sick saturday (175/365a)

i just have a cold, but i didn't feel like participating (and therefore didn't) in cello lesson, farmer's market, bike rides, la boheme listening (to get prepared for me to take theodore to the opera tomorrow)

looming large over the day was an event that including lindy hopping outside with the green party. finally i got myself motivated to go, and was glad i did ... we danced, michi and family came, music/band was great, and we came home in an awesome mood.

quick, before the stores close for the weekend, buy some rosemary

made some yummy tofu scramble... well, really henry did. easy peasy - crumble, mix, heat, done!

carefully carefully

also was happy to notice this little gem from music for our upcoming trip. A brand new piece written for us that includes....

kissing noises!! <3

We finished our la Boheme cd, had popcorn (the one Brian brought back from Romania never popped) and after all the kids were out, brian and I treated my cold with tea and alcohol and had a lovely discussion about various biases in our heads (from our intermittent reading of Thinking Fast and Slow and Die Kunst des klaren Denkens)

relaxed friday (174/365a)

Today was *supposed* to be date morning with Brian, but I have caught the cough/cold. yuck.

The morning was crazy frantic. At 6:30, Brian nudged me to let me know we forgot to prepare dinner for the entire kindergarten (our job once a month) - so I went shopping, cooked, packed and got it done before 8. Phew. Drove up and back and gave up on the idea of going out to eat. 

i could make a whole book of Theodore reading in funny places....

Instead spent the morning doing social media for my quintet, and wishing I was sleeping haha.

Afternoon was so wonderful, relaxed and fun. Reading, bath, practicing, playground. Girl's night was cancelled because Jackie was sick. Someone at the playground pointed out that she would "never" tell her husband that her evening plans were cancelled - she would just go out anyway. I would normally both tell him, and go out anyway, but .......too sick. :(

croissants for breakfast - do they really need extra butter? (173/365a)

Spent nearly the whole day thinking about getting posters printed. Sometimes the psychological effort required for a task vastly outshines the actual amount of time and energy the task takes.

Brian was congested and headachey this morning so I got up early (for me) and did all the morning routine.

Morning coffee was first with Jackie (man! it's strong!), then another 2 after a jog back home, then after that one with Nina at a little market cafe... 4 before noon is maybe a little much?? I think the sparrows there might be used to people....

frecher spatz

I didn't have to cook today because I stayed up late last night making lasagna. It was a welcome time present from past-me. Thank you yesterday-irma

An old lady on the bus turned around and yelled loudly at my kids *for singing and laughing* on the bus. I did not reprimand my kids. We kept singing and were getting out at the next stop. Pretty voices vs. ugly voices....

I wanted to let Theodore go by himself to singschule, but he forgot his bus pass, so I took him with everyone, and Henry and Felix and I hung around like vagrants at the opera house waiting till Theodore got out.

staring Beethoven right in the eyes

air guitar

henry was disappointed that felix "ruined the picture" by not smiling"

they are growing up fast... their own keys, their own bus passes, and they are learning to take care of each other and not ask me for help on everything...

henry gets the door for his brothers

I was so very tired and catching brian's cold, but after that amount of coffee I stayed up late late late, even driving to Irmtraud's and back to drop off posters and pick up some music.

photos courtesy of nina (172/365a)

have been very photo unmotivated lately.

Luckily Nina was here to save the day...

The topic we discussed over chocolate and coffee after dinner was... LOVE.

What qualifies as love, and why do people associate certain things with love when the opposite would truly show feeling.... associate candy with love and an apple with deprivation when candy brings bad health and apples good health. That's just the start of a larger theory of life, the universe and everything.

Add caption

Felix, the apple monster.

a makeshift memorial with a quote about love

Somehow I thought this was very apt to find randomly, although I disagree entirely with the sentiment.

The quote: "Du hast verstanden? Du hast verziehen? Du hast vergessen? Welch ein Missverständnis! Du hast nur aufgehört zu lieben" -Arthur Schnitzler

"You understood? You forgave? You forgot? What a misunderstanding! You only stopped loving"

I think love is all about understanding and forgiveness - and about letting people be free to make mistakes and turn away even when it's hard to do!

Ran to the elternabend late with a gigantic new knife in my bag and several other things that I bought while running errands with Nina on an expedition in case we had to take Felix who was on the verge of throwing a tantrum about going to choir.

