Bullerbü day (89/365e)

According to Bullerbü, the Wednesday before easter is a day to write mean-ish notes and stick them on people's back... Our kids had been so excited about this since they read it, and they were READY for it today. Nina brought croissants over, and even that could not distract them from their efforts to write funny signs in secret. Henry came out and gave me a surprisingly affectionate snuggle and a hug attack, after which I had "I am stooopid" written on my back. I transferred it to Centa who brought it over to the neighbors where it apparently ended up on a birthday present for Sylvia. Haha, oops. 

First I hiked to Jacobsleiter with Henry and Theodore, and then I roller skated all the way to Vogelschutzgebiet with Henry and Theodore and we found morels in the sand and the sun. We were so excited to see them, and brought them home and shared a little panful of them. There are never enough, we need to find more!

While we were at Vogelschutzgebiet, we opened a delightful envelope full of letters to everyone from grandpapa (sent in february) and read them together in the sun. So wonderful.

3x the charm (88/365e)

Brigitte and I went out to the conservatory to play through Clarke and Elke convinced me to run my *entire* program through three times. I was exhausted! I could kind of not even believe how tired I was after that!

There was nobody at home when I got back, because they had finished the go cart and taken it for its first ride - with roller blades across the street with Maria and Gabriel. Then they proudly paraded it to the abenteuerspielplatz together. So adorable.

Brian bought me pectin sugar so that I could finish making the jam, and we had cornmuffins and jam (just to test to make sure it was good - and it really was!) 

Brian had two interviews late at night. He's taking the job hunt very seriously, with nearly 10 companies in the mix.

when life gives you free strawberries you make jam (87/365e)

They spent the day building their go cart. It is coming along very well. They are almost done with it and I am very impressed with their (mostly peaceable) teamwork.

I needed to get my bicycle fixed. On the way home, the people at AKDAG gave Felix and me a box of 10boxes of strawberries for free that they were throwing out. As a family we all cut strawberries started making jam. Everyone decided the jam would be just right for easter. Good start to the holiday week, I have to say. 

holidays pass us by (86/365e)

Kind of "missed" palm Sunday. Didn't do any palm-sunday kind of stuff. Instead we had brunch with the foresters. Henry and Brian didn't stay long because Henry had a cello lesson and then his last skating class. 

While Henry was still out, Theodore and Felix disappeared for a few minutes. I went out to look for them and found them out in the street with saws... They were heading down to the trash to cut the wheels off a stroller. They want to make a go-cart, based on some plans in the dangerous book for boys.

I took the bus to Irmtraud's with Barbara and we worked on the website (saw Phil the fiddler on my way there with a newborn... That's how long it's been since I last saw him)

Came home and found absolutely everyone asleep.

reading books in the sun (85/365e)

Super incredibly gorgeous day. We took a few picnic foods and some books and had lunch and reading at Vogelschutzgebiet. It was very nice. When we got back, I planted grass with felix. We were back first, and locked out, so after the grass planting I helped him through a first floor window so he could unlock the door for me. About 3 minutes later, everyone else came home. So it goes.

Henry had his roller skating course again and was super tired again. He loves it though. 

We had chore-reward movie time. This time the inspector general. Centa wasn't around to watch it with us though, since she was out with friends (a rare occasion indeed in these corona times)

stealth confession (84/365e)

Took a wonderful morning walk with Brigitta up and down the Mur, into vogelschutzgebiet and beyond. another gorgeous spring day. I was a bit lazy at home. The patented Bath-and-Books time-sink. This time with lots more Magellan... but i read soooo slowly in German. I get impatient! It's really very good.

Felix came home from school having had his versöhnungsfest, which is kind of the first confession, which they don't do like they do in the us. the last two kids did it and there was really a kind of mini celebration breakfast at school and parents were told things. this time, because everything is weird in these corona times, i didn't even really know about it in advance.

I had signed up Henry for a 3-day rollerskating class i took him there and sat in the grass and read Mr. Bowditch. The instructor was very impressed with Henry's skating skills, even more so when he found out neither parent skates, he never took a class, and he's only had skates for a little less than a year. his skates came unglued during the course of the class so i glued them at home as best as i could.

As soon as we got home there was Hans Brinker. Everyone was beat. Felix even fell asleep before we had finished a chapter, and Henry almost did, and asked to be carried upstaires.

