{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

savoring spring

spring bloom on the table


piling lots of fire wood behind the house, as the hot tub will be used a lot over the next few weeks


the neighbors trampoline got used a lot too


the grill place we went to on sunday lent itself to exploring and figuring out of what the rock/soil looks like in the area, "nagelfluh", and here in english.... and if you would like a bit more indepth here

the boy on his wheel

we spent the last few days in the country side.
of course switzerland is almost only pastures, but that's just as it looks from the "outer switzerland"....
the time at my parents has been relaxing and just good. lot's of reading on my end and just being too.



joel got those two shots of "the boy on his wheel", yes he really gets better and faster and stronger on the unicycle, it's fun to watch this happening. here the birthday gift, and here two month later, now almost two years later, a new wheel, it's bigger and lighter and of course better!!!


and this one was just very special, seeing him crossing the meadow. he had to walk the grass was just a bit to high and it was up hill. this is after he visited the cows, and then had to wheel away a bit quicker as expected, as the bull got nervous...

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

falafel for dinner

for the past months there was a bag of chick peas smiling at me out from the cupboards...
and yesterday was the day, they smiled to much and i got a hold of them, soaked them for 24hours and cooked them. the purpose was set, we will have falafel for dinner!
it was the first time, i made falafel from scratch. in the past i used mixes, and had to just ad water and oil...
this time i had to put them in the blender and add the onions, parsley, oil, salt, spices and flour myself. it went well and looked good...
(i have to say though, they were not fancy at all and i'm not a lebanese cook...)


next step frying in olive oil. not too much oil, but a non stick frying pan did the trick.


and they were yummy, served with a spicy tomato sauce. we will do this again and i hope soon!

chestnut tree

i have been telling you about the chestnut tree next to our house (here and here), and it's just cool to watch!
the leafs are now all out and still unfolding. the first stems have started blooming, so lots of yellow dust on the tables under the tree...
though i'm still hanging laundry next to it. i can just not resist and the wind is blowing sweetly through and drying it very quickly. i'm so much looking forward to the full bloom of the tree, soon, soon.

sechseläuten zürich

ganz überraschend haben wir uns entschieden am marathon montag, ans sechseläuten nach zürich zu gehen.
mitten im gewühl der vielen leute haben wir dem brennen des scheiterhaufens mit dem böögg drauf beigwohnt und uns am feuer und dem chlöpfen gefreut.
das wetter war herrlich und die bratwürste schmeckten uns. elias war begeistert von den kostümen und kam dann aber schnell wieder ins schwärmen, als er die segelboote auf dem see entdeckte (da war der umzug grad vergessen...)...


thea hatte freude an einem gelben nägeli, das sie von einer trachtenfrau erhielt


zünfter hoch zu ross


unsere aussicht auf den böögg


die spannung steigt, wann wirds den kopf vertätschen


nach 12.54 min ist alles vorbei und alle jubeln einem schönen sommer entgegen


und das ist das ende der veranstaltung um den sechseläutenplatz

chicken coop workers...

on saturday my brother in law and his kids showed up with a big crate of power tools...
joel went out to get all the necessary materials and mid morning the crew started out with a good look at the already existing platform and then got to work...


measuring out the side panels and front.


working on the little gates where the chickens will hop into their laying boxes.


screwing the hinges onto the back doors.


and one door got a cool chicken cut out, more photos to be coming soon.

it was a full day on my end, cooking lunch for 18 people and dinner for 13. having lot's of kids around and in the house, guests coming and going. o well i love hosting people and it was nice seeing out living room being used. sunday was the opposite and that was nice. we payed our friends a visit, stayed for lunch and dinner and the kids loved their yard, i loved the fact that i didn't have to do anything, just sit, eat, walk a bit and enjoy the people! thank you d & r.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

good company

my parents visited today. originally they were coming to see naomi's play "peter and the wolf" at kindergarten. but then they got stuck.... which i have to say was great.
i did lots of laundry , went with my pa to have a look at the apple trees which we will be harvesting from in the fall (some kind old lady asked us if we would be interested in the them, as she is not able to). they look great and a cherry tree is part of the "pack", yeah!

now back to our day, after the play we decided that there is lot's to do around the house... of course i knew but didn't expect them to do it... but so they did.
cutting our shrubs back as well as the apple tree. racking the old brown leafs from last fall, the chestnut tree has just tons of leafs seamed at least to me. and one more cool thing, we started a pile of cut branches, old leafs etc. the goal: to attract helpful insects, birds, ants and just what crawls around and then of course it would be wonderful to find some hedgehogs next fall... we are working toward a "naturgarten".
o well, mid afternoon, after the work was done we all sat down with some pastries orange juice and coffee!


