nagging ...(182/365d)

sometimes i feel like people have taken out a mortgaging my mental real-estate ....

i had to remind the kids 1000 times to do a end-of-the-year letter for their teachers that everyone else in the class has already done and handed in. stupid really, but it still cluttered my brain

at least he was happy to get it done

i practiced a lot and fueled up on alone time, with kids gone at the playground and brian at choir.

From our own garden!

i harvested only a few artichokes, because somebody destroyed one of the plants. i was a bit sad about that, but at least i got a few good ones from that plant.

no picture..... (181/365d)

Elke, and then a whole logistical dance in the rain.
It went from being 35 degrees and stifling to 11 degrees and windy and raining.

TWICE in a row, twenty minutes apart, i ordered two bowls of soup with three spoons at the same restaurant. Once with Theodore and once with Henry. Both times with Felix. We sat at the same 2 chairs outside in the one tiny spot that wasn't rained on.

Organ lessons and violin lessons and choir - each of them played a song on the organ during choir - the last day is always ice-cream and a tour of the church organ.

I went home to get to quintet rehearsal on time. went there early, got done late. olena had a mini-sadness-breakdown, so instead of rehearsal i did my part of the recording for our next projects.

Shared a glass of celebratory wine afterwards and tried to draw cows and bicycles.

in which we fill our free days with projects (180/365d)

stattegg in the morning, and yes, we were all still very tired.... felix and i had coffee and reading in the tree house... as soon as theodore and henry were back from orchestra rehearsal in stattegg they played under the treehouse...

using the fire-hose swing as a reading nook
i gave him ducks, Newburyport as a prop
which he then dropped in the dirt 

henry driving a boat

i worked on recording projects all day, but found time to make pizza and go roller blading with henry. theodore originally came with us but he didn't cooperate.

some reading, brian started ducks, newburyport and hasn't thrown it across the room yet - by accident or even on purpose.

we made an amazing fennel salad and ate it outside in the rain before the thunderstorm fully developed.

i worked on making the first ever recording of magdalene boucherit le faure's legende for violin and viola. i was generally unhappy with my playing and it took me all day, but i did it and posted it on youtube for the 1 other person in the world who may one day be interested.

i guess staying up late makes me tired (179/365d)

Kids in stategg for orchestra practice day - 8 hours... I thought i would get done everything in the world... but i was so very tired

felix was adorable, he helped me water the garden, played lots of pinochle, played his piano duets with me, and read a lot.

when brian came back from dropping the kids off at stattegg he went to the farmer's market and then promptly went to sleep for a few hours.

pauli came over right when i got into the working groove, but it was ok, i was not particularly efficient. from my spot from different perspectives i saw these two:

multi-tasking

mono-tasking

the nice thing... we didn't have to cook, jacky called with a spontaneous invitation to dinner and we grilled and had salads, so nice... only problem was we went to sleep quite late again.

*only* second prize (178/365d)

picked theodore up after an hoursworth of school today to bring him to his preparation for the prima la musica competition where he played and warmed up well, and then did a very good job. after a gorgeous walk on the schlossberg with ice cream and sun and chatting we went back for the jury decision. elke got there completely out of breath 5 minutes after her rehearsal at the opera had finished, to hear the judge announce that theodore had a 2nd prize (there are multiples of each prize) he was so disappointed that he remained monosyllabic and quiet and upset.

warming up in times of corona

henry and theodore had stattegg for the rest of the day. felix and i had our own getting ready for bed party. brian left for choir before theodore and henry got back. after a short amount of story time i got to talk to labeeby for a short time, and to bruno about a composition i had screwed up the courage to send him. his thoughts on the composition:

...this music is not like water. it is mineral music... you write like granite: hard like a tombstone
reminds me of messiaen's bird music
There is no development: just goes from gem A to gem B to gem C...

at 11 oclock i noticed theodore's light was still on :(
brian and i went for a nice long walk/run... unfortunately it was very late when we got to bed, but i guess it was worth it.

the clouds burst (177/365d)

niko came over in the morning - we sat on the floor with some tea and discussed books for an hour until i had to pick up theodore to take him to his practice for tomorrow's prima la musica. 

