Let's talk about love...for all things Chocolate.

Tomorrow is Valentines Day. We never really do anything on Valentines Day. We have spent most of our lives working in a restaurant helping others celebrate this day of love by feeding their tummy's full of something memorable. Now that we have a lot more time (and at least three babysitters at our disposal) we still have no desire or inclination to go-all-out for this holiday. Sad.com. I know. 

Why venture out when the goodies at home are so much better?

One of my friends from University (Becca) spends most of her weekends here at 'Chez Wise' playing with our kids, loving waaaaay too much on our animals and folding laundry. It is hard to find a friend like this. Yet every weekend, she packs her little bag and comes back for more. 

This weekend, whilst I was hiding in the safe haven of my room, the kids asked the Chef if he would make them some Chocolate Brownies for their dessert. The man is a self-confessed-choc-a-holic so I was shocked to hear him mumble 'no, see if Becca will bake them for you'. It should also be mentioned that he was a third of the way into one of his favourite reads The Buy & Sell and once he gets in to this not much will distract him unless it is a copy of one of his other favourites: The Galway Advertiser. Not even chocolate will distract him.

Becca, one of the nicest gals on the planet, has a hard time saying 'no' to the brats and before she really knew what was happening, she was standing the other side of the counter with wooden spoon and mixing bowl in hand taking dictation from the King Chef. 

This is not somewhere you ever really want to be, because he is kind of mean. I am deadly serious. I have been his pantry bitch and dish bitch for over 16 years now. Working directly under his thumb leaves you open for way too much scrutiny. One small screwup and you might.just.die.

She was blind. I was not around to give her the all-too-knowing 'run Becca whilst you still can, before he crushes your spirit and you will never want to bake again'.. . She loves to bake.

So, out comes his very famous and very secret recipe that he shares willingly and freely with her. (ah, look, he is starting off all nicely after all).

The recipe read as follows:

Ron's Recipe

2 pounds of Butter

2500 grams of chocolate chips

32 eggs

1800 grams of sugar

900 mil oil

800 grams plain flour

50 grams baking powder

It was not until she saw the 32 eggs that she felt a little overwhelmed and started to ask a few questions, which you should NEVER DO because that just gives him reason to start making fun of you. I know you might think I am exaggerating a little - but walk in my shoes for a few days. It is who he is.

So, aside from the fact that the recipe was for a whopping amount of Brownies, Becca was able to mathematically convert it to a nice size recipe and trust me even though the images are not all that great, this is the best brownie ever made. Moist, rich and so choc-full-of-chocolate it reminded me why it is I still love this brazen Chef after all these years.

As you can see from the picture below, the kids barely left a scrap for the grownups. So, if you are looking to make or bake something nice for your other half and want to give this a shot then the correct recipe is down below. Becca survived her baking episode with the all-too-knowing-chef but it might be a while before she goes so willingly to the baking bowl again in his kitchen.

Wise Brownie Bliss

250 gr     Chocolate Chips (Callebaut dark/plain)
90 gr       Butter
3             Eggs
180 gr     Sugar
90 ml      Oil
80 gr       Plain Flour
5 gr         Baking Powder

Method

1. Melt the chocolate chips and butter in the microwave for two minutes.
2. Beat/whisk eggs, oil and sugar together.
3. Combine both mixtures above then add flour and baking powder. 
4. Pour into a baking dish and bake in the oven for twenty to twenty five minutes 165 degrees celsius/330 fahrenheit.
5. This is a very easy dessert to bake and assuming you use good quality dark chocolate and real butter (not schwag) then you will be delighted with the outcome as will your dining companions.

Happy Valentines Day from us all here at Chez Wise.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Time trickles away...

Sometimes the words just don't come. They ramble around for hours, days, weeks and even months (eeek) before the urge to purge is so great I have to abandon all other very pressing matters and sit down and just WRITE. That, or the fact that it is fast approaching Sunday evening, the whole weekend is gone and there is a growing mountain of unorganized (but clean and dry) laundry making itself known by its sheer size and volume.

I always feel like looking at current or past photos of either food or family will help encourage the flapping of jaws but this time instead of the photos encouraging me to write or share, they just made me cry. The first photo with the kids at the cool old knobby tree was taken by my Mum (Catherine) on her shwanky new iPhone. I hate that she advanced to the 'technologically' kitted out MORE than me. BUT I love that she captured the sugar-high she gave them last week at Barna Woods. You can feel their  happiness looking at this photo.

