It’s been awhile since I have posted an update.  That thing called life sometimes gets in the way of sitting down and writing, but since Hubby and son are watching Star Wars, I took the golden opportunity to come upstairs and do just that.  Nothing against Star Wars.  Actually, that’s not true – I can barely watch five minutes of that show.  I had an older brother that made me watch enough Star Wars for 20 lifetimes, thank you!

Little T finished his first grade at school a few weeks ago.  We were really proud of his report card, especially with his evaluation in German. The only issues the teacher pointed out are that his spelling is sloppy, and that he doesn’t seem confident expressing himself in German.  We think he is just lazy, as he doesn’t always answer our questions either.  He also did well in Music, Sports and surprisingly English (!)

He was pretty excited to be off school for six weeks, but had this vision that he would spend his days lounging on the coach watching TV, or playing computer games.  I had to burst his bubble with the announcement that his first week off would be spent in the school daycamp and the second week in an outdoor camp as I needed to work. He wasn’t too pleased at first, but after his first week at the school daycamp, he asked if I could enrol him for the following week. He seemed to have lots of fun collecting snails and scaring the girls with them.

The second week of outdoor camp just finished today, and he really enjoyed that too.  He spent four days of being outside in a beautiful forest, eight hours each day.  He got to learn how to make fresh bread on a stick over a campfire, cook fish, make a house out of logs, ride a pony, build a raft, and search for treasure in a Pirate hunt.   Drinks were served out of glass, as the camp is trying to teach the kids to be environmentally friendly.  Each day he came home dirty and tired. Best money we ever spent on childcare.

Hubby has been home a lot more over the last number of months as his role at work changed to more of a Service than Sales role (suggestion he had made).  It has been really nice having him home more, and not just for meal making! (OK, that’s been really nice too). Weather permitting; he usually hops on his bike after work to unwind with a good bike workout.  If it is raining, he heads to the gym.
He has also done a great job with our gardens, planting zucchini, eggplant, carrots and herbs including Rosemary, parsley, basil, dill, chives and lavender (with help from Little T). He also created this beautiful fountain surrounded by rocks that lights up. It is so heavenly to sit outside and listen to it in the evening, or during our al fresco breakfasts on the week-ends.

The weather here has been off and on with sunshine and warm days to cooler days with rain. I don’t think it has reached 30 degrees here yet, but I really don’t mind.  We have no air conditioning, and there has been no problem with the house getting too hot or sleeping.  Usually we have the window wide open so we can feel the breeze all night and be woken by the sun and chirping birds. I’m not much of a sun worshiper anymore. I am much more comfortable in the shade, enjoying the sunshine from a distance.

Speaking of biking, I have picked up a bit of the bike bug myself.   I normally picked Little T up from school by bike, and even if I had the car, I would still prefer to take my bike into town to run errands or go to the gym.  When the weather started to get really nice, I found it hard to get motivated to go indoors to do a course at the gym, so I decided to hop on my bike and ride.  At first I wasn’t getting much of a workout, as I was too distracted looking around at the cows, horses and beautiful fields on my ride.  And the smell of the flowers is so
intoxicating.  I’m convinced every house here grows roses.  But I now try to push myself to get my heart going, and usually bike in top gear.  This past week I biked 30 minutes to the next village to buy some fish, and Hubby biked from work to meet me for lunch. Another reason why we like sending Little T to Camp!

Last month we hosted Canada Day, a week earlier than the official day. We joined this group of Canadians that live in the area and meet up every few months or so. It is comforting meeting with other Canadians and hearing their stories of how they came to Germany – in addition to having others to speak English with!  The gathering was a lot of fun.  A good friend of ours from Ontario was visiting that same week-end and brought along a Canadian Flag which we hung from our gate with pride.  Other members brought Canadian paraphernalia too…all we needed were some beavers!  Even the kids got to roast marshmallows over our charcoal BBQ.  (Hubby wasn’t too impressed with the clean up of the grill, though.)  We ended the day by singing “O Canada” together which left me feeling very moved.

Life has been good to us.  We are healthy, enjoy the outdoors as much as we can, and are blessed to have had good friends visit us last month.  We look forward to my sister and two nephew’s visit in just a few weeks!

We have realized how fortunate we are and try to look forward to all the small pleasures that each day brings.  Riding our bikes or just sitting quietly in our backyard has so much soul.  Even when it rains, we try not get down but instead feel grateful that our herbs and plants that are getting a drink.  Besides, listening to the rain and feeling the breeze with the door wide open in a room surrounded by candle light is pretty nice too.

I hope your summer is filled with amazing moments and love.