To Flohmarkt, To Flohmarkt...

To buy a fat...

Wild boar's head!

There were so many cool and fascinating objects at the flea market today... Here are just a few photos of our trip.





The one thing on our actual shopping list: a moka pot!



Aw, it's a pile of little leather shorts!

Makes me wish I had a boy. Not to worry-- look at this little vintage coat from the Netherlands!!

(Yes, it was very cold and rainy.)

Can you guess where I'm headed?...

Of course! Unfortunately, it was much to0 big to fit in our car.


Lots of fun today! We came home with quite a few items, which I'll show you soon!

Here's an old post. It makes me even more glad to be done with that phase of the transition! I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that it would indeed get much, much better!
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July 26^th

We are finally in our apartment! We had a grueling day on Saturday trying to make it happen, and of course I can't pass up the opportunity to tell you how it went.

We rented a car for the day, and Jeff had to take the bus to go pick it up. It was pouring rain, and as a personal favor to me, he had taken Amelia and her car seat with him. They were soaked by the time they got to the rental place. He drove right away over to the mattress store to pick up the the mattresses we had paid for the day before, but they were closed. They sat in the car for ½ and hour, and finally got the mattresses. Here they make them so that you can roll them up and stuff them into a compact car. We got two twins for us rather than a queen-- it's the European Way. They all barely fit into the car, and Jeff drove them to our apartment. It got real real complicated, with this being his first day driving here, and us living on a pedestrian street, an unfortunate foray onto a one-way street, and mattresses blocking the view. Fortunately, a new German friend was on call and crammed himself into the car with the three mattresses, Jeff and Amelia. He helped him get some parking and then haul them up the 35 stairs up to our apartment. Whew!

It was 11 a.m. When Jeff picked me up, and he was already sweating bullets. Luckily, I had been enjoying the rare solitude while cleaning and packing up our hotel room, so at least one of us wasn't strung out when we hit the autobahn. And it was good I started out cool, because I am a very, very untrusting passenger. I like driving, in part because I don't ever think other drivers are paying nearly as much attention as I am. So it was a trust exercise-- which Jeff and I both passed with flying colors as we sped over to Nuremberg.

We got to IKEA pretty quickly, with a vague idea of what we needed and a clear sense of the little cash we had on hand and plenty of resolve to push our way through the crowds. To my delight, Amelia really wanted to go into “Smalland,” even though I explained to her that we couldn't go with her and there would be tons of children inside. She was so excited, and Jeff and I couldn't believe our good fortune, shopping on our own! This good feeling lasted until about 20 minutes later, when the pager we had been given went off. For some reason, Jeff felt sure that something terrible had happened, and went running through the store to get to his probably-bleeding-or-in-hysterics-daughter. When he finally got through the mobs of people and furniture, he found her just watching a movie, bored with all of the options in “Smalland.” Poor guy. Needless to say, shopping got MUCH more complicated after that. We got the bare minimum that we felt like would make us feel at home, and that we could fit into our VW Golf. On our way to checking out, I realized that the set of dressers and armoires that I really loved but couldn't afford were on sale, at least 50% off! I snagged a lowboy dresser, and we made our purchases. To my surprise, we had only spent half of the money allotted for this trip! We packed all of the items into our car, and they barely fit. But I still wanted those armoires... So we decided we would have them delivered. Somehow, this decision ended up landing us in various lines for over two hours! All told, we spent six life-sucking hours at that store, but it had to be done, and we were just glad it was over when we left.

Our original plan for the day had been to go to IKEA, check out Nuremberg and see if there were any other home stores there to look at, maybe get a meal, who knows? We left IKEA at 6:30 and had a 45 minute drive ahead of us. So, we decided we'd drop things off, go to the grocery store (we still hadn't been to one, since we didn't have a car and the bigger ones weren't walkable with a little one) and go out for dinner. Having Amelia wet her pants at IKEA while in the shopping cart waiting in line made this a lot more complicated. Once we got to Amberg, we decided to go shopping first, and cram the groceries into our stuffed rental car. It took a long time to find the store we wanted, even though we were right there all along-- it was just a shop the people we asked directions from weren't familiar with! We did our quick shopping of a few basic items, and went to pay. There was a line behind us, and I couldn't find the bigger bill I'd been counting on! We'd spent all of our cash at IKEA except the amount I was planning to use for shopping! This is, in my book, the worst social situation ever. Somehow, I have always had this fear of not having enough money on hand in front of other people. Anyhow, I have now faced that fear. I had to quickly pick out the items that seemed less vital till we came to a total we could afford. Lame.

