the choice to live here, we have determined will always be a special part of our life.
Weekly, we do make the 40 minute one-way drive to church, on the coastal town of Bray, grateful always to return to our bucolic setting. However we have come to love the small, very international setting our Branch, or congregation, makes up. From the many, varied parts of our life, our time at church is always a special part. Paul serves as the second counselor of the Branch Presidency, and Natasha is the education counselor of the Relief Society, the women’s organization of our church. Opportunities for service, an important element in one’s life, serves to balance and bring perspective to the important things in life. We are grateful for this, and for what it brings to our family.
Paul enjoys his work. While his travel has been nothing like what it was in previous years, he has enjoyed several trips to Asia and Europe, with a highlight this year being that he actually got to visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City! We’ve been so grateful for the opportunities he’s had and that they’ve provided the chance to come to Ireland. We’re completely open to the possibilities, having no end date on our time here.
We will enjoy each day as it comes! We are so grateful for your friendship and for the relationships in our lives that bring meaning and richness. May 2009 bring to the world, joy and peace, and to you, the same.
With much love,
Paul and Natasha
Joshua, Sasha and Elijah
