The Itch is back . . .

It has been a year since we last stepped foot in Germany.  Admittedly, as of late, I was very content (the word best describing my feelings about living in Canada) with my life but with our three year anniversary coming up I began to feel that itch.

What itch? The itch I get when I have been somewhere too long. Every few months or years, dependant upon the circumstances in my life, the itch comes back. This time we have been in Canada for three years, life is rocking and rolling along with our two children, golden retriever Maizy, four hermit crabs, one minivan and a suburban lifestyle like most others.  And I love it. And I don't. And then again I love it...and on and on. And so the itch is back.

On Facebook I see what my friends are doing living the life in Germany and Switzerland.  I am brought back to when I used to live there. But the difference is that, with time, my memories of living there become fuzzy so I dream about moving back (which is a real possibility) and embracing the expat-life again.  So I travel back to Stuttgart in the summer for a couple of weeks to have the kids reconnect with their birthplace, family, language and most importantly friends.  For the same reason I also I reconnect with my friends but, more importantly, I reconnect with the Schwabians.

Having landed 36 hours ago, today I had the joy of experiencing customer ¨service¨ at the local Lidl, a jolly old man who lectured me on teaching children how to open car door without hitting other cars, and Sassy von Sass at the Subway with her 80's hot pink acrylic claws and ponytail in my sandwich. This was all within the first day of our vacation!  Ah Schwabenlaendle, how I have missed you!  And thank you, my itch has now subsided.

Bon Jour, Paris!

Somewhere along the line of moving homes a little idea got lost...that of a family vacation.  I am not sure how it happened, or why, but my guess is that the insane travel schedule of my hubby (yeah, 3.5 weeks out of 4 this month) as well as the 50+ boxes that are still in the basement yet to be unpacked are to blame.

The idea of the family holiday was recaptured last week, however, and as most things in our lives everything went licketty-split and suddenly we will be in Paris together for a week!  Sure, I am using the excuse that our daughter needs to brush up on her French as the real reason why we will go there.  Never mind the reason but this is going to be fuuuuun!

A week in Paris and far, far, far away from my husband's work.  No pressure on but I think we will all fall in love with one another again.

Luckily for us, a good friend was recently in Paris with her family for one week and after a quick phone call this morning, the Rick Steves guidebooks are in my hands and already under full scrutiny.  And even better, and to keep my sanity, we have decided to stay in Paris at the same apartment we rented 6 years ago. Less thought, more fun!

I will keep you posted on our adventures.

I just don't have time to do housework . . .

I just have too much to do. Seriously, I am a housewife with an addiction to Facebook and now, lord help me, Pinterest. Pinterest? Yes ma'am.

Along with my penchant for fabulous little notecards and stationary that I love to collect (but rarely use) and lovely bottles of Hawaiian Salts, Pinterest now allows me to focus on everything and nothing at the same time. What a gift!

Having our new little puppy, Miss Maizy, gives me the excuse I need to keep the house not as spotless as it should be.  I like to use the puppy and my training Miss M as a reason for the dishes not being taken out of the dishwasher as soon as the drying cycle is done.  Vacuuming every little bit of dust also is passed on in favor of some snuggles with my princess.  But now, all bets are off. Perhaps even my precious little pup will become a monster with my pinning . . . 

I will keep you posted.

 Or pinned.

Yeah, I am a new mom . . .

Much has changed since I last checked in.  In addition to our two fabulous cats Xenia and Daisy we recently added two Guppies (Bluey and Rainbow) to our family.  And since we were able to juggle that insanity even while travelling, the family decided to get a dog.  It has been a long process finding the one that was right for our family.  There were so many questions:

What size dog shall we get? Well, the kids wanted a small one, presumably for the cute factor and the dress up potential of said dog. Thomas was more keen on a larger dog. A Rottweiler was his first choice but that was very quickly taken care of.  We will not ever be getting a Rottweiler and I do not care what great family dogs they are.  So once we settled on something in between, it was time to decide on a breed.

So what mid-sized breed should we have?  As I hate to clean, the idea at first was to look for something non-shedding. A poodle came to mind but only once in my life did I find a poodle I liked. Every other poodle, especially white ones, give me the heebeejeebees. Honestly.  So with poodles out, the Portuguese Water Dog was on my radar, especially since dear Barack Obama has one. I visited a lovely breeder and spoke to two vets techs and decided that our family needs a dog with energy but not that much energy.  I have a four year old and a seven year old with plenty of energy so thanks but no thanks for that Portuguese Water Dog.

