family meeting (98/365d)

bridge and family meeting this morning, where we decided exactly when and for what hazelnuts go into the jar (like stars on a chart) and when they come back out at what rate. it really improved everybody's mood for the whole day - can't argue with success!

we had dinner outside, salads and lentils and nockerln (felix's new "favorite" food) and afterwards

brian decided it was too nice to stay inside and work, so he and theodore went up the plabutsch and henry felix and i went up the kalvarienberg. henry carried everything, camera, two pairs of (pretty big and heavy) binoculars and water. i felt a bit bad and a bit silly too that my camera didn't have a memory card in it. we tried to find our house with binoculars but couldn't. i'm not sure it's actually visible from that angle. we were very happy biking there and back. they played football when we got back, and i wrote a new wikipedia entry for Fidelis Zitterbart.

brian's phone had a memory card
we're somewhere in that blurred background vista

made curry and couscous for dinner. henry cooked for himself: just plain tofu.

Finished around the world in 80 days. ... punctually: precisely at 9:00pm.

a day of mostly nothing(97/365d)

A family meeting gone bad this morning, ending with a bit of a shouting match.

Fixed my bruised psyche at virtual coffee time with Nina. 

Nice homework time even though technically it's easter vacation and there would be no school.

Henry and Felix got out the radio and put batteries in it and discovered that small shops will be open again after Easter.

taking a polaroid for grossmutter

dinner (soup and toasts that henry made) outside again, such nice weather. a little more around the world in 80 days, henry was even more disappointed that we didn't make it to the end of the movie. one more hour to go, but we saved it for tomorrow.

palm sunday doesn't feel like palm sunday (96/365d)

such a nice little reading time in bed with me and henry this morning - he had had a bad dream at night and come to snuggle. he read the (very abridged) version of around the world in 80 days, and i promised him that tonight we could watch the movie.

it was so nice and warm and sunny outside, and we all read robin hood on the sun bench. too sunny for felix so he sat on the ground in the shade of the rose bush.

brian and all three boys went for a run while i attempted again to transcribe the ballad of sally ann so i can play it with the buffaloes. i didn't hear the doorbell, or my phone. but brian told nina she could go in, the gate was open, and she said she was already outside sitting at the picnic table. thus it was till i heard a plaintive calling of "iiiirma" ... yay!

tea time with nina and centa's fabulous fancy cookies

as delicious as they are pretty

after palm sunday tea time, with croissants and cookies and very careful 1m distance, i walked nina back home, and even got to stop and wave at phil at his new place.

home again we started the movie, and brian made popcorn, but it got too late to watch the whole thing. henry was a bit dissapointed.

i got a chance during bedtime to catch up with manuela.

a very photogenic saturday (95/365d)

Farmers market in the morning with Theodore and masks and ordnungswache. Later in the afternoon Brian got a new mask of his very own at the door of the grocery store. After that, at akdag, there was no 1m distance or facemasks in the tiny and very crowded store.

masks and security

for quintet promotion purposes, barbara wanted a short video of me cutting and throwing a lemon, so I set up the camera, and centa threw lemons at me which I then cut and threw at brian. it was very amusing. The leftover lemons had to be used, so Centa and Henry and Felix made very fancy cookies for tomorrow. 

after two organ lessons on zoom, we started a movie project with the kids: so fun when we finally got started - lots of preparation for on-screen pranks. we mixed a liter of vinegar with 2 cups of baking soda for one prank. Then I stopped filming and got to clean lots of stuff with ensuing slush.

on a whim, i wrote out and typeset and edited an Elegy for Viola and Piano (that I found by chance in the digital archives of the ny public library) by a man named... "Wallingford Constantine Riegger" - wow, what a name!

went for a short run around the block with brian, and then chatted with nick while brian ran farther on his own.

reading an antique herb book (one of the props) before get

chef felix is going to get pranked

card break

i vant to be alloane (94/365d)

Since they have been having a difficult time not distracting each other while doing homework we had the brilliant idea of splitting the three kids up and doing their work with one adult. That worked pretty well! there was much practicing and music playing, and family football. A lot of the day though I stole away for myself, because I really needed to be alone.

After everyone was asleep Brian and I went out for a long walk. We found Felix awake and quiet and sad at home asking "where were you?" ... So at 11:30pm we had a snuggle party.

mother and child

der nöck doesn't solve all problems (93/365d)

the day started and ended with hermann prey's singing of Carl Loewe's Der Nöck.... 

phew, what a day... so much fussiness in the children and general crankiness, although we got to sleep in and everyone seemed totally happy early in the morning.... then things kind of went slowly off the rails... and now, sitting here in the evening, i am left wondering... what did happen today? and what made it seem so rotten?

only good stuff.. we drew, ,went for walks,picked bärlauch for our supper, and we played music, and all the other things that make us generally happy, but i guess it's not always enough. all the kids said their thorn was "so much fighting" but..... they were also all actively involved at some point. i guess some change must be made. ... one fun thing was making thunderstorms using our new rainstick and centa's thunder-machine that i glued back together with henry turning on and off the lights.

finished watching the show fleabag with very dry champagne. disappointing last 3 episodes, but overall we had a good time watching.

Brian's review of the show:
1 drink needed per episode

april fool's day (92/365d)

today i didn't get a single note of music in.... :( :( :(

....just kidding! april fool's! i basically did nearly nothing but practice

i found my camera outside (oops, it had gotten forgotten on the table over night, good that it didn't rain as predicted)

we did lots of group cleaning up inside and out. and the mail came, and delivered us a brand new RAINSTICK...

trip up kalvarienberg with felix run/walk - we talked about the moon - a half moon high in the sky. to him it looked like a coin being put in a parking meter. he was sure the moon was following him, as though he had a magnet in him. i ran with him, but no, it was not i who could control where the moon went but he. he turned around, "look, i can put it over there!"

meanwhile theodore, henry and brian were up on the plabutsch pretending to be robin hood under the greenwood tree.

to the greenwood
to the greenwood
to the greenwood
greenwood tree!

there was homework and crafting in the evening instead of the morning, and we stayed up way too late (past ten with the kids)