still sick (299/365a)

up at 9 (grand-total 17hours of sleep, much of it restless) and basically back to bed.
brian's birthday! found a party hat and a whistle to show my enthusiasm, and that was the extent of the celebration. we'll fix that tomorrow.
i did walk very slowly to the store to buy a liter of cocacola. ... by evening i was feeling better... enough to lay around on the floor and watch kids play chess, and watch some old movies. made some cakes with brian and then headed straight back to bed. last day of felix's kindergarten until march. they always take a month break in february. they celebrated fasching there today, and everyone dressed up except felix, but he's already talking about what he'll dress up as "next time"....

opinions may vary.

a day lost entirely (298/365a)

i thought that i must have just stayed up WAY too late, i overdid it a bit, and now i'm dizzy and tired and dehydrated in the morning, i'll just have to suck it up and do the things we planned today. drove up and down to the kindergarten, went to my morning meeting with the quintet, decided against coffee and had some herbal tea instead, came home... and went straight to bed. that was it. sick as a dog. no pictures, no journaling, no movies, no talking, no eating, just sleep.... brian called people for me to let them know i was staying home for the day.  :( if anyone finds my missing day, please return it, i wish i could do the fun things.

Entirely way too full Monday (297/365a)

one against two

Music lessons and cooking and kindergarten and choir. doesn't sound like a lot, but it somehow built up. there was other stuff too, little things like painting and drawing and writing and bread-baking. lindy hop lessons at night, while kids slept and andi hung out reading. the star-filled night was clear and warm, but we hurried home, and got right to our respective online work.

Day after Ball - mostly fail ;) (296/365a)

I only have ball pictures, because this is what we were technically doing this morning... until 7am....

we slept till noon.... went to jackie and andi's to pick up children, thankfully there was dinner.

then we thought we'd go back to the opera house for the kids dance show that theodore was singing in, but we didn't have tickets, they were sold out, and wouldn't let us even try to pretend to sneak in. annoying. so we went home, disappointed and exhausted. went to sleep early and didn't even have energy to watch a movie.

Before... and after, haha

brian and me on the grand staircase... after dancing for several hours

Preparing for the Ball... (295/365a)

So much fun this morning, not really preparing for the Ball.

Instead, we all painted a canvas, and we made a cool video to an mp3 of Theodore reading a poem. we put it up on youtube and he was very excited about that. The other ones all went for a run and off to the farmers market, although I won't be cooking today (or tomorrow, probably!)

I still had to get dressed up and decent way early for the ball, and somehow I managed to catch myself a bad headache and was not interested in doing my hair until 5 minutes before I called a taxi. Bad hair day indeed, but who cares? Rehearsal, quintet photoshoot, and then 2hours of straight playing in terrible drafts in the foyer of the opera-house, but we played quite nicely, and we were free to go watch and dance and eat (and not drink, because of my terrible headache, which was still there) and walk around the opera house with fancy backstage wristbands and do whatever we pleased.

Der Schneemann

I took lots of pictures at the ball and everything, but I'll share those tomorrow. For now, I'm going to try to rid myself of sleep deprivation.

still life (294/365a)

some days, i cry out inside for life to go by slower! "Be still, life!" Like today. Home with Felix all day, and every moment a jewel. He listened to a song about die Hagebutte (rosehips) and then ran outside with a pair of scissors (I told him *not* to run, but ... lets be honest, he ran anyways) and brought me a bouquet of them. We spend the morning ice skating together. Then the other kids joined us after school. Also Michi and her kids came to the last 40 minutes of iceskating.

Later Nina came over, and Felix got to show off his new gloves (I bought them yesterday for him and Henry and Ilvy, and another pair today for Theodore) and he got to chose first from three erasers she brought. When Brian got home from the kids classical concert (about modern music by living composers!) the bottle of champagne was pretty much gone. Too bad for him! :) The loaf of rye bread was still warm though, so he and the kids lucked out.

for mama

still life

theodore: i know why the rolltreppe (escalator) is called a rolltreppe. because it goes around on a band. the stairs make a big circle.
felix: everything goes in a circle. all the dirt goes around the sun.

with Ilvy (293/365a)

The last week of ice-skating in the city center. We were picking up kids anyway, so we had Ilvy come along too. Three times her mother called me in the morning to make sure I understood that she REALLY couldn't ice-skate, and did I know that. Yup, I knew, I was fine, I was happy. Reminds me of David H. and his bicycle teaching to all the neighborhood kids, to the sounds of parents saying "he/she can't ride yet." 