I know this is getting long, but bear with me. It gets worse. We were starving for dinner and it was 8:00. We wanted to go out to eat, but needed to take care of Amelia's very stinky clothing situation. After the unloading process (remember, 35 stairs!) I decided I'd give Amelia a bath while Jeff went to pick up our suitcases from the hotel-- we didn't have any clothes at the apartment yet. So Amelia bathed, and we waited and waited. She just hung out in a sheet (we still don't have towels) until Jeff finally got back with our luggage. But he had forgotten her suitcase!! At this point it was getting too late to even consider going out to eat. I fed the nude little Amelia some odds and ends while Jeff went back for her things. But... He had locked the car into the parking garage, and couldn't get back in, so he had to walk to the hotel and back. We finally got her into her Pjs and in bed, but... Her “blankey,” sippy cup and pet zebra, all of which are bedtime essentials, were locked in the car, locked in the parking garage. And this was her first night in her new room-- there was MUCH wailing. Jeff and I ate some salad on our stairs, and I went in to lay down with her while Jeff just stood around outside the parking garage waiting for the door to open.

In the end Jeff got in, we got the essentials, and slept here. But it was definitely not what I had envisioned!! We still don't have fitted sheets, towels or anywhere to hang our clothes. We have no shelves or chairs, but our dining table is in a flat box waiting to be assembled. The armoires will be delivered tomorrow. Yesterday (Sunday) went better, and we went with some local new friends to a “kinderfest” in town. It was a much better day. We'll take our time with all of the rest of the stuff, it's good to finally be in our own space! And this, my friends, is the reality of following a romantic notion of leaving all of your things behind and moving to Europe! And I'm afraid we'd do it all over again, given the opportunity.

Home Snippets

I really do want to take you on a complete tour of our home, I promise, but it's kind of a wreck. You wouldn't enjoy it. There is no furniture, our living room is just our recycling center with piles of cardboard and bubble wrap. But we do have some cute corners and consistently-tidy areas. I'll show you some of those, so you get the general feeling without all of the riffraff.

I always start with the kitchen when I move somewhere, so this one is more doable. As I wandered around the house just now, with my toothbrush in my mouth (don't know why inspiration seems to strike mid-brush!) and camera in hand, I chose to spare you the unwiped counters and the open dishwasher. There were a couple of angles, however that were eager to be shown off.

We have a ton of counter space! It is so nice, and makes cooking much easier, being able to spread out a little.
By the way, those brown apothecary jars and the glass cloche are from Ingrid.

Next was my favorite corner in Amelia's room. I thought about this nook long before we moved here-- a cozy little spot for her to sit and read. Of course, I was in complete denial about the fact that Amelia would never actually choose to be in a room alone. Maybe this corner was really for me. I should have made it in my room...

And let's get real for a moment here, folks: will her room really ever be much more photographable than this? I don't clean her room for her any more. Her bed will be made by her after her nap, but it never really looks great. She's a kid! It's pure vanity for me to want it to look pretty for my friends.A real bed would sure help, though! By the way, I am thinking of getting this wallpaper to put in the alcoves in here, and painting the inside edges a pretty light pink.

Our bathroom is HUGE. Huge! There is so much open floorspace that we could seriously put a queen sized mattress on the floor in there for guests. (Any takers?) The bathtub is awesome, and Jeff tells me the shower is just fine.
The door goes into the laundry room, and then goes into our bedroom.
Our bedroom holds some of the only furniture in our house, we were that determined to "do it up big" after sleeping in a tiny attic space where we couldn't even fit a box spring, let alone sit up in bed. Of course, our bed is now covered in laundry (that's what happens when you have the laundry room a few feet away!) but you can see our furniture and cool light.

