thinking of bees on this gray day

it's the end of february, the winter is getting long and straining, still cold and overcast here in the northern parts of switzserland. i'm getting anxious to meet spring and with it's warmer sun beams all the spring flowers and of course the blossoms and bees...

i had to pull out my little booklet "Good Bugs for your Garden", that wonderful little companion of mine.
reading about honey bees, the order of hymenoptera, the family of apidae.
and stuck i was in those wonderful pages, a nice moment of enjoyment!

it makes me all happy to look at the wonderful drawings of the bees and flowering plants. a lavender is on this one page in my mind i smell the scent, though in reality i have a absolutely stuffed nose (really the first time this winter). at the opposite page it's all about the bumble bees including the sketches of bumble bee larvae colonies under ground...
o yes spring is coming, soon i hope, the insects are humming and buzzing around, collecting pollen and enjoying each and every blooming flower springing up of the brown barren places around the house.

the pan mitten and her constellations

the pan mitt is done and in the mail. it did turn out nice and i'm happy, you can't see the back, it dawned on me just as i looked at the photo... that the salvaged fabric would have been nice to show. it's from a pillow case of my grandmother, oops, sorry.

and then my crafting and some hand sewing inspired thea to get going with her own stitching craft. i absolutely love her work, yes i did lend her my hand at some moments, as working that needle with a short thread is still very hard work for those little hands of hers.
there will be more hand sewing going on and i'm very certain more stitching too! how exciting all this handy work is, i so quickly forget the excitement and fun we have with some simple cloth and stitching yarn.

celebrating and sewing

 

 
we have been celebrating a birthday yesterday and i'm all caught up sewing a little birthday present for a friend....

it should already be in the mail, though as you can see it isn't. it will be sent out soon, and i know it's going to be lat, but not less sent with lots of love.
i absolutely loved to sew up all those little scraps, the goal is, to make 6 pan mittens, with all fabric scraps and lose pieces from the stash. i did buy some crib sheets, very thick brushed cotton and this makes a good middle layer for the pan mittens. as i do hope they will be put to use and should therefore be thick enough to shield from hot pans. the work is progressing quickly, though i have been knitting, baking and running to tend my kids as they cough and fight their runny nose.

{this moment}

by joel





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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 

tending and knitting

the fever is going around in the house, it's not very hard to tend the sick, as it's a simple fever lasting 2 days. and the weather is cold all day long a freezing breeze is howling around the house. i don't mind to stay indoors and go about the  nursing duties of a mama. preparing tea and pealing oranges for my patients. sitting at the bed side and of course this makes for some good knitting time. and looking out the window makes me smile too, i love the sill in our family room.

i got my a beautiful "mini herringbone scarf" off the needles and already sent it to my fathers house. and now it's a new project, i had just about one skein of this left in my bin. which will perfect for a toddlers pebble vest. there we go. knitting for little kids is so super rewarding, and that fast!

more newsprint

this is wonderful how creativity is taking hold of our oldest boy. the first basket is done and holding up fine, we are excited and i have to say, i'm so very glad to see how our teenager is able to work through the moments of boredom and get inspired by something crossing his mind. being able to follow the inspiration and take his hands out of the pockets, make them work and create. i love these moments of focused work, all centered and happily grounded there in the living room, at home for a week, before he get's started with school and dance next monday.

he is missing dancing he is missing his body being at work, though i guess that's just fine, that's what brakes are for.

it's paper and tulips today

the middle two are back in school, getting up in the morning has not been that easy today. though as soon as we sat down fro breakfast enjoying the meal and reading scripture i felt at ease. it's that rhythm of starting the day together which i treasure, especially also having joel there for this daily gathering around the table.
fresh tulips on our table and lot's of sunshine today where my companion. our oldest is still home for winter brake, a nice household help and his creativity kicked in as all the housework was done.
i love how hi searched for something to craft and do out of recycling materials, he stumbled upon some newsprint idea sites and picked a craft to do. wonderful, of course i had to join him and craft alongside...

the christmas rose in lent

this christmas rose has been with me for a while now, all winter i have been looking at this wonderful blooming plant. so pretty white and in full bloom for a long while now and all this in the cold dark winters time. now as we are in the season of lent i appreciate the plant even more. such a stark reminder of the transformation christ did in my life. a reminder of the grace and as well of all the hardship christ suffered before he died and rose again. it's good, it's helpful and carrying me through my days, when i'm down cast and lonely. and also when i'm standing in the front of my home, saying good by to a friend after having enjoyed a deep and good conversation. the christmas rose in my garden, what a good reminder

and then yes, there is the season of lent, giving up of sweet treats, this one is a hard one, the wonderful chocolate from the place we lived for a decade....
this year we prepare our self's and have gotten ready for lent. for me it's giving up desserts/sweets. i'm glad for the moments of still and just letting it be, stand by and remind myself of the work and suffering of jesus. the awakening on easter will be sweeter and wonderfully enjoyable on easter morning.
it's good to give up for the 40 days leading up to easter, to be reminded daily of the suffering, death and resurrection of christ, the messiah.

