Sorry for missing last weekend's post. Somehow, posting didn't rise to the top of the priority list.

This past week was Autumn Holiday, so the kids had the entire week off. They have Monday off as well. M and the kids seemed to do pretty well with their time at home. Both boys had play dates with school friends and M took care of a neighbor's Leopard Gecko while they were in Greece.

Last weekend, the boys had a "friendly" soccer match. That means it didn't count in the official standings. It was a good game and they ended up tying 2-2. This weekend, they had a 3-1 loss, but the game was very close in terms of skills and number of chances. Both boys are improving, although the younger still loses track of the game and stares at the sky at times. The older has taken to saying he doesn't want to go and play when we first get him up, but by the time we're at the field, there's no question of sitting the game out. This is an interesting age, since you can start to see the competitive drive forming in these kids. At first, they were all happy to lay back and let the game go on around them, but now you see them being more aggressive and wanting to win. I have mixed feelings about this, since I think competition is a good thing to know how to handle (since it's an unavoidable part of life), but I also want them to show good sportsmanship and compassion for their opponents. These are the reasons for having them play, after all.

Last Saturday, we went to dinner at the home of my cousin's friend. It was very nice. They have a little place in the South-Western part of Amsterdam. The day wasn't really set up for kids, but we managed fine. They served us grilled burgers and chicken, so it felt a bit like a barbecue. The boys played in the playground down the street while the adults watched them out the window and talked. It was good to get out, and we'll have them over again after the holidays.

This past couple of weeks has been full of silly purchases. A couple of weeks ago, I pre-ordered Guitar Hero for the Wii. We've all really enjoyed playing rhythm games together, and this is the mother of all rhythm games. It doesn't come out until the end of November, but we're all excited. I may try to keep it under wraps until Sinterklaas but who am I kidding... In addition, I bought an iPod Touch. I have had an iPod, but I've wanted a more portable way of keeping track of my schedule and to-do lists. I'm not sure this will be the answer, but I think it has a good chance of helping. We're also in the process of getting a new desktop computer, since the one we have for the kids is now too slow to play the games they're interested in. I guess being 4 years old will do that, but good grief, that's a lot of electronics all at once.

I should mention something here on the sleep front. So far, I've improved somewhat. I've been trying to get to bed by 10:00, and I've only done that a few times, but in the last two weeks, I've been in bed before midnight all but three nights. Two of those were Fridays or Saturdays. I feel more rested, and I've stopped drinking coffee as well (on the theory that it might be keeping me from going to bed.) I'm not sure being off coffee is a good idea, but we'll see how it goes. I want to keep this up and be even better about sleeping over the next two weeks.

Next weekend looks to be busy as well, with the kids having soccer and drama class on Saturday morning and friends arriving in the afternoon. We hope to go with them to Nemo. It should be a good time, but that means Friday night will be full of tidying and cleaning and Sunday will be a day of rest, since we'll be worn out.

Well, enough for tonight. I need to go help get the kids to bed and get to bed myself. Hopefully I'll be back on the weekly schedule starting next week.

It appears that October is almost half over already. As of November 1, I will have been working in the Netherlands for one year. It will also be my 5 year anniversary of working for this company. My how time flies.

This week was particularly uneventful. That is to say, there's not much to say about it, really. Work was done, school was attended, and not much new happened during the week.

On Saturday, the boys had their fourth soccer match. They'd lost the first three by a total of 20-0. This match, however, they came away with a 0-0 tie. The whole team played much better, and our boys, in particular, each showed they're figuring the game out a little better. The older even had an offensive run where he had just one man to beat to take his shot. The younger did a much better job of chasing the ball once he kicked it past someone. The whole thing was pretty exciting. Next week is off due to school holidays, but the coach said he'd try to get a "friendly game" to fill in the week.

Saturday evening, we had a couple over for games and coffee after dinner. I met this couple through BoardGameGeek and I've gone to the bookstore a couple of times to play with them. It turns out they live just down the street. We had a great time, and it seemed they did as well. I hope this is the start of building a non-work/non-school community here, but only time will tell.

My fight with sleep has reached new levels. I've enlisted M to help me get to bed by 10:00. I'm going to try just giving up on doing anything else in the evenings. Not something that suits my preferences. We'll see how it goes. This just can't go on this way though. It's time to make a change and here is where I think it needs to start.

On that note, it's about that time. I hope to write more later in the week, but I'm not counting on it at this point, since I haven't usually managed it, and now I'm setting a hard time limit, but it's good to have goals.

I've been meaning to come here and give a long update, but I just simply haven't found the time, so, hopefully, this will do for now.

Let me hit the main categories:

Work
Not a whole lot new here. I was in Cambridge on Wednesday to visit a supplier, and it was a nice visit. Somehow, being on English soil feels a lot more like home than being here. Maybe it's the fact that I'm suddenly surrounded by native English speakers, or maybe it's the fact that the Brits far better understand service than the Dutch. Whatever. In any case, I like being there, and it felt like a small vacation in my otherwise crammed week.

Otherwise, things grind on. Deadlines come, get met and go past. New deadlines are set and the process starts over again. I don't mean to sound too much like this is an endless grind, but sometimes it does feel a bit that way. I'm learning to ease up on my stress around work, but every so often, it goes through the roof. Still some ways to go, I guess.

Family
The kids are still enjoying their soccer. We had a match yesterday, and they both played noticeably better than the previously weeks. The team seems to be just a few good ideas away from making a big leap in skills. They play pretty well defensively, but they need to learn to take advantage of the moments when they steal the ball and have an open field ahead of them. Many times, the most aggressive player will charge forward with the ball, but then there's no one with him to help out.

For our kids personally, the older seems to manage to be everywhere at once, but mostly defensively. Still impressive at times. He somehow managed to stop a break away by the other team that was impressive enough to elicit a big cheer from the other (Dutch speaking) parents and a "An dit is de vader!" directed at me. The younger is still losing track of the game at times, but he made several good stops on defense. I'm trying to encourage him to chase the ball when he manages to get it past the other team. Both kids play a bit tentatively when other people are chasing the ball, but I think another game or two will change that a bit.

As for school, both kids are doing well. M and I are working with the Younger on his writing, as he's a far better at imagining and reading than writing, and he's frustrated that he can't quickly get his ideas onto paper. The teacher's noticed a significant improvement in his performance already, so we hope that we've nipped a future problem in the bud.

M has undertaken a goal to write 50k words this month in correspondence (e-mail and such) and is, so far, well on target. She's also volunteered to be a room mum at school and is chasing the swim school to see if she can get the kids into a class soon, as they need to refresh their skills. I get the feeling she's happier when she's busier (up to a point) but we still need to be better about planning our weekends in advance. We had a small game night last night, but before that, there were several weeks of finding ourselves at home with no plans.

Personal
I'm still trying to get a grip on sleep. I find myself losing focus and worrying about lack of exercise or my poor dietary habits, but I need to keep reminding myself that I can't do anything as well if I'm tired all the time. I'm not exactly sure how to tackle this problem. It's really not a matter of going to sleep, since once my head hits the pillow, I'm out. It's more a problem with needing time to unwind and that turning into late nights of surfing the web or watching TV. I'm going to try to cut out screen time after a certain hour in the evening and trying to read more, since I seem better able to put down a book than let blog reading go overnight.

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There are a lot more things I'd like to write about going forward, but for the moment, I need to do a couple of work things before Monday, and I'd rather get them out of the way so I can enjoy the rest of the afternoon. If I have time, I'll blog a bit more today, but I definitely want to get back on the regular weekly schedule.