Well hello, hello and hello again to you all! So nice to have you here. I can happily report that my antibiotic days are over and my tonsillitis has made a full retreat. Thank goodness! I hope that you are staying healthy as the season is changing over at this time of year.
For me here in the
northern hemisphere we are drifting through spring, hopefully progressing
towards a very warm, sun-filled summer. Which in our part of Germany is certainly
not guaranteed! I know of at least one summer since I arrived here that not one
single day was over 30°C (86°F). Which for an Australian girl like me was essentially
an oxymoron in the definition of summer.
There are 2 big things
that I really enjoy about May in the northern hemisphere. The first is that
Spring is in full swing (hey, that rhymes!). And the second is that my birthday
is coming up! What’s not to love about Spring flowers and birthdays? Wouldn’t
you agree?!?
Hello everybody! Good
to have you here! Many countries around the world celebrated Easter last
weekend and most children have been home from school for a week or 2. Did you
have a nice Easter? If you have children, have you all been busy enjoying the
school holidays? Got any chocolate left? 😉
Our holidays have been pretty good. I wrote last week about (amongst other things) the almost non-stop entertainment our daughters were enjoying. What, between cooking classes and church groups and parties and sleepovers, I hardly saw them at all in the week leading up to Easter!
Our Easter weekend itself
was lovely. Plenty of gloriously warm sun and blue skies, making the outdoor
Easter egg hunt an urgent affair. Take too long to look for your eggs and you
would have ended up with a basket of hot chocolate! We went a-visiting (to my
mother-in-law) for a couple of days and then back home received our own visitors
(from my Australian family) for a couple of days. A perfect weekend all round,
if I do say so myself!
Happy Easter message c/o Miss 10.
Remember how I had been
fantasising about enjoying some good quality dark chocolate (which I did indeed
receive 😉) and a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc? Yes? Just
one stumbling block though…
(Why You Should be Excited about School Holidays Too)
Hello everyone! Sorry
that I was MIA last week. I was feeling out of sorts for a couple of days, with
all sorts of weird aches and pains (ever had aches in your knuckles?!?) but
kept on carrying on (as you do). And then I realised I had a fever. Urgh. But,
here I am again, ready to regale you with more fun and wit!
Lucky for me, I followed my own advice and did indeed meet up with some girlfriends. As always it was lovely to see them. In the evening even (like real adults do 😉), sans-children! There is something heavenly about being able to relax, and speak openly and without interruption for a couple of hours with friends while chilling on the sofa. No, there was no alcohol (Remember, Lent!). But yes, there was chocolate 😉.
Not only that, but I
also had the joy of meeting up with 2 other friends since then for dinner. It
never rains but it pours, as they say! It can be months between going out with
any of these ladies and then bam! Two dinners with girlfriends in two weeks.
Love it!
Hi Folks! I had been intending on writing a lovely post this week about the fun of school holidays. The problem is, that I am not having fun. I am sick. Fever, exhaustion, aches and all.
Hope you have had a great weekend wherever you are. See you next week! (Sorry)
Hi there! How has your week been? Did you try out those sewing instructions I shared last week? How did it go? Our week here has been a bit of a mixed bag. Master 5 has a nasty cold which has left him with a mild temperature, a few meltdowns and a helluva lot of snot. Our ambitions to tidy our household a’la KonMari have temporarily stalled. Hello! Lack of time! BUT we did make a trip to IKEA and stocked up on approximately 1000 storage tubs to assist us as we sort through the rumble that exists in a few corners of our house.
One thing that I have been getting excited about this coming week is an upcoming girls’ night. Huzzah! Catching up with friends is one thing that I DEFINITELY wish would happen more often. If only it could happy more often. Once again: Hello! Lack of time!
One of the lovely
ladies I am actually meeting up with recently came across an article (in a German
magazine) about why women should meet up with their friends more often. And
since I, of course, agree 100%, I thought I would look into this some more and
share some thoughts with you all today.
I mean, what could be
better than being told that you SHOULD go out with friends more often?!?
How are you going? Have
you had a great week? Me? I’m doing OK. The weather is trying to improve- hooray
for sun!- and my kids complained their way through the one *sweltering* 20°C (68F) day we had. I also had to chase up my
doctor the other day to find out why my knee was still hurting. Turns out I may
just have myself a torn ligament. So it’s off for an MRI next week for me. Oh
yay. Wish me luck folks!
But for now, I get to focus on something else. I get to enjoy some time to myself. Alone. And that makes me just a little bit immensely excited and happy like a bouncy little puppy dog.
Let me start by saying:
I love my husband and I love my kids. A lot.
I also love time spent
alone. This is not the same as being lonely. That for me is a state of feeling
sad because nobody is around. But sometimes I CRAVE time alone. I want a quiet
house. I want the house to stay as tidy as it was this morning. An hour ago.
Heck, even 10 minutes ago!
