{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.

Can you hear the bells ringing?

While the Lady enjoyes her first weeks of life mainly sleeping and nursing we are facing the not so pleasant sides of getting a child in this country when only one member of the family has an income and the other one is still struggeling with language, papers and offices. You wouldn't believe how much paperwork needs to be done right now. Most of the stuff I can't even translate but there are insurance issues, child suppport, maternity leave support and sooo much more. I get tired just looking at the heap on my desk.
Maya also recieved her very first official letter, her own tax number! What a wonderful first letter to get in your life isn't it?! I love this country...

Another thing that was supposed to be a very good one and turned out to be rather nasty, is the fact that Nathan got his resident permit in February. Actually a very, very helpful step but for us at the moment it only makes a difference in him having to pay for his own insurance which was taken care of by the asylum office before. We have an insurance duty in Germany, so we can't choose but have to pay almost 300 Euro per month since February which we just found out about now. Yeah!

In order to avoid those costs as soon as possible we decided to get married, soon. I have always dreamed of such a romantic way of gettig married... but when we are married my insurance has to take him for free so that is almost romantic, right?!
Not that it would be particularly easy or cheap to get married in Germany as a binational couple...  They only accept German certificates so everything needs to be translated (for a lot of money). And we would need a bachelor certificate from Uganda, which we have to hand in here and which then gets send back to the German embassy in Uganda (on our costs) and checked there to be right or wrong. To cut an even longer story short: getting married in Germany is not possible for us. Not if we still want it to be done this year anyway. So, we do what most other binational couples in Germany do, we will get married in Denmark.

The whole procedure is rather absurd because instead of the bachelor certificate the Danish only need a simple paper, written by the German authorities stating that we are not married. Do you get the absurdity of it? The Danish accept a German paper which the Germans don't accept themself. But the marriage sealed with that paper in Denmark is then again accepted by the Germans. Sooooo weird!!! But I am not complaining too loud as long as we get the chance to get married at all. The Danish also accept all papers in German and English, so no translations needed. The only thing they want in some of the parishes is that you stay three nights or that you bring your own witnesses. So we rather spend some money on a small family holiday in Denmark than wasting it for German paperworks. And as soon as we figure out the transportation (we don't own a car so we have to find someone willing to drive us) we will we off. 

For the trip across the border, Maya will need a passport so we had the pleasure of taking passport pictures today, which was fun and toke forever. And at the tender age of three weeks she already looks like someone from a "Wanted" poster...

Oh yes, there are so many wonderful ways to spend the first weeks with your new baby...

{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.

Celebrating neighbourhood

Last Saturday we had some special guests at home, our neighbours and my favourite radio station Funkhaus Europa.  That radio station plays music from all over the world, covering global and local issues concerning migration and culture. 

It all began with me, listening to that radio station one morning last week hearing them looking for the most international house in the area. Without much thinking about it I wrote an email telling them about how we live in this rented house with six apartment with seven nations under the same roof. There is us, a Ugandan-German family, a Romanian-Iranian couple, a Turkish family, a Russian couple, some Germans about to move in and a family from Peru living on the top floor. The Funkhaus Europa Team somehow liked what I told them. Unfortunatly for them I hadn't given them my number, just an adress and they tried to contact me with all means, email, Facebook etc. But by then I had decided it all was a rather bad idea, I hadn't even talked to my neighbours about it and they would  maybe not want to give an interview anyway. Well, that reporter did not give up and showed up unannounced at my doorstep on Friday. He was very, very friendly and so happy with what he found I agreed to join in the adventure. 

Together we talked to our neighbours and invited everyone for the next morning into our apartment where the broadcasting would be happening. The turkish served us coffee as soon as they opend the door and invited us to their sons wedding the following weekend but because of that wedding they would not be able to join the show, some neighbours were not home but the Russian lady and the guy from Peru came downstairs the next day.

Shanli, the reporter to do the interviews showed up an hour before with croissants and we all sat and got to know eachother a lot better than we had before. It was so, so nice and Shanlis questions made it even more interesting. (So far we had only known eachother briefly through lending tools or an egg, saying good morning while passing by. ) Now we found out, how all of us (except me) had simular experiences coming to Germany without speaking the language, struggeling with offices and work. The guy from Peru, Edwin, and Nathan found out they both love football, chess and chinese food, a new friendship has started.

