7am Sunday morning

kids are teens and still sleeping

but dog is awake

dogs never feel guilty

so they say, but mine guilts me

into getting up

Confession: I spend way to much time pondering the past.

That's probably why I'm a big fan of year-end-reviews. It's just that I usually get caught up in them too much, trying to analyze every detail. And that almost always sucks the joy out of it. While there were definitely moments in 2014 that could use some analyzing (probably by a psychiatrist), I am so excited about 2015, that I've decided to only pick the joyful moments of 2014 - and what better way than with pictures?

Linking up with my friend Laura at Mommy Miracles - here we go:

It's my birthday! And I'm 43 years old today! So I want to tell you 7 random things about myself...

Why 7? Because: (43-7):3-4-1=7... I am 43 years old, take away 7 years of living in Canada, divide that by 3 for 3 years of blogging, take away 4 (one for each member of my family: husband, 2 kids and 1 dog) and finally take away one more because I don't like even numbers. Makes perfect sense, right? I know.

When I turned 41 I actually wrote 41 things about myself, but who can keep up with that? So here we go...

Last year I wrote down a few things that I'm over and a few that I'm loving. Reading through that old post again made me realize that things have changed - and it's time to write another post; maybe I'll even make this a yearly thing!

You probably can't wait to find out what's on my list, so here we go:

Did you know that I'm currently married for the third time (and by "currently" I don't mean that that's changing any time soon - we're good!)?

Anyway - my lovely friend Laura at Mommy Miracles asked me to participate in her essay project Writing Vows. It's an essay project about marriage and I do have a thing or two or three to say about that....

Please come and join me there - and also read the other essays, it's a wonderful project and I'm more than thrilled to be a part of it!

Two years ago I wrote a story about someone who had passed away and who was very dear to my family, especially to my son Marius. His name was Steve Carroll and he was the librarian at my son's elementary school. 

Steve was an extraordinary man and teacher, a huge presence in our community and a positive force in the lives of many kids. I chose to write about him because he brought so much joy to our lives and enriched it in so many ways, that I wanted to pay tribute to him and also preserve his memory.

Back then, one of his friends from Nova Scotia read the piece and encouraged me to send it to CBC's The Vinyl Cafe, hosted by Stuart McLean. I have to be honest - I had no idea who Stuart Mc Lean was, but I found out that people send stories to him and he reads a few of them on air. I submitted my story, because I think that everyone should know what a great guy Steve was.

*During my meeting with a client to discuss Facebook strategy for the week*

Me: "What do you want to advertise for the Deal of the Week?"

Client 1: "What about those buckets over there? We could do a deal on them and ask our fans if they already made a buckets list for this year...?"

Client 2: "Did you just say Fucket List?"

Me: "OMG, I am so blogging about this!"

(I know, I have the best meetings)

So, Jacob - you have been the family dog for a while now and I think it's time we sit down and have a little talk.

Do you mind if I lay on your couch while we talk?

Go ahead.

I've been busy this week with freelancing and preparing for client meetings, so I thought I'd re-post something from my archives. Of course I spent so much time in my tumblr archives that I could have written a 1000 word post, but I found this piece I wrote for Yeah Write last year in December (and actually won that week!) and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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...)

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:

I have no idea what my parenting style is. I don't even know the definitions of alltheparentingstyles, like Dolphin Dad and Tiger Mom, Helicopter parent and what not. All I know is that I try to do my best, every day.

I want my kids to become respectful, kind adults who have the coping skills to deal with all the highs and lows life has to offer.

This is what I teach them:

Always question authority. This is one of the most important and valuable things I learned in college. Questioning authority does not mean being disrespectful. It means holding elected officials, experts, doctors, lawyers and teachers accountable. A person of authority in a child's life - like a teacher or a doctor - sometimes seems to have an aura of "untouchable" about them. I encourage my children to ask questions and insist on answers. And yes, questioning authority does include questioning my parenting. I have bad days and need to be reminded that I am not an absolute ruler of my children, but rather someone who helps them to be the best they can be.

How about a slice of German Apfelstrudel? Yes? Then make your own! I'll show you how, mkay?

