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Picture of a mural on a house wall. There is gnomes in the forest (one taken away by an alien ship) and on the right a face of a man smiling. — Mural in Eureka, California where we stayed one night during our vacation

I am still learning how much time I do have to actually write a post. During vacation? Not so much time. Especially not if I don’t plan everything out in detail. Hey, at least I booked all the stays on the trip and had not to scramble to find one on the day of or the day before. I know some people like that or would just go camping. Very early in our relationship I told my now husband it would stress me out to no end if I would not know where to sleep at night (he would not mind so much at least back in the day – now he just lets me do what I want). At least some of the nights we spend researching and planning what we would do the following day. The route was planned out but everything else was still up in the air.

Last weekend was spend doing laundry and getting the kids ready for school. It is now back to work and school for everyone. It feels a little easier now with the kids in high school and middle school. My son did really well last year in middle school so I am less anxious having to be on top of him most of the time. I would not have thought that he would be this independent and responsible when he was in elementary and I am so proud of both of them. Last year the start was a little rough I think mostly due to the fact that I felt a little traumatized by my own high school experience. The school system in Germany is very different and they split up the kids in different tracks after 4th or 6th grade. I was the only one in my close friend group that ended up going to Gymnasium. It’s the school that goes up to grade 13 and prepares you to study at a University. Needless to say I felt a little lost at first. But it turned out better than I expected for my daughter.

Talking about school systems: is it an American thing that it seems like the first two/three weeks of school are kind of a trial period for classes? With the course system there seems to be always so much shift that they might end up with a completely different set of classes and teachers by the time this period is over. Last year my sons classes changed after the three weeks what really sucked. It was still the same classes but mostly new teachers who of course already set ground rules etc. It was due to 100 kids more than expected showed up on the first day and they had to adjust class sizes.
In our high school it is even more interesting since you can end up with a completely different set of class topics (intentionally or unintentionally). When school starts and they get their schedule they can submit change requests of they want to not do a class or change a class. Sometimes they end up in classes they did not sign up for. E.g. my daughter has”Introduction to Law” instead of the requested “Psychology” – we will see how that plays out. Some friends got switched in the middle of the night the day before school started or there are kids who don’t have a schedule yet when the head to school the day of.
Needless to say this whole system of courses starting with high school is completely new to me. I started courses in 11th grade and I had to pick two majors in 12th grade and make sure I cover all required courses to graduate but not before that.
I guess the course system is the same in the whole US? But also the soft schedules in the first two weeks? I always wonder if it would not be better to get the schedule figured out starting two weeks before school starts or is there a method to the madness I am not aware of?

Beach at low tide with view of sea gulls, the ocean and a small mountain in the distance. — Beach in Seaside Oregon

I will leave you with a picture of my vacation before I sign off for today. It already calms me a little just to look at it. I hope it does the same for you.

Reports from our Oregon road trip – day 1 and 2

View on Mount Shasta dring down the freeway from a car window. There is still abot of snow on the peak. — View of Mount Shasta driving by

I am in full summer vacation mode. We are already on the road since last week Friday and slowly the vacation routine is kicking in. I was going back and forth about going to Germany again this summer but it turned out that my brother’s family would be away on vacation while we would have been there. Also: I really wanted to find out if a family vacation without visiting family is more relaxing. I do love my family but sometimes it feels like I need another vacation after hopping from one relation to the next. I can report back now in two weeks time.

Knitting project — Knitting is always a good way to pass the time on a roadtrip (when not driving of course)

Instead of going on a long flight we packed up our car and went on a two week roadtrip to Oregon. Our first night landed us in Ashland, Oregon. It’s about 5 and a half hours from the Bay Area. I originally wanted to stay in Redding our first night and drive towards Crater Lake from there but with all the fires burning currently the air quality is really bad in those areas.

Pictures from Ashland — Ashland compilation (art on the side walk top left, fairy house door at a book store top right, view across a stream on a mural bottom left, stream in Lithia park bottom right)

Ashland is a cute town that also runs the yearly Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I opted not to get tickets this time but it does sound fun. Instead we just walked through town and Lithia Park a bit and had dinner outside next to a stream. It was hot and felt like summer. Heading back to the hotel me and the kids had a swim in the pool before turning in for the night.

