courageous

elias has been sailing all of july, he loved it and learned a lot. ton's of knots, lot's of words i don't understand...
it has become his summer life, being on a j22, being on the water. he could not stand to have dry feet anymore, and so he dangled his feet in the sea (of course with the shoes on, as he was not allowed to take them off). thank you staff of courageous sailing, you do such a great job in teaching the kids life skills, as well as sailing.

one more day

more of the same. it is fun and so helpful to have my parents around. they sort and clean and make me go through stuff. it's sometimes a bit daunting looking at all the little and big stacks of things, which i have to look through and decide what's happening with each little item...
i have to say though it is fun too and i like to look at things which have not been in my sight for years or i have forgotten about it.

joel has been hard at work sorting through piles and boxes of paper, which we kept for the past 12 years. and of course lots of those are "confidential". how do you get rid of those names and numbers without a shredder in the house, you use your grill and fire it up, sit there for hours and burn one sheet after an other!

naomi and amos did lot's of drawing. we still have two of those big drawing paper pads, just get the pencils or paints out and let them creat stories and figures. today i got to see how many many courious people were coming "to life". it's so much fun for the kids and lots of enjoyment for me to watch and hear stories.
a few more days and we are all ready to have the movers come in and pack for real! next wednesday that will happen, when we are all occupied with violin workshop!

an other day

lots of things going on in and around our house. thea seems to enjoy the busyness around her and of course being on the deck behind the house is one of her favorite places.

one of the enjoyable duties for the kids, watering the newly planted shrubs around the house. any cup or bucket will do and of course it ends up with everyone being involved in a water battle...

just before i wanted to call for dinner the kids asked me if they would be allowed to play with/in the little kids pool. i wanted to say no, as it was interfering with my evening planning, but i could not say no.
this turned out to 45 minutes of fun. everyone was happy and at the end clean! what more would i have wanted. -nothing-

the sorting and packing goes on, today joel sorted through his whistles...
he has now two sets, one ready to be taken onto our journey and an other heap to be shipped across the atlantic to our new place starting in november.

on the deck

yes we packed, we sorted, we washed, we hung laundry, folded laundry and enjoyed the sunny day. it was a bit warm so the evening rest was well deserved. my ma is full of energy, and sorted through all the legos with the boys, packed them up into boxes. sorted through books and random collected toys, it looks so orderly now. i don't really feel like taking lots of photos, but that may change. this one of me is by joel

watching him play...

after drum lesson amos enjoys watching his teacher play on the i-pod touch...
he doesn't even want to play, just look at the little (some would claim huge) screen.

and of course not two moments and the second boy is clued to the same little screen. it's great to see their enthusiasm, for a good moment. though soon a couple more kids come over and the watching b play gets real tough, too crowded and the ball gets taken out to do some real playing! yeah! i'm glad reality hit them once more and they are not stuck with this little surreal gadget.

brendan behan session

A fiddle, a flute, pipes, an ale, and of course - tunes!

at logan airport

waiting for our train...
the green st stop is fascinating, like so many T stops in boston. lots of climbing and of course amos is reading, waiting is so much shorter for him.

more waiting, there were so many flights coming in within 30 minutes, logan airport is truly international. every time we wait for friends or family to arrive at terminal E the kids enjoy the kinetic sculpture by george rhoads. it is a fun one waiting is made easier, but still, we had to wait ---

--- until the grandparents from switzerland came out the door after immigration. what joy, what great moment of seeing them.

after the "big" kids go to bed

thea loves her late nights....
yes she discovered that after the big kids are in bed there is some real quality time with her dady. sitting either in the music room and listening to his whistling, or all other kinds of music making. some times even friends come over for a little session, what fun!

ciabatta

a sunny morning and lots of time, because thea is waking up soooo early. i have been up at 6 or so for the past few days. this had me ride to canto 6, i had to get a loaf of warm ciabatta and a few rolls for the kids.
fresh bread is one of the foods i would not want to miss. a bike ride in the early wee hours of morning is something i don't do often anymore. i forgot how much pleasure it is, i have to do it more often. maybe tomorrow morning?

