We're a homeschooling family of eight - five girls and three boys. Our children are ages 20, 19, 17, 15, 12, 10, 7, and 5. We will be living in Ireland for the next six months, and then going to Tennessee! This blog is a documentation of our travels. Enjoy!! :)
We began our trip to Killarney at the Great Southern Hotel. No, we didn’t stay here, it just happened to be next to the municipal parking lot and had a bathroom in the lobby 🙂 It was way too fancy for us! It made me nervous just being in the lobby filled with glass and what looked like antiques. Nora loved the staircase because she said it looked like a “princess staircase”.
Outside the restaurant in the hotel was the coat rack we need! Big enough for all of us, plus extra!
Right next to the hotel was where we were scheduled to meet our driver for a horse-drawn carriage ride to some of the sights in Killarney. The locals called this a “jaunting car”. Our driver was Paul, who has been doing this job for 30 years and was a wealth of local knowledge! Photo credit goes to Paul. The horse was Becky, who seemed none too pleased to be out working in the wind and the rain.
Bobby and Kelly got to sit up front with Paul. Very exciting!
We went through part of Killarney National Park and saw Lough Leane (Lake of Learning), one of 3 lakes in the park.Ducks, lots and lots of ducks!We stopped at Ross Castle, right beside the lake. It was not open this time of year, but we were able to walk around the grounds a little.After the carriage ride, we went to see St. Mary’s Cathedral. It was designed by the same architect who designed Big Ben and the House of Parliament in London. There was a wedding going on, so we were not going to go in, but then the wedding chauffeur saw us standing outside and told us we could go in. He said everyone knows that tourists want to see the inside of the church and not to worry. Since it had started pouring, we decided to go quietly into the back of the church. We ended up getting to see the couple take their vows and have their first kiss. Later that night, when we sat down to dinner at the pub in our hotel, who should walk in but the chauffeur! We had a nice long chat and he gave us lots of good info about the town.Next was Killarney House, which was part of the National Park. The house has been turned into a museum that covers all the local history, from how the glaciers formed the 3 lakes in the park to the last owners of the house gifting the house and land to the Irish government.This lovely display was about the Rhododendron plant and how it is an aggressive plant that the park rangers are trying to get rid of.The last owners of Killarney house were John McShain and his wife. He was an American architect and builder born into an Irish immigrant family in Philadelphia. He was responsible for building the Jefferson Memorial and renovating the White House. They bought Killarney House because they fell in love with the location beside the lake.
Stay tuned for day 2 of our trip to Killarney tomorrow!
The morning started with the usual visit from the dog, but today she ventured all the way inside the house. We were out of dog treats, but we fed her a little bit of eggs and then she laid on the floor for a belly rub. Too cute!
Then she walked with us to the beach.
We were down with a stomach bug at the beginning of the week. Today everyone was back to normal and it felt great to get outside in the fresh air and sunshine.
We celebrated with a lunch date at Deirdre’s Cafe and a trip to the park.
There are so many people we know who are in need of healing and have asked for prayers. Friends, family, acquaintances, neighbors–so many people! Monday, Feb 11 was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of Prayer for Healing. We attended a special healing Mass here in Dingle and prayed for all of you and your intentions.
Going for our walk today, we passed this house. It is around the corner from us. What an amazing view they have!We walked down toward the other cove today. When we walked to the end of the road, we could see across the cove that there were cars parked and people walking down the hill to the beach. We decided to go for a drive and try to find that other road.First we had to drive out and around all that water to get to the other side.We passed about a dozen dairy farms along the way. We followed so many roads that just ended at fields or dirt paths, and then we’d have to turn around and retrace our steps.Then, when we were just about to give up, we found the right road! This is the beach/cove from the other side. You can see that boot-shaped rock in the distance on the far left.The pink house on the hill is actually directly across the street from our house, so we are only about 1/4 mile away from home even though it’s a 20 minute drive!It made me wish I had my beach chair and a good book in the car!There were a lot of dog and human foot prints in the sand, so it must be a popular place to walk the dog.We could have taken the easy way down……but the kids insisted on doing it the hard way.Now that we found it once, it should be easy to get back here on a sunny day and maybe bring a picnic.
Woke up to cows in the yard this morning. We were glad to see them back because they haven’t been here in about 2 weeks. I think the farmer must rotate what field they go to each day.The dog visited almost every morning this week, and she is getting more comfortable with us. Now when we open the door, she puts her front paws inside and waits to be fed! Notice the paw prints on the tile floor.Yogurt and fruit parfaits for breakfast.Lots of schoolwork! It’s good to have something to motivate them at the end of the week…we can’t go rock climbing if the work isn’t finished.Several hours of rock climbing. You should see how fast they can get up to the top after all this practice! Kelly is on the left, and Bobby and Nora are side by side on the right. Have I mentioned that the rock climbing place is one of those businesses that doesn’t turn their heat on? It was freezing in there!Pizza from Novecento’s. Did you know it was National Pizza Day? I didn’t until Mary told me! Another week gone, can’t believe it! We only have 11 weeks of school left 🙂
Another rainbow picture, just because! This one was Tuesday afternoon, as seen from our driveway.
Signs of spring! The daffodils were beginning to bloom along the side of the road on the way to the beach. The flats of flowers are on sale outside the grocery store already, and it’s only the first week of February. Hurray!
Today’s episode of Ireland vs USA is about grocery shopping. I have a love/hate relationship with grocery shopping. I never mind the actual shopping, sometimes I even look forward to it as it is often the only time in the week when I am alone and it is quiet. What I don’t like is the planning before going to the store! I try to write a meal plan each week, and then write my shopping list based on the meal plan. The problem is that planning 21 meals per week and keeping everyone happy is REALLY hard! Anyway, the above picture is the local store here in Dingle, called Garvey’s Supervalu. They have weekly specials and a rewards card just like stores in the US.Everything from the Supervalu bakery is excellent. Their soda bread is as good as homemade. No, really! Trust me, I know my soda bread.
