(334/365d)

What a Monday. There were online music lessons and all together, including school, Theodore had 5 or 6 hours of video conferencing

Brian ran the kids to organ lessons and while waiting for them to be done finished reading the Bulgakov book we are reading together, so now I can finally finish it. 

Now both Theodore and Henry have started using our very old puch bicycles for the primary bike. It just is easier in the city. It's cute to see them heading out on Mama's old red Sprint and another old Clubman.

Papa's audio advent calendar today was Jenö Lisztes & the Roby Lakatos ensemble playing the flight of the bumblebee. Felix danced like crazy to it, with his own unique version of tap-stamp-dancing.

capturable only by video, he was moving so fast.
and what are the others doing?
setting up centa's advent calendar

First Sunday in Advent (333/365d)

I expended quite a bit of energy to overcome the status quo of staying inside on such a gorgeous day. Finally I was successful! We were out on the Mur, for a short time only, but better than nothing. I gathered branches for the advent wreath, and then made it before I had to leave for quintet rehearsal - where we spent several hours doing more filming for corporate christmas parties that have been moved online. We have one customer so far, lets see if we get even a single one more.

one candle, because we haven't made more yet!

Theodore had homework to do because he hadn't done it last week, and that wasn't my favorite thing because of course I wanted a quiet Sunday with no deadlines. That's ok. Felix and Henry and Centa and Edward played a complicated game of four player pinochle while Theodore did online work. ewww.

And then we sang songs around the wreath and let us say, for posterity, there were no tantrums at bedtime.

in the middle of nowhere but still in the city. (332/365d)

We went to find the swing again - the one we couldn't find on our own. A school friend of Henry's showed us, and we had great fun biking, then hiking, then swinging (and finding mushrooms and playing games and hiding in the woods)... All fun until Felix hit Theodore in the face with a willow twig (ouch!) and got so cold he went home early. We were cold when we got home too! First minor snow dusting, and it was so pretty in the woods. When we went last time we weren't even very far from the swing, we just missed it.

new bike for Theodore: only 3 or 4 times older than he is

swing in the woods in the snow

We had made a list of things we wanted to do as a family today, we did some of the things, but not all of them, but we ended the day as promised by finishing watching Ruddigore. 

friday that feels like saturday (331/365d)

The phone rang today at 10:05 - are you still coming? ..... Aaah, I forgot I wanted to go for a walk with Brigitta! Because of Thanksgiving, I had completely forgotton that today wasn't the weekend, in fact just a plain ordinary Friday with homework and everything else. We had a lovely walk and chat anyways, in perfect weather - we even went up and down jakobsleiter!

The video from my quintet of piazzolla's oblivion finally was finished and posted. I was so proud to see it for the first time all the way through - I must have watched it 10 times today with various people.

I wasn't the only one though, who offered cultural input....

Centa had ordered Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore at some point, and had started getting the children excited about seeing it (a musically delightful production, by the way, with some very very strange visual effects) already on our previous hike up the plabutsch by telling them the story all cutesy. We watched half of it today, and saved the rest for tomorrow.

Edward gave Theodore a book that he remembered particularly fondly from his childhood, "castle in the attic" and for fun we decided to all read it aloud as our next family project. 

I have so many projects hanging over my head, and they are making me a bit anxious. I don't like the feeling. Brian is helping me with one of them, creating a website, and we started today, but the more I work on it, or think about it, the more overwhelmed I feel. 

Locked-down Thanksgiving (330/365d)

Lots of Thanksgiving stuff this morning, but also other things - music theory class online, and zoom schooling.... Here it's not a holiday after all, so we can make it as we like.

Pajama boys mushroom chopping

All dressed up for Fancy Thanksgiving, complete with name cards

We did the traditional round where everyone had to say one thing to be thankful for

Felix couldn't decide, but after being bribed by pie he came up with something
...with some secret help in the form of whisperings from Onkel Ludwig

the thanksgiving table

we forgot to contra dance, but we didn't forget to play jingle bells with actual bells (centa and the two and a half kids - felix got nervous and gave up) and we didn't forget to pass the whipped cream.

thanksgiving preparations (329/365d)

Kids did double homework. And Pickwick society. Sometime halfway through the day we started cooking for tomorrow, baking pies ... And didn't stop till nearly midnight when I was totally beat.

