Countdown To The Holidays

Yes, it's true. The Winter Holidays (however you may call it) is approaching again. I started shopping early this year, wrapping m first presents during our visit with the in-laws in the U.S. in May. Luckily, I've not been in the holiday mood since early summer, like last year. I am just about getting started with the true fall mood, looking forward to Thanksgiving and the first German holiday bread (aka Stollen) on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Why do I love the second half of the year more than the first? Holiday flavors, weekends cuddling on the couch, a house warmed by cookies baking in the oven, first colorful then white landscapes, cocooning and listening to what's inside, spending lots of time with family and friends. This is why!

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (69)

What a busy week! So many appointments to remember,  but also a lot of quality time to spend with my wonderful family and friends. I am tired and exhausted, but feel so very, very thankful to have all of them in my life.

The special thankfuls this week:

1. Violet for the rescue Monday morning. Lily had lost her sweater, but Violet found it and also reminded her big sister (and me) that Lily still needed her glasses just as she was leaving. What only would I do without our little girl??

2. Home-made organic apple sauce. While being out with Lily to pick elderberries for elderberry jam (total fiasco by the way), I found an apple tree growing outside a fence; I spontaneously declared the tree public property and picked a bunch to take home as well. Yesterday, I finally turned them all into apple sauce. No sugar, no preservatives, no additives, just plain old apple sauce. Yum!

3. Cream of rice with home-made apple sauce for breakfast - just remembering that I forgot to add the cinnamon..

4. Getting to watch Calvin discovering his feet. He was beyond-words adorable watching them wiggle and giving me the biggest, sweetest baby smiles I can imagine.  Such a special moment - or twenty minutes.

5. Dates with my lads. Hubby and Calvin first took me out for breakfast before heading to the hardware store Friday morning, and in the evening, we had a movie date at home with delicious dessert.

6. Getting to watch Violet during her first dance class. It was still a little difficult for her to follow the steps, but I'm sure in no time this class will help her to gain more awareness for her body and movement. Plus: the approval for her early intervention therapy came in the mail today. Starting next week, she's going to see an occupational therapist and the early intervention therapist in addition to the speech therapist. Sounds like a lot, but we've experienced with Lily that this comprehensive approach is really generating fast improvements.

7. A wonderful Sunday afternoon with friends. We shared a delicious lunch and took dessert out to the park where the kids played soccer and we adults enjoyed some good conversation. The sky was pretty overcast at first but later in the afternoon, we had beautiful sunshine. Violet's conclusion at the end of the day:  Mami, I'm absolutely exhausted, but so, so happy!  I'd call this a perfect weekend!

8.  A lovely cup of chai latte at the end of the day. With a side of dark cookie chocolate.

9. A very supportive HR department. Without a prompt from my side, they sent me all the paperwork to apply for the child care refund my work pays at the end of each year. Yay for more paperwork!

10.Hubby finally having found a school that supports him receiving his benefits he has earned while serving in the military for 8 years, having his health ruined during that time and being intentionally given false information that hurt our family on his way out. If everything goes as planned, I'll be married to a college boy soon  :-)

Maternity Leave Musings

Today was officially my last day of maternity leave. Until mid-November I'm taking vacation time and will enter parental leave afterward.

Even though I had some issues adjusting to this new life at home, I think I'm finally arriving in this new role of stay-at-home-mom, and I absolutely love being able to spend so much time with my family.

Calvin in mid-September

This morning, while hubby was out for his German class and the girls in school and kindergarten, I enjoyed a little mid-morning nap with Calvin, and after we woke up, he discovered his feet!!  I watched the little guy being excited about those two little wiggling thingies at the very end of his legs for a good twenty minutes, giving me some of the biggest, most heart-warming toothless smiles you could possibly imagine.

My conclusion on this first-time experience for me: I will never be a stay-at-home-mom. I love being home right now, but I know that it would never truly fulfill me. I am thankful that legislation here in Germany allows me to take tons of time off to take care of our baby and our family as a whole, but I am also thankful that my job is waiting for me when I return - part-time for now - in March. I am glad that legislation also protects families and give me the right to cut hours (or potentially even stay at home completely) for up to 3 years, which we are definitely taking advantage of, as I will be working part-time only until September 2016!

Wordless Wednesday _ The New Doctor

We're a few episodes into the ne season, so, what's the verdict? (Source)

Share Your Best

I'm in a little bit of a dilemma. Super-hubby's birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and he wants a chocolate cake for his birthday. Not the German's Chocolate Cake I've made all but one year for his birthday (last year he wanted a pumpkin cheese cake), but something new.  But I don't know anything new, and I don't have time to try something new.  So if you have THE recipe for an awesome chocolate birthday cake for my wonderful man, please share  :-)

Source

Week In Review - Ten Things Of Thankful (68) - Late Edition

Yes,  I managed to be late enough so I cannot be participate in the link-up any more. But that doesn'T keep me from being thankful anyways  :-)  I was working on a larger project last week(end) and was pretty busy, so not much of me has been seen around anywhere but Trados.

Here are last week's thankfuls:

1. Early fall morning walks. I'm taking Violet to kindergarten some mornings, and you wouldn't believe how beautiful it is. The fog lingering before the sun is burning it away, leaving tiny dew drops on the spider webs that look like silver-thread art everywhere. I so wished I'd had a camera with me, but then again I wouldn't have been able to enjoy these moments as I did.

2. A beautiful early fall after a fairly crappy late summer. Can you believe that Calvin didn't get to wear those cute outfits I got for him in the States even once? And he was born in early August, there should have been a few days appropriate for shorts and t-shirts! But since mid-September, most days have been sunny and balmy, with brisk mornings and nights, but still. I enjoy being able to go and collect chestnuts with the girls for some crafts, have fun a the playground, walk in town, and to and from school. Can't beat a fall like that!

3. Friends from so many different countries, with so many different backgrounds, and places in life. It never gets boring, and I'm truly very, very thankful for every single one of them.

4. The paperwork I'm cursing these days. Why am I thankful for that? Because it means that I can be home and enjoy spending time with the family. A few weeks ago I have sent out our application for parental benefits and now received their feed-back that there were still documents missing, even though I have sent everything I had at the time. So I'm doing some more scanning, some more emailing with our personnel department, and some more waiting for the benefits to be approved.

5. Morning naps with a very cuddly baby boy.

6. Sharing the gift of language. I've started a story hour for expat kids in our local library and read children's books in German to them. Last Saturday was the first story time, and it was such a success. Looking forward to some more reading this coming weekend!

7. Enjoying peace and quiet when we have it. As most of you may know, we're currently living on a building site. But while most of the building of the houses around us wasn't bad, the construction on the street has been a real pain. Tons and tons of dirt has been carried into our house, and the tools they are using are LOUD!!!!  We could feel the vibration through the floor most days last week, so we did enjoy the hours of peace and quiet even more.

8. Apple goodness. Yes, they are ripe, and when I saw this nice apple tree standing just OUTSIDE a fence the other day, Lily and I filled a little bucket up. So we're having home-made apple sauce (heavenly on rice pudding), apple pie, apple streusel, you name it. Everything is totally organic and best of all FREE  :-)

9. Getting to go to hubby's concert this Saturday. It was a children's concert, so naturally, the girls loved it, and Calvin was just the best baby listening to the music.

10. People who do not forget I exist just because I'm out of work / off the net / hiding in the bathroom for a while.

Have a great week everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Sexist? You Decide!

Are you buying these?  (Source)