Words of Wisdom From a 6 Year Old

 

The last two days I have been feeling very discouraged about my progress with learning German.  I’m in two different classes with the same teacher for moms in Ethan’s school and moms in a neighboring school who need to learn the language and I am apparently the one who knows the least.  In fact, it seems as though everyone else can understand and speak the language fairly well.  Our teacher is a German lady who knows very little English and so she speaks only German.  In theory, this is very good because I’m forced to use only German.  However, I have no idea what anyone is saying or asking or doing.  I pick up a few words here and there and am getting very good at reading body language, but typically I have no idea what is going on.  The rest of the ladies are from different countries and so I have no one to speak to unless I can figure out how to say it in German.  I usually tell myself that it’s no big deal and I’m doing great having only been in the country for 5 months and the other ladies have been here for 10+ years, but for some reason this week it has really gotten to me.  I have been really frustrated with it and myself for not remembering the vocabulary and recognizing or understanding words.  I have a lot of stories of idiotic moments I have had in class.  It is a very humbling experience.

After realizing how I have been feeling I started to really worry about Ethan and what he must be going through because he is in a similar situation, but probably worse.  So today after school I asked him if he ever gets frustrated with the language.

Ethan: “What do you mean?”

Me:  “Do you ever get frustrated not being able to understand what people are saying to you or know what is going on around you?”

Ethan:  “No.  Do you?”

Me:  “Very much so.”

Ethan:  “You can’t let yourself get frustrated, Mom.  You just have to know that it will come and keep trying.  I’m understanding a lot more now and it’s getting a lot easier.”

Ethan is a very wise 6 year old!  He amazes me everyday with his positive attitude and his perseverance.  I’m hoping I can be like him someday.

It has been way too long since I have posted anything.  So long, in fact, that I almost didn’t start again.  There has been so much that has happened that I’m not sure how to cover it all.  So I am just going to highlight some of the happenings of the past and try to do better in the future.  Really, what more can we do than continue to try to do better?

We did end up getting a Christmas tree this year :)  Here is James putting lights on it while Ethan is patiently waiting to put the ornaments on.

 

I’m a little sad though because I realized I didn’t take a picture of the finished product.  Here’s the closest thing I have.

As you can see my mom and dad flew in for Christmas this year.  It was so nice to have some familiar faces with us.  They actually flew in on Christmas morning, which meant that we waited to open anything until after we picked them up.  I’m proud of Ethan for being so good about it.  I think he was more excited to see them than open his presents anyway.

While my parents were here, we ventured up to Berlin for a day and a half.  It was really an amazing city with lots to see, but it was sooo cold, which made it a little bit on the miserable side.  We are looking forward to going back sometime during the summer so we can really enjoy it.

Here are some pictures of a few of the things we did and saw…a lego santa, snow, pastries, snow, jewish museum, checkpoint charlie, the wall, spaghetti ice cream…Did I mention it was cold?  because it was cold!

               

 

Whenever we are with my mom she has us take family pictures.  So here are a couple that aren’t so bad.  I sure do look huge, though, and I cringe every time I see these.  You can see my double chin in the second one :/

 

That’s about all of the backlogging I can handle for now :)  Maybe there will be more to come…maybe not…we’ll see.

 

 

Talent Show

 

Our Ward Primary had a talent show this last Saturday.  For two weeks prior to this event Ethan had been talking about playing his harmonica for his talent.  He was so excited about it and kept getting after me to sign him up for it.  Well, being the procrastinator mom that I am, two days before the show, I finally sign him up.  The night before the show we were out late at a christmas market and when we got home he realized he hadn’t practiced at all for the show.  In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I had heard him play it.  He wanted us to set his alarm for 6 a.m. the next morning so he could practice.  Luckily we talked him into 7 a.m. because that is just insanely too early for a Saturday morning.  Turns out when he got up he couldn’t find his harmonica.  He looked everywhere.  He finally found it minutes before we left and of course we were running late.  So on the way over I talk him into playing it at least once so he would be somewhat prepared before getting up on stage.  I was so impressed with him.  When it was his turn, he went right up and played his harmonica without any hesitation and did a great job.  This kid won’t talk to people, but he has the confidence to play an instrument he hasn’t practiced in front of a room full of people.  Sometimes I wonder if we are related because I would definitely have to practice for a month before I would agree to perform in front of anyone.