Talked to Manuela late in the evening, mostly about books and such, and it was very nice to catch up.

burnt beans (83/365e)

today was officially "kobold day" for chores, where we try to do as many chores from other people as possible. this one was a bit of a bust, people didn't seem as excited about this one as they have before.

brian and i walked to the farmers market together. i don't like being there with a mask, it feels a little silly.

i made a score-video for the "corona canon" with centa, so that we could post it online publicly, so that she could use it as a proof of concept for other groups who perhaps would want to sing it.

the day was so lovely i took felix out of ice-cream after his singschule stimmbildung. as i arrived at home so did both pauli and maria, randomly. we stood in the doorway discussing literature for a while, and then pauli and i went for a walk along the mur.

in the evening i chatted online with papa for a little while, every once in a while sniffing.... kind of catching occasional whiffs of burning. my thoughts said "good! the kids are making themselves something, possible making pancakes or something" but no, it was actually me cooking and forgetting. i had left lentils on the stove, the water burned off, the beans burned all the way, and the smell was bad enough with the lid on the pot that i could smell little whiffs of it downstairs. upstairs in the attic the smell was really atrocious, so we opened up all the windows and theodore brought his stuff downstairs to sleep in our room.

Stayed up late with centa, drinking beer and whiskey. nothing to celebrate. just because.

procrastination does not pay off (82/365e)

finally finished my introduction for pater hartmann - it took all day... i am very out of practice with staying focused at the computer, and i had put it off literally for months, which is just ridiculous.

went to the piano lesson with felix, and "read" ... i got no further than 3 pages magellan. a) it's tough german reading and b) i like to listen through the door to the lesson and hear the music and progress and laughter.

it was a totally gorgeous really nice day with wonderful weather. when we came back inside we called edward for his birthday.

later in the evening i chatted with amanda for a while and we discussed childhood development and what "normal" even means....

two twos (81/365e)

Spent a large part of the day researching and writing about a very strange composer named Pater Hartmann von An der Lan Hochbrunn, or some version of about 20 different versions of that name. I have spent way too long procrastinating on this task and decided to just finally DO it today. I didn't get all the way done. There was still practicing with the kids to do, and cooking, and light cleaning, and practicing on my own. I didn't get up till late, because i wanted to be absolutely sure my headache was gone from yesterday.

Both of the two older kids brought home their first 2 (letter grade b) ever... both on a german exam. little tiny detail mistakes add up. i was a bit disappointed, only because i know they can do better!

The kids spent the afternoon at the abenteuerspielplatz, and i did more composer writing, but not enough yet. 

headache day again (80/365e)

ugg, what a headache. it didn't stop me from my normal monday-ing [a few ibuprofens throughout the day kept me on track] but i was a bit miserable now and then. i was late for my lesson with elke - both my bikes are getting repaired and i took henry's. i'm always so very impressed with elke and how she can find something to improve and a way to tell me a new idea no matter how "finished" i think i am with a given work, and no matter how unmotivated or deenergized i am.

i brought renate some soup and bread and we had lunch together in the sun overlooking the stadtpark. that was very lovely. i felt ready to go back to sleep. i lay in bed and read, and felix brought me warm rice-bags. somehow i finished reading 300+ pages of "hunt gather parent" in 2 days and am only on page 80 of magellan after several days. i wonder if one of them is denser than the other....?

the kids were so helpful and considerate to me all day, and we even did a lot of music making - slowly and not too loudly. henry practiced even though "he didn't want to at all" and was happy afterwards.

silent tea party (79/365e)

what a wonderful day. i was up again way too early, and took time to read alone and have some coffee. brian slept in and the kids played dune. 

then there was crocheting, and reading, and music playing. I spent several hours untangling a skein of yarn that the kids had tried to "find the end" of and failed. It really was a challenge to roll it onto a ball, but I came to the conclusion that the puzzle had the same effect on my psyche as a bunch of sudokus, with a little bit more to show for it at the end. i finished the very last at the very end of the day, after bath night, as henry finished his practicing. 

henry told me that 2021 has not been a bad year so far. three good things have happened. he got a scooter, he made an emoji pillow (the best thing!) and finding the key to the old puch bicycle lock that belonged to mama and was actually just hanging on a hook in the kitchen this whole time.

