IrishOboe

Dear Readers,

I have been getting so many spam comments that I have decided to turn on comment moderation.  Once you have been approved your comments should show up right away, but until your first comment since this post has been approved there will be a delay until I can get to the computer and sort through comments.  Thanks for your understanding.

Things I’m thankful for in no particular order:

1. Halloween candy (and the thoughtful people that made it possible for me to have some!)
2. The tickler, and how I can use it to carefully tuck away encouraging notes from friends and have them pop up at random times, yet they always seem to pop up at just the right time.  It’s thoughtfulness and love multiplied all over!
3. Friendly strangers
4. People who model Christ’s love by seeking out ways to serve others.  Someone from church called and offered to take Joseph for a walk so I could have some time to myself before the baby comes.  What a thoughtful gift when we are so new at the church!
5. Homemade caramel sauce
6. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matt. 19:26
7. Family walks

Things I’m thankful for in no particular order:

1. Time off and the people who make it possible
2. Daily family prayer and Bible reading time lead by my husband and loved by our toddler
3. Coffee
4. Candlelit nights
5. The babymoon: this time around I am treasuring each moment alone; each time I want to do something and I have two free hands and there’s nobody in the way of doing it; each time I sleep 5 hours at a stretch; the moments alone with my husband; moments at the pool where I can swim because Joseph needs only eyes watching and no longer an ever-present hand; etc. etc.
6. Shelter, heat, yummy food, and a soft bed where I can lie down with my family and feel safe
7. Baths

Things I’m thankful for in no particular order:

1. “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench.”  Isaiah 42:3
2. A husband who listens well
3. A communicating toddler, alive and well at 16^th months today!
4. A healthy baby, alive and kick’n
5. A clean house
6. Grandparents who delight in their grandkids
7. The end of the drilling project 5 meters from our front door

Sorry it’s been over a month since I’ve blogged.  Needless to say, it’s been busy.

June 15^th: Our little boy has turned into quite a climber.  He climbed onto our blue couches all by himself.  He is an able climber, and I might say a good deal less cautious than he is when standing, especially if you’re holding him.  It’s as though he knows you’ll keep him safe so he can push of whatever footholds his little feet find.  He also just loves to watch me brush my teeth.  He thinks it’s so funny.  Thankfully he doesn’t mind it when we brush his either.

June 23^rd : Climbing with a vengeance all over the beds and every bit of furniture he can reach.

June 26^th: Joseph started to stack blocks on top of each other and often successfully, though with the flattest side of the blocks.  He’s started to help me put away his toys when asked.  He’s gotten better and better, though he still gets distracted sometimes and wants to play more rather than just put things away.

June 27^th I gave Joseph his first hair cut.  It was so long over his ears and at the back of his head.  I was cautious, so I didn’t do too much, but it still looks funny over his ears.  I had him watch Pimsleur DVD’s but he still got annoyed with me messing with his head for so long.  Hopefully I’ll get better each time!  Today he was willing to stand alone for me if I was right there to catch him.  How exciting!  I thought maybe he’d walk on his birthday, haha . . .

June 28^th Joseph turned one year old.  We had a special family day where I took him to the pool and let him do whatever he wanted and stay as long as he wanted and in the evening we all went to the park.  In the afternoon we went to a friend’s birthday party who was born on the same day he was!  When he first arrived he planted him a tackle kiss!  The 1-year-olds had fun together and also with the older children.  He loved having all that attention and was in a great mood.  I should make a mental note that when he’s given enough attention he’s calm and happy . . .

June 29^th I wanted to make up for not getting much work done the day before because I was focusing on Joseph and it was a bad day for him!  From so much attention to so little, poor guy.

June 30^th We went to the new doctor in Emmen and praise God I am quite comfortable with her.  Finding pediatricians in the Luzern area is difficult because there aren’t enough.  Joseph got a clean bill of health weighing in at 10.6Kg, 75cm.  He’s only gained 1.35Kg since he was 6 months (that’s about 3 pounds).  He still has chunky legs and arms, but looks rather trim, especially in his birthday suit compared to what he used to be like.  Joseph was able to put small beads into a small-necked bottle, which I hadn’t tried him on before.  He transferred on bead from his left hand to his right and put all the beads in with his right hand.  He always throws balls with his right hand, too.  He did well taking the MMR shot.  In general he didn’t do what the doctor wanted him to right away, he was always interested in his own play.  Instead of pushing the car back and forth (which he’s done from a few months of age with his musical car) he was more interested in putting the little person in and out of the car.  It took a while before he banged two objects together when she asked, even though he’s done that for a while, too.  He can do a lot, but he does what he wants!