We baked really so many things. Actually, we didn't just bake, we prepared *everything* for thanksgiving, including making fresh bread for stuffing and more fresh bed for dinner rolls, and cranberry sauce and so much more - I don't think we've ever been more prepared for Thanksgiving, and tomorrow we are just going to 8 people (us 7 and Nina)

full of emptiness (328/365d)

I ask myself....... what actually happened today?

We did lots of stuff, but the day stretched out long and felt empty.

Niko visited and we talked about books while the kids did homework - we didn't borrow any new books from each other, but he still has one of mine at home, so he will have to come back one day. :)

We went roller blading with Maria and her kid until it got dark and then I took Felix to the dentist for a late-afternoon appointment that felt like it was the middle of the night. Called Amanda in Texas when we got home and she told us the story of Rindercella and the Cince.

drawing motivation (327/365d)

henry's friend niklas came over in the morning to do homework - henry's never gotten his homework done so quickly before. i took them all out to the playground to play tennis and we had a wonderful time.

felix made herb butter all by herself - picking the herbs, cutting the butter. he can be so determined

we had a few different story times - a colleague sent a book-reading mp3, and agnes sent a youtube video of her reading make way for ducklings, and of course i read aloud a lot.

enlarging the wizard cards

in the evening i talked to bruno about the tui st george tucker piece that he recorded with quartertones. we had problems fixing the little things, tempi etc, but finally he got all the things the way i wanted and will send me the files tomorrow. i spent the rest of the evening watching tutorials about davinci resolve, so see how to further edit my videos.

(326/365d)

ingrid called at 8:30am ("noooo, of *course* you didn't wake me up") to invite me to go up the schoeckl. we didn't go all the way to the top but we had a delightful 

Theodore and me <3

brian went to the plabutsch

we got back at around dark, which is a perfect time for movies, so we watched "summer stock" as soon as we were done with all our chores

we did a family meeting and did our planning for thanksgiving (including rehearsing jingle bells)

rehearsing for jingle bells
with real jingle bells

waffles for breakfast (325/365d)

day started with waffles being made by proxy through felix

waffle teams

and the end of some wizard games

finally, we got the kids out the door for a hike, i didn't go with them though. they went to hilmteich on this gorgeous day and i just got to work on my video for the krippenspiel, which was difficult work that requires concentration. i got the framework done for the video and then my mind was fried, and the kids came back. they weren't fried, they were *freezing*... the sun had disappeared so quickly and they were not prepared for it. felix was so cold he was crying and said he didn't even want to play cards.

i made tea for them, and right when everyone was warm enough for a card game, maria called and invited me on a walk, which was a welcome turn of events for me, because i really wanted to move today, and go outside. it was very very cold. we stopped and looked in the windows of an art gallery, looked at the lights in the city on a saturday night with nobody else out, and got asked for money by a beggar who made me very sad.

and finally she came back with me as the kids were practicing (it seemed as though our house is always full of music everywhere) and we had a glass of wine while they watched the beginning of a movie. 

no fighting day (324/365d)

no fighting! i was so happy i made them choose at the beginning of the day fighting or wizard... they could have no fights and play wizard, or have fights and play no wizard. they chose well. i know it was hard for them. but they did it! - i hope it happens more often!

they all had online meetings, even violin and cello at the same time. twice we had 3 laptops (possibly four, i don't know what centa's busy schedule was like) on video chat at the same time. we even played online bridge with grandpapa.

started good ended bad (323/365d)

started so beautifully and with such good moods. eventually devolved, one tiny fight at a time.... so much fighting! aaaaaaaah

what was really really fun was going to the playground again, and playing more tennis - henry played on rollerskates, and played much better than i did

i wrote a piece for bruno. now i want to record it. i have too many projects!

....graphic scores are my new found medium...

i talked to papa (and frieda) for a long time, mostly with felix while the other two read.

the little fights came to a head and bedtime was shouty and screamy... that fact alone kept me awake for hours afterward. :( :( :( 

mr nobody (322/365d)

nobody wanted to do homework in the morning (of course) but we did it anyways 

then nobody wanted to go to organ practice or to the park (of course) but we went anyways 

another day of absolutely gorgeous weather! while theodore and henry were playing the organ, felix and i were alone in the park and we invented a new game: "mr nobody" 

we wrote the rules and shared them with the pickwick club later that evening

Players stand in a formation with an empty spot:

2 people stand in a “triangle”

3 people stand in a “square” … etc.