Felix's piano lesson! so proud of him for going in alone. Brigitta was right - he's a different person without his parent with him. I had to practically FORCE brigitta to take our money though...

there was a lot of rain, sudden cloud bursts - the perfect evening to sit inside watching singing in the rain with popcorn, it was perfect popcorn too with the last of the american nutritional yeast

and during that time i went to the weird la strada workshop (for "vigil graz"), where we learned to stand still ... saw the principle of our school there, and was a bit weirded out about the difference between someone you only know formally and a bunch of easy-going strangers.

they don't look like storm clouds....

less is sometimes more (176/365d)

Felix wrote a beautiful letter to grandpapa - it took several hours and it was just really nice to see how carefully he worked and how much more he wrote. word count also was very important. the goal was 200. which he reached - exactly - including his name.

while he wrote, I read ducks, Newburyport.... Felix pointed out "if this book was boring we could cut it up like Theodore's" referring to Theodore's book-box project a few days ago.

Henry was so motivated by the promise of visiting his friend Niklas that he was done with his homework in record time.

I played Pinoche. - Felix still has to teach me the rules.

he can be a patient teacher

i was nervous and unprepared before my Buffaloes rehearsal this evening, which went kind of ok in the end. i went for a run on my own when i got back and felt much better.

stickball is NOT baseball (175/365d)

I drank my coffee this morning outside on the porch stairs as Henry did his homework with me. That was quite nice, and he worked quite quickly.

Fritz made a handle for Stickball with Theodore and Henry at the abenteuer spielplatz.

Neanderthal club or child's game in 2020?
Theodore made all of this himself except the rubber handle
that Fritz made out of an old innertube 

The rules
written in GOLD pen

Felix auditioned for singschule ....first he didn't sing at all. he confided on the way that he felt a bit shy, and then when we walked into the room he essentially melted. Andrea said she knew his singing anyway and that he was accepted. but then he insisted on singing so we waited until Andrea had a free moment between auditions and he went in all on his own, sang his song and came out proud and happy at having bested that.

... we went afterwards to walk around town and visit some second hand shops. we bought a cool book about the star signs and the stories behind them.... which we found out when we got home was a terrible book about astrology and how the star signs affect people in different and totally nonsense ways so i brought that book directly to the give away bookshelf, but i even feel a bit guilty about that.

best of mondays, worst of mondays (174/365d)

best of mornings, worst of mornings.
we read ronja robber's daughter in bed and then had a really bad homework session

i left for a scant hour and a half for my lesson with elke - who determined my bach going well

they had organ lessons and those not in the lessons, hung out in the hallway bread and cheese - we found a baby bird and tried to rehome it because it was motionless in the middle of the street. it might just have been scared. it seemed to have flown off a few minutes later.

we played ZEBU - a fun little game that Grandpapa sent by magic mail - first very frustrating the felix though he quickly began to be a masterful player

what number am i thinking of?

i took Theodore's to the stadtpark to practice traffic rules for his upcoming biking exam

there was chorus and i had time for one game of pinochle with felix before i had to go again to quintet rehearsal which was smashing! and there was wine!

project started, project finished (173/365d)

croissants and roller blading with the foersters at 9am, on henry's insistence. i had to run back home to get to quintet rehearsal on time. the rehearsal went quite nice. when i got home the foersters and the mulberry pie was gone (well, i still got a piece) and brian finished that boaz-jachim book.

theodore had a really cool project that he finished

 an exacto-knife and a (maybe too-interesting book)

he read about hiding your diary in a book and went down the street to the free-bookshelf and got himself a book last week. after cutting out about 50 pages he started to tape them back in again because it was such an interesting book about the opium wars. so he went back to the free-bookshelf again and got a really intensely horrible book. and cut the pages out one at a time. brian and i had to help him a lot at the end because he made the opening *exactly* the same size as his diary, which meant it didn't actually fit in when he finished. so we used the drill and a dremel and other power tools to fit it in for him. i was impressed and proud of his perseverence. even i had blisters from using the exacto knife, and i didn't even do that much of it.

we talked to grandpapa and didipatz (i even got to say hello to ivette and mama!)

rush hour mulberry pie (172/365d)

made mulberry pie with mulberries that brian gathered

that's what i call instagram worthy food
not that i have instagram

henry played rush hour getting all the way through all the cards, "expert level"

his 40th puzzle

Also he played it with agnes over skype, she told him which one to move...to me that sounds tedious and not-fun for both parties

