Hexennacht

I read in the PTO newsletter that tonight is "Witches Night", or Hexennacht in Germany. I also found it called Walpurgis Night in Wikipedia. It is described as a night where bonfires are built and good witches await the arrival of spring. The newsletter also warned of mischievous teens hiding objects outside your home (doormats, plants, trash bins, etc). Other pranks might be wrapping bushes in toilet paper or spraying shaving cream. Hmm..it sounds like a typical weekend night during my high school years (minus the bonfire). Arrival of spring and bonfires?---good, pranks on my house?----not so good. I hope our house isn't on the list.

I am looking forward to seeing what other events occur tonight. It seems similar to Halloween (without candy), and I love Halloween! I have seen an advertisement for a music concert in a local town, but I doubt we will go since it is a school night=early morning. Ugh. Next year I will be more prepared for this holiday. Also, I received an e-mail from a girl in a neighboring town telling me that they were having a May Fest in their town today with a May Pole and other activities. Yay!! We are going to try and swing by there after school. Hopefully we can catch some of the events!

I have another post that I had been working on, but current events come first! :) I was having a veeeerrrrry S-L-O-W laptop yesterday. We are talking it was taking about 3-5 minutes for each page to load-line-by-line. It was insane and I lost my patience. I re-booted, left it to "rest' for a while-no luck. It may have had something to do with an episode of "Lost" being downloaded---which I paused---and just now remembered---oops! The laptop seems to have recovered today--thanks for asking. I was concerned, too. You hate to see a good friend feeling down.

I think about this often

Allen and I attended a nice marriage conference about 6 years ago in Cambridge. It was a very relaxing weekend without kids, and it was nice to focus on us for a while. There were mini conferences and speakers throughout the day and I attended one for women with children. One of the messages from that speaker has always stuck with me. The speaker talked about daily things to pray about for your child. Okay, some were the obvious ones, but the one thought that keeps reoccurring is this:

Pray for your child's future spouse.

If you think about it, the partner for your children are out there somewhere in the world right now, and their experiences are shaping them and hopefully enriching them as a person. I pray that they are loved, and will love my children the way they deserve to be loved; I pray that they are being educated and will be able to offer the gifts associated with education to my child some day; and I pray that they are learning to live in a fun family environment so that they can experience raising a family with my children.

That is, after all, why we endure parenthood....so we can enjoy being a grandparent someday (and being exempt from the diaper changes!).

We had lots of family time today with a T-ball game, shopping, eating lunch outside, a "Pirate and Princess Party" at the Youth Center, and playing Wii sports. I wish for many more days like this for my kids.

Don't criticize the help

I am learning that when you ask for help from the kid crew......you can't always get the desired result........but I am thankful that it is done.

That is a little better. I think that we have way too many kid/plastic utensils. We even have the Halloween ghost and pumpkin forks and spoons in use! They are just too fun to toss in recycle. Who says that you can't celebrate every day?

And there's always the Quality Control Guy who destroys any progress that you have made unless it is completed to standard....or so he claims.

It was once a dream

When Allen and I were newlyweds and living in Abilene, we would walk in our neighborhood and stop by the ball fields and watch the football/baseball/soccer games being played. I liked to look around at the parents and admire the joy involved in watching their little ones enter the big world of sports.

I dreamed of the day when we would have a little boy out on the field playing sports.

Well, that day finally happened last weekend! Nick started playing T-ball and had his first game. They are called the "Hawks" and they have a cute "after-game" hawk cheer. It wasn't quite what I expected. It was a drizzly/rainy morning and we didn't sit on the bleachers as it was wet, and things were a little disorganized at the game. It was still heart-warming to see the kids hit the ball and just stand there; the whole team running toward the ball and watching it being thrown toward the general area of first base----who was missing a player at that moment; and completely missing the home base (um...that was our child, thank you). Nicholas also has decided to "bowl" the ball instead of throwing it overhanded.

It was a fun morning. Nicholas was so excited, even if he decided that he didn't like the number 6 after all. He was so tired that afternoon after the morning excitement. It was worth the hour it took to wipe off muddy shoes before getting in the van.

