St. Nikolaus and the Choir

So I have finally gotten round to joining a choir again.
Yesterday was my first practice and it was a lot of fun. It is a "gospel" choir is called "Heart and Soul" and is lead by a woman called Hedwig von Mayerhofer. She really knows her stuff!
The reason for the " " on the "gospel" bit is because I don't really think that "good ole German white folk" can really sing gospel, but we are pretty good anyways!!! :-)

Here are 2 audio samples (by another choir) of the two songs we learned yesterday.

Between Heaven and Earth

and

To the left, to the right

Oh did I tell you already that I talked a friend into making the ears and tails? She did a really great job with it too. My kids are now the best looking mice in the play!!!!!!!!!
The ears and tails are currently in school but when they come back I will take a picture. Promise!

I think most of you know, that I am still signed of sick (have been for quite a while now) and it is now getting to the stage, where I am being swamped with paperwork from various branches of the government. They all want to know almost exactly the same things but their questionnaires are all different and all in various forms of legalese! Not fun!



Apart from that it is St. Nikolaus of Myra day tomorrow. In Germany it is tradition that the children put a boot outside the door and during the night St. Nikolaus comes and puts sweets in the boots of good children and coals in the ones of the bad ones, very much like Santa Clause (Father Christmas for my English readership :-) ). You can find some more information here

This evening we were out chasing "Rumpelklausen".
The Rumpeklausen are an "Allgäuer" tradition that has it's origins somewhere with the Celts. The young, unmarried lads from a village or town dress up in rags and furs and run around the village chasing away the demons and bad spirits and scare little children into good behavior while they're at it! LOL
This website will give you a little insight into the tradition although it is in German, but I think pictures in this case say more than a thousand words.
So as I said, we were out for a walk this evening and although my girls have rather big mouths when it comes to teasing and taunting the Rumpelklausen when they are far away across a street, they ran pretty, darn fast, when the Klausen came after them...



My kids are actually quite lucky because in our home we have a symbiosis of German, British and American traditions. We celebrate St. Nikolaus day, the Christkind comes on Christmas Eve and Santa Claus/Father Christmas brings the rest of the presents.
I think my girls are currently at the stage where they know that all these things are not real, but they choose to believe it anyways so they quite anxiously put their boots out and went to bed very well behaved!

Let's see if St. Nikolaus brings anything tonight...



Last but not least, here is a little treat I found today (or rather my mum found it and told me about it):
There is a band called "Fisher" and they have put 8 Christmas songs on their website to download for free, including a cover and inside artwork!
I think the songs are lovely and I also think that this is a very nice Christmas gesture.
So go ahead and download a bit of Christmas spirit into your home:
Fisher Christmas Songs Downloads

"Nothing" or "How to make mouse ears?"

So I had no idea how to start this post or what picture to use so I googled "nothing".
This is what I found and I think it is quite profound for "nothing"




My eldest is on her way to recovery and we have her best friend is her for the weekend as her mother is away.

I found out, that her best friend played truant a few times in the last few weeks.
Her mum leaves for work shortly before best friend (bf in any later mention) leaves for school and today, she decided that she wasn't going to school as she felt a bit ill...
Thing is, the only reason I found out was because my younger one picked her up from home as of course she was supposed to come to my house after school.
For my youngest, however school was out 45 minutes earlier than my eldest (who is in the same class as bf but stayed home as she was still not feeling too great this morning).
Therefore bf was here to early. When I questioned her, she admitted that she had stayed home today and initially said, that her mum knew...
I however had spoken to her mother earlier and she had said that she had told bf to come here straight after school.
So first of all I told my daughters off for covering for her (not this time but the times previous) although I am not sure they actually knew that bf's mother did NOT know and then I had a long talk with bf and I told her that I was not going to tell her mother but she needed to! And I also told her to ask her mother to tell me that she told her.
She did not look happy but agreed.

I am not sure why she did it.
Bf spends most days and quite some nights at my house, because her mum is a single, full time working mum. It does not bother me as my kids get along a lot better with each other when she is here.
However I am worried about her behavior.
I think I am going to have a chat with her mother when she talks to me about bf's truancy.