Right across the street from the back entrance of Supervalu is Spar. Inside it is about the size of a convenience store at home, like a 7-11. It’s amazing how much they can pack into this little store! They have a little bit of everything, and their prices are very good. Plus the cashier is very friendly and helpful! I couldn’t do a week’s worth of shopping here, but for just a few things like milk and bread it is the easiest place to stop.
Spar sells this amazing bread, made right here in town by Courtney’s Bakery. The bakery itself is just across the street from the church, but is closed to retail sales for the off-season. Someone is still baking the bread, though! It is perfect with soup and the kids love it!After the first two weeks of shopping in Supervalu, I discovered Lidl! It is on the road headed out of town toward the Conor Pass, which is the opposite direction from the house. From the layout of the store and their low prices, I think Lidl must be connected with Aldi in the US. Many of the staples are significantly cheaper here than in the other stores, for example: Loaf of bread, 69 cents Milk, 3 liters, 2 euro Bagels (like Lender’s in the US), 5 for 69 cents Bag of 10 clementines, 89 cents Whole butternut squash, 49 centsThen there is Centra. It is further away from the center of town, but closer to the library, church, and hardware store. It is small, like Spar, but has a section for sitting and eating. Thomas likes to go here to get coffee and each lunch while the library closes from 1-2 each day. Their prices on regular groceries are high, but their sandwiches, soup, and salad bar are reasonable. They also have the largest selection of newspapers and magazines of any of the stores in town.One very obvious difference here is that eggs are not refrigerated. Don’t worry, though! Eggs are good at room temperature for 21 days. We learned this when we had chickens in NJ. There is a very clear use-by date on each carton of eggs (Never fear, we always use them long before the date!) Just like in the US, they have organic, free range, and regular, as well as x-large, large and medium. They also sell them in 6, 8, 10, 12, 20 egg cartons. In the Supervalu, they let you pick your own eggs to fill your carton. The prices vary greatly. I have seen them from as cheap as 2.90 for 20 eggs up to 2.00 for 6 eggs. I haven’t figured out a pattern for the prices, it seems random to me.One thing that I absolutely could not find in any store was canned crushed tomatoes! I use them in a lot of my recipes, such as chili, chicken cacciatore, spaghetti and meatballs, bolognese sauce, etc. I must have spent an hour searching all the stores for them! Then I realized I was looking in the wrong place. It seems Ireland is trying hard to limit metal recycling, so everything is in glass bottles. I was looking for a short, fat can when I should have been looking for a tall, skinny bottle. And they don’t call it crushed tomatoes, they call it Passata. Now you know! There are a few other things that they call by a different name, such as bacon. It is hard to find and they call it “streaky rashers.”Another noticeable difference is the size of the packages. Almost everything, with the exception of butter, is sold in small packages. Since we are used to buying everything at Costco, this is quite a change! This bag of chocolate chips is only 100 grams, so if you wanted to make a batch of cookies you would have to buy 4 of them. On the other hand, nothing is wasted because we definitely eat it before it has a chance to go bad. The only thing I have gotten rid of is stale bread, which I throw outside to the birds.
Most people seem to only buy enough food for 2-3 days at a time. Even the carts in the store are tiny. And since they only buy one or two bags of food at a time, lots of people walk home with their bags instead of drive. The stores charge for bags, so absolutely everyone brings their own bags from home. I’ve even seem some people walking home with an armload of groceries because they forgot their bags!
Variety of choices is also very different here. There are usually one one or two choices for a given item. One thing that stands out particularly is meat. Unless you want ham at the deli (they have lots of ham to choose from) your only choices are one kind of salami and one kind of turkey. Same for cheese; unless you want one of two dozen kinds of cheddar, you are out of luck.
Some things are very difficult to find, such as peanut butter, half and half, and coffee, I suppose because they just are not that popular here. I still have not found tortillas or taco seasoning mix, but there are many kinds of Indian and Asian foods that I have not seen at home.
THINGS THAT ARE CHEAPER HERE THAN AT HOME:
carrots
cauliflower
leeks
scallions
apples
potatoes
peppers
squash
oranges
grapes
fresh bakery items
bread
oats
pasta
baby wipes
soup
fish
gluten free items
butter
cream
THINGS THAT ARE MORE EXPENSIVE HERE THAN AT HOME:
milk
cream cheese
most yogurt
ice cream
deli meat
crushed tomatoes (passata)
almost all meat, except lamb and steak
toilet paper
paper towels
paper plates
napkins
all junk food
bottled drinks of all kinds
bananas
flour
coffee
peanut butter
It is hard to compare overall costs because right now I am only feeding 7 people, as compared with 10 at home. We are averaging about 4.70 euro per person per day, which converts to $5.60, and is slightly less than what I spend at home (but without Bob and Mary and Sean, we are buying a lot less meat).
That’s it for grocery shopping! Now, who wants to write next week’s meal plan for me?
Monday started with a different sound than usual. There are lots of birds here, but their songs are very different than the birds we are used to at home. This morning the birds sounded familiar…there was a flock of seagulls in the yard!
The sun was brilliant this morning, so we took our walk early, before taking Thomas into town to the library.It was low tide and the waves sounded so peaceful.It had to be close to 60 degrees, so of course Bobby’s coat was off in a flash!Just practicing my panoramic shots. Next time, I’ll remember not to get my shadow in it!
Everyone loves climbing, even the dog! She was limping today though and lifting up her back right paw over the rocks. She didn’t stay on the beach long and I think the rocks were hurting her. She waited for us at the top of the path where she could sit in the grass.
This is the lowest tide we have seen so far. These rocks are usually under water.Mussels and barnacles clinging to the rocks, just like at home on the jetty.We even climbed some of the rocks and got a view of the next cove.We couldn’t get all the way over because the rocks were covered in seaweed and were really slippery.After school we headed back to town. Someone forgot to tell Nora that the park is supposed to be FUN!
The end of another lovely day. The days are getting noticeably longer now, it’s a few minutes after 5pm in these park pictures. When we arrived 5 weeks ago, it was already very dark by 5pm. Everyone is tired and hungry, so we’re headed home to make dinner.