Sigh..........

This is where the tears start. What on earth has happened to my baby girl. Was it not yesterday she was just a little 5lb bag of sugar in my hand, snuzzling in between the Chef and I and sleeping her days away in the bassinet under the bar at Rondo's? Now, Ms. Rory-Belle is almost 8 years old. She is turning into the cutest little lady. She is funny, book smart, spiritual and wants to be a Vet. And, I might as well mention that she is pretty darn gorgeous to boot.

Sam, Sam Sam............

Wow. I had to pull some old photos from when the girls came to stay with us last May (2010) and was just shocked at the compare and contrast. I have not uploaded the photos I took from their first day with us, because even for me to look at today it was a little daunting. Sam, we were told, would 'never progress academically'. She ended this past week getting all her Irish and English spellings tests 100% right and her Maths test 100% right. Her feet have not touched the ground since Friday. Needless to say, her confidence is improving and I am a firm believer that beauty comes from within. I am fearful for the teen-years when the above two get going and we will have a whole world of other problems to deal with. 

Jack the (only) Lad...

My little man will turn 6 years old in just a few weeks. I am filled with this horrible heartache when I think back to that first year with him. Oh, how he screamed and cried. He could not be held or put down. He could not eat, or go hungry. All he wanted was his Mama and his Mama almost lost her marbles trying to be everything he needed. Thankfully, the Chef, my Mum (some pretty hefty phone bills that year I reckon) and our amazing babysitter (Erica - who we still miss sooooo much) dragged me through that year and we all survived.

And our youngest little one - the Lovely Lulu.

But by no means the Baby of the bunch. Lulu is the meek and mild child. She has had the roughest time and transitioning to a new home has been harder for her than for Sam. To see an earlier photo of Lulu taken last summer -- click here -- there is a lot of sadness in her little face. I think that Lulu could be the poster child for 'Feed 'em, Love 'em, Watch 'em Grow'. She knocks my socks of almost daily now with her stages of development. She is finally (aaaahhhhh finally) making some progress. She just got 'Gaelgoir na Seachtana' which is an 'in-class' award for the most Irish spoken in class. We have never seen a prouder little kid. What a little star.

The Chef's birthday was last week and one of our favourite little Sushi restaurants decided to celebrate the owners heritage and have a 3-day Korean festival. OH.MY.GAWD. The food was as authentic as it gets and we had a hard time, well, going home. We had to though because it was a school night and we had already kind of celebrated his birthday the weekend before with all our friends..........but we are hearing rumours that they might do a Korean menu once a month so for those that are local to my neck of the woods - stay tuned and next time we will have a bit of a hoolie!

Ok, so to sum it all up and not stray off topic, all is going well in the Wise family household. I am slightly buried under assignments but have only a few more months of school to get through before I am off for a nice long summer break. 

Due to another visit from Mr. Fox, the Chef and I are looking at building a new fence so our hens and ducks can roam free-range safely whilst we are at work and school. One of our friends, who is as nutty as we are, recommended we look into getting a Goat fence because if you can keep a Goat in, then there is no chance of a fox being able to get in to kill our feathery friends. 

So, when it is all said and done, if one builds a goat fence to protect ones flock, then would it not makes sense to have a few goats?

Please tell me you honestly do not want one. Stay tuned folks. After exams, I have a feeling that there will be some goats milk on the table!

And finally (the crowd goes wild with relief) to add to all my sadness about the kids are not being babies anymore and I am getting old and crabby, my (MUCH OLDER) sister sent me this video from when I was a child and Rory was a baby. (I cannot believe the Chef got away with marrying me when I was like only twelve).

Life is good folks. Tune out the election and turn of those damn TV sets. Play with your kids, get out and go for a bike ride or a walk. OR, get out there and help a child in need. You can do so much more than you 'think' you can.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

I'm so lonely I could cry

Oh woe is me. I am only three days into the second semester and I want to run home crying. And stay there. I cannot say I have felt this way about 'being in college' since making the decision two years ago to get myself an education. So, maybe this was bound to happen sooner or later, I don't know.

