I delivered newspapers six days a week from when I was ten until I was 18, which involved getting up around 4:30 in the morning. Saturdays I would "sleep in", pleased if I made it all the way to 8:00, until I got a regular Saturday morning babysitting job that started at 6:00 a.m., so then it was seven days a week that I was up early. Then followed my year in Mexico, where I likewise got up fairly early because I had to be at work (volunteering in a children's home) early, and then one more year living with my parents and taking a more-than-full college schedule (I don't remember what time my classes started, but I do remember that I very often had to have my car jump started because I left home in the dark and arrived once it was light and forgot to turn my headlights off) as well as working more than full-time. And once you have a reputation for getting up early, they say, then you can sleep in for the rest of your life.
So in 1991 I moved to Germany to be a nanny for the children of an opera singer...who necessarily kept late hours, and the children didn't need to be at preschool (Kindergarten in German) until 9:00, so I was no longer such an early riser, for the next two years, anyway. Then I started working in the Kindergarten myself (as an apprentice or Praktikantin), so had to be there at 7:30 or 8:00 for the next year, then the next two years I was in school (Fachschule für Sozialpädagogik, for anyone who knows the German system...no real equivalent in the U.S.), then my final year as an intern (Annerkenungjahr) in yet another Kindergarten, so that was four years of getting up decently early...
...and then Marie was born. For her first six weeks, she woke up and wanted to play at 4:30 a.m. every single morning. We went to Costa Rica for two weeks, where she had no jet lag whatsoever, waking up at 4:30 local time every single morning. Then two weeks in the U.S., where she likewise adapted immediately and woke up at 4:30 every single morning.
But when we got back home to Germany, when she was 10 weeks old, she DID have jet lag, sleeping until at least 9:00 a.m.! She was happy and I was happy, and I was rarely up before 8:30 or 9:00 any morning in the next 14 1/2 years. (Well, okay, for the three years and two weeks that my husband's great-aunt lived with us, I did have to have breakfast on the table at 8:30 every morning, but that meant that I got up at about 8:27 and it was convenient that she was practically blind, because she would have strongly disapproved of my being at the breakfast table in a nightgown, if she had known.) Because of my earlier reputation of being an early riser, though, I did continue to occasionally get early morning phone calls from my mother for about 10 of those years, because she continued to think of me as an early riser. (And she has always been one, as far as I know, and still is.) She eventually figured it out, commenting that it was so easy to deal with the supposedly nine-hour time difference (California to Germany) because we stayed up so late and got up so late, and she was used to going to bed early and getting up early, that she could practically keep her same schedule and it matched ours. (Likewise practical when we were in California--I would stumble out to the living room at 5:00 a.m. because I couldn't sleep, and Mom was usually already awake and reading or getting ready to go for a walk.)
Aaaaanyway...point being, For at least 14 years, I had been accustomed to rarely going to bed before midnight, and considering any time before 8:30 in the morning to be way too early. When I happened to be up earlier, I enjoyed it, but not enough to decide to go to bed earlier, so it was a rare occurence. Until May last year...
Although I had been out for occasional walks in the morning during our first three and a half years here, it was exactly one year ago today, May 18, 2012, that I started going out EVERY day, even wearing tennis shoes rather than sandals, and I've been LOVING it. When only the little girls and I were in Germany for ten days last summer I wasn't able to go walking on my own, and I didn't manage every day while we were in Germany, Costa Rica, Germany in February/March this year (although I did go out a lot of them, about five or six days a week!), but I've only missed about three other days because of sleeping too long.
So anyway... to be able to bear going outside and actually moving throughout the summer, I had to go really early, usually leaving by 5:30 at the very latest, often by 5:00, and even as early as 4:30 more than once. With autumn I could set out a little later, in fact, had to, if I didn't want to walk in the dark, but I still needed to be home by 7:30 some days anyway, so I was glad about the time change at the end of October which meant that I could leave at 5:30 again.
And then NaNo happened...
Marie and I kind of talked each other into participating in National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, which is a challenge to write a 50,000-word piece of fiction within the month of November. I would have quit on the first day if she hadn't been bugging me. Or on the second. Or third. In fact, I think I threatened to quit every single day except for the last two. But the only way for me to write 1667 words a day (not counting e-mails and Facebook and other easy rambling) was to write some every morning. So even though it wasn't light until 6:00, I kept getting up at about 5:00, almost every single morning, to write for an hour before going out for a walk.
What I have NOT done a single time in this year is set an alarm. (Well, I did two or three times to take someone to the airport. But not to walk or to write.) Three reasons for that: I hate alarms and waking up to one puts me in a bad mood; setting an alarm would be rather counter-productive as that would likely wake up small people that need to stay asleep for me to go out; and if I need an alarm to wake me up, I figure I actually need to sleep more than I need to get up.
