Six on Thursday (an alliterative fail but possibly an interesting post)

I only have a few minutes to blog, so today is brought to you by the land of the weird and random, aka my brain.
Don't worry, though, I will be returning to blog about Lillian's 3rd birthday and our trips to Edinburgh and Aveimore SOON. Or soon-ish. Ahem.

1. Elliott is having a love affair with apples right now. Two days ago he consumed three of them right down to the core. He is cutting a few teeth right now, so we're guessing that they feel good on his gums. And yes, the diapers are super amazing.

2. Voting day on the Scottish independence referendum is fast approaching. One week from today, the country will vote on whether it will stay in the UNITED Kingdom or whether it will step out on its own. Polls show about a 50-50 split currently, which is obviously much closer than anyone in Westminster thought it would be since they are now offering concessions and other inducements to keep the UK together. It's an absolutely fascinating time to be here. The whole country is littered with "Yes" or "No, thanks" signs, buttons, banners, bags, etc. I have asked a wide variety of people--taxi drivers, bus drivers, GPs, teachers, people whose families have been in Scotland for centuries and first generation immigrants-- how they are voting, with very mixed results. Given the far-ranging military, political and economic effects, I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I can't help but admire their national pride in even contemplating such a move.

3. Lillian is in her second week at nursery school and is loving it so far. The system is very different than American preschool but it seems to be a good fit. All the schooling is free (other than 26p for snack every week, ha!) which is awesome! She has the option to attend school during any of the afternoon sessions, which run from 1-4 pm every day. The flexibility is nice, and at this point, I'm going to shoot for three sessions per week, probably Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday since we have activities at church on Friday mornings and Monday is a nice recovery day. The school is small at this point, but will fill up some during the year as more kids turn three and are allowed to come. It feels like a cross between daycare and preschool since I think the balance of "playing" vs "structured learning activities" is definitely tipped towards playing. I'm thrilled for her to get some social interaction and I'm sure she'll learn a thing or two. I also love having time with just Elliott and time by myself when he naps. It's a win for all of us, and I'm so thankful that God provided us with a spot for her. My drive to PCA last year was 15 minutes, which is also how long it takes me to walk to Elie Street Nursery. It's 0.6 miles each way, so with two round trips every time she goes, I'm definitely getting my exercise.

4. After realizing that I fed L two giant popsicles yesterday by accident, I woke up this morning and decided that we are going to work on the quality of our food intake. Eating fruit is probably our strong suit diet-wise, but I'm going to cut down on snacking, bread products and refined sugar, and try to up our veggie and "whole foods" intake. So far we have made it through one meal and 9787987 snack requests this morning from L, and meal #2 is currently cooking away in the oven and crockpot.

5. The weather this week has been unreal. I am wearing shorts again today (TWO DAYS IN A ROW) after a month plus of not wearing them. It is sunny and dry and about 70 degrees F. Everyone keeps talking about how unusual this is in September. Whatever. We'll take it.

6. 9/11 is a strange day not to be in the US, particularly since all the papers here are chock-full of independence stuff and oh-my-gosh-Kate-and-Will-are-pregnant-again. (T is v. excited about this since it means he'll get a national holiday next year when the wee babe is born). Even so, I am remembering that day and treasuring my country from afar.

Stirling Castle, 26 July 2014

To celebrate one month of living in Scotland as well as my Mom's arrival into town, we decided to take a day trip to Stirling Castle. An easy 25-minute train trip from Glasgow (and Edinburgh), Stirling Castle is definitely a must see. It has been beautifully maintained and restored; is easily navigable by kids/strollers; and has incredible views. (Getting up to the castle with a stroller is less easy...narrow, cobbled streets+ bumpy sidewalks+GIANT HILL= treacherous). This particular Saturday was probably the worst weather we've had to date; it poured rain about 90% of the time we were there but c'est la vie in Scotland!
We definitely did not see all of Stirling but I think we hit the touristy highlights: Old Town, Castle, Old Town Cemetery, Church of the Holy Rude, and Cowane's Hospital (which, inexplicably, is a coffee shop and not a hospital of any sort). We might have hung around longer, but as previously mentioned, it was rainy and we ran out of obvious things to do, so we hightailed it back to Glasgow.

Very castle-y. I can definitely see why this was a favorite residence of the Scottish monarchs.

Cannons over the cemetery

The good news about the rain was that it made for awesome cloud shots

Inside the main living quarters of the castle, restored in 17th c. style

This was one of our first experiences trying to explain where we were to Lillian and it was pretty much a wash. She's clever, but so far politics and history are pretty much lost on her. Expounding upon important historical events, let alone wars, to a two-year old is pretty much impossible, so we stuck with: "Look! It's a castle! Maybe Anna and Elsa are inside!" and "Look! Cannonballs!"

The castle restaurant was pretty tasty and had lots of space for crawling and playing (win for everyone)

Very cool interactive part of Stirling--figuring out where different plant dyes to make paints come from

We spent most of the morning in the castle and headed back down ye olde treacherous hill after eating lunch. On a whim we stopped in the Old Town Cemetery, which if you enjoy cemeteries like I do, was totally awesome. Oldest graves dated to around the 17th century, and there was a fantastically over the top Victorian section.

Playing shopkeeper in the graveyard. Inappropriate? Perhaps. 

Makes you think, right?

Couldn't resist an artsy B&W shot

It was raining harder after the cemetery,  so we ducked into the Church of the Holy Rude, which was an excellent choice. The church dates to the 12th century and is one of only three churches in Britain that has been a coronation site.

Dark picture, but the Bible was open to Psalm 86: "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours."

After leaving the church, we were sortof scrambling. It was raining; the kids were whining; and it didn't feel like time to leave just yet. Across the lane was a sign for Cowane's Hospital, which turned out to be an old fashioned meeting house cum-coffee shop that was absolutely perfect for our needs. (sidenote: God has provided me "refuges" like this so many times in the last few months) The kids enjoyed being free; the adults enjoyed hot beverages; and everyone enjoyed being dry.

We were so happy to have Mimi with us!

After heading back through Old Town, we quickly figured out that the fun part of the day had passed and decided to return to Glasgow.

(A quick note about train travel: so far, so good! Typically for day trips we will buy tickets in advance online while using our "Two Together" pass, which gets us 1/3 off ticket prices. Sometimes we'll buy a round trip, and sometimes single trips. We never have to book specific times for local trips, which is really nice for maximizing flexibility with the kids.)