I noticed that we didn't get a good close-up. We'll get one at his Saturday game and add it later.Oh! And yes, both Ashlyn and Lauren have played T-ball and Coach pitch one season....but this had that same emotional effect of their first dance recitals......that feeling that you have always dreamed of this day.

Green

Paper or plastic, mom?

Ryan knows how to recycle. He has been doing much of his 3 years, and I think that is fabulous! We have lived in neighborhoods where recycle bins were collected bi-weekly for paper/plastic items, "brown waste" (grass clippings, cardboard, food, etc). The UK also had recycle bins in various areas for glass items that weren't collected from your home. This is what our recycle bin looks like on a good day. On a busy day...it runneth over. Allen grumbles about having to empty it so often....hmmm....maybe similar to my feelings about laundry.

Germany has a great recycling system. They distribute these "mullsackes"-biodegradable, I assume, and items are placed in the appropriate color bag for collection bi-weekly. Bags are bright blue, yellow, red, and clear. You must sort everything---candy wrappers, foil, paper, milk cartons, cans, glass, plastic, etc. They are pretty strict, also. Our neighbors accidentally put milk cartons in the trash collection bags---visibly. Those workers wouldn't collect their bags, and they were left with trash for two more weeks.

Now, that is rough! Ugh. It was a summer month, too.

We recycle almost everything-except diapers, some food waste, and that plastic bag with mushy zucchini that had been pushed in the back of the veggie crisper drawer. Blah. I just couldn't empty it out. That had to exit my hands ---asap.

Twice a year there is a heavy trash collection around the town. I almost took pictures of it, but was fearful of looking silly taking pictures of piles of stuff---really, really old and ugly stuff. We are talking about funky flower furniture, t.v.'s, etc. It looked like the 60's and 70's threw up. Thankfully, that stuff was collected several weeks ago and the town looks normal again. Here was an interesting article that I found about recycling here.....and another.

In celebration of Earth Day, we played outside most of the day. Hello Mr. Sunshine! We missed you (even though you were out for only a few hours!).

Here are some of the things we do to help our earth:

• I purchased the Clorox Greenworks-so far, so good! I often use vinegar with baking soda also. I ashamedly admit---I am a bleach-lovin' girl. Sometimes, you just can't beat it. A more environmentally friendly one? I will keep my eyes open.
• With daylight hours extending, we don't turn on lights as often. We have the energy efficient bulbs in several lamps. For $11.00 a bulb, we have bought a few. Anyway, they are 220v., so we can't use them when we move.
• We use our canvas bags at the stores. We get less "looks" after the commissary introduced green re-usable canvas bags. We are used to this bag issue. German stores usually don't provide bags without a cost, so we take our own. You see many people with a basket in stores also.
• We do have six cloth diapers that we occasionally use. They are from Bum Genius, and they grow with your baby. This is the only set we have needed since you can adjust the snaps for growth. Why I waited until the 5th one to use them-I don't know. The products were available-just not as readily or were very expensive to replace them with every 6 lb. gain.
• If possible, we park and walk to various stores. and locations. The less I have to buckle little ones, the better. Europe is much easier in this aspect. Communities are smaller and geared more toward walking (i.e nice sidewalks!). People have to pay more for gas and automobile taxes here. For some, a car is not always an option.
• On the occasional times we go to McDonald's, I try and tell them we don't need the extra packaging for the kid's meal. Why do we want a huge box, that will just be folded down (and recycled here) anyway? The food obviously doesn't remain in the box and my kids rarely look at it or do the activities.

I'm glad that my children are learning this valuable lesson earlier than some. I think it's important to think of things other than yourself. Happy Day Earth!

Oh yes, one day you will be mine

I was feeling domestic today and made some cookies. I don't know if it was the gloomy weather or a need for chocolate chip cookies, but I made them.