She did fine. The funniest thing was she was falling all over the ice, doing simple things, but when she saw Felix fall down, she really truly skated over, helped him stand up (something she hadn't successfully done on her own yet) asked him if he was ok. He skated away just fine, and she fell over just standing there. Somehow when she wanted to help she forgot she didn't know how ;)

waiting for the ice to be polished and clean

three

Yummy vegan dinner, and right off to Nadja (Henry's cello teacher) and her sister's duo concert near Mariatrost. We stayed till half-time, Henry was already asleep, and Theodore was nodding off in the front row. I got to hear some Schulhoff, and some Kodaly, as well as the terrific H-H Passacaglia. cool! Off we went, in the car, through the parking lot, onto a small road, which got smaller, and then bumpier, and then smaller, and then... Ok, we're in a field now. I guess we'll turn around and go the other way. But now we get to see the church from the other side. Look at that!

from a different angle

us being us (292/365a)

Felix went off to kindergarten today in a good mood and came back in a good mood. Susi reported he was very angry at kindergarten all day, but that when she picked him up, he was so happy to get to wear her sunglasses.

my felix growing up, sitting in the front seat

Last minute ice-skating, and last minute quintet meeting to talk about the upcoming ball and what we will do for our next video. Brian and I found out we didn't make our fancy track class, so instead we will just DO CRAZY AMOUNTS OF DANCING on our own. TM. so we started this evening learning some cool stuff. :)

Theodore thinks if he searches the attic long enough he will find a real treasure map, which would have to have been put there before world war i. ....he asserts it would be yellow and crumpled up.

Henry is learning the notes, and has fun quizzing me with note flashcards, and addition flashcards. I suppose he really wants to be sure I know what 7+9 is before I'm allowed to officially be in charge.

dancing at oma's (291/365a)

Very calm and happy day. Hooray.
I didn't even have to cook! Jackie sent delicious soup over for us!
The kids ate an entire stick (half a package!) of butter today on bread. I guess rye bread is healthier in some ways and maybe umm... maybe not if it's covered with butter.
We didn't *even* go ice-skating. instead we just hung around happy.
We all practiced a lot.
Then I went out dancing on my own, and got found by nina and kris. both exhausted and energetic by the end, of course, from dancing. and from biking home and looking at the stars. and hey who can say no to some fortune cookies and wine and popcorn on the couch till 1:30am? nobody :)

we couldn't stand any stiller than this! sorry nina!

auditions (?!?!) (290/365a)

An absolutely completely full Monday. Brian and I played switch hitters to each other, me practicing, brian taking felix to the dr. Nina came over for coffee. we walked together to get the kids. i took them to the library. went to pick up kindergarten kids. made dinner with henry. oversaw homework. made cookies with ronja and felix while henry and theodore were at choir. took all the kids ice-skating. took ronja home. put kids to bed. when andi came to watch them, they were all still up, but in a good happy place. we went off for our lindy audition (to see which class track we can be on) ... danced with  7 dancers to 30 seconds each of a fast and slow song, and then we peer reviewed each other, putting down a number from 0-10 on a little paper and moving on to the next dancer. it was quite exhausting. all the songs left us wanting more. then we came and philosophized heavily with andi until late. :)

whee!

thaler see and thal (289/365a)

It was a gorgeous day for a leisurely walk around thalersee, with Manuela and Dorian. Brian thought it would be too leisurely so he run up and down the plabutsch (that mountain) to meet us on the other side. We plebeians met at the bus, which on sundays has the worst connections ever. No matter, we had fun talking and waiting too. :)

in the pits of landscape photography. how can things get so bad?

closeups are better

We visited the church nearby too, having to cross a very muddy construction site to get there. It's a very strange church, with stone inlaid floors, and marble seats. The kids wanted to run around and play hide and seek.

