This isn't one of those kind of posts.
I'm a little done with Spain this week. (Sorry, Spain...this isn't all your fault).
Maybe it's the month long string of illnesses circling this family like a possessed tornado...kicked off by a round of bronchitis, followed by conjunctivitis, and capped off with a charming case of gastritis. This delightful germ trio led us directly into the eighteen day long winter break for the big kids from pre-school.
24/7 with all three go a little something like this:
8pm-8pm: The hungriest, albeit cutest, little human on earth latched on to me like a tick every two hours.
8am-8pm: Cleaning the same messes all day long set to a soundtrack going something like this:
"What's after Monday?"
"Tuesday."
"What's after Tuesday?"
"Wednesday."
"What's after Wednesday?"
"Thursday."
"Is it Thursday?"
"No, it's Tuesday."
"Is it Wednesday?"
"No, it's Tuesday."
"Is it Monday?"
"No, I just told you twice, it's Tuesday."
"I'm hungry."
*eye twitch*
Ok, so we get out of the house in an attempt to avoid the mess-clean-mess cycle of hell, and we get...the stares.
I'm so over the stares. The non-stop stares I get when I'm out with all three. I'll break it down. Sextuplets :: United States as Three Kids :: Barcelona. While we do get a lot of positive smiles and head pats for the kids as we walk by, there is also the head shakes, forehead slaps, "Madre Mia!" (construction worker), to "Tres! Oy!". I used to smile and offer some witty little comment. This slowly faded into just a smile, now I'm starting to just stare back.
I'm over paying Amazon UK my weight in British Pounds just to get something I need shipped here without getting stuck in Spanish customs, which is where EVERY SINGLE PACKAGE coming from the United States goes to die. I would like 5 minutes alone in a room with the organizer of Spanish Customs in Madrid. They need a swift slap upside the head. They are currently holding my mother-in-law's Christmas presents to the kids hostage, along with my magical jeans from NYC -- promised to make me look like I'm not a haggard mother of three and take the place of yoga pants as my new daily uniform. Yes, I needed those. "You should embrace the clothing here" my happy Barcelona folks will say. Um, according to Spanish clothing standards, I'm morbidly obese. Not a fact well faced by a postpartum woman.
I'm over holidays away from my family. I tried to overcompensate this year by planning elaborate meals for us to make it seem "special". Christmas Eve shrimp scampi and baked artichokes went well, but in my effort to simplify the process and plan ahead, I bought the Christmas turkey two days in advance. TWO DAYS. Tuesday night I go to plop it in the carefully crafted brine I made, which took me one day and five stores to gather the ingredients to make, and find the turkey has already gone bad. "Oh", my sunny Barcelona friends will say, "that is because they don't pump all those nasty American preservatives, antibiotics, and hormones in the food here." Fine. But seriously, two days?! It wasn't even near the "sell by" date. So we had Christmas cookies and champagne/milk for dinner...which actually wasn't so bad.
We've been in a rut since Jordi was born. Rightfully so, but a rut nonetheless. After spending our beautiful Saturday this week in our PJs until 1pm, with our big "outing" as a walk to Chris' office to pick up a piece of mail, we realized we needed to motivate. Time's wasting, and life is challenging no matter what we are doing....we might as well be out seeing what we can as a family. We made a plan that night to venture out of Barcelona the following day, and were up and out of the house by 8am on Sunday, hopping the Renfe train to Tarragona to see Port Aventura, the biggest theme park in this region. That seemed to inject some life into us again, reminding us why we are here, and that we are capable of carrying on the adventure as a family of five.
Hopefully next week it will be back to the regularly scheduled sunny disposition....holiday homesickness over, week day routine reinstated, with the accompanying time to breathe and reboot. Until then, I plan to combat the moody by cranking up the Spotify, stocking some Cava, and getting out of town this weekend on another day trip.
A big cheers to everyone at home, have a safe and Happy New Year. :)
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