It is not an easy task when you consider that I have to carry the heavy transformer into the kitchen (and back), just to use my hand mixer. I have had a Hamilton Beach black hand mixer since I graduated from graduate school, when I cooked....hmmm...what did I need a mixer for in those single days? Maybe the infrequent use has allowed it to last so long! While using it, I started dreaming of this:

Behold, the mother of all mixers-the KitchenAid. I'm not sure if this is the exact color or not; maybe not the exact model, but the idea is the same. I have really wanted one of these for quite a while. I have considered the girly pink and purple colors; maybe a red one to match my blender? Or maybe a classic black or white? Blue would always fit in my kitchen....

The tiring mixing of butter cream frosting batches-easier; making my friend Shannon's fabulous creamy mashed potatoes for holidays-so creamy; attempting one of Carol's homemade cake recipes-easy.

The time is not right, but some day it will sit on my counter top. Right now I would not risk letting it run on a transformer and cause possible damage, nor do I have the counter space (only two!), but a girl can dream! For now, it sits patiently in my "saved" cart, in several colors :).

By the way, I used the cookie recommendation from For Better Or For Worse. Congrats for finally finding a successful recipe!

Six random things about me

It's time for some unfinished business. Rhea, from Word Tangle, has tagged me. She is a published author! She had a short story published in a magazine last year. Way to go! Check out her blog! Go on! She's a Texan, so you know she's friendly.

Admittedly, I have been a real slacker about this. Whenever I have visited her blog to copy exactly what I need to do, I get distracted and read, leave a comment and exit without copying the info. Oy. Must get my mind back on track.


The Rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry.

Let's see....six random things about me:


1. I bought a bag of yogurt Haribo candies at the Hela (a Lowe's type store) and they were so fabulous, that I ate.the.whole.bag.in.one.day. They have a liquid yogurt filling and are yummy fruit flavors. I can't believe that I admitted that-oh, the shame;oh ,the sugar rush....



2. I have the neatest Widget on my computer desktop right now! It's the Big Ben Clock that chimes every 15 minutes. I love it! It reminds me of London, but it is also an annoying reminder of how quickly time passes...and how much time I have spent on the computer.





3. I am reading about 4 different books right now. I have one by the bed, one downstairs, one in the car, and one in a bag that goes places with me. I am not close to finishing any of them yet-and they are now overdue by three days-and I still have about three other library books waiting to be started. What was I thinking!?! My husband will be getting a "nasty gram" reminder at work to tell me to return them (the library account is issued in the military member's name).That is the worst. It's like they are telling on me. Blah.





4. I am so behind on my scrap booking that it is beyond help. I have the first year of Ashlyn's life completed. She is now ten. I haven't even started pages for the other four kids. Oops. There is more time when I retire, right?





5. I watched "Batman" several times this week. You know, the late 1960's t.v. show with Adam West. It has the "Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman "song and the "bam", "bow", "wham" graphics when they were hit. It takes me back to my early childhood days. I loved watching that or "Speed Racer" in the morning. I also like to watch "The Batman" if I see it. It's the updated animated series. I say that Nick turned it on, but it was actually me. He he.





6. Two of my oldest friends went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico last week for a "Girl's Weekend" at a resort. They are not technically "old", but I have known Gabrielle since 8th grade when we sat next to each other in Mr. R's science class. She asked to borrow my brush since she had broken hers in half and given it to a guy she liked in New York. It sound silly now. We laugh because we have known each other more than half our lives. The other one, Carol, I have known since 10th grade, when we worked at Joske's (now Dillard's). Good times. I love them so much and was sad that I couldn't join them for some R&R. I do think that I deserve a holiday like that! No kids, relax, sleep, shop, girl talk, relax...I digress. I just couldn't justify two trans-Atlantic trips in several months. We are also planning to visit this summer (soon!). I hope that we can plan another trip like that someday with them . Sniff. Who wouldn't want to be relaxing in this setting?
Now, I tag:
Hilary, Betsy, Christine, Bethany, Melissa (get your blog online girl!), Angie (get a blog, you know you want to!) ....and anyone else who wants to participate! Just leave me a comment, so I can check out your "unimportant" info! :)