Centa got her chore reward from several weeks ago - a silent tea party. felix and i made scones together: we carefully cut them out with a pretty little cookie cutter but after their stint in the oven they just kind of looked like random mishhapen blobs. tasty though. centa made tangram cookies and we had a tangram game/tournament with voting and everything ... everything except speech. then we had silent roses and thorns time. definitely a wonderful day.

weird gig (79/365e)

Weird gig

Ok, so here's the story. I got asked to do a gig of some kind about 2 weeks ago. I have nothing to do these days, so I said yes. I found out last week it's not a music gig, it's a photo/video gig, with klaus. he's none to pleased with it himself. until yesterday it was supposed to be in judendorf. this morning i heard i found out it was in kroisbach. still don't know what will be happening or what i shold be doing. irmtraud and klaus pick me up at home at 8:15, ewww. we get there slightly before 9 (which is start time) nobody is there. nobody at all. finally some people arrive, and ask who we are. the film people. oh, we're filming? they ask. oje.

so we go in start setting things up. normally i would ask "where will you be speaking" and "what do you want in the shot" but this time they were asking *me* "where should i stand?" and "should we move anything?" ummm, i don't know. i asked whether they would be speaking at the same time and they asked if i thought they should. by the end, i found out that one of them was actually the writer of the script and the organizer of the project which is really weird.

so the project is interesting, the passion story told in styrian poetry. "where are the musicians" they ask ... umm, i don't know. irmtraud says they'll be there later, one of the musicians is her brother. they seem surprised when i say we will just record the text first. how long is the whole piece supposed to be? "with music maybe 20 minutes" is the answer. ok. we are set.

we start recording. 20 minutes in, the first speaker hasn't finished their part yet. they are speaking perfectly, it's really great, but this work is not going to clock in under 40 minutes, for sure not under 20. we are running low on storage space, too.

The speakers finish, and they say they brought us some dinner - hard boiled eggs and a loaf of strietzl, but no knife. the church is freezing. i'm shivering.

musicians arrive. they seem very happy to see each other. "we haven't seen each other in 35 years!" "it's so cool to play together again!" "what are we playing" "where should we set up?" they ask the organizer. she looks at me... quizzically.

i set that up, klaus is running back and forth on cameras, and now lights, it's gotten super dark suddenly, when it was super bright before. turns out there is a raging snowstorm outside. we start recording. the musicians are sight reading. they are doing a fine job. at some point, the guitarist asks, "wait, what is d-minor again" and i laugh, and he says (i'm not joking) "hey, don't laugh, i'm actually a bass player"

we clean up super fast. the organizer gives us thank you gifts of homemade jam and a calendar. on my way out i grab my mask and drop the jelly. glass everywhere. i pick up the glass, and cut myself. she very kindly and thoughtfully gives me another glass of jelly, which i much more carefully take home with me. they were all such nice people, but what a WEIRD gig ... Outside the snow lay thick.

At home, our kobold/chore reward was Francis the talking mule which was MUCH weirder than I remember... A little much war and soldier talk. The kids liked it anyways. Oops

its NOT saturday (78/365e)

All day I kept thinking it was Saturday. I took no photos. Austrian holidays are weird. The kids have the day off but nobody else does. Nina came over even though she didn't have the day off... Just for a quick coffee and a chat. Everyone was in a pretty decent mood today, and I had some time to myself even.

I dared to use the pressure cooker (they are scary) to cook some kidney beans which have been around for too long here. Last time I made them I boiled and boiled and they never got soft. Internet answer? Our water is too hard, and we should either use distilled water (haha) or baking soda (ugg! - one time i tried that in wilmington and had to throw everything away because they were inedible) or a pressure cooker. That did the trick, but it was still scary. I then made a huge pot of chili and it was a huge hit with everyone. I thought after all the work I did I would have dinner for 2 days, but it was completely gone. Surprised but not complaining!

I went shopping alone while the kids were abenteurspielplazing again and bought grapefruit for felix so he can finally try one (again) and searched for a while to find useful things to buy with some 25% off stickers I had. I haven't been shopping in so long I think I'm completely out of practice.

new skills (77/365e)

Woke up super crazy super early. I was long up when Brian started his mastermind at 6am. I then woke the kids up singing. .... and went back to sleep after the kids left for school.

