I wish I was a chicken

Despite the wonderful summery weather, my head has been pretty stormy lately. So many things have been going on, and it's hard to keep track of everything. The short version:
This week I had to go to my college town 4 nights. Monday and Tuesday three of my friends had their final music exams, Wednesday I started rehearsals for my own exam (which is scheduled for 21 May) and last night I went to a friend's house for dinner and help on some exam arrangements. Of course I played the piano (almost) every day to prepare for my exam, and did voice exercises.

On top of that, we also met with the priest, set up an appointment to meet with the minister, picked out and ordered our wedding invitations, picked out rings and flowers and did some other random wedding prep work.

Just so we wouldn't get bored, we also gathered paper work for the mortgage company (unbelievable how much stuff you need to sign and copy). Oh and of course I had my last practical day for my thesis, and did a bunch of reading and writing.

I think I remember teaching school too, and doing housework.

I remind myself that in a month from now, my practical exam and most other stressful things will be over. After that it's just preparing for the wedding and enjoying the summer. But so many things have to be done before that... Please think of me and forgive me if I don't write as often as I usally do!
And yes, I still schedule nap times and lay-out-in-sun times and try to enjoy them without thinking too much of the things I have yet to do.
I wish I was one of my chickens, then all I had to do was eat, sleep, drink and make an occasional egg...

Too busy

Sorry folks, I'm too busy to blog actively at the moment. I'm studying and working and I'm still tired too... I'll catch up soon, I promise!

Proud

Inspired by Ashleigh at Stitched in Holland, I took this picture. Call me crazy, old-fashioned, weird or silly, but looking at this just fills my housewifey heart with pride and joy.
Can't wait to sleep between the air-dried sheets!

My fireman

When I drove home from work yesterday, I noticed big black clouds of smoke coming from a campsite close to our town. I thought of M: he would probably be paged because it was a fire in our municipality. As I got to our house and parked our car, M came running to me. "Can you take me to the fire? I missed the truck, I was too late." So off I went, with him.

At this campsite (which is also sort of a trailer court, because most people there have a trailer that they use as a weekend house) one of the trailers had caught fire. The person in the trailer had started to cook food, but then fell asleep. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt but as you can see the trailer was totally ruined.

M jumped out of the car and I helped him put on his suit. He ran off but asked me to wait, so I parked the car and waited. Because I had recently bought a new cell phone with a pretty good camera, I decided this was a good moment to give it a try. It was interesting to see him work (isn't he a cool fireman?) and to see what all happened. Because of the long Easter weekend, lots of people were at the campsite and they all came and watched. It was an interesting crowd of people.

If you're interested in all the pictures, click here and click on "view as slideshow".

Small town

The town I live in is a small town. There are about 2000 of us so it's a pretty close-knit community. Of course my M is involved in both the fire department as well as the shooting guild so we know a lot of people. But the people we don't know, are usually friendly too. We try to contribute to the community.
This afternoon I was studying in my back yard (I had to enjoy this sunny 19 degree (70F) day) when I heard the girl next door cry. She's 9 and considers herself a big girl, so when she cries something is wrong. I heard her talk to an adult voice and say: "but Mommy said she'd be home, and I have the key but she bolted the door and now I can't get in!". The adult said: "Why don't you use my cell phone to call your mother and ask her what time she'll be home". I decided to walk over and see if my assistance was required. She was on the phone and said: "Mommy, Nicolien is home, I'll go over to her house and wait for you" which of course was ok. So I took her home, gave her some lemonade and a cookie and listened to her story of her day. And by the time she was cheered up her mom was home.

Today I took a walk after dinner. The weather was still awesome (I didn't even need a jacket!) and the days are getting longer and longer, so I decided to get some exercise. I walked on the dykes by the river and enjoyed the view. I heard lots and lots of birds sing. I noticed that tulips are popping up in many gardens, and some are already in bloom. The narcissi are everywhere (there's hardly a garden without them) and everything seems to be sprouting and budding.
I had such a good time during my walk! People walked their dogs, their children or - in my case - themselves. And almost everyone I encountered greeted me. Some didn't, but that was ok too. When I got home I decided that I love living in this town. And I love the fact that it's spring again.