Day 2 was only a three hour drive from Ashland to Eugene. We arrived in time to have a late lunch at the Eugene Saturday market that offers food, music, arts and crafts. And since it was still a little early after that for hotel check-in we headed to the Museum of Natural and Cultural History on the University of Oregon campus. We saw 9600 year old shoes, learned about something about the origin of Oregon, animals that used to live there and kelp forests. There was also a pretty cool exhibit about wolfs. After that we checked into our hotel and after some relaxing had some dinner nearby at McMenemins North Bank. It’s right next to the Willamette river and sitting outside it almost felt like having dinner somewhere in Germany near the Rhine river.

That’s it for day 1 and day 2. More traveling to come. Do you prefer staying in one place for vacation and venturing out from there or are you team roadtrip? I never did roadtrips when growing up but I do appreciate them now. I like both for diefferent things. Roadtrip it is for us this year.

My stitchbook 2024

24 stitched pages on a tabletop. — Stitchbook pages almost ready for the final book.

My life feels pretty busy at times, but I do try to fill my time with something that is just for me anyway. At the beginning of the year, I participated in the #stitchbookchallenge2024. Ann Wood introduced this challenge and you can read all about it on her website ann wood handmade. Basically you create 20 pages by stitching each for 15 minutes for 5 days. 100 days later you have 20 pages you sew together in a book. I had a little laps during our spring break trip (we went to New York) but otherwise the 15 minutes were very doable. When I read that Tobia is doing the 100 day project again and it really inspired me. Have you done something like that? Would you? It was a highlight of my day and helps me relax better than any meditation would. I guess it is a form of meditation now that I think of it. I love doing things with my hands and it gave me some stitching practice. The saying ‘practice makes perfect’ really rings true in this case for me.

Morning Coffee Musings

To go cup of Cafe au lait and laptop on a table on an outside coffee shop patio because I am starting work outside today — Morning coffee outside

I wrote something up before in the past couple of month and never hit post. Honestly, most days I am just tired. I feel like I am constantly trying to figure out how to balance it all. It’s a constant. Every new school year for the kids, it’s new schedules combined with my work and the general life stuff (like shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, garden, taking care of my health and my kids’, everything). Maybe it would be easier if I was a list person? Anyway, blogging has been something that fell of the wagon in these past couple of months.

This morning it’s a beautiful day in Berkeley, California. So on my way from the parking garage to work I decided to stop at a coffee shop and analyze some data (for work) and start writing, in the hope that it will be the start to do it on a more regular basis again (for me). I am sorry I have not been checking in much with the lovely people from NaBloPoMo that San got together. It’s definitely not you! Hopefully it’s not to late to reconnect…

December happenings

The best thing, that happened so far this week, was that my Secret Santa package arrived. Who knows me, knows that I love surprises, and I honestly already forgot about it. I am thankful that San from the in between is mine organized this again.

Other than that life has been busy with work, getting ready for Christmas including sending out cards, wrapping presents, putting things on various piles to take along on our trip to see family in Germany and in general just make it through the last week of school. I can tell my kids need the break. There is one more concert for each child and then we can breath for two weeks. The only thing left to decide is if we take an Uber to the airport, park there or take public transit (I think it is coming down to Uber since parking for two weeks is not cheap either) and if we are doing a pre-christmas gift exchange at home or if we wait. I kind of like the idea of doing it before. That way I don’t have to pack any of our own presents (except a special one that the kids can use on the way). There will be enough things to bring back as is.
I maybe should be making a list of things I want to buy when we are there. I am curious, is there anything you would think a typical souvenir you would bring back with you? For us it’s mostly sweets (the Haribo selection at the supermarkets is insane), tea (herbal and fruit teas mostly), vitamin tablets that dissolve in water (I never understood why in Germany they sell for one Euro for a role of 20, whereas here you can pay $1 for one serving), mustard and maybe some salad dressing powder. The days where we brought back tooth paste and dried sauce packages are over mostly. I always found it interesting that my SIL will buy tooth paste in the US ever since she spend a year as an Au-pair in the country.

How are you doing with your holiday preparations or are you already right in the middle of it?