Music theory class meant that Henry and Theo didn't get to go to the abenteuerspielplatz, but Felix went on his own, and he was very happy to leave by himself. so happy that he didn't tell me he was leaving, and i chased him down the street and carried him back so that i could remind him gently that we aaaallllwaaays have to say where we are going. he did not like that, but it was necessary, i think.

After he agreed that I was right, we happily walked along together, I dropped him off at the playground and then I dropped my bike off for repairs and stopped at Carla and bought random stuff err don't need, including an amazing top. it started SNOWING suddenly and very strongly. the wind was blisteringly strong when I was returning with my purchases, which i was clutching in my fingers because, why would I be wearing gloves or proper winter clothes when it is sunny and not snowing when I left ?

Also bought big crochet hooks for learning. By the evening, while listening to Hans Brinker, I was binding off a blanket for heartbear that Felix had half crocheted (of course i had started it, but he did several rows all on his own)

cross generational intercontinental pitch tournament (76/365e)

today i woke up way late, after very many way-too-detailed dreams

kudos to rick and papa for organizing an awesome evening for st. patrick's day.

it was super fun to play with my aunt and uncles and father and siblings in america, my brother in england, my sister in slovenia, and my kids, husband and sister in austria. i never got to play that far. I won only the first game, and then we had smelly cards for the rest of it - no chance to win again. theodore and henry and felix started out as a team called the "three stooges" but after a fight with felix, felix joined my team and the other two renamed themselves to "2 cool" They ended up being second place in the entire gigantic family, first place was Uncle Ed. The rest of us were "bozos" ... It was super fun, and the technical glitches were hilarious and didn't bother us, and we all enjoyed ourselves, and then there was a zoom after session that we only slightly participated in before bedtime and my phone date with bruno. the zoom session outlasted me though!

imagine forgetting grapefruits (75/365e)

A real cleaning spree this morning. I was up early enough to spend hours on the house. We even read more arabian nights before they left for school at 7am. - Makes sense, of course. Scheherezade always starts her tales at dawn, and then can put off her early morning execution till the next day. 

Theodore and Brian watched the Holland episode together. It's nice to be able to have such shared experiences. We tried to share the experience of a Thai cooking class over zoom that mama was attending but it was not made for us. 

Biked to and from town twice without stopping except for running back inside to put on long pants because it's very cold! It doesn't feel so cold, but the wind is very aggressive and almost knocked us off our bikes a couple time. the abenteuerspielplatz is finally open again - with very exact visiting restrictions. Our kids were the first ones there when they opened. I was happy to have a few hours of rest time. I hadn't been home for more than a few minutes when Pauli stopped by for a coffee, cutting into my alone time.

Today, Felix told me that he has never had a grapefruit. In fact, he told me, he doesn't even know what that is. I am heartbroken. It's that age where young child-hood memories fade, but he used to be a fruit-monster, and grapefruits were no exception. I guess we didn't have any recently. I'm going to go buy all the weird citrus fruit now!

a single-cup-of-coffee kind of day - and it shows (74/365e)

Woke up so late that I just had one cup of coffee before my 10am lesson. I biked home and straight back out again to get Henry's cello, and picked him up from school so that he could play for Thomas Pl. at the conservatory, to see if perhaps he was a good match as a new student. He was told he should audition - which is good! He played really well!

Henry and I went into town together, and I hung out reading have spacesuit will travel while he had his organ lesson and theodore practiced on the other organ. 

Although Theodore was screened-out, Henry, Felix and I watched a national geographic from the 70s that papa remembere seeing in 6th grade about Holland to go with Hans brinker, while Theodore had his lesson with Elke.

We didn't read with papa though, its both his busy day and ours, plus Theodore had way to much screen time today. Instead, we started reading the Arabian nights nights, the Rene Bull version, 

screen-time sunday (73/365e)

took theodore to prima la musica today, and dropped him off, double checking that his paperwork that showed his positive corona test from a few weeks ago was enough to allow him to perform. I had had so much anxiety because of that, and the fact that we had intended to - but had forgotten to - get him tested before today and now today there was nothing open to test him, that i had taken some testing kits from irmtraud yesterday, and then had barely slept all night. but in fact, all the worry was for nothing, the paperwork was fine, and all that annoyed them was that i was there at all, because RULES.

