May 22nd, 2016

The process of things moving from “foreign” to “familiar” is fascinating to me. A tourist bus passed by me in our village last night. As people looked out their windows, I wondered how they saw me. Though I’m still a foreigner, I’m also a resident and this village is now my familiar…slowly becoming home. A few days ago, May 17th to be exact, we marked our sixth month of living here in Germany. Its hard to believe we have been here half a year already!

Here’s a glimpse into village life this past week…

Monday was a German holiday which affects public transportation. To help alleviate the hassle for Hubby, he drove the car to work and we took advantage of E’s bus pass to get him back and forth to school. Here’s S walking home from the school bus stop early in the morning.

The boys and I got a scoop of ice cream from our favorite coffee shop as an after school treat one warm afternoon. The ice cream is made in-house and is quite DELICIOUS! We also enjoy seeing the family that runs the place.

E had his first soccer practice with his team this past Wednesday. The soccer fields are on the outskirts of our village. We are really proud of our boy for stepping out of his comfort zone to be the “new kid” on a team with a German speaking coach and mostly German speaking kids. Thankfully, one or two of the kids speak English and help translate for E when the coach needs to explain something. Otherwise, he has to watch, experience and learn. This team has been playing together since last September and they are GOOD! I can see why the Germans won the last World Cup…its in their DNA. We saw one of the check out ladies at the grocery store on the sidelines. It looks like her son might play on the team as well. We are starting to connect faces in and out of context.

  

In keeping with our once-a-week tradition of eating out at the same restaurant in our village, we went after soccer on Wednesday evening. The owner now knows our names, what we typically order and gives the boys treats as we leave. We practice our limited German with him.

On Thursday, I invited the woman I met at soccer last week over for lunch. Her name is Amy. She brought her two younger boys (almost 5 and 2 yrs) with her. I also invited my other friend, Amy, and her son (almost 3 years old) so they could all meet. They both lived in Korea before moving to Germany. It was fun to connect people in our village and spend the afternoon together. I didn’t take pictures…too busy chatting!

We returned to the soccer fields on Friday evening. E’s team practices twice a week and S’s team practices on Fridays. Soccer Amy came with her boys and we enjoyed chatting with her as they played together. E is on the same team as her seven year old son and S and her middle son play on the same team. What a treat! Here is S with his new buddy in the background. He is VERY excited about his friendship! We are too. =)

Saturday was in the 70’s so we ventured over to our village pool to check it out. The water was shockingly cold but the boys and Hubby still got in. I watched from the warmth of my pool chair!

The train station is less than ten minutes from our house. There is a bridge that goes over the track allowing us to cross over to the other side. Last night, I walked to one of the local grocery stores. It was a beautiful evening to take a stroll. Here’s the view looking down from the bridge on both sides.

 

I also passed this phone booth as I was walking home. I wonder if anyone actually uses it?

Adi, our crazy cat, has found a new spot to hang out…our gutters! If she finds one of the upstairs windows open, she  walks out onto the lower roof of our kitchen and watches the birds from her high perch. She still likes to curl up in the sink too!

 

This evening, our new friends from soccer invited us over for a barbecue. All the boys played together while the adults connected. We are really excited about these new friendships! They are not sure how long they will be here but we hope to take full advantage of the time our paths cross. (No pictures…maybe next time.)

I like the quaintness of village life. Community is slowly forming and we are relishing it. Yay!!!

 

 

 

May 16th, 2016

Hubby started a new work schedule. His days are a bit longer now. He leaves the house around 5:45am to catch the  train downtown then the bus into work. He returns home around 5:15pm. Thankfully, he is a morning person! What makes this new schedule worthwhile is how it affords him every other Friday off. We just experienced his first three day weekend and LOVED it!

Friday was like a mental health day for both of us. In the morning, Hubby took a run after he dropped E off at school. When he got back, I left for a bike ride. It was my first time on my bike since we moved to Germany. There is a wonderful network of trails that connect the villages around here. I rode from our village, past a nearby retirement community, alongside lakes and farm land and through the woods.

