{this moment} - Nursing Time

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment} - Tasting sunshine

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Dressed rehearsal - {this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo clip, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Last night Aaron was up late and instead of getting stressed over it we had a little pj-party. They showed the musical "Mamma Mia" on tv. Aaron loves music and he really enjoyed every single ABBA Song of this show. It was a joy to watch him dance. At one of the last songs, at the wedding scene, a lady started to dance on the table. Aaron toke my hand, pulled me over to the tv-board and wanted to stand on it to dance with me. I don't recall the last time I lived in the very moment as much as I did right there and then.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{this moment}

Joining Soulemama today for (this moment): A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Reaching out for Summer

This is really my very favorite time of the year, I can smell summer just around the corner, but I still enjoy the fresh early mornings, the chill of spring. And the days are getting sooo long and bright... There is so much to do and I have really got into preserving the treasures of the season. But first let me introduce:

This lovely lady arrived here yesterday. Isn't she lovely, my dandelion-girl? What a star at the natural table she will be! Thank you so much Marta!

I have been to the zoo today, work wise, with my clients. Nathan is gone all weekend to visit a friend in bavaria so Aaron came along too, he is not very interested in most of the animals (yet?). Maybe he is like me and prefers the closer look, the direct touch. The only picture I took in the zoo was the one of poppys and some blue ones, oh those colors...

Are you surprised I had to add some more color to myself? The few hours a day that we spend at home are mostly spend on the balcony. It is really amazing how much can be done in such a small space.

Aaron talked to his dad on the phone, in a language only he understands (my mum thought it was some African language first but it is mainly Aaronish). I love how he copies us exactly when he "talks" on the phone.

And last but not least the latest harvest and preservation actions: I just had to buy some more rhubarb so I could fill a few jars with jam, Next to strawberry, rhubarb jam is my very favorite and its hard to find in the stores. Maybe I will make even more but I am running out of jars at the moment.

Good the elderflower syrup will get filled up into bottles and some of it frozen in ice cubes. And the spruce tops have to wait at least three weeks before I need a jars for the cold syrup. Thanks to Martha again, for instructions and link. Spruce and elderflower I have all harvest just behind our house, I had never noticed any of those possibilities last year. Blogging rises awareness for such things!

We will try to squeeze in as much late spring living into this weekend as possible. Are you joining in?

Preparing Easter Breakfast

"Fear not, for Christ is risen!"

After some days with grey clouds and rain the sun is shining again today. Its bitterly cold still, but bright and welcoming. A day just made to celebrate Easter it seems.

Celebrating Easter is and has always been all about breakfast for me. Homebaked buns with jam, flowers and, of course, eggs... we dyed ours with natural but bought colors.

So yesterday we prepared what still needed to be done, bake the buns, plant some flowers, dye some eggs and, best of all, make some more butter. I really fell in love with the simplicity of this act, shaking the cream to seperate butter and buttermilk. And Aaron helped me today and seemed to enjoy it too:

  

This is how it looks like when you have done enough shaking. The seperated buttermilk is very tasty and doen't taste like the one you can buy at all, more like vey creamy milk. I talked to my granddad (who grew up on a farm) on phone while I was making the butter and he remembered how his mother used to make butter the old style in one of these wooded buckets and how much he loved to drink that buttermilk. I wish I had such an old wooded butter maker but then again, you'd probably need too much cream to fill it. 

You then can add any flavour you like. We stired in some raspberry jam for the easter buns. Actually we used a bit too much jam so the butter became a little bit too soft to shape it properly but at least it was easy to spread like that coming straight from the fridge and truely delicious!

We have not started hiding eggs for Aaron yet since it would be impossible to explain to him how to look for something he has not seen before. I love hidding though and impatiently have to wait for next year to get into that with him...

After lunch we will meet with some friends and celebrate the day together, I can't wait...

I would love to hear about your Easter traditions and news. Do you have any special plans for today?

Happy Easter to you!

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

First Art

Inspired by this book, we continued to check out the kitchen shelfs today and came up with something very amazing: aluminium foil. We had a blast! There is so much to do with this stuff, wrapping, squeezing, rolling, picking, hiding, throwing, covering, sculpturing...

Did you know you acctually see light through aluminium foil? I didn't. 

And for those of you who might get stomache pain to see the waste of such very hard to recycle material, I know, I though about it too. But then again, its a one time experience for him, I will not let him play with stuff like that everyday. Most of what we played with can be reused in the kitchen ( I need it to cover my baking because our oven is not working quite right). 

First Art - the book I was talking about gives lots and lots of ideas for art experiences with toddlers and twos. I am going to show you all of what we play out in the next month, it so much fun!

Edit: Aaron rarely tries to take objects into his mouth, still I had to supervise all his actions in this project carefully as there where small pieces of foil everywhere. So please make sure to be extra cautious!

{this moment}

Some time back, Soulemama came up with this wonderful tradition:

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. - 

Pink Pepper Pickups

Es ist passiert! Das Sonntagssüß hat mich dazu getrieben: ich habe eine Backzeitschrift gekauft! Ein Schritt Richtung Spießertum? Dafür waren aber ein paar eher ungewöhnliche Rezeptideen darin, die mich bestimmt noch ein paar Sonntagssüße lang begleiten werden... 

Viel, viel feines Sonntagssüß findet ihr dieses Mal bei Nina.

Heute gab es für unser perfektes Sonntagsglück und als Proviant für einen langen Spazierganz mit Treibholzsuche am Rhein, diese netten "Weißen Walnussküchlein mit rosa Pfeffer", wie sie im Original (in der Zeitschrift Back-Ideen, Nr. 1 Januar,/Februar 2012) hießen. Ein näherer Blick auf das Rezept verrät, dass außerdem noch Karotten zum Einsatz kommen. Das Ergebnis ist, so viel sei versprochen, eine Geschmacksexplosion!