This, in my opinion, is some of the only IKEA furniture that doesn't look like "IKEA furniture." and they discontinued it. This is sad, but it also meant that it was less than half-price!

There's another armoire on the right, but, toothbrush in mouth and camera in hand, I didn't feel like tidying up that area.I love it. It casts the perfect shadows at night, too.

So, now you've seen at least a bit. There will be more.

This weekend I died and went to Flea Market Heaven.

I am lucky enough to have already made a friend here. She is an older woman named Indgrid, and we got connected with her during the first week we arrived in Amberg. There was a woman staying in our hotel who spoke English, and through Amelia's charms we quickly befriended her. It was great to have someone to ask relevant questions, like "Are there thrift stores here? Where can we buy cheap stuff?!" Although most of the facts about 2nd hand wares were discouraging, she was still able to help us out. She called Ingrid, who was downsizing and moving to a tiny studio apartment. She gave me Indgrid's number, and we went over there and bought a lot of her stuff! It was such a huge blessing, because I was able to get cookware, houseplants, platters and vases and that sort of thing from her-- it saved me SO much money and work! She has been really kind and helpful to us-- she spends the cold part of the year in Australia, so her English is excellent and she knows what it's like to be a foreigner. I have been able to call her and ask her cultural questions, and she has given me lots of helpful advice on where to find various items, when it's OK to haggle, etc. She called to tell me that the very best flea market in the area was in a town called Neumarkt, and it was being held this past Saturday. She assured us that there would be plenty of antiques, unlike the "flohmarkt" here which was mostly people selling their junk on card tables, like a neighborhood yard sale (although that was not so bad-- we came home with a drill-- it wasn't what we'd hoped for.)

We are still lacking SO many household goods-- even as people who like to live minimally. So we ventured out, and were very well rewarded. The size of this market was surprisingly big, and the stuff was all amazing. I just walked around, smiling-- it was all so beautiful, unique, interesting and cool! We didn't even get to see everything, there was so much! I swear I could have taken one of everything there, but I was very happy with what I walked away with. Five euros seemed to be the magic price of the day, and it certainly helped that we were there right before everyone was packing up, and eager to unload a few more items. Here are all of my Five Euro Finds:

Isn't this the coolest little tea kettle?

I had been hoping to find something like this, and I had seen some on various websites, but of course for much much more.

This is solid iron and super heavy. It's hard to see the size from the picture, but it's big-- about a foot wide.

I could have seriously gone crazy with all of the beautiful table linens-- embroidered, striped, etc., and all pure linen. This one was a good bargain, and just the right size for our tiny dining table.

No matter how many fancy ways I've tried preparing coffee, nothing beats a cone drip. I love the ceramic ones, and although it's hard to find them in stores here, there were plenty of vintage ones there. Now to find a matching Melitta coffee pitcher...

A little enamel bowl. So practical, so irresistible.

A couple other things were definitely worth a little more, but were still very good deals:

An antique Swiss military first aid box! This will be perfect for vitamins...

And, my favorite, a vintage educational poster on brassicas. Our walls need to be painted really badly, and this is not only wonderful to look at, but covers a very awful-looking wall in our kitchen.

Driving away with all of our new things, I felt so lucky! I really felt like was taking advantage of living in Europe, and although everything else seems to be much more expensive here, I had finally hit the jackpot. This market is held once a month, and I think Jeff and I will try to be there every time.

Getting Set Up... and a Tale of a Very Frustrated Shopper.

So, we have been here for almost a week now, and have one week left of being able to stay in the hotel. We are very very excited to move into our place, and are fortunate enough to already have bought our washer, dryer and refrigerator from the previous tenants. However, we don't have ANY other household goods.

Originally, I had imagined quite a different scenario than the one we're in. In that story, we arrived in Germany with a very large deposit in our bank account. This included our "buy-out"-- the money we received for not shipping anything-- our per diem funds that we would use for buying our meals in the next two weeks, money from selling our cars (the one that would fetch a substantial amount hasn't sold yet) as well as some sort of salary from Jeff's current job-- he didn't work for the last month in the US. As you may have guessed, none of this was in our account upon arrival! There had been a big miscommunication somewhere, which we are still trying to determine the source of. Of course, this was bad news. We managed to have some of the funds expedited, but we are not in nearly the same situation that we had originally imagined.

