5 things

1. I spend Saturday morning meeting up with my friend Nicole. I had the boys with me of course and we spend a couple hours just chatting. It was so nice to get out and have grown up conversation and just hang out and enjoy each other company. That's definitely something I need to do more often.

2. the boys are two month old today. I can't believe how quick time flies, it feels just like yesterday that I brought them home from the hospital.

3. Time is something that I don't feel I have right now. At least not time to sit down and do nothing or have me time. During the day I am pretty much on demand there for the boys (and I don't mind, I love them to bits), the few minutes in between that I have, I either try to do something in the garden or do the dishes, or eat something myself or spend five minutes with the dogs. In the evenings I am usually just able to wash the dishes before I either fall asleep with the boys or with the dogs. I know this will change one day (or so I hope)

4. I go out for a walk with the boys daily. We usually spend around 2-4 hours outside, them in the pram and me walking. Out daily walk usually takes us out in the nature around the village or towards the Osterbergsee. Being the introvert that I am I love those daily walks and get a lot of energy back that way.

5. I have tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar in August and can't wait, hope I will be able to actually leave the boys alone with my mom for those 2-3 hours in the evening

Garden Update July 2nd

July has arrived and with it came the heat. The last few days temperatures soared to the high 30th Celsius (high 90s to 100 F)and for the next few days we days we expect to hit the 40th daily. The only time I am able to spend in the garden is very early morning. Even at 8pm it's still way too hot. I have been busy harvesting and processing black and red currents as well as gooseberries. So far I have harvested about 10 pounds of red currents, 8 pounds of black currents and 5 pounds of gooseberries. The black currents are all gone now but I still have many red ones left.

The peas have started to grow and I enjoy eating them fresh from the bush, so far they have not made it inside the house. Salad, onions and kohlrabi are on my table daily. Onions are ready for harvest and raspberries are getting there too. Oh and don't forget the cherry tree needs to be relieved of it's burden too. So far all the cherries went straight in my mouth.  The strawberries are overgrown with weeds now and need cleaning (desperately). A new batch of radish is coming along nicely and the cucumbers too. 

Life is good right now.

What is going on in your garden?

Garden Update June 26th

peas

lettuce

carrots and onions

potatoes and bush beans

carrots & peas (freshly planted)

cucumbers

kohlrabi

cabbage & Kohlrabi

I love June despite the cold June that we had, slowly but surely things start to grow. I have been harvesting strawberries for the past 2 weeks and started on the red currents this week. I have had salad each day this week, as well as kohlrabi. The peas are getting shells and I am sure I can harvest some soon. the onions are ready to harvest too. So far I took them out when I needed them, but now with the weather turning warmer again, I can actually start to harvest them,

Yesterday I managed to get the last of the ground worked on and I put in 3 more rows of carrots and two rows of peas. Oh I am so looking forward to the peas. This weekend or early next week, I will put trellis on for the cucumbers. Have I mentioned how much I love June and things growing in the garden?

What is going on in your garden?

Garden Update June 13th

 

Good Morning, last afternoon/evening we received some much needed rain. It didn't rain to long but we have not seen rain in month, so the 30 minute down poor was much appreciated. I had hoped for a bit more but I am grateful for what I got. I took a quick walk out in the garden a few hours after the rain, to see how things are going, slowly but surely things are growing but not sure how much I will be able to actually get due to the heat. The berries are slowly turning red too, another week maybe two and I can harvest them.

What is going on in your garden?

Being a SMC of twins

Well let me tell you, right now being a SMC of twins is tough. Oh don't get me wrong I love the two of them so much and would not trade them for anything in the world but it's a lot of hard work and most days I am just exhausted. My life consists of feeding babies, changing diapers, washing and sterilizing bottles once a day, getting babies to sleep and start all over again. If I do have 5 minutes, I grab something to eat, or try to check my e-mail on the phone. At the moment it's rare that I actually get to spend time like I do now on the PC.

To be honest the nights are actually easier then the days. At night both Niki and Jake have a 2.5 to 4 hour rhythm in which they sleep before they need feeding. Niki is pretty easy, he latches on while we are both in bed and often the two of us fall asleep that way. Jake is more difficult, he still has not truly figured out how the milk bar works and at night it's more difficult to get him to latch on, so he often gets a bottle instead. We have figured out the position for that too now, with me either half laying/half sitting and him on my chest, or if by some twist of fate they both get hungry at the same time, he will lie next to Niki and I will hold his bottle to feed him and Niki is next to me drinking away at the milk bar.

During the day I sometimes manage to get them to latch on at the same time (thanks to My Breastfriend) or I feed them after each other or my mom helps out and gives one of them the bottle, mostly Jake as Niki refuses the bottle. I do have enough milk at the moment and if Niki is drinking on his own, I often pump at the other side and have Jake's  next meal ready.

After that it's sleep time and that's the biggest problem during the day. Jake just doesn't want to sleep and keeps himself up by all means possible. The only way for him to fall in a deep sleep is by laying on my chest. This means I don't get anything done. He is too small for the baby carrier still and I am still figuring out how to put him in a wrap, so we only do this for short times. Niki is fine going to sleep during the day most of the time, if not he gets an additional boob to nurse to sleep or a cuddle and he is gone to sleepy land.  

I know it will get better eventually and right now despite me being exhausted I love being a mom. I love bonding with them and I am getting tired of hearing that I am spoiling them by letting them sleep on me or in my bed, or by not letting them cry, so they learn. Well they don't need to learn, they need to know Mommy is there for them if they need me.

me & Niki

Niki & Jake

Jake

Garden update June 4th

levelling out the ground to set up more raised beds

tomato plants

bell peppers

Lily

I have resigned myself to the fact that I won't be on top of my garden this year and you know what that is fine with me. I have two newborn babies to snuggle up to and enjoy every minute and I think this first year will fly by way too quickly for me. After all, I can't believe Niklas and Jacob are already 3 weeks old. 

This week I managed to do some work in the garden. I spend an hour in the morning weeding the peas and onions and getting rid of the biggest weeds in the strawberry field. I also had some help to level out the area where I want to set up more raised beds in the fall (or earlier depending how much time I get for that).

I harvested the first strawberries, which went straight in my mouth. Oh I can't wait to have the boys do the same thing. My cucumbers are coming out slowly and I need to put more radish in the ground. I am so looking forward now that June is here, I hope we get some warmer weather now, so that I am hopefully able to spend and hour each morning out in the garden. 
I bought a new blueberry bush today (bringing the total of blueberry bushed to 3), which I will plant later today or tomorrow. It will be a while before they are mature but that's ok. 

Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading (though not at the same time!), so I am joining in with Ginny of Small Things for this week's yarn along ~

I have not much time reading and especially knitting at the moment but I finished those shoes/socks for the boys earlier and am reading the book attachment parenting at the moment.