By December, though, NaNoWriMo was over (Marie and I both finished!) and it was still pretty dark even at 6:00, and darker every morning, and I keep waking up at 5:00 or before and I did not WANT to be awake then! One night I read for absolutely as long as I could keep my eyes open, in fact, at one point I caught myself thinking I was still reading but I actually had my eyes closed. I finally gave up and turned off the light at about 11:30. And I woke up at 4:45. I refused to get out of bed and tossed and turned until 5:55, but never went back to sleep. Six months before that I was reluctantly turning off my light at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. just because I knew I ought to try to sleep, and dragging myself out of bed at 8:00 or 9:00 because children needed feeding or at least refereeing.
After all those years of being up early (and enjoying it), I can't believe it took me 15 more years to remember how much I love being up early, and what a wonderful start to the day it is just to wake up because I've finished sleeping!
Saturday, May 18, 2013
My parents' visit, part three
Final installment! I'd already written most of this, but wanted to put photos in, which means sorting through them in Picasa and exporting them, none of which is difficult, but is easier with two hands and no interruptions. I finally got around to it just now and discovered...that we hardly took any photos the rest of the time my parents were here. Oh well.
So...we took it a bit easier Friday, just walking downtown for ice cream in the morning, tidying up the house a bit in the afternoon, and having house group in the evening. Marie had church band practice, but not youth band practice, and youth group wasn't happening, either. And looking through the photos reminded me that my mother also taught Katie and Lukas to knit. :-)
Saturday was much the same at first, except that it included shopping, one of my favorite activities. Not. But much more pleasant in company that isn't into shopping either. :-) At Metro my mother got a birthday present for Jörn AND found seven granola bowls (probably "dessert bowls" or something, but they are PERFECT for my granola!) which she said were for my birthday. :-) (And she would have gotten more, but they only had seven.) And then Marie needed a new swimsuit, so my mom and I picked her up after a meeting Marie had at LCC and continued our shopping spree with a third non-shopping-lover. Both thrift stores were closed, so then we tried Orphanides, which is bankrupt and half empty and in which I hadn't been since about October, but I thought we might get a good deal. And we would have, if they had had any swimsuits, which they didn't. They did, however, have some very nice drinking glasses which were 60% off, and my mom bought (so she thought...) 24 of them. (When we got home and unpacked them, we discovered that one of the six boxes contained only three, not four glasses. And since then, the total has been reduced to 21...) Carrefour also didn't have any swimsuits, so I finally gave in and we went to Marks and Spencer, where we had bought the swimsuit for Marie two years ago which still fits her, but of which the elastic is completely useless now. Elisabeth is wearing swimsuits that were handed down to Marie 15 years ago and the elastic is still going strong, but oh well, I guess they don't make things like they used to. (How do I insert a wry chuckle here, mostly laughing at myself sounding so old??) At least we found a gorgeous swimsuit for Marie, and then my mother insisted on paying for it, too. :-)
Just because, here's another photos of Dad with Makenzy:
Saturday evening was Jörn's birthday party, his birthday having been the day my parents arrived. We'd had a cheesecake on the day, and we don't always have a party, but he'd decided he wanted one this year, complete with a lot of guests. Of course, just ourselves made 10 people, and we invited another family of ten and a family of five, as well as two families of two people each and one more person, making exactly 30 people. It wasn't any more chaotic than it is with just us here, and it was great fun. We did take several photos, but they're mostly of people sitting around, so here's one just of Jörn explaining what's what on the buffet, prepared by him, of course. (I made the cornbread! And the cake. :-) )
Jörn requested a cake with fire on it. I tried, but I think it looks more like a flower. And I couldn't decide what color background to make, then decided not to make ANY background, claiming that that was so that the three dairy-free guests could also eat a piece of cake (the cake itself doesn't have milk, but I made the frosting with cream cheese).
On Sunday my parents opted to attend Larnaka Community Church, where Marie was, as usual, playing violin in the band. Katie and Elisabeth went with us, and since we were so close to the sea front, we meandered over there and had some more ice cream before going home. After lunch my parents and I played a game, and then when Jörn and the others got home, we went over to Sue's and Richard's house, as we normally do every other Sunday. The children watched a movie and the rest of us played several games.
Monday returned to non-school-holiday schedule. Jörn had to go back to work and I had Writers' Group in the morning, so it was nice having my parents here to babysit. At some point my dad and Lukas went out for a walk (and had ice cream), and they played games and survived. :-) In the afternoon my mom went with Helen to her drama class, while Katie and Lukas went to Discoveries, and activity group for 6-11-year-olds at LCC. We'd planned for some of us to go to the beach after that, but there'd been quite a downpour and we decided that it wasn't really beach weather.
