It's Fall - check out our fall table!

Chestnut Fun

We got sooo many. All week it's been the big "thing" to play with. We count them, we sort them by size, we put them on the couch, in the bathtub, on the floor, we made fall decoration... simple and so beautiful! Truely my style of playing...

I hope you like jammin' too

I couldn't resist the title.
It's been lively here the last few weeks. Warm. Not raining. Sunny, even. And that's saying a lot since we live in this "Pacific Northwest" part of the country known for its wetness.
But, all that rain brings loads of berries. They literally grow as weeds here; taking over everything else that tries to grow. Luckily, we found a good way to utilize these fruitful weeds here. These days, our freezer is chock full of Ziploc freezer bags full of blackberries. (I know, you love them, too).
Today, I canned. In two hours I did two batches of jam. The first one was strawberry jam (I thought we were all out. Right after I resolved lamenting, I found two freezer bags full of strawberries just begging to be turned to jam.)
I grew up thinking that canning was this mysterious and difficult process. My mom wasn't geared toward kitchen projects, though she is a thoughtful and talented homemaker. So, to me, I feel like I'm doing something that is new and productive. I like the feeling of preserving an otherwise very perishable delicate fine fruit.
On one occasion in the last few weeks, we picked a big box of berries. We carried on throughout the day doing our park playtime, dinner, bath, bed routine and by the time I peeked on the berries at night, the top layer had already began to get fuzzy from mold.
I digress.
Here you have it, Sister. It's what's for dinner. : )



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Weißt du, wie der Sommer riecht?

Crashed after Kindergarten!

My baby just crashed in the car after our little shopping trip. I had a hard time carrying her Kindergarten stuff, my work stuff, our bought stuff etc. - and her upstairs. Uff! She's not supposed to take naps during the day (usually she doesn't want to either, it's not like I'm intentionally keeping her awake!). If she naps only 10 minutes during the day, we have trouble when going to bed at night. Usually it's 1 or 2 hours later than usual at night. Which drives me crazy! That's the reason we stay home during the day or just walk places - bc in the car she'll fall asleep 100%... it also happened in the backseat of my bike recently, which means we can't go anywhere by bike either.

By the way, she's wearing her new "working overalls" ("Schaff-Hos" the kids call them) from Engelhard Strauss. Other Kindergarten parents had recommended them and we all ordered together. They're said to be unbreakable! 15 Euros well invested - I hope so.

We also have chicken!

I just saved 35 Euros buying wood animals at the Ostheimer Outlet near us. A real treat. The shop experience was wonderful - being surrounded by soooo many handcrafted wood animals. The best impression was looking at about 50 baby Jesus' in one row. We had a hard time choosing. Originally we only wanted to get a gift for a friend's 4th birthday. L had also already gotten some for christmas. Then she fell in love with a tree! Which I am so happy about, bc my Mom used to have such a tree when I was a kid (I'm still mad at her for throwing it out or whatever happened with it). So it was a good "excuse" for getting our own. Since most of the items were half price off, I found myself also buying some really small animals for the tree - a squirrel, a bird, an owl and a little mouse. Most of them were about 5 Euros each. Still a lot, but so worth it, considering they're all handmade and everlasting.

Since L has about all the toys she "needs" until she's 10, I'd recommend everyone to add to the animal farm (preferrably animals from our real life experience), if anyone wants to get her a little gift (hello Grandparents, Daddy & Co!).