fondue

the kids really wanted cheese fondue. as it brings all the memories of visiting grandparents in switzerland back.....
of course i couldn't say no!
i love fondue too and we still had some prepared cheese in the fridge.
i got the garlic ready, the caclone out and the rally pointy forks! that's the best of it, the loooooong forks...
as you can imagine, it didn't take long until the yummy cheese was all gubled up. three happy children drinking some more earl gray.
and before i know all eager to listen to stories, all cuddled up under their warm quilts.

travel

people travel to wonder at the hight of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselfes without wondering.

-saint augustin

plenty

even the king is served from the field

ecclesiastes 5:9

i'm enjoying Plenty so much, it is inspiring and challenging at the same time. it is a great adventure to be taken to the 100 miles around vancouver. to be taken along for exploratory tours into the frasier valley, along the cheakamus and the salish coast.
having to think of where our food comes from, how disconnected we are from the plenty right here in new england. the plenty which is not anymore the plenty it was many decades ago, when there was an abundance of what ever we can imagine, to take from. we still are taken a breath by nature and what it gives us, it still is magical when you start to explore it. but we lost sight of what it was, what we are missing, what we lost over 1000 of years.
i'm "eating" up every bit of sun beam i can gather and it is more and more, spring is already in the air. i know it will be cold and gray for many more days before spring starts. but that doesn't hinder me to enjoy the bright warmth even more!

chnoepf

when i was at the yarn store last week i could not resist to buy one of those old button boxes. "windsor button" had to close down a few stores and is now selling their old wooden boxes for not to much.
it was a nice and relaxing little time to take my collected buttons and sort them. of course i spent much more time then i had anticipated..... it is fun to play around with colours, shapes and sizes, that's how i ended the project for the moment. naomi as well as the amos have taken the box out and transferred back and forth as they felt necessary. it will be a project in progress!

colour is back

late in the fall i collected a garland of bittersweet branches. they are such an exuberant sight now! especially in contrast to all the white i was posting the past few days....

again white

i just could not resist this sight. i had to take it and add it to my white phase....
(yes it is amos typing away with one finger....
nor for much longer, as he is very eager to get his typing hours in)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/levels/level1.shtml

more white

besides the white snow we got on sunday, my narcissus is blooming. it is beautiful and smells lovely. i'm glad though just one bloom has opened yet....

beautyful white

it was a wonderful snowy morning.
the first peak out of the bedroom window was such a surprise, snow!
an unexpected white blanket was covering the city's dirty look.
winter is often looking messy in town, gray's and black's blendig.
and shoveling is a treat!

quilt

it made me so happy to discover naomi taking an afternoon nap. she does love my quilt as much as i do. and i'm proud of my last years project. it turned out lovely. recycling lots of outworn clothes. the back is made out of an old duvet cover, which my mothers friend has given to me 20 years ago. a dyed light linen. i divided it up with some colorful new pieces to give it an interesting twist.
all the pieces are sown together with the machine and hand quilted ~1.2cm from the seam. the batting is organic cotton which i could not resist buying. i figured we spend so much time under such a nice quilt that it's worth using unpolluted patting.
it has been a good warm winter for us!

living

i like living, breathing better than working...
MY ART [IS] THAT OF LIVING:
each second each breath is a work
which is neither visual nor cerebral,
it's a sort of constant euphoria."

- marcel duchamp

kurzes haar!

the first time in her life i cut naomi's hair! she turned four on few days ago and never until yesterday wanted short hair! she is very proud of her looks and her beautiful long hair. of course she wants carry it down, what i never understood. i like long hair but up, tight and pinned up, no lose ends hanging into my food or my projects.
so yesterday night naomi just insisted to have her hair cut in the morning, i had to promise.
so i did and this is what happened.... she is very happy and i was not sad and didn't even blink with my eye cutting her hair. i guess it was time for it.

windrad

ich schaue aus dem kuechenfenster und bin erneut erfreut ueber die farben und die bewegung unseres windrades. grad jetzt mitten im grauen winter tut es gut die bewegten farben des raedes zu sehen. die resonanz im innern finden und einfach geniessen.
winter in der stadt, oft trostlos, grau in grau, doch ab und zu ein farbtupf ist nicht zu verlaeugnen. vorallem die immer wieder auftauchenden cardinale lassen mein herz hoeher schlagen und die kinder immer wieder voll begeisterung zum fenster rennen. -farben im winter, ein geschenk-

glittering

winter in at it's best, cold and sunny. glittering snow on trees as well as on the ground.
looking up into the sky is at such moments is a treat, a gift of nature.
it sustains me, keeps me going and is just inspiring to look closer.
to be more out there, to open my eyes for even more beauty to be discovered.
because i do know for certain it is out there and waiting to be seen.