 

 

Others were out on the trails enjoying the crisp, beautiful morning. Their presence gave me comfort. Though I’m somewhat adventurous, I was also raised by two New Yorkers so caution is in my blood. The rolling hills got my heart pumping without completely exhausting me. The scenery inspired and wooed me to keep going…just a little bit further. Thankfully, the trails are marked with signs painted on posts and trees that helped me keep my bearings when I would take a new turn. My bike is not fancy, I got it during my college days, but it does the trick to take me out on the back roads where I connect with nature and the God who created it all. I’m a tree-hugging, country girl at heart. I’m so grateful to have such beauty around us!

 

When I got back to the house, Herr Schmidt (the gentleman who was our original landlord) was visiting. Hubby was helping him create an advertisement online for his rental house. It was fun to use our creativity and computer knowledge to lend him a hand. As he was leaving, he mentioned meeting up at our favorite coffee shop in the village sometime soon. We are definitely up for that!

In the afternoon, S and I took Hubby to his chiropractic appointment downtown. He has been seeing a German chiropractor for a few weeks now after continuing to struggle with hip pain and loss of motion. Herr Schmidt is a physical therapist and spoke highly of this chiropractor. He also recommended another PT that could help strengthen the muscles around the hip and round out the therapy Hubby is currently receiving. We are really hoping to find some good options that would enable my Love to keep doing the things he enjoys. Thankfully, he has experienced some relief of pain and renewed range of motion after a couple of laser therapy sessions.

We made it back to our village to pick up E when he got dropped off in the afternoon. He was sooooo excited to see his Daddy waiting for him at the bus stop! What a treat to ride to school with him in the morning AND to see him again in the afternoon. =)

A couple of hours later, we mustered our courage and sense of adventure again, piled into the car and went in search of our village soccer club for the boys. I had seen a poster in a window last week advertising a team for E’s age group. We used Google Translate to figure out the details. After a little research online, we found another possible team for S. We’ve been talking about checking out the German Soccer club for awhile now. I’m glad we finally did!

The boys were hesitant at first, understandably. However, the head coach was incredibly kind and invited both of them out on the field to join in a practice. He spoke both German and English fluently which was incredibly helpful. When I asked him where I could purchase soccer shoes for the boys, he brought out a couple of bags full of shoes and told us to try to find some that fit. He explained how parents give him shoes when their children outgrow them after a season. We found two pairs of shoes that fit each of our boys plus shin guards! The boys had a blast playing for an hour. When they came off the field, they told us we needed to be back next Friday for the next practice. Yay!

While we were talking and watching the boys, a woman approached us and commented that she heard us speaking English. Turns out she and her husband are also English speakers, parents to three boys (ages 7, almost 5 and 2) AND live in our village! They moved here last summer and have been on the look out for community. She said its been lonely for them. Desiring community, feelings of loneliness, village life…it was so easy to connect and use these topics as spring boards for conversation. We chatted the rest of the practice and introduced our boys to each other afterwards. We are excited and hopeful to get to know this family better with time.

What a day! So many blessings came out of it. I think these shoes will serve as a visual reminder to me of the goodness we experienced on Hubby’s first Friday off. We were refreshed in every way…mind, body and soul! Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

May 15th, 2016

If you walk around our village long enough, you will begin to notice an inscription written in chalk on, above or beside some of the door frames. It is this: 20*C+M+B+16. Some of you may already be familiar with it. I wasn’t. I have seen it several times now and finally took a picture of it the other evening when I was out for a stroll.

I asked my friend, Amy, if she knew what it was. She told me it had something to do with giving a donation. My curiosity peaked last night, motivating me to do a little research. There were several sites that gave explanations. Here is a bit of what I pieced together…

The numbers are for the current year (2016). The C, M, B are the initials of the traditional names of the Wise Men (Magi), Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar who came to visit Jesus, Mary and Joseph in their home. The letters can also stand for the latin words, “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” meaning “May Christ bless this home.” The “+” sign represents the cross.