And then it came down to a dog that I have always loved and is loved by many - the Golden Retriever.  I joke about it but there is some truth to it. We live in suburbia, the kids play soccer, I drive a mini-van and walk around too often in my lululemon . . . what dog does one get?  Of course a Golden!

And finally came the question of . . . girl or boy and since I can choose we are getting a little girl.  Three breeders later we found our princess and will be bringing her home in one week.

As a family we are excited, very excited, to be settling down enough to get a dog. The kids are more than old enough and, to be frank, I am too (settled and old enough - FINALLY)!

Maple Syrup Festival - a great way to start March Break's staycation

It has been a long winter and every day we are waiting for signs of Spring.  The kids can not wait to see green leaves on the trees again rather than barren branches.   Rather than make our way down south as so many of our friends have done, we decided to stay local for this March Break.  For our first trip of the ¨staycation¨ we decided to enjoy the great outdoors again be heading to the  Maple Syrup Festival held in Bronte Creek Provincial Park about 15 minutes from our home in Oakville, Ontario.  I had been looking forward to seeing the Maple Syrup Festival since before we moved here six months ago.  And now, with Spring approaching it was here . . .

Welcome to the Festival

The weather predicted rain but we were spared the rain and enjoyed a chilly day outside learning about how real maple syrup is made as well as the history of maple syrup for the settlers in the area and as well as the First Nations people.

Explaining how a tree is tapped

A tree stump is used to show how it would be tapped - were it not a stump.

With a small group of other visitors we went from station to station and saw the various steps taken to retrieve the syrup from the tree, make it into syrup and the final products.

The various tools that had been used to tap a tree and boil the maple syrup.

Next time there will be more photos if the kids eating freshly made maple syrup taffy and maple syrup maple leaf shaped crystallized maple syrup.   To the right you see how the maple leaf blocks are made.  This was probably my favorite treat.

Thanks for not drinking and driving - now here's your parting gift!

Wednesday night, 7pm, I am on my way to a school council meeting in my ¨mami-van¨.  It is dark and all of the lights on the houses are lit for the holiday season, even the ones on the police cars.  Whoa . . . police cars? Will this be the second time in the past week that I am stopped at a police check for drinking and driving?  Apparently yes.

This past weekend my husband and I were returning from a cool Christmas party in downtown Toronto complete with magicians, dancing and an Asian/Canadian Flamenco dancer.  I really love Toronto for all of its multiculturalism.  But what I really love Toronto for is the friendliness of its people.  At midnight as we were driving towards the highway traffic came to a near standstill. Lucky for us, we were in the warmth of the car unlike the police officers, those guilty of the back log in traffic.  It was a DUI control in the middle of the night in sub-zero temps with a nasty wind chill.  

As we rolled up slowly to DUI officer no. 4 in the line we rolled down our window.  Panicked only because police officers make me nervous (I am sure I did something wrong at all times of the day in my life), a smiling face came through the window.  ¨Hi, how are you two thing evening?¨ she asked my husband and me.  ¨Good,¨ answered my husband while I asked if I could have a Grande skinny Chai Latte with half sugar . . . and she laughed.  After a few more niceties and a small thank you on our part, we were on our way home and my first DUI check in Canada was, well, really nice and enjoyable. 

As my husband and I drive away, we were still in shock as to how friendly the police officer was and we even laughed to imagine how the entire scenario would have played out in Switzerland or Germany.  I am quite certain that there would have been no smiling or laughing on the part of the DUI officer had we been in Germany!

But then this evening, something even stranger happened. As I mentioned, I was on my way to a council meeting at my daughter's school. Just outside of my house there was a roadblock again set up to catch drunk drivers.  Again I was nervous and fumbled to lower my driver's side window.  Nervousness really can be a hindrance.  The officer was nice and asked me the usual questions like ¨Have you had a drink tonight?¨ to which I answered a resounding ¨No, its only 7pm (insert cute smile here). It's a bit early, right?¨ To which the  officer said ¨It is the holidays,¨ and  then he followed up with, ¨Thank you, and now you can get your coupon ahead.¨ What? What, what?  Well, I proceeded forward to get my coupon (I still was not understanding really what he said) and I received, in fact, a coupon!  Granted, it is for a BigMac at McDonalds but I got a coupon for not drinking and driving!  I told the officer and one of the MADD reps that this is one of the reasons that I love Canada (and those who know me know that I said this) and they all smiled.  