I've been desperately tired all day and I'm looking forward to curling up reading the book I'm borrowing from Manuela about "thinking fast and slow" by daniel kahneman.....

practice doing nothing (171/365a)

steep stairs to go up and down in your sleep

I did nothing this morning, and it was a little terrible. My new computer doesn't have facebook blocked (yet) and I got sucked in. New Facebook page for our group, united intonations, seems like it's starting strong Also into the news. And other things. Some of them were productive, but not nearly enough to warrant the time spent on them.

The afternoon I spent in a doctors office and practicing my viola until it was time for bed.

I'm so grateful that my kids are so independent, playing alone while I practice, doing their homework while I pick up Felix (who is himself also independent of course!) from kindergarten etc.

Brian and I went for a nice walk to Akdag (the turkish market) to get packaged veggie Ramen. We enjoyed it with gluten free beer, which Brian just wanted to try to see if it was different. We decided it wasn't very different.

Very full Monday (170/365a)

Brian's back to work after a long break. I was at a gig from 8:30-2. A two-job working family. Now I know what other people have to do.

Brian cooked while I was out - yummm sweet potatoes from the farmer. Only one family at lendplatz has them, and he didn't have them the first year we were here. I guess there's not a large demand for them, but like many things, fresh is a thousand times better.

Felix and I went on a little walk on our own, stopping for fruit, and Felix was very proud to carry all of it, causing much smiling and comment along the way.

3 kilograms of fruit

At home I went for 3 individual bike rides, and we all decided that early bed time would behoove us all.

rehearsal ends early (169/365a)

3-man band

Early morning jog, which was oh so entspannend. One more totally efficient rehearsal, which meant I was home early enough to catch some kid shenanigans. Theodore is making his pinhole projector so he can watch the solar eclipse in 2024. Good for him for thinking ahead, since we totally missed the last one. Spent the evening with Nina, partially doing some computer work at her house while she waited patiently and partially STURM-ing at our house with Brian.

serious rehearsal (168/365a)

in order to get on track and not stress anyone out we decided to be very serious in rehearsal today. it was good, we were very productive, and we will be sounding a-MAY-zing by the time our first gig this season rolls around on Monday at 9am in the opera. :) We only had one uncontrollable laughing fit. hehe.

Rehearsal was all day. We recorded a run through of every piece we ran through so we could listen to it so we could fix the tiniest details. We had an outdoor picnic in the middle where we got some nice sunshine and I got home exhausted.

Brian sent me the following text while I was out: Felix "I forgot which cards are for 'Memory™'"

we're nuts about nuts

Felix has also been gathering nuts. We now have bowls and jars and more jars full of black walnuts and hazelnuts, and he keeps gathering more. We will have to start cracking them and eating them. His hands are already quite stained from the walnut husks. I love it! :)

Plain fun Friday (167/365a)

Tried to kidnap Nina from work today, but she remained busy. Never fear, I shall accomplish it someday. (alles gute!!)

The afternoon was lots and lots of gardening which made my arms and back tired but didn't make that big of a dent in all the work that needs to get done. Then the cool playground where Fritz fixed Theodore's bicycle and Jackie and I sat around the campfire. with some other parents and some kids. I love that place!

I escaped in the evening to Michi's place for some good chats mostly involving the intricate details of psychotherapy. cool! On the way home I looked up at the stars and saw some constellations which really felt like seeing some old friends. I don't think I'll ever feel alone on a clear night again.

At home Brian was already asleep by the reading light.... 

aww....

Sturm und Drang (166/365a)

In some sense a plain Thursday except that I was sooo happy that Brian was home again! Yay!

Glorious cooking adventure day. Finally I got to try to make "Drang" the logical accompaniment to "Sturm" the first wine of the season. Sturm is the ridiculously sweet wine in it's first fermentation.
"Sturm and Drang" the artistic movement called to us to invent something that would go with it. We played with various ideas, but decided that it had to be light, fluffy, seasonal and sweet.

We ended up with a hazelnut cake with traubenapfelquittengelee (it's german, so i can just smoosh the words together, right?) that was homemade by nina's mother.

The blurry party

Manuela came over, and Phil, and we had a completely impromptu party, listened to mozart k516 and drank and ate and talked till "late"

Sturm und Drang and a late-summer rose

nudeln (165/365a)

Some viola learning in the morning, which was great, as usual, with Elke. And some shopping on the way home. It's nice that the kids can get themselves to and from school so I can be freeeee to do little things like that on my own.