Dorian preaches about being good to win Super Mario

one tree among many

Afterwards we just happened to have fresh croissants to be put in the oven. and coffee. We warmed up, and had an early bedtime after baths and stories.

when life gives you cake make a party (288/365a)

All morning trio rehearsal for the opera ball. It went really well, in spite of them kind of putting me in charge. I don't really mind being the boss sometimes, I guess. Theodore and I had back to back lessons. We walked back slowly together, talking, and found Brian and the other kids gone on a walk with Andi and his kids. I had lots of comfy quiet time to practice a little more, cook dinner, talk through some Theodore ideas, and invite everyone over. :)

Sometime between talking to Brian and Nina I found out Jackie was coming back from Salzburg, even better!

the last piece

intense ronja eyes

will Nina call set?

When we had exhausted the Foersters, Nina and I stayed up and watched the Philadephia Story with popcorn. A full belly, a full day. A happy belly, a happy day. :) (happy is as happy does - i am riding emotional heat waves that leave me in danger of disintegrating into dust by the strength of a withering glance)

croissantini (287/365a)

A conversation from the end of the day:

Me: how do i find out how to make croissant diminutive in french?
Me: croissantje is dutch
Me: croissantlein is german
N: maybe croissette? ;) crocro? Croissou?



















Me: ummm..........
Me: the rule seems to be
N: croisson?
Me: change the word, and add a suffix
Me: chat becomes minou
Me: so I think
Me: croissant should become....
Me: ......mraiffou
N: vraiment?
Me: maybe it needs an x
Me: croix-sonnet
N: Croixonette!
N: Okay i'll go to sleep now
Me: :) me too

Obviously, "what's in a name" is a lot of thought.

And "what's in a croissant" is a lot of butter :)

What a lovely Friday, spent doing completely luxurious baking, chatting, and just... being.

Theodore captures us being cute

1/2 butter 1/2 flour

done!

In between waiting times, we baked a cake with so many cherries on it it had trouble rising. But we were too full with all our delicious food we couldn't eat any cake that night, so we'll just have to save it for tomorrow. 

We did other things too! We walked to a restaurant, where we were the only customers. We went grocery shopping (cherries!) ... we thought about painting, and talked about yoga. we watched videos. We stayed up late. We drank champagne. Nice work if you can get it. :)

BREAD! FINALLY! (286/365a)

The perfect loaf after 25 years of practicing.

Pretty, soft, fluffy, moist (but not too moist, and not in a gross way), tender, chewy and seedy!

100%rye, fermented soughdough that rose without yeast, good flavor. 

i am so proud! :)

another sick day, except that Theodore was back in school, and I was in the mood to clean everything.

Henry was inspired to cook (he made pizza, and later in the evening, he told me he likes that cheese, but not melted! sigh!) ... Then I went out for lunch with Katja, to give her the cello part for the trios. I realized how very infrequently I make dates with people I don't know well. She's very cool, and I might get to Brandenburg 6 with her! I had breakfast for lunch, but i refuse to call it brunch, brunch means something different! She commented that I ate soft boiled eggs very strangely (peeling them and putting them on toast and covering them with salt and chives)...... what is it about me? why do i invite comment? am I really so weird?

Treasures and Days, Lost and Found (285/365a)

No yoga for me for a couple days now. I think it is weighing on my conscience. I don't know what Buddhists think of consciences, or guilt, I'm pretty sure zen + guilt don't jive, but I guess in my head they do?

 Henry was home now too, so sad he missed his whole class going ice skating. Nina came by, and braved the fever-house for a cappuccino. We stayed indoors and sketched and played, and ended the day with the first half of My Fair Lady. Brian had to work late, trying to finish something for his freelance gig, so I watched old pre-code movies by myself until Felix came to cuddle.

We worked up quite a gigantic store of papers and sketches, nearly all of which are destined for the recycling bin, but somehow the shear variety makes it hard to consider any one piece more trash than another.

sheets and sheets

ramblings of a crazy brain...

all of us helped

also any time i make something like this, they ask if i'm "copying" didi patz. point taken, it is in her style, but she also does it much better.

fish kissing. unfinished forever. 

