Took GE to Kindergarten with the bus again. We continue to have below freezing temps throughout the day (it is *bitter*) and snow on and off. The streets are a mess and in many places the sidewalks are even worse! The city only clears the main thoroughfares (i.e. bus routes and emergency vehicle routes) and the side streets have snow and slush that is just mashed down and turns into ice! MK has been walking to school. We both had bike accidents due to the ice (luckily for both of us the bikes went down but we managed to hop off and stumble away without injury) and have wisely stopped riding them. I'll be so happy when it warms up a bit, but the rest of this week is supposed to be more of the same (although not as much snow fall). One family member is not sorry about the snow or the bus arrangement: GE can't walk more than a few feet without tromping through a pile of snow, swiping snow off a car or ledge as she walks by, picking up chunks from along the side of the street, or throwing herself down on an open spot to make a snow angel. Takes us twice as long to get to the bus stop as it should! The morning routine now includes pulling on snowpants, snow boots, ski mittens, an extra scarf, and warm hat with ear flaps. The Kindergarten kids still go out to play every day, so you can imagine the chaos in the entryway with all the kids' cubbies overflowing with snowpants, scarves, hats, gloves, and winter coats! GE has gotten quite good at taking much of the gear on and off since she has to do a lot of it herself at Kindergarten.
After dropping off GE, I made a quick grocery stop and then came home to enjoy an hour of coffee and tea with my friend, SL. After she left, I changed into running clothes (multiple layers in this weather!) and tried my new shoes out with a short, easy 30 min run. Foot seemed to be OK, just a slight pulling sensation which didn't get worse as I went on.
Brussels sprouts have been at the Biohof and so I got a bag today and made roasted sprouts as well as a coleslaw from chopped raw sprouts. Yummy! Some of the local grocery stores have Treupunkte (value points in the form of stickers) that you collect and stick in a collection book and then redeem for various items. The Pennymarkt has been selling really wonderful German-made cooking knives (you can collect a whole set). I started collecting the stickers and redeemed enough for 3 of the knives (a big chefs knife, a long knife, and a paring knife). I love cooking with a good knife! I missed mine from home... until now. I'll be taking these home with me! Chopping veggies is a breeze...
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| Chopping the Brussels Sprouts for the coleslaw. |
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| Roasted sprouts--they're my chips! Just wash, cut tips off, cut in half, spread in single layer face up, drizzle with a little Olive Oil, sprinkle with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cumin, add a couple T. of water to the pan, and roast at 375 for 10-20 minutes depending on how toasty you like them! My little convection oven works great for this and I'll eat the whole pan by myself (thankfully, I'm the only one who likes them this way!) |
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| The coleslaw is dairy-free: dressing made from fresh lemon juice, nutritional yeast, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add chopped walnuts to the chopped sprouts, mix well... Tastes even better the next day! |
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| The next day I added some sliced avocado and more lemon juice. Even better! |
Wednesday January 23
Met our neighbors at the Rheinaue this afternoon for sledding! MK didn't want to go (I don't blame her--it's sooo cold!) and had her German tutoring to go to anyway, so I took ME, HR, and GE with me on the bus. We borrowed 2 sleds from ME's school friend (who happens to live conveniently close to the bus stop we needed to use) and we had the one disc sled I'd gotten for HR's sledding day with her class. R and T brought their traditional wooden sledge, another disc, and another Po-Teller. HR and ME immediately grabbed a sled and raced down the hill. GE said, "Me too!" I said (typical cautious Mom), "It's really steep! Don't you want to wait and go with ME or do you want me to go down with you?" "NO." So I helped her sit cross-legged on the disc and let her loose. The disc turned round so she was headed backwards and I could see her face. What an expression! Not sure if it was surprise or terror--probably a mixture of both! But when she came to a stop, she picked up her disc and tromped right back up the hill (this time she wanted me to come too...). R and T came prepared with hot chocolate in a thermos and we each had some snacks along, so we took breaks between rides down the hill. We all took turns going down on the various styles of sleds (I had a big plastic shopping bag which worked quite well too!). HR's favorite was the Po-Teller. She tore up the hill with that thing and since it's so small, she could hurry back up the hill for more fun. We stayed for about 1.5 hours until it was starting to get dark and my toes were frozen! Then bus home again. J met us at the bus stop since GE was falling apart (hungry, cold and tired thing).
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| The whiteness of the snow makes it impossible to tell how steep this was, the small figure to the right in the photo is a good ways down the hill, if that helps with perspective. |
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| Neighbor-friends, T with the red sled and his mom, R beside HR. |
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| Baby O in the stroller behind HR. |
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| GE and T trek up the hill again with their discs in tow. I no longer have a child that needs me to carry the sled back up the hill! What a remarkable milestone. |
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| Wipe out! The snow was packed from the last 10 days of many, many sleds and feet. Apparently this hill (actually a long ridge, popular for sledding because the base is a wide open meadow with no trees to run into and the ridge has varying grades of steepness so everyone can enjoy themselves) is the most popular spot for sledding at this end of the park. On the weekends it was so full one had to be very careful going down or coming up that you didn't collide with another sled. The weather has also caused there to be mashed down snow, then a layer of melt that turned to ice, then more packed snow on top of that. Ideal sledding conditions but not so great for walking back up! |
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| R with baby O |
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| ME trying out the Po-Teller. |
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| T holding the sled for GE while she gets ready for take-off. |
I made a quick supper, left J to settle the kids for bed, and headed to Laufen Training. HW, the trainer, is introducing us to a new Crossfit workout that we can do at home between training meetings to prepare for the 1/2 marathon in April. Some of the group have registered for the full marathon this year (having done the 1/2 last year). After the Crossfit workout, we also did a 1/2 hour run. Foot still OK! The new shoes are awesome.
