Big News and a Halloween Printable

Hello! It's been a while since I have been able to post anything. We were finally able to move into a house at the beginning of August. Unpacking took a while since we do not have as much room as we did in our house, and there is almost no storage here. We are still trying to get everything just right. In the midst of trying to regain sanity in the household, we discovered we are unexpectedly expecting our 4th child. We are due at the beginning of next year. My morning sickness has finally subsided, so I am beginning to feel more like my self.

Are you are ready for the printable? The movers broke our printer, so I am unable to put any together right now, but I did have someone test it for me, and it did work for them.

These will fit your standard sandwich baggie, or a snack-sized baggie. As always, these downloads are for your personal use only. Enjoy!

{Candied Vampire Fangs label download}

Wordless Wednesday

Take a Peek: German Washers and Dryers

One chore I have a love-hate relationship with is laundry. Running the laundry through the washer and dryer is not a problem, but I am not a big fan of the folding and putting away part. With three kids in the house, there is an endless stream of clothing. There has to be close to a gazillion socks to match. It is quite tedious. Girly Girl and Mister Man are old enough to fold and put their own laundry away, and usually, this would be part of their regular chore schedule. Since we are in the hotel, it is up to the Hubs and I to get the laundry done.  The hotel has washer and dryers on site, but they are the German kind, and the German washers take a lot longer to cycle than their American cousins. With five people in the family, there is A LOT of laundry. Did I mention the gazillion socks? With five sets of feet wearing socks, plus an extra set for the Hubs, we have a LOT of socks. I've been passing the matching of the socks job off to the kids. Lucky for me, the kids actually like the job. I guess it is a win-win, and I don't have to match a gazillion socks.

The hubs and I finally fell into the routine of doing laundry during the weekend. There is a laundromat close to the hotel, and it has American washers and dryers. At the end of the week, we usually have two duffel (big duffel) bags worth of laundry. I'm really not sure how we manage to have so much laundry at the end of the week. It must have something to do with the duffel bags, they probably just replicate and duplicate clothes without me knowing it.

Something you many not know, is when we moved to Germany back in 2008, we were living in Garmisch. Garmisch is still hands-down my favorite place in Germany. The house we were renting (I miss that house) only had hook ups for the German washer and dryer. German washers only have hook ups for cold water.

The washer looks similar to a standard front-loader you can get in the states, just smaller. It has settings for colors, whites, delicates, and so forth.

 

One difference you will notice, is the colors cycle takes 1 hour 55 minutes. That's right, it takes almost 2 hours to do ONE load. JUST one load. We were just a family of 4 when we lived in Garmisch. It was hard enough to keep up with the laundry then. We regularly had to take the laundry up on post to get it out of the way.

Here is the German dryer. The evaporating water is collected in a container, and must be emptied regularly. This process takes a very long time as well. It was at least another hour to hour and a half.

Here is a closeup of the settings for the dryer.

Since the house were are renting here is owned by an American couple, their house is set up with a hot water hook up, so we will be able to have an American washer and dryer. For this, I am so grateful. It will make it a lot easier to keep up with the self-duplicating pile of laundry, and those gazillion socks that keep the five sets of feet in our family warm.

10 Things About Driving in Germany

Driving in Germany has both similarities and differences to driving in the states.. In order to drive here, you have to take a class (on post), and then you take a test in order to get your license. My license didn't expire from when we lived here the first time around, so all I had to do was renew it. I did re-read through the manual and watch the videos, in order to make sure I had everything fresh in my mind.

10 Things About Driving in Germany

1. There is no center yellow line. The dividing line is white, and sometimes it is dotted, and sometimes it is solid.

2. Speed limit signs are round.

3. Traffic lights change from green, to yellow, to red and back from red, to yellow, to green.

4. The autobahn MOSTLY has no speed limit, however, you will find towns, tunnels, and construction areas do tend to have set speed limits.

5. There are roundabouts everywhere.

6. Speed cameras are not your friend. When you see the bright flash, expect to be receiving a ticket in the mail. Ask the Hubs!

7. There are A LOT of signs to know. Luckily, most of them are pretty self-explanatory. Some, are not as familiar.

8. It is not uncommon to see a tractor driving down the road, or a 4-wheeler (with a license plate no less) for that matter.

9. It isn't unusual to be driving 90 MPH on the autobahn, and have someone flying past you like you are sitting still. Make sure to continually check your mirrors, people!

10. The Polizei will stop you, literally, in the middle of the road. I know this from experience. For future reference...before you set out, make sure your husband didn't leave the fog lights on when he was driving. Fog lights are for driving in the fog, not for an extra boost of light....the Hubs seems to think otherwise.

I still prefer the Hubs to do most of the driving though. Not only can I relax, I can also try to take pictures of the many different sights along the way. There is no shortage of amazing places around here.

Roasted Baby Carrots {Recipe}

Roasted Baby Carrots

Ingredients:

16oz baby carrots

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C)

2. Quarter the baby carrots.  

3. Toss baby carrots in olive oil. 

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Bake at 400°F (204°C) for 20 minutes, or until the baby carrots are soft, and lightly browned. Make sure to keep a good eye on them as they cook. Stir the carrots a couple times during cooking.

This is a favorite around our house. I hope you like it as much as we do!

Our Week in Pictures

The Retreat Ceremony: The end of the Duty Day

One of the fascinating things about staying in lodging on post, is you get to see and experience things you probably wouldn’t normally have the chance to experience. Case in point- the “Retreat” ceremony. Since we've been in Germany, I had been noticing a big, booming sound going off in the late afternoon. One day, the Hubs, and I were driving home, and we came up to a place on post where cars stopped in the road, and people were out of their vehicles, standing, and looking towards the direction a song was playing. Since the Hubs had served, he was able to shed a little light on the subject. I, being curious, dug around further, and was able to find more information.

The Retreat ceremony begins at 5 pm, the end of the duty day. "Retreat" is played first, and upon the last note, a cannon is fired, finally, “To the Colors” is played. Uniformed soldiers, soldiers not in uniform, and civilians alike all have special ways of paying their respects to the flag.

Here are a couple links I found to be helpful. You may also find them to be helpful in learning how to pay the proper respect to the flag, as well as a little more history on the ceremony:

Retreat ceremony- More Than Music

What is a Military Retreat Ceremony?

 

Once we all were able to experience the ceremony first hand, it has become something the kids have looked forward to at 5 pm every day. We are fortunate enough to see the soldiers from where our room is located, and the kids can watch the ceremony as it takes place. It is a really beautiful, and amazing thing to see our uniformed soldiers performing such an important and historical tradition.