We miss you all very much! Hope you are enjoying reading the blog. Please don’t forget to leave us a comment, we love hearing from you!
Not much going on this weekend. We went into town in the afternoon on Saturday and spent some time at the park.The little park is so much fun, but there never seems to be anyone here but us.They found a way to make the merry-go-round as safe as possible by making it flush with the ground. They still manage to fall off and get hurt. Bobby has about a dozen bruises but he’s not giving up the fight!Then we walked around town and did some shopping. Nothing too exciting; shoelaces for Bobby’s sneakers, the second volume of Harry Potter to read, a sweater for Dad.We went back to the movies for the 4:00 show of Spiderman. We were really early and got to have a long and interesting conversation with the owner and his wife. They were telling us about how Irish is taught in the local schools, but that some of the parent’s generation did not learn it so well and they have trouble helping the kids with their homework. Then the high school kids go out into the working world, where everything is in English, and sometimes have an adjustment period between education in Irish and real-life work in English. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but he said here in County Kerry, Irish is spoken K-12 in school. It also is an issue with children whose families moved from other parts of the EU (mainly Poland and Ukraine) to find work here, because they then need to learn Irish in school and English for everything else.While the kids were at the movies, I walked to the grocery store to do the shopping. Not very exciting, I know, but at least it was quiet 🙂 I love that once we are in town, we can just park the car and walk to everything so easily. I took this picture from in back of the parked car, and the store is right across the street. The park is immediately to my right, the shops we went to are just behind the grocery store (you can walk right through it and out the other side to the street behind), and the movie theater is about 2 blocks away. Even the church, library, and aquarium are only a 5 minute walk from here.Early Sunday morning I started a big pot of sauce and meatballs for dinner.Then church and out for lunch. Too cold and rainy for the park on Sunday, so we headed home and just hung out for the rest of the day. After a great 4 day weekend, we will be back to school tomorrow.
Hello, February! And goodbye, rainy season! The sky was so very blue today (Friday), and it was the first day of our trip with NOT A SINGLE DROP OF RAIN. Perfect for adventures with Katie and Patrick. We started out with pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and then headed out to see some ruins. (Did you know Feb. 1 is the Feast of St. Brigid of Kildare, Patroness of Ireland? Traditional foods to celebrate the day are anything made with butter and milk/buttermilk, since St. Brigid was a milkmaid. Pancakes were the obvious choice, plus they are Kelly Brigid’s favorite and St. Brigid is her patron!)Our first stop was in Minard, which was just a few minutes away, with a very similar rocky cove to the one in Kinard. These rocks were much bigger, though. The kids had lots of fun climbing.Walking to the castle.Then up a short but steep hill to the ruins of Minard Castle. It was severely damaged by Oliver Cromwell’s men in 1650 when they placed explosives at all 4 corners of the castle, killing everyone inside. It was on private land, so we couldn’t get too close to it, but the view was amazing.Just across the path from the castle was this stone, and next to the gate in the background was a sign that said Tobar Eoin Baiste, which is Gaelic for Well of St. John the Baptist. The well had a kneeling stone in front of it for visitors to pray and reach down to touch the water. There was a trickle of water running into the pool from the back of the rocks and the water looked very clean and clear. Behind the well you can see a line of brightly colored ribbons and pieces of fabric that people have left when they came to visit the well. It is traditionally visited on Pattern Day, which is the 29th of August. We will have to do some more research about the significance of that day and why the well is named for St John. We prayed for all of you, especially everyone who is sick.This was the view from the top of the hill going out of Minard. The roads are so narrow in most places, and I have mostly gotten used to driving on them, except of course when a very large oil truck is coming the other way and there is no where to pull over to let them pass!Next stop was an old tower that we drive past almost every day but had not been to yet. To get close to it we had to drive down a gravel road that was no wider than a driveway, all the while hoping no one else would be coming the other way or one of us would have to back all the way out. From where we parked there was a good view of Dingle in the distance.We walked along the gravel drive right by the water’s edge to get to the tower.
On our left was a big field with cows.
Up another short but steep hill, this one with a lot of cow dung!The entrance to Dingle Harbor was to the right of the tower. The reason the tower was built here was to show the way into the hard-to-find and very narrow entrance to the Harbor.It was built in 1847 as part of a public works project to bring employment to the poor and hungry in the area during the famine. It is called The Watchtower or sometimes Hussey’s Folly, for the man who started the project.The entrance to the tower was walled over a long time ago, but the windows are still open. Maggie almost dropped the phone inside the tower trying to get this cool picture of the inside!Another shot of the inside of the tower.When we turned around to head back to the car, the cows were coming toward us!But we walked right through the middle of them with no trouble. They barely noticed us.We ended with a delicious but cold trip to Murphy’s Ice Cream. No one should come to Dingle without stopping here! (Notice the open door? No one puts their heat on here!) After about a million kisses and hugs, Katie and Patrick were headed back to Dublin to fly home in the morning. We loved every minute of their visit!
Our very first visitors arrived today! We were thrilled to welcome Katie and Patrick to Dingle and show them the beautiful view by the beach.
(Most of you know this, but for those who might not, Katie has been part of our family since 1999, when I was pregnant with Mary, and she began babysitting for us. Patrick became an honorary Brogan a few years ago when he fell in love with Katie!)
The ocean was very rough and it was high tide, so we didn’t get to walk on the beach.
But we sure did enjoy the sunset and catching up with Katie and Patrick. We got to hear all about their trip before they arrived in Dingle.
We had a nice dinner in town, and then a puzzle competition of boys v. girls. I think the girls may have had a slight advantage!
Five girls against 2 boys isn’t really fair, is it? But the boys were not going to give up easily!
So much love! They have been storing up these hugs ever since we got here. Now off to bed so we can have a big day of adventures tomorrow. Can’t wait!