Ever since my parents had come a year and a half ago and my mother had expressed an interest in sailing in a small sailboat, I'd hoped to be able to take her out in Richard's boat, Galini, so we'd tried to organize that earlier during their stay. However, the weather wasn't very cooperative, either too stormy or too calm, but on the final day, it was pretty perfect. Normally I go to Sue's house on Tuesday mornings with the three little girls, but that wasn't impossible to change, and in any case, Katie had been wanting to have a one-on-one visit with Sue. So Lukas went with Jörn to the Tuesday-morning art group as always, Katie went to Sue's house, Jacob and my dad stayed home with Helen and Elisabeth (they did go out for ice cream, I heard), and my mom, Marie, and I went sailing!
Galini hadn't been used all winter and Tim (Richard's sailing partner) and Jacob had done some work on her while Richard and Sue were in England recently, so it took awhile to get everything set up, but it all worked. I was REALLY nervous about sailing "by myself" for the first time since last summer, only having sailed one other time without Richard, and that was at the end of last summer, having just spent the summer learning to sail, and with Marie, who has much more experience than I do. Some of my tacks were very wobbly, to say the least, but contrary to some people (this was supposed to link to a blogpost I can't find, about a friend who capsized the boat four years ago...), my mother was excellent at immediately going to the best place to go to balance the boat, and we had a wonderful time. I did relax eventually, but then got kind of panicky when it was time to bring the boat in. I told Marie that I might be at the helm, but I needed her to tell me exactly what to do, which direction to turn what and when and why, and I wasn't even sure I even cared about the why, just tell me what to do! This is why I love sailing with Marie--she did all that, but without one single moment of acting superior or making me feel silly. Not to mention that she was exactly right and we brought Galini in beautifully and in one piece. :-)
In the afternoon my parents had been invited to see a run-through of the play in which Lukas will be performing in a couple of weeks, "The Twits," and they enjoyed it very much.
The highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing a hedgehog in the garden (that's "yard" to Americans!)--the first hedgehog I've seen since we came to Cyprus. I'd heard that there were hedgehogs here, but had a hard time believing it, as I haven't ever seen a dead one on the road, whereas in Germany, we saw them all the time. (As well as two or three live ones...)
My dad got in a last cuddle with Makenzy...
...and then my parents had an overnight flight to Jerusalem (to see my brother and his wife and their brand-new baby), and will be back next week for a couple of days before returning to the U.S. It was very odd saying "See you next week!" when dropping them off at the airport--this has to be the first time in 22 years that I knew when saying goodbye at an airport when I'd next see them, and made it much easier!
So...we took it a bit easier Friday, just walking downtown for ice cream in the morning, tidying up the house a bit in the afternoon, and having house group in the evening. Marie had church band practice, but not youth band practice, and youth group wasn't happening, either. And looking through the photos reminded me that my mother also taught Katie and Lukas to knit. :-)
Saturday was much the same at first, except that it included shopping, one of my favorite activities. Not. But much more pleasant in company that isn't into shopping either. :-) At Metro my mother got a birthday present for Jörn AND found seven granola bowls (probably "dessert bowls" or something, but they are PERFECT for my granola!) which she said were for my birthday. :-) (And she would have gotten more, but they only had seven.) And then Marie needed a new swimsuit, so my mom and I picked her up after a meeting Marie had at LCC and continued our shopping spree with a third non-shopping-lover. Both thrift stores were closed, so then we tried Orphanides, which is bankrupt and half empty and in which I hadn't been since about October, but I thought we might get a good deal. And we would have, if they had had any swimsuits, which they didn't. They did, however, have some very nice drinking glasses which were 60% off, and my mom bought (so she thought...) 24 of them. (When we got home and unpacked them, we discovered that one of the six boxes contained only three, not four glasses. And since then, the total has been reduced to 21...) Carrefour also didn't have any swimsuits, so I finally gave in and we went to Marks and Spencer, where we had bought the swimsuit for Marie two years ago which still fits her, but of which the elastic is completely useless now. Elisabeth is wearing swimsuits that were handed down to Marie 15 years ago and the elastic is still going strong, but oh well, I guess they don't make things like they used to. (How do I insert a wry chuckle here, mostly laughing at myself sounding so old??) At least we found a gorgeous swimsuit for Marie, and then my mother insisted on paying for it, too. :-)
Just because, here's another photos of Dad with Makenzy:
Saturday evening was Jörn's birthday party, his birthday having been the day my parents arrived. We'd had a cheesecake on the day, and we don't always have a party, but he'd decided he wanted one this year, complete with a lot of guests. Of course, just ourselves made 10 people, and we invited another family of ten and a family of five, as well as two families of two people each and one more person, making exactly 30 people. It wasn't any more chaotic than it is with just us here, and it was great fun. We did take several photos, but they're mostly of people sitting around, so here's one just of Jörn explaining what's what on the buffet, prepared by him, of course. (I made the cornbread! And the cake. :-) )
Jörn requested a cake with fire on it. I tried, but I think it looks more like a flower. And I couldn't decide what color background to make, then decided not to make ANY background, claiming that that was so that the three dairy-free guests could also eat a piece of cake (the cake itself doesn't have milk, but I made the frosting with cream cheese).