So, now we have paid a huge amount of money to our landlord for the deposit and rent, as well as the payment for some home repairs before we move in, and... We have no furniture, beds, or cookware. I had thought, so naively, that I would hop from shop to shop, just picking out what suited us best, not worrying so much about bargains, etc. I had expected to find plenty to choose from, as well. I was smart enough to have already ordered dishes and sheets and blankets from an online shop here in Europe that will deliver them to us this week. Whew! And they were a great price. What I was also quite unprepared for is how much our money would seem to shrink as we converted it to Euros! All of this was just my own ignorance, but it has still thrown me for a loop! We visited a huge furniture store here in town yesterday, and it was a little sobering. Not only was everything super expensive, but it was also... wide, square, short leather couch sets, like this one. The general aesthetic here seems to be 80s modern to very modern. Of course there is nothing wrong with this, but I just can't seem get into it. And, did you realize that IKEA is not a bargain store in Europe? The style has never particularly appealed to me, but I always could count on this store when I needed something cheap and easy. A co-worker of Jeff's kindly drove us to one an hour away, and we spent a couple of bewildered hours there. The prices are much higher here, and it didn't have nearly the same selection! The two curtain panels we would have liked for our room were over $70! We did buy a number of smaller items, especially for Amelia's room, but still no beds, mattresses, tables or chairs. Or curtains.

Oh, another thing-- our apartment does not come with overhead light fixtures. The ceilings are bare with wires coming out, so that is one more thing that we need to find for each room. Fortunately, ours DOES come with a kitchen-- most people take their whole kitchens with them when they move out of a place! Although I cannot imagine any other option than the "cash out" simply for the sake of having the money on hand to pay for our apartment, it is a little hard to think of all of the essentials that I loved and got rid of. Pots and pans! Our couch! Light fixtures! Long gone, and unbelievable expensive to replace.

There are a few German design blogs that I follow, and I was so fortunate to stumble upon a French shop that will ship furniture here for a reasonable price. Not only are the pieces beautiful and to my liking, but they were actually much much more affordable than what I found here. The only drawback is that it will probably take a month for them to arrive. I am hoping to find a little patio set that we can use on our balcony to ear our meals. And we will need to buy mattresses and have our beds on the floor for a while, just like we did all three years that we lived in Portland.

Amelia has the BEST little girl's room! It's on the far end of the building, with two huge arched windows that look out onto our neighbor's courtyard. It is long and has three pretty alcoves in it. I am having it painted all white this week, and then I'll paint the inside of the alcoves pink. I ordered a canopy-less version of this bed for her, and am looking for a cozy little chair and a bookshelf for to make a reading corner. Her room is bigger than both of our previous rooms put together.
I bought her some pretty floral bedding at IKEA, and a very pink blanket, as well as a little lamp she was smitten with.

So, we inch along. The other complication is the fact that we don't have a car yet. Jeff has to get his military license before he can drive. The test is very very long and tricky, and he almost passed a few days ago. He'll take it again tomorrow, and if he passes he'll get the license on the same day. We are shopping for a car right now, but the rules are very strict, and he can't even really test drive until he's licensed. Fingers crossed!!

I hope this post doesn't give the impression that I am not super glad and thankful to be here. I would be mortified to be perceived as complaining about all of this-- we are really excited to be here. It's just so much more complicated than I had imagined, and I am trying hard not to waste my energy worrying about all of the basics we need to get squared away. I am really looking forward to where we'll be at in a month or two!

