Juicing, raw foods and taking stock

Its been a bit quiet on my blog, I realise.  No doubt you know that we are in Germany for 7 weeks looking after a sweet little cat called Cleo.

We've been to this part of Germany before and have 'done 'alot of the touristy stuff with an hour and a halfs drive. 

We have all been a bit exhausted both mentally and physically so its been a real blessing to have somewhere to just sit still and take stock. 

I'd originally planned this time as a space to write , but with the intense one one one sessions I'm doing with Morgan and Lilly on Literacy and maths, I'm too exhausted mentally to be creative.  Its important for the kids to be confident with key skills and concepts for next years entry back into mainstream school. They will just about have been out of mainstream for two years, so it will be a shock for both of them to have to sit at desks, talk to other kids and good grief ( Lilly) follow instructions with chucking a huge tantrum or arguing for an hour.

Germany possibly isn't the ideal place to be vegetarian, nor trying to avoid grains. However, for the first week we were here, we did a 100% juicing program. The kids continues with one per day and I continued 100% for a second week.

I've now introduced raw foods treats like my choc mousse and carrot and orange chilled soup. ( see below) the variety of things to juice is limited and my key ingredients are expensive ( I like to use three or four avocados a day and at up to 2 euros each - thats nearly 4 Aussie dollars- i've had to scale back) things like coconut cream is super expensive and cocoa butter, macca and other items Id always use impossible to find. 

We have three and a bit weeks left, so Ive decided to focus on the kids key skills and tidy up my writing files. I'll attempt to edit some long forgotten articles to submit and try to get a system started for my writing again. 

There is so much I 'm still not ready or able to tackle or look at.

Polish Lesson 9 - months of the year

styczeń - January

luty - February

marzec - March

kwiecień - April

maj - May

czerwiec - June

lipiec - July

sierpień - August

wrzesień - September

październik - October

listopad - November

grudzień - December

Polish Lesson 5 - Common Phrases

Common phrases.. still struggling... badly. 

yes - tak

no - nie
please- proszę ( pro-shah)

excuse me - przepraszam

no problem - nie ma problemu

sorry - przepraszam

I don’t know Nie wiem ( neah vemah)

I understand - rozumiem

I don’t understand - Ja nie rozumiem

You’re welcome Proszę bardzo

I love you - Kocham Cię ( pronouced Koh hum Chee)

Where are the toilets? – gdzie jest toaleta? pronounced ‘gdsie yest toaleta?’

I don't speak Polish – nie mowie po polsku pronounced ‘nye moovyeh poh polskoo’.

Please write it down – prosze to napisac pronounced ‘prosheh toh napeesach’.

I also found a great site with a hundred common phrases, here 

Polish Lessons 6 - Common words to start questions

I'm really still not getting a hang on this, so am putting some pronunciation in brackets behind the ones I can pronounce.. others.. hmmmm 
what? co

which? które ( kahtoooreh)

where? gdzie ( gajeah)

why? dlaczego

who? którzy

How many? Ile ( elleh)

How much? Ile ( elleh)

do you like? lubisz ( loo beesh)

I don’t like - Nie podoba mi się

I found this great site with common phrases on it - with audio... may help!

Polish Lesson 8 Colours

biały - white

różowy - pink

czerwony - red

pomarańczowy - orange

brązowy - brown

żółty - yellow

szary - grey

zielony - green

błękitny - cyan

niebieski - blue

czarny - black

There is an audio and game over here 

Polish Lesson 7 - Eating

I'm Vegetarian - Jestem wegetarianinem

Vegetables - warzywa or zielenina

Can I have the menu?  Mogę mieć menu

Bill please  - rachunek proszę

Breakfast - śniadanie

lunch - obiad

dinner - kolacja

salad - sałatka

rice - ryż

beef  - wołowiny or krowa

chicken - kurczaka

meat  - mięso or mięsiwo

Restaurant – restauracja pronounced ‘restaauratzya’.

Table for two / four – stolik dla dwoch / czterech osob pronounced ‘stolick dlah dvookh / chterekh osoob’.
Waiter / waitress – kelner / kelnerka pronounced ‘klener / kelnerka’.
Dinner – obiad pronounced ‘obyad’ in daytime, kolacja pronounced ‘kolatsya’ in the evening.
Menu – menu pronounced ‘menyi’.
Wine – wino pronounced ‘vhinoh’.
Wine list – karta win pronounced ‘karta vin’.
 Vegetarian dish – danie wegetarianskie pronounced ‘danye vegetaryanskyeh’. Can we have the bill please? – prosze o rachunek pronounced ‘proshe o rakhooneck’.

