Saturday, May 30, 2015

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (102)


Ten Things of Thankful


... and before I knew it, the week was over. We've been so busy most of the week, I'm actually glad that for tomorrow, we have planned a big, whooping NOTHING. I'm looking forward to an afternoon nap with Mr. Calvin, a good, long breakfast, cappuccino, and cuddling with the girls.  And maybe, just maybe, if I feel like it, a walk or a trip to the playground!

My Ten Thankfuls for this week:

1. Slowly emerging from the hole. It may not be visible on the blog, as yet again, I was only writing the TToT post, but I've been feeling better, more energetic; I'Ve been able to keep up with my ongoing chores, even though I haven't gotten to catch up with the chores held on the back-burner yet. It will happen!

2. School breaks; while attendance in kindergarten is still voluntary, Lily's attendance in school is mandatory and parents actually get into troubles if they do not send their kids to school (it's considered neglect). So I enjoy Lily being on break from school for some week-day trips that we couldn't have done otherwise.

3. A wonderful day spent with my friend and the entire family at the wildlife park at her town. The weather was beautiful, so we enjoyed a picnic and strolled the park for 4 hours, stopped at the playground that will make every adult jealous, watched, fed, and petted animals. Even Calvin had a blast, petting goats and ponies. He sure isn't afraid of anything, and Violet was brave enough to feed the animals, even though she was very scared in the beginning.

4. Violet being the sweet, caring girl she is, sharing her animal fodder with a little boy who was crying because a deer had just stolen the bag of grain from him. Those deer are definitely some greedy beasts  :-)

5. A fun afternoon at the Erlangen fair with the kiddos and a colleague of mine. Calvin got to go on his first ferris wheel ride, and that on the largest mobile ferris wheel in all Europe. I sure was queasy!!

6. A great dinner date in with our friends. The food was delicious, the kids played well as usual, and we adults got to relax while keeping an eye on Calvin.

7. Lily being such a book worm. She's hard to stop; only 2 days after getting a book with almost 300 pages, she's read it. I sure didn't feel bad skipping the parents' info night on "how to raise a book worm" at Lily's school  :-)

8. A sunny barbecue with our former neighbors and friends, and the much-needed rain that started just as we wrapped up the food outside.

9. Baking with Lily.. Or actually watching Lily bake all by herself; she wouldn't let have a part in it that time..

10. Wonderful friends, who pushed us into the 21st century by gifting one of their flat-screen TVs to us. So far, I could not bring myself to just throw out our old-school TV as long as it still worked fine; now, we're going to donate our old TV to a refugee center and enjoy a wall-mounted flat screen.We're not so thankful for the reason of this gift, since our friends are leaving the country to move to England, but we're thankful that they got this contract, and that from fall on, we're going to have a place to visit in England  :-)

What are you thankful for this week?

22 comments:

  1. wildlife park sounds awesome. I wish we had some sort of a petting zoo close by. I miss the goats that were near my old house! I have a very old school TV and people are constantly making fun of me when they come to the house, but Im with you. It works fine! I love hearing about the kiddos... Brave , stalwart Calvin and the lovely flowers Lily and Violet!

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    1. It was so much fun, especially because Calvin was not scared at all, and the animals loved to lick his little hands :-) Generally, I'm unable to throw out stuff that's still in good working order, but I'm glad we're able to donate it. Started to be worried about the energy efficiency of the old TV :-) Have a great week, Ivy and Doug!

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  2. I smiled reading about Lily's love of reading. Reminded me of my oldest niece. I helped my sister raise her. She's 27 now, but when she was grade and middle-school aged, she'd read books faster than we could buy them. She loved series books and tore through them like there was no tomorrow. My sister and I were so glad that she loved to read that we gladly kept her supplied. Now she's a new Momma herself ... and one of the first things my sister and I bought for the baby was books. Lots and lots of books. And that baby's name just happens to be Lily. :) Hope she'll love to read as much as her mom always has and as much as your Lily does. Reading is a great way to learn. Loved your post and thank you for the wonderful memory it brought back to me. :)

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    1. It's almost like that with Lily. She sometimes reads two or three books simultaneously, something I could never do. Both hubby and I are avid readers as well and are excited that our oldest loves books at least as much as we do :-) Memories brought back are always the best! Have a wonderful week, Marcia!

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  3. Interesting to read about school attendance. (Is that the law for the whole country or just your area?) Stories of parents being arrested for their kids being out of school for more than5 days have been floating around FB lately. People are all riled up about it. What is the policy for Germany?
    Love that Lily reads so much. My kids are reading all the time, too. It makes me so happy to see them reading.

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    1. Yes, parents do get into troubles if they don't send their children to school, as it is legally mandatory to attend a public or government-certified school for at least 9 years. If people are actually arrested for not sending their kids to school for 5 days in a row I cannot say, I think they'd be fined. People don't get jailed that easy in Germany :-) There was the case of a family who received refugee status in the U.S. for refusing to send their kids to public school and therefore being threatened with so-called "Beugehaft" (something along the line of imprisonment until relenting). With this legislation, the government wants to ensure that children at least have the same chances to a certain degree to be successful in life through education. If you see those so-called "un-schoolers" in the U.S., whose kids are 9 or 10 years old and cannot read, just makes me mad. I actually don't mind the law, as the government also pays "Kindergeld", an amount per child each month to the parents to aid their upbringing; in return, the parents are obligated, among others, to send their kids to school or have to take their kids to paediatricians for regular well-baby / well-child exams.