not hurry

nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

-lao tzu

painting

painting all day, every day! yes that's naomi's idea of fun.
any paints, any surface, as long as there is freedom to paint.
starting out orderly with a clear idea of the project.
going on to random pieces of paper until she ends up...
yes you know somewhere on her body,
fingernails, hands, arms, face, ears, legs, feet....

a moment or two

a moment of peace and stillness.
i do treasure those minutes after lunch, when all the kids are in their rooms. with a cup of tea and my feet up, next to the radiator. a few rays of the early afternoon sun lighten up the space around me. i'm even able to read a few words and meditate on them...
and it is still quiet around me, wow!

a bit later an other "noise" got me up, on my feet!"

another sunny walk

once more walking to ballet, this time with some snow! never the less sunny and with some fun shadows. it's so good to be walking in the city.

pink

naomi's favorit shoes and of course they are pink, what else!

tag

the kids and joel played tag in our living room! 10 minutes of running madly around the table, almost unable to do so because of having to laugh soooooo hard.
it was fun to watch from my cozy chair.

laundry

it's a weekly task, or even more frequent.
i don't mind it and i look at it as a relaxing little moment. i even start looking at it as a creative challenge... yes you did read correctly, i love coming up with different stacks of folded items. even folding itself is interesting. as one shape evolves into an other and another and yet another. i guess i lost you by now, as this is definitely a mom's and homemakers rambling!
i'm looking forward to folding laundry again soon...

birthday

naomi's birthday was last week.
celebrated with a chocolate cake, tea and friends.
it is such a privilege to have her in our family

snow!

"snow emergency", of course for the kids it was over due to have this happen. the third time in this winter, although there is to say, that the last "snow emergency" was a 2" snow flurry! a boston thing i guess, everyone getting crazy over the "snow to come". but as you can see, the snow arrived and we went sledding with our friends, just down the street. so we came home and enjoyed a cup of hot cider with cookies. it was a good day!

shoot for the moon

shoot for the moon.
even if you miss,
you'll land among the stars.

-les brown

beading

elias came home from his coop. full of enthusiasm to keep creating with beads, wire, string and all his imagination. within moments he picked his favorite things out of a my box of collected stuff.
a really long "snake" appeared within minutes....
a quick reminder of the upcoming birthday of iris. of course she needed to be have a present. and there! it is already appearing in his hands, a book mark with her initial on it.
a precious moment for me, to see hem involved and very happy creating for his friends!

sunny walk

a wonderful sunny afternoon in january! we had to go for a walk, no doubt about that. it was wonderful, i was glad i had my camera with me and so we ran and jumped and galloped! loving to run after our own shadows!

drei koenigs tag

mit etwas verspaetung doch ich konnte es mir nicht verkneifen den gelungenen drei koenigskuchen euch zu praesentieren.
wir waren an ein fest eingeladen, der kuchen wurde verspiessen und niemand meldete sich fuer die krone..... na ja elias war gluecklich, denn er wollte unbedingt koenig sein und so durfte er!

coffee

it's joel's favorit,
a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate!
i like the looks better then the taste.
as for me,
a cup of hot tea with some honey
is the ultimate.

of course local honey
boston honey

whatever

whatever you can do, or dream you can,
begin it.
-goethe

so often that's what i forget. this blog i guess is a tiny bit of beginning. getting some of my thought's onto "paper", some of my experiences verbally or visually expressed. i'm glad to have begun this.

music in our house

bits of joel's musicianship...



now you can imagine how lovely it is for the kids to go to bed. cozied up under a warm dawn comforter and having daddy play music until they fall asleep!

the present

for a start into a new year, i consider a new blank booklet a wonderful start. this motivated me to get one for each of the kids. each was individually decorated, just little, not much but the goal was to make it resound with their personalities.

• elias got some very geometric lines, plaene, skizzen, ideen, gedanken, farbpaletten


• amos got some a red and black "line rider" over the front and first two pages


• naomi's got a girlish look with pink and lilac meandering lines. i did some more outlines of things throughout the booklet, as she loves to color and to extend given drawings...
  

the three of them were so happy and very exited to get started in scribbling things into their personal note books, amos wanted phone numbers of his friends! i would have not guessed that one. elias is keeping his booklet hidden and doesn't want to waste it with just anything.... it has to be something special. naomi was within a moment coloring the pages in bright red and yellow!
it turned out to be "the present", i'm happy to be their mom!

game night

yesterday night was game night at our house.
joel and the kids played "die siedler von catan". a dream come true for the boys, as they love to play board games, and i have to say it is rather excruciating for me to play board games with the kids. joel loves to play and so they did. naomi was on daddy's team, she was good at rolling the die. not just rolling the die, but also building her very own highway! the boys played each for themselves and of course were good at it. i'm in awe of how joel is playing games with the kids over and over again and really enjoys it a lot. it takes so much patience, perseverances and a cool head. amos has to play the game with one hand and in between turns run to the living room to practice on his drum pad...! he wants to become a famous drummer. he barely makes it back to the game to take his turn. and of course it takes for ever for him to decide what he wants to trade and build.
joel thank you for playing with the kids.

