International Market

    Today I got to experience one of the great things about going to an international school. Once a month they host an international market place. Different Vendors set up booths in the high school gym with various products, but mostly food. A lot of the food is homemade by different moms who's kids attend ISD. Today was the first market since we have arrived and I took the opportunity to buy some of the things others have been raving about. Like.... One mother makes Thai food that you can order weekly and then she sells out of the trunk of her car in the school parking lot.  I thought we would try some for dinner tonight before I put in an order. So we tried two different  curry dishes with rice and spring rolls. There was also a mother from France with different quiches and breads so to go with our Thai dinner I picked up a vegetable quiche and a bread stick filled with feta cheese. To complete our worldly dinner I got some delicious cake pops from two American ladies.
   I did not buy anything but at it, but there was also an american dry goods store at the market. The American store sold such delights as overpriced poptarts, super expensive yellow mustard, and the rare pancake syrup. However I am not yet desperate enough for a poptart to pay the elevated price. ($7.80a box)
      Oh and I was very happy to see they also set up a table of English books at very low cost and all the profits they receive from sells go to a school in Tanzania.  Next time I am in need of some new books I will know where to go.

Better than a Bicycle

We saw a little of the south this afternoon when we were out buying grocery's  It brought  tears to our eyes remembering home.... tears of laughter.

This guy was loading up his four wheeler with grocery's. This is the second ATV we have seen out and about it turns out they are totally street legal here! Hummm maybe I should get one to take the kids to school??

Washing away my blues

                                                         smaller in person

                                            The water container for the dryer

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      So we have lived here almost a month and our new washer and dryer were just delivered this past Saturday. With a family of five you can use your imagination as to the clothes that have piled up in their absence. When we went to purchase the pair I tried to get one of the larger capacity 8kg sets only to discover that the largest dryer they make is 7kg so essentially I could wash more clothes than I could dry... not a huge help. So we bought both appliances in the 7kg size for 1232 euros making them fairly expensive.
    Well everything is bigger in Texas.... including my old washing machine! I already new that European washers and dryers were smaller than their American counter parts, but there were a few extra things that I did not know for example the washing cycles are much longer than back home, washing machines heat their on water and you have to dump the water out of your dyer every time you dry a load of clothes.
    As with the recycling I received a guide to washing clothes in Germany entitled "The art of washing clothes in Germany." I prefer the dump everything that's dirty into one giant load and walk away method but I guess I have no choice but to change my ways. I did read the guide before we arrived but chose to wing it anyway. ...Success! minus the part where I have tried to dry a several  loads without first emptying the water container.
   Back home it seems we value anything that saves us time (time conservation), where here they value energy conservation. So although I now see the laundry as a huge "chore" the appliances are designed to save family's money on the high cost of utilities. We chose a A+++ washing machine which is close to the top in energy savings (since I will be doing a lot of clothes!!) I have been washing now for 4 days continuously and I have just began to put a dent in the clothes we accumulated.


..... A new friend who is originally from England recently told me that the machines they used when she was a little girl were only 4kg and we are lucky because they are much larger now!! It's all about perspective.

Country Fried Weiner Schnitzel

    Upon arriving here and not having a kitchen to call our own for several weeks we were inevitably forced to find some source of nourishment ever night. This is much harder than you would think and thus caused our daily McDonald's and KFC visits.

   Aside from all the fast food we also ate at some very good German restaurants and our kids discovered their love for weiner schnitzel. The first night they ordered it at a local restaurant from a very nice English speaking waiter. The next time we were down and in the altstadt and when the non English speaking waiter came they took it upon themselves to order "the country fried steak."  He made a face and Michael swiftly corrected ... drei schnitzel bitte!

    OK I know country fired steak is made a little different (schnitzel is made of veal) but it's still delicious and the only thing it's missing is the white gravy. I'm sure if the locals tried some they would never go back.

   I think the next step is to learn to make it myself... recipe coming soon.

