January 7-13

Monday January 7

Today was back to the usual routine! Kids off to school, haul GE on the bike to Kindergarten, then a little grocery shopping. Nothing exciting or new... ME went to her Irish Step dance class again after school. MK's German tutor is still on vacation so she will resume those lessons next week.

Tuesday January 8

Same old, same old... :) I'm enjoying the rhythm of the days again. It's cloudy and misty but not terribly cold. The days have a certain calming boring-ness again. I don't mind.

Wednesday January 9

MK is plowing through the Madeleine L'Engle books that I loved at this age. She's finished some of the stand alone novellas (And Both Were Young, Camilla), and is not chowing down on the Austin's series. I think she's already on the 3rd one. Thank goodness for my Kindle! When she finishes one, she just asks if she can order the next.

Went to my running group again and our trainer put us through a new strength circuit he'd created. He timed us individually and in a month or so we'll do it again and see if our times improve. We had to take the outline home so we can repeat it there. Homework! Also found out that we'll be going for a long run on Saturday and we should plan to be gone for 3 hours! Wonder what he has in store...

Thursday January 10

GE stayed home. She keeps complaining of her ear hurting but she has no fever and no other cold symptoms. I wonder if there is still fluid and pressure the cold she had while we were in Switzerland. She's happy to put the little microwavable heating pad on her ear for a few minutes and then is off and running again. In any case, she seemed happy to have a "down" day with me. J stayed with her for an hour in the a.m. so I could run to the store.

Went to choir practice in the evening and as it was the first rehearsal of the month, folks stayed afterwards for their "Gemütlichkeit" time (wine, snacks, chatting). I always love these evenings. It has definitely been a large part of what has helped us feel more integrated into the church community since on Sunday mornings people don't always hang around to chat.

Friday January 11

 Noticed this morning that it's starting to be light again at 8 a.m.! Woohoo, the days are getting longer. I'm ready for more light. I've been lighting gobs (current count: 10) of candles around the living room, kitchen and dining room during the morning and evening hours when it's dark so early.

Not quite the same, but I realized after we took down the Christmas candles and tree lights, that it was too depressing without some more warm, natural light! My little teapot stove is going pretty much all day too!

Mid-afternoon I took GE and HR over to the house of one of HR's classmates to play. The classmate, FA, has a little sister who is GE's age and her mom is in my running group. HR and I had made Rice Krispie Treats from a kit a friend from church had sent us and we took some along to share. Enjoyed a little social time and of course, helped the girls start to get know each other a bit better. As usual, they didn't hit their stride until just before it was time to go. So, we'll just have to do it again soon.

At 6 our babysitter arrived so that J and I could have a date night. I'd been eying a particular Afghan restaurant, Zafran, in Bad Godesberg. So, we rode our bikes there and got a table. The food was served buffet style so we got to try several different dishes. Favorites were the lentil soup and the spiced (but not hot) spinach dish. We'll definitely be returning! The food was amazing!

Saturday January 12

At 9 a.m. I met up with the running group. It's cold! Not supposed to be above freezing for several days, but the sky was clear and the sun was up. We all dressed with layers, gloves, and hats or earmuffs. HW, the trainer, led us through one of the back streets and up into the woods near our house. Then we did a long snaking route through the Kottenforst woods to Meckenheim where we took a break at the Waldgaststätte Bahnhof Kottenforst for warm drinks, hot soup and bread. Then we took a more direct way back. In total: 22,78 km in about 2.5 hours (not counting the break)! That's nearly the distance I'll run in April for the 1/2 marathon (23 km) in Bonn, so feeling pretty confident about that race now.

GE still complaining about her ear and she was cranky so we both took a nap in the afternoon. In the evening, we were invited to ME's friend, YK's house for some Russian tee and cake (this is the friend that ME goes to the Irish Step class with). Enjoyed a couple hours of visiting with YK's parents who are from Siberia. The father works for the Deutsche Telekom and was offered a transfer position in Bonn about 4 years ago. So ME's friend has been in the German school system since she entered 1st grade. Her older brother goes to Gymnasium and is also now fluent in German, Russian, and speaks very good English. The father works in English and the mother speaks pretty decent German and understands English, so we used a sometimes confusing combination of English and German to converse! I'd already had a chance to visit several times with the mother, VK, while we waited for the girls to finish with their Irish Step Dance class, but it was fun to hear about their cultural adjustments and make some observations/comparisons to our experience. We left around 9 and ME stayed to spend the night.

Sunday January 13

Slept late and skipped church (1. GE still cranky and complaining of her ear but no fever or other symptoms and it comes and goes, 2. I'm wiped from that run yesterday!, 3. no Kinderbetreuung (child care or children's service) ). ME came home after lunch. It's gloriously sunny and still bitterly cold, but I bundled up the little girls and took them out on the sidewalk for some scootering/biking while the sun was at its peak. Had to bribe them inside with hot chocolate when I started getting cold myself!  Around 3:30 ME's friend JH came over and they made another batch of Rice Krispie Treats together with the last of the kit. Tomorrow the elementary school is closed for a teacher work day, so JH is spending the night. I got some children's Ibuprofen from our neighbor for GE and hope she sleeps a little better tonight.