pura vida

Hi guys. I’m so sorry it’s been a long time. A lot has happened around here, starting with Trieu going to the States, multiweek visits from the Mais and then a trip to Ciudad de Mexico with Hans and Simone. Whew! That’s a lot right? A better person than me would be able to document all that while it was happening, but just keeping up on work and the kids during the last month was a lot for me.

That being said, my new year’s resolution is to keep this blog going more regularly, amongst other resolutions, such as moving more during the day (been working on that one every year for many many years), eating less chocolate (also a multi-year challenge), and of course feeling worthy of … anything (life challenge?). Anyway, I’m not trying to be a debby downer on the resolutions/blog posting, because I actually have a real-world plan for these resolutions that will help me succeed. Ready to hear my magic ingredient for success?

The bus. Yeah. You heard that right. The bus.

What does the bus have to do with eating less chocolate and sharing my deepest feelings with you, my dear reader? Let me explain.

We live kinda far from school, farther than we’ve ever lived before, and as you know from my previous post, there are a lot of random interruptions to the flow of traffic here. So dropping the kids off at school takes an hour a day. Couple that with waiting in a 90-degree car to actually enter the school, a high-pressure snack situation, hormones, angry brotherhood, teenage planning and you have a pretty rough drop off/pick up situation. In 2025, I had the illusion that we would have a really nice 20-30 minutes of forced family fun in the car every day. But in 2026, I can admit to myself that I hate driving my kids to school.

Enter the bus. Guys, the school bus here costs a lot of money! Like a lot of money!! I think at private school they just assume you have a lot of money so they charge a lot of money (?not sure? but this definitely reinforces my negative stereotypes of private school).

In 2026 I’m prepared to pay for the bus. I had a hard time typing that because I’m so cheap. But I’m worth it!? (cue life challenge). Going on this worthiness journey will give me an extra 5 hours a week, enabling more blog posts and movement during the day. The movement I do during the day will help me eat less chocolate, I am certain.

So yeah, the bus gonna solve all my problems. I hope you have a similar silver bullet going into 2026.

Here are some additional end-of-2025/beginning-of-2026 tidings … To everyone we saw, it was so amazing to see you! To everyone we didn’t see, we miss you so much! To everyone in the States, I’m sorry that there is a pseudo war happening right now (and simultaneously so glad to be disconnected from it). To everyone in Costa Rica, I’ll see you next week. And to everyone reading, you’ll hear from me soon (thanks to the bus).

XOXO Ingrid