mice & men

The best made plans of mice and men, eh?

As I wrote about our move from Berlin to Ireland, I was well aware the stream-lined dream would be interrupted by the elbows and knees of reality. But I was thinking more along the lines of a vomiting bug and running out of money for a new sofa than this!

We are here now and it feels right. The beach is nearby and we have all had delicious sea-swims. The sun rises in the frame of our bedroom window and the kids patter in at 6.30 and we watch it rise and count the birds as they swoosh by (or try and find the sun on the greyer mornings). The garden is wonderful and seems to be loved by butterflies (also a rat, much to my horror but we have Grandad Frank on the job there). Martha and I have also done some yoga outside in the morning sun and the kids play with their new friend in and out of the garden all day.

So that’s the Instagram part.

But just to balance it out, we’ve had 5 hospital visits in the last 4 weeks. One for Brian on his last night in Berlin, 2 for me in Croatia, one for me in Wexford and then a transfer to a Dublin hospital from where I write this.

I wanted to write a blog about ‘seeing the wood for the trees’, about slowing down and relishing the simple things in life.

I’ve certainly had a lesson in that over the last few weeks.

Plans for the next few months (paint this, unpack that, dig up this, plant that, recycle this, make your own chemical-free, sugar free version of that) have taken a detour; I’m 22 weeks pregnant and have been having trouble with bleeding for the last two weeks. So it seems I will be in hospital for a stretch of time, or maybe even until this baby arrives. Which could be anywhere between now and next January. I’m told to probably expect a premature baby.

And just like that I go from swimming and whooping in the Irish sea with my giddy kids to looking down the barrel of two months making a track between the hospital bed and the loo and back. You can’t get much simpler or slower than that. Be careful what you wish for !