Is this child labor?

This past weekend, Mark had to do some home repairs for his parents, so the kids and I had Saturday to ourselves. We decided to be productive and clean. Spring cleaning, which should have been done months ago.

As I sat enjoying my morning coffee, the kids pestered me, ready to start scrubbing. Well, far be it for me to stand between my children and housework! Go straighten your rooms, said I, knowing the rooms were relatively tidy, but it bought me enough time to get dressed and slam my last drops of coffee. As predicted, the kids were finished with that chore in two minutes flat. They proceeded to strip their beds while I ran the dishwasher, washed a few remaining dishes by hand, and scrubbed countertops. While their bedding washed, the little dears polished up their bathroom -- sink, counter, tub, top and base of the toilet (I do the icky parts), and after I swept for them, they hand-scrubbed the bathroom floor. They actually had fun doing it, so my guilt was minimal.

Later, they begged me to let them put their clothes away and vacuum their own rooms. I guess I'm an indulgent parent; I let them do it. Clay loved vacuuming so much, I let him vacuum the living room too, while Liv wiped down the kitchen table and chairs. Granted, it was not done to perfection, nor was it even as good as I would have done myself, but they enjoyed it and as long as they were willing to try, I was willing to let them. When they showed signs of tiring, I encouraged them to stop. I like that they found joy in making their home neat. Maybe they will strive to keep tidy houses of their own one day. Maybe as adults, they will find a little enjoyment in the mundane housekeeping chores that must be done. Maybe they will learn the value of being good stewards. And things sure do go faster when there are three people working instead of just one!

Reactions

The girl has allergies, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. But lately, her reactions seem more severe and more frequent. I don't know if allergies can get worse, but that does appear to be the case with this child. I'm now documenting every time she has to suck on an inhaler and every time she breaks out in hives. I'll let the allergy/asthma specialist decide if something needs to be changed. I'm thankful that her reactions are controllable with meds... so far.

Salzburg

Ahh, Salzburg. This is a place that touched my very soul. I loved Salzburg. Full of churches, history, and beautiful vistas around every corner, the city greatly appealed to me.

Our first view of Salzburg was unimpressive, however. We arrived by train from Venice, by way of Villach. Knowing we would also be departing by train, we opted to stay in a little hotel close to the train station. A very good idea, as it turns out. Our room was very quiet and extremely spacious (especially compared to our cell in Venice). The walk into the Old Town took only 15-20 minutes. Since the weather was gorgeous (unseasonably warm for Salzburg) and the scenery was beautiful, we didn't mind the walk at all. This was what we looked at as we hoofed into the Old Town:


We spent two days seeing the sights of Salzburg and enjoyed every second of it. We went in so many churches I can barely tell them apart! On the evening of the second day, we returned to our room, exhausted and wondering why our feet were aching. Then it dawned on us that we had spent more than six hours WALKING... and not just walking, but hiking up the mountain to the fortress that guards the city of Salzburg. (Spend money on the lift? No way!) We had not even sat down to eat lunch; instead we stood at a bar-height table, eating our frankfurters.

On the way up the mountain to Nonnberg Abbey, I snapped this shot: Now, isn't that worth the climb up a mountain?!?

This picture was taken from high up in the catacombs, which aren't catacombs at all, but the old home of ancient hermit monks. Why they opted to live in rocky caverns carved out of the side of a mountain is perplexing, but it WAS cool in there and the view was spectacular.

So pretty. I'll try to post more pictures later, when I have time.

A little detour from my travel posts...

Please visit my friend Jen's blog, see her beautiful little Emma, then pray for Emma. Please. She could really use some uplifting.

Venice

Our stop in Venice marked the beginning of our European Adventure. No longer did we have Whitney to guide us around... Yes, we suddenly had to think for ourselves. We flew from Madrid to Venice, managed to buy a bus ticket AND get on the correct bus to the islands of Venice proper. Upon our arrival to the city, we were overwhelmed and nearly overrun with people. Thousands of people formed a not-so-steadily flowing river of humans from the bus station to Piazza San Marco. Elbowing our way through the crush, we easily found the alley where our hotel was located (Thank you, Google Earth). Soon we were in our closet of a room. We are convinced that our room was the smallest in the hotel; a converted storage room set up to house some crazy Americans who willingly pay to share a bathroom with the rest of the guests and be sucked dry by the hummingbird sized mosquitoes that resided in our bland and tiny chamber.


After dumping our meager belongings in our less than fantastic room, we tackled the crowds again to discover why people say they love Venice. We fortified ourselves with some local grub, then entered the flow of foot traffic. Frustrated with the crowd, we veered off of the beaten path and... voila! We met Venice. So this is why people love Venice! Getting "lost" in Venice was the best thing we ever did and it made us appreciate the uniqueness of the city. I felt sorry for the throng of cruise-ship folk who saw nothing more than the backs of the people in front of them and a few trinkets in a shop window. They truly miss the real Venice, the Venice where people actually live. The Venice where quiet canals have barely a ripple on the water. Where the locals walk their dogs and fuss at each other when someone breaks the leash law. That's the Venice we loved.

Madrid

Our first stop in Europe was Madrid. My initial impression of Madrid was not great... Madrid is just a big city, in my opinion, and I'm not crazy about big cities. I'm sure that the area around Madrid is fantastic, and there were definitely some wonderful things that I saw there. Many of the buildings were gorgeous, like this one...


Unfortunately, almost every single building, door, column, etc, was sprayed with this:


Very difficult to get past all the graffiti to see the real Madrid. Everywhere you turned, there were sanitation people trying to keep the city clean and beautiful. But their sanitation force is inadequate. In the ritzy section of town, they paint over the spray painted graffiti. You can see the mismatched paint all over the place.

There were definitely lovely places in Madrid, however. They were just fewer and farther between than other places I've been.

Spanish people are quite hysterical when they pose for pictures. When they pose, boy do they pose! They used accessories as much as they could: Scarves, columns, children, flowers, whatever was handy. After a while, it got to be a great joke between us. You'll see in some of my later pictures that I did a "Euro-Pose" for some of them. Hee.

Another thing I noticed about Madrid was that there is an excessive amount of public, uh, groping. A couple will be walking down the street and be overwhelmed with the sudden urge to make out. They proceed to do so, with lots of touching, grabbing, caressing, and kissing, right there on the sidewalk. Very funny.

Anyway, it was nice seeing my niece and a little bit of Spain. Here I am (in my boring American pose)... If you look in the boat that is farthest to the right, the couple is laying down, uh, in a public display of affection.

I'm back!

I have returned from my European adventure and will be posting pictures and descriptions later. But first I must say how wonderful it is to be home! I missed my family so much!

Our plane landed around 6:00 yesterday evening and I somehow managed to drive the 2.5 hours home. A truly amazing feat considering that I had been traveling for 24 hours straight. This morning, I unpacked, checked emails, straightened the kids rooms, uploaded pictures, and went through my mail.

My children have apparently gone into business while I was away... Oddly, they are selling the eggs of my chickens. After a long dry spell (molting, I guess), all the hens are suddenly laying quite well. The big guy says that we are getting about 17 eggs a day, of all different colors. The kids are accepting donations for the eggs, I'm told. My mother has lined up some friends and the aunts (her sister and sister-in-law) to be regular customers. Mom tried to give the eggs away, but people are giving my kids money for them. Wonder if they are going to help their mom buy feed for those fantastic egg-layers?

Trip info to come later.

I'm enjoying my second day in Salzburg. Absolutely stunning!!