Family Mellmann

Last year for Christmas I received an embroidery machine.  It took me a few months to get it purchased (supply chain issues perhaps) and set up but I did finally get the job done.  I tried a few patterns from the built-in inventory on the machine and quickly decided that this was going to be FUN! I found some online sources for quality patterns and came across one that I thought Patrick might enjoy.  He cleaned out his closet and gave me four shirts that have mostly seen better days but that still have some life to live and asked if I could embroider them with my nifty pattern.  Today, I finally got the job done.  I think they turned out pretty well.  He's...flight instructing...but I can't wait to see what he think! (Katherine and I are still working on a pattern that she likes.)  

Katherine is many things but two things are more pronounced; she is a voracious reader and money burns a hole in her pocket.  Generally a night owl, she was downstairs and dressed and ready to go (complete with her winter coat on and a new hat and gloves) before 9:00 AM so that we could be at Barnes & Noble when they opened.  A Christmas gift card was itching be spent and she was ready to stock up on a new round of reading materials.  Katherine describes herself as a "purist", preferring actual books with paper and ink over digital books to be read on a device of some kind. I have tried over and over to get her to make use of the library - nearly unlimited free reading, but she has never actually met a book that she was willing to part with.  She much prefers to soak in their pages over and over and over again.  When she reads a mystery or fantasy fiction, she imagines alternative endings, twists unwritten by the author, or imagines other characters who could add color an

As a Christmas break activity we bought tickets to the Shelburne Museum Winter Lights show.  We enjoyed some fresh air, a little walk, and LOTS of beautiful and creative lights.  We even ran into some old friends who had the same great idea.  

It's Christmas Eve which means our family has been celebrating Christmas.  We started with putting the tree up and getting it decorated.  I went to church to direct the youth choir who sang Once in Royal David's City, and to sing in an ensemble (I think this has been my singing-est Christmas in years!) before returning home to continue our festivities. The presents are opened.  The fondue is finished.  The dishwasher is running.  The kids have retired to the upstairs to collaborate on a Minecraft world.  In Minecraft, as in life, they each have their skills and interests and deploy those skills in a cooperative effort over the Christmas holiday when both have extra time to just hang out...and play Minecraft.  Joerg is checking out what the kids are up to (I think a heard him explaining what a LAN is).  And I am ordering some supplies for next year while the list is fresh in my mind.  Given the spate of "supply chain issues" we have had recently, perhaps if I order now

Tis the season for all manor of Christmas activity. On December 1st we began our annual tradition of opening Advent calendars.  For nearly twenty years I have filled custom-made calendars with unique-to-each-kid presents and treats.  Now that those "kids"aren't kids anymore, the tradition has taken a shift to the more store-bought variety. Katherine's calendar is filled with her favorite holiday treat, peppermint bark. Patrick's (last ever) Advent calendar is filled with baking-themed items from cookie cutters to icing tubes.  It's the perfect start to his First-Apartment-Supplies. I've attended three Christmas parties including Adventsingen with the "internationals" and this Trinity teacher/staff Christmas party complete with the perennial favorite Yankee Swap. Christmas programs are being prepared at both church and school.  I will be directing the youth choir (Kindergarten through 6th grade) when they sing on Christmas Eve and the students at

Twenty-two years ago we became first-time landlords when I moved from Illinois and turned my home into a rental property.  Three years later we bought our second rental property and realized that we were probably going to be doing this awhile so we created a business; Covered Bridge Apartments. We needed a logo, but neither of us could draw.  We could set up record keeping and learn accounting.  We could establish workflow and create a corporate identity, but design a logo?  Time for some professional help.  Joerg asked his dad, a cartography professor by trade, if he could draw a pencil sketch of a covered bridge.  We used the Pulp Mill Bridge as a model. As you drive to the community where our first Vermont rentals are located, you turn off just before crossing the Pulp Mill Bridge.  We see it every time we visit one of our units there. Here is a picture of the bridge today.  It was rebuilt in 2012, long after we used it as a model for our logo. And here is the bridge as it was in 20

 We live in Vermont. It is the middle of November. This was inevitable. Though not entirely welcome (by me), I have to admit it's pretty.  And, now I have the perfect excuse to stay inside to sew and knit (after I get my other work done).

As I was preparing dinner this evening, I saw this sunset view out my kitchen window (although to take the picture, I went around to the sliding glass door so I didn't have to shoot through the screen).  As the sun was setting, it just lighted up the red leaves of the maple trees.

Our family likes adventures.  We have camped.  We travel internationally.  We've road tripped and rail traveled.  We scuba dive.  We ride motorcycles.  Now, we can say we have flown (half way) across the country in a small plane...piloted by our favorite son (we only have one so we can say that). Now that our kids are old enough to not need us, we have the freedom to do things on our own - like visiting parents.  I planned for a short trip to Grand Rapids to visit my folks.  Since Patrick became a pilot, we have talked about having him fly us to there to see them, but the schedule just didn't work out.  Maybe this time would be different.  I booked a round trip commercial flight (just in case) and Patrick set up a rental. I flew west on a commercial jet.  Queue lines, constant reminders to not let my bags out of my sight followed by a trip through security where they promptly separate me from my bags.  Cramped seats.  Snippy flight attendants making sure that my seat belt was &

I couldn't get them to stop talking long enough to look at the camera so I just took their picture anyway.  This morning's random group of riders (the group varies slightly from Saturday to Saturday) gathered at our local BMW shop and then rode for about 90 minutes along scenic, windy roads to a lovely breakfast spot in Rochester Vermont. After breakfast we scatter and everyone goes home or on for more riding.  It was a lovely ride and a lovely day to be on the motorcycle.

I spent about six hours in the garden on Tuesday and another six hours today.  I used yesterday as a do-something-productive-that-requires-sitting day.  I really like being able to see some progress in getting the garden cleaned up for the summer.  The weeds, having free run of the place since spring, were...out of control.  Some of them were taller than me. :(  Now the weeds (the ones I haven't pulled yet) are tiny by comparison, but I'll get those, too - just not this week. I also got to reap the rewards of work done last year.  Around my compost bin, the weeds can get unruly, especially when  I'm not available to tackle them early in the season when they start to emerge.  This year, I wasn't able to get in the garden until now (school year ending, Katherine graduating, and then a family vacation) so many of the weeds were...picture Little Shop of Horrors (a musical where the carnivorous plant tries to eat the humans).  It was pretty bad.  Last summer, Katherine helpe

This is the LAST last day of our vacation.  Yesterday was the last travel day.  Today is the Home and Horizon Day; come home, do laundry, put luggage away, recover the lawn (mow and water after two weeks of no mowing and little rain), process pictures, stories, and experiences, and then turn toward the horizon; begin planning for “re-entry” - back to jobs, chores, schedules, and routines. Jörg and I went to a local diner for an early breakfast (jetlag means we beat the rush and arrived when they opened) where we recapped this vacation.  There is a sad but excited recognition that this was our last family vacation as Mom, Dad, and Kids.  From now on it will just be Husband and Wife.  Both kids made it very clear that they are done going on vacations with us and are ready to do their own thing.  It’s normal.  Not unexpected.  Appropriate.  But still comes - for this mom - with a hint of sadness.  After all, we have been on some epic adventures. Things change, they always do.  But this ch