Outdoor Friends

It's amazing to me, despite the strong, still silence that usually seems to accompany the snow, how much life, sound, and activity is going on even with the cold,wintery blanket. With having snow that has stayed for so long now, we have made sure to have our bird feeders fully stocked for our flying friends that might otherwise have a few of their favorite snacks buried at the moment. I have very much missed our pheasants that seemed to have wondered into our backyard quite frequently last year. This year only one lone pheasant found his way back. But to my surprise, we had an early visitor for Easter this year... "Mr. Hare". I guess I would generally have the tendency to apply the term "rabbit"...

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Finish What You Started

I've learned the hard way, that when I am not feeling creative or inspired to work on a project, it is best just to let it sit. So many times I have started something, and then gotten distracted or even lost the inspiration to finish what I started, only to end up with a big mess on my hands because I tried to force myself to finish it. That's the problem with being creative... sometimes it just comes and goes. And when it goes... it's gone.I actually started this last year in July... and even then it had been sitting on my desk for a while. I don't know why I started it, or who I had intended to make it for, but I could imagine that having really bad "morning sickness" (that actually lasted...

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What's in a Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I daresay that there are few that are not familiar with this famous quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet... Juliet's effort to address the fact that it is more important what something actually is and not what it is called. The statement of course, holds a profound truth to it, but right now the question has been for us... what IS in a name? As the time draws closer and closer, the fact still remains that we are not 100% settled on a name for the baby. We have had a boy's first name pretty much since the very beginning, but only just this last week did we find a middle name that we liked... and now "plan...

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Pink or Blue?

It's hard to move to another country and not immediately recognize subtle little differences between the two cultures, that most people living in that country would just consider to be so commonplace that they don't realize it as a difference at all. For instance, I can remember growing up having seen egg cup holders, but I had never actually used one until I moved to Germany. My husband's grandmother is still totally perplexed at how one would eat eggs without one, but I assure her that thousands of homes all over the U.S. do it everyday... maybe because we eat more fried (spiegelei) and scrambled eggs than hard boiled eggs for breakfast.I also don't think I have ever been to a home in Germany...

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True Love

As an expecting mother, one is always flooded with a wide mix of emotions. I believe that it was specifically designed that we have 9 months to sort these emotions through and process in our own time the reality and the significance of what is about to happen... anything shorter (even though my tummy is telling me something else) is simply not enough time. There are some women that seem to have been created, destined if you will, since the beginning of time to be a mommy... everyone knows at least one of these sweet, patient, selfless, sunshine women who love and adore children, and despite what trouble the kids might cause, always seem to react to in the same consistent, calm manner that reminds...

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More Than Ever

A friend recently told my husband that when she became a mother that she had so much love for this new "little one" that it made her feel as if she had never loved before... wow, what a staggering thought that there will be more love in my heart than I have ever felt before.Happy "early" Valentine's Day, baby... our hearts are rea...

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Still Distracted

So we have just about four weeks until baby is here... diaper bag can wait, right? From the "professional procrastinator", just another quick little distraction... Last spring when we flew home I discovered in the "international magazine" section (well, that's international flying from this direction) a wonderful publication by the folks at Quilting Arts, a magazine called "Stitch"... and I couldn't be more in love. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from cover to cover and this one definitely gets added to my "keepers" stack of magazines. There were great articles and fantastic project ideas to really spark one's imagination... and keep one very distracted from other things.... Here is my version...

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Anticipation

As the sun crept into my office last week, I have to say that my heart was filled with a small hope that the endless barrage of snow and ice that we have been experiencing would soon have it's end. I have to admit that for the three years that I have lived in Northern Germany, I have been inwardly annoyed when it would start to snow, only to stop 30 minutes later or melt as soon as it hit the ground. It was reminiscing about feet high snow from my beloved West Virginia mountains that sparked the childlike excitement in me, only to be disappointed that it had left as soon as it had come. But like anything, too much of a good thing is, well,... just too much. We had snow almost the whole time...

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Drumroll, please...

It really is true what they say... "it's the thought that counts". I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone's comments this week about all the well thought out and heartfelt gifts that have come your way, but I suppose you don't want to hear too many more ramblings of how many smiles have come to my face reading your comments so...."Es sind die Gedanken, die zählen". An dieses alte Sprichwort wurde ich in der vergangenen Woche häufig erinnert. Es hat mir sehr viel Freude bereitet, die vielen Kommentare über rührende und gedankenvolle Geschenke zu lesen, die Ihr hier in den letzten Tagen hinterlassen habt. Und übrigens an meine deutschen Leser... bitte macht weiter so und schreibt Eure Kommentare...

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Humph, two, three, four...

Think back for a moment with me to the days that you were in school... what kind of student were you? When the teacher had given an assignment, did you rush home immediately after school to complete it as quickly as possible so you could have the rest of your evening free? Or were you the type that would come home, get distracted by this or that, putter around, find every excuse in the world to start your assignment later, only to be driven by the pressure of completing the assignment at the last minute? I reluctantly admit that I am the latter of the two. For some reason it is that "pressure" that the last-minute procrastinator feels that drives me to do better work. Sometimes I really do try...

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