New Things We Like

We love the fresh breads at the stores. Lidl bakes their own so you can get something fresh throughout the day.

The pastries are delicious. Flaky, yummy goodness.

Our new treat at events is "trdelnik." It's hard to describe exactly, but it's yummy. It's basically a cylinder of dough that's been baked, then rolled in cinnamon, cocoa, or vanilla sugar. It's a good substitute for my husband's love of funnel cakes and much healthier. And cheaper!

We can walk almost any place we need to go in the village. Our house is very centrally located.

Jason can take the train to school, which saves him about an hour of sitting in traffic (and spending money on gas at over $7/gal.)

The boys are learning a second language. We're attempting to learn a second language!

We are making new friends. It's been slow, but it's coming.

We are learning a lot about medieval and WWII history. P even has a WWII national holiday on his birthday!

We have seen many old things, including artifacts, weapons, and castles.

Overall, it is safer here. It is not uncommon to see children biking or walking by themselves - to and from school, to and from music lessons, or wherever else they may be going. It is also safe to walk at night, though I don't like to do it very often.

We can be in three other countries in an hour or less. How many people can say that?

We have a beautiful home that is much larger than we expected!

We have a fireplace! It is a nice treat on a cool, fall night (and it will be in the winter too!).

We have a nice, new to us car, that can fit 7 people. It took us a long time to find one, but the Lord directed us to one. It is really nice to have when people are visiting. We didn't want to get a van because of the gas prices and parking/space issues, so this is a great compromise.

I have a great tutor! She is quickly becoming a family friend.

There are quite a few children in our church and both boys have two classmates from church.

The architecture in Europe is breathtaking and beautiful. I will never get over the creativity that can be found in so many places.

We have a McDonald's about 10 min. from us and a Pizza Hut around 25 min. away. We don't go to either one often, but it is nice to have some "comfort food" once in a while. The Pizza Hut runs a Buy 1, Get 1 sale between 2 and 5 during the week.

We have a great driveway for the boys to ride their bikes and scooters.

European chocolate has American chocolate beat by a long shot. Well, except for peanut butter/chocolate combinations (which of course are my favorite) - can't find anything like that here.

We are only a 2 or 3 min. walk from the boys' school. Shortest commute ever!

We have a very nice landlord. He has done a lot to help us.

We're only 4 hours from the Austrian Alps. They are truly stunning!

We have an IKEA about 10 min. from our house. We've bought quite a few plants and odds and ends from there. We went there a few weeks ago and joked that we should go there for a date night. The boys are all young enough to go in the play area (for 2 hours, no less) and the food in the cafeteria is pretty cheap. Do you think they would catch on?

There are two small grocery stores in our village. One takes about 8 min. to walk to. The other takes 3 or 4 min. It definitely can come in handy!