On Sunday my parents opted to attend Larnaka Community Church, where Marie was, as usual, playing violin in the band. Katie and Elisabeth went with us, and since we were so close to the sea front, we meandered over there and had some more ice cream before going home. After lunch my parents and I played a game, and then when Jörn and the others got home, we went over to Sue's and Richard's house, as we normally do every other Sunday. The children watched a movie and the rest of us played several games.
Monday returned to non-school-holiday schedule. Jörn had to go back to work and I had Writers' Group in the morning, so it was nice having my parents here to babysit. At some point my dad and Lukas went out for a walk (and had ice cream), and they played games and survived. :-) In the afternoon my mom went with Helen to her drama class, while Katie and Lukas went to Discoveries, and activity group for 6-11-year-olds at LCC. We'd planned for some of us to go to the beach after that, but there'd been quite a downpour and we decided that it wasn't really beach weather.
Ever since my parents had come a year and a half ago and my mother had expressed an interest in sailing in a small sailboat, I'd hoped to be able to take her out in Richard's boat, Galini, so we'd tried to organize that earlier during their stay. However, the weather wasn't very cooperative, either too stormy or too calm, but on the final day, it was pretty perfect. Normally I go to Sue's house on Tuesday mornings with the three little girls, but that wasn't impossible to change, and in any case, Katie had been wanting to have a one-on-one visit with Sue. So Lukas went with Jörn to the Tuesday-morning art group as always, Katie went to Sue's house, Jacob and my dad stayed home with Helen and Elisabeth (they did go out for ice cream, I heard), and my mom, Marie, and I went sailing!
Galini hadn't been used all winter and Tim (Richard's sailing partner) and Jacob had done some work on her while Richard and Sue were in England recently, so it took awhile to get everything set up, but it all worked. I was REALLY nervous about sailing "by myself" for the first time since last summer, only having sailed one other time without Richard, and that was at the end of last summer, having just spent the summer learning to sail, and with Marie, who has much more experience than I do. Some of my tacks were very wobbly, to say the least, but contrary to some people (this was supposed to link to a blogpost I can't find, about a friend who capsized the boat four years ago...), my mother was excellent at immediately going to the best place to go to balance the boat, and we had a wonderful time. I did relax eventually, but then got kind of panicky when it was time to bring the boat in. I told Marie that I might be at the helm, but I needed her to tell me exactly what to do, which direction to turn what and when and why, and I wasn't even sure I even cared about the why, just tell me what to do! This is why I love sailing with Marie--she did all that, but without one single moment of acting superior or making me feel silly. Not to mention that she was exactly right and we brought Galini in beautifully and in one piece. :-)
In the afternoon my parents had been invited to see a run-through of the play in which Lukas will be performing in a couple of weeks, "The Twits," and they enjoyed it very much.
The highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing a hedgehog in the garden (that's "yard" to Americans!)--the first hedgehog I've seen since we came to Cyprus. I'd heard that there were hedgehogs here, but had a hard time believing it, as I haven't ever seen a dead one on the road, whereas in Germany, we saw them all the time. (As well as two or three live ones...)
My dad got in a last cuddle with Makenzy...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
My parents' visit, part two: Paphos
Thursday (May 9th) was our biggest outing with my parents, driving all the way to Paphos, another place I had never been. Last summer, while the little girls and I were in Germany and Marie was in Greece, Jörn and the boys had gone to Avakas Gorge and really enjoyed it, and were eager to share it with the rest of us. There was a bit of confusion as to who actually had directions and who should be following whom, but we did eventually arrive... For future reference, ask tourists, not locals, for directions. It was only when I finally asked someone who looked like an absolutely typical tourist and turned out to be one, only having arrived the day before, that I was given decent directions!
Having arrived considerably later than planned, we didn't carry our picnic on the "hike", but ate it at the parking lot, which had a shaded picnic table, before starting out.
That turned out to be a very good idea, as much of the hike was actually a climb or a balance or a scramble or a jump, and it would have been very awkward to carry our impractically packed plastic containers and bags!
Avakas Gorge is beautiful and was completely worth the long drive and even all the detours on the way there, and we took way too many photos, of which the following are only a selection.
I forgot to take either the sling or the Ergo carrier, so carried Elisabeth like this for the first few minutes, but she soon got down and walked. I wouldn't have been able to carry her while climbing anyway, not even in a carrier.