Mmm

I love Quizgalaxy.com. But this one was weird:

Nicolien -- [adjective]: Visually addictive 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Egg salad

After my last -pretty heavy- post (thanks for your comments!) it's time for something a little lighter. I thought a recipe would be in place, since M had his birthday on Wednesday and we're having a party for him tonight. I celebrated my birthday with a recipe too.
This is one of the snacks I'll be serving.

M's birthday egg salad
You will need:
- 5 hard boiled eggs
- a minced onion
- pepper, salt, curry powder
- a little ketchup (about a teaspoon)
- mayonaise
- a tablespoon of yogurt
- a tablespoon of sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis)

Boy, this recipe is easy this time. Cut eggs up and throw together with the onion. Add everything else to taste. Easy and great!

Boy/girl

Even though I sometimes consider myself a pretty experienced teacher (is that ok after 3 1/2 years?) something happened a few weeks ago that I had never seen before, and won't easily forget.

In one of my wonderful second year groups, one of the girls announced that she is no longer a girl, but wants to be a boy. She had had thoughts about becoming a boy ever since she was seven years old (she now is 14) and had made the decision to change her name and appearance.
I had already heard some gossip about this, but decided not to pay too much attention to it. After all, if it was true, her mentor would inform me. And so she did. Two weeks ago we were informed that Anna (name changed of course) was to change her name to William. The teachers were asked to call her that and pay attention to her (or his?) wish to be approached as a boy. So no more "Hurry up young lady, get your book and start to work!" but rather: "Hurry up, get your book and start to work!".

Even though this situation seems weird, I'm already used to it. The kids in her class are handling this wonderfully and this has really calmed her down. Her behavior had been going through the roof lately, right before she made her announcement. Thank goodness she's in a wonderful class (I know I already said this but I love them). Any other second year group would have picked on her horribly. Not this group. They say things like: "Hey Billy, come on!", "Look Miss M, this is my brother" (for some reason 13 year olds like refer to each other as siblings when they get along well).

Isn't this an interesting situation?

Cats

Isn't this a too cute picture of my cats?

My week

In the past week:
- the weather was awesome;

- we finalized our mortgage;
- I went from teaching 9 hours a week to teaching 12 hours (almost back at my regular 15);
- we spent the week-end to my grandpa's who lives by the North Sea, because he turned 94;
- I graded lots of papers;
- I took some more walks by the river and took some more pictures of the high water level;
- I worked in the garden for the first time this year (and how lovely it was to be outside again);
- I did lots of laundry (which was all dried outside, oh how I love the smell of air-dried clothes);
- I actually cleaned my house (hadn't been done in too long).

I'm sure you will now understand why I haven't been online much! I've been doing so many things, while trying to keep in mind that I'm still sick and need to rest. So I've also carefully scheduled nap times and reading times, which works well for me.
Spring is in the air and I love it!

Energy

My blogging frequency has gone down (again). I've been going back to work half days, and it turns out to cost a lot of energy. After teaching 3 periods I usually go home and sleep for at least an hour, sometimes two. I do love going back to work, though. All my music classes changed, because of the second semester. I have some new groups and a few that I know from last year. They're all pretty enthusiastic, and the one that I had last period on Friday topped it all. It's a second year group (eighth grade), which hasn't been my favorite year to teach so far. Usually the first years are so much easier excited and they seem to express their enjoyment more. But this group is an exception. Monday I met them on the stairs, and they said: "Miss M! Music on Friday, we can't wait!". Thursday I saw them and some said: "we're looking forward to tomorrow Miss". Well, so was I.

When they walked into my room Friday, it was like they had never left, even though the last time I taught them was in June. I gave them some info on the 2nd year curriculum, and then a boy asked: "can we sing now?". So we did some warm-ups and I taught them a song. That was all I had prepared for the day, but the period was only half over when we were done! I was able to squeeze in some glockenspiel playing too, combining what I usually do in 2 lessons, into one. That was a wonderful way to end the week and start the week-end, believe me!