This is a week of change for all students. Most classes are in different locations, at different times and with different teachers. No worries here. We are in college to learn for gawds sake - change is good, right?

Well, maybe it is, but here I find myself racing around the campus trying to find all these classes and feeling like a...well, feeling like a first year. I have umpteen 'class clashes' and now every department head knows full well who this 'WiseMóna' is because I have had to go cap-in-hand asking for special permissions to get into a new times slot or out of an existing one. 

To add to my level of insanity and to explain the title of this blog post, ALL my friends are off doing other subjects and other modules, so I have to sit in class with no-one to talk to. 

SAD.com, I know. But, in saying that, I am making no effort to recruit new friends either. I do not have time to nurture and grow a new gang of friends, especially since I cannot find time to maintain the relationships with the ones I already have! 

So, with all this doom and gloom (and I should mention it is bucketing down rain outside too) how can we find the silver lining on the cloud? Well, I have a little silver lining stashed away and it is all I need to motivate myself to keep plodding along and get through the next twelve weeks before I have my lovely long (four months worth) of summer holidays.

Silver Lining Project = 3rd year of College

Shocker, I know. Here I am complaining about being back in college but cannot WAIT to get started on 3rd year. Why, I hear you ask?

This creative writing degree course I am enrolled in is fairly new and fabulous. The classes are teeny tiny with only 15 students so we develop a great peer group to work within. Each of us have the option (September 2011) to 'Live the life of a Writer' and swan off into the sunset and write our novel.......editor provided and paid for by the university. It is a pass or fail class. 

You pass if you write your book, work professionally and proficiently within all the guidelines and deadlines your editor gives you and finish the book. 

You fail if you do not. 

NO PRESSURE HERE!

Of course, if you are just not ready to swan off into the sunset and write your novel, then you can enrole in a few film production and screen play writing classes right here on campus at NUIG and who would not want to take advantage of that?

Right before Christmas, if you were serious about the swanning off to write your book part, then you had to turf up a good 3,000 - 5,000 words of your book showing the outline and concept of said book in order to convince your teacher you 'had what it took' to go it ALONE for 3rd year. 

So there you have it guys n' dolls. I am going it alone. I have a decent chunk of the book already written and am bursting at the seams to get stuck in and just WRITE. OK, that might have been a slight exaggeration considering all I really have are a bunch of really cool food n' farm pictures and some recipes thrown together in a very cool PINK folder. 

I do not care. 

I AM VERY EXCITED. 

I am also terrified. 

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Nollaig shona duit

I think that when homes are filled with squealing kids and huge messes of wrapping paper and batteries it is easy to forget 'what' Christmas is all about. 

For us here at Chez Wise, Christmas is all about the kids. 

Santa Claus came last night and left a plethora of toys n' trinkets. The noise level has reached a new high around here.

The Chef and I had a few quiet hours fireside this morning drinking coffee and listening to Christmas carols while waiting for the kids to wake up and tear into all the gift wrap.

Once they finally joined us in the living room some of them did not even notice the stack of carefully wrapped presents under the tree. 

I am not all that wild about the gift-giving tradition at Christmas time. I know that as a child we got Christmas presents but my memories do not revolve around any particular item I wanted or got.  My memories of Christmas are of all the time spent in our living room playing board games, eating boxes of sweets and tayto's and watching movies like 'The sound of music' and 'Chitty Bang-Bang'. 

Our meal was always the exact same. An elephant-sized turkey -- that was home-grown by our neighbour Nora -- an enormous country ham and all the traditional side dishes like brussel sprouts (cooked in the ham juice) carrot and parsnip mash, roast potatoes and mashed potatoes too (we are Irish after all). Dessert was the traditional Christmas pudding with warm custard and of course Christmas cake if you were so inclined. Dinner was eaten early right after high noon and the rest of the day was spent in a total tryptophan tizzy on the couch drifting in and out of a food-coma.

The evening 'tea-time' was always my favourite. 'Make-yer-own' sandwiches with a large loaf of batch bread and some leftover turkey giving a Mum the well earned break from cooking. 

We are making and creating our own family-memories for our kids now and although I am living less than a half mile from where I grew up I am amazed at how different their lives are. The world has changed so much in the past twenty odd years and no matter how hard we try to raise them to be non-materialistic, kids want what other kids have. Stuff. 