ein regentag

heute regnete es den ganzen tag, ne nicht ganz, ich habs grad geschafft mitte morgen schnell mit dem fahrrad einkaufen zu gehen.... doch auf dem heimweg hat's dann aber bereits wieder mit regnen weitergemacht.
kochen, backen, ein kurzer mittagsschlaf, diskutieren, instrumente ueben mit den kindern und dann wieder kochen, gaeste zum znacht, und kurz davor noch freunde die schnell vorbeikamen um uns tschuess zu sagen.
tschuess fuer immer? wer weiss, auf jedenfall sind wir immer am tschuess sagen und wer weiss ob wir all unsere liebgewonnenn freunde hier wieder sehen werden oder nicht. scheint recht viel endgueltigkeit zu sein im moment. wir planen nicht wieder hierher zurueck zu kommen, viele freunde hier planen nicht uns in der schweiz zu besuchen.
loslassen, zurueck geben in gottes haende was wir von ihm erhalten haben.

unser auto wird morgen auch verkauft sein, so musste auch das noch schnell unter den putzlappen um 21:30uhr... unser gutmuetiger volvo wird sein neues zuhause bei t & a finden, freunde aus der nachbarschaft. in den kommenden wochen duerfen wir ihn wenn noetig noch fahren. ist so praktisch, da unser neues fahrzeug ja bei freunden 20 minuten weg parkiert ist und wir mit dem shasta ja nicht wirklich in der stadt rumkurven moechten.... der wird uns dann seine dienste auf unserer 3 monatigen reise erweisen muessen!

keine photos von heute, hatte die energie nicht...

in the white mountains

it was a wonderful camping trip up north into the white mountains of new hampshire.
with our musical friends, lots of sunshine, and lots of good home cooked food.
we hiked up the zealand trail on saturday. it was just so nice, beautiful and refreshing sitting on the rocks of the waterfall. (no photos from that hike...)
thank you rocky nook people for being our friends.

this morning

i got an early start today, thea was just so awake and wanted to chat and play with me. in order to do that, i got up at 6:38am! it has been a long while since i got up so early. getting a big mug of tea ready for me, heating up the oven to bake bread (the dough was prepared yesterday evening). taking writing a to do list and starting to think about things for the weekend. we are heading north tomorrow afternoon, camping with our musical friends! i will be back here next week.

already at 7:20 naomi was painting...

and elias enjoyed a yummie breakfast, he missed yesterday's late night dessert...

o amos...

our hero he lost an other little tooth! there are a few more who have to wiggle themselves out.
we enjoyed a wonderful summer day, stopping by at our garden. loving to see the lettuce and tomatoes grow! picking black raspberries from the bushes around the house. playing and swimming, with friends, having friends over for dinner and really enjoying a slow day. at least for me and thea, and i need those day's once in a while.
now, there is live music in my living room beer and dessert ready to be served.

thank you m, m and t for coming over and letting me listen in on your passionate music making with joel.
one more thing, i braved the warm summer night to hang laundry tonight, in order to not having to get up early in the morning...

o and by the way i managed to book our flight out of LA in november, back to europe, one way!!! but until then there will be lots of traveling adventures.

spectacle island trip

yes it was bright and sunny this morning, exactly what we wanted for our "spectacle island" trip!
the photo above has been undergone with a "posterizing" feature of gimp, i like the bleak look of the shadows.

the view from the top of the island was gorgeous! this photo shows the view toward boston, what a skyline and this is so good for me. it's the last time i will see this for a long time, maybe for ever, as we leave boston on august 9th.

it was such a nice day and the kids enjoyed the trip. the boat was wonderful 30 minutes is just right to explore each corner and not getting bored with playing "walk tag"...
thank you kids it was a good trip and will stick with me for a long time. we had a lot of fun, playing with sea grass, smooth rubbed pottery, a ride on the island's caretakers utility vehicle (because amos had enough courage to ask and arrange the ride totally on his own).
on our way home, we passed through the rose fitzgerald kennedy greenway, a beautyfull park. i was just too tired to take out the camera once more and thea got a bit heavy in the moby all day... an other time, i have to go back and explore the different fountains with naomi and the boys if they are inclined to hop along.