Yesterday, M and I went on a bike ride. The weather was lovely and we covered 15 km (9.3 m). I was tired, but it was fun. We live close to a river, it was beautiful to see the water level. It's risen a lot because we (and Germany)'ve had so much rain lately. The trees have wet feet and it was lovely to see the sun reflect in all that water.

Doesn't this picture look like one of those standard desktop wallpaper backgrounds? It's not, M took it with his phone. The Dolomites are beautiful...

Dolomites

A few skiing statistics.... (sorry, no photos yet. We only took 8 on the digital camera and they didn't turn out very well. We'll have to check some of the other's photos and have them send them to us).Thanks to the amazing people at http://www.dolomitisuperski.com/ who keep track of everything you do with your skipass...
- I skied 179 km in 8 days. That's 111 miles for all you Americans.

- I took 97 skilifts.
- I covered a total of 29369 m of height difference. That would be 32118 yards.
- I lost my clip-on sunglasses twice while getting in a chairlift, but got them back both times.
- I gained 2 kg, or 4.4 lbs. But muscle is heavier than fat, right?

So much for the statistics. We had an awesome week. Both the busrides went fantastic, the skiing was great (good snow and lots of sunshine, which did turn the snow rather soft in the afternoons). I didn't fall too many times and I was able to ski until about 13:30 every day, after which I would eat lunch and slowly ski back to the hotel. Then I'd take a shower and a good long nap. I felt really good and people at work told me yesterday that I look a lot better than two weeks ago. But that's probably the tan, too.We were with a group of 21 people, so we had lots of fun at dinner and playing games at nights.That's the short version. I really need to iron and do some school stuff now. But I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for too long...

Bye bye

I'm gone skiing. I'll be back in a week or so!

Work, study and vacation

You may have noticed that my blogging frequency has gone down. That's a good sign: it means that I am spending more time on work and study.

I went back to teaching Dutch to a group of eigth graders of the lowest level (vmbo). It definitely costs a lot of energy, because it's a really noisy group. But they're nice kids and we'll get used to each other quickly I'm sure.Next week we have our spring break and M and I are going skiing in the Italian Dolomites (Southern part of the Alps), together with lots of family members. We're really looking forward to that! I'm sure that some outdoor exercise, combined with amazing Italian food will do me good. I hope to look better than I did last year. But if it snows like it did last year, I'll look just like this again! :)

I've also picked up my studying again. I'm working on my thesis. The main question I'm trying to answer is: "What extra skills does a music teacher in vmbo need, as opposed to a music teacher in havo/vwo?". (click here for an explanation of vmbo/havo/vwo) The reason for that is that I seem to be the only person who enjoys to work with the lowest level kids. Most graduated music teachers start in job like that, but move up to higher levels as soon as they get the chance. I think that is because they weren't properly prepared in college. That's why I will be teaching a group of third year college students, as a part of the practical part of my thesis. And the dean has so much faith in me that the students that take my class will actually be awarded credits, how cool is that?

All in all, I'm back to a busy life. Although I must say that the study discipline I used to have, isn't really back yet. Take now, for instance. I went to the computer to start typing on my thesis (I already have 2 pages) and now I'm blogging again...

Foo Yong Hai again

One of the results of having four chickens, is that I have three eggs a day. I assume the ladies take turns in taking a day off and that's fine by me. They're small eggs, but, nevetheless, very edable. We eat lots of quiches, fried eggs and omelettes now (which reminds me that I should start giving eggs away, if I don't want our cholestorol levels to run through the roof). In my quest for the ultimate foo yong hai recipe, I had already decided that Conimex Foo Yong Hai from the box isn't anywhere close to what I have in mind. That's why I did a little searching on the internet.

