Der Frühling ist da! (Spring is here!)

 Another three months have flown by!  Spring came here overnight.  We truly woke up and walked to school one morning and noticed that buds were greening on branches, bulbs were sending up shoots, we saw our first crocus, and the whole air around us smelled different.  The next day, more flowers up, more open buds, just more!  It was doubly delightful for me: first, to see spring after winter and rejoice in the sprouting beauty and secondly, to watch my children delight in it!

We found a new hiking trail which led to a pond full of frogs' eggs.  We've been checking on it regularly! 

We've done some of our own planting and I'm delighting in being outside digging in the dirt.  We're getting chickens in the next few weeks and I can't wait for that, too!

Kathryn, Emma, David, Rob and I have joined a choir made up of Germans and Americans (and a couple of others, too, I guess) that practices every week.  We're singing in four or five different languages and having a great time!  We'll sing in three concerts in May, including a joint one with a choir from Munich and one for the Night of the Churches.  

We'd love your prayers for continued discernment for the children we've placed in school.  There are a number of things causing us to re-evaluate including a commitment to constantly consider their situations. Thank you for holding us up in this important part of our family's life. 

Rob spent almost a month in the states in February and March and we had all of the adventures of a military separation, including a virus that knocked most of us out for a solid week, plus another two weeks of getting back to 100%.  It was a rough one!  Not many adventures during that time; we were just kind of treading water.  

We got to see a good friend in Munich after Rob got back and it was quite the adventure.  Rain, bolting five-year-olds, talkative waiters, and five hours driving each direction!  Not every adventure goes the way you planned.  But we learned some important lessons and we're glad to have made the trip!

We took David and Ian to Legoland for their birthdays last week.  The trip was partly to make up for a, let's just say it, lame experience with a Legoland Discovery Center in San Antonio a few years ago.  This was much cooler and we had a blast with them.  They are growing into fine young men.  

We helped to host a Passover Seder meal on Maundy Thursday at the local Baptist church that our friends attend.  There were roughly 70 people there and we really enjoyed it. 

Saturday was Tessa's birthday and she and Isaac (his birthday was earlier in the month) spent the day with Rob and I in Trier.  This is an amazing city here in Germany.  It was settled by the Romans around 16 BC.  It was so cool to walk through a Roman gate and touch the chisel marks of someone living at the same time as Jesus!  There is so much history there: Roman, Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern.  Constantine lived there at one point, as did Karl Marx.  We visited a Toy Museum (complete with 3rd Reich action figures) and bought fresh strawberries in the main market square.  (It's strawberry and asparagus season here.)  We also had lunch at an Italian restaurant complete with wood fired pizzas and a veal-tuna-sardine-arugula appetizer.  The kids were great!

We're looking forward to some adventures coming up and I'll share them as soon as I can.  Again, the invitation is open to anyone who wants to come see us.  It's not that hard if you're headed pretty much anywhere in Europe to meet up!  We know we've missed some of you already over here!  Frohe Ostern!

"We live in the Shire."  That's what Rob says almost every time we leave the house.  This is our village of Jettenbach and the surrounding area.  It is, indeed, incredibly beautiful. The young woman in the bright red coat is Kathryn and she is a familiar figure in the village.  New villagers we meet always recognize das Mädchen im roten Mantel (the girl in the red coat). 

 

 

Speaking of Hobbits...

 

  

"Don't touch my mushroom!" 

A week after we moved in was September 22nd, Frodo and Bilbo's birthday for those of you who are up on your Lord of the Rings lore.  We often have a Hobbit Party on that day and this year we found the perfect spot.  This beautiful area is just a short walk from the house and appears to be an old outdoor classroom.  It was perfect to celebrate with a couple of new friends.  You can't see, but in the field beyond the trees is a horse farm with many beautiful horses.  Rohan nearby!

In keeping with the barefoot theme, in early September, we also went to a Barfußpfad (barefoot park) in Bad Sobernheim.  This is a very cool thing and, when the weather warms back up, we'll be back.  You walk along a 1.5km trail outside with no shoes on.  There are all sorts of terrain and climbing areas, a river to ford, and, as pictured below, a mud channel.  They ended by playing life-sized chess with four to a side.  It was a beautiful day!

 

 

 

But life isn't all special events.  There's mostly everyday things.  Rob is preaching and leading the Traditional Protestant Service on base.  It's a unique ministry because the population is so transient and travels around so often.  It's difficult to form community.  The kids are involved at an off-base church with AWANA and youth group, and Rob attends a men's Bible study there, too.  (I just learned the word for that last night: Männerbibelstunden.  I think it's funny.)  I am beginning to meet with a new pastor's wife friend, still learning German, and doing lots of grocery shopping!

 

 But the big change in our days here is that the youngest five are IN SCHOOL!  For a forever homeschooling family this is a really big deal.  We love, love, love having our kids home with us, but the opportunity to have the children exposed to another language all morning (and it is basically just for the morning) was just too good to pass up.  So, prayerfully, we put Isaac, Elliott, and Tessa in the local elementary school - grundschule - and Brigit and Callum are attending the Protestant KiTa (Kindertagesstätte) or kindergarten.  Tessa is in the first grade and loves her teacher, which is a double blessing because the teachers stay with their class all four years of elementary school.  Elliott is moving to a different class when he goes back after the holidays because they initially placed him with all of the other American kids in the grade. (There are strangely two second grade classes this year.) That means he's relying on the other English speakers instead of learning as much German as he could.  The teacher, also, will be a better fit for him in the other class.  Both he and Isaac were placed in a grade lower than they would have been in an American school so they wouldn't have to worry about keeping up with the material and learn a new language.  This is mostly working.  Isaac, then, is in the third grade class and he, too, is making progress.  We are so proud of them for this brave thing that they are doing.  They regularly attend outside events or play with friends, making do in Germglish...Englan...hmm...