You knew it was coming... I now present to you:
The Silver Lining

Well, the Terrible Leaking Pipe Problem is finally over with. It took about a week, and although I still haven't put everything away, our kitchen is 100% functional and a little 'purdier' than when we started.
Since our cabinets were all rotted and mildewy, we had to get rid of them. Instead of putting in more cabinets, I had the chance to do something I'd always thought about: putting our butcher block countertop on turned legs, making it look more like piece of furniture.
It was a bit of an ordeal to find what we needed, but we ended up screwing two legs together for the right height. I found a duvet cover for $10 at IKEA, and cut that up and turned it into curtains. I hope to find the right racks tonight for storage underneath. By the way, the whole fiasco ended up costing us much less than I had feared, and helped support some qualified neighbors who are currently out of work and thrilled to help.
I want to thank you all for all of your nice comments and support. The encouragement, empathy and prayers really did make me feel better throughout the whole lame ordeal. In fact, I had been wanting to do this part of the project anyway, and the upside was that I was forced into going for it. I'd like to put it out there that, should another unfortunate event such as this one happen again, forcing us into home improvements that we would otherwise never consider due to our precarious financial situation, please let it be the bathroom.

Aaack!

I had been smelling mildew for a while. We couldn't find the leak, but knew it was affecting the insides of our cupboards. It got worse and worse, and started making me sick. Today is the day that someone came to take our cupboards out, dig into the wall and find the leaking pipe. It was not good, not good at all. Lots of mold and rot and bad news. I hope to have a kitchen sink back by the end of the week, water in our house by tonight. Here's a picture of where we stand:
Needless to say, I won't be cooking dinner tonight. On top of the other news, this all just feels like a bit too much for me today.

Taadaa!
(Alternate title: From "Yuck!" to "Wow!")

Of course I can't show you our new paint job until you fully appreciate how awful our house has been looking since we moved in. I also chose a photo with extreme weather contrast to today's glorious climate.

Seriously, who chooses peach and gray? Who?!

As most of you know, we had our house painted by the city of Portland, thanks to their lead paint abatement program. How wonderful! We just had to paint our doors and porches, they took care of the rest!

Aah, much better!

I wasn't really into bright colors when I lived in California. Somehow, enduring two long, gray winters here has completely changed that! When the weather allows, we eat most of our meals outside. Now we have a nice view!

An Improvement!

We had this old church nursery type of carpet that made it impossible to clean out dust and old cat pee-type smells in the extra room downstairs. When we pulled it up, of course we were hoping for some decent hardwoods that we could enjoy with some minimal sprucing up. As usual, it was much worse under there than we'd expected. The wood was in terrible shape, and it looked like at some point, someone let their kid go to town on them with a hammer and a bucket of nails. We quickly changed course and pulled the nails, patched the cracks with wood putty, scraped some linoleum up and painted them with porch paint. In spite of that extra work it was a very doable project that cost under $50, and we are loving the difference!

Doggy Amelia models the previous carpet.
You can also see more before pics here.

I love the way white floors (and rug) brighten all of the colors in the room!

Two Birds... One Stone...
It's our family update/ blessing inventory!

General
I know I keep mentioning it here and there, but the repainting of our house is imminent-- we have chosen a contractor and everything. We still can't believe this is being done for us and can't wait to have the outside of our home lookin' "purdy."

Christmas came early for us this year with a record-breaking show of generosity from J's parents-- we had been without a washer for months, and even when we had one, it was a one unit combo that did a terrible job with lots of noise and rubbery smells and could only take about 1/4 of a regular load at a time. They found a beautiful stacking washer and dryer, complete with warranty for us that actually fits in our cramped space! I never knew laundry appliances could make me feel this way-- it is amazing to have fresh smelling clothes, a quiet laundry day, and to actually have to wash clothes rather infrequently because the loads can be so large! Hurray!

We are thankful to not be visiting churches during the holiday season this year. We are gradually getting to know the people at our church and even had our small group over here for lunch on Sunday. We are so glad to have a church to experience the Advent season with.

Jeff
Work continues to be a positive challenge for Jeff. We are still just so thankful that he has his job and barely missed last year's pink slips. We have become friends with a number of his co-workers and are so pleased and blessed that he works with such wonderful people.

His health has been much better in the last couple of months! He had food allergies tested and has a short and doable list of things to avoid, and so far he has been close to normal-- a huge answer to prayers.

Jeff is currently taking the carpeting out of the spare room downstairs and repairing the sorry-looking wooden floor underneath. This will be a big improvement, and counts as one of my blessings.

