already quite American

This might scare you: I got up this morning, headed into the kitchen just about to start the yeast dough for fresh buns. Jonte came in and complained - he does NOT want buns, he WANTS pancakes (Jonte: "amerikanische Eierkuchen"). After figuring out, what everyone would like to eat for breakfast - Theda wanted scrambled eggs, Jonte pancakes, Sunke didn't care - he just needed his coffee and since I love pancakes as well, we made pancakes and of course had them with maple syrup (Theda got her scrambled egg, which she ended up not eating because by the time I served the scrambled egg, she was stuffed with pancakes).

For lunch we had hot dogs (Jonte's suggestion while eating them: We should try growing sausages in our garden.) For coffee time we had fresh donuts from one of the popular donut places in town which happens to be located just down the street ... and they are really good! So make sure we go there when you come and visit us!

But we are hopefully not totally lost yet: for dinner we had German Schnitzel, Broccoli and potatoes!!

Other than that we had a great day. Since Sunke is quite busy writing an abstract for a conference in Portland in February which he has to turn in until Tuesday, we gave him some extra time to work at it and the rest of us walked to the library, which reopened today. The libary closed for remodeling just when we moved here and since then I have been waiting for it to open. The libary happens to be also just down the street and it is a nice walk to get there (taking back roads and not the busy 35th avenue). On the way, we collected leaves, counted pumpkins and looked at the decorated "Halloween houses". Then we were welcomed at the libary with apple juice, cookies and brownies! It was easy to get a libary card, which is free and you can lend up to 50 items. It got a huge kids section and that was the only section we checked out today. But I am really happy - that will be a great location to go to during rainy season.

After having been to my first yoga class yesterday (restorative yoga - one hour of lying around in different poses, not moving, just lying, changing poses every 10 to 15 minutes - one hour of peace in the middle of the day!), I got some more time off this afternoon. I went to a hairdresser which I longed for for a couple of weeks now. Since I had to wait for half an hour until it was my turn, I got a latte macchiato in the coffee shop right next to the hairdresser, sat outside in the sun and had time to read a book (!!!), which I started to read in Kiel before we started our packing procedure.

Sunke and the kids spent the afternoon in our garden, removing weeds, watering plants,... We are very amazed that there are still flowers who start to bloom at this time of the year e.g. our roses. Our vegetable seeds which we put in our raised bed are already sprouting and especially our broccoli plants are fairly big. I just talked to our neighbor Terry today and she suggested to cover the raised bed in a few weeks when it freezes at night. So we will think about how to cover it and build something. (I probably get quite old that I am so excited about gardening :-) )

The kids also had fun watching Bob (very nice man who build our bathroom in the basement). He came in the afternoon to paint the door of our garage. And when he was finished, they saw Terry, our neighbor, outside and played with her and her two cats. When I came back from the hairdresser, they were "helping" her mowing the lawn. It is nice to see that they feel more and more comfortable to interact with the people although they might not understand everything.

The kids are sleeping now and we have to clean the mess of the evening, do some laundry, press the leaves which we collected today and press the limes (Limetten). When Sunke went to Costco, he brought an entire sack of limes. (I was asking for one or two limes, but since they only had XXL packages, we now have to deal with an entire sack of limes) And before they spoil, Sunke had the idea to press them and freeze the lime juice in ice cube containers. So that is the program for tonight! I hope you are all well and also enjoy a nice weekend!