I pedaled home and turned on the live-feed for the competition, and saw theodore compete, and then watched the rest of the vocal competitors. theodore did very well, and his group won a first-prize. they might have been asked to go on to the national level, but i think that was not done because one of the kids is just obviously beginning to have his voice break and is also clearly uncomfortable with his new growth spurt.

We had a 2 hour or so zoom meeting to sing Puk happy birthday, and it was so nice to see the big family, and hear about puk's progress on screen writing, and her story ideas. 

more zoom to read swiss family robinson, and then when agnes joined, hans brinker and the silver skates, which is the new book after light princess. it's very fun to see them get involved in these wonderful stories. we chose new chores and cleaned up a bit and cooked together, and had early bedtime, which i was especially grateful for because i had had such a terrible night last night.

revisiting fields of gold (72/365e)

We played with yarn all morning. Trying to learn to crochet with a hook, frustrating Felix, and difficult for Henry - even after watching a rather unhelpful youtube video of a 7 year old girl showing how to do the basics. Then I rushed out, biking to the quintet's practice room, with only one gear (the shifter is broken) and got a bit winded on the last hill. I got there and helped set up the green screen, and rewatched all the footage we made at burg finstergruen last year(!)

Lots of filming for our sting video with quintet. our cellist has a hurt hand and couldn't come, so it was just the four of us, and we filmed all the scenes that we had without her. Celebrated the end of the shoot with a glass of really good red wine. After holding the light in the right place at the end of a long pole for several takes, everything felt curiously light.

surprise day (71/365e)

I had no plans for the morning, and Jackie came by unannounced and we had breakfast. As we were finishing breakfast, Nina also came over, with croissants, and who am I to say no to second breakfast? Brian worked through our mega double spontaneous party. 

After a spontaneous call I had received earlier in the morning, I went to show Graz's Urwald to Renate. We wandered around for a few hours, hugging trees and breathing the fresh air on the absolutely gorgeous day. We met nearly no other people. 

weird self portrait of me, looking up at the amazing ceiling which is not pictured....

Sadly there was a pushing fighting shoving tantrum fight about lego that resulted in some broken glass, which wasn't a great way to start the game night with Ingrid, who came quite a bit later than she had planned. Centa played too, and shared neighbor's grand-kids twin birthday cake. We had a great game evening, the kids were happy playing and also sometimes chose not to play and just watch, which I think is a good thing to learn.

another day, another museum (70/365e)

while theodore did his early morning online-school work, brian and i talked about how to teach children things in general. since we are total experts in child psychology and pedagogy we of course know all the answers and take great pleasure in explaining the arts to one another, although each of already know everything the other expert has to say. today i decided that although everything in nature takes the path of least resistance, the best learning takes the path of most resistance, or at least a lot of resistance. googling an answer will not make you remember the answer as well as looking it up, and that in turn won't help you as much as, say, trying it yourself. 

then i felt like another museum. this time, theodore and i picked up felix and henry from school, and we went to the history museum. I brought along some christmas fruit-cake for a snack, and then we spent a few hours there. Felix said it was his favorite museum ever. 

it was exceptionally cold today. i was wearing my winter hat and coat in the sun and still freezing. 

brian cooked us dinner while we were out, and we made turks-head-knot bracelets all afternoon. Theodore cried when it got too confusing, and we had to start over several times. very often. at the end of the day, after swiss family robinson reading, i finally got the first one finished. learning new things is hard! 

finished "mysteries" and started reading "have space-suit, will travel" and also started really reading zweig's "magellan" (my 3rd or 4th time starting it, and 40 pages in, i finally have arrived at magellan, so perhaps i will stay on track now)

a visit to a museum is like seeing a long lost friend again (69/365e)

Lay in bed a bit late and then took a video for Pauli of me playing (all the way through!) Bach's 25th goldberg variation (which Pauli and I are learning in parallel and started together during my quarantine on Bruno's suggestion)

Perfect day for museums. And Theodore had no online conferences, and he had no homework due today, so off we went this morning, to visit the art gallery - showing, currently, only art by styrian women. - pretty cool! On the way home, I felt a bit low-blood-sugar-y so I sent Theodore to buy us each an apple to tide us over for the rest of the walk. 

There was a lot to do today... Music lessons, and practicing, and reading, and shopping, and singing. I walked Felix to his lesson with Brigitta and read Mysteries (which I've almost finished). 