Polish Lesson 4 - Shops

How much is this? Ile to kosztuje?

Price – cena pronounced ‘tzenah’.

I'll  buy this - Kupię to

Bakery - Piekarnia
Supermarket - Supermarket 

Bank - Bank

Autoteller - Autoteller

money - pieniądze

Pharmacy - apteka

Butcher – rzeźnik

Shop/ a Store – Sklep

Polish Lesson 3 Greetings

Hi! - Cześć!
Welcome - saying hello to someone
Cześć – Hi/Bye (informal)
Good morning! - Dzień Dobry!
Good evening! - Dobry Wieczór!
Good night- Dobranoc
Do widzenia - Good bye

How are you? - Jak się masz?
ok thanks - W porządku, dziękuję!
I'm great  - Jestem wielki
I'm good thanks -Jestem dobra dzięki

Thank you very much - Bardzo dziękuję!

Proszę – Please/Here you are
Przepraszam - Excuse me/Sorry

Widows Watch.. Completion.

A year ago, late at night, I got the phone call I'd been expecting, but didn't want to get - that Adrian had died. People say they know before the words come out; and its true - I had known that this night was The Night and was waiting. I'd been given hints that the time was close, but no-one, especially me -  really wants to accept it. It was sudden in some respects, but expected in others; but in no way can something like this be prepared for fully. 

I was awake and reading in anycase; alone in a house sitting job in Brisbane. The kids were at sleepovers in Dalveen.  After clicking into automatic, the rational part of me taking over and making the appropriate calls to let loved ones and family know the news, I began the widows watch. 

Traditionally a Pictish pagan belief, its practice is shared amongst many Gaelic tribes along with Nordic traditions and their descendants.

Though I didn't have the opportunity to be with him at the end, or to farewell him other ways, I knew his spirit was with me during the night. I know, with unshakable faith that he held me strong so I could do what was needed to be done; to drive up to Dalveen and to then begin the preparations for his funeral; and worst of all, tell the kids.

The widows watch is where the widow sits or guards the body until the first light of the next day. It is her duty to ensure it is given freedom to leave. Upon the year anniversary, the final widows watch is done, where a candle is lit and only snuffed out when the light of the next dawn rises. Again, its the widows duty to remain vigilant, pray, mediate and send blessings to finalise the journey.

I hate the word 'hope'; a four lettered lie. But if there is some goodwill in that word, then it would be my hope his spirit has found its rest.

Flowers for Age

While we are away and overseas, I am blessed to have people who regularly lay flowers on Adrian's grave for us.

The English Planetree - or Platanus mum and the kids planted is looking healthy, thanks to the regular watering and caring my mum does.

She made this Australian bouquet up for fathers day and put it on there for Morgan and Lilly.  

I so appreciate Michael taking the time too, to drive up from Brisbane and bring this huge wreath of roses today, the anniversary. They were so beautiful. Michael facetimed me to show me the spot and give me a bit of a look around. It was a very appreciated and a sweet gesture. 

Polish Lesson 2 - Days of the week

Well, here is something interesting. The origin of the names of the days of the week in Polish calendar is different than in the English calendar. Where as the days of the week in English are based around Roman and Norse Gods, in Polish they generally signify the position of the day (its numeral value) in the calendar.. which makes a bunch more sense. (like third day, Middle day of week etc)

Poniedzialek (Monday) - po niedzieli means "after Sunday" 

Wtorek (Tuesday) - wtory means "the second" 

Środa (Wednesday) - w środku means "in the middle" (of the week) 

Czwartek (Thursday) - czwarty means "the fourth"

Piątek (Friday) - piaty means "the fifth"

Sobota (Saturday) - Sabbath it originates from Jewish Sabbath

Niedziela (Sunday) - nie dzialać means "do not work" or "not a working day" since Sunday was a day when people generally do not do any physical work.

I found a site that has an audio - to help prompt me with the sounds here 

Polish Lesson 1 - Numbers

Given I am encouraging ( making) the kids blog their language lessons ( I have 12 set language lessons for all the languages we have been using while we are in Europe - Spanish, German, French, Italian) I will follow suit and use that format, but also add in any other things I am learning along the way.

I have to say, this is an arduous task and I really need to change my attitude towards my ability to learn it. I'm blogging my lessons as a reminder to myself as much as a check up.

