2015

Hi, long time no see,
eventhough i have not been active here, life has been extremly active to say the least!
2014 is done. It has been a good one but also one of the more challenging ones. I am sad that i did not make more time to really write down our every day happenings cause they come and go and before you know it is a new year and you only remember tiny snippets of it! not writing and feeling discontent in 2014 are definatley woven into eachother.
Instagram is a wonderful thing to catch some of those daily snippets but in the end I learned over the past year that I need a place to write again. So i decided to make 2015 count!
i have been thinking about my word for 2015 and i can't quite settle on one yet ! the general feeling of discontentment last year came from feelings like not spending enough quality time as a couple as a family and as an individual human being ,rushing through the day like a chased rabbit, too little down time and the general feeling of being exhausted! granted you cannot really avoid the last one once you have three littles but i want this feeling to change into a happy exhaustion instead of a grumpy one.also i think my feelings are triggered by the fact that i have not been home in so long( since before Fiona was born). I hope that 2015 is the year! I will try my hardest to make this happen, it will do me so good!
so my thoughts circle around: quality, joy, adventure!
make the things you do really count
happy 2015

Merry Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!!
loved our card this year !( will post about our Christmas photoshoot soon)

40 bags in 40 days

 

ok, so i saw this theme floating around the instagram hemisphere!
40 bags in 40 days!!!!!
check out this blog to learn more! ( I just did after i had written my list already)
basically you use each day of lent to declutter a part of your house/life. how genius.
small spaces, junk drawers...... anything you wish and hopefully once Easter comes around you are somewhat done with spring cleaning! Much more do able to divide things up in bite size portions and way easier ( at least to me) than giving up chocolate.
following is my list( more for me as a mental note, than you!)
But if you need inspiration on places to junk through around your house, feel free to use it

1. closet kids room one
2. closet kids room two
3. guest bathroom cabinet
4. utility room
5. utility room closet( yes this needs a separate task yikes )
6. shoe closet
7. white chest of drawers
8. secretary
9. craft hutch
10. fabric stach
11. blue end table
12. bath toys 
13. toy closet
14. craft cabinet
15. tupperware cabinet
16. pantry
17. junk drawer
18. under the kitchen sink
19. brown hutch
20. hurricane cabinet
21. the van
22. my closet
23. Rickys corner of our closet ;)
24. bathroom cabinet
25. paperwork pile
26. gun cabinet
27. porch
28. freezer inside
29. freezer outside
30. refrigerator
31. medicine cabinet
32. stella's toys
33. lu's toys
34. guest room closet1
35. guest room closet2( yes 2days again, this thing still holds boxes from our move over 4 years ago)                       

wow, still 5 slots left, which, I am certain will find a junk pile soon.
if you feel like it, tag along and let me now how things are going.
Happy decrapyfying!!!!

UPDATE: this is working quite well, let's see if I can continue doing good ;)
there should be a prize at the end of this, dont you think?!

I want to be a better friend.... Introducing snail mail Saturday

One thing on my mental list for 2014 is to be a better friend.
There are people, my people, out there that might feel a little neglected and there are people out there that just know, that life gets busy and you can't just sit and call and chat as you may wish.
Whichever group you belong to, I apologize! I want to be more present, I want to make sure my people feel the love I have for them and I want to stay connected.

Friendship in my case means, that most of my very close friends live overseas. It makes it hard to just grab the phone and see who has a minute for a chat. 7 hour time difference and everybody's busy schedule makes any kind of spontaneous connecting to an almost mission-impossible.
I have been homesick a lot lately and getting a sweet message has always been a good remedy, as well as writing myself

I cannot change that! It is a fact that so many sweet souls of mine live so far away( stateside and in Europe ). But I still want you to know, you are special to me!
I had to come up with a plan, a tiny effort to be that friend I want to be:
I decided to carve out some time; instead of folding laundry, watching a movie or checking emails for the 100th time that day ( those things can be done half an hour later anyway), I will sit down with a pen and paper and write to you! Maybe rambling, maybe big news, maybe just me! )
Snail mail is best and I hope it makes your day a bit more special!

Write me if you would love to get some snail mail soon or later
Ps Bine, dieser Samstag gehoert dir" :))))

Ahhhhhhh..... I need a job

It has been a long time coming. And the time is finally here. With Lucien starting school this fall and Fiona being a year in May, I need to start thinking about which route to go for my future work life.
1. I love being a mama and I think I could keep myself busy and happily entertained for a couple more years at home
2. But I also love being a pharmacist. And this is where things get tricky. Is all the hassle worth it???? It is so difficult to get my license transferred to be able to work here. Every time it try to roll up my selves and get started I am totally intimidated by the whole process and the huge amount of paperwork and workload.
3. Why oh why can I not come up with a creative, unique idea, run a happy lil etsy store and make enough money to put us in a more comfortable spot????

Any thoughts on this, guys??? Maybe you guys have an idea or know somebody who knows somebody.
Just a Saturday morning ramble after not much sleep and too much thinking. Coffee it is now!

Living her word....already ( Random act of kindness)

Yesterday, Stella came home from school saying "mama, I need to bring some extra tights to school," I was like ok, what for , did you rip the ones you wore??? " no mom, there is this girl at school and we are roller skating outside and it's freezing and the teAchers told her she needed to bring tights to be able to join in this cold weather and the girl said she does not have any and so I said I will bring her some of mine!" Wow, I was speechless. Now, just to give you a little more info on this. I know this child and I know she probably has more than 5 pairs of tights at home and I know money is not an issue. Also you need to know how particular Stella is with her clothing, once we find something she likes, that is it, there is no left or right from it.So, in the beginning of the school year I stocked up on one kind she liked( and those are not available year round). Due to a long and esp cold winter down here we are down to two that are left for the rest of the winter plus a pair of footed ones, which she hates but we kept as a back up! At first I was thinking why in the world do I have to send one of HER tights???? And this morning as I got ready for school I explained to her again, that after given away this second pair she only has one more and the footed ones.( I also asked her to give away the footed ones, instead) but my girl, stuck to her word and said" no, I will give her the ones that I like too and if I rip that last pair I will have to deal with the footed ones ( hopefully it'll warm up soon)"
So I send her off to school with those tights, not knowing if they were really needed or appreciated. At 6.30 in the morning I saw my lil  courageous  lady leaving me in awe with a lesson learned way beyond school!
Did I mention before, sometimes I want to be a little more like her

A first in 2014 Virtual Coffee

a fresh start!!!

It's 2014 , a new year, clean slate, fresh start, ladeedadeeda! Truth is, 2013 went out with a big bang and since then I am still trying to count my blessings and find my mojo back! Trying is the word, cause the lack of sleep due to a teething lil lady and other things on my mind are not being very supportive!
Most of you guys know how excited I was to have my family here in the States for Christmas. A lot of hustle and bustle kept me busy the weeks before their arrival. I had not seen my peeps in exactly a year and it was the first time for Miss Fiona to meet her Omi and Opi. To say the least, I was bursting with excitement and just to say it straight forward, I am happy everybody is back were they belong!
All our plans for the holidays failed due to crazy sickness among the kids of the house( 4 out of 5 came down with RSV and much more) It was a visit between doctor visits , hospital stays, organizing care for the others while tending to the sick ones, loads of grocery trips, lots of worries, delayed flights home, nasty weather and so one.Granted we were together but I felt so bad for everybody making this very expensive trip to come and see us and then it was just a big mess. I really don't want to sound ungrateful, it was just the opposite spectrum of what I had hoped for and as of now, I can't shake this deflated, tired feeling.
But I am big on trying to get out of the funk. I have started ! My kids are back to school and we are getting back into the groove with that. And Everyone is healthy ( so thankful for that) !
Despite all the craziness, I think the kiddos still enjoyed Christmas. It was a looong Christmas season this year ( after a slumber party under the lights of the tree last weekend, we took down all decorations Sunday night)
Now the house is bare and in desperate need for a deep cleanse ( this is just how I feel too) . If we would really meet for coffee, I would fill you in on all the crazy details of our Christmas 2013, I would ask you to share your secret remedy to solve funky ,moody feelings, I would ask if you have made any special resolutions for 2014.
 I made a long list of things that I would like to accomplish 2014. Some house projects, some family trips, some personal goals and some to cave out more time to be with my man, oh and of course to be more patient, ha!stella picked her word for this year: Courage! I admire her so much for that! At her very young age she picked something that she knows will challenge her very much!

I wish I would be more like her sometimes.

I am still thinking about mine! There are just too many things buzzing in my head at the moment! I might come up with one or maybe not and i am totally ok either way! 

I did not take too many pics this past Christmas season but those very few need to be shared and remembered for the years to come: "hey, remember this crazy Christmas, when you came to visit us in the States!" "Oh how could we forget!!! It was freezing cold like Louisiana had not seen in the last 50 years...". And so on. 

So I guess it is safe to say we surely did make memories this Christmas of 2013:)
here we go:

Each year the excitement of eating those tiny, cheap chocolates is grand!!!

Nikolaus 2013

pros at eating chocolate at 6am

Fiona and her teeny tiny boot

Snippets of our Christmas season 

our card 2013

Decorating the tree ( Lu decorated a very special 'Lucien corner' on the back of the tree with all his special ornaments( that boy)), listening to Pandoras Christmas station, day in and day out, packaging sweet little presents, lots of crafting, Christmas parties and visiting Santa. All was peaceful. All was bright before this happened....

Poor little sickling

and a very tired mama

Fiona's first Christmas

Take a mental break for a bit cause a lot of not so fun things went on in between those pics (104 fever, breathing treatments, shots of antibiotics, a bottle of ibuprofen and an earinfection on top of the RSV, if you care for the details).
Feeling all better for Christmas morning and then everyone else got the bug, yuck!!!

my gang Christmas morning( feeling better)

plus the cousins

the cousins before sickness struck

Lu came down with it, just not as bad, due to the fact that he is older, but both twins got it, too. One of them really bad. Imagine being in a foreign country with one in the hospital and one sick at home! yeah, needless to say the stresslevel was high, really high for all of us. Not nearly the happy Christmas we had hoped for. But as usual,looking at the bright side. Those next two pics make me really happy and I will treasure them forever.

Christkind listened to all the begging and brought her Marie Grace!!!!

happiest moment this Christmas season, meeting her Opi for the first time

So there it is, all just spilled out. The good always outweighs the bad and this is why I needed all those little, mostly happy moments documented on here. I am so out of practice, when it comes to writing a post. This one took almost a week before I had all the words and pics lined up in a somewhat presentable way. Need to shape up my blogger skills soon or really hire someone to work on my layout. Anyone out there, that you can recommend????? Thanks for listening. I feel better. The end