Coerced Into Cooperation

Monday Feb 27th –

Moms arrival morning!

Soo, we weren’t the most awesome children in the sense of picking her up, but we blame the traffic jams in Europe.

She was scheduled to arrive at 8:00 that morning and with that scenario our options were to leave the apartment by 5:00 am to get her on time oooor leave once traffic was calmer and get her like, 3 hours later.
Option three?
Get her to take the train 😎😏
My poor mom… I’ve lived here for around a year and a half and wouldn’t dare take the train alone but her second trip here and we make her do it, by herself 🙈
In our defence, the train station is literally IN the airport and it was a direct ride to Arnhem where we would pick her up.

She did very well and after one phone call to us for assistance, she managed to get to the right platform, onto the correct train and we picked her up around 10:00 am.

😊💕🚉

We went back to the apartment straight away, not pulling our usual, ‘make the guest stay awake until at least 8:00 pm’ 😏😜

We caught up on traveling adventures, eating some pancake casserole and strawberries in the pauses of conversation and then… we all went for an hour long nap 😁

Mike and I had been up late, Mom had been up 32 hours and her tiredness was literally making me feel tired.
Sympathy jet lag 😏👌🏻🛩

It was also not very nice outside, so the grey sky and howling wind made doing anything seem unpleasant as well.

Chili was heated up, cornbread made and we had that for an early supper post nap.

(Little did I know it was supposedly National Chili Day?)

By the time we had finished that, the light rain had stopped and Mike suggested we walk to Opa and Oma’s for some fresh air and then get a few groceries we required.
Mom agreed.
I have this funny feeling about her and Mike ganging up on me these next weeks 😏

We walked, it rained gently, houses and buildings were admired, Opa and Oma greeted😊
We sat with them for a little evening visit and coffee before heading back to hit the store before it closed.
Mother couldn’t believe I would resist getting flowers all the time when some of the small (but still very cute) bouquets can be as cheap as 2 euros 😋

It was an early bedtime for all, Mom being tired and Mike having to get up early the next day to go to Germany and help some family with renos.

Tuesday Feb 28th-

Mike left early that morning and I hardly noticed😬

Once mother and I arose it was coffee and stroopwafels enjoyed on the couch while we wrote/checked phone stuff/caught up on life things you forget to say when you usually only talk on phone etc. 😊☕️👭

I knew that with Mom coming, I would probably be coerced into doing more physical activity than usual and my guess was verified her first day here😏

30 minutes of cardio later and I remembered all too well why I can never make myself do it😜

Of course the moving makes a person feel starving, so some soup was taken out of the freezer and cheese melts prepared and devoured 👌🏻

After which we both agreed a rest was a wise idea.
I slept but Moms jet lag set in and rest wouldn’t come for her 😔

She began painting and once I awoke I blogged a little before prepping a frozen pizza for our supper.

Mom made us an evening pot of coffee but the filter folded over and caused the brew to be too weak.
Though weak, it still felt wrong to waste and the grounds still had most of their flavouring so what were we to do?
Pour the weak coffee, into the coffee maker and make some coffee, with coffee 😎👌🏻☕️

It was actually a super tasty pot 😄

Once our java was readied it was an evening spent creating this and that, us disliking our own creations and admiring the others 😏🙄

Mom was still super awake and I’d napped so a movie was chosen, popcorn prepared and our bedtime postponed until 2:00 am.
Postponed by a horribly confusing, old, romantic drama 😝