But they enjoyed it

we all talked with grandpapa for a nice long time

biked to the konservatory with theodore and practiced for prima la musica... i thought we would be practicing with christian, the accompanist, but we were just alone. so we got a few minutes in the hall to get used to acoustics and i got to play a bit on a steinway.

theodore practiced his biking for his upcoming biking-license test.

we got everyone to get their pajamas on in under a minute by promising a "pajama cookie" (left-over pie dough baked into little cookies) to anybody who could do it. if only we could do that sometimes without the cookie part.

16 years married (171/365d)

i was sick today, no reason, brian thinks it's what he had last weekend. tired and headachey.
but felix and i went to the library and got out books

i swore i'd never been in the basement before
but felix said i'd been there with him once
and brian said i'd been there with him once
who should i believe?

and we both read a lot together. we did homework all together. in fact read all of Hoban's The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz in one sitting - a book definitively NOT for children that I found in a children's section of a used-book-store in england a few months ago, where the back cover raved about being like c.s. lewis and tolkien - it's not at all. it's allegorical and gorgeously written, and completely inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18.

they took themselves to the playground, to their orchestra rehearsal, and home again.
brian had choir practice.

technically today was our 16th year anniversary, but we didn't do much to celebrate past some ibuprofens and some dish washing.

rejected and accepted (170/365d)

walk in the woods with jacky and vito... a little weird, when we dropped off zorah at kindergarten actually, to be there again and not know anybody.
at home i tried meditation with renate over the phone, but that was kind of a failure. i was laying down and just fell asleep and woke up groggier than ever.

while henry went to singschule i went for a walk at hilmteich with theodore and felix - we found not one mushroom, but we had fun anyways. only not fun thing was wearing masks in the tram - it's already quite hot anyways.

took felix to a lesson with brigitta and he was quite uncooperative. she suggested he come alone next week and felix refused completely. now i have bribed him with the idea that if he goes in without me and cooperates next week he can chose any film he wants and we will watch it the second we get home ... *with popcorn*..... let's see what happens.

i put felix on the bus home on his own though, and stayed at jakominiplatz to do wikipedia editing with the group - in real life! we celebrated the last one before the summer break with some champagne - one of the other girls said "her first time having rose champagne" ... nina and i just giggled at that. i edited the entry on electronic music to add daphne oram, and by the time we had finished drinking the edit had been rejected.

last wiki-session till the fall...

i walked home with nina and brian had made dinner for me, but nina didn't stay. i spent the next hour at home fixing my edit so that it would be accepted and now it has stuck.

"so viel energie!" (169/365d)

henry was really really cranky - and i didn't handle it that well, at least in large part because i had a bad headache. :( the others were in a good mood, so i rustled up some energy to play hanabi outside in what started as a really perfect-weathered day

there was also (related to our crankiness? unrelated? who can tell?) a terrifying thunderstorm that then caused an internet outage right as i was in the middle of a wonderful conversation with my papa.

at this time i would also like to ask: what's better a better breakfast for the first day of a period than "pain au chocolate"? especially one hiding with nina in the garden?

at my buffaloes rehearsal this evening things went pretty well - they didn't notice i had a headache and even said i was terrific and really full of energy ... hmmm...

don't i look full of energy?

hoop singing (168/365d)

to practice for felix's upcoming audition for singschule i tried to get him to sing his song a few times, but he didn't want to, until i challenged him to do it *while* hula hooping... which he did, and it was so funny and cute to watch!

last night, while talking with nick i put some milk and a few spoonfuls of yogurt in my oven at 30 degrees... this morning, i had perfect yogurt. after a bit of straining it was greek yogurt...
it let me take its portrait with a bit of honey...

perfect

of course, i didn't get much of it.... it was eaten up in about 8 seconds by the male members of the family.

while brian had choir cafe, i talked to bruno

paying the stupid tax(i) (167/365d)

such an easy going day... no feeling of urgency or pressure.

when i was walking with felix we saw a sign:
"art finds you"
to which felix said "i don't think art finds you, i think you have to find art"

