A pretty quiet day all told. Kids went to school. I did some grocery shopping. It is COLD. Everyone's wearing their heavier winter coats plus gloves, scarves, hats/hoods. GE and I still took the bike to Kindergarten but it took us a little longer to put all our layers on!
The girls are asking for turtlenecks! Never thought I'd hear that from MK who is sensitive to labels, tight clothes, itchy seams, etc. but she wants some too. They all have zipper/button up sweaters, but no pull-overs, so I have my eyes out for a good place to pick up some in-expensive ones for layering. The undershirts are stashed in their drawers now too. Realized yesterday when they wanted to wear their new dresses to church that I didn't have winter dress shoes or heavy weight tights for the older girls! So, some shopping in the days ahead...
MK went to her tutoring this afternoon--a little late because her phone timer was off schedule from the weekend time change! Oops. Luckily there aren't any students after her, so she still got her full 45 minutes. J is still in Chicago. I keep checking the online reports on Sandy and hope that our house holds up in the storm.
October 30
Followed the news reports on Sandy online. Pretty crazy. Glad it didn't hit the Valley too hard! The day was pretty routine. Glad to have more of these days now! The girls went to school and Kindergarten. I got my shopping done. Went for a run when I got back during a break in the rain. MK had to ride home in a pretty heavy shower, but I picked up GE from Kindergarten in sunshine--German weather for you! Never leave the house without an umbrella. :)
J is still in Chicago. Heads out tonight, Chicago time, assuming his flight isn't disrupted by the Sandy storm. Should arrive sometime tomorrow. Tomorrow is Halloween. Apparently Germans now celebrate it even though I remember that we didn't when we lived in Marburg. I've pretty much told the kids we're not doing American holidays while we're in Germany. They can dress up for Fasching in the spring. The exception to that was if they received specific invitations to go trick or treating with a group of kids from school or to a party, in which case they should say, yes, and I'd help them put together some sort of costume from stuff we have at home (German peasant in their Dirndl dresses??). So far, no invitation, so tomorrow will be a normal day for us. Germans do celebrate the religious holiday of All Saints on November 1, so there is no school on Thursday. Makes them feel a little better about not going out on Halloween!
October 31
An uneventful Halloween day! No trick or treating, no costumes, no crazy sugar highs.
Kids had normal school days. No homework for the younger ones because the next two days are off. MK went to her German tutor.
At 6 p.m. I went again to the running training group at the Catholic elementary school. Another warm-up followed by a circuit training series, followed by a 4.12 km run through the woods and neighborhood. 5 women plus the trainer this time. I remembered to bring my headlamp for running in the woods. There is a 1/2 marathon in April, so if I keep up with this group I'll register for that in January!
November 2
Last few days have been busy with all the normal stuff! Kids were off school yesterday for All Saint's Day (November 1). Stores and such were closed too, so it was a pretty relaxing day. I cleaned some, did some laundry, straightened up, made a big batch of soup while keeping the kids occupied with activities. ME had a friend over. After the friend went home, I went out for a long walk with the two little girls on their bikes. MK went on a bike ride by herself. Still amazes me how, if we're all dressed appropriately, we can go out in just about any weather for a bike ride or walk. There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!
Today the elementary school had a day off because they had school last Saturday instead (Open Door Day), but MK had a regular day. ME was invited to spend the day with another friend and the Kindergarten was open as usual, so after dropping GE off there, MK off to school, and dropping ME off at her friends' house, that left HR and Mommy free to go to Bad Godesberg for some shoe shopping and some Mommy and HR time! We went to a 1 Euro shop and she used a little off her monthly allowance money to pick out some little things for herself. We windowed shopped and explored a couple of second hand stores. We stopped at a bakery for a fresh baked treat, picked up a few grocery items and then went to the Kaufhof (shopping center) to look for some winter dress shoes and boots. HR picked the lunch spot: McDonald's (oh dear!) and then we took the bus back home. Then I turned around and went back out to pick up GE from Kindergarten, then as soon as I got home I rode bike with ME (who had come home from her friend's house while I was out) to a Bowling Sport Center for a birthday party she'd been invited to! After dropping her off, I rode home, made dinner, set the table, and then went out again to pick ME up again from the Bowling Center, this time riding my bike to the U-bahn station and taking the train up since it was raining on and off. All told, I think I was home for about 2 hours today! Whew. Thankfully, most days are not like today!