Holiday weekend recap

I had good intentions and uploaded the pictures on Monday – sigh. The weekend already feels very far away but here I still am.
I had a couple of things noted down on my calendar that we could have done. For one there was a German holiday market on Saturday and on Sunday the local art center had their holiday event. I ended up not going to either of them. With all the traveling that happened in November I was a little tired of doing anything really and wanted to straighten out what was left lying dormant at home. So instead of a fun outing I cleaned bathrooms and living/dining room and finally pulled out the holiday decorations.
In Germany traditionally you have an Adventskranz what is basically a wreath with wintry holiday decorations and four candles. Each of the four Sundays before Christmas Eve on more candle is lit so that you have all four burning on Christmas. I saw the above spiral on Instagram somewhere and liked the idea of having a new candle every day. I got some really nice smelling beeswax candles to go with it. No worries, it only is on under very close supervision.

The wreath already went on our entrance door the week before but the decorations were added this weekend. One of my son’s friends is part of a boy scout group and they sell the wreath at the start of the holiday season.

We did bake some cookies on Sunday. It was good timing since my husband’s work had their Secret Santa on Monday and he needed to bring something homemade.

On Sunday we went to get a small Christmas tree and I decorated it. It now officially feels like Christmas in our house. I was debating getting one this year since we will spend the holidays with family but in the end I was thinking that back in the day at my parents it was only up from the 24th until early January so we even get more time out of it as is.
Also up are the outside lights what was our Saturday afternoon project.
So all in all it was a very productive weekend spend with the family at home and I really needed that. I felt a little guilty not helping out at the German Christmas market but hopefully I can do it next year. I am planning on less travel then.
I did go to a German meet up in a cafe on Sunday morning what was lovely. I do need to speak a little more German outside the house as I am catching myself talking back in English to the kids when they talk to me in English. That’s what happens after 18 years in this country I suppose.

Are you already feeling a little festive?

NaBloPoMo recap

I can’t believe how fast November went by. I am glad I did NaBloPoMo again this year and enjoyed writing, sharing and getting to know new and old blog people.

I do feel a bit bummed that I did not quite make it and missed out on a couple of days in the end (that’s why the shattered mirror). Surprisingly enough not because I did not know what to write about but because I ran out of hours in my day. That is also the reason why I have not commented as much as I wanted to on other blog posts but I am so looking forward to catching up on those in the next couple of days hopefully. The exchanges make the whole blogging experience so much more enjoyable.
Considering that I went to Germany for a week to help my dad pack and that we were traveling for another during school break I did more than I thought I would.
I did finish some more knitting and have the socks, scarf and hat for my dad finished. He even asked me if I could make him another scarf sometime on our last phone call (surprise dad). The other one is for my FIL. I bought the orange a while back and for some reason could not convince anyone about it. I think he may like it – I hope he will

Also in good old German fashion I made an Advents calendar for my kids. This year it’s ‘just’ 24 self wrapped small presents. They don’t like chocolate that much and the options here are limited. I held an Haribo one in my hand at the supermarket in Germany but that would have been all bend out of shape by the time it got here. But that was pretty much my evening entertainment the last two nights – wrapping 24 packages times two.

I hope I will write more in between this time around. Someone asked about Christmas Markets in Germany and I hope we can go visit one when we go this December. And I sure hope to be back next year for another NaBloPoMo.

Podcast suggestions please

I am not really so much into podcast but I keep wondering if that has something to do with the fact that I have not checked out the right ones? I can listen to an audio book no problem at least if I like the narrator and the story is not to bad. I even can make it through nonfiction that way, but with a lot of podcast I tend to zone out after a short while.

There are some exceptions to the rule:

Up First – “NPR’s Up First is the news you need to start your day. The three biggest stories of the day, with reporting and analysis from NPR News”
The roughly 10 minutes are short enough that I make it through and just the right time to keep me company while making school lunches.

The Daily -“This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and Sabrina Tavernise.”
Only sometimes but interesting enough on a longer car ride by myself.

All Songs Considered “Hosts/nerds Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are your friendly music buddies with the week’s best new music discoveries, including conversations with emerging artists, icons and more.”
I discovered quite a few artists I never heard of before this way.

The shortness of my adult picks gets way outnumbered by the kid’s podcasts that are on my playlist. It is one of our favorite past times when I am on a longer ride with the kids and I approve of all of these. I learned quite a sizeable amount of random facts myself and was looking forward to new episodes of ‘The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian’.