Of course Aaron enjoyed our guests as much as we did, he served "tea" and even said "Hello" when Shanli talked to him with the microphone...

They gave us a Bocce game as a present for the whole house to play together and t-shirts but most of all they made us talk to each other, feel more connected and enjoy our community. Thank you so much Funkhaus Europa! 

You can find some more pictures taken by Shanli on the Funkhaus Europa website here.

Photo taken by Shanli Anwar, Funkhaus Europa

The best out of it

 
Two weeks ago I stopped working for good, well, at least for the next year. I counted the days in the end. There was just no more space for working matters on my mind, baby thoughts occupying it all. Due date is only by the end of March, but somehow time passes so fast and there are still so many open projects, plans and dreams I have for the baby, for me and this family, so, so much and at the same time there is the need to just sit down, relax, keep breeding and let the waves of early labor preparations pass.
In Cologne its the busy, crazy season of carneval but being rather pregnant I felt the need to escape all of that this year. We found refuge at my parents place in the quiet parts of northern Germany where such things as carnevals are almost unknown. By the time we arrived at my parents Aarons temperatur was up and a flue had taken over his small body. So the last days we tried to calm things down even more. There is a lot of knitting, sleeping and cuddling, some playing, some spinning, a visit to the hospital just to make sure he is still ok and a few short but wonderful walks in the cold. A little bit of everything...

 

 

 

Winter is still ruling this part of the world, but if you look closer you can find the first signs of spring:

I hope your days are peaceful.

A Full Basket - Weekending

Today I am joing Amanda from "the habit of being" for weekending

A full weekend is coming to its ends right now, boy in bed, man on the couch, me at the computer. A weekend I will remember, a full basket.

It all started with a wonderful package in the mail, from Barbara of 60°Nord. Inside a special little lavender filled pillow, made from the same fabric she used for the ring pillow for her own wedding! So, so special and sweet! I will treasure this gift Barbara, thank you so much! (I noticed the pillow shows the wrong way in the picture but it was too dark now to take a new one. The letter "G" for Gesche is embroidered!)

Barbara just moved to Sweden with her husband so she sent this postcard from Stockholm that you see in the background.

All of Saturday was spent with good friends of ours (Aarons godfather and his wife) who had invited us for a special day-off. We had a lovely afternoon at their place. Aaron loves his godfather, because he owns a rather scary pink bunny that can dance and sing a rock'n'roll song when you press its foot. Each time again a special highlight. Thank god we are not allowed to take it home...

In the evening we went for a wonderful Afghanish dinner, very yummy!

Oh, yes, it is cherry season! Kirschenzeit! My season. And finally, this weekend there was this bright yellow thing in the sky again people told me it is called sun. I had almost forgotten... 

So after helping a friend of ours shifting in the morning (some helped more, some less) we spent the rest  of Sunday in the park, refueling on Vitamin D and summer feeling in general.

Last but not least I want to announce the winner of my small give-away from last week:

Congratulations Enim Sou! :-)

(I will contact you for your adress)

{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.

Weekending in the rain

Today I am joing Amanda from "the habit of being" for weekending

Somewhere I read today is the 15th of July. I had to read it twice and still can't believe it. It is raining and raining and raining and the temperatures stay around 15°C/ 60°F. So coats, wellies and the like are in daily use. Aaron has not complained about it yet, he doesn't mind if he plays in a puddle or a pool. So I guess I am the only one being unflexible here...

I adjusted by starting to crochet. Little blossoms agains the disaster in my little outside garden (even the mint has drowned!) Finally I know how to use up all my bits and pieces of handspun yarn. Both yarns are made from the fibre I dyed at the workshop the other weekend (yellow with onion skin, red with madder). If you like I can send you a handfull, just let me know in the comment which color you'd like or if you want a mix of both. (I will choose a winner randomly if more of you are interested ;-) )

One of the blossoms I used for another project of this rainy weekend, the birthday crown of my friends daughter Lola (the one you see playing with Aaron in the first picture) Aarons crown is also in the making, his birthday is coming up end of August... My idea is, to keep the crowns rather simple this year and add a little extra detail to it each birthday so by the time they are grown up they have a fully decorated crown with lots of memories of every single birthday. That should be a lovely family tradition I hope.