Becoming foster-parents this year has taught us so much about how much excess 'stuff' we have and how little others have. The kids (including our own) have taught us how to be better parents. We want for less and we give more of our time and energy and our love. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas. I am so grateful to all of you for logging on and reading-laughing-crying-commenting on my crazy little stories. Adjusting to a new family-dynamic here at Chez Wise has been made all the easier knowing you are out there, tuned in and willing to share in the chaos!

So a great big THANK YOU to you all and Merry Christmas! 

Here's to a wonderful and prosperous New Year!

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today from a very sunny and frosty Galway where the house is quiet and toasty and all the squealing kids are outside with the Chef!

WiseMóna

These are a few of my favourite things...

This time of year I get lonely. I can't help it. It is Christmas time and that is how I feel. Dad was buried on Christmas Eve. Eleven years ago. I am still bitter over the fact that he is not here with us. I suppose as the years trickle by I am coming to terms with it. Maybe, eventually, I will understand why he had to die at the age of 50 and leave my Mum and the rest of us to figure out life, without him.

The kids were off school yesterday because of the holy day (December 8th -The Immaculate Conception of Mary; Wait a minute, if she conceived on Dec 8th, and gave birth on Dec. 24th, that is like a total gestation period of three weeks. Hello? I think this needs further investigating.) ... where was I , oh yes, kids off school etc. and they spent the day at Granny's (thank you Granny) because I had a German grammar exam. This was the hardest exam I have ever taken in my life. I felt sick afterwards for most of the drive home. That was, until I walked in the door and was greeted by this:

Note: The glass is almost as big as the bottle. 

Ok, now I am not swayed easily, but the Chef had opened one of my 'will-not-share-with-anyone bottles' so I decided to just sink into the sofa by the fire and let the cat curl up on my lap for an hour. He made dinner and the kids worked on jigsaw puzzles. On a side note: special thanks goes out to our friend Eric who carried all those bottles of 'never-will-be-shared-with-anyone-bottles' all the way from sunny California. Getting good yummy American wine here on the other WEST coast, is, well, impossible.

Back up for a minute. Did I say a CAT curled up on my lap? Yes, I said CAT. Well, kitten really. A Pretty Kitty lives next door and has decided, not unlike the rest of the animal population within a five mile radius, that our house is better than her house - so now we have a cat.

There I was, sinking into my glass, feeling sorry for myself when the Chef came in to keep me company and we started talking about sending out Christmas cards and who we might get to visit/see over the Christmas holidays. Cue the nostalgia and the teary eyed me. 

I went to bed early and woke up early in a bad mood. The kids, having hump day off, had forgotten how to tie their shoes/get their uniforms/could not find their school bags/denied ever letting the cat into their bedroom...so I raced them to school and decided to go for a nice brisque walk. It started to POUR RAIN. Heavy. It has been freezing and snowing here for 3 weeks. Today, a downpour.

I got soaked. I headed back to the car, to go to college and had to wait 45 minutes to find a parking place. Grrrrr. I made good use of my time though. I started to scroll through some photos taken over the last year and found so many reasons to lighten up and let go of the bitchy bad mood I was wallowing in.

Have a peek:

I love this photo because it shows so much love and tenderness. 

Annie (baby) was a foster baby that my Mum had 

(from her birth to 8 months old). 

She was recently adopted and even though we all 

(Becca and Sam in photo) miss her so much, 

we are happy that she is with a 

wonderful family and will have a great Christmas.

This is our newer - bigger family. 

Now, we have four kids.

I love that this photo popped up. 

It is bacon sizzling in the pan. 

I love bacon. 

Everyone in our house loves bacon. 

I am pretty sure we can't live without it.

Wow - how did we manage to corral 7 little kids for the entire month of June? 

We had HELP! 

See again in the photo one of my bff's Becca came to the rescue. 

There is no shame in asking for help.

Dear God. 

Catherine has been praying to you for a long time 

to fill her world with Grandchildren. 

I feel that you have overcompensated for taking Dad 

from her (way) too soon, and we all get it. 

You are sorry, we forgive you. 

NOW - enough with the kids already. 

I think we have enough! 

And - WOW - what a colourful bunch they are!

This (above) is a photo I took at Coole Park 

the week we moved back home to Ireland (2008). 

