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My Friend Andee brought up a very valuable question in her (fabulous) Blog:

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

She asks THE question:

It brings up this question: In a day and age with no Little Yellow Birds and no Expectations of behavior, do I continue to try and instill these old-fashioned values in my kids, or do I throw in the towel and give them a fighting chance amongst peers who have no respect for others, much less, themselves?

And this brings me to a topic that is eating at me since some time now (since it happened, actually). Here is the story [rant on]:

I have the same problem. Here is our personal conundrum:

We have 5 sets of direct neighbors (as we are in the middle of a settling). One family has one kid, Mark, who is 4. The other family has two kids. Their smallest, Alice, 5, plays with Mark. Their older boy, Peter, 8, plays, well, not with many kids, it seems. (Btw, I changed the names. They’re not their real names).

I cannot say I initially disliked them. They are very different than we are, rather uptight and closed. But I remained friendly and did all the necessary neighbor stuff: Invited them to garden parties, wrote them Christmas cards, gave them an Easter basket and so on (although none of this was ever reciprocated, but these are things I do not measure, so I don’t care).

The kids are EXTREMELY well behaved. As far as mute counts as well behaved. You seldom hear them talk at all, and surely not in the presence of adults. But. I am continuously finding out they are… mean. Just evil. I mean it. (more…)

These scary and fear-inducing names belong to the two new members of our household.

Behold: Fluffballs!

Jocke is the one with the black ears, Svente with the brown ears. And whoever guesses where the names come from gets a cookie. Worthians don’t count, they were told already.

So 2008 is drawing to an end. I remember the last New Year’s Eves clearly. All of them sweet, surrounded by friends and loved ones. But all of them summing up a year that was nothing less than difficult.

I remember how my husband and I toasted each other, praying: “May the next year be better than the last. May it finally be better.”

It never was, not really. And I came to the conclusion that this, probably, is life. That there is no such thing as unfettered love and happiness. Who am I to know? (more…)

… and all that is left to do is sending Christmas blessings out to you all.

I am sorry that my Audio Autumn did not last longer. There is so much more music to share. But major changes occured in my life. I will let you in on all of them, comes time. Promised.

I’ll also dive into another project soon, in January. Chances are good that it will be photos again, the Worth photogs are preparing for another 30-days-challenge.

So stay tuned. Things will happen.

Try to be true to yourself. Love matters.

Xmas wishes 2008

Go Green Poster

I made this (shot and concept) for a Go Green Posters contest at Worth1000. I thought it would be an appropriate way to wrap up the Flora and Fauna September, which has been enjoyable for me – and I hope, also for you.

Stay tuned for the next project.

Paula

Prettiest, sweetest puppywuv in the world. She’s mine (although my son would discuss this and claim her, but truly, she’s mine!)

I hate the German Telekom. With a passion.

Winter has been coming. Christmas rushed passed, an old year died, a New Year came.

I did not blog.

And I hereby apologize. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As a reconsiliation, you get the latest family picture. The three of us at Christmas. Aren’t we sweet? Yeah, the li’ll one makes faces, he always does that for the camera. *rolleyes*

So what happened? Well, I took another job. Or the job took me. It was more or less a coincidence. I went out with a friend, and while we were chatting over a beer, she mentioned how desperately they look for people in their office. People to do customer liaison and support. I was big-mouthed as ever and said “Nothing I couldn’t do”. And she said: “OK, see you on Monday”. (It was on a Saturday).

Since then, I’m there. It started as three times a week for 2 hours, now it’s daily from 8 to noon. And I gotta say I like it.

The drawback is – I already had a job. You might recall I was working for a private English school, giving lessons to children, a job I thoroughly enjoy and love. Right now, I am working double: Office in the mornings, school in the afternoon, preparing lessons and doing the conceptual planning for the school.

It’s just too much. Joshua is not taking it easily, he’s throwing tantrums at least five times a day. And I am exhausting myself. I gotta decide. Deadline I set myself is March.

So this is the news. I promise I’ll try to update more often again, but time is sparse these days, really. I just barely find time for producing art, and art is as important as breathing for me.

So I’ll hang in there, and you guys will, too, until I’ve got more time for you again, ok?

No, this is not about roosters crowing. It’s koos’ question:

Q: What do you consider a successful (or good) day?

I have pondered this far too long now, and procrastinated the question over and over again. I tried to go back to these “perfect days” in my memory and find a pattern. And really, there is none.

So I can just tell ingredients which seem to be good for a good day. Talking to people I love is included. Not just the usual every day chatter, but a real talk.

Art always makes a day good. Creating art is even better. Good weather, good sex or other good things are surely helpful. But they’re not IT.

You know what? I’ll tell you two of my fondest memories to make you understand what I mean. (more…)

The lovely Eurydice chose to ask “Let’s pretend” questions. Nice idea. Kooskoodiroo had one, too. Thanks to both.

Q by Eury: Let’s say you and your mate are having problems since a while and you have decided to leave him. But then, he gets into an accident and becomes an invalid. Would you still leave?

This is a tough question for obvious reasons. I had to really think about it. My first reaction was yes, my second no. And the third and final is yes again. Yes I would. (more…)