But seriously, this was the most interesting thing that occurred to me in quite some time.  And it solidified my feelings of living here in Canada.  I love it here.  I am constantly in shock how friendly people are, even those in positions of power. 

This Christmas has been a bit tough for me, honestly, after 10 years of enjoying the holidays in Germany with its Christmas Markets but little experiences like this, I can live without my gluhwein and bretzel. I really can.

Frohe Weihnachten, y'all!

OPOL is great but . . .

When my German husband and I first decided to have children, I knew in my heart that at least their first years would be in Europe and most likely in a Germanic country.  Lo and behold, as is the case with almost everything in my life when it comes to my dear husband, I was right (insert the ¨I told you so dance¨).  

With my daughter I travelled back and forth to the States when she was young twice a year  so  she could get some of the ¨Americanness into her blood - you know, it is all about the water. The trips had of course nothing to do with my homesickness (although even at the time I was in strong denial of that to myself and everyone else) or my desire to buy the both of us some fabulous clothes that I could not in Germany.  Germany had nothing like Target or Marshalls and the Gap had closed its store on the Köenigstrasse in Stuttgart only months before she was born.  So two times a year I took the flight from Stuttgart to Atlanta, thank goodness it was non-stop, and trudged home to my mom's place for weeks at a time.  Mind you I had also been doing this before my daughter was born but now there was the urgent need to have her immersed in the culture and language of America.  When my son came along, things began to change.  We had just moved to Switzerland when my son was six months old and I was trying my best to become more settled into our life in Zürich making it home only once a year.   

Before we had kids, my husband and I discussed ad nauseam the best way to support both languages in our home and outside. We decided for our family that OPOL - the one parent, one language system - would be best. In addition, I supported the idea that all media should be in American-English as well all kid's movies and music.  Did I mention that I only spoke English to Thomas, and vice versa, although my German really is quite good?  I didn't mention it? Ooops.  

The system was great.  Over the years, almost six now, we amassed quite the DVD and book library and not to mention the crafts which had to be American. My suitcase, and that of anyone coming to visit from the States, was chock full of anything I thought would help the kids in ¨their¨ pursuit of a perfect English.  I even bought some of the books that are for 7th graders studying American Art because, and I think more expat moms would agree, ¨You never know if what you see will be available again so buy it now.¨   The term ¨hoarder¨ can also be used.

So now we are in Canada which (shhhh, do not mention this to anyone up here) is for me just like being in the States as far as the language is concerned.  We still practice OPOL but now my husband is on the short end of the stick. Not only does he travel a lot right now making OPOL really ¨one parent, the other one is not here so by default there is only one language¨. Which brings me to my bone of contention du jour:  we are now watching kids movies in German.  

Friday night is in our  family movie night and this week, a mere nine weeks after arriving, my husband put his foot down on movie night. ¨No more  movies in English¨ he decreed.  Really, I thought.  Hmmm, this is going to be bad. I hate dubbed movies, even if they are cartoons. Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria are from the Central Park Zoo, not from the Hamburg Zoo.  But even I see the importance of supporting German in the house. The kids right now speak German only with their dad and it is not enough.  Their German is deteriorating at a pace almost on par with mine.  I actually tried to speak to the kids twice now in German, thinking that while we are in an English speaking country we can use the ML@H method where the family would speak the minority language at home.    ¨You do not speak German, only Daddy,¨ was the response I received from my three year old.   Well, okay then. And that was the end of ML@H.

I understand that I should lighten up about it.   Last week, under my own initiative, I went to the Oakville Library and checked out two children's books in German and I even read to the kids in German. For some reason, reading a book was acceptable to for the kids.  And to be honest, it was good for me also as I no longer speak any German.   And the best of all was that we all enjoyed time together doing something very different and at the same time very comfortable and comforting . . . reading in our mother-tongue.

Gute Nacht und bis Morgen!