Puzzles , New Recipes and Cold Weather

This past week has been cooooldd. the past couple of days has been a high of 30 adn a low of mid teens. And yes, I still think of weather in fahrenheit even though the rest of my family thinks in celius now. We even had a bit of snow, sleet and hail. Along with a crazy wind storm that had a bit of thunder and lightening. Other than the weather nothing has been all that exciting.

They keep saying that we are heading into stricter lockdowns and I'm not even sure what that could mean. We already do school from home and very few people are going in to offices to work. I have heard it could mean closer down public transportation entirely. I think the leaders from the 16 different states are meeting on Tuesday. I have come to a place of acceptance with the staying home, cold winter, not much light, uncertainty of the future and feel myself really living in the moment and not wanting for much. It is a good feeling. I am not a home body by nature, unlike the other 3 members of my family. I often want to go and do stuff on the weekend and Marty, Josie and Benjamin are happiest just hanging around the house. I get antsy being in the house so much and last Spring it was really hard for me and definitely before Corona it was even harder knowing there was so much to do and see and no one wanted to go. But I am enjoying my new-ish peace about living in the moment.

We hung light all the way around the winter garden and I brought out even more candles. Anything to bring light into the dark. But, I have noticed that it is staying lighter later. I have a friend who is keep track of how many more minutes of day light we get each day. It is hopeful. Apparently in the month of January we go from 7 hours 49 minutes of daylight to 9 hours and 4 minutes by the end of January. That is one hour and 15 minutes!! In ONE month.

Living room before

Josie and Benjamin are both doing remarkably well with home school. Things are so much better than the spring. The online school is better, yes, but I'm actually referring to their attitude and mine too if I'm being honest. Benjamin does 'school' from about 8 until 2pm with a 30 minutes 'recess' and a 30 minute or so lunch break. He often gets done with all of his assigned school work before noon but he then just reads until 2 which is when he can have "fun" screen time.

Living room after.  Still need a new couch, rug and chair

We are still slowly working on the Seattle puzzle. The sky is incredibly difficult and I keep asking each member of the family to sit with me and 'just help me find 3 pieces and then you can go' and so far it has been the most quality time with each of them. I mean we are all together all day but we don't get much one on one time. Tonight before bed I got them all to spend 20 minutes on the puzzle together.

 We We have been slowly getting our house set up. I know we have lived here now for 1.5 years but nearly all of our stuff has been hand me downs or cheap purchases when someone is moving away. Well, it is finally coming together but now I desperately want a new couch, rug and armchair but compared to the first photo it is much improved. I have been enjoying cooking with my new instant pot although my two favorite recipes from the week I didn't use it other than to cook rice. A veggie red curry and a spicy garbanzo bean, red pepper, egg dish. This past week has brought to (hopeful) fruition a job that I had interviewed for back in late October. The wheels move sloooowwlly here. More on that once I sign my contract.

New Year's Resolutions

Hello again, old friend.  
Wow, we have been some places since I last updated the blog.  I mean we haven't really been many actual places due to Corona but we have dug deep and are probably different people than when this whole thing began.  

We made and decorated loads of cookies

I really regret not keeping up on the blog.  It would be really interesting to revisit how we all felt back then when it was all so new and unsure.  But better late than never, I say.  

Every single year since Marty and I met, in 2004, we have had a yearly tradition of writing down all of our accomplishments of the past year and our goals/intentions for the next year.  We try to do this right around the beginning of the new year.  We write it in the same notebook each year and it is fun to go back and look at what we thought was important 3, 5, 15 years ago.  When the kids were small we would make it a date night or morning or coffee and go away while the kids had a baby sitter or with Oma and Opa.  Yesterday was our day to write our goals and one of my goals for 2021 is to update the blog at least once per week during this coming year.  So here we go.  Surprisingly, we both had a ton of accomplishments last year, even amid Corona, so that felt good.  

We are currently in lockdown here in Berlin.  Actually the entire country has been since December 16th.  The kids had 3 days of  "distance learning" before the Christmas holidays were set to begin.  We spent our days eating and playing games and watching shows and I took a VERY long walk every single day to set my head straight.  It was about the only thing I was consistent with and it felt very good to get fresh air.  I have been into audio books since the pandemic started and I finished 2 audio books, listened to mostly during walks, during the break.  The kids slept in very late and just enjoyed doing nothing.  Sadly our kids enjoy that a bit too much but maybe all kids do? 