 

Another Learning Experience

 

Today I decided to go to Pflanzen-Kolle.  This place is amazing.  It’s a garden center that’s two levels with a craft section, a large christmas decoration section, and even a pet store with the cutest bunnies you’ve ever seen.  I saw that they were selling christmas trees the last time I was there, so I went today to see how much they are…turns out they are a lot more than I want to spend on a tree that’s dying.  Anyway, I didn’t want to come away empty handed so I decided to buy some poinsettas.  I decided on three different ones and a bag of potting soil.  I didn’t have any change with me, so I couldn’t get a cart.  I found one of those carrying baskets and I put half of my stuff in there and carried the other half.  When I went to purchase I got instructed in German that I could not put my basket on the counter and had to empty it and put it away before I could purchase anything…at least this is what I gathered from the hand gestures she was making because I didn’t understand any of it.  Once I made it through that part and paid for everything.  I gathered everything in my arms and started walking out.  Then I heard some more very stern instructions in German again.  I turned around, and yes, she was talking to me.  This time I could not figure out what she was saying, so I asked “Sprechen Sie English?” and of course she didn’t, but luckily another customer did and told me I had to wrap my plants before I could leave.  I was a little bit confused, but I walked over to the wrappings and tried to wrap my plants by watching someone else.  Apparently I wasn’t doing it right because she came over and showed me how.  I had to do the other two on my own after that.  Who knew that buying three little plants was going to be so difficult.  The thing I learned from all of this, is that these things don’t bother me anymore.  Who knew?  I feel embarrassed or stupid.  These are common feelings I used to get anytime I tried doing anything on my own in the economy.  I must be growing up or getting used to it so much that it’s normal now :)  Anyway, I had to take a picture of my cute little wrapped babies.  The two I wrapped are on the left.  I have to say, I did a pretty good job for my first time (after being instructed, that is) :)

I realized when planting my little babies that the wrappings are an ingenious idea.  I did it all of the potting on the paper, which meant very little clean-up.  Also, I didn’t have to worry about the soil spilling all over in the car and I think it kept them warmer out in the freezing weather.  So, once again, the Germans have another great idea.  Maybe we do this in the U.S. too, but I’m not an experienced plant buyer…obviously :)

Warm Sand

 

After freezing today, I started reminiscing about the good old days of warm sand between my toes and flip flops.  I don’t know if it’s a good thing to do or not, but I had to change my blog picture in hopes of creating happy, warm thoughts that will in turn trick my mind into thinking that I’m actually warm.  It may just be a cruel thing to do to myself.  We’ll see.  Either way, I think we have pretty cute feet :)

Starting off the Season Right

Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went so quickly that it didn’t really even feel like they happened.  So we are really wanting to get into the Christmas spirit this year.  This afternoon we wanted to do it right by going to our very first German Christmas Market.  It was as much fun as I thought it would be, but super cold.  We’ve been home for almost two hours now and my toes are still frozen.  I’m a little worried about this winter and whether or not I will survive it.  As you can see from the pictures, it is already snowing and sticking.  It sure does make things beautiful though.

The Christmas Market was full of good smelling food, yummy hot chocolate, shops with all kinds of fun trinkets, music, lights and christmas decorations.  It definitely got me into the spirit and of course we didn’t come away empty handed.  In fact, there are chocolate covered strawberries on a stick downstairs that I’m dying to try, but I have to wait for James to get home.  This is taking a lot of restraint and self-control on my part!

Ethan looks so happy and full of energy right here, ready to go explore the market.  It didn’t last though, he was dragging by the end and fell asleep on the way home.  I think that means he had a good time.

 

That IS Ethan in the picture, if you can find him.  It was so pretty with all of the Christmas lights.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Rudesheim was a great place to go for our first market, but it is not going to be our last.  We are going to try to go to another one this weekend, maybe in Weisbaden.  I can’t wait to see what we will find there.  I have the christmas shopping bug in me now.

The Pastry

 

On Monday, Ethan and I decided to try our local bakery and then take our treats to the river to enjoy.  I wasn’t wanting anything sweet, so I decided to get a plain roll.  Ethan, on the other hand, had a hard time choosing with all of the different kinds of donuts they had.  He decided on this very fluffy looking one with white frosting and coconut on top.  On the way to the river, we talked bout sharing our treats so we could try each others.  He finally agreed upon sharing one bite, but anymore than that was not fair because I only had a roll and he had a donut.  When we pulled them out of the bag, we noticed his had some dark stuff on the outside.  To me, it looked like a chocolate filling and he got really excited.  We shared our first bites, then enjoyed our treats.  I was so hungry I finished my very tasty roll before he got to his center.  Come to find out, it was not chocolate in the middle.  I have no idea what it was.  I tasted a very strong cinnamon, sugar, some kind of fruit, like prunes or something, and some other very strong spices that I couldn’t distinguish.  Needless to say, he did not like it.  We tried squeezing it out, but it only made it worse.  Poor kid, was so disappointed and I didn’t have any of my roll to share with him.  That should teach us to order something I couldn’t pronounce.  He enjoyed collecting shells at the river anyway.

Here are some pictures of our street, our gate to our house, and our front door.

It doesn’t look like much, but we enjoy calling it home.  One of these days, if we ever get it done, I will post pictures of the inside.