Prepared some stuff for a little Jackie and Andi dinner party. My ideal menu was hand cut egg-noodles. We made about 10 of them like this....

Making noodles the old-fashioned way

Before Jackie showed us that she had a cool hand cranked machine to do the same thing.

everyone wants to help with the new technology

It was fun to watch the kids roll the dough out patiently, until it was thin enough to see though, cut them into long ribbons, and then ball it back up, sometimes with saliva, into a sticky mass and start all over. We had pesto from our garden, and more bean salad, which I can't get enough of. And an "extra" cake that Ingrid had made for herself but decided to give away instead, which ended up being the highlight of the dinner party. - The kids went and played and we adults basically ate it all.

We stayed too late, and got home just in time to tuck the kids in before Barbara came over and we sat discussing the future of our little group. Brian texted me at midnight to say he was on his way home.... wait up till 3am or go to sleep wait up till 3am or go to sleeeeeeeep..... #ichoosesleep

A cold rainy summer day (164/365a)

As Nina and I discussed today: "It's STILL officially summer." Today was a very cold, very rainy day. Nina brought her brother Phil to visit today, and we got to have two coffees together - one before shopping and one after. Farmer's Market in the rain basically seems like it's just for us.

Shopping while hungry made me more hungry, and also have lots of ingredients. Since Brian's still in Romania, and I was cooking like crazy, I invited Jackie and her kids to stay for dinner after kindergarten drop off, and man was it yummy and fun! Favorite part? Käferbohnen with marinated onions, kürbiskernöl and turkish schafskäse. We're going to all learn how to play the recorder together.

Then a indoor evening full of Gemütlichkeit, me and the kids. :)

helmet cello practicing

playing cards by himself

playing "stone age" board game with mama

diese pünktlichkeit wird nicht genehmigt (163/365a)

some impressive misses when it comes to getting places today, in spite of me being ready.

two rehearsals - one in the morning i got to a half hour late. one in the evening i got to an hour after it ended. oh well.

a cold wet day today, and i could never quite get warm. i made soup for dinner, and the kids complained that there was "no" dinner. funny.

[random aside: i just remembered that when i was in the US on the 7th of September they had Christmas decorations all over sam's club.]

it's strange how one minute my kids can be beating each other for no reason and the next they are teaching each other and being gentle.

henry and felix teaching each other

i still have the cold i brought back on the airplane, and that, combined with sleep deprivation, is making me a bit rambly and punchy in the evenings. it's also making me coughy - though i wish it were coffee.

ramblings of a crazy brain

Rehearsal All Day (162/365a)

First Quintet rehearsal since before the summer. They had said it would be all day, I assumed 9-5 or something in that realm, and yesterday discovered they meant 10-10pm. ok then. Let's go! Only minor problem was that Brian is not home, so I had to ask other people to take care of the kiddies. Centa took over the morning and then Jackie and Andi stepped in, picking them up, and bringing them back and putting them to sleep. What generosity and kindness!

We played two rehearsals - one with Sophia and one with Iva. Iva will be playing with us in Algeria. We needed promo pictures for our upcoming programs. It was raining quite hard all day, except for a tiny pocket of drizzle. Barbara did all of our makeup.  I took the photos. This one was everyone's favorite even though it was blurry.

fabulous five

I came home to find the house quiet, and decided to do just a tiny bit more practicing before more rehearsing tomorrow at 9am again.

pajama saturday (161/365a)

wanted to go for a nice bike trip and spend the day outside but it was rainy and cold and the kids asked if we could just stay in our pajamas. Fine by me. At the end of the day, Henry asked "Why" we didn't pump up the bicycle tires and go for a ride, haha.

Instead we just looked around for little projects. I did weed the herb garden in the rain, but other than that we just played around and crafted and sang.
Theodore made a battery out of coins and tin foil and paper dipped in salt and vinegar.

it worked!