The photo below doesn't show how high this rock was, nor how slippery, making it very difficult to get up onto. Most of us helped each other (at one point I slipped off completely and if I hadn't been holding both Marie's AND Jörn's hands, I would have landed pretty hard!), but my mom insisted on doing it completely herself, saying, "I can do it by MYSELF!!" in exactly the same way Elisabeth does. ;-P
Somewhere in this picture is a stranded baby goat, calling to its mama, slightly higher, who was calling back. I hope they managed to reconnect and get to safer ground...
We then drove into the city of Paphos, to go to the Archaeological Park, where Jörn had been once a couple of years ago. As I parked, I realized that Elisabeth was asleep, and I groaned, knowing that even if she woke up, she would have to be carried and would be in a bad mood. Just as I steeled myself to the thought of just slinging her over my shoulder and carrying her like a sack of potatoes, Marie came up to me (she'd been riding in the other car) and said that she was tired and really didn't want to go anywhere--would it be okay if she just stayed in the car? And how it was okay! :-) So I didn't have to carry Elisabeth and Elisabeth got to keep sleeping, and the rest of us enjoyed exploring the ruins and partial excavations and beautiful mosaics.
At some point my dad offered to take us out for dinner somewhere on the way home, which we thought sounded very nice, although I didn't really have a clue how to start looking for a place. (Happily, my father started the offer by saying, "I know you don't do McDonald's, but could we find someplace else...?") The Archaeological Park was huge and we didn't even see everything before we were all ready to leave, and by that time it was so close to dinner time that we decided to look for someplace right there in Paphos. I went and got Marie and Elisabeth from the car and it didn't take long to find a place at all, which was fairly reasonable price-wise, considering that it was a touristy place, and the food was delicious. Jacob was the only one who used the camera while we were there, as evidenced by the following photos:
A last view of the seafront, with the fort in the background, before we left Paphos:
When we got home, four children went straight to bed, but I don't know what the others did, nor my parents or even my husband...I got in bed, and the next thing I knew, it was Friday morning.
Having arrived considerably later than planned, we didn't carry our picnic on the "hike", but ate it at the parking lot, which had a shaded picnic table, before starting out.
Avakas Gorge is beautiful and was completely worth the long drive and even all the detours on the way there, and we took way too many photos, of which the following are only a selection.
I forgot to take either the sling or the Ergo carrier, so carried Elisabeth like this for the first few minutes, but she soon got down and walked. I wouldn't have been able to carry her while climbing anyway, not even in a carrier.
This can be seen on many postcards...
The photo below doesn't show how high this rock was, nor how slippery, making it very difficult to get up onto. Most of us helped each other (at one point I slipped off completely and if I hadn't been holding both Marie's AND Jörn's hands, I would have landed pretty hard!), but my mom insisted on doing it completely herself, saying, "I can do it by MYSELF!!" in exactly the same way Elisabeth does. ;-P
My parents with all of the children...
Somewhere in this picture is a stranded baby goat, calling to its mama, slightly higher, who was calling back. I hope they managed to reconnect and get to safer ground...
We then drove into the city of Paphos, to go to the Archaeological Park, where Jörn had been once a couple of years ago. As I parked, I realized that Elisabeth was asleep, and I groaned, knowing that even if she woke up, she would have to be carried and would be in a bad mood. Just as I steeled myself to the thought of just slinging her over my shoulder and carrying her like a sack of potatoes, Marie came up to me (she'd been riding in the other car) and said that she was tired and really didn't want to go anywhere--would it be okay if she just stayed in the car? And how it was okay! :-) So I didn't have to carry Elisabeth and Elisabeth got to keep sleeping, and the rest of us enjoyed exploring the ruins and partial excavations and beautiful mosaics.
At some point my dad offered to take us out for dinner somewhere on the way home, which we thought sounded very nice, although I didn't really have a clue how to start looking for a place. (Happily, my father started the offer by saying, "I know you don't do McDonald's, but could we find someplace else...?") The Archaeological Park was huge and we didn't even see everything before we were all ready to leave, and by that time it was so close to dinner time that we decided to look for someplace right there in Paphos. I went and got Marie and Elisabeth from the car and it didn't take long to find a place at all, which was fairly reasonable price-wise, considering that it was a touristy place, and the food was delicious. Jacob was the only one who used the camera while we were there, as evidenced by the following photos:
A last view of the seafront, with the fort in the background, before we left Paphos:
When we got home, four children went straight to bed, but I don't know what the others did, nor my parents or even my husband...I got in bed, and the next thing I knew, it was Friday morning.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
My parents' visit, part one
Two weeks ago I commented that it's already acting summer-like, unseasonably warm even for Cyprus. Happily for me, it did cool down in the last week, and I also appreciated the rain...but the timing wasn't necessarily the greatest, with my parents visiting for only a week. They moved to Eureka, California, ten months ago, where it never really gets very warm and the sun is rarely visible, so might have liked a little more heat and sunshine. However, we managed to pack quite a lot into one week, and there really was plenty of sun, even if not quite as much as we're accustomed to.
