I am gobsmacked.
Today marks the official halfway point of our trip. Somehow, when we left Canada, 3.5 months sounded like… forever. And now we’re moving closer and closer to wrapping up this grand adventure.
And part of that adventure is enduring regular life upheavals. The main one this week has been a nasty virus. John came down with a bad head cold first. Just as he started to mend, I caught it. We were both pretty miserable, and then it hit the kids. One kiddo in particular was levelled. At one point, their fever hit 41°C, and we were Googling Helsinki hospitals.
Thankfully, fever reducers worked their magic, and fairly quickly everything settled into an equilibrium—but it was scary and intense and, stating the obvious here, NOT FUN.
Helsinki has been cold and windy (at one point there was minor hail; another time, with windchill, it was -10°C).
We’ve mostly been cooped up in our apartment battling illness.
In other words, it hasn’t been an auspicious start to Finland.
Thankfully, I have a Happy Things Friday gratitude practice for times like this. I guess the first Happy Thing for today’s post is the fact that today is not yesterday or the day before that… or the day before that.
FEVER REDUCERS
I cannot imagine living in a world without acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Imagine the absolute terror of fevers before we had these drugs. I am forever grateful for their discovery.
MY KOBO
I know I listed my e-reader last week in my Happy Things Friday post, but it deserves another mention. I have been very short on solo time (I did manage four hours on Saturday, and that has been it over the last three weeks; in case you’ve forgotten, I’m an introvert who thrives on alone time).
I’ll admit my sleep hasn’t been great. In part because I’ve been up with sick kids, but on the nights no one has needed me, I wait until everyone’s asleep and then escape into books. It’s a quiet time I crave, and the Kobo is amazing. A dozen books at my fingertips! No light to manage!
My sleep stats are horrible, and I’m partly to blame. Also, THANK GOODNESS FOR MY KOBO!
BLOG FRIENDS
My mood is often buoyed by someone’s comment or email.
This week, Engie’s comment came at exactly the moment I needed to read something like it:
This did make me feel better!
COOL BLOGGERS WALKING CLUB
While it felt like I spent all day, every day inside our apartment this week, in reality I got outside for a walk daily.
I know with absolute certainty I wouldn’t have prioritized movement without this incentive.
Also, yesterday was the last day of walking. Thanks to everyone who has emailed in photo collages and updates. If you have pictures to include in the final roundup, I’ll be posting that next week. Feel free to email them to: optimisticmusings {at} gmail {dot} com
(And don’t forget to let me know where you’re walking in the world!)
BONUS HAPPY THINGS
I know I listed some of these last week, but I think that’s part of my dedication to gratitude: the gift of noticing, on repeat, the same things that bring joy.
- Access to a dishwasher.
- Access to a washing machine.
- Access to a hot shower. The kids took hours of showers this week while battling cold chills and stuffed sinuses. So, so thankful.
- Grocery stores. Food at my fingertips and a relatively short walk from my door.
- My first coffee each day.
- Delicious homemade wraps for supper—twice. They were so good I was literally moaning.
- A long weekend. May 1st is a very popular national holiday in Finland called Vappu, or May Day, which is their equivalent to North American Labour Day.
Help buoy my fatigued spirits even more and tell me some Happy Things from your week!
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Oh, Helsinki didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat!! Hail, icy winds AND a full household virus is a tough combination!
I’m glad things stabilised quickly, but I can imagine how intense that must have felt in the moment. “Today is not yesterday” is exactly the right way to look at the situation – things will get better eventually!!
1 May is a holiday here in Zurich as well, and it usually starts with peaceful marches. Unfortunately, later in the day it can shift a bit, with some people treating it as an excuse to be disruptive.
That said, the weather is beautifully spring-like, so I’m planning to use the day to ease back into running. I’m looking forward to it!
Hope everything stayed calm and peaceful in Zurich today. And it must have been nice to get back to running but with less pressure!
Oof that virus sounds just awful. Prayers that full health is restored soon!
Thank you for continuing to post frequently while in Europe! I’ve been reading them all and loving the adventures and every day life moments.
Happy things here:
– I started a part time job in February and it’s going well! Finally getting to the point where I feel somewhat useful to my boss, haha
– my 5yr old is starting to read, a little bit, and really try to sound out words. It’s exciting!
– I read two books in the last two weeks and both were great (The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall)
– only about a month more of school til summer break!
Glad you’re all on the mend!
My happy things: cooler weather means everyone’s sleeping better. ( 7 hours three night in a row- magnificent for me!). A track meet was cancelled, which was on my busiest day, so it made me very happy not to drive for 1 hour and wait around for 3.
May the weather warm up and the sunshine on your new week!
Woot, woot, for better sleep.
Isn’t it wonderful when things getting cancelled opens up a day??
The onboarding process can feel like a slog; nice to break through into a new level of confidence.
I really liked both of those books when I read them.
And hooray for reading. Such a fun phase of learning/parenting.
Gah to the family travel cold. Boo!!!!