Then Nina came over and we did hours of origami and chatting before we watched a movie and sent the kids to sleep. I made an origami fortune teller that said I would "find cake" but I didn't. I guess it didn't say "when" ... instead we had popcorn and sturm and quite a delightful netflix evening watching the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after we figured out a ton of things netflix doesn't have.

figs on friday (160/365a)

Got a skype message from my wonderful neighbor that asked if we wanted any figs. Turns out, *her* neighbor has a fig tree dropping figs over the fence onto her patio. She doesn't like them, so she invited me to steal figs for everyone's benefit. It was comically fun to use a rake in my highheels to fill a huge bowl entirely full of figs. Yum.

Pick a caption:

"There's one right over your head"
"Don't get that rake in my face"
"Try not to fall"
"Oh, just a little bit higher"
"We're all stealing this together"
"This is harder than it looks"
"Why didn't we use a ladder"
"Thanks Theodore, for taking a picture"

Then a campfire at our favorite playground, and straight to sleep with all of us.

too shy for socializing around the campfire. they brought their own food ;)

Bonus quote from my evening email update to brian:

I used perfume as a solvent for some superglue that had spilled on the counter - it worked, but now the kitchen smells like "sensual amber" .

a pleasant morning, a playground, and a presentation (159/365a)

Felix surprised me this morning by getting himself dressed for kindergarten and packing his lunch, organizing his backpack and being prepared to leave on time in an exceptionally conciliatory mood. I left him with Andi, and all was well. It stayed that way. He was apparently happy at kindergarten, and had fun. Phew!
Brian and I beat the clock to pick up a table that Irmtraud had given us.

The original conversation went like this:
Irmtraud: How was your summer?
Irma: Great, I found out that I don't need anything.
Irmtraud: Do you need a dining room table?
Irma: Exactly, you don't need a dining room table. We just sat around and ate out of one pot and it was great.
Irmtraud: Because I just got a new table, and you can have our old one.
Irma: Oh. Yes. We do need a dining room table.

The problem is, our walls aren't straight: So our massive room has only a small portion of usable floor space. Our gigantic table has been good for gigantic parties, but terrible for dinners. There's nowhere to put it. Plus, it is the dining room AND  a bedroom AND a play room.

Then it was the ever-crazy homecoming of kids in various orders and homeworks and eating and fighting, and finally I got them down to our favorite playground, where I can just let them go and talk with the adults. I had missed a surprise coffee with Nina while I was kids-picking-uping, but I got to see her on a surprise stop by on her way home from work. And everyone got to paint a mural.

fun table for snacks

michi and the fusballtable

en garde with the paintbrushes

Brian is preparing for his trip to Romania, where he is presenting at a conference on FI. I convinced Nina and Andi to brave the terrible nighttime rains/storms to watch the first run through of his presentation that we started at 10pm. The Q&A session went right on till midnight though :P Tomorrow he leaves before 6am, and then i'm officially in charge of everything for several days.

getting back into the swing of things (158/365a)

It's strange to be back but also fun. Fun to see faces and places that are the same but different. Felix was on strike from kindergarten, but I ignored that, left him with his schedule-flexible aunt and went off to meet with Barbara over a 0carb breakfast which was extremely yummy. We talked about ideas and how to make them come true for our quintet.

Chorus time for Felix. Luckily Theodore went with him, so Felix didn't strike that. Andi took them all and I biked along for the ride, and for the coffee... Michi and Andi and I had a lively discussion that ranged all over the political spectrum, including a lot about taxes and social equality.

Andi with only some of the kids :)

....and Nina's back from her US trip. I wanted to go out on a jetlagged night on the town, but I was lazy and just had a pajama party instead.

obligatory selfie

chatting panorama

philosophy and tantrums (157/365a)

not all things can be wine and roses. sometimes life gives you whine and flowerless thornbushes. i spent all morning trying to convince felix to go to kindergarten, and he won the tantrum fight, i ended up taking him home. ugg! then spent nearly the rest of the day on back-to-school shopping. double ugg!

but not all is lost!
i have a new (really old, just like my old one) awesome bike, a single speed city bike from the 80s, and i can officially "ride a bike with no handlebars!"
two quick stories about that:
* i saw a guy riding with no handlebars today, cap on sideways, listening to music on his phone and smoking a cigarette (even flicking away ashes!) -- who says guys can't multitask?
* when brian went to pick up the bike, he saw a lady eyeing him when he showed up, and he said "hi i'm brian" and she said "hi i'm eva" (which was the name of the lady selling the bike) and he said "so what about the bike?" and she said "bike? which bike?" ... coincidentally a different eva.

