MERRY CHRISTMAS-Christmas morn

A little Christmas Morning Caroling

Stokin the fire for Christmas Morn

Wrenny waits fro the Stocking Distribution to begin...

FInn's Doll "peter"

Wrenny's Dolly "Suzie"

Crafting at Christmas

A few things we are working on these days..present for Kai and Tomi-a wood block puzzle.

Finn REAAALLY wanted to have a picture with the puzzle..

Potatoe Stamping began at 7:50 this morning.

At 8:04 am the clean up began-short lived BUT very fun.

We moved the drawing room into the living room in the last days as it was getting TOO cold to draw in the kitchen...

next time: a pic of what we were potato stamping for...

"Advent, Advent, ein lichtlein Brennt.."

Here are a few pics of our nightly routine. We try to sing a few Christmas Carols with the kids each night around the kitchen table Advent wreath. yesterday ended smashingly well with a grand finale family parade- singing "Deck the Halls"-(with instruments!) all the way from the Kitchen to the sudsy bathtub-all 10 steps...Very fun!!! Who gets to have this much fun, I ask you. I am so freaking lucky.
Soon the Gingerbread men will be coming out-and their house...pics to follow

I have to say-I LOVE this time of year..and am so thankful for the two kids whom I get to show all these crazy Schwarz traditions!
I feel like the Wonder is all coming back.
Glitter and Sparkles abound.
Bring on the Halos, peppermint everything and chocolate before Breakfast.
Wow, I am an easy convert!
Mike is so great at getting into all this stuff too, although his does put his foot down on Herring Salad on Christmas Eve.
Sheesh,
spoil sport.

Also the updated version of the dolls which the kids have now named.

Soosie (prounounced "SSSoo-SSee" -Wrenny says it is NOT Suzie) and Peter (pronounced the regular way)

Finn and Peter

Wren and Soosie

Wrenny insisted Soosie has a "bum" I dont know what the future holds for us Hephers!

2 candles now!

Our Christmas Pyramid from Opa and Omi

December creeps on in

The deal is: we let our kids dress themselves-except for VERY VERY important days (what ARE those hmmm-arent they all the very same important!!) Anyways-here is a little capture of Wren's backward pants preference and her way of stealing Finn's brand new Christmas socks and other items on any given day...

The other morning I was busy sewing (I will send pictures of my new sewing headquarters soon), and Finn called me into the kitchen. He showed me what he made with Lego. I was duly impressed!

We have a couple of lovely little girls that come over two times a week that we babysit-here the kids are making a placemat freeway. Ahh-the joys of the creative mind unleashed. Hurrah for Childhood says I once again!
This last night, in German Tradition, "Nikolaus" comes to fill the boots with small toys, nuts, chocolate and oranges of the Earth's "Good Kids"-lumps of coal for the scallyways!
My kids were delighted to be included in this Ominous First Category.
However, Finn thought for sure Nikolaus had NOT come this morning when he first woke-because Nikolaus had not stopped to talk to Finn. He cried about it until we showed him that Nikolaus had left him a little stuffed toy "Wall-E" (Mama and Baba's shocking Disney Purchase-what is next I say!!!Yikes.)
My Standards are slippin'- nothing organic or green about this purchase.
oh well, cant beat em all...



Wrenny is delighted at such a find in her fave heart boots!!

Meet Dolly

Meet the new kids..heads only..

Dolly Hepher #1

the great limb cut out..

My Big MASTER plan is to make the kids dolls for Christmas (or Nikolaus-Dec 6-if I can't wait!).

Kids are aware of this, as they watch me sew, and are thinking of names for their dolls.
Wren really wants to play with her hairless, and unclothed doll, but I had to shoo her away as Dolly still has pins for eyes!

Today I asked Finn what he wanted to name his doll.
He said: it will be my "I love you Dolly".
I said, "ok, let's come up with some more names too, ok?"
(Ok, so maybe I do have an agenda, like:I want names less sugary than that.)
Mike is voting for "Wally" for Finn's Doll, but first I have to convince Finn that his doll will actually be a boy.
He is not really sold on the idea yet.
Alas, there is time...for convincing!

Ahhh, a winter's afternoon never looked better..

After a busy morning with kids-ours and a couple of extra buddies, Wren announced it was time to get back in her "Jammies on" after being in clothes for 5 hours, and spend the rest of the day hanging out in the Living room. Finn followed suit...
Alas, Legos, trains, dolls, playdoh are the order of the day.
As for the Mama, first a double shot of espresso and then a session of Christmas crafting...

here below then are one of the perks of staying home that I can truly enjoy on a winter's morn!

