Summer has come and gone, our travels have significantly slowed (almost to a stop), a new school year has started, and homework and after school activities and sports are taking over our lives. We’ve been to birthday parties and cookouts and festivals, gone to see a ton of new movies (yay for English movies on the base!), tried a lot more local stores (though I still Amazon – yep, it’s a verb – daily), and gotten more active in church than we ever have been in the past.

Ah, the new normal…I’ve had many people tell me it would be around 6 months for me to get comfortable here…to find my “normal”. It’s now a little over 5 months (but we left our last house 6 months ago, so I’m calling it NOW), and I’d say it’s happened. It’s “comfortable”. We could easily forget where we are while driving around and hanging out in the house. It’s not until there is a sign in French or someone speaking on an overhead in French until you realize it’s really not “that” normal 😂. The malls seem to mostly play American/English music, so I can be walking around feeling totally at home until I have to interact wth someone.

As strange as it sounds, it’s not that different from my experience moving to Nevada, and maybe even other regular military moves. Realistically, it probably always takes 6 months to get “comfortable” in a new place.

After living in the south for roughly 20 years, Nevada was a HUGE shock for me. Granted I was pregnant and emotional, but there were soooooo many tears, and those tears lasted for MONTHS. At first, it felt impossible to make friends and everyone and everything seemed so cold. And then, as if the feeling of “coldness” wasn’t bad enough, it snowed IN OCTOBER and continued all winter and even snowed the following JUNE! But in the end, Nevada ended up being one of our favorite places, and it gave me my Wesley (my perma-souvenir) and some of the best friends that have and will do anything to help me. It was my first experience in actually learning about the “real” me and how much the real me needed other people for SO many reasons and how I need to accept help and rely on the village.

So if the other side of the country was hard, imagine the other side of the world! But we’re trying! Making friends and listening to the word-of-mouth suggestions (and million different FB pages for this base) have been our lifelines. This is one of those places where you really have to rely on others for the good info (travel, stores, sports, etc).

Just to keep anyone who is interested up-to-date – here is our fall schedule. It’s so much that I think I may have to break down and get a desk calendar to leave in the kitchen.

Natalie and Meredith are taking ballet 3 days a week – classical ballet on Wednesdays and modern ballet on Mondays and Thursdays. Meredith is MUCH more into modern ballet and her fun Portuguese teacher than she is classical ballet, which I’m sure will not surprise anyone who knows her 😂. And Natalie and Meredith signed up and did the first training to be altar servers at church! Yay, Jesus!

Wesley is “playing” soccer twice a week, meaning he plays for maybe 1/2 of the game and when he’s goalie or on the sideline he’s just way out in left field. He is also going to do the 1st grade Lego club.

And then there’s Bennett. We’ve been trying to go to story time at the library each week. He is not a socialized child, he’s a wild banshee. He likes to climb on the tables and move the chairs around instead of listening to the story, but we keep trying. In addition to story time, I finally got him signed up for the hourly day care on the base (can only use a few hours a week, with an appointment, if they have room, but better than nothing!). YAYAYAY! He’s been twice and the word on the street is that he really likes to wash his hands and he needs to work on eating with utensils. In February, he’ll start Belgian kindergarten (preschool) and will learn French!

Me? I’m still stuck in an existential “who am I?” crisis 😂. What am I going to do with myself? And when am I going to start? While I’m finally comfortable, I’m still just not sure what’s next.

Justin signed us up to teach Sunday school (something he’s always wanted to do – but me? I am no teacher 😳). I am hoping this is a good start to figuring out my next 2.5 years (hard to believe I’m 1/6 of the way through this! It’s going too fast!). I mean, if nothing else, we have seventh graders – oh so awkward (like me!) At least I can relate to them – I’m stuck in an awkward “who am I as a 36 year old?” just as much as they are a “who am I?” middle schooler. And they giggle inappropriately and don’t pay attention, just like me.

As a family we are still trying to do as much as possible with our “free” time and still trying to make the most of our weekends. Last month we did some more sightseeing (shopping) in Bruges and Ostend (beach) and we spent last Saturday at the local Oktoberfest! I know it’s not the one in Munich, but it’s put on by the German cohorts here and it was pretty fun (with the exception of some interesting children situations 😳 WESLEY!). For fall break we’re going to take advantage of €16 rountrip airline tickets and add a new country to our list! Arrivederci!