The view of the snowy mountains from the driveway at the side of the house.The sun came out early this morning, so we went for our walk right after breakfast. We decided to walk in the opposite direction today, away from the beach. The horses are our neighbors and ran right over to the fence to greet us. The one on the right was rolling in the mud…never seen a horse do that before!The remains of this old building are only a few hundred feet from our house, tucked in between another home and a big barn on the neighbor’s dairy farm.A panoramic view from a little further down the road. My first attempt at a panoramic shot after the kids showed me how to do it (maybe I’m not such a Luddite after all).We took this road that forked off from the main road, hoping it was not just someone’s driveway.The road led down to a beach. It was low tide and there were tidal pools all the way across to the other bank. Lots of seaweed growing, but different from what we would see in NJ. The seaweed was brown with fatter leaves.The dog came with us and had the best time playing in the water! If we had crossed the tidal pools and walked around to the far left for about half a mile, we would have gotten to the beach we saw on our last walk. It’s probably only possible at very low tide.
Scallop shells, just like in NJ.
The L O N G walk home! Poor Bobby, the walk is always longer when you get your socks wet in the cold water!
More horses on the other side of the road on the way home. This one seemed very young and was very friendly.Mom and baby.Home at last for a cup of tea…and some school work. “Ooooh, Mom, do we HAVE to?” Yes, you do!But don’t worry, after school we went back out to the park, which was empty despite the great weather. Where is everybody?Colleen got this great shot of the sun going down on our ride home from town. If you look closely, you can see a calf up ahead in the road.You should have heard the racket the cows were making! We weren’t sure if they were yelling at us to stay away from the calf, or yelling at the calf to get back inside. Poor thing tried to climb the hedge but couldn’t quite make it. We pulled over and talked to one of the neighbors, and she said she would call the farmer and let him know the calf was out.Sunset from the kitchen windows. Now I can put my feet up. Oh wait, the kids are hungry again. I guess I better make dinner.A dinner no one complains about…chicken pot pie.
The shop on the far right, with the teal doors, is a hair salon called Cathriona’s. We started our day with an appointment for Nora to get her bangs cut, or rather her “fringe” as they call it here. The shop was so tiny, really only one room with enough space for 4 chairs and a reception desk in the middle. It was beautifully decorated, and the young woman who cut Nora’s hair could not have been nicer. Now Nora can see again 🙂 The business on the far left, called Kingdom Fresh, is a produce store. Again, it is tiny inside. The man who owns it is very talkative and has given us some great ideas on things to do in the area. He always asks how the kids are doing, and is worried that we are not enjoying Dingle as much as we could because the weather has been bad. When I told him that the hardest thing for us has been the dark, late mornings (the sun does not come up until after 8 am) he said, “Oh, wait until late spring and summer! You’ll love it then! The sun stays up til half ten in the evening!” We are really looking forward to that. Another interesting thing he told me, after finding out how many kids I am feeding, is that the Irish government gives money each month to families with children. They give the most for the first 2 children, and he said that is why many people stop at 2, but there is no upper limit. They give at least some money for every child. He quickly googled it and said for 8 children a family would get over 1000 Euro per month, or $1200! Makes you wonder where that money comes from, right? Probably the 23% Value Added Tax they charge!Since the day was so cold and blustery, we did not try to go for a walk. Instead we focused on school and tried to do extra work so that we can take Friday off to spend with our very first visitors! Kelly has been working diligently since the books arrived to finish her handwriting workbook. Today she reached her goal of getting it done before the end of January. Way to go, Kelly!The colder weather has brought snow to the mountain tops.More snow, and lots of frigid wind!
At first we thought it was snowing, but it made too much noise to be snow. It was hail! It hailed on and off all afternoon and into the night, and made quite a racket on the sky lights upstairs. The temperature went down to the teens at night, and I had to reluctantly turn the radiators up a little. Since the heat goes off at night, the house was very cold this morning! You know it must be cold when I put on a sweater and wool socks! Tomorrow’s forecast looks better…sun and warmer temperatures, hurray!
The sun made a welcome return on Monday, so we went for a good long walk after finishing the morning’s school work.There was a very big storm here all weekend. The rough ocean and high tides really changed the landscape of the beach, and the kids were able to see and climb rocks that they could not before.The dog is just as adventurous as the kids!This one is for you, Suzanne! Bobby’s jacket didn’t last long, and was thrown over some out-of-the-way rock. The temperature was only 50 degrees, but that was warm enough for him!At the end of our usual walk, we weren’t ready to go back inside yet. The sun was still out and we were determined to make the most of it. We ended up taking a small road headed away from the rocky beach. It looked like just a long driveway, but we decided to see where it led. It wound around to the right of our house and down hill a little, past about 5 homes. Only 2 of the homes looked occupied, the others seemed to be closed up for the winter. The road was only gravel and it was filled with giant potholes, which of course were filled with water from the storm and were perfect for jumping in 🙂 At the end of the road we came to this fence. What a beautiful view!There was a sandy beach in the distance, but no obvious way to get to it from where we were. Someday soon we will have to drive around to the other side and see if there is an entrance somewhere.Tired and hungry, we arrived home ready for some hot soup for lunch. When we sat down at the table, the rain started and we were relieved to have made it back inside in time. Then just as quickly, the rain stopped and this double rainbow appeared right in our backyard! Amazing! The colors were so unbelievably bright that it almost looked fake.When our work was done for the day, we headed into town because the sun was still out! We spent about 45 minutes at the town park and Thomas walked down the hill from the library and met us here. We were so happy to have a sunny, outside day after so many days in a row of cold rain. We knew January was the rainy season, but enough already! Did you know that Ireland averages 118 inches of rain per year? That is twice the rainfall that NJ got in 2018; 64 inches. And 2018 was the WETTEST year in NJ history since the data began being collected in 1895. No wonder everything here is so green.
On Sunday we went out to lunch after church. The food was very good! (And this Sunday the Mass was entirely in Gaelic! Not a single word in English!)Then we went for another visit to the Aquarium, which is right across the street from the marina where the boat tours leave from. We are hoping that one day soon will be warm enough for a boat ride!
The kids tried out the Hurricane Machine, which simulates hurricane force winds. Not surprisingly, Nora loved it!The Aquarium is very small, more like the one at Jenkinson’s in Point Pleasant than some of the bigger ones in the states, like Camden or Baltimore. You can see it all in about an hour. But they do have quite a variety of animals in such a small space. I was a little jealous of this green turtle getting to sit so quietly under its nice warm lamp.If memory serves, this was a Loggerhead turtle. Hard to tell in the picture, but it was about 4 feet long. It never moved from this corner, and we wondered if maybe it could see its reflection in the glass.A Tiger Shark in the shark tank.Penguin feeding time. These are Gentoo penguins, the fastest penguins swimmers. Sorry, all my penguin photos came out blurry. We did have fun watching them swim though. They were racing around the tank in a figure 8 and leaping out of the water like dolphins.Bobby loved watching his shirt and white socks light up under the UV light by the jellyfish tank. After the Aquarium, it was home to make dinner and write lesson plans for the coming week. And have a nice hot cup of Irish tea to warm us up after the damp and windy day.
Today’s installment of Ireland vs USA is about heat and hot water.
In most homes in the US that I am familiar with, there is a furnace that is controlled by a thermostat on a wall somewhere in the house. Of course, the kind of furnace can vary, as can the thermostat. Some people can program their thermostat to vary according to the time of day.
Here in the house we are renting, as well as the one we had to go to for a night when our electricity was out here, each room has its own radiator and each radiator has a dial to control the heat. The dial goes from off to 4, with 4 being the hottest. There is a main thermostat in the laundry room that is programmed to make the heat come on at 6 am for a few hours, and again at 6 pm for a few hours. The rest of the day, the heat is off unless we “boost” it. This means that we go to the thermostat and push the button that says “boost” to turn the heat on in any zone in the house for one hour. The owners have it set up this way because the house uses propane gas for heat and it is very expensive. However, the system is very efficient. When on, it warms the rooms quickly, and we have the ability to adjust each room as needed. For example, in the bedroom that no one is using right now, the radiators are turned off and the door is closed. The radiator in my bedroom is also off because I’m only in there to sleep and I like the room cold. When we are home in the middle of the day we sometimes need to “boost” the heat in the living room and kitchen.
Now for the hot water. I’m not too familiar with the various kinds of hot water heaters in the US. I only know the kind that our homes have had, which was gas-heated. Unless several people took long, hot showers (thank you, teenagers), there was always hot water. I could run the dishwasher and washing machine and still take a hot shower. In the unlikely event of running out of hot water, if we simply waited 10 or 15 minutes, the hot water heater could heat the tank in that amount of time.
Not here! I can’t see the hot water heater because the utility room is locked, but I would guess that it is heated by propane like the furnace. It runs on a timer which is set to heat the water at 6 am, 12 noon, and 6 pm. On the one hand, the water gets very hot and also heats these great towel warmers in each bathroom. Your towel is so toasty when you get out of the shower!
On the other hand, if you have a few people take showers in the morning, and then try to wash the breakfast dishes…let’s just say that mom’s hands are often cold after doing the dishes. No hot water until after 12 noon! The same is true at dinner time. Do the dishes, or maybe run the dishwasher, give the little kids a bath, and then no hot water until the morning! There is also a “boost” option for the hot water heater, and we have used it twice, but it makes a terrible noise that makes it not worth the trouble.
I didn’t get a photo of the one we used, but here is a screen shot of one I found on my phone that is very similar.
Now for something totally new, at least for me! Something called a “power shower.” We spent one night this week at a different house while the power company was trying to restore our electricity (a wire was brought down in a storm). This house had 2 bathrooms with power showers. We had a few laughs as we tried to figure out how the heck to work them. I wish I had gotten a picture of them! There was a switch outside the bathroom door that said “shower” and turned red when you turned it on. Then inside the shower there was a rectangular white box with a switch and a dial, attached to the shower head. The switch turned on the water and the dial controlled the temperature. This white box somehow was heating the water directly for the shower. It was very loud! But no worries about running out of hot water 🙂
That’s it for today! We’ll have lots more to share tomorrow because the sun finally came out this afternoon and we got some great pictures!
Twenty-one years ago today was supposed to be my baby shower! Instead, I spent it in labor with, believe it or not, our smallest baby! He started out at 6lb 7oz, and almost a month early, but now he is 6’4″ and still growing. Happy Birthday, Thomas! Love you so much!
Even though we celebrated today, no one was off the hook for school. We dropped Thomas at the library and borrowed some books and educational DVD’s. Then Bobby and Kelly had a very serious and competitive game of chess!While we were out, we went to the post office, which is right next to the hardware store, and just around the corner from the library. It is fascinating to me how we can find almost anything in this tiny town by just walking a few blocks! The post office sells not just stamps and envelopes, but also school and stationary supplies…like a mini-STAPLES! I even got Thomas’ 21st birthday candles there. The hardware store is 2 floors, and has just about anything you could need for your home. Not just tools, but also electronics, appliances, furniture, dishes, pots and pans, etc. We have gotten everything from electrical adapters and a hand mixer to a drying rack and paper plates in there!We got our post card stamps from the nice lady at the desk.
And everyone put their post cards in the mail box. We’ll see how long they take to make it back to NJ!
I realized that we have never shown you all what the house looks like. Here it is! In this part of the country, the houses don’t have numbers or streets, they have names and neighborhoods. I am not sure how the postman keeps it all straight. There are only about 30 houses in our neighborhood, called Cinn Aird Thiar, which means Kinard West, so I guess everyone gets used to it after a while. The room on the far right is off the kitchen and has a large dining table, where we eat and do our schoolwork. The windows give it lots of natural light. To the right of the door is the living room at the front of the house and the kitchen at the back. To the left of the door are two bedrooms and a bathroom on each side of a wide hallway. Upstairs there are sloped ceilings, with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a sitting room. Each room upstairs except the bath has 2 large skylights that open for fresh air, let in lots of light and are great for stargazing on a clear night. The house has about 2500 square feet, but there are no closets or storage areas, so it is all living space. The car is a Volkswagon Caddy, which is a very small diesel minivan made only for Europe. More on driving later!This rock marks the driveway with the name of the house. Didean is pronounced “Deedan” and it is Gaelic for ‘Refuge.” The other houses have Gaelic names that I can’t pronounce, except one that is in English, Stone Cottage.Here is the kitchen, clean and tidy after dinner. It never lasts long this way! You’ve already seen the messy laundry room in the post about laundry 🙂
This is the view from the big windows off the kitchen. The dog loves to sit there and watch over the neighborhood!