The Golden Girls!

Irene, Moni and I (and NO KIDS) met in Golden for a weekend to celebrate Irene's 40th bday! And Celebrate we did. Good food, good talks, great location, good sleep, and good thrift store finds!
What a great way to mark a Milestone..



Meeting up at Bacchus Books..coffee, used books, and fog out the window (is there a better combination?)
Supper at Eleven22 Lounge a lovely grown-up place to linger. Food very nice. But, I still prefer our local dude for Indian Fare

I have a store

My batch of fresh "NUFFINS"

I am pretty stoked about being an Online Store Owner (hurray-no leaky roofs or loud tenants who may or may not hovel their side of the walk!) here i am : check out the very teeny tiny aisle of 4 products I have listed!!
It IS the thought that counts though, right!

Tomorrow I am in a craft Fair and I have been "hard at work" creating for about a month...three quarters of which I did this week. My poor house and family have been eating alot of beans and "cheesy noodles". BUT the creative Soul is fully LAUNCHED after almost 4 years of hibernation...My kitchen has been converted to a sewing room and every other room has been terribly affected. Not to mention other grown up family members.
no names to protect the innocent.

However the kids have been blissfully happy as they play lego in every room, and cause general mayhem whilst I am in a sort of sewing stupor, or rather a sewing euphoria.
Another thing I have long been working on is a little series of children's "dressy Drawers" (I know shameless self promotion, here we go!) I collected-for 2 long years) the tops of orange juice cans. Then I drew a a bunch of little paintings of children's clothing and have made some good use of velcro fasterers and..TADA..check out how happy my kidlets are! They can now find the right drawers to get dressed and to help their dear mother put away laundry..in theory!


New for this week-Wrenny is potty training herself, only wants to wear "unnerwear" and has a whole wall of stickers to prove it! Finn commented on Wrenny's hair the other day when seeing her pony's were lying straight down after a few hours under a hat.."your Pony's are sure sad today" said he.

Mike helped the kids build a real snowman this morning-with carrot-very charmed are the kids by the snow. No picture of the later on-fallen over-melted snowfellow and big Finn tears.

Happy Halloween!

A Horse and Purple Kitty Adventure begins....

..equipped with brand new, specially sewn candy bags...

driving to the Mall....

best seat in the house, hands down


racing through the stores....

and coming home with enough candy till at LEAST Christmas (Mama and Baba will help out)

Wren fell into bed after her supper, and Finn and Mike went out to circle the block.
Mike said, Finn skipped the whole time.

Introducing a new Nuffinn

I have found a hemp fabric dealer.
So I have been happily dying fabric and scheming a baby collection of soft stuffed toys.
This is a not-quite-done prototype called a "Nuffinn" soon to be followed by a smaller soft and velvety "pocket Wren"...which falls down and can tantrum.
jokes.

The fabric is a 100% organic hemp fleece and terry-super soft and wonderfully attracted to bright colored fabric dye!
more to follow!
my sewing machine is grinning.

wren turns two

WREN TURNS TWO

The birthday girl's new shirt

The "Geburtstagstisch" started early at 7:00 am this morning

A special cat named "Sebastian" came from Great Grandad

Birthday breakfast cake..mike said they were in the breakfast cake ailse...
i didnt know there was such a thing..

The piece de resistance..Wren's new kitchen finds it way into OUR kitchen

The Birthday Table with presents, candles and the Ladybug cake...

We brought the cake to our Mom's group and celebrated this 2 year old with good friends...

no words needed...

Finn and his buddy Libby enjoying their slice...

Most everyone had a good time!!!

My Brilliant Son

Finn (3 yrs and 3 months) did a little after breakfast doodling and came up with thie: entitled

FINN GOING DOWN THE WATERSLIDE

I was pretty impressed.
hence the blog entry!

Calling of the tribe

Today Mike and I and some friends sang the Bruce Cockburn Song "Mystery" at our little church. Complete with digeridoo.
And as verse built on verse, and harmony rounded out harmony, I was pretty overwhelmed by the moment. You know how you find yourself suddenly realizing that you are not alone.
That you are not only All together, but also involved in a Greater Scheme.

