I have missed the blogosphere

I do not actually mean that I have missed writing my blog.  I like to write but usually only when I have something that I think is cool to share.  The passed several months have not been full of those things.  Who wants to hear about how frustrating it is to get all the paperwork in for a loan or how annoying it is to go buy a luggage carrier for a car and get it home only to find it has a crack in it.  These things are not fun or educational, just annoying.  Life is full of annoying things.  We all have our own little annoyances and we do not really need to hear about those of  others...in my opinion...unless funny or educational.  So, I have kept quiet.

Now, after the move, we have a bit more time (and with snow days, a LOT more time) to do fun stuff.  Since I am creatively challenged I go straight to the web for ideas on what to do and how to do it.  The latest was homemade Valentines.  I like having the kids make homemade stuff for a couple of reasons.  First, it means it really comes from them.  Secondly, if I take them to the store to buy something we will end up with tons of stuff for them not for their friends.  Sad, but true.

As you may know, S loves many things including butterflies and the color blue.  When she loves, she goes all out, so it should be no surprise that she wanted blue butterfly Valentines.  I knew there would be some cute stuff out there and when I googled  it, I was not disappointed.  One of my favorite sites, Skip to my Lou, was first on the list.  She has a printable from last year and it hit the spot!

The girls and I made a shopping list and headed to Staples which is just a second from our new house.  I just happened to have a ton of Dum Dum suckers since that is the girls' favorite so did not even have to get those.  Now, we were going to just do glitter glue eyes, but got the shopping bug and headed to Target after Staples.  Target had the googly eyes and even though I thought they were a bit too big for the Dum Dum suckers, it turned out well.  We spent the rest of the afternoon cutting, napping, and decorating.  S's got finished up this morning, but I don't have any pics.  Sorry.

This is just another reason, I love blogs!

A chose pink because that is as close to Elmo's red as the pack of pastel paper came.

She is so proud!

Hard at work...notice the artistic heart sticker on the forehead.

What's Grumbeere?

Grumbeere means Kartoffeln.



The End. Thanks for visiting.




Just kidding!



Kartoffeln means potatoes in Hoch Deutsch or proper German. We, however, lived in die Pfalz (Palatinate) area of Germany so were exposed to the paelzisch dialect where Kartoffeln was replaced by Grumbeere. The sad thing is that most of the time I did not know that people were speaking dialect since many times that just meant a slight variation of pronunciation (that I just couldn't hear) or a shortening of a word (which I am totally used to coming from TN). There were certain words that we heard a lot in dialect and so came to know such as Grumbeere and Woi (wine).


The reason why I named the blog Grumbeere though, is not because I love potatoes. For the reason, you have to look closer at the picture and see Sadie's butt up in the air. Sadie is one of our dogs who came to Germany with us. She and Jasmine had a big time in Europe since they could go on long walks without leashes, go to restaurants (where they were NOT as well behaved as the German dogs), and see a lot of Europe. Here they are in Tuscany enjoying the vineyards.






Anyway, Sadie's days off the leash were numbered every year because she could not be trusted during planting or harvesting season and the farmers surrounding our village kept their fields pretty well used during the year so there were a lot of planting and harvesting going on. When Sadie DID get off the leash and was allowed to explore, she pretty much just explored from one Grumbeer spot to the next. She would FEAST on these things as well as sugar beets. Oh man, she loves her some sugar beets!!





The thing is though, even though I had to yell at her constantly to come, even though harvesting season was the bane of my existence as a dog owner, I envied Sadie her joyful abandon in those fields. If I could find such happiness in such small and plentiful things as the pfaelzer Grumbeere then I would be a truly happy person. So, that is what I am trying to do with my sewing and with this blog. I am trying to plant my own field of Grumbeere.