A Christian Tradition, called the Epiphany, celebrates the visit of the three Wise Men on January 6th. As a part of the celebration, a priest or the father of the family chalks this inscription above a door as a blessing over the house and an invitation for Jesus to be a daily guest and participant in all that occurs inside the home. I like this. 

Another source I read gave a variation of the celebration where German children go house to house gathering donations for charities dressed as the three kings. They sing songs, recite messages of Christmas and write the inscription on or around the door. We were still living in our apartment this year during the Epiphany which may explain why we didn’t get to participate. I would love for the boys to see this.

I’m hoping we get a visit from the three wise men in 2017. If not, we may have our own family celebration and chalking of our door as a reminder of the Guest we desire to live amongst. Daryl Moresco, from the order of the Carmelites, writes, “With time the chalk will fade. As it does we let the meaning of the symbols written sink into the depths of our heart and be manifest in our words and actions the Latin words, Christus mansionem benedictat, ‘May Christ bless the house.'” 

Blessings on your home~

 

May 9th, 2016

It looks like God took a yellow highlighter to many of the farm fields in our area right now. What was green a few weeks ago has bloomed with yellow canola flowers. I didn’t even know what canola looked like until now. Its quite beautiful!

 

Our family took a walk alongside the fields on Saturday afternoon. Hubby and I oohed and aahed as we walked by. What a sight! We walked into one field by the tractor lines and got covered by yellow pollen. It was like being in a golden sea. I LOVE the color yellow…you can’t help but smile (and sneeze a bit) when you see this much of it. =)

 

Whenever I hear of canola oil now, I will remember these beautiful fields and the wonderful walk we enjoyed that one Spring day our first May in Germany.

 

 

May 8th, 2016…Happy Mother’s Day!

Its Sunday evening and the house is quiet. After getting the boys ready for bed…PJ’s, teeth brushing, reading, singing, praying and goodnight kisses…I left them to hear their next chapter of the Hardy Boys. Hubby started reading them the series about a month ago and they REALLY like it! They are currently in Book Three.

My heart is full from the wonderful day we spent together as a family. Hubby served me in countless ways. We went to church this morning, a place we now look forward to going to each week. We left encouraged, challenged and more connected. Our pastor asked all the kids to pass out flowers to the women in the church. I appreciated that he didn’t just single out the mothers but acknowledged all the women. Because of my own personal journey to motherhood, its good to remember how so many women “mother” even if they don’t have children.

We spent the afternoon at the Dino Park. The weather was AMAZING and the atmosphere was perfect. The park was full of families enjoying each other, the sunshine and the beauty of our surroundings. Our friend, Liz, joined us with her daughter. Several hours slipped by while we chatted, ate, laid on blankets in the grass and watched the kids play in the stream. I’m so grateful that our boys enjoy the outdoors!

 

 

 

Here’s a picture of our friends. They arrived in Germany a couple of days before we did. I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to know them and share this cultural experience together.

The Dino Park has quickly become one of our FAVORITE places! I think we have already paid off our Season Pass with the amount of visits we have made thus far. Last weekend, the park hosted a Medieval Festival. We took the boys and easily spent a couple of hours walking around, playing, eating, watching a show and enjoying being outside.

 

 

SPRING is HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We enjoyed a WEEK full of sunshine, blue skies, warmer temperatures and flowers in bloom…with only one rainy day tossed in for good measure! S and I took a wonderful walk one day admiring all the different signs of Spring. Yippee!!!

 

On Tuesday, I dropped S off at Hubby’s work for a father/son lunch date so I could join E for a mother/son lunch date at his school. I sat with him and his classmates and got bombarded by questions ranging from “Why does E like pickles so much?” to “Why do you have grey hair?” (Because I’m a parent!) Afterwards, I joined the kids for recess and played a massive game of Hide-and-Go-Seek Tag. I may have some grey hair but I can still play a fantastic game of tag. Ha! SUPER FUN!

