Streupflicht und Schneeschaufel

[finknottle]

Thanks Gabster for the inspiration for the thread!

Add your resolutions here & I can slip alongside and pretend I'll make some too.
Still too fragile - my sleep patterns go haywire when I'm home, stay up till 1 or 2am, then awake at 5am (6 here, usual flipping school time) then I come back & keep crashing on the sofa at 10pm and wake up at 4 bright & breezy.

We have snow, very pretty and h is off till Weds so am pushing him out for Streupflicht, bartered it for a fry-up with real English bacon, hmmmmmm.
Forecast is for -12C to -14C tonight - and when the children go back to school on Thursday. Yikes.

I was explaining the reason for having pancake day to the dc and then I said that different people give up different things so even chocolate, sugar or sweet scould be given up. They were shocked that someone might give up sugar or chocolate! Mostly it's dd, she has a mega sweet tooth but even ds thought it would be very hard to do!

Got my feedback from SIL about h's family tree for ds's history lessons. She told him that his great grandfather was murdered by hindus in '47 during the unrest in India and at the time his grandfather was studing in UK and he got the bad news via telegram which he kept all his life. Then I had to go on and explain why the news was sent by telegram and that email and mobile phones didn't exist then. You should have seen the 2 amazed faces as I was telling the story!

Your h's family history is certainly interesting admylin. Lol at being amazed by telegrams. I wonder if it's still possible to send them? Surely there must be very little demand.

I only made vague new year's resolutions. You know, the usual stuff like being more organised, keeping the house tidy enough to receive guests at any time (yeah right!), being more inventive and creative in the kitchen. None of it's really happened yet and isn't likely to any time soon.

We do quite a lot of trips at the weekends. Dh is usually very keen to go somewhere. It's good to get out even if sometimes I really don't feel like setting foot outside the house. Definitely take the dc swimming, admylin. Swimming pools are nearly always fab here. It's one of the plus points for me about living here.

Finknottle, very much like your idea of bottle of sekt per room spring cleaned

Hmm, apart from swimming, what could we do? Do you go sight seeing? Sunday's are the worst because you can never be sure if everything will be open. Will have to think, but if it stays nice we could just go on a bike ride I suppose.

ice-skating? Verkehrsschule? Just some place in the countryside a bit for a walk, a castle with a park or anything like that.

Gosh murdered relatives is a bit drastic admylin but I suppose he is removed enough from them for it not to upset them.

I know - but atleast if ds has to stand up and say what he has found out he'll have something to keep them all listening! What with the scottish raiders and the murdered great grandfather...!

btw I don't at all understand the homework on the thread of dread

Admylin
Your research is very interesting. LOL at having to explaing telegrams. I think that you can still send a telegram, must find out. We could send my parents one

Hmm, NY resolutions. I am afraid that mine are getting a bit forgotten, especially in the last week or so with having visitors. I will get back on track with the weightloss one next week.

I am sitting in the garden with the computer, the sun is shining, the dog is lying next to me, the tea is warm and fragrant.

Blissssss

Hello all. HOpe you all had a nice half-term.

V. impressed by bread making activities!

Sorry to hear about DS2 Fink, but glad he is over the worst.

Hmmm ... NY resolutions - well I was doing really well. Have lost half a stone so far. But then there was all that Fasching business and krapfen. Will get back on the wagon soon.

I suppose I am now in the middle of the ultimate spring clean - moving house! I am feeling v. pleased with self though as have filled the huge Ikea bag three times with clothes for recycling now, and am being really ruthless getting rid of lots of old junk I have hoarded for ages.

Just under 2 weeks until I catch the plane with DS (H following a week or two behind). H had his last day at work today, but they still tried to screw him - over pay now. The mind boggles. We are just so happy he is rid of that job now I suppose.

Hoping to have more time for MN now H is at home to help with moving preparations and DS care!!

Not long now TheGAbster! It's exhausting moving house but worth it.

I am so good at throwing stuff now because I always think it'll just hav eto be moved next time we move house! When the dc smash a plate or glass by accident I never tell them off I just say good, one less thing to clutter my kitchen and less to pack next time! Bit extreme maybe but then we're abit extreme in our moving patterns!

Hey Admylin meant to ask - how did you start off researching your family tree? I really would not know where to start!

I hope everyone is having this gorgeous weather at the moment. Its beautiful - 10 grad and sunny and the mountains just look beatiful in the distance. hoping all the snow melts fast now as otherwise we will have to dig the caravan out soon (to move it to England that is).

Morning! Did everyone have a good weekend? Gorgeous weather here too. Finally a glimpse of spring. Dc played outside loads. Today is cold and wet again though.

We had a phone call last week from someone with the same surname as dh. He had been doing some research into his family tree and wanted to know if dh could help him at all. It's a shame fil isn't still alive as he would have loved to talk to him. It's quite possible it's a distant relative as it's a fairly uncommon surname.

Hope the sorting and packing is going well, Gabster.

Dull weekend weather-wise and quiet. H & s1 were away. S2 better but weak and listless.

