Yarn Along

Remember my first granny square blanket?

I put it in the washing machine last week and 

when I took it out I almost cried.

 It is hard to see on the picture, but there is a

 big hole in both the black and the beige row

 and it's going to be really hard to fix...

I'm still reading "Yellow Crocus" by Laila Ibrahim (love it).

And now that the kids have gone back to school 

and I'll be in my car driving them to music

 and dance classes almost every afternoon,

 I started listening to "A Half Forgotten Song"

 by Katherine Webb from the library. 

Audio books have really changed my life!

Linking up with Yarn Along.

Macarons

Today I took the kids to the library and on our

 way back we saw these pretty macarons.

We just had to try these new colors!

Apparently they were delicious, 

because they ate mine too.

Birthday present

Who knew these were "cool" again?!

13 years!

The Eifel

We just returned from a lovely trip to the Eifel in Germany.

We had been invited by my oldest son's parents-in-law,

 who live close to the Eifel National Park.

It's a 2.5 hours' drive and instead of going there only

 for the weekend, we decided to stay the whole week. 

We had a really great weekend with them! 

The rest of the week we did some nice trips. 

We loved the small city of Monschau with its

 typical German houses.

We bought some homemade salad dressing

 with German mustard and honey to enjoy at home.

 And in Heimbach we found our favorite shop.

It is full of homemade liqueur and vinegar. 

We brought home four small bottles with different

 flavors of vinegar. The vinegar's acidity is only

3% and it tastes very fruity. 

It can be used for salads, of course, but you can also

 drink it with water like lemonade or put some

 drops in your champagne.

The kids liked the visit to the glass blowing factory.

Beautiful houses everywhere.

I thought that pillow on the bench at the bus

 stop was very funny.

Cake and ice cream everyday.

But what they loved most was seeing their brothers.

They love them so much, and now that they

 bring girlfriends, they love them even more!

Yarn Along

I'm late for Yarn Along, again...

The weather cooled down a little bit, so when the kids

 were gone for a day, I worked on my son's blanket.

And there has also been a lot or reading this week.

It's still summer break here in Luxembourg and when

 the kids are at home most of the time, 

I need different types of books.

I am reading "Yellow Crocus" by Laila Ibrahim

 on my Kindle. We go to the swimming pool at

least once a week for four hours and my Kindle

 is always in my swimming bag. 

I love reading by the pool when the kids are having fun.

This is the wonderful, heart-wrenching, 

but also heart-warming story of a young slave

 girl and her relationship with the new-born

 daughter of her white mistress. 

She moves to the big house and has to leave

 her own baby boy behind.

"All the light we cannot see" by Anthony Doerr is

 for those moments when the kids are playing 

outside and I can really concentrate on the book.

 It is going slowly, but I don't mind because

 I really want to enjoy this book.

"Thornwood House" by Anna Romer is my bedside book. Reading in bed during summer break is the best!

 The house is quiet because everybody is sleeping

 and I don't have to get up early so it doesn't matter

 if I read "just one more page" :).

I took the book for its cover

 (I love books with houses on covers). 

For me it's a page turner, I really want to find

 out what happened.

Flying home

My son and his girlfriend are packing up things to

 start their long journey home. 

I'm praying for safe flights and their safe return.
On their flight from Dubai three weeks ago, 
they had a free upgrade to business class.
They were totally excited about that because they
almost didn't sleep on the first flight and they are
 both tall and were grateful for the extra space.

(If you are interested, click here for their Instagram account)

The library

Last Saturday we went to the library.

 I haven't been in a library since I left the

 Netherlands, more than 30 years ago.

When I was young, I went to the library a couple

 of times a week. I loved it!

But then I came to Luxembourg and the chance

 of finding books in Dutch or English was close to

 zero, so I started buying books in the Netherlands
when we visited my family.

After a couple of years I became fluent in
German (my husband and I speak German
 together, even after all these years), I discovered
 Amazon.de and started reading books in German.

The kids have a school library and they bring

 home a couple of books every now and then, 

but they just don't like to read (although my

 daughter loves audiobooks and most of the 

books in my Audible library are hers).

A couple of months ago I bought this book
 for my daughter, who likes to draw,
 about drawing Manga.

We saw a Manga movie or two, before she 
discovered comic Manga books.



From that moment on she started downloading
 them on my Kindle. She just couldn't stop reading.
 Every day she asked me if she could do some
 chores for me and have another book.
I was so happy that she had finally found
something she liked to read that I didn't mind.
These books are not very expensive (4€), 
but if you buy five, you have spend 20€, and
 they are very fast reads. 

So, that's where the library comes in!
We started going to the Cité Bibliothèque in 
Luxembourg-city on Saturday mornings 
and I am thrilled. We took three library cards, 
which means we can take 12 books, 
6 audiobooks and 6 movies every time.
I have so missed this all these years!

PS: Did you know these books are read from
 right to left? You start on the last page and read
 the bubbles also from the right corner of the
 page to the left corner.

Friday morning

The kids are still sleeping.

It's gonna be a very hot day today.

I love these slower-paced warm summer days.

They seem to be having...

...a wonderful time on the island of Bali.

I am so jealous of them happy for them.

This girl of mine

Almost 13.

The picture below is so funny, because she

 didn't pose for it. It wasn't the first time I saw

 her carry a basket on her head like an African woman.

And by the way, she is wearing her PJs ;).