There was so much chauffeuring though, back and forth with each kid in a really inefficient schedule. lots of homework, chorus*3, organ*2, violin*1...  my phone was blissfully out of battery..... when i got home, i found this....

ooops!
"we messed up"
he even left me the kids phone in case i couldn't use mine

quick taxi to rehearsal... quintet was all very nice about it.... they had worked a lot without me, and when i joined everything just fit perfectly.

father's day (166/365d)

read some "ducks, newberryport" early in the morning on the porch with my coffee, since i had no room in my bed - it was piled high with 1 husband and 3 sons. i wanted to take a photo, but henry noticed me and laughed and everyone woke up.

brian brought henry to nadja's house for a lesson - they biked there and back. then he cooked dinner. that's a good way to spend father's day, i think.

we went rollerblading again - this time in on-and-off-again rain.

we played lots of hanabi (felix's gift from manuela) and set; and we played plenty of music, including a wonderful rendition of 3 part harmony on good-night irene.

went to bed much earlier than yesterday.

nothingness, fathers day... felix gave him a present he's been saving for weeks - a heart-shaped rock
roller-skating while brian took a nap - with michi and raphi - marko worked on the balcony floor

heart-shaped rock <3

celebrate! (165/365d)

Today we worked very hard to make Felix' birthday a success without doing any actual planning.
Mostly in the morning I had to last-minute shop for gifts, which involved running (literally) around town in the hot sun... on the way back i was draped in an impulse-purchased hula-hoop. theodore and henry hid all the gifts and felix and i made cake.

Nina came over for grilling, and we enjoyed perfect outdoor weather despite all the threatening weather forecasts.

hooping

gathered round, singing

felix gathered all the raspberries. we tried to help
but he was faster and better at finding

felix's favorite present was the little gemstone kit where you "dig" for stones... it was cute and fun but the opposite of educational - they even forgot to change the word "paleontologist" to "geologist" in the instructions.

starting to "dig"

first finding

all found, an amethyst, a quartz and a tiger eye

We went roller blading afterwards and then the foersters came over and played till very late (later than we expected because we adults sat on the porch and discussed deep world problems)
felix pronounced the party a success, and i was awarded 28(!) hazelnuts for my cake.

happy birthday felix (164/365d)

we didn't celebrate felix's birthday today, but we did have lots of fun ...
a sushi picnic on the mur
and the rest of a cake that centa made for her seminar colleagues
and we picked cherries on the mur
and got new watches in the mail
and read books together
and played piano together

picnic selfie on the rocks

making their own sushi on the waters' edge

i went for a run this morning listening to a radiolab podcast about responsible police conduct and how difficult it is to discern in a court of law. - it was my first time trying to run with earphones, and it was a half-success. next time over-the-head head-phones, not ear-buds.

made delicious bread that didn't even get tried yet because everyone was still full from sushi and cake.
stattegg rehearsal for the two older ones while felix and i first looked at photos from 2013 and then chatted with my papa and looked at photos from 1993 and 1994 that were newly scanned.
nostalgic in the evening, crying about puff the magic dragon and singing goodnight irene with my kids who were trying their best to sing as silly as possible because, afterall, *they* weren't nostalgic ......
chatted with edward in the evening while brian was at choir and then out very late with chorcafe.

cranky holiday (163/365d)

lots of wasted time today, it was a gorgeous perfect day and we barely were outside. except for 20 minutes of rollerblading and diablo with felix and henry after several hours of whiningly asking when we would go outside but nobody getting ready. but in general i actually personally got a lot done. brian was working all day, as its not a holiday in boston, and i sent in my introduction for wassanaer's concerti armonici, and did some arranging, some fiddle practicing, listened to some stockhausen and some schulhoff, and even read henry miller's "smile at the foot of the ladder" and read bedtime stories to the kids ... so some actual things.

for fun i let theodore try listening to emerald heart - bruno's synthesized masterpiece.

that's my fiddle in the background
getting a few minutes rest 

summer rain (162/365d)

woke up with a henry and felix snuggling in my bed. two hours later nobody had finished breakfast or started homework.
i went for my morning run to gather school materials felix had left in school and which he needed to start his homework. on the way back i met manfred for a brief moment.

