{Week 38}

 Week 38:

Blurred beauty called waiting... an unhurried state of limbo... often frustratingly so...

Focusing on lists of things to get done... taking the time to relax, to rest... surviving heat and enjoying coolness in any form... wondering, "What is parenthood like?... Who is this little person?... Is one ever prepared?" 

Without any answers to these questions, tossed as they are in space and ticking time, we know that we shall learn them any day now... wonderfully unprepared, as all parents that ever were.

~

Fingered stretch marks

In the dark

Signs of ripening

Of a season

Waxing, waning

Fresh grooves penciled

On translucent skin

Tell stories of a life to come

late night reflection

Red Raspberry Leaf tea... an amber liquid of everything good for those carrying a wee life

Creations for Baby 

The grace of promised husband-flowers

Knitted yarns, waiting to warm a little body

{Week 37 & a River-Afternoon}

Week 37 

My middle is an ocean

Life surging underneath

Caught in hidden waters

Small feet make waves

Currents of infant twists

My skin stretches out

Like the tide to shore

late night reflection

Friend-crafted

Tiny things washed and hung in the hot sun to dry... come winter, Baby can wear a bit of summer freshness

Future necessities

Summer cool and fruity goodness

An Asian treat for Mum & Little: Sao-mao/"hairy berry"/Rambutan

&

~ River-side of a Sunday ~

Kunzelsau on the Kocher

Catching minnows

*view captured only by bending over

{Week 36}

Weeks 34 & 35? The forgotten weeks... the weeks of transition and unsettling... weeks blurred in a flurry of boxes and mops...

But here we are at the end of Week 36 of our Little's gestational period and can now say that I am carrying a full-term little life inside of me. How blessed are we?

It has been such a time of late. Moving house while 8 months pregnant cannot truly be termed a thing of beauty and joy forever... it was hard not to let it be one of frustration and annoyance. The Dutchman was a powerhouse of action, strength and ingenuity without his teammate who longed to paint, tote, shove, hammer and lift along side him. (I did clean and pack... rest assured!) But here we are, finally moved in with our lives futilely trying to feel their ways to patterns of normalcy... that alas, will not form for some time! No sooner shall the dust of my pregnant mind and our new place settle then we shall be new parents and our lives will be forever changed with new thoughts, patterns and adventures.

Everything else aside however, this has been one beautiful pregnancy. Health problems and illnesses have been minimal and only now, in these last weeks of growing when the heat of summer has begun to beat down on German towns and green leaves bake in hot, hot sun, has it become more of a challenge. Stretching and its signs, swelling, sleeplessness and its accompanying weariness... they all have begun to play a part in daily life. 

Baby moves and moves, in a tireless, healthy way, hiccuping regularly in the late night... and I do my best to soak in these last moments. I try, try, try to wrap my mind around everything... yet I fail to capture these bits of time and imprint them in my mind, failing also to grasp the enormity of what my body is doing. But in the fast, blurred flow of these last weeks, I find myself more than willing to just release and float with Time, not fighting a current or searching for shallow spots to rest... just going where it takes me: to motherhood.

Week 36

{Language School}

Over three hundred hours... six teachers... at least twenty-seven different nationalities... measureless German grammar learned and forgotten... learned and retained... and friendships forged during after class coffees, ice creams and get-togethers.

It may have been language school but while sitting in  the renovated medieval prison building where the Volkshochschule makes its home, I received one of the greatest multi-cultural experiences of my life. Interacting with so many people every day, listening to their stories and telling mine all while communicating to each other in a language that is not our mother tongue... it's beautiful. I learned to love the diversity of our world even more and we all learned patience while interacting with our classmates from five very, very different continents.

I will be taking my German exam this weekend and this means the end of my VHS days. I will miss them, the people, my German studies (did I just say that?) and the flavour it all added to life. However, the connections made in those class rooms have a way of cropping up and continuing and I look forward to future kaffees and dinners with my class-mates. 

And language learning never, ever stops... really, it doesn't.

~

Countries of my classmates (as many as I can remember!): Italy, Greece, Spain, Slovakia, Russia, Portugal, Romania, Poland, Switzerland, Sweden, Bulgaria, the Jordan, Kenya, Rawanda, Cameroon, Madagascar, Algeria, Turkey, Iran, Cambodia, India, Burma, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Peru and Cuba 

Summer 2012

Spring 2013

Summer 2013

{Week 34}

 Week 34 saw not much else aside from moving, packing and cleaning... (well, and work and German and studies!)

But on the Sabbath day, they rested... 

Week 34

Now, a place for everything, and everything in its place...