I checked out my favorite supermarket's web site. It's in Dutch, sorry. Part of their site is a recipe search. You can search all the recipes that they have posted in their monthly magazine over the past ten years or so, but you can also make your own personal recipe book, and browse through other people's recipe books. In Suzanne Heijligers' personal recipe book I found this recipe for Foo Yong Hai. I tried it and it was very close to my friend Sheila's recipe. I'll keep searching though, because I'm not satisfied yet. I know I used the wrong ingredients (I didn't have the vegetables Sheila usually uses so I substituted them) so I'll have to try again. This is getting exciting! I've never really tried to exactly copy a dish I've eaten somewhere else before. Usually I just ask for recipes or make something that kind of seems like it but isn't exactly.

Anyway, here's what I fixed today. We had strawberry cobbler for desert, and that tasted good too!
Suzanne Heijliger's Foo Yong Hai
- 4 eggs
- about 100 gr. of chopped leek, carrot, onion
- 250 ml (a little over a cup) tomato ketchup
- little bit of vinegar
- tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis)
- 1 clove of garlic, pressed

Whip eggs, mix with chopped vegetables. Add pepper and salt to taste. Melt a little butter (I used vegetable oil) in a frying pan, and spoon in 1/4th of the egg/veggie mix. Keep warm in oven dish (I put a little tea light under it) and bake the other omelettes.Meanwhile, heat ketchup in pan. Add vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and garlic. Stir well, but make sure it doesn't boil. Pour the sauce over the omelettes. Serve with rice.

I used deep fried Asian stir fry vegetable mix, and I had chicken out of the freezer so I put that in as well. Next time I'm going to leave the vinegar out because we thought the sauce was a little too sour.

A really cool egg

Look what I just found in the hen house! It must be the smallest egg ever...

Back to work

Slowly but surely I'm going back to work. I went to my college yesterday (first time in ten weeks, and of course the trains had a delay...) and presented the book that I had read for my literature class. It went fine, and I passed the class, yay! It took a lot of energy but that was totally ok.
Today I had a household day. I ironed and cleaned like as if my life depended on it, while watching my new box set of Sissi dvd's. LOVE those movies! Then I went to the market to buy some fresh tulips and narcissus so now everything is clean and looks really good. I'm going back to work tomorrow, I'll be teaching Dutch to one class. I'm anxious to see how it will go, but I am looking forward to it. I can't wait to be myself again!

A little

Yes, I'm feeling a little better. I have more energy in the day time now, so I do way more than a few weeks ago. My body isn't used to that yet though, so I'm in bed before 21:30 most nights. But that's ok. It's worth it. I went to work today to talk to my assistant principal about returning to school. We agreed that I'll come back slowly, building it up step by step. Next week I'll return to my Dutch class (3 times a week, one class period) and after doing that for two weeks we're going to see how many hours of music I'll add to that.

I also started to study again. I received an e-mail from a professor that a make-up presentation moment was scheduled for Monday, and if I wanted to do my literature presentation that I could still make the credit. Of course I want that! It's a nice way to pick up studying again. I set my kitchen timer for 45 minutes and make myself concentrate on my book. Then I allow myself to do something else before returning to the book again. It's not easy, but I can do it.
I'm slowly climbing out of the pit that is mononucleosis... Yay!

Decisions

M and I are going through a time with lots of decisions. Planning a wedding and buying a house are both pretty expensive, important things. I think it's hard, because they both cost a lot of money. And, especially the mortgage, is an expensive commitment for a long time.

Where do we have our wedding, and what choices do we make? Do we have a reception? What kind of dinner would we like? How many people will we invite? And who do we not invite?.
And then the house... What kind of mortgage do we want? How much money do we want to invest in the remodeling? How much money do we want to spend on our house every month? Which bank do we choose, and for how long do we want to set the interest?
Deep sigh.
I have trouble making choices. Sometimes I find it hard to decide which pair of socks to wear today. And now there's all this.. Thank goodness I have my M to share this with. I know I want to marry him and I know we want to buy the house. So even though it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of time, we'll figure everything else out!

And, totally off topic, here's a little music: