sad day (18/365c)

baby sat michi's kid for a few hours this morning. meanwhile i was weeping on the phone when the kindergarten called to tell me that my own child was being cranky and could i think of a good solution for them? regardless i was sad and weepy all day anyways, and i gave up on the second kindergarten phone call in the afternoon, because i started crying again. ugg.

i planted things all morning, and lots of the afternoon. next up, weeding, but who has the time for that? brian took the older kids to see the final concert of the competition. theodore wasn't playing but he finally got his certificate of winning a first prize in his age group. i'm still proud. :)

at the stefanieensaal

closeup selfie

all day plant market part 2 (17/365c)

Brian got home today early in the morning, fully rested from his night train from Zurich and his day biking around that fair, but fairly expensive, city. I tried to bake cookies in the morning, emphasis on "try" - nothing went right until it was so comically bad I just gave up. Brian decided to spend his day with us at the botanical gardens. at least until he went with henry and theodore to watch theodore in king roger. 

Meanwhile Felix asked nearly every person walking by "would you like to buy an oak tree for 10 euros?"

There were a few main answers:

*ignore/question not understood/"aww you're so cute"

*"no"/"absolutely not"

*"yes i really want it, but aww, i don't have space on my balcony"

*"i don't have money with me right now, i'm just at the market looking around" (one lady even said she would "come back" and buy it after she went to an atm)

but no takers, until finally, one guy said "10 euros is too much, how much can i have it for?" "5 euros, minimum." "ok, 7,50" .... fritz and i looked at each other wide-eyed, and the fritz started giving him all kinds of plants "for free" ... felix was just over the moon happy. he also sold a book he had brought with him. the man wants to make some money - i have no idea why - he doesn't ever want to spend it!

A replanted oak tree ready to go to the market

Fritz drove us home after we helped him clean up. i was exhausted. the kitchen was still a wreck from my failed cookie extravaganza. i covered the room with plants i had bought and gotten from fritz. some i went out and planted in the dark and in the rain.

exhausted among the plants

all day plant market part 1 (16/365c)

Centa and I stood on the porch today at 5am waving goodbye to the taxi taking Mary and Agnes to Krakow. I went back to bed and my kids let me sleep until I was refreshed and rested. I hurried us off to he plant market where Fritz had set up a stand selling beautiful homeground plants, many medicinal, for donations that support the abenteuerspielplatz. There were other people there from the playground, but they didn't stay long. I was so shy I didnt help much with the selling until a few hours had gone by. Felix became obsessed with the idea coming again tomorrow, bringing his oak tree and some other plants with us, and selling things there.

checking out the tropics house

spiral leaf things

reading our new book.
Preussler's Kleine Hexe

There was a big wheel of fortune to spin and the kids each took a spin for a euro. My job today had been letting people win, but I was happy just letting random chance be the ruler here. Felix won a little tiny box filled with little teeny tiny stones. The others didn't win anything, which seemed ok. But the day got slowly colder and colder, and the kids started reading one of the books from the prize pile, which they were totally overjoyed when Fritz just gave it to them.

fritz explaining which precious stones are which

so many full circles... (15/365c)

Ran into so very many people today at random.

Went to take photos of people (barbara's group) and then had coffee with Manuela at some hipster coffee place.

i found Niko again, the guy I met 3 years ago when he helped me fix Theodore's flat tire outside the Bicycle store. I was picking up my bike from being serviced, and he was in exactly the same place as he was then, and he totally recognized me instantly.

Saw Phil the Fiddler on my way to the playground.

Ingrid Czerny brought some clothes for Mary directly to the abenteuerspielplatz. Maria was there too. It was nice to sit around and chat about shamans and energy with the ladies and with fritz.

Fritz asked me if I wanted to visit him at his plant stand tomorrow at the botanical gardens. Since we have no other plans that sounds just wonderful.

hiding at "duck's cafe"

snuggles in the garden

henry being adorable

when life gives you gorgeous weather you buy ice cream (14/365b)

Mary was shopping for quite a bit of the morning/afternoon, which made going to get Felix from kindergarten a bit stressful, but actually my older ones were totally cool being left alone to do their homework etc. Went and got Henry from singschule and Nina biked our way and stopped to walk a ways with us. Henry asked for ice cream and I said he could have some if he did the buying himself. He ordered lemon.

Henry buying at Harry's

chasing music (13/365b)

Brian was long gone when I woke up. I got up when the kids should get ready for school. They did most everything themselves though.

Felix pretended to give me a stamp and then had to draw the image on:
a unicorn

One for Agnes too before 6:30am

Making his own lunch sandwich

Theodore smooshes the fresh cut parsley into the butter #gourmetelementary

Mary and I haven't played really together yet, except with the kids. Still not. Theodore and I played at the old folks home in the hospital district today as part of Thomas' orchestra. I picked him up from school and we made it just in time. It was so warm there! He headed home on his own and I went on to quintet rehearsal. In the meantime Mary took the rest of the kids to drop Felix off at his chorus in town. 

