Not Bored

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately . . . somehow now that I'm trying to work again the days have gotten more full. So far they've been pleasantly full, not frantically full, although that may change at the end of this week (I have inherited a project with very tight deadlines).

As far as work goes, so far, so good, although as of yet I have no feedback from anyone, so it's only my impression. I have a nice variety of projects at the moment, which unfortunately I can't talk about due to the confidentiality agreement I signed. So far my medical background definitely has been an aid, as has my scientific training . . . and also my English degree is coming into play. After all those years of school, I'm glad that I can see some application . . .

To add some more activities into the mix, the house construction continues to clip along with all the attendant decisions that have to be made, usually in pretty short order (as Thorsten said, normally we would spend a couple of weeks at least over most decisions of these magnitudes and costs, but there just isn't time). We will hopefully have estimates for the landscaping within the next week and then we can decide what we can afford to do!

Lilia and Johanna keep my afternoons hopping. Lilia seems to have hit a mini-puberty in the last week. She's happy at Kindergarten but as soon as I pick her up she gets moody and whiny, and if you ask her how the day was she says everything's blöd (stupid). According to the Kindergarten teachers she's her usual happy and energetic self at Kindergarten so I can only assume it's testing Mama's limits, or maybe another growth spurt? On the plus side, Lilia plays quite well with Johanna lately, and talks to her as if she understands every word that Lilia says. Which maybe she does. Johanna's German vocabulary has absolutely exploded and she is making two-word sentences in German now, and in fact I would say it's her preferred language at the moment. Interestingly, the kids speak a Babel of German and English when they're talking to each other. Wonder if it will continue that way or if they will switch entirely to German at some point . . . ? Lilia's German has (rather unfortunately) far outpaced her English at this point and she substitutes lots of German words in her English sentences. Guess we will have to step up story-reading in English . . . I may have to order some new books.

And of course now that's it's March, I'm starting to dream about the garden again. This year we will have to content ourselves with container plants that can be transported easily come August when we move into the new house. Lilia is my big garden helper this year and has enthusiastically helped me pick out and plant seeds. So far we have Tumbling Tom Red cherry tomatoes, peas, nasturtiums, basil and one thyme plant. On the way (we hope) are more tomatoes, peas, asters, marigolds, rosemary and red bell peppers. I also had a look into the compost bin today after the long winter and it looks as if there is actually some composted material in there, although it depends where in the pile you dig (and some of it's still frozen). Thorsten has been not terribly enthusiastic about my plan to transport the compost pile to the new house this summer, but I am pretty determined. We can surely use it there, after all!

Now it's time to go scrounge up some dinner. Or maybe get some laundry done. Housework, unfortunately, has not become more attractive now that I have less time. Well, you can't have everything.