I had a great bike ride around the vineyards in the fog, just wanted fresh air. Then I settled down with popcorn and the Lord of the Rings DVDs and s2 and a roaring fire. Watched all the Making of.. stuff, fascinating.

Am determined to enjoy lazy weekends as at the end of the month sailing starts again and that's every weekend busy till November.

Must drag myself downstairs to learn for s2's maths test tomorrow...

We started looking into family history for ds's history project. I knew ahead that the subject of family trees would come up so I started asking ahead too as it would take time to get any documents from UK. I got a Heimatschein from my mum's grandfather when he left Switzerland and some old photos for ds to show of my great great grandma in a long dress and one of my dad sitting on his first car (the sort you only see in museums nowadays!)

Years ago tried to find any family contacts left in Zürich but came to a dead end. It was so interesting when I learned German as I could atlast read alot of the old postcards that my gran had saved - it turned out that my great grandfather had a sweetheart in Switzerland and he'd told her he'd be back but he never did return and married a local lass instead. The cards were increasingly desperate, Hans why have you not answered my last letter, Hans have you maybe moved house, I'm still waiting for news.. from 1898 and '99! Funny thing is he kept them all his life even though he never told his new family anything about his old life and never taught his dc German either. Also found out that one of his sisters was an actress in Paris! No one in my family knew any of this as it wa sall from German cards, letters and photos with German written on the back. I'd say they were more or les shidden away after the 2 world wars, wasn't exactly a good thing to have German documents around the house even if they were from Switzerland!

no interesting elements in our family as far back as dad has traced us. Most exotic you get is Irish. He has made friends with a lot of people worldwide who are somehow distantly related to us but only immigrant communitiés in Engish speaking places like American, Canada, Australia. We are a dead boring lot by the sounds of it.

ooh somehow I sneaked in a French accent when I was thinking about not being exotic enough!

Lol, was going to ask how you did that accent! I can never find how to do them on my keyboard!

I don't know, I'm a careless typist tbh. I think you press a key with the acdent and some other things on it and nothing appears and then you press the e and it comes out that way.

I am stuck at home waiting for some idiot repair man to turn up. Annoying. Feel I can't get on with things.

How are you and your brood this week?

Fink - it sounds like you had my perfect weekend - glad DS is feeling a bit better. It is your duty to keep up the hard work with the DVDs keeping him company until he is fully recovered.

Admylin - fascinating stuff! I really feel motivated to start investigating mine now. I know my mother's side is from Lithuania somewhere (my mother and her brother were the first of the family born in UK). My dad's side its less clear, nobody can quite remember. Its hard because the family name was changed (and there are a few different stories why) around WWII because some of the family lived in Holland and were being nabbed, IYKWIM. So they de-camped to the safety of UK. Any good resource tips would be appreciated.

Re: packing - well it is progressing. DH got his paint brush out today and we seem to be progressing on the new house too. Contracts finally all signed and done. Agent has been positively awful but don't care as did it all in English instead of struggling with German for a change so still a lot less stressful!

Will miss the lovely friendly people in the Rathaus here though. Went up there today to sort some paperwork and they all came out of their rooms to say how sad it was we were leaving!!! Ahhhh, bless.

Lol at my duty of watching DVDs care, Gabster.

Blimey things can move fast, contracts signed etc. (Admylin, hint hint)

Re LOTR, mmm, was enjoying drooling over elves tbh. S2, "Er, Mum, yuck!" Orlando Bloom was such a disappointment without his elven locks and er, bow.

Will be back later to read up on all that has happened, just have to leave this note for Ernest

link

That family history sounds interesting Gabster. Have to admit I don't have a clue about Lithuania. Wouldn't it be great to find some relatives there?

When Dad got into geneology, I think he first asked round surviving older relatives and then it was church records and he says he found the Mormon geneology service in America very helpful (although we are not Mormons). Don't know if they could help you but the idea is, if I understood it correctly, Mormons believe once you become a believer you can then apply to have your ancestors brought into their church posthumously and that is why they have these detailed geneology research machines.

I am not 100% sure on that reasoning but that is what I understood. Through their research facilities he found out about a lot of distant branches of the "clan". Unfortunately as yet no enormously wealthy people looking for an heir for their millions have turned up though.

oh just seen the baby name thread! Would any of you DARE to post up your potential baby names on MN?!

I don't think that our names would have been controversial enough for MN, even if I had been brave enough to post them. Tbh, once we had decided on our names we would not have changed them. DD was pretty much decided on right from the start, DS only had a name 3 days before I gave birth.

I have just done DD's homework, she had to draw a house with a bird on the roof, a black and white car and a "chinois" beside it. A chinese man. How strange but somehow funny to see how un-pc they are here. I did wonder at the black and white (cop car) and chinese guy. Don't know whether to laugh or complain. Particularly as DD's best friend is Chinese, her parents are white Americans, they adopted her.

I have phoned her Dad and will speak to him tomorrow to see what he thinks.

What do you think?

dunno really, does it tie in with a story they had read to them in class or something?

How would you draw a chinois anyway? Sort of judo outfit or Chairman Mao type suit? Sounds a bit odd.