E marched in his school’s Storybook Character Parade on Thursday for National Book Week. He wore his astronaut costume (that still fits after two years!) since HE had just read to ME a book about astronauts walking on the moon. We are so proud of the growth he has made the past few months in his reading skills!

 

His fun teacher dressed up as Fancy Nancy. Love her!

 

Though the weather was BEAUTIFUL this week, we ended up spending a couple of days inside while lil S fought off a virus of some sort. It seemed to start off as allergies, but then a fever came. After two rough nights, fever, lack of appetite, lethargy, some vomiting and tummy pain, I called the doctor’s office and described his symptoms. They advised me to go to the ER (our first visit thus far). We were all concerned because his stomach pain was mimicking aspects of appendicitis. Ugh…

The ER doctor thought he heard some rattling in his lungs which led to a chest x-ray, an abdominal ultra sound and a six hour ER visit. I was so grateful when he started perking up in the hospital. THANKFULLY, his tests came back clear, the diagnosis was a virus, and we were sent home with a prescription of ibuprofen to alternate with the Tylenol he had been taking.

He went from this…

to balancing the empty, barf bag on his head…a definite sign that things were looking up! He still has a lingering cough but is VASTLY improved and back to his fun, sweet and spirited self!

Wether we were inside or out, we ALL managed to relish the warmth of the sun’s rays…even our crazy cat, Adi!

Happy Spring from Germany!

~Tschüss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 1st, 2016…Happy May Day!

Often, we find ourselves looking at the weather report and sighing when we see rain forecasted several days in a row. STILL??!!! As I write this, its raining! When we got home from Italy, it rained again. We were still on our Tuscany high so it didn’t effect us as much. However, the weather has truly been one of the biggest adjustments for us in this move. I saw a doctor a few weeks ago to update a prescription. She asked me if I take vitamin D. I asked her if she thought I should. Her response was, “You live in Germany.” Okey-Dokey then..enough said. According to the doctor, its almost guaranteed that everyone here is deficient in vitamin D after months of grey skies.

Thankfully, the past couple of weeks, we have seen the sun a bit more. Signs of Spring continue to give us hope of warmer days ahead. These teasers are good for our souls! Last week, S and I went for a walk with our friends. I LOVE seeing the trees in bloom! The blue of the sky makes the colors even more vivid. Its also been nice to have a couple of days where two or three layers of clothing suffice for comfort and warmth!

 

The farm fields around our village are a radiant yellow right now. I have seasonal allergies and all of these new blooms would probably have me sneezing profusely. However, the rain is helping to keep the pollen levels down. A plus for our damp days!

 

After we returned home from Italy, Hubby spent a week off-site for his job. When we saw a sunny day on the forecast, I packed up food and S and I met him for a picnic during his lunch break. The air had a bit of a chill so we sat at a picnic table in the sun to feel the warmth. It was a fun treat!

This past week, we awoke to frosty mornings, snow and rain. The sun managed to peak out here and there and we continued to get out to enjoy it.

On Friday evening, the weather was nice enough to use our fire pit for the first time to roast marshmallows. The boys were soooo excited! Our wood was wet (go figure) so we ended up smoking out the neighborhood a bit. The boys offered s’more treats to a neighbor who was outside…a peace-offering.

 

 

Even Adi came out and joined us in her little kitty tent. After standing in the street one day, oblivious to the crazy drivers who speed through our village, I am more vigilant with her…much to her chagrin.

 

We couldn’t find graham crackers so we substituted these German crackers instead. They were yummy! We would recommend them. =)

This upcoming week shows sunny or partly sunny days SIX DAYS IN A ROW!!!! We may need to break out the sunscreen! On second thought, I think I’ll start off with pulling out our sun hats first. We need to get our Vitamin D levels back up!