And as we sang the lines into this room of stained glass and wooden pews, there was some sort of Awe, I felt as though I was calling all my tribesman. This particular song is not in any hymnal I know; it is, as of yet, new to a "religious" setting (why, i don't know) and so it brings to mind my family's secret whistle.
Yep, we DO have one.
Anytime we get separated in a large crowd or room, one need only whistle the "Schwarz whistle" and one gets found by a family member.
Just so this song rang out in church today-and it felt like the little whistle to say:
hey all you folk who love the subtle parts of Truth, dangle on the edge of doubt at times, rage against the storm of dissapointment, hope heavily and freelance faith- because the religion of your forefathers keeps slipping through the cracks of your being:
you-hoo-over here...
you hoo-I GET YOU.
(or in the words of INXS: "......you're one of my kind"

And I think a few tribesmen felt a distinct heart swell of recognition as the Spirit filled his glass in their soul.

here a few choice lines:
You can't tell me there is no mystery
Mystery
Mystery
You can't tell me there is no mystery
It's everywhere I turn

Moon over junk yard where the snow lies bright
Snow lies bright
Snow lies bright
Moon over junk yard where the snow lies bright
Can set my heart to burn

Infinity always gives me vertigo
Vertigo
Vertigo
Infinity always gives me vertigo
And fills me up with grace

This feast of beauty can intoxicate
Intoxicate
Intoxicate
This feast of beauty can intoxicate
Just like the finest wine

-Bruce Cockburn (2007)

"And we'll all sing together"

Well, we have had such a fantastic weekend!
Amazing weather, lots of time together as a family and with good friends...music, hard lemonade, kids dancing, deepening conversations, kinship bonding, bright moon overhead, first skinny dip of the year...who could ask for anything more!!!
For the first time ever, both our kids participated at a Mayook event-on stage!
Finn even got up to sing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt".
exciting times these.
Here's our family shot.

sad

on friday we are doing our second annual "Doogie Boogie" to commemorate the life and laughter of our Doug Erickson-who left us very suddenly in a freak tragedy 2 years ago. Music, food, stories-all the good stuff.

Well, today we had another crazy tragic happening. Helicopter crashed on 14th Ave in the middle of the road and 4 were killed. One of those killed-a family member of a good friend.
It is so over the top..2 days apart, 2 years apart.
I am so struck by the frailty of life again.
I walk that street all the time.
our "time" could be any old time.
I am feeling sobered, and worn out-for there is never a shortage of sorrow and suffering here below.
I guess I juat need to say-i am thankful-for another day-cause, I do like it here..alot.

My Mother's day Gift from Mike

With some of my new ventures in Collage cards and children's knitting and sewing..I wanted a website to show and even seel some stuff online..so Mike gave me a domain name-and here is my little waddlin' Gal of a logo of said website...www.freckleduck.com
is coming soon!!!
Thanks Mikey :)

thoughts on Mother's Day..a litle message for tomorrow

Mother’s Day has always been a bit of pickle for me.
Bit of an exclusive day somehow.
It has caused me some heartache.
I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.

There is much to be learned from the Mother institution-be it the “official day” to celebrate it, or not!
Since God is half mother-and since I was asked to pass along all my “nuggets of nurture”I will forge ahead-

And truly-I am happy to share with you about what I have learned about being a parent as a Spiritual experience.
It should only take a few moments.
I am a slow learner.
The lessons are pretty much all on a theme-only disguised in different daily experiences, and so I keep thinking they are new.
But I am only on the first chapter: Addition....(family addition) the subtraction, division and multiplication will follow I am sure.
So, here are three things I have been learning lately:

To preface: I never thought I’d see the day that I would be standing here speaking of lessons learned about being a parent.
Not that I didn’t want children. Quite the contrary.
Lets just say it all took a little longer that I would have ever guessed.
Marriage, pregnancy, delivery, and finally-a baby on site!
And I suppose in retrospect all this waiting and wishing, dreaming and unravelling of myself in hopes for a family of my own, came with one of the best lessons never to leave my heart..and that is:
Becoming a parent is not a reward for the person of greater faith or value in God’s eyes.
Pregnancy is not a demonstration of God playing favourites.
Childlessness, barrenness, infertility are not God’s stamp of displeasure or disapproval.
Children are a gift. Pure and simple. Healthy or unwell.
Some are welcomed as planned little bundles of scheduling somehow gone right,
some are welcomed as unexpected surprises.
Some are taken with resentment.
Some are held at a distance and blamed for being born at the wrong place and time.