I Love COOLE PARK. 

Everything about it.

Ok. I know. It is just eggs and toast. 

But the key here is that we have 

not had to BUY one egg since last April. 

We are really starting to live more sustainably. 

We still have potatoes, garlic and onions from 

the Chef's hard labour this past growing season. 

I am so proud of him. 

SAD.com, I know. 

Bite me.

Friends. 

Friends that travel far distances and

 play with our children, 

drink beer with us and then

 pass out on our couches. 

Those, are real friends. 

And we would be lost without you all. 

The Chef has nicknamed this photo 'The Ffrench Sandwich'. 

I love these girls. 

I can laugh, cry or scream with them 

and they just accept me for the 

overbearing-drama-queen that I am. 

They know all my durty durty secrets and still 

love me.

I love this photo. 

It is the promise of something yummy

that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Did I mention how proud I am of the Chef 

and all his hard work in the Garden?

Have you ever seen such 

a pretty bunch of Garlic?

I love that the best pint of Guinness 

the Chef has ever drank

was at the 'Gravity Bar' 

at the 

Guinness Museum 

in Dublin.

I LOVE that Jack 

looks so guilty. 

This photo speaks volumes about 

who this little boy is.

Yep. 

I will never be too old or 

too Wise to shout from the rooftops that

 'I LOVE MY MUM'. 

Enough said.

I love that when I park my car and 

walk onto the university campus each day, 

I pass by this archway. 

It leads in to the original University Quadrangle. 

So much has happened inside these walls. 

I can almost feel the words and the stories 

seeping out through the solid stone. 

I love school.  

I am such a late bloomer. 

What the hell.

I think that Rory could be on a Bennetton commercial. 

She is just that cute. 

This photo also represents who she is becoming. 

She wants to be a vet. 

On a side note, I took this photo earlier this summer. 

We were all sitting outside, near the hen coop 

waiting and watching for the baby ducks to hatch.  

It took hours. 

We passed the time by giving all 

the girls and Jack pedicures. 

Out there, in the hen poop filled yard, 

with a big basin of water and 

some nail polish. 

What are we like.

Ok, back to Rory and her hostess-with-the-mostess skills. 

When we explained to Rory and Jack 

that there were

 two little girls coming to 

spend a week with us

Rory wrote this little note on our

 'daily specials' 

chalkboard. 

That was 8 months ago. 

Now, they are an inseparable bunch 

 'The fabulous four!'

I am not materialistic. 

Not at all. 

HOWEVER, my handsome Chef 

bought me a shiny new camera 

for our ten year wedding anniversary 

and GAWD, I love my new toy. 

It is a Sony Nex-5. 

If anyone is thinking about buying 

a nice new camera, 

email me if you have any questions. 

I swear, it is awesome. 

This was a pure fluke-took-with-my-iPhone-camera photo. 

I was trying to get a photo of the Swan above them and SNAP! 

Look how (almost) angelic they look. 

What I love about this photo is the fact 

that they all have 

VERY different expressions. 

They - are our world. 

Can you tell?

There you have it. 

A little run down of reasons not to be miserable. 

It picked me right up out of the doldrums and 

reminded me that despite the fact that the whole world 

is experiencing a real shake-down

'Life is good'  

We are all happy and have our health. 

We need to stop asking for more, 

and be happy with what we have.

It is enough.

 I am certain that then, 

and only then 

will things start to improve.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

It must be love

Living in my house is a little chaotic. Living in my house can be very stressful. Coming to visit me at my house can give you reason to question what is stuck to your shoe when you leave because you just saw a hen in the kitchen looking for food. 

But, for the most part, you might be happy enough to visit anyway because even with all the crazy chaos, there is a real sense of family in my house. I cannot take all the credit (not even half actually) because it is really due to the fact that my handsome Chef and my mother live and die for what is best for the kids. Their whole lives revolve around this and I just fall under 'one of the kids' for now seeing as I am back in school and they have gifted me 'time' to do what I love. 

Our family is different. I am different, Ron is different. We will never be referred to as 'A' typical people. Our rotten little kids are different. Rory and Jack are even a different skin colour to us. We will never blend into the background. All of this is ok with me. I have always been different. My older sister used to TORMENT me with stories of how Mum adopted me from China when I was a baby. I believed her, especially since I had dark hair and squinty eyes and was not the long lean leggy blond like her. (No resentment there at all,  I have definitely after years of therapy moved on).