Christmas was quiet with just the four of us. I 
am quickly becoming the shortest member 
of the family.

Now we are one full week of distance learning under our belts and we are off to a decent start for week #2.  We are in lockdown, school from home, until at least the end of January.  But since we already have a winter break scheduled for the first week of February our kids won't be back in school until at least the 8th of February.  As tough as it is the numbers here warrant it and I'm thankful to be in a country that takes it seriously.  Germany just hit 40,000 deaths due to Corona and it feels awful and then I compare it to the US which has 374,000 (?!?) and am saddened by so many unnecessary deaths worldwide.  During the lockdown only essential shops stay open.  In Germany that means: only grocery stores, bakeries, pharmacies, pet store, books stores and bike shops.  I love the priorities here.  It has been strange to see all of the normal stores closed for so long.  Unlike the beginning of the pandemic when stores were closed this time there are a lot more people out, 99.9% masked, but just grocery stores and bakeries open. 

We took care of our friend's dog (Chewie) The 
dogs had a great time playing together. 

I started working again in March just before everything began.  I started at the US embassy working in their gift shop/snack shop/grocery store.  I worked 2 days a week throughout the spring and summer and then went down to one day a week in October.  I also started teaching English 3 times a week with a government funded agency that provides continuing education to women.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working again.  Since the latest lockdown I still work one day a week at the embassy grocery store and am now teaching my English classes online.  

We played a fun escape room type game
that Benjamin got from his secret Santa at school 
just before lockdown started. It took us several
hours several nights in a row.  Either it was really
difficult or we are really not that smart. 

Our construction on our house continues.  We are getting there but slowly.  We had to take a 7 month break from March until October but our attic apartment is nearly completed and we have all newly repaired and painted bedrooms.  They had done a lot of damage when they were building the bathrooms and attic last summer.  We were all so excited to get our bedrooms repaired and painted.  They had nasty old wall paper and we each had holes in our ceilings from there they had punched through from working above us in the attic.  Slooooow and steady goes most things German.  

Keeping up with Benjamin's ferocious reading speeds continues to prove challenging.  He checked these books out just before break and had all of them finished within a week.  Honestly, I cannot keep enough books in his hands.  He often starts and finishes the same book in a day. 

We had our first real snow since moving here.
It came just before the kids started back up at school. 

Of note in the first week of January was that I got my permanent residency permit.  This is a huge deal and I'm super thankful for it but still holding out hope for citizenship as well.  Because now they use a card instead of a sticker in the passport (like a diver's license) They need to make the card and mail it to me which could take 6 weeks.  I was told that I am not allowed to leave the country before that comes by mail.  Thankfully we had no travel plans (Corona!!) otherwise it might have been an issue had we planned to travel during Winter Break.  

I am really hoping I can stick with updating the blog.  Finger crossed. 

Middle Eastern Falafel and Disappointments

Sadly my days have pretty much been boiled down to what I am going to make for dinner.  And again, thankfully I love cooking.  I wake up thinking... "what am I doing to make tonight?"  There aren't many options on any given day as I can't just go out and get an extra ingredient or two if spontaneity or creativity strikes. On Thursday I tried out a new recipe for Falafel and new recipe for flat bread.  I had made Mujadara before but combined these two recipes for tonight. The first time I made Mujadara the fried onions were not crunchy and the frying of them made such a mess so this time I used the

prepackaged ones from the Asian store that I also used in the Vermicelli bowls.  Much better and a thousand times easier and cleaner.
The flat bread was really good but didn't discover until after that ALL flour in Germany is NOT self rising?  So apparently you are to add 1tsp baking powder per 100 grams of flour.  What??? nearly 3 years here and I'm just now learning this.  I always just thought their baking powder was off.  Which it is because apparently it is only once activated instead of twice.  Or something like that.  I say that acting like I know what it means but I don't really.  But for left over day I am going to add the extra baking powder and see what happens. Also the falafel were good but lacked flavor.  For left over day I will double all spices and see what happens.

