March comes blustering in! Sunny skies for the most part, but the cold weather settled back in for a good long spell.

Once again I feel bad for taking so long to get this letter out, but I have not been able to make the time to sit quietly and write. Life has been too full. I have a moment to myself on this Sunday morning so am taking advantage of it.

Mar 16 – Day 74

Sunday night David asked to sleep in his fort he had made that afternoon. My initial reaction was “No” because that’s just not what we do. Then I thought about it for the briefest of moments and changed to - “sure thing!” It was a super easy thing to make him happy, didn’t hurt anything, gives him a bit of agency in his life where he has so little, and is fun to do.

Mar 17 – Day 75

The window pane was installed and the window was finally fully fixed, so we could feel good about handing over the house in early May. Took months to get this done, but it finally got finished - patience is a virtue I guess.

Mar 18 – Day 76

I am not a citizen of the Netherlands, but I have lived here for more than five years. This gives me the right to vote in local elections which I proudly and happily did in a local gym. Voting was available from 07:30 to 21:00 and I had to show the voting pass I received in the mail, an ID and I was off to the races. Super simple, secure, effective and easily done.

Mar 19 – Day 77

Thursday was a looooong day. I left early in the morning to get to Amsterdam for meetings and working at IAE HQ.

We had a meeting with TV RAIN which is an exiled Russian TV channel (for its coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine). It was super interesting to see the inner workings of a TV studio (much smaller than I thought) and the overwhelming mixing board would have made my Dad proud.

That evening, I attended the Annual General Meeting of IWCU along with all other board members and many members. It was at a private room in a restaurant downtown. We discussed pertinent issues for this past year and years to come, giving board reports, thinking through what we want to do, and how best to communicate together (which is still not easily answered). It was a productive, but long evening and I didn’t get home until almost midnight and flopped into bed exhausted.

Mar 20 – Day 78

Fridays we like to have open borrels at IAE HQ which is basically a form of Dutch Happy Hour, but we do give some presentations as to what we have been up to, so it’s not purely a social event. It’s a great way for the interested public to find out what we’re up to in a personable way and for us to connect with community in person and offline.

Mar 21 – Day 79

Saturday afternoon our little family went to a nearby orchard park (10 mins by bike) and had a picnic lunch under the cherry trees. I have had a picnic lunch under the cherry trees with friends for the past two years but sadly our schedules didn’t align this year. A family picnic sounds idyllic, doesn’t it… But life doesn’t always turn out that way, sometimes little people are grumpy and just don’t wanna go and you make them go anyways because we’re going to have a nice family afternoon whether you like it or not… 😏

Eventually it got better, but it was one of those events where you think it’s going to be one way, and it all goes a bit sideways from the planning.

The late afternoon sun was beautiful and it matched people’s moods. 🙌

Mar 22 – Day 80

Sunday morning I went for a jog around our neighborhood. Because of my wonky Achilles tendon on my left foot, I haven’t jogged in almost two years. But I realized it hasn’t hurt for a while and decided to give it a try. It mostly was fine. Not sure I can consistently repeat the exercise, but it mentally felt great to jog. It clears my head like no other exercise does.

That afternoon, we went to an Argentine Asado/birthday party and again, hanging out with Argentines is so incredibly relaxed and wonderful.

This interview between Jon Stewart and Dr Heather Cox Richardson is well worth the listen/watch.