{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.

the henry girls and dervish, last night at irish nights at the kammgarn

pumpkin pie for giving thanks

even though we are not american, we don't even live in the united states of america anymore, we still enjoy a bit of the thanksgiving tradition in our house. and i have to say i love it and pass it on to our neighbors, who aren't american either. they do though have relatives in the usa and who doesn't like to be reminded of "giving thank's". i definitely feel strongly about the reminder and it's a wonderful thing to be able to pass on yummy food, a card and a few words of thanksgiving.
so here we go, the only hick up, and just for a moment, i didn't have any cream in the house so what to do? i consulted the cook book, "more with less" and discovered that the pumpkin pie recipe is calling for milk anyway! hurray and thank you mennonites for printing the wonderful book.


and now, go on and celebrate thanksgiving, with all the people gathering around your dinner table!

cookies plus

the first batch of christmas cookies are out of the oven...
the batch you see is not made by the boys, my lady neighbors came over last week and we baked and glaceed and decorated cookies for the "advents sale" of our church. of course amos was telling me a couple times already, that he want's to get in on the baking too. and then yesterday he decided to invite a friend over today after school. the boys started easy, mailaenderli is their first kind of cookies, though their plans are already made for some more kinds... and a third boy will join in.
this is really fun and amos is very good in instructing and explaining why things are measured and done the way he/we do it. the recipe is a good guide though he already starts to venture, today it was the simple choice of adding some vanilla sugar. a good idea and i'm sure it will turn out perfect. they will meet again on thursday afternoon to cut the dough into and bake the cookies. i'm very excited too and hope for many more hours with the crew in our kitchen.

and on the side, also in the kitchen, the girls doing their own knitting and reading, fun and good comments are welcome at any time. the darker and cold evenings start to take shape and i realize how good those long evenings are.

the songbook

we have been singing all the while, of course singing is an important part when communing together.
though we have not been singing a lot and with song sheets we had to run for all the time. loose sheets have definitely not been working the best for us. never the less over the past 6 months we were able to keep one sheet and by now most of us have memorized the two songs. i guess that's one good thing of not singing a big variety of songs...
it has been on my desk for a long time, the folks of our community have been handing in their wishes just about one year ago! goodness, even more than a year. and now we have the little binders and we sing again, learning new songs with joel at the piano is great and helps a whole lot in staying in tune.
the best comment was: "mama can you tell papa and the people to keep singing, it's wonderful to fall asleep with this music", what more do i want to hear, my teenagers really made me cry.

{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.

hirschpfeffer zum znacht

es ist doch schon toll einen koch im haus zu haben! und einer der erst recht auch zu hause gerne kocht und es mit viel liebe tut, fuer uns alle ein traditionelles wild menue auf den tisch zaubert. hirschpfeffer (der hirsch war aus oesterreich/ungarn und nicht wie es hauptsaechlich der fall ist aus neuseeland!)
vollkorn knoepfli und rotkraut mit birnen und preiselbeergonfi, das i tuepfli waren dann aber doch die caramelisierten maroni! nicht das wir taeglich ein so ausgedehntes und vielfaeltiges menue vorgesetzt bekaemen, doch ab und zu sind wir dann eben die geniesser eines profis. natuerlich durfte der feine rotwein nicht fehlen, da haben wir uns alle ganz fest drueber gefreut.

was natuerlich genauso wichtig ist wie ein fein zubereitetes essen, das ist unsere tischgemeinschaft. da bin ich immer wieder uebergluecklich, wenn ich an einem vollen tisch sitzen darf. mit freunden und familie zusammen zu sein, es gemuetlich und lustig und immer wieder auch horizonterweiternde diskussionen fuehren zu koennen.

danke meine lieben mitbewohnerInnen, ich freue mich mit euch zusammen leben zu duerfen.

the vintage fridge

i was in the city to quickly stop by the yarn store. as usual i had a quick glance into the window, and what do i see! how amazing this store front is, it just blows me away once more.... after this one, the vintage fridge does justice to the artist! i love it a lot and will take my kids along next time. madame tricot gourmet is just wonderful.
if you have a chance, please take a moment and visit the nova lana in winterthur and take a second moment to just look and enjoy!

on my needles

i'm knitting and loving it. and there is a lot lot going on right now, so no words, really look at it and feel that wonderful wool...

