Life: Idiotropic

Some days are simple. Not enough, of course, but as the weather improves, I revel in those few days when there is nothing going on. They kids play outside. They run. They climb the bushes. They bike and rollarblade and laugh and make all sorts of racket. Tiara decided to teach Arianna to rollarblade on this day and Arianna had a great time. Luci and Elise ran up and down the sidewalk excited to be with the big girls. And Luci helped Arianna safely on and off the curb when Aria needed help. This was one of those calm, sweet summer days when everyone is relaxed and content - until, that is, it's time to go in for bed.

When I need a good recipe and I don't have time to scour cookbooks, I go to one of three sites on the internet: www.epicurious.com, www.foodtv.com, and www.allrecipes.com.

I'm sure there are other great ones, but between these three, I always find something great. And many found recipes have become regulars in my cooking repertoire.

Last night I wanted to make chili and cornbread - easy enough. This cornbread recipe, discovered on epicurious, is definitely one that I'll add to my favorites and tweak a little to make it mine.

Corn Bread with Basil, Roasted Red Peppers, and Monterey Jack Cheese
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/4410


Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 9x9x2" baking pan (I used two 8" round pans and it worked great). Melt 1T butter in medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat (I used cooking spray), add 1 cup chopped onion and sautee until tender, about 10 minutes. Cool.

Combine 1 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 T baking powder, 1 1/2 t salt, and 1/2 t baking soda in a large bowl.

Add 7 T chilled butter and rub into dry ingredients with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk in 1 1/2 cups buttermilk and 3 large eggs into dry ingredients and stir until blended. Mix in sauteed onion, 1 1/2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese with jalapenos, 1 1/3 cups frozen corn kernels thawed and drained, 1/2 cup drained chopped roasted red peppers from jar, and 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil. Mix well and transfer to prepared pan.

Bake until golden and tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool 20 minutes on rack.

Serves 12.

My notes:
1. Room temperature butter stirred in with a spoon worked great.
2. I didn't add the corn or the red peppers because I didn't have them and it was delicious without, but I'm sure it would be delicious with them also.
3. I used plain Monterey Jack cheese instead of Pepper jack - both are yummy in this recipe.
4. This is a great recipe to play with... next time I'll add some chopped bacon and jalapenos. You could probably even add some chili beans to it and make it a meal.
5. I NEVER have buttermilk. So, when a recipe calls for buttermilk, I measure the required amount in regular milk, then add a bit of vinegar to it - 1/2t to 1t depending on the amount of milk. Mix the vinegar into the milk before adding it to the recipe. It turns out great every time.

Life for Arianna at the St. Maria Namen Kindergarten couldn't be sunnier. Life is good. School is fun. She is happy. And... she is learning German schnell. Yes, quickly. Everyday she comes home with new words learned. She had friends and seems to get along ok. One teacher in her class speaks enough English to help her if she's really confused.

A couple weeks ago the older kids in the school took a field trip to the police station in Geilenkirchen. They walked to the bus stop and took the city bus there and back. At the police station they got to see a jail cell and a police car. Arianna was the brave volunteer who got fingerprinted and actually sat in the police car.

I finally got all the paperwork filled out and I had help with the translation, so Jennifer, a German with excellent English skills, read the long document and filled me in on what it said - the basics - emergency contact information, health insurance information, allergies, pick-up and drop-off times, basic rules and regulations... and breakfast. For breakfast we are to send in a well-balanced, nutritional meal of bread, fruit, and yogurt. Cheese and crackers are highly discouraged. They don't like American lunchables or string cheese. Packages snacks are verboten. It's good to know. I guess I shouldn't have sent in that left-over pizza with Aria the other day. Oh well... live and learn.

Last October 16th, I got flashed by the annoying temporary tri-pod camera set up by the local school by the police. I knew eventually I'd get a ticket. In January, the ticket finally arrived. Wow. I didn't know such a morph was possible. It was morning. It was dark. I was photographed in poor light behind the wheel of my car with an obnoxiously bright flash. The photo is horrific. Seriously - it looks like a bad combination of Sean Penn and ALF. Based on that photo alone, I think I should seek therapy. It makes all others Hollywood glam.

So, here's the breakdown. I had to pay a 25 Euro fine which isn't nearly as high as I thought, so that was a relief.

The ticket was wonderfully detailed.

gemessene Geschwindigkeit (the speed I was caught doing) 45km/h
abzuglich Toleranzwert (the tolerance over - not very tolerant!) 3km/h

zulassige Hochstgeschwindigkeit (the speed limit in that zone) 30km'h

Geschwindigkeitsuberschreitung 12km/h
(the speed over minus the tolerance)


Keep in mind that this is all in km/h - much slower than mph speeds. And so 12km/h is more like 6mph over in a zone that is PAINFULLY slow... like 15mph-ish.


