Rebekah's Insights

Fun! The children would be thrilled to see where chocolate comes from. :)

What confusion would it cause to tell her that chocolate comes from seeds! We have a Red Cacao tree growing in our yard now. If in when we get a pod maybe we can send you some chocolate seeds! It’s not all that hard to get something useful out of them, dried, roasted, crushed and mixed with milk & sugar you get a decent hot chocolate drink. If you want something like a chocolate bar you’d get in the snack aisle, that’s a fair bit more work.

Your verses touch my heart with truth.
The rhythm reminds me of Jo’s poem about the boxes of treasures in the attic after Beth dies. Thank you for a glimpse of your heart. It is lovely.

LOL! I wonder how old he thinks I am????

Thanks for posting your poetry. The seasons are a reflection of life, are they not…

I always love a good haiku.

We’ve been getting around 1.5-2 inches of rain a day the past few days. Luckily for us it drains quite well. The rain gutters are routed down a pipe away from the house, and sometimes that looks like a fire hose. Ah monsoon season in Hawaii! It’s even cold (for us) in the low 60s at night and barely reaching 70 some of the days. It’s raining so hard now I can’t see downtown (my office window overlooks, yes I’m goofing off at work, it’s ok, it’s part of my lunch hours). I can only assume that it’s been wiped out by a Tsunami, and that the warning sirens got shorted out by the rain.

We are so bad at menu planning. We end up eating easy junk far to often. Especially here where we can grow things year round with relative ease. We had Pesto Lasagna this weekend, we have a basil bush. An entire summer in MD didn’t give us the basil we get off this thing in a month here. Now I’m hungry for pesto salmon cakes. mmm

Happy belated Birthday Liam.

Love,

The Vollbrechts

20 Degrees Celsius, that is nice and balmy. I know what you are referring to regarding the different subtle customs in the UK. It is pretty cool and you probably know a heck of a lot more than I do. Hope you, Bekah and the kids are doing well. Tori, Hayden and myself are fine and are looking forward to our first X-mas as a family.

I must say, I’m concerned about your well-being, you lose in the semifinals of fantasy and say your ‘goal’ was third. Riiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhhttttttttt. I don’t think you have changed that much. One thing you need to do, go to a lower division or semi-pro soccer match. That is where you’ll have a lot of fun with the locals in the pubs. Great memories I have of that from my trip. Take care.

Erik

20C sounds cold to me! Glad your heat is on. How much does electric run there? Ours was .35 a Killowatt hour, about double what it was in maryland after the huge spike. 458 kWhrs == $158 dollars. Keep in mind we have no heat or A/C. We do have a large American style washer and dryer though! It’s rarely dry enough out to hang clothes, but we have a covered clothsline in our car port so we can hang them on those dry days.

Yes, our boiler now works. We are now a balmy 20C in the house:)

So wait, is your boiler on now heating your house? It’s an oil boiler? I’m so confused by your technology! Things are also expensive here in Hawaii. We brought in our propane logs for Hawaii Christmas. Sometimes it gets to the mid 60s here at night, we almost have to close the windows! (I know, now I’m just mean)

Oh dear one!
I had forgotten about this blog page, until I was cleaning out my “Favorites” webpages. I’m so glad I found this again!
I enjoyed reading over your description of the weather and the fall season. How beautiful it must be with all those trees there, and the “crisp air". You may be not looking forward to the shorter days ( I wouldn’t), but remember, in the spring, wehn we were there, it was light for 17 hours!! Delightful!. Now, just cozy up with a warm cup of tea, watch your children play and rest your sick self.

Rebekah, I enjoy reading the BLOGS that you write! It’s great learning about what’s going on with you over in the UK! I miss Aine and Liam, in addition to you and Will.

In 2 weeks I’ll be holding my own precious granson, Aidan! I can’t wait! I haven’t planned the Get-together for the Laughlin/Tingley families as well as a few close friends. Finances continue to be the major problem. I’ll be calling your Mother for advice, and I plan to ask my Dad if we can have the gathering at his home when I stop by after Church on Sunday morning. I know that Dad, especially, wants to hold Aidan. You know how good your Grandpa always is with babies! I must get going. I’m going to a Cursillo (Church) gathering tonight, while your Birthday Uncle is already over at IHS for the Homecoming football game; he’s wearing a T-shirt and shorts, as will I tonight, as the gathering at St. Hedwig’s is informal.
Love and Blessings and Hugs and Kisses from Auntie Ellen!

I love your term “Baltimoron!” It’s priceless! Love you all!

Packing up all of our stuff is done. It was nothing but fun:) The packers flew as they put stuff into our boxes. I can’t image how long it would have taken us to pack up all of our belongings. We are completely out of our house and new people are living there. Liam was a little traumatized at seeing the house completely empty. “Where’s my train table?!” Now onto the next chapter in our saga.