geburtstag!

gestern (vor zwei tagen, und nun kommen noch die photos...) haben wir elias's neunten geburtstag gefeiert! ein schoener, sonniger und froher tag, an dem wir es einfach genossen mit freunden zu sein und elias zu feiern.

my present

i got myself a little present...
it felt the right thing to remind myself of the little person growing in me...
i found this precious object at greenleafandowl.etsy.com

listening

we are in our listening times again. once in a while everyone is totally in tune with listening to books on tape. the past few days have been "ben and me", it's so much fun to learn history through in such a lively way.
and even better, i can cook, sew, bake, or what ever else i like to, in the presence of my very quiet children. not that it lasts for hours on end, but i enjoy as it does.

mending...

i'm so happy to have the sewing machine. i got it almost 11 years ago from an old lady. the machine is very dear to me, as it was really the only the only familiar thing to me upon our arrival to the united states in september 1997. i knew how to sew and so i started sewing, curtains, quilts, and of course lots of "mending".
that's what i still do a lot, even more so with the kids cloths. i enjoy it, sitting at the kitchen table, often some other people around doing something or an other, having some good music on and getting work done.
i just finished a top for myself, with some very nice fabric. i will post about it in a few days.

workday...

yes everyone is working hard, be it writing, painting, or leaving through some recent drawings. a regular morning unraveling in our kitchen. sometimes it isn't as orderly as seen at this moment, i guess most moments are a bit more chaotic...

an other thing happening within the past days. elias lost two more teeth within 11h! he is sooooo proud of this. it has been a big spectacle for all of us.

dessert

sitting behind the house, when the kids are resting after lunch. especially sitting with a delicious dessert in hand has been one of the best moments of my days lately. it is so relaxing to stretch my legs into the sun, and just soak all that warmth and light up into my body, into my sole. reading a psalm and enjoying the quiet moments in my days, it has been real rejuvenation to me. i will try to keep it up!
by the way, what i enjoyed in this bowl are raspberries, pear, walnuts, and coconut flakes...

no real post...

i have been out to shop for fabric....
i have had the pattern waiting for a few weeks....
i have started and almost finished the first shirt....
and the weather is too nice to be indoors during the day!
even the sprinklers at the park are on, and that is of course the best reason to go there in swimsuits!
for me, it's too cold, i was brining the amc magazine,
see you an other evening, i guess.

soccer evenings....

thursday evening is amos soccer hour. of course everyone wants to come along and get their share of ball time too. it was a bit an ere evening, starting out with some sunshine, and ending with a down pour. but as you can see in the first photo, it made for a spectacular sky!
i know this is a late blog, but for some reason i didn't think of blogging yesterday night, and still wanted to tell you about our evening with dramatic weather changes. joel and the kids were riding their bicycles home in a very fast speed. "mama, we were riding as fast as we could, you never let us ride so fast! it was super fun!"
that was elias running through the door into the dry and dinner ready kitchen...

baking

naomi loves to bake, not just in the sand box but even more so with flour, milk, baking soda, chocolate chips and all. it often takes me a bit of overcoming myself, as i'm the type to really keep things neat and organized. of course it is not going to be that way if we do it together, but for today, that was ok.
the chocolate chips cookies turned out nice, i will do it again with her, my baker's daughter.

hanging laundry

yes i love to hang laundry, i would love to hang all of it on a long laundry line....
i have been hanging lots of diapers twice a week in earlier years, but the line is gone. instead we have a nice deck with a sand box... i still hang the small pieces on a rack and put it out into the fresh city air! boston is windy and that's why i can very well say the air is fresh and the cloths smell wonderful after a few hours hanging.

ruebli salat

once more amos wished for carrot salad with dried cranberries.... it's great to be able to see him dig into this healthy kind food. i don't mind to prepare it either, knowing that all the kids like that orange salad. even the garlic and lemon-joghurt sauce is treasured, what more can i wish for!

on a spring saturday

this is the crop we got home from the BNAN perennial divide. naomi and i were digging right after breakfast and gathering up a big tub full of different plants to contribute. and we took home a few dahlia tuber, time, oregano, raspberries, a variety six pack of tomatoes from the community farm.


as well as a few packages of seeds which BNAN was giving away for free. Naomi enjoyed this part the best!


we came home sometime after noon and it was sunny and warm, wonderful to play in the sand and get games going. even though our deck is tiny, the kids are able to pull of games and define all kinds of rules to make them work.