They arrived last Tuesday evening, conveniently after the little ones were in bed (I can't say I love taking the little ones to the airport...), yet not particularly late. We had to wait awhile because their luggage didn't arrive and they had to fill in forms and such, but it was nice and peaceful waiting in the car and reading a book, waiting for Marie to phone me from inside the airport. (Maybe someday Cyprus will figure out the concept of cell phone lots, but in the meantime, I, like many other people, park somewhere just outside the airport and wait, rather than park and pay...)
When we got home, my dad walked into the house and immediately found Makenzy.
And I do not understand just how my mother managed it with the ten-hour time difference, but she got up to go walking with me at 5:45 every single day, which I enjoyed very much! The first morning we even walked around the entire Salt Lake, as it was foggy and not too hot. I didn't take the camera, but it's not like I haven't posted photos of the Salt Lake park a...few...times before.
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2013/04/easter-sunrise.html
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2012/07/fourth-time-around-salt-lake.html
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2012/05/ive-always-enjoyed-walking-but-almost.html
On Wednesday we walked downtown and went to the medieval fort, which I had never seen before. I can't claim it was wonderfully exciting, but it's nice to have seen one of the local sights! Funny how we always seem to have to have visitors as an "excuse" to do that.
And then we went for ice cream, something that my father has gained quite a reputation for providing. :-) One of the times they visited us in Germany, we had ice cream every single day, and it's also my dad who gave Katie her very first non-Mama-milk food: ice cream, when she was only five months old. We didn't have ice cream every day of their visit this time, both because my dad is trying to be more careful with his diet and because we're trying to limit sugar for all of us, but we certainly enjoyed the treats.
Orthodox Easter was May 5th this year, so schools were closed both the week before and the week after, which meant that most of the children's regular outside activities were also on hold, which was very convenient, as normally, there's something scheduled almost every day. In addition, Jörn took the week off of work, so could join us for almost everything, not to mention that for activities which required cars, we wouldn't have fit in one car.
In the afternoon (when Jacob and Lukas would have normally had their guitar lessons) we hung around waiting for my parents' luggage to arrive (it did), and then we headed to the beach, taking a picnic, but no photos. It was warm enough for my parents to go in the water, and the children don't even need it to be warm to do so, even when they start turning purple, as Elisabeth did, but I ended up deciding that I will have more than enough opportunities the rest of the summer and I really didn't need to get cold.
We probably played a game that evening, as we did any evening we had time, but no photos.
Here's another photo of my dad with Makenzy. The two of them really hit it off--one time she even went down the stairs and around the corner to find him in the guest flat.
The next day really needs a post of its own, so I'm going to stop there. I hope to finish up blogging about the week before my parents come back!
They arrived last Tuesday evening, conveniently after the little ones were in bed (I can't say I love taking the little ones to the airport...), yet not particularly late. We had to wait awhile because their luggage didn't arrive and they had to fill in forms and such, but it was nice and peaceful waiting in the car and reading a book, waiting for Marie to phone me from inside the airport. (Maybe someday Cyprus will figure out the concept of cell phone lots, but in the meantime, I, like many other people, park somewhere just outside the airport and wait, rather than park and pay...)
When we got home, my dad walked into the house and immediately found Makenzy.
And I do not understand just how my mother managed it with the ten-hour time difference, but she got up to go walking with me at 5:45 every single day, which I enjoyed very much! The first morning we even walked around the entire Salt Lake, as it was foggy and not too hot. I didn't take the camera, but it's not like I haven't posted photos of the Salt Lake park a...few...times before.
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2013/04/easter-sunrise.html
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2012/07/fourth-time-around-salt-lake.html
http://sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com/2012/05/ive-always-enjoyed-walking-but-almost.html
On Wednesday we walked downtown and went to the medieval fort, which I had never seen before. I can't claim it was wonderfully exciting, but it's nice to have seen one of the local sights! Funny how we always seem to have to have visitors as an "excuse" to do that.
And then we went for ice cream, something that my father has gained quite a reputation for providing. :-) One of the times they visited us in Germany, we had ice cream every single day, and it's also my dad who gave Katie her very first non-Mama-milk food: ice cream, when she was only five months old. We didn't have ice cream every day of their visit this time, both because my dad is trying to be more careful with his diet and because we're trying to limit sugar for all of us, but we certainly enjoyed the treats.
Orthodox Easter was May 5th this year, so schools were closed both the week before and the week after, which meant that most of the children's regular outside activities were also on hold, which was very convenient, as normally, there's something scheduled almost every day. In addition, Jörn took the week off of work, so could join us for almost everything, not to mention that for activities which required cars, we wouldn't have fit in one car.