there was a huge thunderstorm right when the kids got ready to walk out the door. the rain came down in sheets, and the downspout on the reisingerhouse even came down. we sat there watching the rain and the lightning for a while and then when it had cleared up a bit they went to the abenteuerspielplatz.

tried to get macro rain shots but then the water just came down so hard i was soaked
with no good video or photo to show for it

fiddled around with my fiddle while the kids played scratch and felix read about christopher columbus. he is reading like mad right now - i am very pleased even though i have to pick up books from all over the floor the tables the chairs.

talked to bruno at night about astronomy, music, experimental techniques in novels and cooking.

we can't buy everything (161/365d)

I spent the entire day at my computer working on music for tonight's buffaloes rehearsal. I ended with enough time to go on a very quick shopping trip with Brian, where we were trying to max our spending with our 20% off everything coupon. We didn't make it to the max. Not even close. We just don't need so much stuff!

found this morning...
kind of ugly, but it's also just a teeny tiny one

Buffaloes rehearsal that didn't go so very long, since we didn't need to work so much on the songs. That's also good. I was home before Henry was asleep. Brian and I went for a run up and down the schlossberg. They were repainting the lines in the streets - the paint smells so very terrible and so very far. If we hadn't been trying to avoid the stench we wouldn't have crossed the river and then we wouldn't have gone up the schlossberg, so I for one was happy with that situation.

back to "normal" crazy monday (160/365d)

Monday was so crazy again, and there wasn't even any school.
Lessons and choir and rehearsal.

Of course it didn't help that I was up at 3am, and updating my blog and working on Buffaloes music. But surprisingly I wasn't really tired, just a bit slower than usual.

I brought Felix to choir and spent a lot of time working on macro-video taking. I couldn't get the tripod to cooperate, but I found some cute ants and raindrops. The other mothers from choir thought I was really weird, crawling around on the ground in the drizzle.

a rain drop!

Our next quintet rehearsal was stupendous, and ended with a laughing fit, the way every rehearsal always should.

fancy breakfast (159/365d)

Fancy Breakfast morning. although everyone was a bit cranky from the full day yesterday we found a way to get ourselves into a good mood and enjoy our breakfast. Nina brought croissants, Centa made english muffins. Brian put the toaster outside. Felix picked herbs. Henry set the table and took the picture. Theodore joined us at the last minute because he was busy copying tennyson poems.

the adults

Brian picked 7 strawberries
and felix picked 14
and calculated that everyone could have 3.

I decided the pogo stick was too loud for Sunday in the city so I tried to divert Henry to learning the diablo. He got better and better and only stopped when Ronja and Zorah came over for roller blading practice. I went with them, but no sooner had we really started practicing but I noticed I had to leave for rehearsal.

I met Barbara at her new apartment and got a little mini tour and then we finally, after what feels like forever had a quintet rehearsal again - which was delightful because it felt like we were just back to normal - our together playing was of course a bit minorly rusty but we could dive right into work.

the fly-nal countdown

i biked home at dusk and was dead tired - asleep shortly after 10.

12 hours with the foersters (158/365d)

we picnicked with the foersters on a breakfast knoll by the mur.... an idyllic spot right on the bicycle path, on the edge of the bird sanctuary, with a little creek to play in. we had fresh bread (the best and fastest ever - thanks to the rising in the new oven and herb butter that henry and i made.

felix and zorah
theodore
ronja and henry

we lazed in the sun until we all had some sunburns and then went our separate ways for lunch. they came back for roller skating - their kids don't have the inline skates and it was their first time and i didn't know how to teach them or what to tell them, but felix somehow found a way to show zorah how to do it. it was so hot in the sun. the kids made fun of me and said they would write a story about "irma hat so eine rote nase"

they went off to play legos at their house, and i got my house to myself so i could bake a cheesecake and some more bread. now i can program my oven to turn off automatically, so when i got a call from pauli asking if i wanted to go to a concert at the mur beach, i just left.... i was very motivated and energetic about the whole thing till i was at the mur beach and found out the concert was at city beach and was really loud and ... meh... so i left soon after and brought my cheesecake to the foersters where we enjoyed it after veggie kebaps and wine. at 9pm we got home again - and boy were we all tired!i did still get a chance to catch up with kris in france but eventually i was just too tired for talking too.