Now I know why (284/365a)

Now I know why we were all so out of it yesterday. We're all sick! Theodore stayed home with fever today, and when Henry got home from school I decided he probably shouldn't have gone either. I'm achy and tired (but haha, not sure if that's just normal life or not)

I did get a chance to get all my trio music for the opera ball that I'm playing at next (thankfully not this!) weekend. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Boccherini, Sibelius, and Siegl... Siegl? Asks the librarian? implying *one of these is not like the others*

Take them out, and on the way out the door, on a whim, look at the bookshelf of free, really random stuff that people leave there. All music related. On the top, the only one of its kind, I find "Otto Siegl's String Trio" ... The universe has spoken.

my "new" copy

I also went to a parents meeting for Theodore's class, where I met a musician whose kids are named Theodore and Felix. I guess a day of coincidences. 

Mostly we all stayed inside today. Theodore had fun drawing circles with the compass. I learned a few tricks too, ruler and compass construction tricks, and also some coin tricks for Theodore to work on for fun. 

dreamy (283/365a)

can you find them all? triple exposure in the dark. #dropthelens #hatethenoise

everyone was dreamy and confused today. i had to take a taxi to my lesson because my cell phone and my clock were not synchronized and i was calmly sipping coffee and writing notes on some Bach manuscripts when I suddenly noticed I had 12 minutes to get where I wanted to go.

Theodore went directly home instead of to his lesson, also dreaming.

We considered watching  a movie together in the evening but daydreamed directly into night dreams...

AAAH! Where did the day go???

Just for fun

photowalk in the snow (282/365a)

Oh what a lovely day for a walk. Grey, cold and snowing with good shoes, good company and good lenses. :)

Phil picked me up from home when I was barely awake despite being up for hours - the curse of mothers the world over.

We walked and snapped and walked and snapped.

While I was out, Theodore cooked dinner! The rest of the day I mostly just computer worked and Brian took the kids out iceskating.

at least, it was one tree...

the uhrturm, three facing away one looking through a screen (and one, me, looking through a viewfinder)

time stands still for the blind.

at some point, many times, actually, i got the protective plastic bag covering my lens. once though, i actually liked the effect...

it was truly wonderful to just walk around with nothing to do but look through my lens. i take a photo every day, and carry my camera nearly everywhere i go, but photos are the recorders, the afterthought, the side-goal. today they were closer to the main goal, although walking and talking were near the top of the list too.... also not freezing my fingers off or getting water into electronics. next time i take my film camera!

stir-crazy saturday (281/365a)

we were allowed to sleep till 11am! don't know what was happening in the house until then, but i'm sure it was all good ideas

I did awake to find a 3d paper sculpture of some ice-skaters. Nadja teaching Henry downstairs. and Felix preparing to make mushroom sauce (which he slaved over for a few hours, and then didn't eat or even try!!)

on paper-thin ice

washing mushrooms - are they clean enough?

putting a face on both sides of the paper marionette puppet

Ice-skating in the rain wasn't even enough to tire everyone. As Theodore pointed out, he has too many ideas to be able to fit them all into one day.

Well, you're right, Theodore! We can't possibly do everything we want to do, so we'll have to settle for half.

After the kids slept Brian waited patiently for me to finish recording and listening to myself (a good practice technique, even if it is a bit humbling!) play Bach tuned to A-415... eieee, as if playing in tune wasn't hard enough before... and then he waited patiently while i stalled and drank more water... and then he asked "are you still interested in yoga" and i said, i guessed so, and after thinking of a few more other things to do first... i finally did my yoga at 11:30pm ... i like the yoga habit, but i really don't like the habit of leaving it until it's very very very late - although it does make me sleep. (wie einstein. i mean, wie ein stein hahahahaha, still funny)

detox (280/365a)

the diet of today in action...

apples and tea for me, to get rid of the multiday unhealthy "hangover" and to get me back to feeling normal. it feels good for a day or two to take a break from heavy winter food and wine and coffee.

meanwhile, (for some reason, ha!) i was a bit tired and cranky. unrelated, i'm sure.

friday went by though, as usual, in clockwork, and ended with me taking the kids to Ries to watch Salonorchester's last new year's concert for the foreseeable future. Let's just hope everyone gets enough sleep tonight. :)

on top of the world, or rather, on top of the schlossberg (279/365a)

Sore and tired and stiff, probably sick, but who knows? Stayed home with Felix, and got to practice in the morning between strange conversations....