Marty and I rode our bikes to our friends that lent us books and I delivered the coveted corn nuts.  They set up chairs on their back patio, we enter through the garage, we didn't go inside or touch anything and have a VERY nice hour long visit.  Wow, how simple and yet how uplifting to be around other people again.  Other than the dog park or passing other friends by chance while walking we really haven't seen anyone other than our

Josie made the MOST delicious mint chocolate
cookies using After Eight mints wrapped
inside each cookie. SOOO good. 

immediate family members for WEEKS.  It is the first time we have done anything social since this all began and it was very very good.
I had a bit of a melt down over the disappointments from this damned virus.  I always feel like I can't complain because in the big picture I really have nothing at all to complain about.  But after coming to grips with our Spring Break road trip being canceled and then my sister's visit here and our trip to Croatia together being canceled and then our trip to the UK to visit friends and see Hamilton canceled and now it really looks like we won't be able to go to Seattle.  I know it is still a couple of months out but even if the travel restrictions are lifted do we really want to go into a war zone without US medical insurance?  We had always had Marty's work insurance when visiting in the past and we do have travel insurance but I sure

This was the sun setting
as I was talking to my sister
on the phone.  It was 8:23 PM
Thank GOD for lighter, longer days. 

wouldn't want to risk getting sick or injured there during this huge unknown.  And on top of that could we really see family and friends.  Currently no one can enter the facility where Marty's parents live and do I want my older parents to risk the travel and exposure to travel to Seattle?  Can we hug then?  Would it be worth it to stand 6 feet apart and air hug?  I think that would be MORE painful!! All of the summer activities have been canceled.  And then we had someone very interested in renting our West Seattle house.  We have been extremely worried about renting it out as the West Seattle Bridge will be closed until 2021 or indefinitely!  It would take an extra special situation for someone to want to live in the area right now and these new potential renters works from home! And specifically want to live in West Seattle because they have family here.  So, our plan to

This becomes more true the
longer we stay in Germany.  And
I cannot read it without crying. 

stay in our own house is now likely gone.  I had a good cry session.  I called my sister. I woke up knowing it would all be OK but it was just really really SAD!!  Of all the things we do all year spending July in Seattle probably ranks very near #1.  So... we continue to take things day by day.  Knowing that things can change at any moment and try to find joy in that uncertainty rather than pain.  Some days it is just HARD to live so far away from so many people I love and care about.

Grocery Run(s) and Vietnamese Food

On Wednesday I headed to the store for the first time in 10 days.  TEN days.  I don't think I have ever gone that long since having kids.  For sure no more than 2 or 3 days since living here. I was pretty proud of myself for lasting that long.

My meal planning and dinner ideas had hit a rut just after Easter when I was really out of ideas for what to make.  I love cooking, I really do.  Thank God, really since I do it ALL. THE.TIME.

Especially now since we are all home for allmeals and snacks.  But I sometimes have trouble getting inspired about what to make.  On a walk with Marty when we were both particularly hungry we dreamt up some ideas.  This week I was going to branch out and try my hand (first time ever) at Vietnamese food and even though I've tried to make Middle Eastern food before I've never had much success.  With these dinner ideas in mind I made a long list before heading out on Wednesday morning and my grocery run this time would have to include Mitte Meer (a Mediterranean/Mexican store) and the Asian

Market along with my normal, local grocery store.
I used a scarf for a mask - highly uncomfortable and hot- and had thin gloves.  Marty and I rode together first to the Mediterranean store.  He waited outside while I shopped and then took my first full grocery bag home on his bike.  I continued on to the

Asia Market and then headed home with my Asian Store purchases. I went in our house via the back door and unloaded everything on to our large table and then we both left again with our empty bags

to the normal, local grocery store.  The first two stores did not have a lot of people or lines.  This time at my local little store it was more crowded and people were giving each other a lot of space so it took extra long.  But this time, for the first time since it all began I saw no empty shelves or freezers.  Everything seemed very well stocked.  They even had yeast!  The final thing that I had not been able to find in my previous trips.