amos loves the mitt and any given ball...

elais was digging out a well made hockey stick from a friend a year ago...

rabatte

dies einige fotos unserer rabatte, ist so schoen all die verschiedenen fruehlingsblumen. ich geniesse es vorallem an den moergen, oft einfach mal hin zu stehen und die sonne geniessen die diese blumenpracht erwachen liess. was wir in der vergangenen woche noch taten, war eine notfall aktion fuer unsere kletterrose. der wind bliess sehr stark an dienstag und mittwoch, da hat es unser provisorisches holzgeruest umgestellt und joel hat ums haus alte waescheleinen-pfosten gefunden, die wir zurecht gesaegt und nun einbetoniert haben. zumindest einer ist nun fix und hilft der rose sich festhalten. nun wartet der zweite teil des projektes noch aufs werden.... doch das hat zeit, da gibts noch nicht mal einen rosenstock! der zukunftsplatz ist in der ecke wo das violette poelsterlein ist, auf dem dritten bild. doch darueber dann wenn es soweit ist.

stomach bug

yes it got me. the past few days were not very enjoyable, i was mostly feeling sick and didn't have a lot of energy. it seems though i'm over it and slowly i'm getting used to regular food again. i slept a lot and joel was really helpful in all regards, thank you. even the kids started missing me....
amos asked me yesterday morning: "mom where have you been? i have not seen you since yesterday afternoon?"
i'm back and the blog should come alive again.

goslings...

it's gosling season...
a walk along the pond got started with a really fun and nice meeting of a family of canada gees.
every year we see them it's fun and in a new way very exciting and up lifting.
they came so close toward us, being not afraid, at least not the babies....
then soon we heard a snarling noise made by the mom to scare us. it did scare naomi, it can be a bit frightening, especially if you are as close up to them as we were and naomi's head is not that much higher as the head of the goos.
we planned to go for a bike ride in the arboretum, but decided against it this morning, as the temperature's dropped a lot and it seems like it could start raining any moment. instead we will go for a shorter time to the play ground and do the bike riding on wednesday....

portrait taking

it was a lot of fun, not just for me but also for elias. even though he started out to be very annoyed, by me wanting to take photos of the kids....
this is what i got, not really good, just ok, we have to try in a better moment i guess.

and then it turned into a super fun game, we both enjoyed each others attention. of course lots of the pics are not usable but still it was fun and i'm sure i will keep one or two of them.
for the next photo shoot we plan to ask our friend to try, maybe she has more luck. even with me not having to focus on the camera but on the kids, i think that will help. we have to come up with a fun idea, not boring! our 9 year old boy will not cooperate with anything boring.....

saturday

we all slept in....
yes all of us, including our notorious early bird naomi. it was nine o clock when we started the day and slowly got up and going. no noises, no running, no "no! i don't want to wear this!" just dressing and preparing breakfast, brewing tea and coffee.
i like mornings if they start this way, even the sun was up and not the expected rain drenching us. we all were in the mood for cereal and enjoyed as many bowls of it as we liked, as i was not planning on lunch.
it's now evening and i can say we had a nice do nothing or better enjoy everything and do little day. some more of those have to be booked, i think.

gugelhopf

es ist einfach so ueber mich gekommen ich hatte lust einen gugelhopf zu backen. alles hat damit angefangen, dass ich den buben abends aus dem buch "jim knopf und die wilde 13" vorlese.... lukas, jim und li si waren grad bei frau waas zum tee eingeladen und sie hat ihnen einen gugelhopf serviert. da musste ich den buben einfach zeigen wie ein feiner gugelhopf aussieht und schmeckt. so hatten wir gugelhopf zum fruehstueck!
na ja ab und zu ein spezielles fruehstueck duerfen wir uns schon leisten....

blumen um's haus

im moment gruent und blueht es um's haus. die temperaturen sind nun bereits die zweite woche fast regelmaessig ueber 20 C und der regen ist nun auch regelmaessig gekommen waehrend den vergangenen tagen. ist wunderbar zu sehen wie einfach alles zu bluehen beginnt. da unsere rabatte vor dem haus nur morgens sonne hat sind die knollenblumen etwas verspaetet, aber nicht minder schoen. auch das lila poelsterli ist prachtvoll, ich werde in den kommenden tagen versuchen mir die zeit zu nehmen und noch einige bilder im blog zu zeigen....
hier also einfach mal ein anfang, die gefuellten osterglocken habe ich im herbst in die erde gesetzt, und es sind alle knollen gewachsen! im hintergrund ist noch ein frauenherz zu sehen, da haben wir zwei groessere pflanzen in der rabatte vor dem haus. die traubenhiazinten mit dem lila poelsterli (weiss nicht was es ist, waechst wie unkraut) zieren den vorderen teil der rabatte hin zum gehsteig.....
ich bin nun taeglich einige momente am jaeten, das tut gut und ich hoffe auch dass ich dadurch nicht auf einmal "ueberwachsen" werde.....

