colour is back

late in the fall i collected a garland of bittersweet branches. they are such an exuberant sight now! especially in contrast to all the white i was posting the past few days....

again white

i just could not resist this sight. i had to take it and add it to my white phase....
(yes it is amos typing away with one finger....
nor for much longer, as he is very eager to get his typing hours in)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml

more white

besides the white snow we got on sunday, my narcissus is blooming. it is beautiful and smells lovely. i'm glad though just one bloom has opened yet....

beautyful white

it was a wonderful snowy morning.
the first peak out of the bedroom window was such a surprise, snow!
an unexpected white blanket was covering the city's dirty look.
winter is often looking messy in town, gray's and black's blendig.
and shoveling is a treat!

quilt

it made me so happy to discover naomi taking an afternoon nap. she does love my quilt as much as i do. and i'm proud of my last years project. it turned out lovely. recycling lots of outworn clothes. the back is made out of an old duvet cover, which my mothers friend has given to me 20 years ago. a dyed light linen. i divided it up with some colorful new pieces to give it an interesting twist.
all the pieces are sown together with the machine and hand quilted ~1.2cm from the seam. the batting is organic cotton which i could not resist buying. i figured we spend so much time under such a nice quilt that it's worth using unpolluted patting.
it has been a good warm winter for us!

living

i like living, breathing better than working...
MY ART [IS] THAT OF LIVING:
each second each breath is a work
which is neither visual nor cerebral,
it's a sort of constant euphoria."

- marcel duchamp

kurzes haar!

the first time in her life i cut naomi's hair! she turned four on few days ago and never until yesterday wanted short hair! she is very proud of her looks and her beautiful long hair. of course she wants carry it down, what i never understood. i like long hair but up, tight and pinned up, no lose ends hanging into my food or my projects.
so yesterday night naomi just insisted to have her hair cut in the morning, i had to promise.
so i did and this is what happened.... she is very happy and i was not sad and didn't even blink with my eye cutting her hair. i guess it was time for it.

windrad

ich schaue aus dem kuechenfenster und bin erneut erfreut ueber die farben und die bewegung unseres windrades. grad jetzt mitten im grauen winter tut es gut die bewegten farben des raedes zu sehen. die resonanz im innern finden und einfach geniessen.
winter in der stadt, oft trostlos, grau in grau, doch ab und zu ein farbtupf ist nicht zu verlaeugnen. vorallem die immer wieder auftauchenden cardinale lassen mein herz hoeher schlagen und die kinder immer wieder voll begeisterung zum fenster rennen. -farben im winter, ein geschenk-

glittering

winter in at it's best, cold and sunny. glittering snow on trees as well as on the ground.
looking up into the sky is at such moments is a treat, a gift of nature.
it sustains me, keeps me going and is just inspiring to look closer.
to be more out there, to open my eyes for even more beauty to be discovered.
because i do know for certain it is out there and waiting to be seen.

not hurry

nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

-lao tzu

painting

painting all day, every day! yes that's naomi's idea of fun.
any paints, any surface, as long as there is freedom to paint.
starting out orderly with a clear idea of the project.
going on to random pieces of paper until she ends up...
yes you know somewhere on her body,
fingernails, hands, arms, face, ears, legs, feet....

a moment or two

a moment of peace and stillness.
i do treasure those minutes after lunch, when all the kids are in their rooms. with a cup of tea and my feet up, next to the radiator. a few rays of the early afternoon sun lighten up the space around me. i'm even able to read a few words and meditate on them...
and it is still quiet around me, wow!

a bit later an other "noise" got me up, on my feet!"

another sunny walk

once more walking to ballet, this time with some snow! never the less sunny and with some fun shadows. it's so good to be walking in the city.

pink

naomi's favorit shoes and of course they are pink, what else!

tag

the kids and joel played tag in our living room! 10 minutes of running madly around the table, almost unable to do so because of having to laugh soooooo hard.
it was fun to watch from my cozy chair.

laundry

it's a weekly task, or even more frequent.
i don't mind it and i look at it as a relaxing little moment. i even start looking at it as a creative challenge... yes you did read correctly, i love coming up with different stacks of folded items. even folding itself is interesting. as one shape evolves into an other and another and yet another. i guess i lost you by now, as this is definitely a mom's and homemakers rambling!
i'm looking forward to folding laundry again soon...

birthday

naomi's birthday was last week.
celebrated with a chocolate cake, tea and friends.
it is such a privilege to have her in our family

snow!

"snow emergency", of course for the kids it was over due to have this happen. the third time in this winter, although there is to say, that the last "snow emergency" was a 2" snow flurry! a boston thing i guess, everyone getting crazy over the "snow to come". but as you can see, the snow arrived and we went sledding with our friends, just down the street. so we came home and enjoyed a cup of hot cider with cookies. it was a good day!

shoot for the moon

shoot for the moon.
even if you miss,
you'll land among the stars.