In the style of a cigarette cancer warning:
Sexism causes substantial damage to you and the people in your surroundings 

on a timer. 12 seconds to get it right or try again.

Klaus drove us all home, which involved a long trip all around the city. We live in very different parts of the city and its surroundings.

one last day off from school (12/365b)

no school necessary today. we just found out that the kids had played with silly putty on their beds, and then gone to sleep, and now we had silly putty to get out of everything. we saved that job for late in the evening when we could experiment with things like WD-40 and how that acts on wool blend blankets. We had music lessons though. I waited around while Theodore had his, and then had mine as he walked home. Henry had his at home. Metronome practice coming up.

urban raindrops

Brian had chorus again tonight, although there were very few people there, and he didn't stay after to socialize because he had to pack to leave for london stupid early in the morning. the daily grind starts again tomorrow.

free monday at the schloss (11/365c)

a little too late getting going today, or we would have been able to spend more time with martin who was rushing to leave, since he has to teach a class in koper at 8am tomorrow and still needs to be home alone to do some preparation.
very fun day spent at schloss eggenberg lazing about in the sun, being told that everything was forbidden: picnicking, sitting on walls, walking on grass, throwing balls. went to the archaeology museum too, while we were there. kris joined us. actually, he was going to join us later, but since we were so slow getting there he actually beat us there.

Right before getting kicked off the lawn

sometimes there's a line for the men's room too

egyptian things

Make love not war.

egyptian sillhouettes

We steered them past the rather risque Leda and the swan

Right before getting kicked off the wall

Felix and Agnes contemplating boundaries

We were so sunstruck and tired and headed home. In the evening we got together enough energy to go see Klanglicht in the city with Mary, and watch some solo cello from Kleinhapl. Theodore and Henry sat completely still through an hour of cello music. They were basically falling over tired on the way home.

looking up at the big dipper to the sounds of sommerfeldt's monologie 

lights and fog "in the beehive" (murinsel) on the way back

The city was packed with people, and there was an easter bunny on the top of the schlossberg, which had disappeared by the time we were going home.

easter sunday (10/365c)

woke up stupid early so i could put the easter bread in (it turned out absolutely perfectly! my first time!) and make a spinach souffle before rehearsal...

bed head and pajama souffle chefs

also now traditional, playing in puntigam for the service there. henry had an earache all night, so i just went with centa, and the other three kids. during rehearsal they ate oatmeal for breakfast, read stories outside. during the service they were completely perfectly behaved, calm, quiet and interested. afterwards they found an extra chocolate easter bunny hidden in the grass for henry.

at home again, henry seemed better, the easter egg hunt was immediately in full swing, we set the table and enjoyed our breakfast.

sang songs afterwards and there was lots of random nap taking. and in the evening we even had rice! :)

a subset of the party

me and henry and felix. 

finding an egg - waaay too easy, and yet it was one of the last ones!
my papa's rule: in plain sight

i didn't notice that mary's unbelievable asparagus tart is cut off in the corner
oops
it really was a looker
the whole dinner was really very pretty
martin said it was the prettiest breakfast he had ever been at
agnes said of the tart: "mama, the presentation is very good. but this is very bad"
to be fair, i think a savory tart following a portion of whipped cream and berries is a bad idea

i snuck upstairs to find the kids cutting a ream of paper into small pieces to make paper money. a lot of the bills were of value "0 cents" which makes me feel the currency may soon implode in an existential crisis. as i sat observing and eavesdropping, theodore asked agnes if she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up and she answered "no, i can be a scientist right now"

visitors arrive and we paint eggs (9/365c)

some slovenians arrived today, and we painted eggs and went on a terrific (now nearly traditional) walk up the kalvarianberg.

the easterbread dough looked successful, more alcohol than ever in the dough, and it rose happily.
when i asked the general public what they wished for for breakfast tomorrow, the only wish spoken was martin's: "rice."

opening christmas presents that we had brought back from the US

sunglasses ladies

dandelion dreams

brian ran with theodore while the rest of us walked
he caught up to us, but ran a bit farther and met us at the top

mary and henry shadow play <3

felix and agnes collecting some kind of tree flower that they called "caterpillars"

egg painting kitchen party nearing evening

we sang the miserere around the easter fire - henry needed no helium to hit the high c. ingrid cz. came by and sang with us. she brought each kid a kinder surprise egg and hid them. we tried to get them to find the eggs by suggesting they get sticks for the fire and they kept actually finding sticks. finally one found a chocolate egg and they were so excited, but it was already quite dark, so they all got headlamps. that might have been the funnest easter egg hunt ever. our fire was a stack of pinecones that i poured wax over. it was very perfect. we sang some more, talked some more, and didn't stay up way too late cooking or cleaning, although centa and brian went to act easter bunny in the dark.

