a day in the kitchen

snacking on spiced pecans, while cooking, nursing, helping elias with his craft, and lots more...

the cider gravy in the making...

i love to spend time in the kitchen. its the place where everything happens in our house! or most of the action, i guess...
as for today, it's gloomy and after our family brunch, which our kids love, we read "the thanksgiving story". it was appreciated by the kids, as we have been working on this part of american history lately. i have been able to "clean up" the turkey, as of yesterday night. the broth is also in the freezer which makes me happy. some time in december i will the lucky person defrosting some delicious broth and come up with a big pot of soup for a cold evenings comfort dinner.

ready for cider brine

this bird is getting ready to be put in a cider brine for the coming 14 hours....
it was quiet exciting to pick it up at our local store, elias carried it home in his back pack, amos was hauling the gallon of cider and the rest of our shopping home. it is nice to have my little work horses do all the heavy hauling and i enjoy thea in the "moby"...
of course naomi had to ride along on her purple bike, honking with her elephant head...

regen....

den ganzen tag hat es heute geregnet, nicht einmal aufgehoert! und doch mussten wir raus...
na ja ich haette vorgezogen nicht in dieses huddelwetter raus zu muessen, doch elias hatte ein termin beim orthodontist. so haben wir wohl oder uebel regenjacken und stiefel angezogen und sind ins nasse wetter raus marschiert, thea unter der jacke im "moby".
es war dann garnicht so schlimm, da es warm war. im gegensatz zu den vergangenen drei tagen wo wir immer im minus kursierten war es heute dann auf einmal 12 grad!
mal sehen wann der winter einzug halten wird, mit schnee und kaltem wind, die kinder koennen kaum warten. doch morgen geht es dann zuerst mal noch drum den truthan einzukaufen, da am donnerstag "thanksgiving" ist und wir einen mostgebeizten 7kg truthan in den oven schieben moechten....

old photos

a friend of mine was digging up an old photo of naomi....
yes it is naomi at 2.5 years, she is so grown up now! has become such a lady. it is appearing now more than ever, having little thea clare in my arms.

amos is still very much into caring for people, regardless of age. i was taken away, when he told me his "high of the day" a couple of days back. one of our community members had a house concert with lots of friends coming. amos's comment was: "i'm so happy t has so many friends", i almost cried. amos is thoughtful and caring for others.

the wheel of time is spinning and i guess that's a good thing. i love to flip back to old photos and savor memories of the kids very early years! the one of amos is bringing back the memory of him playing with his doll and really caring for her as much as he still does for real people.

meat from the farm

i could not resist and stop by the farmers market today. stillman's turkey farm is selling great meat. i have tried the lamb shoulder chops with bone in, it was tender and had the perfect taste. we also got spoiled with a pork tenderloin, i prepared it a la minute with a mushroom sauce last sunday. served with red cabbage and spaetzle, mmhhhh! so i got some more lamb and pork, it's in the freezer as of now and will be prepared within the next few weeks. there is just so much good in local meat, which is raised on a small farm. not just good to eat, but "feel good" to buy supporting a local farm.

self invented rules

we love to have friends over, and especially if they like to play games...
after dinner there was a loud call for playing carcassonne, not just the regular carcassonne, but the one with naomi and amos's own rules. those rules change from time to time even through the course of a game they can develope into more complicated or mutate into some form of free for all.
our friend was able to go along with the two of them (often adults are not able to switch and go along with the "whatever rule", but j did, congratulations!)
this time, it was mostly building cities and something about giants and growing grains.... don't ask me, i was just enjoying to watch the party.

chicken pie and scone....

a few days ago, the idea of chicken pie popped in my head, and i got really excited to prepare it for dinner today. i prepared some puff-pastry-dough on monday, got all the ingredients of the course of the past two days and finally i started cooking and preparing the pie form for baking. it was a lot quicker as i sought it would be and the pies turned out wonderful. in the midst of eating, i totally forgot to take a photo of the baked but not eaten pie... just imagine it, nicely golden brown crust with a wonderful savory smell to it!

and this is what i ate after preparing and shoving the pie in the fridge. a raisin scone from the bakery up the street with a cup of white tangerine tea. mmhhhh, yes it was a good afternoon.

birthday gifts

how little you need to have a fun evening to create and everything on hand and a bunch of very energetic kids!

yesterday after dinner the kids got really inspired with preparations for birthday gifts to our friend c who's birthday was today. all started with naomi drawing and stitching some nice round cards. elias picked up on the idea of stitching but wanted to do it all himself. so he got some card board and a whole puncher yarn and worked his way all the way to a great design. it was fun to see it develop, from a simple "church" like building into exciting multi coloured patterns. amos wanted to do something very different, he really wanted to make a little picture book for c, so he started out drawing pictures. when he was all done drawing, he went back to the first picture and started to give titles to every art work in the book.
i could not have been more happy with the created art we were able to hand over to our birthday friend this morning. some evenings are just remarkably joyful as well as full of positive energy!