This four-legged friend has also begun visiting! I guess word has gotten out that we have treats. She comes running whenever the kids go out to play in the yard. She loves to play catch and run relay races, and also seems to be out in all kinds of weather (just like the black dog).
Aside from the cows just next to our yard, this lovely animal is our next closest neighbor. She is here at the fence, seeming to wait for someone, every morning when we take Thomas into town to the library. Today we saw a young woman riding her around the neighborhood in the rain! You have already seen the pictures of the beach, so that is the house and neighborhood. We will go on a longer walk if it ever stops raining and then we will have pictures of dairy farms and probably some great ocean views from higher up the hill.
Believe it or not, we saw 5 rainbows yesterday! It was misting for most of the day, so every time the sun came out from behind a cloud, there would be a rainbow somewhere nearby!
After spending the morning cleaning and doing laundry (and waiting for the teenagers to wake up), we went for our usual walk down to the beach. The ocean was very rough and it was high tide, so we couldn’t walk very far, but the sun was wonderful!Lots of happy faces at the beach.
We borrowed a DVD of Mary Poppins from the library a few days ago. This was Thomas’ favorite movie when he was little, and we watched it so many times! Now it is Nora’s favorite as well. Then we found out that Mary Poppins Returns was playing at the movie theater right here in Dingle, so that’s what we decided to do on Saturday afternoon. The theater was tiny, having only one screen and 115 seats (yes, we counted). The owner worked the ticket counter and his wife worked the concession stand, which actually were the same short counter. He looked at our crowd and had pity on us and gave us all the child matinee price! All 6 of us (Thomas had already seen it at home when he worked at the movie theater) had movie tickets and a snack for 44 Euro! I would estimate that as less than half price compared to a movie at home. Here’s the secret to their low prices…they don’t turn on the heat! Oh, and they don’t make popcorn!
Friday’s trip was to the Convent at St. Mary’s Church in Dingle, which now houses the Harry Clarke stained glass museum. Really, it is just the convent’s chapel with a written description of the windows and the artist’s history. The picture above is of the original windows behind the chapel’s altar, which came from Germany in the mid 1800’s. Harry Clarke was an Irish artist whose work was 1890’s to 1930’s. His windows were on the sides of the chapel, but photos of his windows were not permitted without prior written permission from the museum. The convent itself was a beautiful old building with amazing woodwork. It had numerous murals by an American artist from Colorado (whose name I don’t remember). This one is of St. Brigid, one of Ireland’s patron saints, and one of Kelly’s as well since her middle name is Brigid.This mural is of the Last Supper and it was on the wall of the convent refectory, also known as the dining room. The artist used the faces of local people as her models for the painting.This mural was in the “Nano Nagle” room. The whole room is filled with murals from the life of the founder of the convent. She began with just 3 nuns in Cork and grew to have convents on 5 continents. They specialized in teaching the poor.This one is of Nano Nagle in her first hedge school, where she taught children about the faith, which was outlawed by the English government in regular school. Sadly, the order of nuns is almost gone. The nice man at the front desk (who was a big Bruce Springsteen fan and so happy we were from NJ) told us there is only 1 elderly nun left in the order in Ireland. The building is now used for part of the year to house study-abroad students from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.After the Convent, we were back at the rock climbing place for a few hours. Kelly and Bobby got promoted to the harder wall. It took a lot of hard work, but they made it to the top! Mom tried for the first time, after much convincing by Roy, the man who works there, and made it halfway up the beginner wall. My hands were still shaking an hour later–I’m so afraid of heights! Then pizza for dinner from Novecento, where the owner is an authentic pizza maker from Italy. Delicioso, grazie mille!
The nice man who runs the farm gave us his card when we were there last time and told us to call him in 2 weeks to see if the new lambs had been born. These lambs were only a few days old. Nora said she wanted to hold them forever!Bobby loved that these lambs were smaller than usual because they were “twins”.They were so soft and warm (and a little smelly).They looked even smaller when Thomas was holding them. He had to duck to get through the door of the stone hut they use as a barn.This little guy was only born yesterday and his legs were still a little wobbly. The farmer told us they can gain a pound per day, so they get big pretty quickly.All along the drive on Slea Head the road is very narrow, with just a short stone wall like this one as a barrier. In some places it is just a hill of dirt and grass. I’m not sure what the speed limit is supposed to be, but since there was no one behind me for most of the ride, we never went past 3rd gear. The road is so narrow in some places that during the busy season it becomes a one-way only.When we stopped to take the picture just before this one, this little alcove was behind us. I think there are many hikers who take this road, so perhaps it is a pilgrimage stop for hikers to rest and say a prayer along their way.Lunch at Murphy’s Pub. It seemed the place to be on a cold and windy Thursday. Lots of locals were there, and a lovely fire in a tiny wood stove. Murphy must be a very common surname for this area because about 1 in 5 businesses are named Murphy’s!Very cold and windy out here at the end of Slea Head, but it didn’t stop the girls from getting out to take a selfie. Mom waited in the nice warm car. Tomorrow’s trip will be to the local church, which houses a stained glass gallery in one of the buildings on their property, then back to rock climbing in the afternoon, and then pizza for dinner in town.
