As cliché as it is, it’s hard to finish out a year and not look back on the highlights, lowlights, and lessons learned. In broader terms (longer terms), I also tend to look back on Justin’s military order “tours” and  see just how much each place has impacted the “rounding” of my character (not sure I’m at “well rounded” yet 😬), and this set of orders is definitely impactful.

Eight months in to our jump across the Atlantic and I’m still kind of all over the place. One minute it all feels like it’s going too fast and I need more time. The next minute I’m stuck in what feels like groundhog’s day that will NEVER end (the rain! Make. It. Stop. There will be a whole other post on that). Sometimes I feel like I just hopped off the train here and congratulate myself for trying a new store alone but then I realize I’ve been here closer to a year and I can’t keep using the “I’m new” excuse.

Highlights from 2017

• The obvious: all the country-hopping  – ten countries for me this year
• Waffles! Frites! Beer! Chocolate! French bread! Chocolate croissants!
• A work sabbatical! The anxiety over what to do with sick kids has calmed for the time being
• Personal development: I think I read SIX whole books in 2017! I think that’s more than than the last six years combined! And I got to take 2 day trips alone!
• New friends, new sports, new activities
• Kids “learning” a second language

Lowlights:

• Losing my independence – both from a professional career standpoint and from leaving my home country
• Struggling through the my “personal development”/identity crisis (still struggling!)
• Losing my Ikey
• Constantly feeling inept and overwhelmed
• Feeling anxious about EVERYTHING – travel warnings, people staring, my car, how “American” we look, how loud we are, if the food is cooked 😳
• The weather! SADs really is a thing!
• No air conditioning (hard to remember this now, but 3-4 weeks of 93 degree weather with no A/C and no screens (the flies!) is the pits)

Lessons learned: (oh soooo many!)

• First and foremost, I love America 😍. As cool as this experience is, I am blessed to have American blood and even more blessed to have American facilities over here (post office with Amazon!, commissary)
• Almost as important of a lesson as how much I ♥️ America…is that I NEED and VALUE my career and all that comes with it. It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears to earn it, but I didn’t see the other values it had until now – independence (leaving the house sans kiddos), the feeling of being good at something/helping people/knowing what you’re doing, and of course, the money 😬
• My calling was not as a SAHM
• I CAN cook (but have learned some lessons like to not over cook rice and never cut garlic and put in fridge uncovered 😳)
• I still don’t love to cook 😂👆🏻
• I CAN live without eating out and especially without fast food (though I did seriously binge on Chick-Fil-A while in Nashville in November)
• Even staying at home, the cleaning/laundry will never be actually DONE
• Not a new lesson, but one that constantly repeats itself – I’m thankful for the other very helpful military wives and other friends that always step up to help in a new and scary place, which leads to 👇🏻
• ALWAYS take the help! If someone offers help, take it!
• Its ok to put yourself first sometimes – trying to be the best at everything for everyone doesn’t make anyone happy and just makes me overwhelmed and irritable
• And sometimes you just have to slow down. Life does not move at the American pace over here. Patience is a virtue I don’t have, but am working on

Traveling lessons learned

• History is amazing
• Wifi and cellular service are not to be depended on
• As much as it may seem like they are, no two churches are the same (swing and pool?!?)
• Always have cash – it’s super frustrating and embarrassing to be trying to purchase something when they don’t take card and you never know if you’ll need to pay for a bathroom, which takes me to 👇🏻
• Never pass up the bathroom, especially one that is free
• Always pack a water bottle and probably always have snacks
• A cross-body purse is a MUST
• Leggings (while not suited for my body 😳) are really the easiest and lightest to travel in (though no pockets sucks – that’s what the cross-body purse is for)
• In this area of Europe – never leave home without the umbrella, raincoat/hat, which leads to 👇🏻
• December (and I’m SURE winter in general) is NOT a good season for traveling! The weather is THE WORST and nothing but miserable to be outside in, and lots of fun attractions are closed Nov-March. (We think they promote the Christmas markets so much because without those you may have to go into hibernation)
• It pays to be nice (except when flying RyanAir – just knock all those a-holes down). Really the only way to get things done here is by being nice. My natural disposition to get hot and angry doesn’t help anything 😳
• Souvenirs are the way to my kids’ hearts (souvenir update coming soon)
• Ice cream and/or lollipops can calm a crazy kid in a heartbeat
• So can a good old-school playground
• This is not necessarily a new lesson learned while here, but is worth mentioning – buffets are terrible with 4 kids (my kids anyway!). It’s too much up and down and carrying plates/kids trying to make their own and carry plates/one person sitting at the table while the other makes 6 plates. Table service is usually faster and tastes better 👍🏻
• Pizza restaurants are the best for big families and small children. They’re loud, quick, relatively inexpensive, usually seat large parties, and most kids will eat pizza or spaghetti. That being said, we’re about Pizza’d out over here (hashtag – things I never thought I’d say)
• And finally, some times (actually most of the time) the less known cities/areas of cities are the coolest. People travel to the famous cities to reinforce what they want to believe about a city, which can make it much less fun and way too crowded (think Times’ Square in NYC). A few examples:

1. Amsterdam, NL overwrought with marijuana, like just absolutely unbelievable amounts. Gouda, NL was just as cute but without the overwhelming smell and puff clouds of pot.
2. The back side of Venice was amazing. It was filled with quiet streets and quiet canals for easy gondola rides and local shops hand making Venetian papier mâché masks and glass blown items, where the main drag was an uncomfortable tourist trap with shops and shops of mass produced items, and bumper-to-bumper gondolas. And neighboring cities Vincenza and Verona were also amazing!

So what good would it be reflecting on 2017 if I didn’t try to up-the-bar in 2018? So, my goals for 2018 are as follows:

• Read more than 6 books!
• Continue to try to find my “self” and what I was meant to do
• Exercise (obligatory “resolution”)
• Mission trip
• Budget, budget, budget (and don’t use credit card!
• Spend less on food and unnecessary clothing (sloooooooow to a stop on shopping 😳)

And finally, I’m going to learn French. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. JUST KIDDING! (Never going to happen). Let’s go, 2018!