Brains on – a science podcast for kids and their adults.

Forever Ago – “A history show for the whole family! Every episode explores the origin of just one thing — like sandwiches, video games, clocks and more — while teaching listeners to think critically about history.”

Smash Boom Best – “Smash Boom Best is a debate show for kids and families from the makers of the award-winning podcast, Brains On! Every episode takes two cool things, smashes them together and lets you decide which is best. Our debaters use facts and passion to make their case – teaching listeners how to defend their own opinions along the way.”

Million Bazillion – “A podcast about money for kids and their families. We help dollars make more sense.”
Especially my son like to learn about money.

Wow in the World – “The #1 science podcast for kids and their grown-ups. Hosts Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz share stories about the latest news in science, technology, and innovation.”

Tai Asks Why– “Tai Poole is trying to find answers to life’s biggest questions. What happens after we die? What is love? How can we fix climate change? He may not solve them all, but give him a break … he’s only 11 years old.”

Greeking Out – “Greeking Out from National Geographic Kids features fun Greek mythology tales. Families can enjoy listening to tales of heroes and monsters. Each episode is an adventure filled with Greek gods, sea creatures, and flaming chariots.”

And two story podcast we liked:
The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian
The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel

And for the parents out there who are wondering if these are appropriate choices for the kids: check on Common Sense Media! It has all the ratings a parent heart could wish for and will tell you way better then I could if these are right for the family (good choice for checking movies, too).

Do you have any podcast suggestions for me that you think would convince me to give the adult addition another try?

Grocery finds

I already mentioned yesterday that we went shopping at ALDI. That I mention it again today should tell you how excited I was about the whole experience. We don’t have one close by so this was really a treat for me. I do find some of the German products at World Market or other fancier grocery stores but the price tag often times is a little painful to look at. Not so at Aldi. Even in Germany they are particularly known for their good prices.
I thought it particularly funny this morning when I picked up a USA today newspaper in the hotel lobby and they had a big article about “Aldi deals”. There was a whole section about how to shop there. One difference is that you have to put 25 cents in the cart to unlock it before you can take it into the store. You will get it back when you bring back your cart and attach it to another one – so they don’t need to pay anyone to collect carts. They will also not bag your groceries. I think my husband is officially Americanized because he was very confused at check out. They had an empty cart waiting at the end of the register and everything goes straight in there – so your cart gets exchanged with a different one. From there on you are responsible to carry your groceries away. This is a step up from the German Aldi experience. You are responsible for getting your groceries in the cart and the cashiers there are so fast that it can get quite stressful as your groceries pile higher and higher in front of you and before you know it you will be asked to pay.
It’s basically the exact opposite what you are used to in the US. I still remember one of the supermarket chains tried to introduce bagging but no-one wanted it in Germany. My mom was one of the very appalled shoppers, too.

The good news is that the drive home today was fairly quick. I already washed three loads of laundry and tomorrow it is back to work and school. I hope that you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and were able to spend some quality time with family before the holiday season really kicks in. I am going to spend the week reminding myself that I have everything under control.

The Way Home

To day was our last day in Las Vegas. It was even not really a day in Las Vegas as we were heading back after breakfast. We made a short photo stop at the Seven Magic Mountains what some of you might remember from our trip last year. It’s not much of a detour and it’s a long drive back to the Bay Area so any time spend outside the car is good. It’s easy parking and a short walk to the sculptures.

There was some traffic due to an accident but luckily no dust storm this time.

The kids downloaded movies while we were listening to music and I made some progress on my knitting (a hat for my FIL for Christmas). Knitting is fine but I can’t read or I get car sick. I would love to listen to audio books or a podcast but we can’t seem to all agree on something – sigh.

Bakersfield is our halfway stop today. We were able to use Marriott points for both stays this time what made for a very affordable trip in that regard. Also: Bakersfield has an ALDI what got me very excited. It’s not quite the same as a German ALDI but I was happy enough shopping there. They had a lot of Christmas goodies I know and love from Germany like Gluehwein, Spekulatius cookies, Chocolate covered Gingerbread, Schogette chocolate and cinnamon stars. We also bought some more responsible snacks like cheese, humus, pita bread, crackers and yogurt.

Hopefully the drive tomorrow is equally uneventful and we make it home early enough so that I can do some grocery shopping for the week.