Then I biked all three boys to a singing practice with Andrea, and heard them through the door singing four part harmony. I could not bribe them at home to repeat that with me. While they were singing I went shopping, and struck out everywhere I went. Somehow I still found some things to buy. I hate shopping.

We almost finished Light Princess tonight - but we stopped one chapter before the end because Papa had to drive bill hamilton to the barber. Them's the breaks. At bedtime Henry still had to do homework. Theodore still had to practice violin. Felix still wanted to read the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I found a way to catch up with Manuela.

what work looks like

what catching up with friends looks like
(also what the new bookshelves look like)

better than nothing (68/365e)

Brian and I had morning coffee and some 10-minute cleanup 

then Nina and I had morning coffee and dream interpretation hour.

The morning was suddenly over and I hadn't done much by way of productivity. but in the early afternoon we got a big delivery of wooden boxes that we arranged as bookshelves in our room and now we have books under our window too, and it looks so nice now! It feels like we have twice as much space.

there was a special edition of the women wikipedia group in honor of yesterday's Frauentag wikipedia where we collaboratively added the new winners of this years frauenpreis in graz. Felt a bit upset about the report given about the enormous gender-bias in wikipedia, although I wasn't learning anything new.

Didn’t go outside at all until Brian took me for a walk at 10pm - just a very short just-around-the-block-but-better-than-nothing walk.

 

women's day (67/365e)

Straight back to Mondays full of STUFF again 

I had my Elke lesson in the morning. I brought back my library movie (I have had it out for months what with lockdowns, holidays and quarantine and renewals) and bought flowers for Elke on my way there. Today would have been my exam. Waaaah 

Everyone was in school again! Henry and Felix took the hornet’s nest in with them to show their classes, and were very proud of it.

 and it since today IS Frauentag, Nina and I celebrated a tiny bit in the evening, while Theodore was at his Elke lesson. 

When Theodore came home, we listened to light princess and swiss family robinson, had fun with all the evening entertainment stuff, and then as we were getting ready to fall into bed he suddenly "remembered" he had homework. Oops. He did it in a sloppy quick way and I promised if he was up early enough he could rewrite it and fix any mistakes he found then. With that he was appeased. It's kind of junky to have so much extra stuff on monday and also have lots of extra homework today too, just by chance.

domestic goddess - baking and sewing (66/365e)

Test result: Negative! Got the message at 7:30am and went promptly for a walk around the block with felix

We had 3 kinds of muffins (Berry, corn and carob) for breakfast and read a wonder clock play (The staff the fiddle) for breakfast. Just what people wanted. 

Then a looong overdue hike up falkenweg. It was a terrific hike with no camera, no real snacks, no people. Just views and adventures (no morels though) - we took a path we had never tried and it was very steep downhill. Thankfully we didn't have to retrace our steps. Felix fell and cut open his belly and was badly hurt, but he recovered when I washed the wound and we bravely forged on. 

Everyone was in such a good mood. We decided that from now on every kick/pinch/punch/hit costs a dollar - it's cheap at that, i think!

By the time we got home and made dinner, I was in a hurry and there was just salad. salad for everyone! and they surprisingly all ate with gusto.

In the evening, I was very domestic... I sewed rice bags, mostly with Henry, and did more curtain shortening.

Celebrated end of quarantine with Centa and Brian until late in the night.

cheers to being allowed to leave the house again

dreams come true(65/365e)

I had a half dream yesterday that we put our too-big bookshelf on its side and used it in the kids room, so I suggested that to Brian and he made my dream come true. It was really fun that everyone helped build the shelves for the now extra-long version of the bookshelf. Then we organized lots of books – huge huge improvement!

need a board, so we unscrew one from up here
a helper is better than a ladder

distracted by a martin gardener book

henry with the power tools

Theodore went shopping alone for us again – to the farmer’s market and to the spar. 

Brian went for a 50timesaroundthehouse run with Felix and Henry... Possibly the last, if we get a negative test result. 

Papa read from Swiss Family Robinson, we started a bit late and he read quite long, but it was wonderful. 

Elke called to give me feedback on the video I had sent her. I can stop practicing the pieces. Just focus on technical exercises and things so that I don't overdo the music because now I have an extra month to practice. 