In our society where success is seen as constant growth, and in a Christian culture that tends to revere parenthood to a status of some kind of arrival: I raise my little flag of caution. Let us be open-hearted to those who want, wish and can’t be mothers, those with children who have truly lost their way, those who are without family-emotionally or physically. Today’s “widows and Orphans” can come in many more faces: single, divorced, childless, -wrongly defined as being “have-nots”. We all possess the ability to pour our legacy out into our world. Be it into children, passionate work, abilities, gifts and lives so worth sharing.
No one is meant to be excluded in God’s Family. Everyone is allowed a true HOME in this family, a safe, nurturing, truth-telling, accepting loving place and a significant meat and potatoes kind of a role.
In God’s family, we are ALL siblings.

The Second lesson about myself as a parent, and about God as a parent.
is..Love is not an ability to control.
This is like a recurring dream.
Like the one where you can fly. Only very different.
For me it began in those first starkest, most demanding hours, blurry days and nights of being a mother to a newborn baby.
To put it lightly: Finn didn’t know what was expected of him as a baby, and I didn’t know what he expected of me as a Mama.
An intense misunderstanding had we.
He had the advantage of blissful ignorance.
I was overwhelmed by responsibility, fatigue and raw helplessness.
And so the deep understanding of God as creator began anew to awaken itself in our little household.
Everyone unsure of how it will work out in the end.
And now, past the newborn phase of mothering into the assertiveness of the two year old, and unrelenting lack of control one experiences as a parent of a 3 year old male potty resistant child.
Before I was a mother I never got what is was all about: The passion of the potty-mouthed mothers. I get it now. Potty training has the potential to bring every PHd to their knees. Just like the proverbial horse-you can bring a child to the potty-but you cant make him GO. And as I face this frustrating reality for oh-quite some time now, I HAVE to laugh about what it teaches me of God’s ways with us all. I Have to laugh, cause else I scream. God allows us to learn, in our own way and time.
True learning and thus real change comes from a willing and open and ready heart.
So, help me God.
So help me learn.

Last lesson of Late:
Here and now is the best place to be. (this simple addige can be applied to anytime)
I am so unbelievably grateful to be a mother to Finn Peter Brendan and Wrenny Mirabel May.

My friend Lloy had a baby about 6 months before me, and when I asked her about it all she said “it is alot better and alot worse than I ever thought”.
And I want to speak to the “alot better”, cause life is too short to get stuck in the mire of “alot worse”
I love to be a mother because I am amazed, mesmorized, captivated, soaring in cheezy and bears’ claw LOVE for my two children. They are the most compact little containers of energy, humour, emotion, resilience, mercy, creativity and independance.
And they so GET how to Love. They are fearlessly, wasteful about it, in a slathering till it drips off the toast kind of way. They don’t even care if I return it-they just don’t seem to know how to turn that switch off yet. In snuggles and in tantrums-they fight for my attention, for my constancy, for my affection, my protection. They are not about tomorrow or yesterday-they are RIGHT NOW. They are NOt in a hurry, they do Not have an alternate plan. They are the great lifejacket of our fast-paced-achievement-driven world-everybody swims the same kinde of kooky way when you got one on.
They demand my best, they forgive my worst. They WANT to be taught-even though it is hard to tell every once in a while..they open up their little hearts and minds to me and say-filler up-every single waking moment. I suspect every sleeping moment too. And I LOVE IT.
This has made me realize how God must just feel the same way about me. About you, about every crazy nut in this place. He is thrilled at everything we DO finally learn. He is totally enthralled. He loves us because we are each so different. He loves when we get along and sing and hold hands and stop fighting long enough to hug.
That is a big deal to him.
So-Put that in your pipe and smoke it.


To end.
a cheezy little poem i wrote for the occasion-because I am embracing the cheeziness that mothering is teaching me. Cheesiness is actually a form of godliness, in case you didnt know.

Recipe Box

2 parents
love LOVE love
wait wait WAIT
take out of oven and enjoy with the whole family.
easy peasy
serve with selflessness for the rest of your life.

*Optional: for best results add soother, sunscreen, playdo, sand.
keep fresh by placing in sunshine for a period of time each day.
tends to become spongey and lifeless without rest, careful handling and a thorough tickle.

A new card..coming soon

I have started a new line of Collage cards for a local Children's store.
They are called the "Bumbletree Series".
Anyways-they are specifically for new moms, kid's milestones, grandparents etc.

Here are two-for new moms.

more to come...