Catching Up / Christmas in Austria

Just a few pictures from our trip...

Thursday Night

Thursdays are soccer evenings. JT has soccer practice at 5:30. The other 2 kids come along and ride bikes, roll down the hill, play on the playground, etc. until 6:30 when we head over to another park where I have a game at 7. Mr. Burli picks JT up from his practice and brings him over and then he has a game at 8. I take the kids to eat after my game and we don't usually get home until 9.
So that is what Thursdays are like at the moment.
And then I log on to my hybrid (part online, part face-to-face) class and prepare for the next morning. And maybe I read an article or two or twenty on various news or not-exactly-news websites, depending on whether my friends on FB link to interesting new science stuff or if I think of something to research/look up (for example, I tried to find a Homo erectus blackboard skull cast on etsy but the company I bought a golden Ardipithecus from is no longer selling the skulls. I also tried to find the movie "The Lives of Others" on Netflix since a student recommended it, but it was unavailable, but that led me to look at what other German movies were there, and I also browsed etsy for other skull items....)

Anyways, that is that. Here are some pictures.

 Monday was a holiday - we went to the zoo. Always amazing, even if it was sweltering.

 Julian's friend and his brother were in a production of Cats. Phinny LOVED it! He now asks us to sing the songs pretty much every day.

The Titanic is morphing into a "clubhouse." I think Mt. Burli is avoiding the big project of making me a studio in the garage,

Okay, that is it for now. Still need to grade AND I just picked up an online class that starts Monday, and I have to get that started ... tomorrow??

Life Phases

I used to find it really annoying when people would talk about the phases of life that were yet to come... as if whichever phase I happened to be in was just fleeting and temporary when it FELT so tedious and relentless.
Well. I guess there is something to be said about reminiscing about times past. We are now in the phase we could call constantly-running-on-half-empty or always-carpooling-and-washing-dishes or maybe even stop-bickering-all-the-time! We don't even have that many after school activities, but somehow each week slips by so quickly that we need a three day weekend to catch up. And three day weekends are rare.
So anyways, I have posted some on FB and IG but not here. I wish I posted here more because it is fun to look back and see what has been happening in our little safe corner of the world.
So let's see... Phinny is 2 1/2 and has a great squished up smile when he is happy. We are working on using the potty consistently, but he insists he does not like Angie's (daycare) potty. He also does everything his brothers do, so he asks to play "Minecraf" several times a day, has fallen off the top bunk (no injuries) and can ride his pedal-less bike and a scooter. If you slip and call him Sweetie, he will say, "I'm not sweetie, I'm pumpkin." Some days he has said this at least 10 times, but mostly I remember now.

The big kid is a mini-teenager. Or tween, I suppose. He wants his own phone and is addicted to a game called agario. He also does his homework nicely and can entertain the other 2 as needed if there is an incentive involved. He started youth soccer, and enjoys the practices and games much more than baseball - so much more action!

Sammy is 6. And he is very different than his brother. He can be silly and not listen and annoying and then all of the sudden he disappears with a book and you won't hear a peep for an hour to two. Then suddenly he is crafting a train out of cardboard boxes or assembling a Lego coin-transporting submarine. And then he is annoyingly silly and dancing around saying poop. Good times.

And speaking of phases... I got a new rug for the living room. I found it at a garage sale - a total fluke, we just happened to drive by. Now I just need a new couch. The futon mattress is wearing out. Then again, the kids can not seem to abide by the no food in the living room rule, and Phinny spilled 3 drinks today, so I guess we will wait.

So that is a start. There is a lot to catch up on.
What was dogsburger posting about?
Reading: I read Michel Faber's Book of Strange New Things. It was a great book. It also made me want to reread The Sparrow. I keep trying to read non-fiction, too. I picked up a book on the evolution of the foot. I'll try to get my toes wet on that tomorrow. Ha-ha.
Eating: granola. Plain. Dry, While I am typing this.
Running: Not too much. My heel started to hurt, Then I started limping a bit. I tried jogging and it doesn't hurt too much, but the morning after I played soccer last week, I couldn't even walk on that leg, so I am trying to rest the foot except on soccer and futsal days!
Planning: I need to get the fall garden started! Halloween costumes! Continue organizing the house and my life.
Maybe I should get to bed earlier, too.

Big Sur 2015

This was our campsite. It was pretty awesome!