In the afternoon (when Jacob and Lukas would have normally had their guitar lessons) we hung around waiting for my parents' luggage to arrive (it did), and then we headed to the beach, taking a picnic, but no photos. It was warm enough for my parents to go in the water, and the children don't even need it to be warm to do so, even when they start turning purple, as Elisabeth did, but I ended up deciding that I will have more than enough opportunities the rest of the summer and I really didn't need to get cold.
We probably played a game that evening, as we did any evening we had time, but no photos.
Here's another photo of my dad with Makenzy. The two of them really hit it off--one time she even went down the stairs and around the corner to find him in the guest flat.
The next day really needs a post of its own, so I'm going to stop there. I hope to finish up blogging about the week before my parents come back!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
First of May, actually about April, and more exactly mostly about Makenzy
Happy May, everyone. It's already being summer here, but I'm still hoping to hold out until June to start using air conditioning. Yesterday it was 32 degrees (Celsius! That's less than half of a Fahrenheit degree short of 90 F), which seemed rather warm for this time of year, even in Cyprus, so I looked up what the temperature had been on that date in previous years: between 23 and 26, "normal" high for April 30th being 25 degrees. I'm hoping this is a heatwave and not an indication of an extra-long, extra-hot summer.
Last November Marie and I participated in NaNoWriMo, both of us meeting the challenge of writing 50,000 words in the course of the month. In April, Marie participated in Camp NaNo, same idea, except that one sets one's own goals. She tried to talk me into participating, and I finally agreed to blog every day for the month of April (but didn't sign up at the NaNo website). I managed the first two days, then on the fourth, and then on the sixth. So much for that. Not promising anything for this month, just rambling for the moment. It's not that there's a lack of topics, just a lack of time.
A few of the things I thought about blogging about: the births of my nieces (one in March to my sister and her husband, one just last week to my brother and his wife); trips to the park with friends (several times, both with a fellow homeschooling family and with a little girl I babysat twice); Elisabeth completely potty-training herself day and night AND moving to the girls' room and being thrilled with it AND night-weaning; my search for and exploration of Cyprus's largest salt lake, in Limassol; cutting Marie's hair; the play Marie and Jacob were in; our first trip to the beach for this year; cleaning the fans; a bunch of stuff from March (our time in Costa Rica, my birthday, traveling, etc.); how to spend the first birthday money I've had in years (haven't spent it yet); love/hate relationship with technology; accidentally deleting a blogpost from last May and having Sue find it in cyberspace for me (that was very cool that she found it, but also worries me a bit because there are some things I've deleted because I didn't want anyone to see them after all, and I do NOT like the idea that they're still "out there" somewhere!!!); more walks in the Salt Lake park; being given lots of strawberries; buying 20 kilos of oranges; etc...most of which is probably not all that exciting for anyone except me anyway, but this is our life.
And of course, our kitten, Makenzy, acquired one month ago today. End of ramble, here are a bunch of photos of furry adorableness.
We had two rabbits in Germany for a couple of years, but Jörn was always quick to point out that they lived OUTside, and were MY rabbits, not his. (I did catch him feeding carrots to them a few times, though...) So Jörn has never had a pet in his whole life and wasn't keen on the idea of getting one. However, he and Makenzy have quite taken to each other. Makenzy especially likes his beard. :-)
Makenzy is also crazy about feet and shoes. One evening she went from foot to foot during dinner, finally found a foot that was holding still, climbed up on it, and went to sleep. (This is Jörn yet again.)
Helen often sings Makenzy to sleep...
Jacob's sandal, this time...
Sound asleep on my lap...
Another photo for my extremely large collection of photos of Jörn sleeping with a baby sleeping on top of him...
Makenzy only had formula for about two weeks and transitioned to eating dry kitten food very easily. She did think for the first few days that she had to get INTO the bowl to eat, but since acts like a cat, standing on the floor and eating out of the bowl.
Makenzy loves the dollhouse Katie and I built last year...
And finally, a photo Marie took last night of Makenzy falling asleep...
Last November Marie and I participated in NaNoWriMo, both of us meeting the challenge of writing 50,000 words in the course of the month. In April, Marie participated in Camp NaNo, same idea, except that one sets one's own goals. She tried to talk me into participating, and I finally agreed to blog every day for the month of April (but didn't sign up at the NaNo website). I managed the first two days, then on the fourth, and then on the sixth. So much for that. Not promising anything for this month, just rambling for the moment. It's not that there's a lack of topics, just a lack of time.