egg coop

my friend and i are trying to get an egg coop started....
it all started when she stumbled upon an add on creags list. a family who wants to sell eggs but delivering 10 dozen eggs at one time. it turned out to be not suitable for us, as we figured we would like to have the eggs delivered or picked up every other week at least. but it got us started and we are now 11 families who are trying to figure out to support a local farm. as for the moment we are looking into chip-in farm which is feeding a well balanced grain feed without fish meal. the chickens are free range which is an other important criteria.
i was surprised on the prize. chip in wants $2.10 for a dozen eggs, which is remarkable for local free range eggs. the egg i get at the moment are organic valley farm, at our local coop grocer i pay over $4 for a dozen. they are new england eggs, but of course they are not as fresh as our chip in farm eggs would be if we go get them every two weeks.
i will keep you informed what's happening and hope our egg coop families will end up with a very good quality and local egg delivery on a regular bases.

wildlife and sun hat

we went to our usual spot at the arnold arboretum, the hazelnut bush. it's a favorite, close to the ponds and the hazel for itself is so cool to play with. it's boat, a house, a fort, what ever the kids come up that moment. elias discovered a robins nest with three eggs in it! what an exciting find, he was so nervous and could almost not climb down the bush!
lots of tadpole catching and relies, they were very small but tons of them around. of course the sandals and socks were no longer on their feet and the pants rolled up high! it's spring in new england and we are thankful for it.

the big sighting was not the yellow finches or the red winged black birds, not even the rabbit.... we spotted a big snapping turtle.

we did also enjoy a good picninc, naomi had to have her new sun hat on her head... i know it's huge though i love her "pattington" look. and she likes the hat sewn by mama a lot, which is a big compliment to me.
i used lotta jansdotter simple sewing "sun hat" pattern. it was fun to make.

blooming trees

it's spring and we do enjoy every moment of it. i do especially enjoy the warm and sunny days! although it is raining today, all day on and off and all the little petals will be gone by tomorrow if it keeps raining... never the less some new once will catch my eyes tomorrow! the rhododendron's are now in bloom too and soon enough the lilacs will spread their scents and we will walk up and down chinese hill at the arnold arboretum enjoying the wonder. lets see what is in store for this coming week.

the quilt is done

ok, here we go!
phoebes quilt is done and ready to be packed up and put in the mail, to be shipped to a different continent. i love how it looks with the satin binding. it really feels great and that's the most important for a child. i did realize that when i wanted naomi to use an other blanket in order for me to quickly wash her regular (white fleece with satin binding), the one i offered was nice and she liked it but could not go to sleep..... her fingers didn't know what to do.
that's why i decided to use satin and it does feel great.

this the little cat catching fish detail... i think it's funny, but you don't see it right away. the quilt is not tied together but it is hand sewn, as you might see in the photo. i chose circles and it turned out to be very suddel which pleases me.
this is the all folded up and tied up package, i had some satin left and used it.
tomorrow is the day, so bare with me that it doesn't get lost in the mail!

garden pics and may day

biking or scootering over to the garden is naomis favorit "gardening" part....

finally the photos they should have been up with a post of a week ago...
this is our little garden, we really enjoyed to work in it. lots of seeds are now buried and we wait until they come up! we did well last week with watering it every day and over the past two days it was raining enough for the next two days.... by saturday we will go again and see what's going on. the garlic has been in for the past two years, we have been harvesting and i tried to let enough bulbs in to get the coming years plant going. it looks like they do well.

the salad and broccoli seedlings look alright, we will see how soon those leaves will be ready to be eaten.

and of course today is may day! a wonderful sunny day, i know in europe they are having rallies and "kundgebungen" it's too bad that so often they end in riots and the police shows up in full gear. it could be different.
this is why we look even more forward to this years "wake up the earth" festival in JP. a saturday afternoon with lots of music, games, all kinds of food and just being outdoors with our neighborhood!