Rooms. Views.

Starting next weekend, this will (assuming all goes as planned) be the view from our new apartment... all the trees you see there are part of a huge park that is inside the apartment complex - such a great place for the kids to play! 

This is currently the view from our living room window: 

Not nearly as nice... We've lived in this apartment for 3 years now and it's been fine, there are things we've liked and not liked. But moving feels like a good chance to purge things we don't need, and refresh our point of view. Perhaps metaphorically as well as literally.

And this was our view from the top-floor flat we rented in a lovely old villa for two weeks in Albania - we arrived in the midst of the New Year's fireworks celebrations, enjoyed two days of sunshine, and then 10 days of rain. I felt like I could have stared out this window forever.

First Day of School!

Today Valerie started 2nd grade, and Gabe started kindergarden! They are excited about being at the same school together again, and G asked a thousand questions before they went in this morning. They were nervous, too, with all the unknowns ahead of them - who would be in their classes? What would be for lunch? etc.

We're also planning to move to a new apartment next week, so there are a lot of changes happening right now. Things to celebrate.

I'm celebrating the first anniversary of defending my dissertation. Yay!