Project Report

Project: Grow Stuff. Coming along! We have some bananas. Or we will have some eventually.

Project: Baseball. Completed! He claims he doesn't want to play anymore. I am not sure if it is the slow nature of the game or the fact that none of his friends are on his team. Next up is AYSO.

(And across from the baseball field is Chollas Lake with the birds.)

Project: Find something to wear to a 1920s Gala ..... Um, I bought 6 dresses at the thrift store (This one was $4. Everything was at least 50% off.) in the attempt to find something 1920-ish that might fit. I am going to try and revamp this. We'll see. It has huge shoulder pads and at first I thought it had a hood, then I realized it was this weird neck thing.

Project: jam. Kumquats from our friends. 4 pounds of them. Have you ever eaten a kumquat? It is very tart, then you keep chewing and it gets sweet. It is the weirdest fruit. I bought one for Chinese New Year and planted it in a pot (a dwarf tree).  Now to experiment with some marmalade!

Project: read books. Um, I read some but I have already forgotten what they were. I wish I could access the list of books I've checked out over the years at the library. Doesn't the government have that info or something? I did read God Help the Child (Toni Morrison) but that was not my favorite and was not as good as some of her earlier works. I read Still Alice (Lisa Genova) a while ago. Did I mention that before? I would highly recommend it. I haven't seen the film yet.  The book is heavy enough. I read some others .... but apparently the titles and even the content are lost to me (not early dementia, surely). Currently reading: I am Pilgrim (spy novel). I also have about 10 books on order at the library. Yeah, Summer!

(Oh, Project: Teach Things - that one is done! Last grades were submitted this morning!)

Happy Mother's Day!

Someone woke me up around 5:30 in their quest to wake Papa up. (He didn't get up either.) Then the chicken started squawking at 6 (there is only one left, story another time), then there were yogurt parfaits at 7. I made a second breakfast around 10 and we played a round of "The Game of Things". Then Mr. Burli mentioned that we have "lemons enough to feed the pigs" (an old Austrian expression) and Sammy decided we needed to have a lemonade stand, so I put together this table, made lemonade, baked cookies (because you can't just have lemonade), scrounged up some cups, and helped out for the 3 hours he ran the stand (total earnings were $7.75). The day ended with a quick drive to our friends' house for dip in the pool and then frozen pizza for dinner!

What else is new around here? Cosmo reminds me of Bernie, the cat we had when I was a kid, who would scamper over the fence and onto the roof) - he is very friendly and loves to explore everywhere, especially high places.

We are at Balboa Park a lot these days. The carousel is from 1910. 

You can still grab for the brass ring! (If you get an iron ring, you throw it is a clown's mouth.) JT got the brass ring once and won a free ride and his friend who came along got the brass ring the next time.

Sometime in March or early April Sammy discovered that he could read the Geronimo Stilton books and that he really liked reading them. The first week he read about 7 (and we had to go to the library twice). I think he has now read at least 30 of the books. (You will have to move your head, I forgot to fix the orientation on this one.) The top picture is a giant cat that was in the subway along with a large bag of Kitty Krunchies used to lure the cat out. I am not sure what is happening in the second picture.

It rained! I had a zoo trip scheduled and went anyways. It was great because most of the crowd stayed home. The flamingos seemed to enjoy a change of pace.

And the mama gorilla and her 4 month old were out!

Another day at Balboa Park....

I am hoping to make it through the semester in one piece. I have 2 more weeks at one school and 3 at the other. YEAH! This is what my day looks like tomorrow:

 I have an assignment and a quiz to grade tomorrow and some lecture slides to spruce up and upload as well as final exam study guides to rewrite between/during/after my other activities: making lunches and breakfast, dropping kids off at school, volunteering at IRC in the morning, jogging after that, a quick shower and lunch, picking up the kids, getting Julian ready for his baseball game, dropping him off, going to Target to buy the baseball team snacks, back to the game to watch a little and distribute snacks, and then some kind of dinner to be made, kids to get ready for bed, dishes and lunchboxes to wash, etc.  Where does the time go?

Two Years Already

We're back from our now annual Spring camping trip with friends from the school. We took over at least 10 sites, and there were several different campfires and 'dining groups.' It was fun but really exhausting. Two different groups serenaded Phin the evening we arrived (his birthday!) and he had a great time playing in the dirt, climbing rocks, playing on a borrowed big wheel and hanging out with all the big kids. "Happy to you!"