Thursday January 24
This afternoon HR's classmate's mom picked her up at 1 and took her home to play. I picked her up at 6:30. They had a great time (no spats to report). MK said the sidewalks were free of ice again, so I took my bike to pick her up and then HR sat on my bike seat while I pushed the bike home (her friend lives near MK's school and it's just far enough for me to walk easily but a little too far for little HR legs). I loved hearing HR's stories about what they had done and what they had eaten (some Turkish treats, apparently). Wish she was as adventurous an eater for me at home!
Tried another new recipe today. I'd been interested in trying to make my own version of a veggie burger after the one I had last weekend at Frittebud. This one is with chickpeas and was super easy and super yummy! Will be making them for myself again for sure, although the vote is still out with the girls...
I'd fed the others before I left to pick up HR, so when we got home, it was time for bed! I read to the girls and tucked them in, then went to choir. J went to a Doktorant Seminar at the Uni.
Friday January 25
MK went to her dance class in the afternoon. ME and HR went to our other neighbors' house to play with R until it was time to go to the church for children's choir practice. I baked some cranberry bread and some chocolate cookies for Sunday afternoon when we're having some friends for Kaffee und Kuchen. Tomorrow I'll make my favorite chocolate mayonnaise cake too. Cleaned, cooked, read, went for a run, took GE to and from Kindergarten (finally used the bike again but rode on the main streets rather than the back way I usually take since that is still icy). A good week.
Saturday January 26
Wow, awesome day! Got up and dressed for my running group (undershirt, short sleeve shirt, long sleeve shirt, long-sleeve running jacket, another wind-breaker over that, hat, gloves, 2 pairs of socks!). It is bitterly cold so instead of a long run outside, we started inside with another new Crossfit training then went for a shorter run. (Note: turns out today was the coldest day on record for this winter!)
I spent the rest of the morning baking more treats for tomorrow afternoon when our friends LC and RR are coming for Kaffee und Kuchen. The girls helped clean the apartment and then played and played.
At 6:30 the babysitter arrived and J and I headed into Bonn on the U-bahn to meet up with VM and CN for dinner at La Chata. We ordered a variety of cold and warm tapas, shared a bottle of red wine, and some Spanish beer. Words do not adequately describe what a wonderful time we had! I think we could talk with them for days and never get bored!
We settled the bill, but we weren't finished visiting. The hostess suggested we go to the Irish pub around the corner. CN knew it and we all thought it was a great idea. At some point the waitress there reminded us that after 12:30 there was smoking allowed inside and we all thought, "12:30?!" Sure enough, it was well after midnight. We stayed another 1/2 hour and then J and I left to see if we could still get the U-bahn back to Friesdorf. We couldn't, so we grabbed a taxi from the Hauptbahnhof and were home by about 1:30. VM and CN invited us to spend Karnevalsamstag with them in Köln (one of Germany's premier places for traditional Karneval partying with costumes and craziness), so we'll head up there in a couple of weeks for another night of carousing (for anyone that knows me well, you know that this is very atypical behavior! But good friends make the time fly and we can't pass up the opportunity to experience this particular holiday with great friends.)
Sunday January 27
Good intentions by the wayside... slept in instead of church, then made a chicken soup for lunch. Afterwards, straightened up and prepared a nice table for Kaffee und Kuchen with our friends, LC and RR. They came mid afternoon with their two kids (MK and ME's ages). I made a citrus glaze to dress up the cranberry bread and sprinkled powdered sugar onto the chocolate mayonnaise cake. There were no leftovers! We had a lovely time visiting and then a quiet evening after they left. Tomorrow begins another week of school and work...
Monday January 28
The weather changed dramatically overnight. Yesterday was rainy and a little warmer. Today felt like spring. Most of the snow is gone and I could walk and ride the bike without hat and gloves! The sun was out and so after taking GE to Kindergarten and picking up a few groceries, I went for a run.
In the afternoon, ME went to dance, MK to her German tutor, and I dropped the little girls off at the neighbor's while I went to a parent-teacher conference with HR's teacher. She had great things to say about our HR. Namely, she is speaking almost entirely in German and even when she doesn't know how to say something, she tries to say it in German first and only when her teacher can't understand her German, does she say it in English! She is also writing in German and the teacher can read it! Wow. Still many mistakes, of course, but the other kids are making similar ones. She makes a few language related spelling mistakes (for example, she still spells die "de" and und is "ond"). She needs to work on paying attention--it's clear that it's no longer that she doesn't understand but that she isn't listening when the teacher is giving instructions! That's our little dreamer! HR rolled her eyes ("I know, I know, Mom.") when I talked to her about it later.
Realized after I hit "publish" that I forgot to tell one last story: HR came out after bedtime and in a shuttering voice asked how I would go about pulling out her loose tooth. It's been bothering her (hanging by a thread and sticking out at a funny angle, but every mention of pulling it sent her into hysterics) but she hasn't been brave enough to yank on it. I said I'd take a tissue and pinch her tooth with my fingers and if it was ready it would just pop out. If it wasn't ready, then I'd let it go and we could try another time. Daddy offered to hold her tight on his lap and she squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth. I quick grabbed her tooth with the tissue, gripped it a bit with my fingernails and out it popped. A few quick tears (more from fear than pain) and then she was giggling and happy. Must remember to tell the tooth-fairy to fly over here tonight...
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