a full and musical weekend

 there were so many things going on this weekend...
one of those was the jump concerts for amos. he has been practicing with a youth orchestra for the past two months, lots of excitement and overall a good experience. on saturday as well as sunday evening were the concerts. i missed them both, well there was our poetry night at a friends house on saturday night, which joel and i were looking forward too for a long time. some organizational skills were needed and happy me, being part of a big close knit family, grandma and naomi went to the concert and enjoyed it. thank you family for stepping in the gap. on sunday evening joel and elias went and enjoyed it too. as me and the girls were at my sisters birthday gathering, a sunny afternoon in garden, with desserts and good fun company.
so what about me and amos' musical exploration into orchestra..... i will be going to the concert next sunday afternoon, when the music school is having an open house concert! i'm excited and really enjoy the little pics joel took, i'm very much looking forward to listen to amos and all his orchestra colleagues.

{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 colours in spring

i do absolutely enjoy the fresh colours this time of year is bringing along. not just the early bellies i could not resist getting at the garden market. but also the newly felted flowers, which naomi did all on her own. leaving through a book with needle felt as well as wett-felting projects, digging through our arts and craft supply closet and finding what she needed. it's good to have nice new display on our living room table and i bet, it will expand within the next days.

and still no my needles, and i'm definitely running out of the brown wool.....
a trip to novalana is planned for tomorrow afternoon!

spring

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."  Margaret Atwood in Bluebeard's Egg

embrace and enjoy

we got snow! o how wonderful, big blankets sank down from the sky, not that it would stick to the ground, it was much too warm. but wonderful white we love you. we gathered for afternoon desserts at our house, friends stopped by and together we enjoyed some good conversation and the kids wanted to go and make a fire in the yard. fine with the grown ups, this is even excellent, and really just so perfect to have all 9 kids go outside and build up a fire. they managed to light it, even though it was very wet and even colder by that time. i'm more than ever set on the fact, that nature is at it's best, when we are fully embracing it and love it and enjoy it, what ever the circumstance.

i quickly baked a cinnamon pie, upon mixing the batter, i realized that there were ingredients missing in my cupboard. having still a couple oranges in the bowl, i quickly grated one, it tasted very nice, having orange zest instead of candied orange peal in the pie was absolutely tolarable.

 

all photos by joel

{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 calendar tells us

it's officially spring. this year we feel and breath spring for quiet a while already, as nature has not given us snow or cold weather this winter. it was very mild (i have been rambling about it many times, too many...) we missed the real cold, a good amount of snow. though we take spring with open arms and embrace it full heartedly.
the chestnut tree behind the house is reaching high and full of energy it seems.

i hung laundry outside and did it with the full enjoyment of knowing it's spring equinox. what a good time of year.

the yello of spring

a busy day and really not that much to tell you, i was able to knit a handful of rows on naomi's annabel, raked the gravel in our back yard, enjoyed the girls on the swing - lots of pushing...
and absolutely loved the yellow of the forsythia all over the neighborhood.

the boy "lost" his braces

 

he was so super nervous this morning, could hardly eat anything and was catching the bus early to get to his orthodontist appointment on time. it has been a routine to go to the ortho's office over the past 6 years. often not super exciting, especially after the first few initial meetings, where teeth were pulled and the head gear fitted. in the past two years it has been routine and once in a while a fitted ring fell out and had to be replaced but no major drama.
today was the day that all those little brackets, the wire and the four rings got removed, all out and gone!
what a happy morning, what a happy boy and so am is my level of excitement high too! even the orthodontist was excited and pleased to say the least, no he was excited too, about the outcome of the treatment of this boys teeth and jaw.
most excellent!

spring all over

it has been so warm and sunny for two weeks already and spring is good to breath and enjoy. totally absolutely here, i was sitting in the lawn chair behind the house and soaking up the warm and bright beams, and this on a monday afternoon! the week started out so nice, a run in the morning sun, a meeting to plan the kids program for the coming sunday mornings and laundry in the best of weathers you can imagine.
and this all, after a very relaxing weekend. we were at my parents and the house was full as most of my family was there for the weekend. a wonderful time of enjoying some good conversations. the kids enjoying their cousins and seeing them all making and chatting and doing and singing and baking and playing together, made me deeply grateful for the family we are.