A little over a year ago, the Chef and I became foster parents. Not a huge jump for us, because having adopted the kids in America we were already 'foster parents' so signing up for fostering here at home was just a formality. Seven months ago we received 2 little Irish girls into our home and they will be living with us for a very long time. They are now part of our very 'different' family. 

I have done my best to settle them into our family life whilst making sure that I keep them at arms length because I can't handle the thoughts of them ever leaving and being farther away than arms length from me. Last year we went through an intensive 'Foster-Parenting' training class and it really helped prepare us for the roller coaster ride of emotions you are going to experience once you receive a child (or children) into your home. 

Or so I thought. 

I thought, that I had kept my distance. I thought that even though we treat them as one of our own, I have still managed to keep my well-built-wall up around 'me' to make sure that I will not fall apart if they ever get moved to a different foster family or even back to their birth family. 

That was until this morning. Until about ten minutes ago. When our 'baby' went into surgery to have a few fillings. I am totally downplaying the 'few fillings' because it is a very serious surgery the wee imp HAS to have due to severe parental neglect and lack of nutrition.

I roused her tousled head around half past five this morning and we headed out under the glossy Galway stars to the very fancy schmancy Galway Clinic. We were greeted at the door by the 'Head Sister' and she whirled us into the prep-room and got Lulu ready for her big operation. They also got 'Teddy Ready'. All went very well, and she was a total trooper. Not a peep out of her and no anxiety to be seen on her side or mine. I had my bag of school books and my laptop packed away to while away the hours whilst they operate and she recuperates.

All went well, that is, until my wall came crashing down. Those lovely nurses are obviously clueless as to the protective barriers a foster-mum has to have in place. They must have known that referring to me as the child's mother would have damaged me beyond repair. Or maybe they planned it all well in advance, you know like 'Look at softy over there, she looks like an easy target, let's make her cry today', that's what they said, I know it.

So there I was, laptop ready, just waiting for them to give her her 'sleeping gas' and let me off for a few hours of very important 'facebooking' when it happened. The nurses told Lulu to 'hold Mammy's hand and look right in to 'Mammy's eyes' because Mammy and Daddy love you more than anything and as soon as you wake up Mammy will be there waiting for you'. 

ENOUGH WITH THE MAMMY . . . . .. . . . . . Why that little imp did not explain that I was not her mammy is not important. All that matters is that I managed to NOT BAWL my head of until I got outside the theater doors with the hopes that the lovely surgeon did not see what a total feckin eejit I am.

Being a Mum (Bio/Foster/Adopt - a Mum of any kind) is obviously one of the most rewarding things imaginable. The capacity to love is endless. I do not know how I can spread my self so thin to offer love to all the people in our growing family and circle of friends. But I can. It feels like a bottomless pit. There is always more love, to give. 

And now I know, that my wall has come crashing down and no matter how hard I try, I will not be able to prevent 'loving' these little kids. 

It must - Be Love.

Those are all the WiseBlubberingWords I have for this damp morning in Galway,

WiseMóna

PS - the nurses and doctors and all the staff in general at this place are amazing. I almost can't wait to be sick and need to check in for a few days :0)

Portrait Poem

Only a few more days to go before the Chef and I renew our vows and pledge our love and commitment to each other for the next ten years! I am not able to talk about any of this at home because I have not really told him that a priest is coming to the house to bless our little home and growing family. I have always been more of a ' i'd rather beg for forgiveness than ask permission' kinda gal and truth be told, I know that my handsome Chef will be the first one to say 'I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat'.  That is why I am surprising him - that, and I also want to throw off any scent there might be lingering around regarding our trip to Paris next week!

With all this silencing going on, I have found out that keeping my mouth shut kind of stifles my writing efforts. It seems if I cannot blather on endlessly about nothing, then something substantial never materializes. Maybe not a huge problem if it were back in the hazy days of summer when I had no pressure to produce proper pieces, but HELLO!! I am in the middle of a 'Poetry Semester' and have to deliver some fine lines on a weekly basis.

Thankfully, my classmates are all feeling a little pressured so our very cool Poet/teacher (Mr. Gerry Hanberry) gave us a cool little exercise to get the creative juices flowing. 