-les brown

beading

elias came home from his coop. full of enthusiasm to keep creating with beads, wire, string and all his imagination. within moments he picked his favorite things out of a my box of collected stuff.
a really long "snake" appeared within minutes....
a quick reminder of the upcoming birthday of iris. of course she needed to be have a present. and there! it is already appearing in his hands, a book mark with her initial on it.
a precious moment for me, to see hem involved and very happy creating for his friends!

sunny walk

a wonderful sunny afternoon in january! we had to go for a walk, no doubt about that. it was wonderful, i was glad i had my camera with me and so we ran and jumped and galloped! loving to run after our own shadows!

drei koenigs tag

mit etwas verspaetung doch ich konnte es mir nicht verkneifen den gelungenen drei koenigskuchen euch zu praesentieren.
wir waren an ein fest eingeladen, der kuchen wurde verspiessen und niemand meldete sich fuer die krone..... na ja elias war gluecklich, denn er wollte unbedingt koenig sein und so durfte er!

coffee

it's joel's favorit,
a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate!
i like the looks better then the taste.
as for me,
a cup of hot tea with some honey
is the ultimate.

of course local honey
boston honey

whatever

whatever you can do, or dream you can,
begin it.
-goethe

so often that's what i forget. this blog i guess is a tiny bit of beginning. getting some of my thought's onto "paper", some of my experiences verbally or visually expressed. i'm glad to have begun this.

music in our house

bits of joel's musicianship...



now you can imagine how lovely it is for the kids to go to bed. cozied up under a warm dawn comforter and having daddy play music until they fall asleep!

the present

for a start into a new year, i consider a new blank booklet a wonderful start. this motivated me to get one for each of the kids. each was individually decorated, just little, not much but the goal was to make it resound with their personalities.

• elias got some very geometric lines, plaene, skizzen, ideen, gedanken, farbpaletten


• amos got some a red and black "line rider" over the front and first two pages


• naomi's got a girlish look with pink and lilac meandering lines. i did some more outlines of things throughout the booklet, as she loves to color and to extend given drawings...
  

the three of them were so happy and very exited to get started in scribbling things into their personal note books, amos wanted phone numbers of his friends! i would have not guessed that one. elias is keeping his booklet hidden and doesn't want to waste it with just anything.... it has to be something special. naomi was within a moment coloring the pages in bright red and yellow!
it turned out to be "the present", i'm happy to be their mom!

game night

yesterday night was game night at our house.
joel and the kids played "die siedler von catan". a dream come true for the boys, as they love to play board games, and i have to say it is rather excruciating for me to play board games with the kids. joel loves to play and so they did. naomi was on daddy's team, she was good at rolling the die. not just rolling the die, but also building her very own highway! the boys played each for themselves and of course were good at it. i'm in awe of how joel is playing games with the kids over and over again and really enjoys it a lot. it takes so much patience, perseverances and a cool head. amos has to play the game with one hand and in between turns run to the living room to practice on his drum pad...! he wants to become a famous drummer. he barely makes it back to the game to take his turn. and of course it takes for ever for him to decide what he wants to trade and build.
joel thank you for playing with the kids.

solstice

A solstice Salutation

I salute you!
There is nothing I can give you which you have not.
But there is much, that while I cannot give, you can take.
No heaven can come to us, unless our hearts fin rest in it today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy!
And so at this Christmastime, I greet you,
With the prayer that for you, now, and forever,
The day breaks, and the shadows flee away!

an itialian benison from the 16th century

our furry friend

don't you love the way our squirrel is eating his lunch? we still have some pumpkins and squash to feed to our friends in the "wilderness" of city life.
it is so much fun watching them and observing how much they like to eat! i just put a little net with bacon fat out on a tree, we will see what is going to happen to it over the coming days.

live free - learn free!

encourrageing

i'm once more strengthened in my parenting ideas....
listen and watch 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do, by Gever Tulley from TED ideas worth spreading.

end of the year

it can't get any better.
we went to our friends house, cooked, played, and laughed together. the kids running wild and enjoying the snowy backyard as we drank a cup of tea. of course for a few moments things were wild and uncontrolled, but that's life, parenting fun, life entertainment.
after the big fun, all the kids enjoyed the sleep over. in sleeping bags, on the floor, with friends. for us that was a very high point of "last year".
some chocolate and an excellent drink, a warm living room and good conversation, ended in prayer, and the new year has begun.

thank you alberto, joanna, ana, isaac, margaret, and pheobe