Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (91)

I'm writing this a day later than usual because last night was spent baking a pie (Pi(e) Day, remember!!) and some chocolate cake for today, as a colleague of mine was coming over to hang out for the day. Let me tell you, we had tons of fun it was worth standing in the kitchen until 11 pm Saturday night!

Some of the thankfuls of this past week:

1. Spring arriving! Last week, we've seen the first field of purple crocus, last week I spotted the first pale yellow and green spots on a tree at my bus stop, and Lily bringing home those beautiful pale violet blossoms on her way home from school. It's so beautiful watching nature awake once more.

2. Watching our sleeping baby this morning, drifting in and out of sleep myself. Calvin woke up early, just as dawn came on, fiddled a little with the wicker on the cradle next to my bed, and then fell back to sleep. He looked so very peaceful...

3. Having neighbor kids once again. As the weather is getting better, Lily and Violet are meeting up with the kids from next door in the mud pit that's our (still) joined backyard, play with their dolls, kick a ball, and just have fun together!

4. Despite being sick (the sinuses, as usual), I'm thankful for not joining in the Influenza 2015 club. The bug seems to be especially nasty this year, and the shot (which we don't get anyway) pretty ineffective.

5. Getting to be part of a blog tour on a topic that's close to my heart: music. It is a language that includes everyone, no matter the age, no matter the nationality, no matter their day-to-day language. And getting to learn more things about the wonderful Lisa as well!

6. The silliness out D&D nights are becoming. Richard had a Faxe more than usual, and the rest of the table was feeding off him. The math was difficult, the role playing hilarious, and the fights successful for us. Looking forward to the next session already!

7. Lily enjoying school and learning so much. Every day, after lunch, she goes up to her room doing her homework, without anyone of us having to prompt her to do so. I couldn't imagine how it would be if we had to stand over her shoulder every single day, and quite honestly don't want to!

8. Once again, the German healthcare system. It seems as if Lily had to start orthodontist treatment soon, and I'm beyond thankful for not having to shell out the €5000 or €6000 our of pocket!

9. The prospect of soon not carrying all the dirt from outside into our home. if everything goes as planned and the weather is nice, work on our front and back yards should start by the end of April!

10. Kind people. I'm not quite spilling the beans yet, but there is a very special someone who's doing something so incredibly nice for me, and I'm so, so excited about it!!  More to come, soon!!


I hope you, too, have tons of things to be thankful for this week!

My Life In Music

What are your first memories about your childhood? A smell, a face, or maybe a sound?  Something I always remember is music, or what my mom called music. I want to call it audio-abuse, and unfortunately, my mom was mostly in charge of the stereo system in our house.  Except those rare occasions, when my Dad and I would sit on the floor in the living room, go through his old vinyls, and play them on the record player. There were old metal LPs, recordings of Bach or Beethoven, and my highlight whenever I found it, an old Beatles album!!

Source

For some reason, these four guys have always fascinated me, and I was pretty sad to find out, at a tender age of about 4 years old, that I will never have the chance to see those four perform together.

Over the years, my personal taste in music shaped, from the not-so-glorious techno-phase, via gansta rap, to my now fairly broad range of classical, rock, and indie music. Yes, I even admit to enjoying the occasional Indian Bollywood musical.

But one band that has followed me since my earliest childhood are the Fab Four. I remember singing "Yesterday" in school or "Hey Jude" with the girls in the car. I enjoy the individual music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney; Sitting back and listening to "Imagine" while nursing Calvin is so relaxing, almost meditative, I feel so refreshed after only a few minutes of rest and recharging with our baby.

(c) Life, Unexpectedly

A couple of weeks ago, the wonderful Lisa of The Meaning of Me asked who would be interested in participating in a blog tour arranged by a friend of her's the fabulous Starr Bryson at The Insomniac's Dream as part of a promotion for the Relive the Beatles '64 Concert in September of this year, and for the new book set to be released by the one person who organized the only Beatles concert tour in the US back in 1964 (imagine, my mom was only 3 years old at that point!!), Pat DiCesare. Today, the first part of Pat's guest post on how music shaped his life and how he came to be one of the most successful promoter in U.S,. concert history went life on Linda's blog, Elleroy Was There, with the second part airing right here on Life, Unexpectedly this coming Friday, March 13.

Source

Please head over to visit Linda, read about Pat, and don't forget to come back here on Friday for the second part of the story!