Amelia
Amelia is almost 2 1/1 and at a really fun age. I am enjoying letting her help me a lot, or do household tasks independently. She loves washing the dishes with Jeff and today she helped me make cornbread. She often goes "shopping," walking around the house with a cloth sack picking things up to buy. It's also nice to have her cleaning her own messes up!

She is such a good communicator, and it's wonderful to have a whole new level of ability to understand one another. We are working on telling people how we feel, especially instead of screaming or acting out or getting walked on. Jeff and I were amazed the other day when she came up to me and we had this conversation:
A: Mama, I feel frustrated.
Me: You do? Why do you feel frustrated?
A: Because Papa said "NO." (With a very fierce face.)
Jeff was able to come over talk about the safety issue that had prompted this, and she seemed to make peace with the interaction. We couldn't believe we were able to have this little dialogue!

Sleep has certainly continued to be up and down, but she has been taking some serious naps-- a first! It's really been nice.

Here's some exciting news: Amelia will be attending preschool in January! I am so happy for her to be able to spend time with other children and get to go do so many interesting thing several days each week. Of course, there is also the benefit of me having some time freed up for work and rest. More on this later.

Me
I have been pleasantly surprised to have a pretty good amount of business so far. In the second week that I was "open" I filled my five client quota that I had been hoping for. I have had a couple other weeks with that many, and of course a couple of slow ones. Overall, things have picked up more quickly than I had expected. One very exciting tidbit is that my chiropractor, who I have a good relationship with, will be sending me clients for cranio-sacral work. In fact, when anyone calls their very busy wellness center asking about that type of work, they will refer them to me! I have also been getting referrals from the studio I work at. I am very happy and relieved that things are going well, and plan to step up my marketing quite a bit in January.

As winter is coming quickly, I am more thankful than ever for all of the changes we've been able to make to our home over the past year. The glass doors let in so much more light, the colors are cheerful, we are no longer trying to keep white carpet clean in muddy weather, etc. I feel a big difference in how I feel, and think it will be easier to stay positive through the gray and rainy weather ahead.

As far as my health goes, I can honestly say I'm feeling a bit better. This will be a long process, but I have had more energy lately and don't feel as overwhelmed by all that I have to get done on a daily basis. I am very thankful for a good doctor that has done so much to help me through this tricky healing process. I am also thankful to those that have been supportive and helpful, especially my sister-- she has been watching Amelia once a week for me, and was even doing a load of laundry for me each week! Amazing.

I have to be honest that last year was a difficult one for our family, but even so, we have so much to be thankful for. And much of our gratitude is for what has changed for us in the last few months, and what is to come in the year ahead. Our lives are so rich!

Ebay Travels

We had been wanting to switch out our living room's old home depot-esque lighting fixtures since we moved in, but weren't quite sure what we wanted. I went to look for some Moroccan tea glasses on ebay a while back, and was completely taken by the lanterns being sold there. We snatched a couple up for a bargain, and have been loving the new ambience.

What, that's not how YOU mop your floors?

We do own a mop, but I have always been partial to scooting around on a nubby towel, spray bottle in hand, to get those tough spots. The best part of the experience is the spray, made of water, castille soap, tea tree oil and lemongrass essential oil-- nice! Cheap! I don't like filling up the sink and pushing dirty water around very much. Unfortunately, no matter what I do, our kitchen floor still looks filthy, thanks to weird pock-marked linoleum that would like to look like filthy tile instead. Do you have any quirky but effective cleaning methods?

General Family Updates

Things have been busy around here, and there is more to come, so I thought I'd stop by and give a quick rundown.

Amelia
Her 2nd birthday is in two weeks! Sleep has been up and down, but generally pretty good. We have some pretty bad nights, and they are usually several at a time, but she usually sleeps relatively well, and we are so glad! Right now she is getting some molars in, and has been feverish and miserable for the last four days. We feel pretty bad for her, and hope they come through soon. She has a real thing for her cousins on both sides and asks to see them every day. When I tell her we are going to see them she says "excited!" and makes 'can't contain myself' sounds. I will do a longer post about her soon in honor of her b-day.