new things (157/365d)

since we had a new stove being delivered today, i desperately needed to paint that corner on the room so i did that homework time - despite the paint that we had being completely ruined - i just used artists acrylic paint instead for the touch-up job - a bit expensive if you were to do a whole wall but perfectly serviceable for now.

too felix to his first brigitta lesson since long before the pandemic and he did such a great job there.

we had jackie and ronja for lunch/dinner all while nadja was here for henry's lesson. and then we all together brought a fig tree whip to jackie's house, rolling the big pot full of dirt the km there and back
theodore and henry had a stattegg rehearsal and felix and i waited around till the new stove and washing machine got here.

then brian was done with work and the three of us walked and ran and biked along the mur, gathering fruit along the way.

brian and felix in the tiny cherry tree

we arrived back at flosslendplatz serendipitously at the same time as theodore and henry.

we made spinach pancakes for dinner and i had a catch-up chat with manuela

bread rising in the new oven
it's so pretty

emerald heart (156/365d)

shopping with brian in the morning. we went all over the city, first for appliances, then the farmers market, and finally bought flower pots - for which we went to 4 different stores. came back, cooked and then went roller blading with henry after school..

i biked henry (fast!) to sing schule and read (theodore's book, the house of arden) and wrote (2 poems!) in the hof.

buffaloes rehearsal went well again, i have my work cut out for me for the next few days.
then i lay under the table in the living room and listened to bruno's extensive (16 minutes!) strange-but-beautiful electronic music composition (title: emerald heart) with 8 different levels of surround sound and discussed it with him afterwards while brian had a now-normal 10pm work meeting and went for his run.

listening: from above

listening: looking up

letter from april arrives in june (155/365d)

took a walk this morning up the schlossberg with michi which was really nice. when i got home, there was a letter waiting on the stair for theodore, sent from worcester on april 7th... finally arrived. i waited till everyone was home from school and then we had a grand opening of the missive, which was actually for everyone.

reading momement

pauli came over and sat with me in the garden for a while, drinking tea and letting off steam ...
michi came back over with the news that she officially did quit her job (as she had discussed earlier with me on the walk) and centa brought out some holundersect and we made a very tiny mini celebration out of it.

it started to rain in the evening but the full moon was bright and the clouds were actually completely unbelievable. brian and i went out in the rain for a jog which eventually extendend into a long walk.

things are starting to reopen (154/365d)

abenteuerspielplatz opened again after a long time... Felix wanted to be the VERY first kid in (he wasn't but close) and they went there and stayed as long as possible. Henry and Brian picked up roller blades the correct size for Henry and. Theodore had a skype lesson because of yesterday's holiday.

when they got back, although it was late, we read a bit with agnes - animals build amazing homes. henry was so sad that i told him it was too late to go skating, so he and i roller bladed at the last minute while the others took their baths. (and on the way back some creepy guy tried a pick-up line about how i must be henry's baby-sitter because i don't look like a mom. what is wrong with people?)

no picture for today, because they were all bad - just experimental lighting shots that didn't work out.
but i did write a haiku for bruno who's working on stockhousen's tierkreis:

our stars don't align
we're born beneath another
false zodiac sign

hexeneier (153/365d)

a wonderfully comfy reading nest in bed this morning

henry made a tool to hold the book open

theodore concentrating

and when felix finished reading, he went to make his breakfast oatmeal...

balancing on the refrigerator

and then we rustled ourselves into gear and went to hilmteich with pauli. brian had to work today because his incoming, new job is in boston. he had to work on memorial day because his outgoing job is in vienna.

pauli and i had lovely conversations wandering around with the kids following around and finding new places, mushrooms, plants... new to us, i mean. like these witches eggs, "hexeneier" - the egg stage of the stinkhorn mushroom

newly dug out

freshly cut open

supposedly you can eat them raw... (eww?) but we settled for coffee/ice cream instead.

happy hikers

back at home nina and her parents came over to look at our asparagus patch and to ask for growing tips while centa and the kids played pinochle.

we played music and went roller-blading and then we cooked those weird hexeneier....

very strange - kind of crunchy
tasted a bit nutty and pleasant like radish
but also we had to convince our psyches to try to enjoy them

we liked the champignons that we collected better and ate them standing up by the stove, out of the frying pan before bed.