{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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 

valentines day

saint valentines day is not as widely celebrated here in switzerland as it is in the us. we are not really celebrating today, or by the way, any other saints day. though today i quickly tried to figure out who was this saint. the story is rather conflicting, there seem to be two valentines and both of them became marters, maybe it was one and the same person....
as an article on huffpost also suggests.
valentine, the christian priest in rome, who was known of assisting christians persecuted under claudius II, having been caught marrying christian couples, makes the most sense why we are still celebrating valentines day. it is the day for engaged couples to express their love to each other.
my kids are americanized on this day, they do send out valentine greetings and i got a big valentines hug from them. which i gladly received and of course hugged them back as much as i was able to. o yes it's good to express the love for each other. it strengthens our family bonds and appreciation for each other, and that is a welcome happening.

french macaroons

amos was talking about french macarons for a long time and of course i like them too, it didn't take too much convincing on his side. so we took the time in the past few days to bake macarons and make a nice chocolate ganache.
i don't think we got it perfect the first time, but the fun with desserts is, that the ingredients are so yummy you can't miss a good outcome. never mind the look is far from perfect, the macarons turned out way too big, though we loved them, eaten in no time and savored not just by amos and me.
try it too, they make for an excellent valentines dessert, i'm sure.

sewing and an early valentine

i spotted a nice little valentine's project at "blue elephant stitches", and had to get my hands into my big bag of little scraps...
i liked the fact of creating from scraps, though i realized mid way (and you can very well spot it) i was not careful enough, that all squares must be the same size... never mind i was struggling through the one sewing line and did a bit of undoing and redoing and ironing, pushing and pulling. it is as it is and i might do the project again, my bag of scraps is still full.
a bit more sewing and deciding if i might make a pillow cover with it or just a little wall piece, it's not the 14th yet.

and then, yes we got mail from friends across the ocean. thank you so very much a & a for the chines new years mail, combined with valentine, we all are thrilled and the fortune cookies are awesome!

before the snow a visit...

just a week ago, thea and i went for a walk in the country side. with a clear destination in mind we went out into the weather. it was a cold wind strong and blazing out there though we wanted to see the lambs at our friends sheep farm.
usually we just see the farmer with the products of his farm at the produce market in the city. what a different moment to meet the lambs and all the grown sheep we get the milk from.
naomi has a milk fat intolerance so we buy the sheep milk for her at the market each week. though it has been a while now since hansjoerg was at the market, as in december the milk was just a little and not worth to go to the market. he also has run out of cheese and joghurt and we will see him at the market again in march. we had to visit and check out the reason for not having milk, joghurt and cheese....
aren't they sweet those little lambs (the red colour on their backs is marking, not blood), a few words with the farmer (he is not a man of many words) and then on back home across the not yet snowed meadows. a wonderful winters walk and a cup of steaming coco as we arrived at home. (for a couple days, home was my parents house)

{this moment}

 by joel




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. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 

a walk in our neighborhood

it was a slow and open sunday afternoon, nothing planned and the sun was not really appearing strongly. never the less it pulled me out doors and after a many a discussion and lot's of convincing and dealing and debating, we all headed out for a walk. within all these words i was not able to convince the boys to put their outdoor pants on.. "we will not go wild", "we will not walk off the path", "no it's not necessary", i was too tired of more debate, so we went the girls in mud pants and high spirits, the boys rather gloomy though elias brought his "long bow" along. a quick ride with the train and a walk home over the hills and medows, some of them snow covered.
of course we didn't stay on trails only, within the first 10 minutes we crossed over a fence and headed for the top of the hill across the meadow... i was glad i brought my mittens and head scarf, it was cold and windy and snowy at some moments. it ended up a wonderful walk, one more adventure with all of us together, coming back all of us very happy and ready for a hot cup of tea.

i will be gone this week, we are heading out for a bit more snow and slow down time. the kids are on brake and i will be back for {this moment} on friday.