I had a FULL cart.  They don't really allow you time to bag your stuff.  The checkers go SOO fast (they have become slower during Corona and for the most part a bit kinder) but still the Germans just quickly load everything back in their cart and then roll their cart to a TEENY tiny shelf for bagging or

outside.  I rolled my cart outside and Marty and I bagged.  We each had a large, heavy bag for our bike baskets.  We each loaded a backpack and then we each had a light bag (mostly bread) that we could put over our handle bars and ride home that way.  Again, I went through the back door and put everything on the table.  Then I tried to spray everything that had packaging down with disinfecting spray and wipes.  And then put away in the fridge and cupboards.  It is a process.  Especially with that much food.  The entire trip to 3 stores cost 165€ and should last us 7-10 days!  That is pretty amazing considering each of the specialty stores was roughly 38 € each store.  At Mitte Meer I bought dry garbanzo beans (6 euro) stocked up on salsa (3.75 € per jar) and refried beans (3 € per can)

Refried beans are a new family favorite since finding them here.  I had thoughts of making salmon as Mitte Meer has a nice little fresh fish section.  It would be our first time here... somehow eating/cooking salmon outside of Seattle where it is so fresh seemed off putting to me but then realized we are pretty close to the icy cold waters off of Norway and Sweden.  It was SO expensive.  50 € per Kilo making it roughly 25 $ per pound.  I decided against it and instead picked up some TASTY Italian olives - my favorite.  4 € per jar.  A few other things and a couple bags of these yummy corn nuts.  They taste nearly the same as the American corn nuts just much smaller.  I also picked up a bag for a friend who loves them and was having a down day the other day.  I had originally thought of bringing her a bright thing of flowers but know in this day and age getting something at a specialty shop is much more appreciated.

At the Asian store I had a long list and am not as familiar with their products.  The store was nearly empty which was nice.  Normally this is where I buy peanut butter, brown sugar, edamame and seaweed snacks for Benjamin's lunch.  This time I had real ingredients on my list: fish sauce, sesame oil, vermicelli noodles, fried onions, lemongrass, I also stocked up on plain, canned black beans and a large bag of jasmine rice.
At the regular grocery store I got everything else, including dog food.  Phew!!
The Asian bowls turned out with great flavor but the noodles were undercooked and still a bit stiff and not totally soft the way they should be.  They were also cold because the directions said to run cold water over them to stop the cooking but next time I will serve with warm noodles.  SO disappointing about the undercooked noodles. But we all ate the same thing for once (normally either Josie or Benjamin has a special meal because they won't like what the rest of us are having) and everyone actually liked it.  Small tweaks for the leftovers later in the week.  I did chicken and tofu and both were super tasty.  I only bought enough chicken for one night so leftovers will be just tofu - which works well because we all enjoy tofu.

He has transitioned into using my Kindle because we
just can't keep enough books in his hands.  Still
he is finishing a book every 1-3 days. 

The day was sunny but a bit colder than it had been so we all went outside and sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  The news broke that Germany will start re-opening by May 4th.  It is unclear yet which grades will go back then but nearly 99% it will not be the grades that Josie and Benjamin are in.  They will begin with students in a transitional year.  For Germany or at least our school in particular that means grades 10th and 12th first and then 6th graders the week after.  We will have to wait and see what happens after that.

Easter Monday

It is interesting how you slowly get used to new things.  Our first year here we were first so shocked by everything being  closed on Sundays.  All the stores and shops.  The hardest part was the grocery store if you had forgotten to pick something up.  I never had to plan ahead in Seattle because stores were always open. Not just every day of the week but 24/7.  Here stores are open Monday through Saturday and grocery stores from 7AM until around 8PM.  Once we were finally getting used to that

we realized that there are SO many national holidays here and on a national holiday all the stores are closed too.  In the States there were national holidays - like Labor Day or Memorial Day and sure, some things are closed but even on Christmas Day the grocery stores are open, even if just on limited hours.