The third stormy day in a row here! We had everything from high wind and heavy rain, to sunshine and a rainbow (again!), to mist, to hail. At one point around lunchtime it actually was hailing in the front yard but not in the backyard! While we are spending so much time inside, we are doing extra schoolwork, working on puzzles of Europe (in Gaelic) and the Counties of Ireland, and watching National Geographic videos from the library. And hoping the sun comes out soon 🙂
Today’s installment of Ireland vs USA is about my personal nemesis, the laundry! When we first arrived, I wondered what all these racks were hanging over the radiators for…well, now I know…because we need as much warm space as possible to dry the laundry! The dial on the radiator controls the heat for that radiator. We keep them all on 1 or 2. They go up to 4, but that is very hot.
The washer and dryer are very small, as you can see. They each fit inside a standard kitchen cabinet. The washer can fit about 5 bath towels, but the dryer can only fit 4. To dry those 4 towels takes over an hour on the hottest setting. So, to conserve time and energy, we have been hanging everything to dry and then just throwing the towels in to fluff them a little before folding.
Since the tiny racks on the radiators were not enough space, I got this drying rack at the hardware store. It can fit 2 loads of clothes. Behind it is a radiator, so it dries a little faster in this spot. The rack is also big enough for a set of sheets. I tried putting these outside on the deck one morning to dry. Just before lunch I checked on them and they were almost done, but guess what? It rained while we were eating lunch! Oh well, the dryer dried them much faster than it dries the towels!So we are getting used to the new way of doing laundry. Now, if only the kids would carry their clean laundry upstairs and put it away! That seems to be the same no matter where we are living!
This morning started out dark and rainy. We had breakfast and did schoolwork until about 11:30, when the sun came out. Because we never know how long the sun will last here, we put our boots and coats on as quickly as we could and went for our daily walk to the beach. We were there about 20 minutes when it started to rain again, so we headed home for lunch. As we came up the hill and around the bend toward the house, the sun came back out and there was an amazing rainbow! This didn’t last long either, maybe 2 minutes and then the clouds covered it and it was gone, but we enjoyed it while it lasted.
When I first saw the rock in the distance in this picture, I thought it looked like Mercury’s winged shoes from Greek mythology. The kids think it looks more like an Ugg boot!
This one is from yesterday’s walk. Today was too cold and windy to pose for pictures! The rock they are standing on was covered today by the tide because there was a storm coming.
This lovely black dog seems to live at the neighbor’s down the street, but she roams free outside all day. She visits us every morning while we eat breakfast and loves when we feed her. She also loves to walk with us to the beach each day. Wish we knew her name! She is so friendly and loves the kids. She reminds us of Father Dave’s dog Craggly from home.
The last few days have been quiet. We have been doing school and mostly staying inside since the weather is quite wet! We did make another trip to Explorer’s World for some rock climbing on Friday and counted it as gym class. Saturday morning Mary had her return flight to the States to start the Spring semester at college, and Sean decided to go home with her. We will miss them both, but they’ll be back in March! The rest of Saturday was spent on boring house stuff; cleaning, laundry, etc. We all were craving pizza for dinner, but the pizza place in town was closed for vacation. Then we found a place called Diner that is styled after an American diner and happened to have what they call “take-away” pizza. Score one for mom and not having to cook!
Since we haven’t done much this week, there are not many pictures to share. The kids have come up with a few ideas for blog posts to fill in these slow weeks, but if any of you at home have something you’d like us to blog about, please post in the comment section and we will see it.
One of our ideas has been to post about the differences we have found between Ireland and the US. There are quite a few! We’ll start with cooking.
We wanted to try some baking, and we had all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, so we thought we would try. However, there were several problems. First, all the food items here are packaged differently; smaller portions and with metric measurements. We used Siri on the iPhone to help us convert the measurements, but then the kitchen had no measuring cups! We had to wing it a little and used a small kitchen glass that looked to be about one cup.
Next problem–no mixer! OK, we can handle that. We just mixed it by hand. Then tasted it, of course, just to be sure it was good 🙂On to the next issue–the oven! Look at the cookie sheet in the picture. It is only big enough to fit 9 cookies, whereas most of the cookie sheets I’ve seen at home are big enough for 12 or more. Now notice how the small cookie sheet takes up the entire oven! The oven really is tiny, maybe a little bigger than my microwave at home. The oven temp is in Celsius, so I enlisted Siri’s help to convert that as well. The first batch on the cookie sheet didn’t cook very evenly. The ones in front were underdone, while the ones in back were overdone, so I put the rest of the dough in a cake pan and made bar cookies instead. They looked a little funny, but they tasted good!Irish potatoes are weird! One night last week for dinner, we were supposed to have mashed potatoes and meatloaf. The girls peeled 5 pounds of potatoes, and I boiled them just like I would at home. When I went to drain them, they had turned to mush! Did I overcook them? I don’t think so, but I wasn’t exactly watching the clock, so maybe I did. Anyway, we had the meatloaf and used the watery, mushy potatoes for potato leek soup the next day. A few days later, I tried again, this time being very careful. They did the same exact thing! So, I don’t think it’s me, I think these potatoes are weird!
And just to show that some things have turned out just fine, the picture on the left is a delicious dinner that Mary made on Wednesday night, and the one on the right is the special breakfast we had on the morning that Mary and Sean were going home. More on the differences we have found later in the week!
For the first time since we got here, we had a mostly sunny day! We have had two or three times where the sun came out for an hour or two, but yesterday it was sunny all the way until 3 pm, when a cold fog rolled in from the ocean. We spent most of the day outside without jackets and it was wonderful.Thomas and Bobby finding stones to skip. Always amazes me how long this can keep boys occupied!This is the view from the road leading down to the beach. Our house is up and to the right a few minutes from here. The beach is down and to the left over some rocks. As you can see, the “road” is gravel here, about as wide as a driveway. If a car is coming in the other direction while you are driving, one of you has to pull over or into a driveway to let the other pass.These interesting rocks are only visible at low tide. We think it looks like something from a sci-fi movie!A little cave on the beach. Inside it goes for about 20 feet or so, and there is always water dripping from above.We really enjoyed spending most of the day outside! While we walked, we recited our poetry for the day. Nora’s current poem is “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson, so we took this photo for her poetry book.