I have to come up with a way of making mouse ears and mouse tails for my girls until Monday!
They are in a play and my younger one is a stuck up, little, white mouse that wears a fancy dress and has white and pink ears and a sleek white tail.
My older one is Daddy mouse who has to wear a suit and tie and has grey and pink ears and I am not sure what colour her/his tail is supposed to be...
Why on earth they couldn't do their costumes in school (like they did last year) I don't know.
Well they sprung this on me and now I have to make it possible like any super-mum can...


Tomorrow we will get our Christmas decorations out and put them up, bake some cookies and in the evening some friends are coming round to make stars with silver wire and small glass beads. They are really quite pretty!


Here is the beginning of one and an article that was in the paper about my mum giving courses on how to make them. (In German just in case you are wondering why you can't read it... lol)

13... deel acht (#8)

Thirteen things said to me lately

Leonore Zimmermann "Talking about love"

1…. "We will call you on Monday..." (they guys I had an interview with for a translation job today)

2…. "I never get to do anything or go anywhere! I hate you!!!" (one of my daughters because I wouldn't let her sleep over at a friends when her homework wasn't done)

3…. "But I promise to do it when I come back" (same daughter still trying to get me to let her sleep over)

4…. "I love you mummy" (still same daughter that evening, whilst lying in bed after we talked about responsibility)

5…. "But, but, but... I can't do it..." (other daughter about cleaning up the cat food bowls (her chores) - accompanied by an Oscar worthy whine)

6….
A light from behind the clouds.
A flash of white in the air.
My heart leaps as I see your smile appear.
It brightens the face of my love
(Simon via text message when I was feeling very down)

7…. "Don't be nervous about the meeting or your capability , you are a very sound writer and have got brains to spare [ pardon the expression ] you have a clarity of thinking that beggars most people as you don't blather .. They will be lucky if you accept. " (my friend Peter when I was anxious about above mentioned interview)

8…. "now would seem like the right moment to catch yourself unawares and go to bed before your brain releases more chemicals and your mind goes back into over drive..." (again my friend Peter after I had a very arduous day and me feeling extremely tired - very sound advice...)

9…. "You shouldn't tough it out all the time" (my doctor because I am not taking the pain meds as I should)

10…. "Life is so unfair and cruel!" (my younger daughter because my older daughter had a friend round and they didn't want her to play with them)

11…. "Now we don't have any money anymore!" (after I spent my last money this month on a new battery for the car and some petrol)

12…. "It would be great being closer, so I could take you for lunch, coffee or shopping...let the girls loose on a mall altogether with very limited cash flow damage capacity" (my friend Renée who by the way is also the "asker" of the questions of the post before last)

13…. "but here's the rub ... on sisters they need to wobble to make the planet have seasons and become inhabitable, does it have an inclination and a wobble making moon ?" (Peter again... in the midst of our discussion about the sister planet found 20.5 light years away from earth... don't ask...)



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"Try to see it my way."

In response to the post below, a friend suggested I take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, so I would at least know who I was... :-)

Well, here is the result. For those of you who know me a little better, what do you think?


Seems I am in good company...!

The Champion Idealists are abstract in thought and speech, cooperative in accomplishing their aims, and informative and expressive when relating with others. For Champions, nothing occurs which does not have some deep ethical significance, and this, coupled with their uncanny sense of the motivations of others, gives them a talent for seeing life as an exciting drama, pregnant with possibilities for both good and evil. This type is found in only about 3 percent of the general population, but they have great influence because of their extraordinary impact on others. Champions are inclined to go everywhere and look into everything that has to do with the advance of good and the retreat of evil in the world. They can't bear to miss out on what is going on around them; they must experience, first hand, all the significant social events that affect our lives. And then they are eager to relate the stories they've uncovered, hoping to disclose the "truth" of people and issues, and to advocate causes. This strong drive to unveil current events can make them tireless in conversing with others, like fountains that bubble and splash, spilling over their own words to get it all out.

