LivinginBrno

The happiest time of the year is here and while we enjoy the snow outside we are also celebrating and counting each day until Christmass with a small nice thought or gift inside each day. This year we decide to try and make the calendar at almost zero costs as we used just ingredients and materials at hand: - paper wrap was used from rohlik, as we use the online shop for deliveries and they have wonderful paper bags. We like the idea of reusing it a lot. Thank you dear rohlik shop ! - inside each day we wrapped a small lyric or thought, but also small sweets from around the house, what we had already available - I used a few small threads saved from another present wrap from past - few elf, sleigh and Christmas stickers received from grandparents It was almost cost free, pleasant to prepare but it did take a while as I must do 3 times each day (we have 3 boys) so each must have his own little day, his countdown till Christmass! Kids are thrilled about this Advent and each day is specia...

 One the most often questions we get in our inbox (coming especially from this blog, or the fb groups) is how to find a dentist for children. For years I answered the best possible way I could and while it seemed easy to find this information online - what people actually asked was 'how we find a good, kind dentist for children?' It took me a while to realise, that is why so many requests, people need really pediatric dental specialist. This is the main issue, always repeating, during summer and spring season especially, like a clock work. I tried to make a list of English Speaking doctors in general, but as the dentists are really most wanted here I am at wintertime, trying to write about our experience with dentists, dental work and taking our boys to dentist in general.  Let me start by saying I have deep respect for the medical profession in general, but my favourite doctors are dentists. I have a profound admiration for these humans. How can they find the hurting tooth wh...

 Comfort is good. Being able to enjoy, relax and thrive in your living space is desirable. However, when I am too comfortable, I tend to also become lazy. I think not much value comes out of too much coziness. No one actually made great achievements by being all the time in their comfort zone. Being too comfortable, at times has its price.  In time we learnt to live in a small place. A big family in small house. A house full of children. A small garden filled with joy and all the noises that childhood bears. A tree where kids can climb and imagine they are what their hearts desire. Maybe they feel like Mowgli, I want to think. Seeing them grow in this small but lovely place is all I ever wanted and what makes us parents fulfilled and happy. Who doesn't want to fully sip from the cup of happiness, joy and wholeheartedly live these precious moments that might be the best years, after all.  The reality is not everyone affords a house nowadays, or maybe I have the wrong view ...

 All days are not the same with three young boys at home. But, some days are too much the same and routines are sometimes overwhelming me. I need to have a break from time to time, I take long walks, try to sleep as much as possible, eat well and plan a lot to exercise. I find that small things done every day are magical, like 5 minutes of stretching or 30 minutes reading time. Done constantly, these activities do help on the long run. No matter how hard I try, there are days when I loose my balance. I am human, not a robot. I found in recent years that caring fro plants works wonders for me. Is like the forest therapy, just I don't have to go outside to do it. My small, no very fancy but full of love magical corner is what saves the day, almost every day. When I am lost, depressed and feel like everything is out of control I just take a look at this small magical corner filled with plants. Is my point of return every day. Is the only place from the house that is not destroyed or u...

 The emotion and happiness we felt at the beginning of this school year was overwhelming and although we did not write it here on the blog, it really happened. The big day came and it brought us lots of joy. Our son joined 1st class and he was thrilled about school. In our area, we could enrol him very close to the kindergarten, so for me is a plus that they are in proximity. The joy was expressed from day one, he was very happy and still is. He is coping well with all the school tasks and is making progress every day. About the madness of doing homework with a 1st grader when I have no idea of the Czech language, I will probably write a different post. Although, maybe I am the only non-czech speaking expat mom who knows to whom it may benefit such post. I will think about it. After almost two months of school here are some of our views and opinions about school here: - state school system is quite decent and offers a lot, actually all necessary learning materials; - the canteen ha...

 Natural disasters happen all the time, all over the world. Luckily Czech Republic is somewhat safe and not many disasters here were ever caused by aggressive weather. We feel good knowing that in our part of the world an aggressive tornado was rare. The last one was approximately 900 years ago and historical records described it as hellish event, that frightened the people of those times. Climate change is a reality and if it caused the tornado to form over two small villages in Hodonin, on 24th June 2021 is not something I can judge or explain.  The event that took everyone by surprise was caught on camera by people who more or less realised the dangers of a real tornado. Despite the devastating material costs and manpower needed to recover from the ruins that now is all over the news, the worse is that there were people dying, 6 victims are already counted among which a 32 year old pregnant lady and a 2 years old baby. The injured were at around 85 people. These numbers are...

 Gardening is one of my hobbies since early childhood and sometimes I am almost sure that my job was supposed to be that which is known as gardener. Or a chef. Being blessed with a small but lovely garden at the place where we now live with our 3 young boys is one of the luckiest things that could happen to us during this pandemic and made the lockdown much more bearable. Last week I managed to clean, prune, gather and bring to recycling almost all that was needed from our small garden. In the video you can see the entire cleaning process that took almost 5 hours. Is in our native language but I think the images speak for themselves and no need for a translation here.