Lesson 1 looks at numbers.

I'm all for using technology - especially apps on the phone and youtube to gather as much information and assistance with things like language skills.  The accent and pronunciation is really getting me.

I found a great resource here which plays an audio on the numbers when you press it. 

1. JEDEN [ yeden]
2. DWA [dva]
3. TRZY [ tshi]
4. CZTERY [chiteri]
5. PIĘĆ [piench]
6. SZEŚĆ [sheshch]
7. SIEDEM [shedem]
8. OSIEM [oshem]
9. DZIEWIĘĆ [dchieviench]
10. DZIESIĘĆ [dshieshiench]

The sounds are a challenge for me.. practice practice I guess

Bare foot walk park at Wambacher Mühle in Schlangenbad

Bare Feet Parks.. We really need to get some of these in Australia. I can think of a dozen groups of people who would immedialty benefit from an hour of wandering and exploring these sensory spaces.

This one is a small one compared to the ones in have heard about in Germany.  In anycase - Morgan and Lilly enjoyed the time to take their shoes off and balance, jump, climb and explore the space. 

There was a millpond which hosts a number of hand hydraulic water pumps - obviously set up for children to experiment and explore the different systems. Of course we did an impromptu science lesson in this and will research further when we get home for homeschooling..

After a few days of being cooped up in the apartment just doing homeschooling, ti was a welcome retreat to get some fresh air and grass underfoot.

Polish language lessons

I have committed to support Michael on his goal to learn Polish - his families language - but one that when his dad came to Australia, never spoke again ( at least in front of the kids).

We plan to come back to Europe in 3 - 4 years to both travel and live for a short time and believe that a working knowledge of some of the European languages won't go astray. I have such a poor grasp on a handful of them and can only order coffee, smile and wave.. With a little time, I can decipher some French and some German; and understand a little more Spanish than anything else - but only if they speak slowly..and then I usually get lost... I used to be able to count in Arabic and say a few (rude) phrases, defiantly only rude things in Italian and my Japanese is limited to shouting directions in a marital arts class...so hmmm a focused effort would be a good thing.

I've downloaded a few programs and begun some initial online lessons and to be honest and pretty scared by the whole thing. Whereas there is an air of familiarity within German, Spanish, Italian and French; I am completely at sea with Polish. Its roots are more in the Slavic/ Russian areas, with the tone and sounds so foreign, I cannot imagine being able to repeat them. This is not sounding very positive; but I will be pigheaded enough to continue and try to learn at least some pleasantries.

To top off the Yay list.. its apparently one of hte most diffcult languages to master because -
Nouns can have three genders (some linguists count five)
Each noun and adjective can appear in one of seven cases
Verbs conjugate for gender, person, mood and time (depending on how you count, this makes over 25 forms of every verb)
Verbs come in two aspects (English doesn’t have grammatical aspect)

and here I thought German was a hard language to grasp.. oh boy...

on the up side though.. there is no word order! well - it appears that the order you jumble the words together with doesn't seem to alter the meaning.

A cool fact is that it is deeply entrenched with Latin - a language that I have actually wanted to have a better understanding with

well wish me luck or życz mi szczęścia ( which yes is as hard to read as it is to say.. lots of schhzzzzhh sounds.)

Detox and Juicing

It going to be a bit quiet on my blog for a while. I have a backlog of drafts to edit and upload ( been a might busy 'doing' things..ha ha) as well as - now we are in Germany for 7 weeks, its nice just to sit still for a while, not go out and madly rush about.

I've taken this time to do a detox with the kids for a week. So its 100% juices for a week for all of us, then the following week juices and raw foods; after which we will see how we are feeling and introduce a few things at a time. ( I know the wonderful German bread will be the first thing!! oh my..its so good)

After doing my juicing for 60 odd days last year, I know how good I felt - despite the dreadful atmosphere and circumstances. Slowly over the year, I've allowed bad stuff, junk food and the like, to once again enter our diets. Though I can say its difficult to maintain a super healthy food lifestyle while travelling round day after day, its all choices and most often, the takeaway sandwiches, boxes of crackers and dips and milk drinks are the easiest to procure.

Though I am feeling pretty positive, this month last year was an incredibly challenging space, ultimately ending with Adrian's death, the circumstances surrounding it and the events afterwards; all things I need to allow to flow, accept and not allow to influence the incredible life I have now.

I am blessed and feel the love from round the world, wrapping itself round me as September rolls round.