{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.

an annabel for spring

a simple knit for in between, just grabbing and knitting without any big thinking was what i was looking for. and i found it in the annabel pattern, and naomi was quickly excited to get a cardigan. a couple weeks back i started the project (of course i didn't knit a swatch, just guessed it....) and it turned out to be way too big. i have to say, i didn't mind it at all, the unraveling was a lot of fun and the second time around it worked out just fine. quickly i realized, that i might be short on the brown lark, though that got me thinking and of course there must be some kind of color as the cardigan should be a spring type of cardigan.
the bare chestnut tree in our backyard is still bare, though i got a few cuttings indoors and the butts on those branches have burst open and are in a full light green! no, naomi claimed she doesn't like green, o well it will be her cardigan to wear, so we went with just one stripe of green and then went on with her favorites.
fine with me and she is looking forward to be wearing

it.

hanging it outdoors again!

the first laundry this year has been hanging in the garden!
and how wonderful is this, i'm so happy about this. i don't really mind doing laundry, 5-7 loads each week, just one of the chores which don't require a whole lot of thinking and keep the hands busy. during the winter months though, i sometimes feel locked in the basement and that seems now has ended for the season....
it would be perfect if i could hang all of it out of doors, in the warm and clean spring breeze, as i did today. then doing laundry really is a treat.

as you might observe, it is really still the beginning of march and no leafs have come out yet, though with every warm day we enjoy the trees buds are getting more ready to burst open. the daffodils have started peaking out, in our front bed the first yellow flowers are out and it seems like they are looking at all of the passers by with lots of happiness. spring is in the air, yeah!

we call it weekending

a sunday in march, what a joy to be outside, grill in the back yard and just do nothing. the plan was, to go into the woods, riding the bikes or a little hike and grill there. though the kids were totally not wanting to do that, we changed the plan and made a fire in the back yard. of course we can grill at home too and enjoy the swing, feed the chickens with pop corn...
and top it with a beer! yup that's what we did and all were happy.
the neighbors came over with dessert and coffee, how wonderful is that. yes we do have wonderful neighbors and our garden is a great meeting place.

this seemed like a good start into the new week, re energizing at it's best.

{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.

snow drops

how wonderful, spring is now really arriving, not just taunting us. no snow since the beginning of the year! but now it seems that the season is changing for real now.
to my surprise there was one little honey bee, already hard at work and look what she has collected! wonderful, to see and observe this little miracle of nature. moments like this one carry me a long way...

no more words, but standing still and soaking in all there is around me.

tuesday befor ashwednesday

we quickly went over to the backer to buy a treat for afternoon snack. it has become a tradition to do so before ash wednesday. all of us love the "berliner" and "fasnachtchuechli", which are not an everyday treat in our house. i have not yet been brave enough to bake those desserts myself, as it requires frying in the oil...

lent is approaching quickly and we will be talking about the meaning of lent, living toward easter.
i like and appreciate this season of reflecting and treading a bit slower. taking time to sit down read and reflect. attend the ash wendsay service at the near catholic church. wrap the cross in "sack cloth" until easter morning! though for now, we enjoy the wonderful food!

 

she wanted to paint...

though not just paint she wanted. there was the washy tape, scissors, markers and grand excitement.
and we set out to get the kitchen table set up with the painting mat and the girl was so ready to paint. i love the notion of painting kids, am very aware of the implication of paints out and so i stood by and enjoyed every moment of it. sometimes it takes me a bit of courage to get us all into paints, but not today. and i'm excited to see those paintings, being drawn on to and taped and all so happy and full of energy.

look at the portrait of papa joel!