Our Dirty little Habit................ Recycling

     In Texas we enjoyed the extreme luxury of not one but two gigantic trash cans. I can not say at the time I fully relished what I had. Not only were the trash cans gigantic but... you could place anything you wanted into the bins! I'm not saying it was good that you could dump batteries, food, and paint all into one container but we did... and it was easy!
    Upon our arrival here the company ambassador proceeded to give us a 10 page pamphlet on how to recycle. It came with this handy chart to help those of us from Texas whom take our large trash cans for granted. I could fit the contents of all four trash cans here into one back home... sigh.
     So we began to sort our garbage, plastic here, food cooked/uncooked there, paper, plastic blah blah blah. However, we have one major problem the house we moved into is missing some of the color coded trash bins. So at the moment our garbage is starting to really stack up and I'm running out of room.  The kitchen is beginning to look like one large garbage pile which fondly reminds me of a poem by Shell Silverstein  Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who would not take the garbage out. Well I am not Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout and I would very much like to take my garbage out!
    Until we receive our tiny cans I will continue to sort even though I'm more than sure I'm doing it all wrong and will shortly be issued some sort of fine. Enjoy your over sized, non sorted trash cans and think of us as we try to determine weather a candy wrapper is paper or plastic.. or is it paper with a plastic coating?

Just of few of the bags

Handy Guide

Nutella Cookies

I have very little on hand for baking no brown sugar or chocolate chips etc... but every night after dinner my kids ask "what's for dessert." So tonight I looked for something sweet I could make with what I had on hand.  Nutella is plentiful here so I made these cookies with only four ingredients. They were really easy to make and pretty delicious.

1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 Egg .............. How easy is that!

-You simply mix all the ingredients together
-Form dough into small balls with your hands
-Then roll the ball into a little extra white sugar
-Place on cookie sheet, flatten with spoon
and bake 8 min @ 350

Bible Study

Well I traveled across the ocean to a foreign land and what do I get .... a bible study from Texas!
It is a running joke that every womens bible study is from Beth Moore and that proved to be true even in Germany. Somethings I guess you just can't escape...
  The study officially kicks off here this week but last week at the meeting the leader shared a poem by Beth Moore that I really needed to hear it changed my outlook for the day and for the week and I will continue to reread it whenever I am feeling that weight the world can sometimes lay on your shoulders I thought it was worth sharing, true for everyone.....
 
 Has someone seen the life I planned
 it seems to be misplaced.
 I've looked in every corner
 it's lost without a trace.
I've found one I don't recognize
 things missing that were dear
 promises I'd hoped to keep
 and dreams I dreamed aren't here.
faces I had planned to see
 hands I planned to hold
now absent In the pictures
 not the way I told.
has someone seen the life I planned?
did it get thrown away?
God took my hand from searching
then I heard Him say,
"child, your ears have never heard
your eyes have never seen
 eternal plans I have for you
are more than you could dream.
you long to walk by sight
but I'm teaching eye to see.
I know what I am doing
til then, you must believe"
He's done so much, I felt ashamed
to know He heard my moans
 to think I'd trade in all He's done
 for plans made on my own.
I wept over His faithfulness
and how He'd proved Himself
how He'd gone beyond my dreams
 and said to Him myself,
"no, my ears have never heard
my eyes have never seen
 eternal plans You have for me
 are more than I could dream.
yes, I long to walk by sight
but You're teaching eyes to see
 You know what you are doing
 til then, I must believe."
I felt his great compassion
 mercy unrestrained
 He let me mourn my losses
and showed to me my gains.
I offered Him my future
and released to Him my past
 I traded in my dreams
for a plan He said would last.
I get no glimpse ahead
no certainties at all
except the presence of the one
 who will not let me fall.
are you also searching
 for a life you planned yourself?
have you looked in every corner?
have you checked on every shelf?
child your ears have never heard
your eyes have never seen
eternal plans He has for you
are more than you could dream.
perhaps you long to walk by faith
 but He's teaching eyes to see
 He knows what He is dong

........child, step out and believe.