Starting to feel at home...

 Climbing cousin Elisabeth's chair... hmmm..

 One of the last days of our family Easter time.

 ANZAC biscuits, German style - Zuckerruebensirup instead of golden syrup, which gives a malty flavour.

 Walking in the forest.

 Making playdough worms and other creations.

 A 'new' doona cover and pillow case set for Nahlia, made out of an old single bed doona cover.

 Green Soup - spinach, peas and smoked ham.  Nahlia didn't like it as she thought it was green smoothie, but naturally it tasted nothing like that!

 Playing horsey on the trampoline.

Our latest batch of sauerkraut - one red cabbage and three white.  I'm hoping for pink-kraut, but it looks more like it will become purple-kraut!

 The pumpkins are sprouting!!  I planted out a mix of three Australian varieties - Jap (Japora), Queensland Blue, and a mysterious unknown one.  I'm excited to see how productive they will be here, given the limited growing months.

 Playing 'cubby house'.

 Reading 'Benjamin Blumchen' with Oma.

And so life goes on....  

When we arrived we had lots of ideas in our heads, and hearts, about what we wanted to do here/ how we wanted to live / what kind of job Ulf wanted to do, etc.  But as we started 'knocking on the doors' that would give us those dreams, we found door after door closed solid.  Ulf wanted to become a Waldorf teacher, but it doesn't seem possible for Ulf to study anything here full-time.  He's above the age-limit for financial assistance while studying, and we wouldn't be able to live without it.  If he worked full-time for a year or two to save the money needed to study, it would take that much longer to complete his study and start working as a teacher.   So now he's looking in other directions, such as an apprenticeship, which would give us an income to live on while he learned a trade.

In the meantime, Ulf has been looking for a job locally to provide for us until he begins whatever it is he decides to begin.  Ha ha.  But again, nothing has opened up for him yet.  He's also been using his time in his parent's garden, helping his father with whatever needs doing, repairing little bits and pieces around the house, being a Dad, helping with the care of his grandparents a little, and helping in the neighbours garden as well.

We have managed to work our way through our mountain of paperwork, which I mentioned previously.  All we have left to do is apply for my visa.  Yee-ha!

Nahlia has been having fun making new friends - last week we visited Ulf's cousin and their three girls, we met a family with two boys and a girl, and next week we'll start going to a Mother's Group.  She's also enjoying seeing her cousin Elisabeth and her baby sister Linn almost every week.  Nahlia loves going shopping with Oma (without Mummy!), and she's starting to repeat German words after Oma.  She also has three out of four of the her last set of baby molars through!  Yay!  Only one to go!

As for me, I'm finally finding my feet again; with my kitchen and household tasks in order, time for a little sewing, gardening a bit, and now starting to knit cotton dish cloths as well... don't worry, I'm not planning to knit myself a jumper any time soon!  I went to Tabita last week to help sort secondhand clothes which are shipped overseas to poor countries and missionaries working there.  It was nice to get out of the house and focus on something else for a while.  I'm also cooking for the whole family now and then - 6 adult plus Nahlia - which is a big help to Ulf's mother.

Ulf and I had our first date alone yesterday since Nahlia was about 9 months old.  We went to a cafe at an old castle - THAT was a lovely treat!

And for mother's day, I slept in while Ulf helped Nahlia paint me a card, and make me pancakes for breakfast! Yum.  :-)

"Begin difficult things while they are easy, do great things when they are small.  The difficult things of the world must once have been easy, the great things must have once been small.  A thousand mile journey begins with one step." - Lao Tsu.