Why not have a go yourself?

Portrait Poem

I am..........(a teacher, a mother? a few different things)

I wonder..........(curious about)

I hear..............(an imaginary sound)

I see.............(an imaginary sight)

I want.........(an actual desire)

I am..........(repeat first line)

I pretend...........(some fantasy)

I feel............... (something imaginary)

I touch.............(an imaginary touch - like the moon)

I worry.............(something that really bothers you)

I cry................(something real and honest)

I am................(first line of poem repeated)

I understand..............(something you know is true)

I say......................(something you believe)

I dream.................(a fantasy desire)

I try......................(something you make an effort about)

I hope.................(something real that you hope for)

I am..................(repeat first line of the poem)

So now that you get the jist of the exercise, here is my early morning attempt!

WISE Portrait

I am a writer

I wonder if I am a good writer

I hear voices in my head every day telling me what to write

I see the opportunity to write, everywhere I go

I want to do my PhD

I, am a writer.

I pretend that I am organized

I feel like I am drowning in a bog of brown and murky thick water

I touch the tip of my pen to paper and draw pictures when I am supposed to be ‘writing’

I worry that if I do not work hard at everything I do, I will fail

I cry when I loose my marbles

I, am a writer.

I understand that everyone has to die

I say ‘I love you’ to my partner every day

I dream that someday someone important will want to make a film out of ‘My Story’ 

I try not to get mad at my children every morning

I hope that they forget all the times I am cross and relish the memories of the good days.

I, am a writer.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for this very rainy 

(and even a little cold) morning here in Galway.

WiseMóna

I've got a secret

We all have those moments where all we can do is sit back and ponder where all the time has gone. I am feeling that way alot lately. Mostly because the kids are just slipping away from my grasp more and more. Instead of popping into my bed for a snuggle or a quick snooze in the mornings they are bolting down the stairs and hooking up their iPods to the speakers to 'rock the house' into awakeness.

Also, I have been with my handsome Chef for the best part of FOURTEEN years this month and to be honest, it feels like only yesterday when I caught a glimpse of him for the first time. Speaking softly with his smiling eyes, at the other end of the bar in his denim overalls and long ponytailed hair tucked under a navy blue beret, ' hubba hubba - I'm gonn marry that guy'  I said to myself and so I did!

He wanted nothing to do with me of course. It took me several weeks of coercing and a lot of Irish Coffees to convince him that I was the one for him and I am pretty sure he has finally resigned himself to that idea.

Having spent a lot of our time (and money) traveling before the kids came along, then pouring our life and love into the restaurant before finally ' upping shticks' to move back home to Galway, I can tell you that when I stowed away those suitcases in the attic I became one of those people that really 'loves' home. OK, I still like to get away for a day or two, but the wanderlust has been cured.

So when he decided that we 'had to go somewhere'  to celbrate or ten year wedding anniversary (looming on September 30th for all of you who remember sharing all that food and wine) I had a few mild panic attacks. I tried several great excuses like:

1). We can;t leave ALL THOSE Kids with Mum for a weekend, it is just too much for her to cope with (forgetting that my Mother would do anything for my Husband).

2). We have more than 15 feathery members of our WiseFlock and at least one or two dogs that need caring for too. (Again, Granny offers to stay at our place.....)

3). My passport has expired. (There is an instant 'walk-in-pick-up-a-new-one-office' not too far from home).

By mid-summer he gave up begging and pleading with me and we let sleeping dogs lie. I hate that I have turned into that person considering we never ever as much as made hotel reservations when we traveled as young lovers, we just packed our bags and 'went'.

So what is this big secret then?

Well, I love Paris in the Autumn. Due to the fact that we both love Italy and have spent more time holidaying there than anywhere else (by choice), we have family living in very cool cities accross Europe like Zurich, Switzerland and Alsace, France (slap-bang in the middle of the wine country), the Chef has never made it to Paris.

So armed with my class schedule, my mother's blessing and the hopes that I can convince a few of my BFF's to help relieve my Mum when needed, I took the plunge and have stolen some time the first week of October to take my honey to Paris for some second-honeymooning!

