Xmas 2012 Creative Summary

Our very first Christmas Tree!

Waldorf Table: Winter

Finished today... finally. Our winter scene! The table had been empty ever since Baby Jesus disappeared after Christmas. The current scene is after Elsa Beskow's "Olle's Reise zu König Winter". We love it! Even though spring time will be here soon already...

Fun, Fun, Fun

What a special moment. My big girl is trying to ski for the first time. It feels like my parents taught me how to ski just yesterday. And I was 3. Of course, she's not really skiing on her own yet, but she loves it and we rented real skiing boots, real skis and a helmet the next day. She loves it. Kept putting the boots and skis on in the living room all evening. Wow. My big girl. I'm one proud Mommy.

Fröhliche Adventszeit!

Germany's back!

Hey there Conovers and all our lovely readers! We're back! As you've probably noticed, as I've left quite some comments. ;) Yes, Jenn, I missed our blog. Thanks for posting so much! What a joy to get back online! And thanks for your detailled update. Yay, for the baby making part! I'm telling you, everything will work out fine at a time it's supposed to work out. Don't worry too much. You've done it once (and did a good job). You'll do it again. I'm so excited for you guys. Please keep sharing your thoughts (and results!)... I'm very willing to support you... emotionally I mean, I don't know what my role could look like physically... ;)

About our vacation: We had so much fun. What a time-out! Best weather, enough snow, quite some skiing and sledding, taking turns babysitting, taking turns doing the puzzles for the 100006th time, waking up to the smell of coffee and a set breakfast table every morning, barely having to think about cooking, barely having to wipe anything, not having to change every single (!) diaper myself, cake every afternoon, company (aka my parents) every night, not feeling guilty about watching TV every night and... and... and... we definitely enjoyed our slow winter days!



Vacation inspiration:

In the future not get stuck online so much with useless things (like browsing through Facebook-Photo-Albums of people I don't even know, or not finding an end to browsing sewing projects...), rather turn on the computer during nap time and not in the evening

Living offline was such a quality. I finished 4 little knitting projects (a matching scarf for Lenara's hat, a double layer for said hat to make it even warmer, a crochetted flower, socks for Maruun and a felt banana for Lenara's food basket and/or her stuffed monkey). And I really enjoyed watching TV again. I haven't really turned on the TV in quite a while. But it didn't feel like I have missed anything. All those old shows are still the same basically. It was good to enjoy for this amount of time, but I know I won't need to turn on the TV in the future (except for assorted shows or movies).

I'm thinking about getting an 8hrs/week job. I knew before that I will have a major money issue from February on, but I wasn't sure about having the energy to handle a real job. But imagine I won't turn on the computer nor the TV every night, this gives me a couple of extra hours, I could use for something useful - like making money (or sewing, I know). My Dad has some information about a possible job (inserting data into an online database). I've done it before as a summer job during Highschool times. It's boring, but easy. And most important: probably flexible enough that I could do it from home sometime during the week. My goal is to get more information about it and find out, if and how it could work. Still I think, 8 hours is a lot - considering I only have about 2 hours to myself every night and I also have to relax a bit to keep up my energy level (which is a real factor due to my history and single mom conditions). I know most working Moms would laugh at me, but 8 hrs without any extra babysitting (which I can't afford) is a big committment for me. Yet, I know I'll be thankful for every extra Euro and I know I'd feel better, if I earned a bit money on my own and slowly gain a feeling for the working world again (which I'm still so afraid of, I just don't get over this trauma, it's so frustrating). I came home very motivated.

Tonight - after day one of leading my own life again and being responsible for everything on my own (including my little girl) - I'm not quite as motivated anymore. It's 10:15 at night and I feel very very tired. I'm not close to having done everything I had on my personal list for tonight (doing laundry, calling a friend, checking our blog, uploading pictures, getting a to do list done for the upcoming week, checking my finances). If I was doing that/a job, I would still be working for another 15 minutes. And I would have not yet been able to organize ANYTHING of my personal life. That thought makes me sad. And confused: I feel like I don't have enough personal time even now. Yet, I need the money. What should I do? My Mom offered to take Lenara a couple of hours let's say every Wednesday afternoon. That would help get some working time in during the day. Yet, I feel like I don't have enough free/play time with Lenara myself even now. I mean, during the day I have to get done or organize so many other things at the same time (meals, cleaning, mail, important phone calls, grocery shopping), or she's at the day nanny's or we're at playgroup, or at the single parents meeting or we visit with some of our many family members, or we're at a playdate (basically my only occasion to be social, so usually we're trying to get some adult talk in, while entertaining the kids) - or she's at daddy's 3 days in a row. I enjoy the days, when I have nothing important on my list and we can just hang out all day long and see what the day has in store for us (interrupted by preparing meals of course, hard to skip that part) without having to worry about naps taken on time, being somewhere on time, getting into the car to go anywhere... those pure play moments, when I feel that magical close connection with my daughter are rare, or I should rather say very short moments spread over the day - which is clearly not the same. Getting back to my point, giving her away another afternoon for babysitting just feels like another time I'm losing her and having to split up our week in one more little piece. Yet, I know I'll "lose" her to Kindergarten at some point anyway. And many other Mom's are working by now and have their kids at daycare all week - so what am I complaining about? Am I holding on too much? Am I far far from reality? Am I a lazy a*** for trying to avoid work in order to spend quality time with my girl? Working at night when it doesn't affect any Mommy-Daughter-Interaction therefore seems like a good solution. Yet, I do worry about my own energy and my abililty to organize our personal life (not even talking about upholding those few attempts of following a hobby, like sewing i.e.), if I miss those evening hours. Yet, I need some money... duh! Frustrating!!!!