A few of the things I thought about blogging about: the births of my nieces (one in March to my sister and her husband, one just last week to my brother and his wife); trips to the park with friends (several times, both with a fellow homeschooling family and with a little girl I babysat twice); Elisabeth completely potty-training herself day and night AND moving to the girls' room and being thrilled with it AND night-weaning; my search for and exploration of Cyprus's largest salt lake, in Limassol; cutting Marie's hair; the play Marie and Jacob were in; our first trip to the beach for this year; cleaning the fans; a bunch of stuff from March (our time in Costa Rica, my birthday, traveling, etc.); how to spend the first birthday money I've had in years (haven't spent it yet); love/hate relationship with technology; accidentally deleting a blogpost from last May and having Sue find it in cyberspace for me (that was very cool that she found it, but also worries me a bit because there are some things I've deleted because I didn't want anyone to see them after all, and I do NOT like the idea that they're still "out there" somewhere!!!); more walks in the Salt Lake park; being given lots of strawberries; buying 20 kilos of oranges; etc...most of which is probably not all that exciting for anyone except me anyway, but this is our life.
And of course, our kitten, Makenzy, acquired one month ago today. End of ramble, here are a bunch of photos of furry adorableness.
We had two rabbits in Germany for a couple of years, but Jörn was always quick to point out that they lived OUTside, and were MY rabbits, not his. (I did catch him feeding carrots to them a few times, though...) So Jörn has never had a pet in his whole life and wasn't keen on the idea of getting one. However, he and Makenzy have quite taken to each other. Makenzy especially likes his beard. :-)
 |
Makenzy is also crazy about feet and shoes. One evening she went from foot to foot during dinner, finally found a foot that was holding still, climbed up on it, and went to sleep. (This is Jörn yet again.)
Helen often sings Makenzy to sleep...
Jacob's sandal, this time...
Sound asleep on my lap...
Another photo for my extremely large collection of photos of Jörn sleeping with a baby sleeping on top of him...
Makenzy only had formula for about two weeks and transitioned to eating dry kitten food very easily. She did think for the first few days that she had to get INTO the bowl to eat, but since acts like a cat, standing on the floor and eating out of the bowl.
Makenzy loves the dollhouse Katie and I built last year...
And finally, a photo Marie took last night of Makenzy falling asleep...
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Easter sunrise
Yesterday I wrote way too much, so today I'll balance it out by posting way too many photos. :-)
When I got to the aqueduct, I was surprised to find a brand-new sign up. I took a photo of it, but since it was very difficult to see in the near-darkness anyway, I decided to pretend I hadn't noticed it, and climbed up on the aqueduct anyway. (And for those who know how to figure out the time stamp on here and bother to check, yes, I know it says 5:21, but the camera clock runs fast AND we'd gone onto Daylight Savings Time in the night, so it was actually about 6:10.)
The children and I have been on the aqueduct several times. It's not something for anyone who's afraid of heights, but I do think it's fairly safe if one isn't being stupid. I've actually felt better about having toddlers up there than certain older children, since the sides of the channel come up well past their waists, but only to just past my knees...
I didn't go very far before I found a slightly wider place where I could sit down cross-legged, facing the Salt Lake. The bright lights towards the right are the airport.
From where I was sitting, I couldn't really take a decent photo of where the sun would actually rise, though, so I moved further along.
This view down the channel of the aqueduct looks like a rather large passageway, I think...
...but a photo with my feet (which are sticking straight out in front of me, because there wasn't room here to sit cross-legged) puts it more in the correct perspective.
The photos totally don't do justice to the beauty, and the half hour I was up there I couldn't help but sing "All heaven declares the glory of the risen Lord" about five times, as well as "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", "Low in the Grave He Lay", and even Sandi Patty's "Was it a Morning Like This?" and I think a couple of others. (Don't worry, nobody could hear me!)
The sky is getting noticably lighter here, at 6:27:
6:28...
6:30...
6:30 slightly north...
6:32...
6:34...
A photo of the other side (north-ish) of the aqueduct...
Looking down at the marshy land underneath the aqueduct...
Sunrise! 6:39 for peeping over houses, which isn't too far off from the official time, which I think was 6:37.
A final photo from the aqueduct, at 6:40:
I didn't cross the aqueduct, just went back down the way I'd gone up. Couldn't help seeing the sign now. I think it's silly, for several reasons. For one, nothing is blocked off, which, if they really want to keep people off, they ought to do. For another, people who are likely to be careful are now less likely to go up (I may not have a lot of respect for silly rules, but I DO try not to disobey them when my children are watching...), and since it's now "not allowed", I think it might become something that people showing off and daring each other to do might do, which COULD be dangerous. But I digress, as usual.
It's impossible to get the whole aqueduct in one photo from where I was, but here's a lot of it. I think I was at about the second arch from the right.
The Salt Lake trail.
And finally...two photos to illustrate why March is known as "the yellow month." The colors were actually much brighter, but the overcast day made them look kind of dull on the photos.
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