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)