i have decided to adopt a new (really old, and just like my old one) life philosophy, that i made up myself, which i have summed up in a few words.

would later be ok?

some basic questionable tenets:
* if you want something now, really really want it, how bad would it be to wait? is it worth waiting for?
* if something is now or never, do it now!
* if there is a task or something you have been putting off, will it make you happier to do it later or to do it now?

be honest with your answers, and then follow your brain/heart/gut! (whatever science tells you is in charge of your actions/feelings/thoughts)

first day of school for Henry (156/365a)

Well, we are paying for our stalling on getting back from vacation by having a jetlagged Monday with everything going on at once... But that didn't stop us from giving each of them lots of attention today for school/stuff start. Surprisingly, noone was especially cranky this morning even though it's ridiculously early.... (I went to bed at my normal US time this morning --- 4am european time)

off they go!

Henry's first day of school with his lovely Schultüte, complete with bowtie ;)

Felix with Centa's pumpkin

And we filled the day with more things. We had more school-shopping to do. Met with the mamas after kindergarten. Chorus. I tried to buy a bike, but it didn't work. I met with Manuela, and had awesome vegan dinner, and then we ended up with chocolate brownies and tea discussing juggling and "Go" and psychology and books. Hooray! <3

weird sunday (155/365a)

A strange day. Woke up well past noon. Ingrid, our neighbor, told me she had suggested my sister get checked out for something at the hospital, so I decided to go see her there. Turns out, you can't find anyone. No secretaries work there on Sunday, so the official way of finding someone is knocking on emergency rescue personnel's doors and asking if they saw your sister, and hoping they don't mind violating privacy concerns. .... a weird terrible feeling. I spent an hour and a half walking around their gigantic campus being pushed from one place to another.

I found her just as she was leaving, discharged because she is all fine, yay.

Headed to Irmtraud's to fill out a visa application for our next Algeria tour.... wow! Magic lady for sure!

At home, Felix had picked all the hazelnuts he could find, and was so proud. The kids were happy to be playing with their old toys, and nobody wanted to go to sleep. Henry and I made him his "schultuete" a big cone that i get to fill with school stuff and fun surprises after he goes to bed...

proud

watching himself in this video that brian made of him telling the very rambly hazelnut story

Arriving (154/365a)

........landed in Amsterdam, and waited for a while before our trip to Graz.

Ugg, travel this direction is exceedingly more painful than the other direction.

It's 7am in Amsterdam, and yet it feels like a terrible dream that everyone is awake at 1am, needing food and exercise and attention. Good news, the airport has a "children's corner" so we optimistically (stupidly) tell everyone we are going to find the playground.

This was it:

i couldn't take a better picture, 1000 apologies

Not shown: a big flatscreen TV. hmm... I even asked at an information desk. Yes, that area with the "do not climb" climbable letters is our children's corner.

so we found this spot to amuse ourselves...

people watching

a cello for heartbear

amusing ourselves with reflections

cute!

A very sleepy flight until we were finally in Graz!

my independent pajama boys

Jacky picked us up. We were overjoyed to see her. They had snuck in and decorated our kitchen, and filled it with delightful dinner (enough to last days!) and fresh fruit. Centa was there, and she too had found us vegetables and fruit and breakfast. We were mostly too tired to eat. I had to go shopping for Henry's first school day. Biking home, a car came to a screeching halt at a corner and Michi jumped out yelling my name. Hooray! Now all we have to do is sleep for 15 hours, so we feel normal again.

Leaving (153/365a)

Because of travel times and timezones, and the loss of hours, travel back to Europe starts today and basically will take up all of tomorrow. I don't like the act of traveling so much, and we hadn't really packed. Plus all the late nights we've been having means we will have one heck of a case of jetlag.

Nevertheless, the day started well, with the smell of butter

The Palatschinkenmeister the morning of his driver's test....

and it quickly careened into packing and saying goodbyes. We did learn (got through once without stopping!) a round called the silver swan, and it was very beautiful.

cute on kettcars

uncle ludwig says goodbye on his way out

more and more goodbyes, and then we were off in our rental car, to the airport, through boston rush-hour. we had to separate, so brian could return the car, and i checked in alone, but brian found us no problem, with all three kids dressed in their bumble-bee towels. 

then just waiting and starting and flying and .......