Jeff
The first year of his job is coming to a close, and he is so thankful for such wonderful co-workers and a great work environment. The district has had some serious funding problems, (how's $600,000 short for serious?) and he missed the "pink slip" cut by TWO people-- based on seniority. We are SO thankful he will still have his job next year!!!! We have had a couple of his coworkers and their families over in the last month, and hope to continue building friendships with them and others. He recently built a fence around our yard with his dad and bro-in-law, and he is going to be painting the exterior of the house with his dad in another week or so. Fun! He is on an anti- inflammatory diet right now, so that has made cooking a little more of an adventure for us both lately-- it's good to mix it up a little!

Moi
I can't believe we've been here for almost a year. I still definitely feel like a newcomer. I have put off retaking the massage board for June, and hope to take it again in July. I REALLY want to start working. I recently realized that days go by where Jeff is the only person I see who knows/recognizes me. This seems very sad (and can be devastating if he doesn't seem very enthusiastic about seeing me!) and I am wanting to get plugged in with the adult population in reliable ways. We do have some friends, though, and I am thankful that we have met some really quality people that we relate to well. It's time for me to start working on wool baby clothes projects to sell in the fall and winter, but I have been preoccupied with the garden and other house projects-- hopefully I'll get motivated soon! I have started working with a naturopath on some stress-related issues I've been having, and it has been exciting to get some help with constant headaches and fatigue. I am actually beginning to feel better and my sleep has really improved. Also my outlook on life. Hurray!

Church
We have continued to attend the Mennonite church here. We met with the pastor about two months ago, and chatted quite a bit. We also shared with him what our experience with the church community has been so far-- it was really hard for him to hear, but I am glad we spoke up. We are trying to get hooked up with a small group there soon. The one they recommended to us has several young families, but they all live very far apart. That's how our last small group in CA was, and we have since decided that we want our community to be IN OUR COMMUNITY, not a 45 minute drive away. So we will see what else is available to us.

Summer
Jeff has some good chunks of time off here and there this summer. We don't have any travel plans. We'll be around working on our house and yard. Something we have never done as a family yet is go camping, and I think Amelia is finally at a point where she might actually sleep at night if we went. So that's all I really want this summer-- the first family camping trip. We are soliciting companions (camp-anions?)

Well, I could probably keep going, but that should do it for now.

Sewing Room/ Amelia's Playroom

Sorry the picture quality isn't great. I am so excited about all the chromotherapy this room provides. It used to be a really drab pinkish- brown color, and felt so small and dreary. I am keeping most of Amelia's stuff in here, and it's nice to have a little station to park it all. I probably make a sweep through the house about six times a day, putting everything back in there, since our small living space can be overwhelmed with clutter so quickly.

Hurray! I finally have a space to sew in that I don't have to pack up and shove into a closet with in a few hours of starting on a project (I used to work at our dining room table.) I have so much fabric that I haven't unpacked yet, so I am still working those logisitics out.

Here is Amelia's little corner. I have several layers of paper on the table so I can just remove one every week and not have to re- cover it more than once a month, hopefully! On the left is one of the only two closets in the whole house, mostly taken up by the water heater... and the vacuum cleaner. Maybe if we can get rid of the carpet in this room and upstairs, we can also get rid of the vacuum cleaner! As a side note, we will probably take the carpet up in this room pretty soon, since it looks like it's pretty straight forward hardwoods under there!
We now have all of our books shelved and don't need bulky bookcases taking up precious floorspace! The bottom shelf is Amelia's, and she can't reach the other ones (another big "hurray!") You can also see all of the light flooding into the kitchen from the glass back door here-- such an improvement and definitely a mood lifter.

Dining Room Work Space

I'm still looking for a the right desk chair, but in the meantime there is a whole table full I can borrow from two feet away! I'd like to add a hanging light right over the desk since it is pretty dark in the evening. This calligraphy desk was an item that was being stored for us. I was looking all over for a desk, and when I found out the measurements were PERFECT for this small space I was doubly glad, since we would have had to let the desk go otherwise.