danke ma und pa fuer euren besuch. wir haben uns gefreut euch bei uns zu haben und natuerlich ein ganz dickes dankeschoen fuer eure arbeit!

rain rain we love you...

naomi and amos love to play in the rain, splashing and prancing around the house or near forest. there is also that old swing set which is for toddlers, never the less it's still a great toy.


thea is into pebbles and gravel...
every time she runs outside, she comes back with a mouth full of them. usually very happily smiling with lips pressed close, so she will not lose any of her treasures!


and so we go...
do you see the little blue car on the grill? it's car grilling, don't ask me how they taste grilled!

birhtday presents...

a friend of mine and her boy have a birthday coming up. i'm not usually making gifts for such occasions, but this time i just had to, quickly sit at my machine and use up some of the small scraps from the past years. i have not seen my friend for about 9months, we were neighbors before and really enjoyed watching each others creations coming alive.
i hope those two hot pads, or what ever she is going to do with them will bring her joy. i had fun making them and thinking of the two of them. it's so sweet to think that they both will unwrap their little presents and discover that they got a very similar hand made item.
i love the way the back turned out, there is so much texture in it! maybe because i didn't iron the pads at the end. i think they look just fine without the iron being put on them.

those scraps are fun to look at, a top for me when i was pregnant with thea, a dress for naomi, a meitei, a skirt for naomi, a village frock for naomi, an other little dress for naomi, a bonnet for thea, a dress for a friends little s and one more for little s....

in the living room

each sunday night we enjoy each others company in our community. yesterday was special in regards, that f was telling us about her 3 months in africa. she was working as a midwife in benin. i love to hear other people telling about their travel stories. it is wonderful to dive into other cultures and hear about crazy taxis who load 14-16 people into a regular car....
of course the kids are with us and love it too. these moments are so rich for the kids, i'm glad we have the opportunity to share life with other people. with their up and downs, learning to see the world a bit different through their eyes and get a wider perspective. God is good.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama

hanging laundry

o how i have been waiting for this day!
winter has been long but now it's springtime. the sun is getting warmer each day and i'm finally able to hang the laundry again outside. it's so liberating to be able to hang the fresh washed diapers and anything else out into the sun. a chore i don't mind at all.
during the cold and wet months i have to do the hanging in the basement, letting a dehumidifier do the work... it's an ok solution, but how much more i love to wear my cloths being all fresh and scented by sun rays and a fresh breeze.
in the past years i had to hang on one long line, now we have a so called "stewi", this is a very practical thing. it's very quickly put up and it turns, this way i can stand at one place and hang everything without moving one step to the left or right...


and then here the chestnut tree, the buts burst and the leafs are unfolding beautifully.

the chicken coop

we have been talking and thinking and dreaming of a chicken coop for a couple of years now...
the plans have been made a few weeks ago, and in the past few days joel got started with the base.
we are so excited and it is lot's of fun to see his brothers bed base being turned into the floor of our chicken coop. at obi he found the corner posts, made of galvanized steel. a good find and easy to work with.
and of course there are helping hands all about!



as soon as we make some progress you will see more photos...

easter 2

easter lunch, thank you ma for cooking

searching for easter bunnies, and other treats


lots of board games have been played


and of course those little chubby thea hands loved to grab all the different sweets

and then of course eating our easter eggs, after doing some good "eier tuetsche"
the game is being played as followed, two players take each a hard boiled egg in their hand. both have to make sure their eggs are either at the "tip" or then at the "bottom" one player whacks the other players egg, with the intention to brake the others eggshell. the one who's eggshell is staining whole, is the winner of the round. then you turn to the winner of an other game around the table. who ever has the unbroken egg at the end is the winner. and of course at the end everyone eats their egg, that's the yummiest part of the game.

the long easter weekend... (in switzerland it's an official holliday weekend), starting on maundy thursday afternoon and going on through easter monday! o we really enjoyed every moment of it. especially the wonderful music on easter morning at the church. and then of course some sunshine on our walks.
having a few extra days off was great to catch up on projects and also slow down and be still moments. staying at my parents is definitely a help in slowing down. the "zuber" (a wooden jacuzzi) is great, for the adults to enjoy a slow evening and the kids to splash in the warm water outdoors...

"easter" 1

i know i'm late with this one, it's our good friday tradition to decorate easter eggs...
so here we go this is part one, we visited joel's parents and enjoyed a lovely afternoon decorating eggs and playing outside, in the sun but still bundled up as the winds were "sharp"...



amos is still a big fan of "mike wazowski"



and i love the best, binding different kinds of grasses with thread and cooking the eggs in natural dyes...
in the past years i used red cabbage and onion skins....