solstice

A solstice Salutation

I salute you!
There is nothing I can give you which you have not.
But there is much, that while I cannot give, you can take.
No heaven can come to us, unless our hearts fin rest in it today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.
Take joy!
And so at this Christmastime, I greet you,
With the prayer that for you, now, and forever,
The day breaks, and the shadows flee away!

an itialian benison from the 16th century

our furry friend

don't you love the way our squirrel is eating his lunch? we still have some pumpkins and squash to feed to our friends in the "wilderness" of city life.
it is so much fun watching them and observing how much they like to eat! i just put a little net with bacon fat out on a tree, we will see what is going to happen to it over the coming days.

live free - learn free!

encourrageing

i'm once more strengthened in my parenting ideas....
listen and watch 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do, by Gever Tulley from TED ideas worth spreading.

end of the year

it can't get any better.
we went to our friends house, cooked, played, and laughed together. the kids running wild and enjoying the snowy backyard as we drank a cup of tea. of course for a few moments things were wild and uncontrolled, but that's life, parenting fun, life entertainment.
after the big fun, all the kids enjoyed the sleep over. in sleeping bags, on the floor, with friends. for us that was a very high point of "last year".
some chocolate and an excellent drink, a warm living room and good conversation, ended in prayer, and the new year has begun.

thank you alberto, joanna, ana, isaac, margaret, and pheobe

no peace

if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other

-mother teresa

target mittens

here are my target mittens....
they look great and feel comfy with the 100% wool from some main sheep. it was a quick and easy knit. i'm sure i will do more of those.

a pleasant morning

it has been such a pleasant morning. sleeping in, watching the clouds move on a blue sky, the sunbeams reaching through. even the kids played peacefully in the boys room! wow, what a treat to start the day.
almost oven warm bread for breakfast and honey, a cup of hot tea, and no argument who gets the jam first....
it's noon now, we got a lot done already and joel's flute is in the mail too, lunch simmering on the stove, what else do i want?
being a mom of three, trying to somehow get the learning and living in one and the same life covered, as well as enjoying it.
maybe i will be able to get the mittens done tonight, it has been so much fun to finish up little projects. as soon as i'm done i will post a pic. they are the target mittens from knitting nature.

nautilus poncho

this turned out really nice. i just had to start knitting one of the beautyful things out of "knitting natures design".
it was an easy knit and i really like the way it turned out. i did use different yarns, which turned out to give it a nice accent. the most fun was to crochet the whole band together, it's a very nice way to do it and it looks different, as it is the back side of the stitch.

christmas

christmas was finally here!
yeah and naomi definitely had to put on her own angel wings. she was dancing to her dady's music. i'm so very thankful for moments like this one. redeeming the moments i struggle along in my life with kids.
the past few days have been very quiet and we enjoyed the time just being family. it's kind of rare as we live in community and often have guests too. so we didn't visit we didn't even leave the house for over 24hours! this is not happening often, but it was good to just be home and take the time to sing, make music, dance, cook, eat, knit, read, and sleep...

the quirrels gift

together with the kids we stringed cranberries and popcorn, it was fun and looks beautyful on our little evergreen in the back of the house. i even got a pomegranate, cut it in slices and hung it up. we were very happy to see the squirrels come and enjoy the treats. tough still hoping for the cardinals to come...

something worth reading

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations - something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.
-- Katherine Paterson author of Jacob Have I Loved

advents calendar

our advents calendar is looking very nice. there is hope in these lights.

a nomad

A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places.
Isabelle Eberhardt

so true, to know i will not be able to really settle down at one place.
home is were my family and i are at the moment. at greenhaus today and who knows what tomorrow will bring? i guess that is true for many families around the globe, be it willingly or unwillingly. running away from harm, running toward a golden looking place on this earth.....
i guess, that's not what i think of. it's the inability to see myself belonging to just one place. feeling torn to explore new corners of this beautyfull planet. taking along the love and kindness i have been given from friends. passing on what from my bounty to friends and strangers on the way.

education!

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.
-- Thomas H. Huxley

i let the kids convince me to watch "the incredibles"!
the whole family was sitting in front of the screen and was at awe how incredibly stretchy the mom is, what might of a force the dad was showing.
of course the boys were taken a breath with the speed of "dash", and naomi was jolly about the babies joyfulness. violet's "forcefield" became the most interesting discussion theme during dessert with our neighbors!
rarely do we sit and stare at the screen together, but this time we all did and even enjoyed it. altough it got quite loud and was at times i would say violent, we did stick to until the end.
the kids were just glued to their pillows, could not close their mouth again, and overall it was fun. i'm sure about one thing, we will be talking about the supernatural powers for weeks to come.
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/incredibles/