Another month gone by! At this rate I will be retired in no time!
When we used to visit Belgium we would sight see all the time. Now that we live here we have jobs, kids school and practises and family and friends get togethers, we seem to spend little time going out of town. So, we decided to go visit a few famous places in Belgium Will or the kids had not been to.
Our first trip was to "Scherpenheuvel". It is one of the most frequented shrines in Belgium. The origin dates back to the Middle Ages. On top of the hill (Scherpenheuvel means sharp hill in Flemish) a mighty oak tree was visible over a wide area. This tree seems to have been a centre of superstitious practises until a wooden figure of Our Lady Mary was affixed to the tree during the 14th century. In 1514 a shepherd tried to take the statue home. He remained transfixed until the little statue was put back into the niche. Since then the shrine gained a wider celebrity. In 1602 a little wooden chapel was built, which was later replaced by a beautiful basilica. Nowadays, milions of pilgrims come to our lady for guidance.
Why does it hold a special place in my family's heart? Well, after giving birth to me, and ofcourse me being the most wonderful baby in the world, my mom tried for 5 years to have another baby without success. She went to Scherpenheuvel and wrote her "wish" on a piece of paper and placed it in the "prayer box". The next mont... she was pregnant with my brother!!!
The kids loved writing their prayers on the little papers, lighting candles and throwing coins in the wishing well! You should see how sincere the girls were praying after putting their prayers in the box, you would think they were angels! Well, they are ofcourse! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.
My mom's boyfriend Albert is a pilot for gliders and small motor planes. He had a gliding contest the other day and since the weather was gorgeous we decided to go watch! Little did we know that you see him take off and about 4 hourse later you see him land. Great! So we just had some fun on the field, had some greasy, woonderful fries, ice cream to top it off and we welcomed Albert back to land. He passed his exam.
Last Sunday the city of Hasselt organized a kids day all over the town. No cars were allowed so we took our bikes and away we went. They had sand in the street with beach toys, just as if we were at the seaside, tons of different types of jumpy houses, totally fun giant games (like connect four), silly bikes. Really super fun. But, Belgium would not be Belgium if we had good weather to count on, so...it rained!! This was a bummer because almost nobody came out that day. We did not let the weather stop us, so we had a really cool time and nooo lines anywhere. We got soaked...so what!
Another road trip: The Atomium. At the world fair in Brussels in 1958, the first post war event of its kind, bringing together over 40 countries, a giant structure was built as a piece of art. It symbolizes an iron crystal, magnified 165 bilion times, referring to the power of nuclear energy in full development at the time and which was intended for peaceful use. The Atomium is the most visited tourist attraction of Europe's capital.
It was cool to actually go inside it and see the view all the way from the top! Breathtaking. Even though the kids really did like it, their favorite part was playing in the fountain in front of the structure! Kids are so easy to please aren't they?
It was a beautiful sunshiny day in Belgium. Pretty rare for us so the entire country was having a barbecue it seemed. Acting as the followers we are, our family was no different. We had the family over at my dad’s house and after finding out the barbecue pit was missing a part we switched to plan B and my dad cooked up a feast, but we all ate outside so we still felt the barbeque spirit.
Since we had not been in our yard this year, the grass was pretty high. My dad’s mower broke so my brother brought over his lawn mower. Will took charge and tackled the rainforest themed backyard grass mowing job. After he was done and joined us at the table I, being the wonderful wife that I am, stroked his back and said:” Thank you babe for mowing the lawn”. He smiled and sat down. Then he turned to me and said:”I have always mowed the lawn”. I responded with:”I know, and I am thanking you for doing it.”. About five minutes later I look at Will and I see his face, he has the –I am acting like nothing is wrong but I am bugged–look. So, I ask...you can guess it.. “what is wrong?”. He said: I have always mowed the lawn and you have never thanked me for it. I told him that I realized this and it is never too late to start appreciating something, right? After a few moments he could not help himself and went on to say one more time (with a smile this time though): for seventeen years I have mowed the lawn and you never really thought anything of it, just expected it to be done. Okay girls, now I am getting a bit bugged. I said:"I just thanked you for doing something and you are turning it into a reason to be mad at me?" He defended himself by saying he was happy I was appreciative but that my act of kindness made him think of how often I DID’NT thank him before??? "#§çù£&é@". I give up. They call it a cliche, but I am relating to many cliches these days, so here it goes: "Ladies, damned if you do, damned if you don’t". :-)
Little child of mine say what?
I told the girls that our cousin Monica was getting married soon. Chloe asked :"to who?". I answered: "to Shane ofcourse"? she paused for about 6 whole seconds and said : "Good choice Monica!"
We were getting an ice cream and were deciding what flavor we should get. Lainey asked me what the flavor "forest fruit" was. I told her strawberries, rasberries, boysenberries.. She asked me if apples and pears were in there. I told her "no, just everything that grows in the forest" She told me she didnt want that flavor after all. When I asked her why not she answered : "I don't like trees"
Until the next time,
Lesley