So, the paperwork all arrived with a little 4x5" yellow and white payment slip pre-filled out with their bank information, so all I had to do was take it to my bank and pay it. Kein problem.

NOW someone on their end doesn't know that we've paid it and I have to play secretary and track down all my receipts to prove that I paid it so that I don't have to pay it again. Apparently this is a common problem here - lesson learned - keep ALL receipts ALWAYS. They come in handy more frequently than I care to admit.

Sittard in the spring is particularly beautiful. After months of scurrying to the bagel shop to escape the cold, today the girls and I walked along the narrow path between the homes of Putstraat and the little fenced off gardens hiding behind.

We hadn't walked back there since late fall, so it felt good in the sun to see something other than the usual concrete. The chickens and sheep were out and people were working in their gardens clearing out old branches as they pruned their trees. Pruning is as common here as buying a pumpkin on Halloween. It's just something that anyone with a tree or bush does. And many of them are polarded (chopped off entirely to a fat little ball at the top from where it will fill out in the spring) or espaliered (with certain branches fanned out along wired creating a flat fence of tree).

All the bare sticks now have little tiny buds and soft green leaves emerging from them. I enjoyed seeing the contrast of this hydrangea - with the dried blooms from last season existing along side the new leaves of spring.

Farmers for the last couple weeks have been out in full force. Every field is sprinkled with tractors of all kinds. Just last week the spargel (asparagus) rows appeared. Then - 7 days later - the snow fell.

So, here's the contrast - photos above from last Monday when it was warm. I wore a light sweater and sandals with my jeans. It was comfortable. This Monday is snowed and now it's bitterly cold snowing, hailing, or sleeting a little bit every day.

This was the third snow of this winter, but the first time I've had a chance to photograph it. So, below are a couple photos of the snow covered spargel rows. I wish I'd had the chance to photograph the daffodils bowing under the weight of small piles of snow balancing on their heads like white knit caps. They were funny to see and would have captured the true feel of this season when one can go from warmth to snow in such a short time with no rhyme or reason.

This morning at approximately 1026 European Central Time, I mailed off a manila envelope containing some paperwork, 5 compact disks, and two checks totalling $3576.

The GKES yearbook, a project that's monopolized my last few weeks, is out of my hands for now and that feels good. Yesterday morning I wasn't ready. I moved the entire collection of photos and files over to another computer and went through it again. By the afternoon I was ready to let it go - for now.

Next I'll get a proof to initial and sign. Then it goes to print and by June we should receive 2o0 copies of our 60-page full color yearbook. That will be a great moment. Yes, I ordered one for myself. I'll have my student staff sign it for me.

Ahhh... so last night late I enjoyed an iced coffee with Bailey's to celebrate quietly by myself. Kirk is in France this week. Last week he was in Italy. Next week he goes to London. Rough life he has, huh?

Anyway... I'll be back on blogger now a bit. Nothing too huge looms in the future, so I have some time to relax just a little. -- Oh, and the art up top is one of about 200 scanned pieces of art that students K-6th grade made at school and we included in the yearbook as borders. It's all gorgeous and sure does add some zing to the pages!

In an effort to experience life to its fullest, I've taken on the role now as taxi driver taking vacations only in miniature by looking out the windows of my van and dreaming of walking through the fields that I can only speed by now at 50Kph.

This is the last week. Though I will still be the official Stahlbaum team bus for my family as they scurry off in all directions to various lessons and play dates, the yearbook (something has consumed more than a bit of my time this last few weeks) will be over next Tuesday for the most part and I will be able to enjoy the metamorphosis that's going on without me right outside my window.

Last year we were still enduring snow and ice. This year Spring has arrived with arrays of daffodils and crocus littering up the green spaces along the roads and in the roundabouts. The pheasant are in the fields again. The bunnies are out in small groups. The birds are happier - everyone is happier. It's amazing what a good dose of sun can do. Everyone is smiling, feeling lighter on their feet and in their hearts. All is well in my community this week and the feeling in the air is almost tangible. And, it's affecting me too - at a time when I might normally be a bit stressed, things are just flowing now and I'm feeling great.

I can't wait to be able to sit and write or blog or paint. The sun is inducing some rather fun avenues of thought and artistry that I'd like to explore. It would be a good day to walk barefoot through the mud or to create a rock garden.