Every player takes turns shooting to an empty place (called Mr nobody) the next player has to run and get the ball.... Then that new player shoots to mr. Nobody. There are no points just a lot of running.

* No hands allowed

* No shooting out of turn. 

* No shooting to other players, only to mr nobody.

pickwick club

we arrived home just in time to receive a package from the mail, addressed to felix... farm-direct ORANGES from nina! what a gigantic surprise! - fun to share too!

oranges!!

played wizard in the evening, finishing a game we started over a week ago 

edward went to bed early so no corona canon

sigh: lockdown begins. (321/365d)

first day of the new lockdown 

homework went relatively well, without a hitch. 

i am trying to get them outside every day no matter what and we went for a asphalt football playground where i played tennis extremely badly. - felix is officially better at tennis than i. it's funny, the weather was so beautiful but it was so hard to get them to leave the house. when we were there, it was so hard to get them to go home. ah the mysteries of being a child.

centa, edward and i tried to record centa's corona canon, but were only 90% successful, and we will have to redo it tomorrow. 

last day before lockdown 2.0 (320/365d)

We all felt the pressure from knowing this is the last possible day to do anything before the lockdown starts..... i really felt like we had to get practice time in, make sure everyone got to all their lessons and we had to pick up each kid from school because they had to bring back ALL their things with them. 

it didn't make the mood any better that the weather was terrible.

when we got home, i found edward had a terrible headache and didn't feel well, but i begged him to film me and pauli playing arvo paert anyways, because .. again .. it's the last day that it is possible. i feel very overwhelmed with the thought of all the computer/video/editing/music projects that have been damming up.

a small price to pay at bedtime (319/365d)

woke up naturally at 4:30am, after not enough sleep but used the opportunity to talk to nick in san fransisco, and read more in my bulgakov book that i love. took a 10 minute coffee-nap then started my 9am meditation with bruno. ended just in time for barbara to pick me up and take me to an all day quintet rehearsal. - all day until 8pm curfew.

still had time for a family meeting and a little bit of living planet before bedtime (i read aloud from the economist about a new 3-volume edition of the frescos in the sistine chapel that are reproduced in 1:1 size, available for the amazing price of 22,000 dollars!)

just some quick yoga, no big deal. (318/365d)

theodore and pauli hiked up the plabutsch, on a day that was so beautiful it should be illegal. 

reaching a short plateau

a quick bit'o'yoga

while we were out, everyone else all went to playground to play soccer. brian cooked for us, and i got a litte bit of time to talk to mama

brian and i watched "documentation" (since pauli suggested it i thought i would also write it like he says it) about orwell/huxley and how the world we are living in are going in the direction of brave new world and 1984. it was a little disappointing as someone who has read both novels and has been able to draw plenty of conclusions on my own. nothing new there.

news is that the new corona virus lockdown is coming and all schools will be switching over to distance learning. 

walking with gossip (317/365d)

i had a wonderful walk with brigitta along the mur, then i biked to pick up kids from school on their bikes, then i got home and found jackie visiting, and she and i went for a nice long walk too, pushing the baby stroller

brian made sushi while i was gone, which is what henry has wanted for dinner for a few days now.

we had apple strudel and wizard and tea time while centa was on a few minutes break. thankfully nobody pointed out how unfair it was that felix and i had had some yesterday by ourselves.

some magic mail arrived from grandpapa showing us how to make a (slightly simplified) ruler compass construction of a square that can be reassembled into an equilateral triangle. henry chose to just read, but theodore and i did it, and, if i do say so myself, we did a really nice job)

Theodore did his teeeny teeeny tiny.

but because of the magic mail, henry made all of us write "FROM GRANDPAPA" and determined that really none of us had written it.

pauli invited me over to play some music, but cooked me dinner instead. the dinner was made with meat, so i just watched him eat and then i went home. 

ups and downs (316/365d)

Brian and I went for a really long nice walk together this morning, although i didn't want to leave the house because it was COOOOLD.

