What is beautiful?

Balance

I´m learning how to hold on to the good things and let go of the bad.

This body...

The above quote really resonated with me when I found it today, I never thought of it consciously that way before. 

Getting through the cold months...

Where I live people act their age. At 47 that would mean living a conservative, according to the "norm" lifestyle, worrying about the future of our children and whether or not we´ll get a pension and talking a lot to other people about these worries. I am not a typical 47 year old and I didn´t grow up around here so I guess I have a good excuse for being different. I seldom worry about my or my children´s futures, I don´t complain about the weather or other things I can´t change and I don´t have any aches and pains - although "people" told me that my health would start deteriorating after 40. But after today´s Be Your Own Beloved photo prompt "playfulness" I have realised that there is definitely not enough playfulness happening around here. That is going to change as of right now!

Nourishment...

Today is Sunday. I have time. Time to sleep-in, take a bath and put body lotion on. Time to watch a film and knit. Time to cook AND eat. Time to take care of myself. During the week it´s a different story. Early mornings, work, grocery shopping, cooking, house-work, voluntary work. But to a large degree I can choose my working hours and 2 of my sons don´t live at home full-time anymore so I should have more time than I used to. Thinking about "nourishment" today has me focusing even more on some new habits to make life easier and create more TIME FOR ME!

First Step

Be Your Own Beloved, day 1.

I watched the movie "Enough Said" and loved it! 

The snow has arrived! Perfect weather for potato gratin. Here´s my simple recipe... serves about 4.
500g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, 1 cup of cream and 1/2 a cup of milk, mixed together, salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place potato slices in a baking dish, seasoning between the layers. Pour half the liquid over the potatoes and bake for 30 minutes. Then pour over the rest of the milk/cream mixture and bake a further 15 minutes then turn off the oven. Let the gratin cool down a little in the oven -  about 15 minutes and serve with a green salad or steamed vegetables. Mahlzeit!

So excited - THE BLOCK IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the above ingredients: Spelt flour, butter, milk, onions, sugar, bread, cheese, eggs, potatoes and salt plus apples and cabbage, I can make the following dishes... potato gratin, roesti with cheese, pasta with cabbage, potato soup, cheese quiche, cheese on toast, omelet, onion tart, kaiser schmarren, gnocchi with cheese sauce, slow cooked cabbage, apple nockerl, apple strudel, fried eggs on bread, apple fritters and cheese spaetzle. Can you think of any more? Recipes to follow...

                                                                                       (Quote from http://www.whitehothair.co.uk/)
I´ve been thinking about aging recently. I feel really good in this body and with myself at age 47. That comes more from having accepted the parts of me that I hated for so long but couldn´t quite manage to change. I used to see my body as an enemy and eating, or trying not to eat, as an ordeal. A book I found "by coincidence" at a flea-market changed that within 5 minutes of starting to read it. That book was "Breaking Free from Emotional Eating" by Geneen Roth. The first chapter had me gasping for air - "eat when you are hungry". After all those years of dieting I had never thought about that, hmmm. That book set me free.
My hair is another one of those things. At 45 I finally accepted that my hair is thin, then found the right hairdresser for me - also "by coincidence" - who encouraged me to wear my hair longer, so happy about that! Recently I have been torn between continuing to dye my hair or letting it go grey.
Last week I ordered an issue of Kinfolk magazine after reading about it on several blogs. The current issue is about aging and after seeing the photos of all the grey haired beauties I have decided. I am leaving my hair its natural colour - grey and all!

I live in a town called Wolfsberg. I find it very beautiful here and especially love all the old architecture. We went for a 2 hour walk around town today and as usual, I took a few photos.

The WOLLfühlen (which in German is a word play meaning feeling wool and feeling well) crochet  and knitting group met for the first time today! Although there were only a handful of people I really enjoyed myself and I´m sure the group will grow each month as word spreads. I believe that everyone is creative and sometimes we just need some help or a gentle nudge in the right direction to start a project. For me, working with my hands and making useful, lovely things is such a joy and I love watching other people find this joy for themselves too.

Today was my Father-in-law´s funeral and the snow was pouring down. He was a modest man who lived a quiet life as a farmer. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Alzheimer at 72 years of age and after a fall down the stairs 2 years ago, his condition went rapidly downhill.
This was written on his death announcement.
"As God saw that the path was becoming too long, the hill too steep, the breathing too difficult, he put his arm around me and said, come home".
Good-bye Otto, rest in peace.

 orangette  blogged about this wonderful oatmeal recipe (porridge from where I come from!) and today was the perfect day for it as it´s foggy again. The recipe is from Megan/A Sweet Spoonful who has a new book out called Whole-grain Mornings. I must say, the porridge was the best ever and the recipe is enough for more people, or more breakfasts. I just added raisins.

I love this little house we moved into 3 years ago. All the renovations inside are finished - but we will be moving things around a little after all 3 boys have moved to Graz to study. We got some bad news about a death in the family this morning and so we cancelled all our appointments for the day and retreated into our cocoon.

I am an English trainer and I love my job but I have a desire to share other talents as well, like crochet and knitting, sewing and collage. I´m taking the first step in this direction by starting a crochet and knitting group this Saturday in the town where I live, in the place where I normally teach English. Wish me luck!

At the end of 2013, I minimized my wardrobe to make life easier after watching this video.  Ruth and Courtney were also a great inspiration!  Since then I find it easier to dress and can see what goes with what at a glance. 

I am going to do the same in my fridge and pantry. Limit the amount of foods I use to 50 products (it sounded like a lot until I started writing a list) in order to make shopping, eating and cooking easier while also cutting down on packaging and waste. I find that limits actually give me a kind of freedom, although this seems like a contradiction. I love the Zero waste blog.

I am lucky to live in a region where many products are grown/produced locally and available fresh at a fair price. As much as possible I will make, bake and grow a lot of the products myself. I´ll keep you posted every Monday on my progress.

Last night was my youngest son´s formal. I am so proud of him for learning to dance especially for the occasion, even though it´s not his thing. He recently turned 18 and now all my children are officially adult. Soon he will be finished with school and leave the nest just as my other 2 sons have...that makes me happy and melancholy at the same time, and so curious about what life will bring for all 3 of them.