Considering it is just about a month away I am taking a huge risk that he will actually see this on the blog and the surprise will be secret-no-more. Wait, who am I kidding, he does not READ THIS BLOG (or anything on a computer!) so I reckon he will not have a clue about the trip until I drive him to the airport and whisk him away.

I know he is working on his own little secret himself, searching for something I 'want and need' and can't wait to report back to y'all just how much fun a girl can have surprising her hubby and heading of the the city of lovers for a few days in Autumn. 

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

(who is estatic to be back in college and have time to WRITE!)

Brigit's Garden, Roscahill, County Galway, Ireland.

Brigit's Garden Website

We are spoiled for choice here in Galway (in Ireland for that matter) when it comes to deciding on how to while away a few hours with SEVEN children over a lazy August Bank Holiday weekend.

The Polish kids are back for a week and thankfully everyone seems to have remembered the pecking order. We are all on summer holidays this time around, so there is waaaaay less stress floating around here at 'Hotel California'. 

 

Rory Belle and Jack

My terrible two are still happily ruling the roost :-). They have acclimatised nicely to having 2 (+ 3) extra kids around the place and are poster children for depicting what the word 'share' really means.

  

Sam & Lulu

The 'newbies' are doing remarkably well. They have been with us since mid-May and although there have been some trying times, the two of them are well settled and starting to take ownership of their new family.

Claudia, Vanessa and Laura

The three little lassies from Poland are still a little confused. They have (finally) been placed long-term with their foster family so this gives them a sound family setting to flourish and thrive in, but they still come to visit us once a month (for a weekend) or anytime their foster family needs a break. They are quite a handful but no busier than my own brood. The kids are coming to terms with the fact that they have a new home and family, but seem to still have an unrealistic idea as to why this has happened. They think that if they 'have enough money' they can buy back their old life. We offer a serious distraction to all those thoughts and worries they are harboring.

So a lazy afternoon was whiled away yesterday at Brigit's Garden. Experts say that for every child you have it takes an extra 15 minutes to actually get out of your house and loaded up safely in your car. We began to 'get ready' to leave at 9:30am and arrived at Brigit's Garden at 1:00pm. It is a half hour drive from our house. Thankfully, the Chef had planned ahead and toted along a bag full o'food for the crumb catchers to picnic on once we got there. 

*NOTE* Toting around any number of kids can be expensive. Brigit's Garden is run by volunteers and they depend heavily on the modest entry fee they charge. A family of 2 adults and 3 kids costs twenty two euros and when they saw our blended family they let the others slide in............. I love the kindness of Irish people.

The lay of the land is very cool at this very special place. There are four main gardens divided into the four seasons. The children were given maps and discovery charts to check off all the items they discovered along the way. Initially we heard a few grumbles from the peanut gallery because we were just 'here to look at stoopid flowers' and after we nipped that in the bud by reminding the peanuts not to be ungrateful for a new experience (all noted and nipped by the WiseTwins) we were off for a few hours of exploring.

Jack: Do they dip ya by the legs Daddy?

Daddy: No Jack, they dip you head first.

As the kids meandered through the gardens gathering clues and answers for their discovery maps along the way, we (being the grown ups) enjoyed the calmness that this beautiful place offered. Although many of the gardens are well manicured most of it is flowing beds of wildflowers, fruit trees and ponds.

After the kids caught a few of the pond's skating beetles, newts and a few other slithery suckers we carried on for a walk through the woods before everyone tumbled onto a grassy knoll for some much deserved ice-cream. 

A friend-of-a-friend (interested in becoming a foster parent) phoned me last night to ask how the Chef and I got involved in Fostering and if we had any regrets at all with regard to opening up our home and hearts to the (sometimes) traumatized children. I did not have to seek out my husband to know his answer, because it is simple and the same as mine. 

NO REGRETS. Not one. Not at all.

Bedtime blathering's told us that the 'best part of the day' was our afternoon spent at Brigit's Garden discovering all the hidden secrets and cool places to run and hide.

The best part of my day was seeing all seven of these children behave just like siblings and hearing them all screaming 'hello Granny' as they raced over to hug my Mum when she stopped over to eat us out of house and home visit last night. 

A balmy bank holiday Monday here, and we have two new feathery members to acclimatise to the fold today. Stay tuned for photos later today of our new Guinea Fowl.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today (so far),

WiseMóna