I want the chance to do
whatever I want. If that means tidying up without interruption or turning
around to discover a brand new mess, so be it. If that means dancing around my
kitchen to will.i.am, then bring on the dance party! Maybe I’d nap, or catch up
on some reading while sitting outside in the sunshine, or lose myself in
Pintrest, or drink a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, or start sewing new
clothes for my kids, or cook up a meal of linguine with prawns (that would be
“shrimp” for you North Americans 😉) that I know no one else in my family would dare let
pass their lips, or… I’m getting dizzy just fantasising about the
possibilities! *sigh*
You see, we mums are
NOT robots that can function caring for our families eternally, without pausing
to care for ourselves. It does NOT mean we love our families less, or are
neglecting them. But there are only 24 hours in a day. And if all your waking
hours are spent caring for, cooking for and feeding, transporting, disciplining
and entertaining your kids, there is not a moment left to care for YOURSELF.
And if you don’t look after yourself, who will?
Yo what up peeps? Er…
nah. Just kidding. Totally doesn’t work for me.
*starts typing again*
Hey! How are you going?
What’s been happening for you this past week? Me? I have been getting excited
about tidying. Yes folks, you read it here first! I did indeed say that I was
getting excited. About tidying. More
specifically, decluttering.
If you are anything
like me, when you look around a disorderly, cluttered room, it weighs down on
you. It all just feels so… much. I literally
feel my shoulders sag. My mood sinks. I sigh. My stress and frustration levels
rise as I think of how I wish the room would be. Less stuff. Tidier. Cleaner.
How I wish everyone in the house was as bothered by the clutter as I am and inspired
enough to do something about it. But alas…
So I have told myself, enough is enough. This family of 5 is getting it’s house into shape. And everyone is going to have to play their part if we are all to enjoy a more relaxed household and a more chilled Mama 😉.
Therefore, let the organising
begin! Come join in the fun of Jenny decluttering and read about this in-home adventure!
Welcome back to
Everything’s Famtastic! How has your first week of March been? I have to say
that here the weather has been disappointingly lousy. Far too much wind and
unpredictable rain. Lucky today won’t be like that. Today is all but guaranteed
to rain allll day long. See? No uncertainty. Silver lining! LOL.
In my last post I talked about getting ready for the annual Karneval parade. Did you also have the chance to celebrate Karneval? Which city were you in? Was it your first time? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!
This is How We Celebrated Karneval
Our lovely little
family of 5 did go to town to see the parade. There had been murmurs of whether
the parade would even take place this year as the weather outlook (rain,
storm-force winds) was not looking promising. It did, of course, go ahead as planned.
This week hasn’t only been parties and fun. I have had a few frustrating situations bubble up. (For example, bung knee, anyone?) Setbacks, I guess you would call them. I need to figure out how best to deal with these so I can keep moving forward towards those goals I set for myself this year. It’s all in the mindset, right?
Anyway, yes, we went to
the Karneval parade and had a great time.
Hi there! How are
things in your part of the world lately? This past week in our corner of
Germany we have started seeing a change in the weather. Sure, this winter
hasn’t been too extreme. But it’s still been, you know, cold.
This week though? Amazing
colours at sunrise of golds, pinks, purples and blues. More sun and blue sky
throughout the day. We even had unseasonably warm temperatures hovering around
the mid-teens (that’s Celsius, for
you North American types!). The plants are covered in leaf buds. The early
bloomers like snowdrops and crocuses are on display. Some of the other bulbs
are heavy with flower buds waiting for the weather to warm up just that little bit more. Spring is definitely on
it’s way. Hallelujah!
However, the main excitement around these parts at the moment is Karneval. And by “around these parts” I mean in many regions of Germany and specifically the kids in our house 😉. The other week I even posted about how to sew a Hulk costume in time for Karneval this year. Karneval fever is well and truly alive!
But what? You haven’t
heard of Karneval?
I didn’t really elaborate too much in the last post, it’s true. Well, let me try to explain a little. Depending on how hardcore you are about it and whether you are in a Karneval club or not, Karneval may be seen as either:
a) only the big loud street parade that occurs in February or March and blocks off the city streets, or
Do you have sometimes have days when you feel overwhelmed by life? By your household? By your kids? C’mon, you can be honest here! Raise your hand!
**raises hand**
Of course everyone has tough days. Anyone who denies ever having a rough day (or week, or perhaps month) is kidding themselves and fooling no one. Life throws us lots of opportunities. And sometimes life just throws lemons. (yeah yeah, we’ve all heard it before, make lemonade, yada yada).
Anyway… when life at home with kids, or a partner, or a barnyard full of animals, seems gruelling, repetitive, thankless, boring, frustrating, uncontrollable- shall I stop now?!- it can all seem a little, well, too much.
What can you do? The #1
thing to remember: You are not alone!
Even in stress, you are not alone!
You are not the only one facing this crisis, this mood, this shitty day. Say it to yourself: “I am not alone”. Say it again. Say it a thousand times if you need to. Because it is true and you should believe it. What are the chances that