Man nehme/you need:

250 Gramm Butter

250 Gramm Puderzucker/ icing sugar

4 Eier/eggs

200 Gramm zerstoßene Walnüsse/pounded walnuts

200 Gramm fein geriebene Karotten/finely grated carotts

300 Gramm Mehl/all-purpose flour

1 Päckchen Backpulver/15 gramm backing powder

1 Prise Salz/a pinch of salt

1 Päckchen Vanillezucker/15 gramm vanilla sugar

 125 Gramm weiße Schokolade/white chocolate

8 EL rosa Pfeffer/8 TBL pink pepper aka Peruvian Pepper

Walnusshälften/split Walnuts

• Butter und Puderzucker schaumig schlagen, Eier nach und nach unter rühren/beat together butter and icing sugar, add one egg   at a time.
• Nüsse und Karotten unter die Masse heben, mit Mehl,  Backpulver und Vanillezucker vermengen/stir in nuts and carotts and add flour, backing powder and vanilla sugar.
• Teig mit einem Esslöffel in kleine Backförmchen (ich hatte nur die aus Papier, deshalb haben meine Küchlein sehr individuelle Formen)  und bei 180°C ca. 20 Minuten backen/ fill the batter with a spoon into small muffin cups and bake at 180°C for approx. 20 min.
• Abkühlen lassen/let the cakes cool down.
• Die weiße Schokolade im Wasserbad schmelzen lassen und du Küchlein damit überziehen, eine halbe Walnuss in die Mitte setzen und mit zerstoßenen Pfefferkörnern bestreuen/ melt the white chocolate and cover the cakes. Place half a walnut in the middle and sprinkle with the pink peppercorn.

Für den Sonntagsausklang hier noch mein Lieblingsmoment des Tages. Ein kleiner, versunkener Augenblick in der Sonne, während der Picknickpause auf unserem Rheinspaziergang. Unsere Treibholzfundstücke präsentiere ich euch demnächst, sobald sie durchgetrocknet sind.

Dazwischen

Ich liebe die Tage zwischen den Jahren. Sie sind so zeitlos. Ich verliere meist völlig den Überblick über die Wochentage und auch das Datum spielt nur noch eine untergeordnete Rolle. Die Tage bei meinen Eltern haben gut getan, wir wurden verwöhnt und Aaron genoss die volle Aufmerksamkeit seiner Groß- und Urgroßeltern und all den Platz in dem großen Haus. Und die Weihnachtsgeschenke der Oma waren ein voller Erfolg, schlicht, schön und der Fantasie keine Grenzen setzend.

Das erste Geschenk war die Waldorf-Puppe Charlie, die so wohl ein Mädchen als auch ein Junge sein könnte, was mir wunderbar gefällt:

Dann hat meine Mutter einen fantastischen Wagen gezaubert, aus einem Möbeltransportbrett mit angeschraubten Regalstützen als Griff. Den Lauflernwagen und das Dreirad können wir getrost verkaufen, Aaron ist völlig mit diesem Wagen beschäftigt, die Möglichkeiten sind unendlich!

Außerdem gab es noch eine große Holzkiste auf der man vorzüglich sitzen und klettern kann und in die man super jede Menge Dinge ein- und ausräumen kann.

Warum nur denken wir immer, wer weiß was für tolle, ausgefeilte Dinge kaufen zu müssen, wenn doch so einfache Sachen den größten Spaß machen?

Und, ich stricke wieder, tata!!! Das Tuch das Aaron trägt habe ich nach einem Besuch in meinem allerliebsten Wollladen gestrickt, mit dieser Anleitung.  2,50€, die sich wirklich gelohnt haben. Ein absolut leichtes Strickmuster mit Suchtpotential, das sowohl für ein Kinderhalstuch als auch für einen Schal für Erwachsene verwendet werden kann. Letzteres befindet sich aktuell auf meinen Nadeln mit Wolle vom Zauberball in einer Farbe die sich "Wer ist die Kokosnuss" nennt.  Aaron hat das Hitchhiker-Halstuch auch noch in Grün, Hellblau und Grau bekommen. Aber das unmögliche Senfgelb steht ihm eigentlich am besten!

Klammheimlich kam der Nikolaus

(Engelsflügelkekse in Schoko mit Zitronenguß nach einer Idee von Katrin)

Der Nikolaus war da! Still und leise wurden, nachdem der Junge im Bett war, die Stiefel gefüllt. Leider passt in Schuhgröße 21 außer ein paar Nüssen noch nicht viel hinein, daher liegen der Hefenikolaus und der Apfel neben den Schuhen. Dazu kamen noch ein paar Klingelsöckchen in die Schuhe, gestrickte Socken vom Flohmarkt die nur rumflogen weil er in denen immer ausrutschte hab ich mit Sockenstoppern versehen und Glöckchen dran genäht.
So richtig viel versteht man zwar mit 15 Monaten noch nicht vom Nikolaus, und auch die Stiefel wurden noch von Mama geputzt, aber ein bisschen Traditionsetablierung muss trotzdem schon sein. Das sind schließlich u.a. die Dinge, über die ich mich als frischgebackene Mama so sehr freue.

To find out more about the German tradition of St. Nikolaus you can check here.


This morning Aaron found his shoes in front of his door and there was this big guy made from sweet bread, an apple and jingle socks:

Happy Nikolaus to you all!