Monday we started back to school. Since I don’t have access to a printer, I can’t do the lesson plans the easy way like I would at home. I could just look at them on the iPad or laptop, but I am a pen-and-paper kind of girl! I like to be able to check the box when it is done. To keep things as simple as possible (we only packed 100 sheets of looseleaf paper after all!) I put the three youngest kids’ lesson plans on the same page.
Everyone working diligently at the Dingle library on Tuesday. We worked for a couple of hours and then had a great lunch at a little cafe right near the library, followed by a trip to the park.
Here are all the school supplies and books for Kelly, Bobby, and Nora. Anything that we have access to on the computer, such as music and poetry, we left those books at home. When we are done at the end of the school year, we will only bring home samples of their work and the books that can be reused, such as math textbooks.This is Colleen’s desk in her room, complete with 7th grade books and supplies.Tenth grade requires a lot of books, and Maggie doesn’t have a desk in her room, so the box they arrived in is serving as her storage for now. Both Maggie and Colleen had their first online classes from Ireland this week, and everything went well. We will be trying to have longer school days during the winter so that when the nice weather comes, we can spend more time outside and taking field trips.
Saturday we went to Explorers World, where there is indoor rock climbing and a kids’ play space. Bobby and Kelly did great and graduated to the next level, which was a harder climb.Nora and Mary, all set to get started.Nora held the record for getting to the top fastest! She would get to the bottom and ask to go right back up. Everyone had so much fun that we ended up staying for 4 hours!Happy Feast of the Epiphany! Today in Mass, the choir sang Christmas songs in English, Latin, and Gaelic. Silent Night in Gaelic was really beautiful! Tried to get a picture of the big Nativity with the 3 Kings, but it came out blurry. After church and lunch, we spent the remainder of the cold, rainy day inside the Dingle Aquarium. This tank was called “Ray and Shark Nursery” where they keep all the baby rays and sharks. They also had a touch tank where we all got to touch an adult ray and some sea stars.Moon jellyfishThe little kids loved the Penguin room so much that we circled back around and went a second time before we left. Gave me a chance to take this picture 🙂 Tomorrow (Monday) Bob returns home and the rest of us get back to the grind of schoolwork. It has been a wonderful Christmas break!
Just as we were about to go out for the day to Tralee, the postman came to deliver our books. The US post office had said 7-10 business days, but we got them in only 5! We have a few more days of Christmas break, and we will start back up on Monday, 1/7.
The lovely town of Tralee was begun more than 800 years ago, as we found out during our trip to the Kerry Museum.
It was a little crowded, since everyone here is still on Christmas holiday. The locals seemed to be doing a lot of shopping at the after-Christmas sales. We loved that so many of the streets were for pedestrian traffic only.The Kerry Museum had tons of information on local history, but the younger crowd preferred the hands-on archaeological display.Thank you, Kerry Museum, for a lovely day! We really learned a lot.
Our breakfast conversation: “Mom, is the hill supposed to be on fire?” “Um, I hope so!” Yes, the farmer set in on purpose to burn the parts that were dry and brown. He waited for the perfect conditions, and the wind was taking all the smoke out to sea.After breakfast, we took a walk down to the beach. We could see the smoke, but couldn’t smell anything because we were upwind. The sun came out for the first time since we got here, and it felt wonderful!
We went into town to find out about the local library. We got a library card that allows us to access Wifi and check out books from any branch in Ireland! We can even take free online Gaelic classes. Since the internet access at the house is very limited, Thomas and Maggie will be doing their online classes at the library. While we were out, we also took the little kids to the playground while the girls did some shopping. We ended with some grocery shopping (we’ll do a whole post on that soon!) and a trip to the bakery.
To celebrate New Year’s Day, we went on a driving tour of Dingle Peninsula, making several stops at interesting sites along the way. The first stop was the Celtic Museum. Above is a photo of a woolly mammoth skull from the Celtic Museum. It was brought up in a fisherman’s net in the North Sea.A two-month-old lamb we stopped to feed!The sign saying “HOLD BABY LAMBS” got our attention! This is one of the Beehive Huts from the Iron Age, similar to the one they used in filming the most recent Star Wars movie.Kelly and Colleen enjoying the view at Slea Head.Slea Head Cliff, from here you can see the Blasket Islands, which are the westernmost part of Europe.The view was truly stunning! The pictures don’t do it justice!
The end of the scenic drive to the Gallarus Oratory had this beautiful view!Gallarus Oratory – built in the 7th century, with all the rocks slightly tilted downward so that the rain rolls down and never comes inside.Nora loved the daisies.At the end of the drive, we arrived back in Dingle and headed to the famous Murphy’s Ice Cream Shop for the daily special: Fudge Brownie, YUM!
View from halfway up the mountain.Eask TowerPanorama from the top of the mountain!
Yesterday we visited Eask Tower, a tower overlooking Dingle Bay and the Blasket Islands. It took us nearly an hour to reach the top, and it was quite the hike! But it was totally worth it in the end. The view was absolutely stunning. You could see the patchwork mountains, the ocean, and the town across the bay. We can’t wait to do it again! 🙂
Our first Guinness! 🙂Our first night in Dingle!We love the lights at night.We took a five minute walk down to the beach from our house, and found a neat little cove in the side of the cliff!We’re so happy to be near the beach. 🙂
Our first night in Dingle, Saturday, was so fun! We went to an amazing restaurant and bar and the adults had their first Guinness in Ireland. The food was amazing and everyone was hospitable. We also walked down to the beach, just five minutes from our rental! We can’t wait to try more restaurants and explore the town and beach. 🙂
We’re on our way!Really hoping she sleeps on the flight!St. John’s Church in Tralee, where we stopped in to pray for all of you!After a long flight, and a longer drive, we arrived to a warm house with lovely flowers and a fruit basket to welcome us! Tomorrow’s breakfast.A table big enough for all of us!The view from the kitchen window.
We arrived safely Saturday evening after a six hour flight, and a four hour drive. We stopped in Tralee for a delicious lunch in a little shop that had a play-space for the kids. Driving on the opposite side of the road is going better than expected! But boy are we tired!
Brogans Across the Pond 