What did you put in your dinner wraps????? Even without the further details, I want to copy you.
They have the BEST baby potatoes here. So there was some leftover chicken, arugula, boiled/pan fried baby potatoes, cheese, some mayo, and ranch (different here; much thinner, fewer ingredients, and DELICIOUS!!). It was so good, Birchie. I am serious about the literal moaning.
Well… happy Vappu! I love Engie’s comment. It does feel good to realize your feelings are completely normal. Those sound like some tough circumstances though. It’s really hard to appreciate a city when the weather is terrible. I’m hoping things clear up (weather and illnesses) and you get some time to explore. I’m interested to hear about it- I’ve never been to Helsinki and don’t know much about it.
My Happy Thing right now is, I’m eating a bowl of gingerbread oatmeal. I’ve decided life is too short to ONLY put gingerbread spices in my oatmeal in December!
Life is too short to not enjoy oatmeal, Jenny. And gingerbread oatmeal sounds delicious. Why not make breakfast feel special???
I am at my parents’ house and the last time we were here, the visit was not great. So I was a bit worried. But Elisabeth, it has been absolutely wonderful! We have had a great time and my mom has been in a fabulous mood. The weather is also “Alberta great” which means that it is NOT snowing or with gale force winds, which they have had constantly in April. So that’s my happy thing, something I thought would be not great turned out to be actually great!
Mark is travelling as you know and he had a day that he was just completely overwhelmed. He spent most of the day in the hostel. He texted Rob to tell him he was worried he was wasting his trip, but Rob was like “you just finished five exams on Friday, flew out of Canada on Saturday, landed on Sunday, and he had a bad day on Tuesday. IT’S OKAY! Reset!” And he did, now he is in Germany and having the time of his life. Sometimes you just need to wallow and then you can fly again.
Another happy thing – my doctor is putting me on HRT and hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow on the way home, if not, Sunday. I am very hopeful that this works!
I’ve heard from many friends that HRT is definitely the key to Better Living Through Pharmaceuticals. Best of luck!!
It seems to be all the rage right now and I am so excited to follow along with Nicole’s journey as I suspect it may be in my future…!
I am SO happy for you, Nicole. I know there’s a level of dread for these trips. Hooray the weather cooperated. Hooray for good moods.
Travel can be so overwhelming and I’m glad Mark is through to the other side and loving it. He’ll cherish these memories forever, I’m sure. Travelling Europe alone in your early 20s. What could be more “iconic” than that??
I am curious and so, so hopeful with regards to HRT. Please report back with ALL THE DETAILS. I suspect this may be in my future.
The high fever sounds so scary, and I’m really glad that you had access to fever reducing medication! Let’s see. Happy things. As of today, I will have spent time with my parents THREE days this week, which is very happy. I love that they are so near! My dad came over yesterday to help me fix an issue in my kid’s bathroom — he was here for fifteen minutes and we fixed the problem and I am so very grateful we are close enough for these mini visits. I hope I never take it for granted.
Suzanne, how positively delightful. There is something especially wonderful about not having to squeeze every drop out of every visit. Because they’re close, those short little pop-ins (helpful ones at that) are really special. I love when my dad just drops by for coffee. This gave me all the warm fuzzies.
I’m sorry to hear you were all under the weather this week and had to battle cold temps to boot! Yuck. It’s tough to be sick when you are traveling as that’s when you really crave the comforts of home! And it’s wild that you are at the half-way point of this grand adventure!
This week was not my favorite to be honest. There was some crappy kid behavior and it’s been so dang chilly. But our basketball and hockey teams advanced in the playoffs last night! And I got the first step of my fire exposure therapy done on a day off. That same day I had lunch with 2 former colleagues who are both retired now. It was fun to catch up and get some advice/encouragement from them.
By the time I’m writing this, we’re into the “less time to go than we’ve had” which feels crazy (also, relieving AND sad!)
I’m glad you had something fun and uplifting (lunch with friends) after such a tough morning. I’m proud of you, though, for taking this next step and I hope you notice real improvement in your trauma response. But it also sounds terrifying and exhausting 🙁 *Hugs*
I’m glad my comment buoyed your spirits. Sometimes you just gotta let yourself feel things.
Happy things. You know what? It’s been a hard week. But here are some glimmers:
A fun photo shoot on a foggy morning where I took moody photos of Hannah the Dog
Zelda curling up with me as soon as my husband took the dog out for a walk
Delicious salads for lunch
Having resources to take dinner and treats to friends who are going through a hard time
Co-workers saying the playlist I made for our registration events “is lit”
My husband making me tea
Having a great time at my fitness class
New highlighters
Having hard conversations with students and having them tell me that it helped them and made them feel better and more in charge
You have had such a hard stretch, and I am still so, so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend Rob.
I loved reading about your Happy Things. Dog and cat love! Husband love (via tea). Kind comments from others. Yummy food! And new stationary products always make me happy!