      Seeing Lily read, by herself or to her siblings, is always a highlight!

      Have a wonderful week, Christine!

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  4. The wildlife park day sounds terrific and you must know I'm going to love #4 and #7 with all of my heart! I would love for our girls (well, Calvin too) to know each other because I think they have such similar wonderful qualities. Zilla just turned in her monthly reading list for school - read a total of 180 chapters and/or books in May. Crazy kid. I can think of worse things for her to spend her time doing, right?
    Funny about the flat screen (not funny your friends are moving). We have one, gifted to us by my father-in-law because when we re-did our sort of family room where we watch movies, he found a sale that weekend that he could not pass by. He's so funny. Our other TV lives in our room for news and weather in our room and it is very old school. I bought it...let me think a sec...in the late 90s from a co-worker on the company swap & shop board. She was a fairly recent college grad and that was her dorm TV for four years. So I think that TV is about 25 years old for sure. Still works. Gets the job done. The deal here is that we use it until it dies and then we'll talk about replacing. :D
    Have a wonderful week!

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    1. I'm sure the 3 girls would be good friends, what a pity we live so far apart. I've been thinking about that for a while. Maybe we should see if Lily and Zilla want to write letters to each other :-) I had pen pals as a child, and it was so much fun getting letters in the mail every once in a while! 180 chapters and/or books in one month? Wow, that's amazing! Go, Zilla!!!

      I'm feeling a lot better now that other people kept their old-school TVs as well :-) Somehow, it felt like we're the only ones stuck back in the 90s!

      Enjoy your week, Lisa!

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  5. I guess you raised a bookworm! Sounds like a week full of wonderful family fun, with friends thrown in for even more fun. We don't own a flat screen. The TV in our bedroom (used for watching the weather in the morning) also plays video tapes. LOL.

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    1. Video tapes, wow! My parents still have all the old tapes from when we were kids.. And I got the girls CD-players with a cassette deck so they could listen to my old audio tapes. So much fun to pass our stuff on to them!

      Have a great week, Val!

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  6. How lovely that your Lily is a book lover! In spite of my own love of books, neither of my boys have much interest in reading. Perhaps as they get older they'll pick up the habit.

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    1. I definitely hope so, Vanessa! Reading is such a wonderful thing! No-one in my family is a big reader, so I'm somewhat the odd person, but hubby and I both love to read, and the kids also love books. Can't wait for reading nights with all the kids a few years down the road!

      Enjoy your week, Vanessa!

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  7. ferris wheel, huh? no.way. …at all. (lol I've work on a fishing boat in 20 ft seas offshore…and you could not pay me enough money to get a ferris wheel.)

    sounds like you are catching up (to whatever you were falling behind on) which is good. I find that, if I can remember to, I do better when I forget where I am relative to the tasks that I need to do. The looking ahead is not helpful (for me).

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    1. I don't mind open water either, but hate height (not when flying in an airplane though!) I went because the girls wanted to, and I didn't want to be a baby and all freaking out about heights and hand them a nice phobia for life as well.. So in I went, and surprisingly survived the hell-ride :-)

      Have a great week, Clark!

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  8. Wow! It sounds like you've had a really busy time! No wonder you're ready for a relaxing weekend and some down-time with the children.

    LOVED hearing about how much of a bookworm Lily is, and her baking. Glad Violet was able to enjoy the animals in the end, and I think Calvin might be afraid of NOTHING. They sound like lovely children.

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    1. Calvin indeed is afraid of NOTHING. He doesn't even mind the vacuum or hair dryer!! It was so sweet to see Violet enjoy interacting with the animals, and how proud she was of herself for doing it. I really needed that Sunday of doing next to nothing :-)

      Have a wonderful week, Lizzi!

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  9. Going back to work, doing everything that needs to be done at home and with the kids AND trying to keep up with a blog is a pretty big job. I'm very glad you are able to keep up with the TToT.
    That Lily is quite a reader! Wow! My son was that kind of reader, too. When he was younger and would get in trouble, we could never find anything to take away from him, because his only real hobby was reading, and how do you tell a kid NOT to read? You don't, that's how :)
    How long of a summer break do your girls get? Ours were out just over a week ago and don't go back until mid-August.
    What did Lily bake?

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    1. The kids are on their late spring break right now, Lily is off for 2 weeks, Violet for one, The real summer break only starts in August, until mid-September, about 6 weeks, 3 weeks for the kindergarteners.

      Oh, I remember one morning where I found Lily sitting at her desk in her jammies, reading, about 20 minutes before she was to head out for school,. I almost tossed her book out of the window :-) We agreed no reading before she's not ready and set for school..

      Lily baked a buttermilk cake, fairly easy, and it's delicious!

      I hope you have a wonderful week, Dyanne!

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  10. I hope you were able to have the relaxing weekend that you were hoping for!!! <3

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    1. I certainly had a very quiet Sunday, doing next to nothing, Susannah! And I absolutely needed it!!

      Have a wonderful week!

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  11. You must be pretty happy that your Lily is such a reader! If a child can read then they can learn anything. It does sound as though you have been quite busy so I hope that you get some down time soon. Here's to a new week of thankfuls.

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    1. I am absolutely excited that Lily is such a reader. And Violet loves to look at books as well. Can't wait to have a house full of readers and sit together with all the kiddos, reading books together!

      I did enjoy a lazy Sunday, thanks a lot, Pattie! Have a wonderful week!

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