Because I've been pissed off at my kids for the last few weeks I seriously contemplated not decorating for Christmas at all this year. No tree, no lights. Nada. Nothing. Zilch.

Then I remembered that Christmas is my favourite time of the year and I have the house to myself for at least 6 hours every day, when I can just enjoy the Christmas lights and listen to Christmas music and feel all the Christmas feelings of joy and peace.

I don't know if it's the impending holiday season or if my years of in-your-face-overprotective-stick-my-nose-into-everything-and-treat-the-children-like-babies mothering are finally paying off - my kids have been driving me absolutely insane in the last two weeks or so.

My zen is completely gone and I feel like I'm just about to completely lose my shit any minute. Anything could set it off, really. It's not helping that they are having serious arguments about stuff like this:

I love writing German titles for my posts and keep everyone guessing what the heck I'm talking about; but I won't leave you hanging for long - I'm sharing my Grandma's recipe for her delicious plum dumplings today!

It's a huge mess - but absolutely delicious - so I suggest you don't try this when your kids are around and you stock up on wine or chocolate before you begin...

I turned 42 a few days ago.

FORTYTWO.

Yeah.

As I'm starting my 43rd year (FORTYTHIRD) I feel that it's time to look back on my 42nd (FORTYSECOND) year and set a goal (one is enough, right?).

To me, a birthday is much more of a new beginning than an acutal new year (heck, even the beginning of school is more of a new beginning than a new year. I'm not a fan of making resolutions for New Year's - right after eating allthecookies and alltheturkey...)

Last Sunday I walked my first 5K, joining Team Canada in the TNT Dynamic Duel Fundraiser for Leukemia research. It's awesome to say that I was part of Team Canada, because it makes me sound like an athlete. But you know me - I have to say it like it is and I have to admit that I didn't feel very athlete-ish...

My initial goal was to walk this sucker in under one hour and when I checked my time after the first 500 metres and it was less than 5 minutes I totally thought I could do it in under 50 minutes. This was my view when I was still feeling very optimistic:

7 am, waking up in the morning, gotta get dressed gotta go downstairs....

Wait, that's that "Friday" song my oldest sings for me once a week because he wants to make sure I know that I live with a teenager.

I actually get up at 6 am every. damn. day (thank you, dog!) and go upstairs, because our bedroom is in the basement.

Have you ever noticed how your haircut seems to go from "every hair is perfect" to "if I don't get a haircut right now I will set my head on fire"?

While that last stage literally appears over night, it is preceeded by four other stages, that fool us with their fluid transitions from one stage to the next.

Drawing from my vast experience in - more or less successful - haircuts, the five stages of a haircut are best described like this: