What Do I Do With My Days

What do I do with my days is a common question I get.  Funny, I was talking to my mom and she asked just today.  The days seem to fly by and even though I'm not working (for money outside the house) I feel like I'm ALWAYS working.  I've been trying to just pick up my book since we returned to Berlin and I have not read even one page. The days are always full.  Sometimes they are fun too but they are always full. 
One of the things that makes them so full is that everything here seems to take a lot longer for me than it would take in the states.  Even the smallest of things take an extra beat, an extra minute times 5,000 small things like that a day adds up to a lot more time than the equal things in Seattle.  It really is the simplest things.  The dates are day then month - filling things/forms out for school or for doctors it takes an extra beat.  I finally have a clothes dryer again but the dryers here don't have heating vents like ours does in Seattle but a water collecting drawer that has to be dumped every second load. The dryer is in one room and the bathroom sink is out and through a hall and into the heating room and into a small bathroom where I have to carefully dump the water into a small sink.  Every second load.  Plus right now there is construction down there so even getting to and from the machines takes awhile longer and getting to the bathroom with the full drawer for water takes a bit.  Not more than a few minutes, of course, but add that up throughout the day. 
The biggest chunk of my time that takes longer here is grocery shopping and transportation.  Because we only have bikes or bus or train or feet to get us around things just take longer.  I wouldn't trade it but the time getting to and fro adds up. And because we only have bikes I can only take what I can carry.  Today for example my bag was full when I remembered we needed toilet paper.  So silly to buy just 2 rolls - which they do sell here.  But two rolls for a family of 4 is silly.  So I bought the big bag and then I saw that our favorite chocolate bars were on sale for half off.  German chocolate by the way is AMAZING.  The brand we really like goes on sale at half off about once a quarter and then we just stock up.  Like 20 bars.  They last forever... or not that long in our house.  We typically have a smallish square each after dinner.  But I knew I didn't have room in my bag to stock up. 
Even without the chocolate I had a huge heavy load in my basket and had to ride with the toilet paper bag hanging off my wrist as I rode.  By the time I made it home all the blood had been cut off to the hand holding the paper.  But I knew those chocolate bars will not be on sale forever so I made another trip later to stock up along with some other things for Josie's upcoming birthday party.  In between the two trips we had a meeting with our architect that is working on our remodel.  I made lunch. 

Oh and after dropping off the kids this morning I had to stop by the library to turn in a few books for Josie, and renew one for her.  Benjamin has been rifling through his books at breakneck speed so while I was there I looked to see if

there was book 4 and 5 of his new series.  He checked out 3 books on Friday, his library day.  He had finished 2 and was half way through the third book by Monday morning!!😮 I had a book in my queue at the Seattle library for nearly a year.  I use their Overdrive system and then can download on my Kindle.  It became available while I was in Seattle but I didn't have my laptop with me and I pushed the wrong button my phone and I lost it and I had to put it back on hold.  I just looked and I am number 1,200 something!!  Clearly a lot of people want to read this book too.  While I was in the High School library I figured I might as well look for it there.  And lo and behold they had it.  It was brand new and not even registered yet into the system.  I had to wait about 20 minutes for that.  But I finally got the book.  Complete with the old fashioned check out stamp on the front cover 😄

After the architect meeting I made some lunch for me and Marty and then it was time to go pick up Benjamin.  After school on Mondays he has his friend Lukas over.  Like last week we took advantage of the nice days and headed to the little traffic school.  He has to go 6 times throughout the school year and 4 need to be before Thanksgiving.  This was his third time so he is getting there. 

This time the traffic school was much more crowded (it was another GORGEOUS mid 70 degree day!) so there were many more kids on bikes today.  The boys ride their bikes for 30 minutes.  Mogli and I sit quietly and happily waiting or the boys.  When they finish we have to wait an extra 20 minutes for a bus.  We decided to take another bus then have to run to catch the one we really wanted once we get to the downtown area.
Once home I make the boys a snack and they play legos and have their coveted 30 minutes of screen time.  Then they go up to Benjamin's room to read.  His friend, Lukas, loves reading as much as Benjamin does. 
I actually though, "oh, today is the day I can start to read again!"  But then I wanted to talk to my parents.  Had a lovely chat with them and then realized it was already 5:40PM.  I had completely lost track of time.  I hadn't started dinner yet.  I was supposed to get Lukas on a bus around 5:15.  Nearly hang up on my parents.  Turn on the oven (I had planned baked potatoes for dinner which take awhile.  I rush Lukas out the door, send a quick text to his mom alerting her that he would be late and then it is dinner, clean up, dessert (those yummy chocolate bars that I stocked up on - just four small squares each) the kids and Marty take Mogli on a walk while I clean up.  Then a few quick games of Schafskop.  And it is bed time once again.  So... what do I do with my days.  One small example of one of my days.

Oh and today as I was running my errands I thought to take note of the accordion player.  There more accordion players here, well

maybe all over Europe, than I have ever seen in Seattle.  They are street performers in doorways and on bridges and at train stations.  Today I stopped and listened for a few minutes reminding myself that this is not my normal.  Or at least the first 48 years of my normal.  I remember vividly when we were about 6 months into living here when I realized that the sirens no longer sound different.  They have that Neenaaa neennaaa sound whereas in the states it is more, I don't know siren-ish.  Things that were once new are now normal but I want to take note that we are, in fact, living somewhere so different from what we have always knows.  It is easy to forget because so much of our lives are actually the same as they were.... OK, enough musings for a Monday.