Here in Berlin, in addition to the normal holidays and national holidays they also celebrate Christmas Eve and 2nd Christmas.  So for 3 consecutive days the stores and everything is closed.  Same for Easter.  Good Friday is a holiday as well as the Monday after Easter.  The first year we were here I was always caught unaware.  What?  Another holiday??   Then there is also Ascension Day and Pentecost.  Both national holidays - everything closed.  In addition to all of their other holidays.  It seems that in the Spring between Easter and the end of school they never even have one full week of school.  There is always a holiday.  This year I was actually prepared, partly due to having to stock up in the age of Corona and partly due to learning over the past two years.  I was a bit worried because for the past two years we have had medical emergencies on the Friday of Easter weekend (oh, I forgot to mention that most people take the entire week off.  From Good Friday until Monday an entire week after Easter) So our first year here Marty had another eye emergency.  He has having significant changes in his eyesight which typically means there is a beginning of a lacquer crack.  A very rare eye disorder. 

This had us in the ER and racing around to find eye specialists when most are out of town on holiday.  Then last year was when Josie had Mono but we didn't know yet.  She was SUPER sick and we spent the entire week after Easter trying to have her seen by someone when again most people are away on vacation.  I was a bit anxious leading up to the holiday weekend but I think this year the world wide pandemic played out to be a bigger deal than our personal family medical emergency.  Thank God.  Not health scares here.
We enjoyed the day much like all the rest in the past 4 weeks. I made another loaf of bread.  This time an Italian loaf since we were having left over Italian food for dinner.  This used WAY more yeast and several more ingredients.  The results were a very tasty loaf of very soft bread.  Imagine a really soft old fashioned dinner roll.  Yummy!!  The kids LOVED it.
Plus the day included a bonus Skype call with our good friends the Kitcheners.  They live in the UK and we had to figure out how to handle our upcoming planned trip to visit them in London at the end of May and attend the musical Hamilton.  Sadly the Theater had already sent out emails canceling the show and we had to decide on a refund or to keep our money with the theater and attend sometime later in the future.  I'm sure we will see it at some point but we opted for the refund.  And sadly another trip canceled.  Another bites the dust as so many things are these days 😞

Easter 2020 Evening

We had such a full day on Easter it warrants two posts. Haha, it wasn't really that full but we did take a lot of pictures.  The day was so beautiful that we were outside nearly the entire day.
A friend here has connections (yeast, marshmallows) so I asked for another favor and bought a couple bags of good old American

marshmallows.  The ones here are few and far between and are pink colored, do not melt properly and taste different.  So we built a fire and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.

The hammock was in full use as was the little Yahtzee handheld game.  We had a family tournament.  Fun, Sunny day.

Easter 2020

Even amidst Corona we managed to pull off a pretty nice Easter day for one another.  The weather was seriously amazing.  I think the high was 77 degrees.  It started out sunny and a bit cool but warmed up to summer like conditions by mid day.
I kept telling the kids that we weren't really going to have Easter the way we normally do with chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs,

etc etc because I barely go to the store anymore and the last time I went on Monday I did not have Easter in mind and I was not going back to the store until after Easter Monday.  So, we had the couple of small bags of Easter treats that Marty brought back from Seattle weeks ago but other than a nice brunch

we would have a low key Easter.  But, I actually had thought about Easter last time I went to the store, last Monday and stocked up with a chocolate Easter bunny for each of them and a few other bags of treats.  I pulled up some small plastic containers that we had used to hide the chocolate in in years past.  And the night before I put a handful of chocolates in each plastic cup.  In the end they each had a basket full of candy and then each went in search of 6 plastic cups filled with

chocolate.  Marty does the honors every year of hiding the small Easter plastic "baskets" or cups.  When in Seattle that was always Opa's job.  They both do it where you don't need to open any drawer or cupboard and is basically in plain sight but there are always a few at the end that they struggle to find.

I had made cinnamon rolls the day before.  I let the dough rise a couple of times and then Josie and I spread the butter and sugar and cinnamon on top, rolled them up, cut them and placed them in the pan to sit in the fridge overnight.  I let them sit on the counter for 45 minutes in the morning before

popping them in the oven.  They were DELICIOUS!! Along with fresh fruit from the fruit stand by the Sbahn train station that I had picked up the day before (mangoes, blueberries, strawberries and pineapple) along with scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and hard boiled eggs that the kids had decorated the day before.

We all lounged in the back yard after breakfast, went on a family walk and then had left over for dinner.  All in all a VERY relaxing and filling Easter day.