July 1^st we had a family birthday party for Joseph.  I set the timer and had names in a hat so that each person got 10 minutes of focused time with Joseph.  It worked well and Joseph loved it!  He enjoyed opening his presents and making a mess of his corn bread cake.  I hadn’t thought that it’s worth doing much for a 1^st birthday, but it was good for us all to mark the event and enjoy him.  I’m glad we did and I’m glad we have some family nearby to celebrate with us!

July 3^rd Joseph took three steps alone toward me!  Later that day he did 6, but that hasn’t been repeated.  Mommy and Daddy are more interested in him walking than he is!

July 6^th Joseph uses the word “hot” frequently and for a few things: hot things, forbidden things, things that have been hot in the past (left over potatoes from the fridge).  He’s good at letting his food cool before touching and eating it.  And speaking of eating, he loves it, especially veggies and fruit . . .

July 14^th I first noticed that he can catch a ball that I’ve thrown to him such that it bounces at the floor near him and back up in the air where he catches it.  I find that quite impressive!  He can do it often, though not all the time.  There’s a video of it now, but you’ll have to wait because Daddy just posted a bunch.

In the family news we’ve had US guests, a wedding where we both had important roles, another wedding where we could just enjoy it.  Joseph found himself on a grassy gentle slope but was too cautious to crawl down it – he scooted backward the whole way as he would going down stairs!  The garden has turned into a jungle.  I harvested a ton of weeds this weekend.  There wasn’t a trace of lettuce, carrots, zucchini, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, or onion.  I had thought all the sprouts looked alike so I was afraid to weed until I could tell, hence the forest.  It turns out they all looked alike because they were all weeds . . .  The corn grew well from seed and is doing fine.  We had a hail storm before I put up stakes for my transplanted tomatoes, but I tried to save them, we’ll see!

Some days everything seems to go wrong and other days everything seems to line up.  Most days are a bit in between, but here is an account of one day to give you (and my future self) a glimpse into daily life here in our new home in Emmen.

6am Stephan’s alarm goes off. I’m already awake because Joseph needed a snack.  He just want back to sleep so I do too.

6:15am get up and follow my morning routine:

Get dressed. Do a quick sweep of the floors. Process my physical inbox for five minutes. Water the plants.  See the chives, marjoram and tomato grow!!!

10 minutes of “nesting” or making the house a bit nicer than it was the day before, today I wiped the coffee table, de-cluttered the window sill and arranged the candles there, found a home for some oversized sheet music that had been sitting around since the move, etc.

6:45am Joseph wakes up.  I drop what I’m doing (nesting) and greet him.  He pees on the potty.  We dump it in the toilet together and play a little.  I get us breakfast.  Today he ate two little slices of bread and three scoops of yogurt.  I had toast.  I wipe up the high chair and table and notice Joseph grunting so I put him on the pot.  Success!  For some reason he also grunts before having to pee.  We take care of the pee, say goodbye to Daddy as he goes off to work, I do the dishes and we play a little together and nurse (I don’t remember how often we play and nurse but it’s here and there and whenever).  I finish my morning routine:

Open all windows to air out apartment (so humidity doesn’t get high enough for mold to continue to grow)

“Swish and Swipe” bathroom (wipe surfaces and toilet, brush toilet bowl) – 4min

8:30ish I start to work on my “important daily cards” where I alternate 10 or so minutes on a task with 10 or so minutes of focused play with Joseph.  This morning practice was first up so I got out my harp and worked on adjusting the bray pins until Joseph crawled over to me and I gave him a little harp lesson.  He loves the harp.  I’m trying to teach him to be gentle.  He actually seems to have learned a bit how to be gentle and has a better plucking technique than he did before.  It used to be the “grab five strings and pull with all your might never releasing the fingers” and now it’s “grab one to three strings and pull sometimes releasing the fingers and making a nice sound.”  I call the improvement, especially since he’s only had three lessons.  What a smart kid!  I tell him he can’t bother me while I’m practicing (it’s only 10 minutes!) and he listens until I’m almost done then when he comes to grab the strings while I’m doing a run-through of a piece I tell him “no” while I’m playing (that takes brain power!) and he starts crying.  Fortunately I’m at the end of my practice session and we can make up.  Total time the harp is out: 15 minutes.  Not up to conservatory standards but I’ve learned how to make the most of the minutes I have.

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Things have been plenty busy around here with several trips to Basel for rehearsals and other commitments but it’s been a week since my last post so here’s a little more for you.

