Spring

a new little lamb....

.....checking out the Easter cake

my butterflies on a spring-walk

Tulip-Time is around the corner!

 Time flies, but we are still hopping!

The free tulip pattern is from Jennie Lynn. 

Frozen in doubts

And then there was a birthday-girl, that turned two, shortly before Christmas and lots of home-making, Celebrations, a trip to Florida and back to Michigan.... and after that came the hole.
There is a lot to be accomplished, don't get me wrong, but this feeling of not being content with my actions makes me even more so frozen. My brain is active, but my body strikes. I am doubting the little accomplishments, doubting the decisions that I make and with my discoveries of the past weeks doubting in humanity and society. I can see glimpses of hope, but so much pain covering the good.
 This theme lays heavy on my heart and I hope you take a few minutes to look and see for yourself......I wish every furrrry friend would have a happy home!

 http://urgentpetsondeathrow.org/cats/

https://www.facebook.com/PetsOnDeathRow

The Beauty of Simplicity

My oldest daughter has lately been very focused of decorating and straightening up. She loves to do crafts and is impatient, when things are not really going her way.
The starting of the Christmas season this year was accompanied with a lot of questions like: "When are we going to cut and set up the tree?.... And when are we decorating it?" "When are we lightening the first candle on the Advent-Wreath?" And when she was in bed and half asleep the questions went on and the chores for me too..... Last week she was quite certain she needed to have antlers and a red nose! "Mama, you need to prepare tonight and get the things together, so that we can do it tomorrow morning! You only need paper, glue, a lamp and a batterie - that is all!"
So, here are our little, shy, and fast reindeer, that happily ran through the kitchen singing to the "Rudolph"-song until they settled down to eat reindeer-food.

I love the beauty of simplicity and imagination!

This moment

I love SouleMama's friday ritual and would like to take it as an inspiration.  In her words:

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{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Illusions

Do we believe of the existence of something what we hope for?

Is it the way we tell ourselves that all is good?

How do we know and how can we tell the difference from reality and imagination?

Everybody lives their reality, sees life through their glasses, which is tinted by the experience that life has given them. We expect an outcome of any given circumstance based on those experiences and categorize our  world by them.

But then there are those moments that do not fit into the neatly categorized world; those small moments where you go "huh?!". 

If we are lucky and able to see and reflect those moments, we might be able to recognize the illusion that we lived by. There will be disappointment and we will be hurt. The pain can be seen as an ending and beginning. A beginning of making changes; an effort to see things differently and letting go of old illusions.

And all that craft....

In the last two weeks I have have been busy making and crafting for my Girls. I started Christmas planning and and gift-making and am happy to have started already. In order for gifts to arrive in Germany in time I need to send the packages soon. In the years prior they often (or better to say most of the time) have arrived too late. It would be nice to break the habit!

counting toadstools

the tutorial of drawstring bag is from the Purl bee and can be found here

 the making of Montessori sandpaper-numbers

 working with numbers

 homemade play-dough (recipe found here at The Artful Parent)

So, when the kids are asleep the Santa-workshop opens. But crafting alone is half the fun.... especially, if you have friends, that like to get together! Last week-end I met friends to sew together for Christmas and yesterday evening I met a different group of  friends for a "GNI" ("Girls-Night-In"). Everybody brought something to nibble and zip on and the crafts they work on at the moment. Between homemade dips, bread, chocolate-mousse, chocolate-martinis and lots of teary laughter  we scrapbooked, knitted, sewed, wound yarn around the kitchen table. We were so engaged that time slipped by unnoticed and when we said our good-byes it was in the early moning-hours! What a good time I had!

In the search of

The last weeks have been busy, but somehow unfulfilled. My Girls and the general upkeep have been demanding (or so it feels like) and those moments of quiet passed way too fast. I feel restless, have thousand things on my brain but somehow do not commit to them, when the time is there to start. So instead of using the time wisely and working on those things that are filling my lists with deadlines and occupying my mind I drift.....
I read about and see what other women are accomplishing and I ask myself where my energy and drive has went to.While writing about it,  I recognize that I am somehow frozen in a moment of stillness, observance and internal search. I see the world around me changing with me standing still in one place, somehow searching in the inside for contentment.
Maybe it is the season pulling my strings - I have to accept those phases in life, maybe as a recharging for the future to come. Accepting the moment as it is, wihout judgement, taking each step at a time while being in the search and staying positive seems to be the right thing at the moment.

Mahatma Gandhi quote: 

 "Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”