March 1

I am back!

February was a very productive month.  I really am a bit obsessed with resolutions.  Maybe because an internal one that I don't even bother to admit is to be more organized.  I don't know a single person who doesn't want this on some level.  So take a look at my progress:

I won't lie & tell you I have taken my vitamin every day. I probably average four times a week.  Not bad!

 On February 10 I became a member of Just Fit.  I can't tell you how great it is to belong to a gym again! So far I have only gone to Zumba but hopefully that will change soon.

I finished reading Third Culture Kids!  See how motivated I can be when I write it down?

I rode my bike to pick up Hugo from Kita!  This is a major accomplishment. Not only am I afraid of riding in the street I am very afraid of the trams! 

I believe I am drinking more water just from taking a vitamin & being at the gym.

Are you sitting down?  Not only do I have our entire Florida trip planned including a grocery list & have a house booked in Loumarin France for October, but I have a dinner reservation in Brugges, Belgium on April 28!  I have come up with a folder system for our travels.  This makes it easier for me to keep track of things.  Once an apartment is booked I can start a long list of things that need to be done for that trip - book a car, restaurants, sites, odd things to pack, etc.  It is working for me.  

We have two long weekends in May & one in June due to German holidays.  Hopefully one of them will be in either Munich or Heidelberg. 

Unfortunately it was very easy to be generous lately.  A dear friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.  So instead of wondering what to do I called another dear friend who was in this position a few years ago & asked what was the most helpful.  She suggested a book & a gift certificate for a scarf.  Within an hour it was all taken care of.  Normally in this situation I am not sure what is appropriate & I don't do anything.  It felt good to be helpful.  I have also tried to send random emails to people when I am thinking about them....

I am still struggling with taking more pictures.  I guess it doesn't help that no one in the family likes their picture taken...

I have been a bit more social but not like I want to be.  Small steps...

I have an idea of the way I would like to organize my recipes but that requires a printer & we don't have one.  Maybe I should add that to my list?

Chocolate has been harder to give up than ice cream.  I have cut way back on my consumption but it is not gone.  Yet.  This will be a work in progress that might take the whole year!

I now take two German lessons a week & feel that I am leaning more.  I certainly understand more & can read more but still struggle forming simple sentences.  If I could figure out how to study (not my strong suit) I might make more progress.

Thanks to an untimely "mom, I need to go to the toilet" from Hugh, I found my almost Ultimate Bag. There is a large department store near Hugh's Kita that has free public toilets (yes, I need to tell you free because even after you fork over 20 euros at the movie theater there is someone in the bathroom expecting you to pay them for using the toilet...that is an entirely other post...) so we went in.  Since we already missed the tram we looked around a little.  I have always love the Reisenthel brand for bags & carry baskets (in the States a lot of people have the sturdy baskets that I would call Market baskets).  So naturally I wandered over to that section.  I usually think of these items as something to do with shopping (bags with wheels, small bags that can be unfolded for groceries, market baskets, etc) or storage.  So I was shocked to see a whole section of things that resembled purses or handbags, depending on where you are from.  So I bought one.  It has a zipper than can be undone to make the bag 4 inches bigger - amazing for when I forget to pack one of the small bags for groceries!  It is water resistant , sturdy, can stand up by itself and cute.  The only reason it isn't my Ultimate Bag is that it doesn't have a shoulder strap to wear across my body.

Here is a photo of my Ultimate Bag Right Now -