 

 

 

 The two littles are enjoying their kindergarten time in the morning.  Callum especially.  He loves Miss Maren (pictured behind him in the church service below).  Because the KiTa is run by the church there are lots of holiday/church celebrations.  Frankly, there are in the school, too.  I'm posting the picture of Brigit with the apple to illustrate the mentality of the schools and the culture of trust and safety that still exists here in the country.  So, this picture was taken on the way home from KiTa.  Brigit grabbed an apple from a wagon on her way out and started to tell me about the walk they had gone on today (I vaguely remember a sign telling me to make sure she was wearing mud boots) to a nearby apple orchard.  And by nearby I mean probably half a mile from the KiTa building.  The class had all walked there and picked apples.  (The tree in the play yard being almost empty.)  They had a delightful time climbing and picking and walking home.  I was pleased, but amazed that this had happened without my knowledge and certainly not my consent.  I didn't mind; we trust the teachers with our children.  But I could imagine the nine forms I would have had to fill out and the legal disclaimers to sign to agree to this in the States!  The children are allowed a great deal of freedom and autonomy and the town still looks out for all of the kids in the neighbourhood.  Brigit would be allowed to walk home alone (at 5 years old) with my permission.  Tessa, Elliott, and Isaac regularly come home from school without me. 

 

 

 

German Unity Day service (left) and St. Martin's Day service (right)

 

 

 

Making Christmas Plätzchen (cookies) with Elliott's class

We've had three birthday celebrations since we've been here.  We were traveling during Elliott's birthday, so we took him for his first train ride after we got here.  We rode about an hour and fifteen minutes away to Bad Kreuznach, got him lunch and a brief shopping trip to spend his first euros and then home. 

 

Katie's birthday present was a base-sponsored trip to Lohr and Mespelbrunn.  Lohr is where the legend of Snow White was born (look it up; the history is fascinating) and Mespelbrunn is one of the last remaining Wasserschlossen (water castles).  It was a lovely day with our own Snow White.

  

The origin of the talking mirror (left) and the smallest house in Lohr, home to a family of 12

 

 

Mespelbrunn Wasserschloss (still inhabited by the Baroness Someone-or-the-other)

 

 

Brigit also had her 5th birthday! We took her bowling!

 

 

 

Then everyone got to take a train trip.  We headed to Mainz, which is just about an hour and a half away by train.  There is a wonderful farmers' market there, the Gutenberg Bible Museum, and the cathedral.  We saw them in that order!  The littles are not really familiar with museum etiquette (we basically never left the house in sweltering San Antonio), making that a very short visit.  We'll be back.  

 

The market square and cathedral (left) and the Gutenberg museum (right)

Maybe my favourite thing so far is the return of a real Fall season.  Cool, wet weather, falling leaves, comfort foods.  We picked pumpkins at a farm where we sometimes get raw milk.  They had a corn maze, too, with a scavenger hunt inside.  Look at Abba pull that wagon!  It was colder than we had planned for!

 

The holiday season here is delightful, as you might imagine.  We spent Thanksgiving at home with our dear friends from Travis AFB who we get a year with here. 

It's only snowed once this winter so far.  We've been told this isn't a particularly snowy area.  But the day it came was such a blessing.  We experienced our second miscarriage this year (our fourth total) on the 3rd of December.  The family was grieving and feeling low as we entered Advent.  Our waiting hadn't ended in the hoped for birth.  The next day we went up to our upper field to bury our little one - Stephen Anselm - and it had just started to snow.  The snow fell heavily for the next couple of hours and we spent them all outside as a family.  Sledding, snowball fights, clearing paths and sidewalks.  It was a joyful reminder of all that we have, even in a time of loss.

We decorated for Christmas right away after Thanksgiving...
 

 Emma has been perfecting her eye makeup game

We opened our St. Nicholas Day gifts a few days late because of work and school.  That's a hazard of doing your big gift day not on a federal holiday.  It was a lot of fun to watch the kids give to each other and see all the candy St. Nick brought because Mama was feeling a little homesick and nostalgic. (Also, European candy/chocolate is epic!)

Ice skating in Homburg and Chanukah followed quickly.

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Tessa with the class Eule she had for the weekend

And a few more excursions:

Sarah went shopping in Mannheim with Kathryn and Emma and with her friend T in Trier (pictures below)

Rob and me in Strasbourg, France 

 

Skiing in Amnéville, France (indoors) just after Christmas

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Tessa wanted to be in the village church's Kreppenspiel (Nativity play).  She said she just wanted to be seen, she didn't need a line.  She was a perfect little sheep (pictured far left).  The evening service was beautiful in the very cold church and then we also attended the 11:30 pm candlelight service at the Chapel.  It, also, was very sweet.  As I sign off for now, I pray that you have found a special joy this Christmas season and have great hope for the new year to come.  We love you all very much! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Roses!

God bless you all!