Felix: In the church, why is there that person hanging up with those things in his hands?
Mama: That's a very difficult question. Some very not nice people did that to someone for being nice all the time.
Felix: I wouldn't do that to somebody nice.
Mama: We shouldn't do that to somebody not nice either. Really nice people are nice to not-nice people too.
Felix: Was he a pirate?
Mama: No, he wasn't a pirate. Pirate's are not nice people.
Felix: Some pirates are nice.

Left for our 6pm Schlossberg gig at 4pm, set up, played, waited, played, were asked to play another set while we were getting ready to go, played again, and finally got our well deserved drink.  The lady in charge asked about our name... United Detonations... Ummm....... nope, *not* our name!

We cheered with our Gin and Tonic glasses "Gin Gin"

on top of the world, the colors, the lights, the movement, quick, take a picture
ok, irma, good job, haha.

Happy Calm Day (278/365a)

I slept sooo late today.
Then Nina and I went on a wonderfully meandering walk in the hopes of finding coffee, and we were successful, enjoying some Tribeka caffeine, before work time. I was off to get the car and Felix, and home again, for homework and practicing for everyone. Abenteuerspielplatz was deserted - cold and drizzly scares off all but the most motivated. We were the only ones there outside. Yummy buckwheat waffles for dinner... Mmmmmm!

Cafe Erde with Manuela, where we got to sit on the floor and chat until they kicked us out, then a nice walk home. <3 :)


Mama: Do you miss Agnes?
Felix: No.
<10 minutes later>
Felix: What does it mean, to miss somebody?
Mama: To be sad that someone is not with you.
Felix: No. I am not sad Agnes isn't here. I'm always happy.

....as they say "nomen est omen"

our view from our pillows on the floor

"If you sexist me I will feminist you."

the christmas tree is still lit at the market down the street

mirror picture with winter hats

Theodore invites a Friend (277/365a)

After a year and a half of school, Theodore's invited a friend exactly once. So I convinced him to try again, and he invited Clara ice-skating.

First everyone had to finish their homework, which took forever with them all distracting each other. Then off we went, the five of us. They all did increadibly well. A week and a half ago, Felix couldn't even hold onto the wall without falling down. Now he is the fastest of the group, flying around the big circle and spinning little circles. He is proud to say he "learned how to fall and get back up" from a youtube video. Somewhat true. Mostly he learned it from practice, haha.

I wanted to go to a concert tonight, but Manuela and I were both, unrelatedly, too tired, so I stayed home and hoped for an early night. Dinner was left over kindergarten food. There was a birthday today, so that kid had brought cake, so, not surprisingly, most kids didn't really want "real" food, and just waited for cake instead, so we had a lot of soup left over. Yay for us, less work is good!

a new kind of juggling

Not-Back-In-Routine Monday (276/365a)

Difference between Men and Women:
The Spar told Brian that the package on the right was "all they had" for alphabet noodles, despite asking for the product on the left. The Spar also sells the package on the left. Clearly only for the mama's.

It was such a mess of a day. Really messy.
Normal school day in theory, but Felix decided to stay home.
I had a lesson in the morning, but I wanted to take Felix to the doctor, so Brian brought Felix to my lesson, and exchanged him for Theodore and my instrument. I took Henry too, because why not, we could do his homework in the waiting room.

The doctor was delightful, she talked and talked, we were the only ones there. Henry was fascinated, and didn't do any homework. Felix will be all better, just 5 different skin creams, and we'll be on our way. At the pharmacy, we waited and waited because the robot was not working, and the people there can't actually get the medications without the robots. <true story>

Walk out into the sunshine, glad to have nothing left to do for the day. Phone rings. it's Irmtraud "we have rehearsal now, where are you?" I guess I missunderstood a text message I got while I was in Koper. Well, I'm close by with 2 kids, but no instrument. Poor Brian has just written he's nearly home. "Please turn around stat and bring my stuff and take kids." No work for him anymore today.

The bus schedule couldn't have been less conducive to getting somewhere quickly, none of the good connections worked. Instead we waited everywhere, finally getting there with two hungry kids who between them ate a box of cookies.

A few hours of rehearsal later and I'm on my way home, and for the first time in years, I found myself completely happy with a dinner of ramen and black olives (*after* yoga, of course, not before).