the moby

we are now out and about with the moby wrapped around me! i love it, it's so comfy i think not just for me but also for thea. she seems to like it, being all bundled up and close to me.
the photographer was naomi, the proud big sister. she could not have been more happy to take the photo with "mama's big camera"! and i'm so happy with the borrowed coat, through my last two months of being pregnant as also now, it just fit's perfectly and it's warm in the now cooler weather. thank you a for letting me wear it.

whistling for thea

joel's new passion....

yes we all enjoy the presence of thea clare, she is so perfect and as newborns are, just special! the kids are all happy about having an other girl in the family, as this means, that we are even in regards to gender, as a family. i think this is funny, but it has been the topic of lots of discussions lately. i can now go through the storage bins and sort through all the cloths kept over the past few years. i guess it's the first step toward sorting out, giving away in perspectiv of our moving over, back to europ in about 9months. i cant help but think of it as a time of prepareing and being still to find strength and direction, as we had been doing for the past 9 month with me being pregnant with thea clare.

thea clare

a colourfull evening

our community dinner was a lot of fun last saturday, as you see in the photos lot's of dying going on.... all for me, or better for the baby to be born! i'm soooo... happy about this new colourful cloths. i guess our baby will be dressed in a different undergarment every day, ranging from yellow-green-orange-blue to purple! thank you greenhaus for this very creativ gift.

advent is around the corner...

the boys really wanted to buy the lego advents calendar.... i felt like we have so many lego's already and we could get creative ourselves for an advents project. that's how it all started.
i found an old scarf and some pieces of linen, which originally were intended to become something else (more in the realm of needle work, which i'm not very much into), i got a big stash of those kind of old kit's from a friend's mom. cutting some of them appart they were just the right size to sew pockets for our project.
from an other friend i got these really nice "fabric fun" pastells, and the stencle was a quick print and cut out...
a week later i'm done and very happy with the result, the calendar will be hung and filled by all family members and we will figure out who gets to empty which pocket, in order for the surprises to work out and hopefully no unpleasant surprises of getting you own filled pocket will be made.

sonntags spaziergang

wir genossen einen weiteren milden herbstsonntag. ein spaziergang um den teich, amos und naomi mit fahrzeugen und ich genoss die sonne im gesicht. fuehle mich nach wie vor sehr wohl, doch so langsam aber sicher wird die koerperliche aktivitaet etwas anstrengender. der bauch ist nun auch richtig schoen rund und gross, das kind aktiv am zappeln und strampeln, wieviele tage wohl noch in mir....
ein neuer morgen voll energie und tatendrang starten wir in die neue woche. fruehstueck auf dem tisch und naomi's haare bereits gekaemmt, yeah!

my preffered drink

the days have been so warm and foggy such, that a cup of decaf coffee with a chunk of vanilla ice creme were just the best treat in the early afternoon. sitting on the sofa, putting my feet up and enjoy the very moment of stillness in the house. it usually doesn't last for very long, but it's a moment which i treasure most days.

a rainy day

yes the rainy days do happen here too in the new england autumn. and we don't even mind them too much. going out in the rain is fun for a bit and playing with the train set is even more fun. i was surprised how well all three kids played together and how much fun they enjoyed. the day passed faster as i could wish for, and the violin lessons went well too. today is a new day, it's a gloomy one too but no rain. a visit with my midwife, which especially naomi enjoyed, the big helper...

breakfast

a rainy autumn morning, the right moment to light a candle and enjoy our breakfast. all of us really like the elderberry jelly! naomi loves to take honey in her tea as well as on her bread! elias is much more of a peanut butter guy, not so amos, he likes lot's of butter topped with any sweet kind of spread. i'm drinking lots of raspberrieleaf tea...

yellow

such a nice warm day with lots of warm colours around me. i just had to capture a few of those yellows striking me as bright spots in my life.
i'm just now heading out with naomi to get some things done, up on center street...

november 4th

what else could i post today.....
the lines at our neighborhood pol have been long already at 7am. it's a nice sight and a good feel to see people go out into a sunny new day and vote!
as a resident alien, i can't vote, my kids are to young to vote, but at least they are interested and i do encourage this a lot. i'm very excited about them having discussed the state ballot questions Nr.1 (incometax), Nr.2 (marijuana) and Nr.3 (dog racing) among their peers in their homeschool groups, with their adult friends.
i fell strongly, that there is never a time to early to talk politics were ever when ever, discuss public life, take an activ part in your community.

november

"November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring."
- Clyde Watson

whoopie pie's

as we did not trick or treating and still wanted to enjoy some healthy sweets, i was getting excited about these mini pumpkin woopie pies...
they were quick to make and turned out very tasty. not very sweet and with the pumpkin creme-cheese filling a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, everyone liked them. except naomi, she doesn't seem to like the spices in the whoopie filling.
besides eating such treats, we watched ratatouille... the boys were really excited and enjoyed it. i for once watched with them and enjoyed it too. pixar does such a good job with it's animation.