good friday (7/365c)

In the evening, Brian sang at the church, and I took all the kids, even though it was really late. they've been staying up pretty late though so i thought it would work. and it did! they sat quietly listening to Brian and the choir sing Wolfram Menschik's "Johannespassion" - a really beautiful work. The service was complete with people laying flowers on the grave of Jesus and priests laying on their bellies and lots and lots and lots more incense.

at home in pajamas it is suddenly important to drink bubbly water
felix pours for theodore

holy thursday (6/365c)

met up with kerstin and her kids in the stadtpark and found maria and gabrielle, who we then had over for our thursday bread and wine tradition. i dropped my knives off to get sharpened. he asked me to pick them up next week and i begged to pick them up tomorrow until he agreed. i am so excited to have sharp knives again.

it was waaay too late for stories
so i sang the kids to sleep

sushi (5/365c)

"Robin's cooking me a late supper."
"Right"
"He's doing sushi"
"Oh, so not actual cooking."
-Alan Davies in Whites

brian was inspired this morning to wish for sushi, so we attempted our own very succesfully. theodore and henry arrived home on time and tired out, and devoured all this food and all the rest of the food they could find and then conked out after baths.

cutting is the hardest part
as long as don't mistake a cup of soy sauce for coffee

a day in kindergarten (4/365c)

felix working hard on his
"zauberdingsbums"
"magic-thinga-ma-jig"

everyone was relaxed in kindergarten, and i stayed the day but i didn't do much: just sat by the stove and read my book. brian dropped henry off at the summer alm and joined us for the abschlusskreis. a very quiet afternoon with just me and felix and we had no obligations. brian didn't even have choir.

moan-day (3/365c)

Henry was up most of the night with an ear-ache, and after the costume tryout for tosca he had a dentist appointment where he had his dark tooth removed. The 3 day trip to the sommeralm started today, supposedly with both Theodore and Henry, but we decided right away that with earache and dentist it was a good day to keep Henry.

Smile!:
Theodore smiles. Henry doesn't even try.
Lots of luggage for dünnerbär

One tooth less.
Ad in the background says:
Henry, bring the car around.

Felix wrote notes for Brian and me with highlighter, and the notes got more and more complicated.

Felix folding my letter for me.
Then I'm allowed to open it and read it.

went to sleep with the fresh news that notre dame was burning! :(

palm sunday and the eddie izzard show gone right (2/365c)

Palm Sunday was just a delightful morning, I wore my dirndl (from Nina's grandmother) for the first time, although it was rainy and cold. I will wear it again next week. We went into town early in the morning to watch Brian sing in the cold.

Watching

It was very nice, though we almost came late, because sometimes getting people out the door early on Sunday is not so easy.

Brian and Michi singing

On the way home, we saw these people walking together. I thought it looked funny. I don't know if they were together.

serendipity?

Unfortunately all serendipity ended there. Michi hung out with us for a few minutes and one quick cup of coffee and then I briefly contemplated seeing Eddie Izzard in a dirndl, but decided it was too cold. I left for the train at the very last minute because Felix was throwing a tantrum and needed cuddles. When I got there, I found I had no wallet. Brian rushed to get me some money so I could buy myself a ticket anyways, but he was 2 minutes too late, so I waiting 10 minutes for the next bus to take me home. 

At least I could have dinner with my family. That was nice. I called Maria and asked to use her car to drive to Ljubljana, and she agreed. I ended up driving back home to get my phone charger and I was so glad I did, because I really needed it. I was totally and completely zen while I was stuck in traffic for a LONG time. An hour before the show I got to Ljubljana, and thought I would have no problem getting to the center in an hour. My phone decided I didn't need data in Slovenia, and I got more and more lost in Lubljana, and I could only look at a map if I was stopped at a gas station. Finally I called Brian in tears, and he played GPS, and I walked into the doors of the cultural center at 19:58, only to find I had dropped my ticket on the way from the car. Thank goodness for Slovenia, they let me in when they saw that there was exactly one seat left, and that Brian had texted me exactly that seat number. I walked into the hall the exact same time as Eddie Izzard. Man was that crowd happy to see me :)

Barbara has those shoes!

The show was....... wunderbar! I was totally relaxed once I settled into my seat, and I got to say hi to Barbara and Jure afterwards. We went and got a burger. I ordered a "veggie burger" which (who knew) was just a gigantic bun with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. Still fine though. Drove home to get back at about 2am. more than 12 hours spent on the show, but still worth it i think.