How did this post end this way? I was only going to post some nice holiday impressions...

Sewing Project List

David is going to be gone the whole weekend and I am going to enjoy it, no offense David!

I really have a hard time staying focussed when I sew. Basically, there are just so many things that I want to sew I get close to selecting the fabric or looking for a template and finding something else that I like more. Then, Olivia wakes up and I haven't got anything done.

So, my goal is to sew and hopefully finish something everyday this week (added Sunday night: it sooo never happened). I am really looking forward to this! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Woo hoo!!! Also, I am only going to use what I have.

Everything pictured is lovely and I also have a list: (It may not make sense, but I will have photos later of what I finish. I just love the way it feels to want to make something and to actually do it)

-Quiet book (this may take the whole weekend): buttons, snaps, finger puppets, pockets,
-Crayon roll (20 min)
one or all of the following:
House pillow (20 min)
Tree pillow
Bird pillow

-**Postcard set (3 hours...must purchase fabric paper to complete this one)
-DONE. Snack bags (10 min)
-baby and baby blanket (1 hour)
-place mats (30 min)
-fabric napkins (30 min)
-Simple dress below: (30 min)
-Corduroy dress below: (1 hour?)
-Drawstring bag for sweet little Olivia keepsakes: (1 hour...embroidery "O")

So, added up, I don't have enough time to do everything. But, I really want results.
Hmm...decisions, decisions!

(Note: added Tuesday: I am going to make something or work on something each night when Olivia goes to sleep. Tonight I am going to make the simple dress!

Friday:
Fabric Napkins (just to get the creative juices flowing) set of 4 minimum.
Snack bags (these are practical and I need them asap)
crayon roll/apron (this is going to be perfect for my niece!)

Saturday:
Corduroy dress!
House pillow

Sunday: Quiet book (I think I will add a zipper and buttoning page). This one is pretty simple. I want to have one to keep in my bag for when we get stuck in traffic or when we are sitting in a doctor's office or waiting area for a long time. Olivia is very patient, but it would be a fun thing for her in an unfun time! The tic tac toe is a little advanced for her but I think I might do a page to match. Like putting the green on the green, etc. Another page that I saw somewhere that I liked was a pocket with little finger puppets inside. So, below is just an inspiration. I do like that there are just a few colors used.






I may switch the Saturday and Sunday sewing projects. Ya, I have to write this all down, even that I am giving myself permission to switch, because that is how spay I get about routine. I really like knowing what is going to be expected (even from myself).

How cute and easy is this! Love it!





We use little snack bags like crazy and I don't like using plastic so I am going to make these.





This is sweet and simple...I love this. It just looks like our girls to me.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Winter Table Decoration

Since I took down the Christmas decoration, our table looked quite empty with only one "naked" candle. I wanted to do something about it, but didn't quite know yet what. I only wanted to keep the piece of wood and some candle (it's our tradition to light a candle for all meals). On our walk today our goal was to find a snail shell. The snow has gone now and it was extremely fun to stray around, look at all the things on the muddy ground, pick up some stuff, show each other, carry some along (Lenara was determined to carry home a big stone today. Every time she set it down, she made sure, to have it when leaving that place. Some time towards the end of our walk she must have realized that the effort of taking home a random stone - it wasn't even a pretty one - is too big. She left it on the street. I reminded her of the stone, just because I wasn't sure, if she did it on purpose or just forgot to take it along. The first time I asked her about the stone, she went back to get it. She did it another time. I asked her again and she replied "no, Mommy, leave stone" and she seemed very relieved. I thought that was quite interesting to follow her decision making.) Anyway, this was about my table decoration. We couldn't find any snail shells and I seriously started wondering, if there can be found any at all at this time of the year. I never paid attention to things like that. So we were close to giving up our search. But at one little yard - wow - suddenly hundreds of them! This might have been bc I had sent a wish to the universe (Law of Attraction) or just coincidence - but to us it seemed like a true miracle after we had spent so much time looking for only one. What a treasure we had found!

I didn't have any container to put them in, but I had an emergency diaper in my bag. So we put our 15+ snail shells in there to carry them home. Lenara thought that was weird. She kept starring at the diaper. Hehe.

So this is what our rest-of-winter-decoration ended up looking like: a new candle glass (with thready white transparent paper), some stones we had found at Lake Constance two summers ago (all with one white line) and some of our snail shells. I added a white line to them which matches the stones somewhat.




Please note our temperature thingy in the background. It's not an iPad (yet), but it's digital with radio communication! ;)

Sledding!