For the dough you need:

1/2 pound of flour

1 pinch of salt

1 egg

1/2 cup warm milk

2 tbsp. oil

1tsp. sugar

put it all in a mixing bowl and start kneading...

You know what I love?

When things end on a high note.

I love it when that last bite of bacon is just the absolute best. I love it when after an already good day my husband comes home early from work and makes dinner. I love it when something I wrote that I'm proud of gets a comment by someone new to my blog.

Sometimes things go really well and then something happens that makes it even better - ya know?

We just had a weekend like that.

After my last day at work, where my coworkers gave me flowers, candy and cards and my boss' wife threw a lunch party for me, we took off to one of my favourite places ever - the Echo Valley Ranch.

We ate lots of delicious food...

Just in case you didn't know - I quit my job and will be working for myself as of September 1 (I know, right?).

Obviously this calls for a series of celebrations and I started this weekend with an iced chocolate, or Eisschokolade as we call it in Germany.

It's chocolate milk with lots of vanilla ice cream in it and whipped cream on top (like the real stuff, not cool whip). As I was enjoying it, it occurred to me that this must be what happiness tastes like.

Chocolate-milk-covered vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream, which starts hardening just a bit where is touches the ice cream. A little morsel of all those elements in your mouth - I'm not gonna say it's better than sex, because it isn't - but it's pretty damn close.

I had the word "rebel" shaved into the back of my head when I was younger.

Like a lot younger, that was 19 years ago, but who's counting...

Anyway, Alison asked if I had a picture of it and unfortunately I don't but I have pictures of that time in my life and a story to go with it.

It was 1994, I was a sophomore at the University of Colorado in Boulder and had just divorced my first husband. Naturally, I needed a place to stay and after my best friend Renae graciously let me stay in her walk-in closet for a few months, I just knew I had to get my own place.

A couple of weeks ago my third book was published. It's the second one I wrote for the German publisher Iwanowski and it's called "101 Kanada Westen - Geheimtipps und Top Ziele". It is a travel guide, but not a traditional one describing routes and "hard facts" - it highlights extraordinary experiences and the stories behind them.

Anyway - it was a lot of work to write it, but I loved every minute of it. Needless to say I'm pretty stoked about it and I carry one of my author's copies around with me at all times...

And sometimes, when I show people, they say: "Wow, that is a *real* book". You know, like they were expecting something home-made. Like when I tell them that I wrote a book, they think I sat down and started drawing something...

We're on our way to Vegas and that means my 2013 Self-Portrait Project has begun.

For every day during our 11-day trip I will take one or two duckface pictures and some other selfies, whenever the mood strikes (no, not those kind - believe me, you could not handle it).

I'm excited about this!

And to celebrate I am writing this blog, sitting in the hotel room (our flight leaves tomorrow morning), having my favourite beer ever - Fat Tire - which is not available in Canada. So needless to say I am a happy camper right now - but see for yourself:

It's our 5 year Canadaversary today!

On January 29, 2008 we landed in Vancouver and the adventure began!

It's been a great 5 years, and here are a few highlights:

When we first came to Merritt, we had to take a little hike up to the flagpole to check out our new hometown.

You know that thing your kids does or plays with that drives you completely insane? I happen to believe that my children choose their objects of desire based on how insane it's gonna drive me. Since I'm all organized 'n shit I had to come up with a unit of measure for this - so I present you with the P.I.S. - the Parental Insanity Scale.

The scale goes from 6-10. No need to even have 1-5 on the spectrum, because on any given day at any given time any given child will do something annoying, but we've built up a tolerance against it. It's called being a parent. So I'm talking about the stuff that makes your blood boil - here we go:

Welcome to the 2013 Personal Revelation Revolution!

The whole thing started when I read the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin over the holidays. I thought a lot about being happy (and unhappy), about being myself, about evolving as a person, about focus and awareness and about resolutions.

(My oldest likes to call them "revolutions" rather than resolutions and I just love that.)

Nevertheless, I did not resolve to do anything for the New Year. I know I have to take better care of myself and lose some weight. I know I have to be more active, bla bla bla...