Felix and i had a nice little lunch together, with hot fresh chestnuts and apple strudel from yesterday. then he did homework while i worked on my introduction to the gustav jenner serenade, now that i've listened to it several times. then he had a really good piano lesson. and then, when things were just too perfect, we got home and there was a big tantrum about....... pokemon again. i HATE that stuff!

much better game!

i played with Brigitta, tried a little bit of Ornstein's "ballade" for saxaphone (or viola) and it is just beautiful! meanwhile there was online zoom music theory class and Henry had a lesson with Nadja

i got home just as Centa was doing some filming for her corona catch canon video project.

undeservedly rarely heard (315/365d)

so unbelievably tired. perked up a bit when nina came over for a small visit, just for a quick cup of coffee as we were just having dinner.

theodore started his rehearsals for smetana's bartered bride

i was excited to see the gustav jenner serenade get put up on youtube... after months of trying to obtain an LP through a library, and getting nowhere, and having nowhere to play an LP anyways, even if I were to have one, i had one sent by ebay to a stranger who was adorably special and agreed to put it up for me. now i can finally write my introduction that has been waiting for me at the publisher place i work for.

now to be heard

i discovered some new viola pieces online - some by ornstein, one by coates, and one by walthew.

made applestrudel with felix, it was perfect, except a bit burned because i forgot about it during caroline's pickwick story club - for some reason i got really really nervous when i read a story of my own to these kids - i really don't know why! 

viola day (314/365d)

a bit lazy all day in terms of physical activity, but i did do plenty of viola practicing and reading, which was very good.

my finger still hurts, which made it hard to do things like type, open champagne bottles, cook or do dishes. maybe not the worst problem to have.

i've always hated alarm clocks(313/365d)

this evening i cut my hand badly with an alarm clock....... really. i was trying to see how the insides worked (or didn't work, as the case happened to be) and suddenly a tightly would spring popped loose and caught my right hand index finger leaving blood and pain in its wake.

badly bruised and cut by this biting alarm clock

before that the day was a bit more calm, and included 2 video shootings! 

one was finishing the scenes we hadn't gotten on saturday of the weihnachtsspiel with edward, although it was very foggy and late, so a bit dark to film. it was very cold. but it didn't start drizzle/raining till we left, so we got it done just in time.

 and one was finishing oblivion using ingrid cz's hand to play the "present" irmtraud (since we are telling the story in flashback)... i was sad to have to tell ingrid "no" when she wanted to give me more h-one nonsense

got outside before the sun went down (312/365d)

Theodore and Brian went for their own hike on the Schoeckl, which meant they were gone pretty much all day. 

a glorious day to be on a mountain

Nina came over this morning and we had cake for breakfast and coffee, very happy morning in the kitchen.

with Klaus and Irmtraud i set up our basement for our video shoot tomorrow, so we can finally finish the video we started in march. 

it was nearly impossible to get anyone to want to do anything, in spite of the beautiful day, but i did finally convince Henry to go up Rosenhain with Edward and Pauli and me. It was sunset when we arrived at the top.

I couldn't decide which shot I liked better:

henry alone

henry with pauli and me

(311/365d)

video shoot in the morning for the pagaent story. felt bad for waking edward up so early because we were starting shooting at 8am. we only had 2 hours, and the trams are noisy and we had to redo lots of lines from kids because they would get messed up by external noise, but the kids were very on top of things and very patient, and things got done!

henry's joseph, and a friend is maria
there are no rooms for them on the herrengasse

felix said didn't want to go but he did, and i think he had fun, but he was most excited about getting back home to trade pokemon cards with a friend, so he left as soon as he was done. 

as soon as i got home, i left for a few minutes to wish michi a happy birthday, just a few minutes of sun on the balcony and a quick glass of prosecco. i got home to find an ultra felix tantrum, over a poorly traded pokemon card. i threatened to burn all the pokemon cards, i hate this kind of stuff so much. eventaully i gave up on calming felix down all the way, and left him to have some alone time and took the others (a bit against their will) to play some basketball. 

i then had 20 minutes to bake a cake, and somehow i did it, from start to finish... well, i did it in 30 minutes, if you include getting the ingredients. it was really a new record, even i was surprised. edward, centa and i left for pauli's mini birthday party, at which there was a lot of food (very good because we hadn't eaten yet!) and we played some games. while there, we got the news that the presidential election has finally been officially called for Biden.

although curfew is at 8pm we left at 10, and we took the hour walk back from st.peter trying to avoid being seen by the police, centa got only minorly distracted by window shopping. what strange times we live in.

no picture (310/365d)

brigitta walk instead of yoga - very very very nice weather and very nice walk.

everyone in such a weird mood, telling me that i was in a bad mood, so i decided to spend the rest of the day (until city curfew) out and practice at the kons and go a shopping just for a bit. pauli found me at the kons and practiced a bit with me, but we didn't have music. he brought me a birthday book too.