November 3
Shoe shopping. I took HR on Friday, so now GE and ME needed to go too. MK had school (yes, on Saturday!) because it was the school's open door day. I'll take her sometime next week. We took the bus since it was threatening to rain. I had my shopping cart along because I also needed to get groceries before we went home. We got to the Kaufhof early so they each got a little bakery treat before heading into the shoe store. Gotta love European shoes! Had a hard time choosing. In the end it came down to comfort. ME picked a pair of simple black shoes and a pair of gray boots. (Hannah had gotten boots and little black shoes too.) GE got little black shoes and a pair of purple boots (play/dressy not snow). I found a pair of ankle boots (all the rage here--I have my tall ones along but no short ones) for myself. When we were finished, we headed out through the pedestrian zone, stopping at the Rewe for groceries before heading to the bus stop. All of a sudden the heavens opened! We stopped at the cross walk and as we waited for the light to change, watched our bus pull into the stop on the other side of the street and then pull away! We had to wait another 30 minutes before another one came. By then we were all pretty grumpy, feeling fairly damp and chilled despite our warm coats and umbrellas (GE in her raincoat).
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| ME's on the left, HR on the right. I asked them to hold their pants up and HR pulled hers all the way up to her thighs--so, no, she was not headed to school with bare legs! |
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| I was glad I took this pic this morning before Kindergarten! When we came home, they were caked in sand and a little more brown than purple! |
But everyone cheered up when we got home, ate some lunch, drank some warm tea (I think it might be time to start having hot chocolate mix around), and then spent the rest of the afternoon inside out of the rain.
November 4
"Mommy, I need helfen!" GE from the bathroom or when she wants her shoes tied. ("Helfen" sort of means help although she's not using it quite right.)
Went to church at the Pauluskirche this morning. The choir was singing two things and introducing an unfamiliar hymn. The little girls sat in the back with MK. ME's friend from school wanted her to sit with them. :) This family has 4 children too--the oldest, ME's friend, and then 3 boys. ME played at her house on Friday. GE was super squirrely. There was no children's church for some reason, so they all stayed in with us. After the service there was Gänseessen (Goose eating!) with traditional German dumplings, red cabbage, and noodles (don't they ever make anything green?!). We stayed for lunch, enjoying some conversation with some folks we knew by sight from choir but hadn't had a chance to speak to before. Then a quiet afternoon at home. I worked on a St. Martin's lantern with MK, put a puzzle together with HR, played UNO with all 4 of them (GE had some help from Daddy), and then made dinner.
Right before bedtime HR and GE got in a fight over the little borrowed electric keyboard and GE had a complete meltdown. Oi. I timed it: 20 mins of sitting on the bed reaching for the door saying "I wan..." and then drowning in tears. I just sat with her, tried to read to her, tried to sing to her, but she'd just ramp it up further. (Managed to get her to pee and brush her teeth though!) Finally Daddy came in and laid down next to her too and she finally collapsed and let me read a little to her before she hiccuped herself to sleep.
Monday November 5
GE was chipper this morning, so she went off to KG. I took time to make some no bake cookies with her this afternoon. ME's class has a party on Thursday before the St. Martinszug parade and I'm supposed to bring a Leckere Ăberraschung (yummy surprise). Since I don't have a big enough oven to bake in (well, I'm thinking about experimenting with that, but this didn't seem the time to experiment) I looked up how to make no bake oatmeal cookies. Wow is there a lot of butter and sugar in these things. Will definitely not be making a double batch!
Then when MK got back from her German tutor we went to the shoe store (she hadn't been boot shopping yet!) and found a pair we could both agree on. Have to admit I kind of like the zipper thing these have going on... MK's definitely becoming more fashion conscious as she hits the pre-teens.
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