Even the bakeries are changing. Nothing here is ever static. The bakeries and flower shops mark the seasons with more frequency than the fields. Farmers in their tractors litter each field now as they prepare for this year's crops. And my sweet bakery just brought out it's first batch of strawberry tarts. I was so excited to see them that I momentarily forgot the German word for strawberry. The tartlet filled with a sweet vanilla custard and piled with a tee-pee of strawberry wedges with a wreath of toasted almond slivers on the side was as beautiful as it was delicious. I'd intended to take a photo of it, but it sadly disappeared too quickly for that. I guess I'll just have to go buy another.

Either I'm a mom, or the shoemaker's elves have gotten loose again. This evening, late and after a very busy day, I walked into the living room to find my perfectly beautiful mango - the one I bought this morning as an indulgence to treat myself tonight in a moment of quiet - gored unabashedly with a chopstick and sitting like a shocking piece of modern art on my windowsill for all to see.

These are things that those without children will never experience. These are things that I wouldn't have experienced if I'd had the sense to stop at 2... but... I didn't, so the myriad of modern art expressions by my dear #3 continue.

Since before we even moved here, Kirk and I discussed the possibility of putting our kids in the German schools. There were reasons to do it and reasons not to. First we wanted to wait and let the kids adjust to the big move. Then we just loved the school where they were and, I think more than anything, I was just nervous and unsure.

In January, we made the decision that we should try it, so I took applications for Arianna, Luci, and Elise in to St. Maria Namen Kindergarten in our village of Gillrath. There was no room at the time, but we'd be put on the waiting list. Then I got a call that there was space and paperwork would arrive in the mail. Two days later we got an envelope in our mail slot. I was excited to see some official paperwork of admittance and opened it to find that there was nothing inside addressed to me. Each girl received a letter addressed just to them... "Liebe Arianna..." The letters told them that they had a place at the school "010807." Kirk and I were so excited that they had places that for several days, we completely ignored the date and told all our friends that the girls would be starting that month! Then, it dawned on me that we'd forgotten to switch the dates. Here, the day ALWAYS comes first. So, instead of the 8th of January, our girls will start the 1st of August!

Then, just a couple weeks ago, I got a call saying that there was a place for Arianna. Since Aria will be at the age to attend the Greunschule next year, they wanted to bring her in now so that she can adjust to the language before the bigger school. Here, kindergarten is for children ages 3-5, and it is more of a Montessorie-style play time to learn socialization than a true letters and numbers learning environment. Then, at age 6, they go to Greunschule and learn what our kids normally learn in kindergarten.

Wednesday was Arianna's last day at GKES - the American school she's been attending. I baked cupcakes for her class and she smiled ear to ear that she was going. She was so excited and happy to be starting a new school. Yesterday was her first day. She was there from 8-12, and from 2-4. In the middle is mittags pause - the lunch break - when mom's take their children home and feed them. She took her breakfast in the morning. They sit together at a nicely set table with their food on plates. They serve themselves milk, kakao, or juice and then they wash their own dishes and dry them with their own special towels.

Arianna is in the Froschgruppe, but she has the freedom to go anywhere in the school. She just has to move her photomagnet on the board to the right place to show her teachers where she is. Her teachers are Frau Hildegard and Rebecca - both are very nice.

I brought her in with the required items: hausschue (house shoes that are worn when they are in the building), shorts and a t-shirt for gym time, and gummi pants and jacket for playing outside in the muck and rain so they don't get their regular clothes dirty.

Yesterday she came home happy and bouncing. I heard her playing in the playroom pointing to things saying "das und das." She also learned the word: orangen. Today; however, she melted. We faced a morning of tears and kicking, fighting and hiding in the corner resolute not to go to German school. She said that yesterday kids were talking to her and she didn't understand them. It took a lot of talking, but we got here there and when I picked her up, she was playing happily outside with a couple other kids. It's hard to see her unhappy, but I think it will be worth it in the long run. She just needs people and it's hard for her to be in this place where she doesn't understand. Hopefully, that will give her the impetus to listen and learn quicker. She already is, really, we played in German phrases all afternoon and she was doing very well.

We finally got the adult "formulas" yesterday, so we can officially register her and find out how much it's going to cost. The kindergarten is pro-rated according to how much you make, so we have her there with no solid idea on how much we'll end up paying per month - kind of scary, really... but we'll see.

I have SOOO much to blog... the Austria trip and Arianna's first loose tooth, Aria's first day of German kindergarten which may seem rather sudden, but it's something that's been brewing, this whirlwind week full of odd little bits of trivia, and my weekend in Heidleberg which starts tomorrow... but, of course, I'll be gone all weekend, and next week I'll be drowning in yearbook stuff... that will last another two + weeks and then I'll be sane again, if only for a short time. So... hang in there. I have SOOO many photos to share! They'll be up slowly, but surely.