{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.

in our kitchen

it's pumpkin time and love it, the queensland blue has been on the front steps for over a month and i just felt like cutting it open and putting it into a risotto. everyone loved it, the risotto was very plain and the pumpkin sauteed in olive oil with sea salt. i backed the seeds and served them as a topping. of course there must be parmesan served with risotto and everyone was digging in good.

for guests i try to cook new things, it's a nice challenge to search for a recipe and then of course not stick too it...
this wonderful covered meat "pie" was a wonderful new idea. ground meat (a mix of beef, pork and chicken) with bread, herbs and eggs turned out to be devoured by my lunch guests. of course the nice shape and decoration with stars was an eye catcher and i proudly presented this rather simple dish.

when i got tired of cooking amos and naomi stepped up to it. pizza dough made up in a whizz and the toppings too, all on their own, a bit of help in collecting all the items and a briefing to make sure things stay on track. and they stayed until dinner time, we all loved it, three more people joined the dinner table. both kids got some honest compliments and yes, let them cook again!

on the 12th the little girls birthday rolled around, what a fiest, the grandparents showed up with very creative little cakes. i do call myself blessed to have parents close by and they come and visit and even bring dessert for a big frolicking party for thea!
thank you ma and pa!

celebrating birthdays is a wonderful thing in general, though i guess with the youngest in our family we all celebrate a bit more. don't know why but i do remember her birth a bit more vividly than the others... and that memory is being passed on and on by the girl herself: "you know, i was born in the bath tub!' she tells everyone happily and the story begins

cuboro

now and then we take the cuboro blocks out and really can't put them away until everyone has built their share on tracks. as it is with lot's of the playing, joel is starting out with an idea and everyone latches on and catches the fire of playing. thinking, building, putting ideas into reality or also using the cool plan on page number 22, or what ever.
and since we now have a wonderful bamboo floor, the building is easy and can be done very exactly, what a plus for our architects.

seeing all four of the kids work together on a project, incorporating thea the marble keeper into their game plan is such a good moment. it's not a common sight. so very precious and i will treasure these moments and keep them alive in my memory.

"raebelichtli-umzug"

there is something very special carrying a carved lantern around the neighborhood and singing. especially doing so with a big group of kindergarteners and their parents and siblings. we even had one of the dads taking his drum along and leading the group.
the kindergarten teacher did a good job in learning the songs with the kids and some of them sang so excitedly we did bring light and joy into the dark of yesterday's evening.
at the end enjoying a cup of hot punch and cookies as and bread rolls with bacon bits, o so yummy. what a happy evening and of course, happily falling into bed and sleeping right away was the reward, so i enjoyed a very quiet evening. even the laundry was all folded so i could hop into my bed as happy as thea did a couple hours earlier.

and today is her brithday, starting the day off with a candle light breakfast...

getting ready for tonight

for a few days now, we have been talking about carving the "raebe" for the parade tonight. we will be participating in thea's kindergarten parade tonight. so the raebe had to be hollowed and carved and that we did yesterday afternoon. the girls were all into it and we had a good time together.
the carvings were given to the chickens, they loved it a lot and we kept some carvings for today and tomorrow, as it would just have been too much for their tummies to digest.
i was so glad we could do the main carving out of doors, though it ended up not being too messy, the air hasn't been too cold so we did it on the front steps and loved it. and a bit later when it got dark we took the raebe indoors to do the decorating carving, we will be putting in the candles tonight just as we head out for the parade.....

i'm sure there will be some pics to come.

{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.

in the sky

the day started out rather droopy and wet, i would have liked to curl up and read, be cozy in the warm house. though there was our german conversation group, we meet every wednesday for coffee and tea and conversation. it's a wonderful group of women from almost all over the world. so i did send the kids off and put my own boots and raincoat on.

looking out the window this afternoon, after being "pricked" by some strong sun beams, i just had to go out once more. and there was one more thing i wanted to do as i looked up into the sky. over the past few weeks most of the songbirds gathered and flew south. in the past years, i hung the bird feeder behind the house, though today i decided that it is time to hang a second one in the front of the house. so this is now the sight out of my kitchen window...
and i'm happily looking forward to soon see the first chickadees, yellow finches, sparrows and what ever else will be coming to feed. of course there is still lots of food out there on the bushes and trees right now, but that will soon be changing.

on the ground

i was stunned, of course it's the time of year when the leafs fall in all colors and layer the ground. i love it and am full of joy walking through that sea of red leafs, noticing that my shoes match!
it felt like today was as cold as it hasn't been this fall. so far there still was no frost, hard to believe but it's true, and there is no forecast either. tomorrow in our garden, there will be more leaf raking and jumping into piles of them!

as we spend more time indoors again, the puzzles have been taken out frequently and cheerfully thea is solving them. mostly on her own, though sometimes her older siblings are quick to help. our "office" space has once more become the center of life!