Nice talk with Bruno at night, about playing the piano and finger tricks to play on people.like locking the ring finger with the middle finger. 

flubbered (64/365e)

Now that Theodore is allowed to go outside again, he was a darling and left the house to get groceries for us before his 7:40 online meeting. That's true love. It meant I had milk with my coffee. Theodore then had the ultimate luxury of organ practicing and sing-schule in person. And then he took out the recycling - finally it's not around here anymore!

we want to be let out of quarantine soon too... so testing for all of us

It was a rainyish gray day. Set out to remove my diastis rectis... 6 weeks of exercises will possibly cure it... maybe? If I don't forget about it.

Unannounced (although, where would we be?) the red cross visited us again for our second corona test. 

In the bath I told Felix the general story about the little prince which he's apparently completely forgotten.

Kobold week was such a success that we got to watch Flubber (actually the Absent Minded Professor) ... After the movie Theodore "flubbered" himself into a bloody nose. - By jumping and kicking wildly around and accidentally kicking himself in the face. Henry jumped on the bed screaming he had invented flubber... All at 10pm. Good night!

Crocus day! (63/365e)

Crocus day! - A reference to a Jackanory story called "Little Nose the Joker" - It's like april fool's day, only it happens whenever you see the first crocus of the season. Felix has been on the lookout for one since the beginning of February. He's been planning tricks since last year. Despite all the mischievousness, everyone's mood was extremely volatile: they were quick to cry and I was quick to shout. Oh boy.

Despite that we did have fun playing tricks and playing music... Theodore even played violin for papa and mama over zoom after we read the light princess.

intercontinental concert

As it happens Theodore's quarantine ends tomorrow, even though we had been promised yesterday or today. He had to miss his singing-trio rehearsal because I had been sure that he would be out of quarantine by this afternoon. In fact we got a call that said we have to wait for a special document before Theodore can leave. Ah sweet mysteries of life.

sleepy day (62/365e)

Today was a Sleepy day... I was up at 430 and back in bed at7. I even took a mid-afternoon nap. I was sore all day from my workout yesterday. I need more exercise in my life, this quarantine is not healthy!

Henry has finally almost caught up on his homework by doing a little extra (or a lot extra) each day. 

For dinner I made leftover vegetable soup into savory schmarn and I made a spinach quiche which was so popular i didn't get a piece... We ate outside in the sun: how lovely that we can do that every day right now, without that we would go crazy I think. 

lovely reading moment

Papa started light princess which Agnes "loves".

What's really weird is a movie called Sylvia Scarlett which Brian and I watched this evening. 

tuesday blues (61/365e)

lots of lessons - of course, all online. 2 organ lessons and 1 violin plus tons of the normal school stuff for theodore. I sent a video to Elke of me playing through my whole program. I was heartbroken though that I had to move my exam because of corona - it's unfair that I had everything timed perfectly, up to having my bow rehaired at the right moment, and then corona has to come and move everything around. 

Brian is certainly feeling sick and tired - he slept a lot and read a little all day long, except for a bridge game with Henry and Felix. Henry was always the dummy because he was trying to finish homework. He's overwhelmed with homework, because he got behind over the weekend. 

Talked to Jackie who's sad about her dog Ruby being newly paralyzed. 

Pauli stopped by with a broken tooth to borrow a book, and we read Swiss Family Robinson - this time without Agnes, who has kind of lost interest in it. We're going to read a different book with her whenever she's up for joining us and keep reading Swiss Family Robinson on our own.

Brian and I had a late night supper alone together after bed time.

moon walking (60/365e)

We invented "kobold week" for chores - everyone is now collecting points to try to get the most chore points. More if you work together. The kids went a bit nuts trying to game the system. I had to tell them not to do TOO MANY chores. I doubt it will last, but the kitchen is very clean right now, and there are no dishes piled up, and the compost has been taken out very often. Still nobody wants to vacuum. 

Feels very warm in the sun - crocuses are starting to come out and the soccer ball keeps hitting them. I had to put up a barricade, or they would be already completely destroyed. As it is, I'll be surprised if any of them make it to blooming.

sunny reading spot

Nina stopped by for a minute or two on her way home. First social contact in a while, and even then, only very brief.

I looked up on online tutorial about how to moon-walk and spent a long time with my kids trying to get the hang of it. It was pretty fun. I showed them a Michael Jackson video, and they were impressed. They weren't sure if it was a girl or a boy. Or why he had to keep pulling up his pants.