by bedtime everyone was in a better mood, and i read stories and did some work on my own after the kids were asleep

perpetual noise! (309/365d)

beautiful enough day to do homework outside with felix in the sun. since cafe's are no longer open we cannot continue our tradition of soup and cafe for homework. we'll see what we do when the weather is not nice when we get there.

unfortunately, the food and the finished homework didn't stave off the piano lesson from going badly, since felix just refused to play a note or explain why he was refusing. 

construction is going on a few houses down, and it's unbelievably loud, on all parts of the frequency spectrum. i took the kids to rosenhain to get away from the terrible noise. (centa said the noise stopped 5 minutes after we left.

i went back into town in the evening to play chamber music with brigitta, which was such a treat. we played siegl and klose and borris. - all for the first time. i was tired and hormonal but music really energizes me and makes me happy. 

last butterfly rehearsal (308/365d)

kept felix home from school - he was too tired after 2 days up till 11pm, and left him home playing chess alone, while brian and i walked together in the rain getting bike 1 re-fixed at one bike shop  - forgetting completely that felix should have had a corona test today - which means he doesn't get to rehearse tomorrow, so today was the last day before the premiere, which should be on saturday, but has already been postponed to december.

got my new bike (that broke the day i bought it) fixed (24 euros, the owner of the bikeshop was in a super bad mood, the guy who fixed it while we watched was the nicest ever)

butterfly rehearsal from 3pm-10pm. ugg, that's long, but felix took it in stride.

how i wish i could be there to see this live

cookies and wizard with edward and henry and centa, then henry and theodore did the casting for verkaufte braut. there was a scream-y bedtime tantrum from theodore of all people. if it's not one of us it's another.

take advantage of the weather while it lasts (307/365d)

i had a book-reading morning and saw edward was even up early

we used maria's car to take the three kids (slightly unwillingly until we were underway) on a short hike with edward in andritz. 

upon giving the car back, we went rollerskating and i spent the time walking with maria, back and forth one thousand times.

i took felix to butterfly rehearsal, and got asked for a bus ticket, but i didn't have my wallet with me, so they (three of them) made me walk to the police station to check my identity. the poplice man there asked me why i didn't have id, and when i said i had planned on running, he made fun of my shoes. "those are running shoes?"

i demonstratively ran as soon as they confirmed i was who i was.

i didn't hear it, but centa screamed at seeing a mouse run past her. It had been such a gorgeous day we had been airing out the house, and the door had been open all day - most likely it was just as terrified as centa. edward gently removed it.

felix rehearsed quite late, and i got a chance to catch up with shannon on election results in nh, and with bruno about general music stuff

centa and i got to try some macaron flavors

the very best with max reger

either spontaneously or not at all (306/365d)

no hiking this morning, i called andrea at 10am and spent the rest of the day getting ready and borrowing things because she wants a video for the kids christmas pagaent, and after today the government has declared there will be no more singing!

thank goodness for edward, who was ready and available to film, and thank goodness for klaus who lent me all his stuff, and thank goodness for maria who let me borrow her car or i would have not been able to schlepp all the stuff... basically i decided the new motto for the new lockdown "lite" is "either spontaneously or not at all"

edward and i off to the right
everything set up
ok, practice once time through
and record!

were felix in charge of giving medals for books, he would give Anatole, (a book that has a silver medal), a gold medal.... because "it's perfect"

impossible november weather (305/365d)

i convinced everyone to make use of this exceptionally beautiful day to go for a short hike which turned quite long. we kidnapped centa on the way out the door. we ended up climbing to the top of the plabutsch. we didn't find the huge swing somebody had told me about that i had bribed everyone with. we found only 2 reizkers. all in all a perfect hike. The funny thing is, i've never experienced fall like this in Graz, and even rarely in new england. no rain, no freezing, no heat, just sunshine and fall colors.

henry took this photo of centa and a tree hugging another tree

fancy dinner just for the adults. -  pasta cooked in white whine with yesterday's black trumpets. because of traditions, i baked a strietzl which the kids had for their dinner. they didn't complain.

Brian taking the mushrooms away from the little critters that got there first

brian was really really tired - he also had run there and back. and yesterday the movie had run quite late, but he played wizard in the evening, read stories to the kids in the bath (while i did simultaneous clean-up time with the others), and had a successful family meeting, where we handed out chores. theodore made himself an arrow with feathers he had found on our hike.

carefully sewing it together
he learned how from the dangerous book for boys