Stephan has been coming home for lunch, which we’ve made the made meal of the day.  It’s lovely to share every meal with him, though it takes quite a bit of time to prepare and to clean up on my own with Joseph.  In general, I’ve been pleased with my progress of figuring out how to keep house without taking too much time so I can be there for my family.  Joseph is enjoying the extra space and can crawl quite fast now.  He loves people and will happily go to and play with anyone who smiles at him.  This is quite a hit on the trains.  If someone doesn’t look at him, he coos and smiles at them until they do.  He expects the attention and loves it.  Of course, Mommy has to be near by and when he wants me nobody else will do, but it is nice that he doesn’t need me all the time.  He’s spent a number of hours with Grossmutti away from me and has done just fine, so maybe we’re coming up to the time when I can have an evening off and go out somewhere.  Who knows!

March 27^th Joseph surprised us by moving from the seated position on the train to scooting backwards onto the floor.  It was very smooth and deliberate, but it still must have been half luck because he’s not usually that intentional about getting down off sofas and beds, though he’s getting better!

What’s also surprising to me is Joseph’s third word (after “Mama” and “Bappe”).  When he’s unhappy about something he whines “nei nei nei nei nei” which is pronounced like the German word “nein” meaning no.  His mother tongue is English, but so far all three words he speaks are more Swiss German than English!

We’re enjoying beautiful spring weather here.  I hung some laundry up outside yesterday and wild flowers and blooming and birds are singing.  It’s easy to be in a good mood!  (Disclaimer: That doesn’t stop me from getting frustrated when Joseph is too much, but I’m learning to be more and more patient.)

I've been a bit out of the homeschooling scene for a while, so I newly discovered that there are materials for doing Montessori at home.  Here's a link if you're interested. 

Having found that beets overwhelm any vegetable soup I looked for expert help when we received beets again in our vegetable coop.  I turned to a cookbook by Jamie Oliver that Stephan had before we married and we both found the result so delightful that we ate the whole beet in one meal despite the fact that the rest of the meal was a very tasty hunk of beef.  I don’t feel right publishing the recipe in full, but I’ll advertise his cookbook and give you a hint.  It’s The Return of the Naked Chef (Kochen für Freunde in German) and the idea is simple: bake the beets in tin foil with a secret green, a bunch of smashed garlic, and a good bit of balsamic vinegar.  It’s tender and tasty and goes down easily!  Plus, it’s super easy to make.  I’m not sure I’ll ever do anything else with my beets again.

We're forced to be that way!  At least until spellcheck came along.

Quite a few months ago I made yet another attempt at getting my life organized and while looking online for the best filing system I read about Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It intrigued me and after reading the summary on Wikipedia I thought the ideas worth a try.  I implemented a few and it all but revolutionized my life.  I’m talking big life changes such as always having a clean desk as opposed to always having stacks of unorganized papers collecting – and it was so easy!  I’ve been trying my whole life to keep a clean desk, so this was major for me.  I annoyed all my friends talking about how wonderful and amazing it was.  So with all the excitement over results I figured I’d better get the book and read the whole thing.  It turns out the university business library has it, so I got it out of the library.
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More pictures here.  You’ll need a login: it’s a popular TV series about six adults in an apartment and the instrument Janet got her degree in. Capitalize the first letters.

If that’s unclear, e-mail me.

Since my first bold move in the middle of high school, I’ve grown my hair long and donated the ponytail four times to Locks of Love.  My hair grows fast and it’s become a given that I use the growth by sharing with those who can’t grow their own.  I even cut my hair a few months before my wedding even though I wanted an up-do because the time was due.  That was the summer of 2008 and I cut the minimum possible to meet the 10 inch requirement in hopes of it growing out enough for a nice do at my wedding (which I’m happy to say worked wonderfully).  Now, only two years later my hair was long enough to donate again and with the hot summer months ahead with a newborn I decided it was time for another big cut.  I went for the shortest style since my boy cut (which never worked) and I’m quite happy with it.  Plus it yielded a 15 inch ponytail for this, my fifth donation!

Before

After

On Saturday my lovely brother-in-law got married to the lovely Ana and we had a splendid celebration for them.  Part of the festivities included the most delectable warm chocolate cake served with sour-cream ice cream.  I liked it and its gooey center so much I bought the Zurich region cookbook that includes the recipe.  Yesterday I attempted it with less than ideal precision and this was the tasty, if not shapely result.  Yes, there are more important things to post about but this is the photo that Stephan sent of a small size and all the other events are still in high resolution which is hurdle enough to warrant procrastination . . .

We’d been thinking about it for quite some time, but we finally acted and we couldn’t be happier.  Take a look at our new baby! (More)