"brown betty"

i have been making all kinds of old fashioned desserts lately, they seem to be loved in my house!
who does not love fruit, butter and sugar....
a few days ago a double-crusted cherry crisp got gobbled up in a jiffy. this morning i could not just cut rhubarb in the back yard, i had to bake vanilla short bread and use almost all up in a rhubarb and strawberry brown-betty.
i saved a few short bread cookies to pack for elias lunch tomorrow, as he is getting more and more hungry it seems like. i don't blame him, being on the sea all morning in a J-22 would make any boy or girl hungry.

i didn't bake yesterday, that's why the neighbors boys and naomi had to be happy with a bowl of popcorn. and of course it tasted a whole lot better under the table!!!

missed today..

we worked on the RV and ended up playing a Ticket to Ride.... a good day. lots of things got taken care of. maybe a list? i love list's but am to tired tonight to list all the little things which got done today.

recycling bin

as of yesterday we have new recycling bins in the city! wow and they are huge!!! it's the first city with single-stream recycling...
i should have had one of the kids standing next to it or climbing into the bin to show how humongous the bin is. but we are all for it, more room for recycling, a greater insensitive to collect things from the street. we have been dealing with two regular sizes collection bins and they constantly overflowed.

and they added items which we can now put in the recycling bin, yeah! even better no sorting no bundling of paper etc. i love to collect and do my best to recycle in the city.
in the spring and autumn the city also collects yard waste, organics...
a step into the right direction, lets keep walking.

der regen fuettert mein gemuese...

der krautstiel waechst ganz toll. ich habe nur eine pflanze im garten und die hab ich bereits das zweite mal geschnitten...

eine wirklich tolle ernte hat mir der regen in den vergangenen 10 tagen eingefahren. da ich beschlossen habe die karotten nicht auszuduennen bin ich nun jede woche am die groessten rausziehen... scheint sich zu bewaehren. die goldenen randen sind zu unserem favorisierten sommer-gemuese-salat geworden.

kochen-schaelen-in stuecke schneiden-olivenoel/rotweinessig/knoblauch/pfeffer/seesalz!

auch die knoblauchspitzen sind toll um einen salat zu bereichern... nun wartet noch ein grosser salat und ich hab nochmals vier pflaenzchen gepflanzt, mal sehen ob der sommer waermer wird und der salat dan staengelt, oder eben nicht.

und dann hat die naomi mir ganz fest geholfen mit schrubben. nun werden die karotten zu jeder zeit bereitliegen in der gemueseschublade...

cheese straws

a quick snack for everyone! kids as well as adults loved the cheese straws and i had fun trying a new snack.
they are easy to make, within a few minutes you have the batter mixed and 20 minutes later ready to be eaten, especially good when still slightly warm, yum. the recipe is from smitten kitchen a really good place to find good looking creations and the photos on the web site are intriguing, worth a visit.

the hat

thea got a cool patriotic hat for the 4th of july!
it was just so much fun to look at her. o those cheeks and chubby arms and fingers...

out in the woods

our RV, yes it will be our new home for three months. we did test drive it this weekend and it worked fine. we look forward to our big trip across the nation!

one of the first finds was an orange salamander... very very pretty.

oh all those tiny fungus, lots of them and all over the place. in all kinds of colours and shapes. those little ones i enjoyed looking at the most.

i love this photo. not anything else to say about it, peaceful or boring?
-two drummers sleeping-
as for me i was super busy with elias and naomi at violin institute! yes three full days of violin playing, orchestra, music mind games. it was intense and totally worth it.

1st of july

it's the first of july and it is still raining!!!
we still enjoy every moment without rain a lot! as soon as the sun seems to appear we all run outside, jump and play around. even when it is raining, the kids are not to be kept indoors. and that is fine with me. though the mornings are getting harder, i would often rather stay in bed and just doze off once more. naomi is preventing this from happening, she is up and running at the latest at 8am. she needs breakfast, as she has been telling me the past few mornings.
joel has brought the RV home again, as we are getting ready for our suzuki institute days... maybe a bit more tomorrow and then we are off until next week.