Champions consider intense emotional experiences as being vital to a full life, although they can never quite shake the feeling that a part of themselves is split off, uninvolved in the experience. Thus, while they strive for emotional congruency, they often see themselves in some danger of losing touch with their real feelings, which Champions possess in a wide range and variety. In the same vein, Champions strive toward a kind of spontaneous personal authenticity, and this intention always to "be themselves" is usually communicated non verbally to others, who find it quite attractive. All too often, however, Champions fall short in their efforts to be authentic, and they tend to heap coals of fire on themselves, berating themselves for the slightest self-conscious role-playing.

PS Do you know whose quote the title is?

How am I? Really?

Someone sent me an email today asking me
"How are you? I mean, how are you really?"
It made me think...

How am I, really?

I am struggling with my illness, it is playing havoc with my body.
There is something new wrong about every five minutes. At least it feels like that.
The only drugs that help me with the pain are so strong that I feel all "mushy" and "out of it" when I take them. So I don't take them unless I really can't stand it anymore.
The pain on the other hand makes me aggressive, short tempered and I am always tired.
I don't sleep well and of course, it feels like on big "merry go round" without the merry!

My kids are doing their job and driving me crazy.
They argue... Boy, do they argue!
Watching them sometimes makes you forget they are little girls. When you sort of glance at them out of the corner of your eye while they are going at it you get the impression there are two little Banshees screaming their heads of and tearing each others hair out...
And by the sound of their waling at times, it really does sound like one or the other is about to die...

I do love them dearly!

My work or rather non work situation really frustrates me. Every time I seem to get on my feet with it, my health or something else thwarts my plans.

I need money!
I need work!
I need a break!
I need Simon!
I need a secretary to sort all my paperwork.
I need a nice person that comes along and says "Oh, you want to properly furnish your school? Here is the money and the workers and do you need anything else?"!
I need this stupid illness to magically disappear!
I want my friends right here with me and not halfway across the world!
I need one day, just one day without pain!

So how am I? Well, you figure it out...

Guess what?

My friend just sent me a text message asking how am am and saying that she is stressed...
No mention of Sunday. Didn't I say she would do this about now?
I guess I just have to
a) accept that that is the way she is
and
b) just don't expect more of her...
Is that petty?

A friendly dilemma

What do you do with an unreliable friend?
I had invited a friend round today to have coffee in the afternoon.

And once again, I received a text message to say that she wasn't going to make it, or rather, that she was still at her mums and that she was going to call me later.
This was about 15 minutes after they (she, her boyfriend and her son) were supposed to be here.
So I texted her back asking whether that meant that she was going to be late or (like so many times before) that she wasn't coming. I received an answer about 4 hours later saying that "it had been so nice at her mums and that she had just forgotten the time".

Now, I am not saying that it did not bother me, but I could have dealt with it a lot easier, if I didn't have two rather disappointed girls sitting there crying.
Obviously, they know her and know her track record of not showing up when she is supposed to. My friend has a real problem in saying no. She would rather cancel via text message (she wouldn't dare phone and cancel for fear of people being upset with her) and then wait a few days before calling again in the hope, that things will have blown over by then. I have explained this to my daughters many times and I do tell them not to get their hopes up until my friend is actually standing at our door but they still do...
And today they had helped clean up and get everything nice and tidy, then they had made some lovely paintings for my friend and we had also NOT baked a cake (which we had planned) because my friend said that she would bring something.
So needless to say, my girls were not happy.
Luckily some friends of theirs turned up and they were able to play with them with soon got them laughing again but tonight, at bedtime, my youngest asked me: "Why does she (my friend) never do what she says she is going to do?"
How do you answer that? What do I tell them?
What do I tell her? I have approached the subject several times and she keeps saying "Yes, I know, I won't do it again..." but then she never sticks to it.
I really like her, she is what you could call a sort of best friend. I can talk to her about anything and if I need her she is always there (well, almost) but this is really getting to me and to my daughters.
Do I just bite my tongue and hope it will be better next time? Do I just not invite her anymore? Do I tell her, AGAIN?
I just don't know...
I guess that is enough ranting for now.
On a good note, it is only 3 weeks until Simon will be here again. :-)