You had a craptastical week, and I commend you for your good attitude in writing this post!
a. A difficult oil painting commission is going well
b. My sister (200 miles away) will be in the area and we get to have lunch together tomorrow
c. Someone gave me an enormous beautiful stained glass window; it was over my great-aunt’s front door when I was a child and I believe it influenced my desire to become an artist (awoke something inside that is tuned to beauty). The house got remodeled and I always wondered what happened to the window. Long story, but it is now in my workshop, needing repair, no idea what I will do with it, but WOWSA!
d. This morning I helped a new-ish friend pull weeds after we walked a couple of miles. My favorite things to do with friends are projects and walks; this friend is definitely a keeper!
Enjoy the lunch with your sister today!
I am excited to see pictures of the stained glass window.
I’m sure your help was most appreciated with the weed-pulling!
Sorry you and the family have been feeling so sick. Hopefully you are all on the mend and the weather in Helsinki improves too!
Some happy things have been reading your blog posts this week. I love Venice and your post made me want to go back so bad!! The photos of Slovenia were gorgeous!
We have a run of good weather and have taken advantage to get outside house projects worked on – fence cleanup and reseeding lawns.
Setting up the deck furniture and the BBQ
Daughter’s wedding details have been seamless with most things locked in and “save the date” email went out this week. This is going to be a small affair in late October.
Heading to Victoria next week to visit family.
Getting back into a groove at the gym and feeling the results
Ordering the Mississippi River Conqueror Challenge with my sister that keeps us moving and enjoying a virtual trip down the Mississippi River together
Awww. What kind words, Jacquie <3
A wedding to plan for and anticipate. And October is such a lovely time of year!!! How exciting.
This week is a good week. I’m off on holiday!
We did a bit of Kingsday secondhand market shopping on Monday (it’s a thing in the Netherlands, I think you would love it). I managed 2 runs this week, and there was a gorgeous walk including a rock formation called Teufelsschlucht.
We’ve had gorgeous sunny weather, and we’re on holiday with 2 other families. We went for a walk around the lake of Echternach and I even swam in it! It was 3 very bracing minutes, but the kids loved that I joined them.
There has been great food that I did not have to come up with, or cook! There is a washing machine in this Airbnb with auto dosing so I don’t have to try and read the back of laundry products I’m not familiar with.
I sure hope next week will be better – fingers crossed the virus will be completely gone and you get some more proper alone time. With some lovely Earl Grey!
What a happy comment! So many wonderful things. I’m proud of you for the cold-water swim. I’m not sure I’d be up to it 😉
And good weather on vacation can make all the difference!
HRT FTW 🙌 Life changing. ✨
Oops this was supposed to be a reply to Nicole.
So sorry about the illness, Elisabeth. Thank God there are good, happy things to outweigh the bad ones 🙂 I had a pretty quiet and probably boring- by -most -standards week. But that’s the way I like it. They recently opened a new Starbucks in town and I enjoyed a Cinnamon Dolce Latte with a friend. Happiness in a mug 🙂
Oh, that drink sounds DELICIOUS!
I like quiet and boring (crave it, actually).
Half way? Thats crazy. Seems like you just left. Dang, it stinks to be sick while traveling. Mini had norovirus when we were sharing a hotel room with her in Rome. Horrible night.
Happy things in my world: I managed to alter Curly’s prom dress-just needs to be steamed before the dance today. Bummer weather- it’s in the 50s.
Mini struggled with anxiety this week and that was very stressful. I didn’t sleep much one night worried that she would spend another night not sleeping at all. But the next morning she texted that she got 10 hrs of sleep. Such a relief. Only as happy as your most unhappy child is no joke.
My cousin’s son who suffered a stroke due to an aneurysm last week came home from the hospital (he’s 20).
Only a few more days till I get up see the GI that I managed to get an appt with (had been scheduled for end of Sept). Fingers crossed since my GI challenges ramped up a few weeks ago.
Enjoy the second half of your epic trip.
I remember when Mini was so sick. Ugh.
Thank goodness Mini got a great sleep. 10 hours must have felt so restorative.
What a tough time for your family and loved one’s in general. I’m sure that makes your GI distress even more exhausting. I hope the appointment provides some answers.
How is it possible your trip is half over? Time flies!!! Getting sick is such a bummer, and I hope you’re all feeling better now and getting to know Helsinki better.
Time really has flown. It’s hard to believe we’ll be back in less time now than we’ve been away. Which feels both exciting and sad.
Wow, you’re half way through your adventure already? It felt like SO MUCH time when you first told us about it, but here we are. I’m sorry you were all sick, that is crummy, but yes, thank goodness for fever reducers! I loved Engie’s comment, and reading about Nicole’s son’s experience too. Travel is so different than our daily life, right? In my mind I build it all up to being perfect and wonderful, and while it is wonderful, it is never perfect, and it’s good to recognize that and reset as needed. Seems like you and your family have traveled a lot and really do well in this realm.
Tell me about it. The time is flying.
This trip has been a good reminder to me that travelling is a lot of work and really stretches the traveller (well, at least the way we’re travelling). Getting embedded in a local culture is rewarding but also exhausting!