Besides the usual playground outing we did a little extra trip yesterday and went for a visit to Cologne Airport. A great activity on rainy days! Some half hour train ride, long indoor corridors to run in freely, lots of cafés and a terrace to watch the planes landing and starting. I can really recommend this outing!

I already mentioned the playground visits, but did you ever see a playground with kids paintings pinned to the trees? Isn't that a wonderful thing! How generous and creative, just what I needed to complete this wet but somehow perfect weekend.

I hope your weekend was less rainy and equally fun! I would love to hear about it!

It's done...

Ok it didn't get much bigger from when I showed it to you yesterday, but it is done! I feel like this is just the right size for a wall hanger. Sorry, the picture didn't turn out very well but I only had two nails in a rather dark spot and didn't want to add any new once since I will give this quilt to my granddad. 

One apron was left, it didn't fit too well with the other but I used it as the backing. If I had to choose the colors for my own quilt I wouldn't match those fabrics, but since I wanted to use my grandmothers aprons that's what came out of it... And I love it and can't wait to give it to my granddad.

Gut Ding will Weile haben

"Gut Ding will Weile habe" we say in German for things, that have taken a long time but somehow turn out well in the end. Leo translates it to "Haste makes waste". The plan to make a quilt from my late grandmothers aprons (I showed them here) has been in my mind for a good while now, supported by the wonderful Barbara, who sent me a copy of an american quilting magazin for beginners. I must say that this really kicked me to keep it up, but also knocked me down a bit after I found out that some utensiles are really helpful and nessecary to start quilting. I had none of that. But, with financial support (indirectly also from my grandmom, because my granddad had shared some of her money with us) I ordered the missing pieces (mat and cutter) and yesterday night I did it! Well, I am not finished yet, but for some reason, this is one of the few projects I don't mind about how long it might talk. It just feels sooooo good to worship something my grandmother used to wear on a daily basis and upcycle it into something else.

I am even using some old thread I have found in my grandmothers sewing basket. I was so happy when I thought about it in time for the project. What else would it be better to use it for.
Acctually I am not quite sure yet, what the quilt will end up as, a wall hanging, a small blanket or a pillow cover. I am doing it step by step, holding fabric pieces, choosing carefully what piece to place where. There is no plan, no exact aim. I am floating and savoring every moment of working at this project.

That is how I decided to use the button lines as well, and some part of a pocket. It just happend, it just felt right.
To not overwhelm the pattern I added some plain linen (from Ikea). I think it matches the vintage style. Into the centre of the quilt I printed my very favourite picture of my grandparents, riding a camel in Tunisia on one of their many trips around the world.

My plan is to give the finished quilt to my grandfather for his birthday in August. I am just not sure if he can take it, we'll have to see.

I never expected quilting to be so much fun, if there wasn't all that spinning, knitting, gardening, blogging, playing, baking, loving to do (and a wee bit of working too) I would do it all day long ;-)

In love...

Glimpses

The last weekend only lasted from Sunday to Monday but somehow it felt so much longer. I guess that is how you know it was a really good one. Despite all the rain we spent a good time of it outside in the woods, splashing through paddles and muddy places. Unfortunatly I have not discovered yet, how to take good pictures in the woods. They all get blurry. Just imagine a small boy jumping into a paddle here:

Inbetween rain showers I managed to go treasure hunting at a flea market and of course I can't spare you with some pictures of my favourite pickings:

Some lovely vintage towels. So many ways to use them I will still take some time to decide...

A vintage clutch which I might use to carry small projects.

This fantastic old whiskey box.

A beautiful childrensbook telling the story of a japanese cherrytree that stopped blossoming during war and how the people cared for it so it would blossom again. A very sweet story.

I also found a few meters of light blue crocheted lace. Some of it has been brought to use immediatly:

Aaron tried to help a little...

There was also another birthday to deal with. It was celebrated with a special breakfast and a looong, kid-free afternoon with old girlfriends and young(er) sisters. I was showered with lovely thoughtful gifts, such as a foot massage, a soon to come afghanish dinner out, the fanstastic new book "Reinvention" by Maya, flowers and this very friendly garden gnome torch made from 100% beeswax by handicapped people in a Camphill Community. Isn't he cute?

I hope you all had a good start into this week, wishing you a lovely one!