Man, crazy times. Who could have guessed that things would be put on hold so fast and all of the sudden everyone is home and trying to figure out how to stay healthy and a new normal? Corona – you have brought interesting times. Almost a month ago now, when it was looking like we would be put under some sort of mandatory lockdown, Katharina and I decided that it would be way better to ride it out together in our house than being separated (her in her flat 15 minutes away) which the risk of being close but not being able to see each other. Very quickly Alex decided the same, so its been the 4 of us. We are very privileged. We have our own house, with a big back yard and life in general is slower in our small village. Also, the supermarket and toilet paper situation was not as bad as in Berlin for example.

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When you do the inner work and start getting your physical strength back you can celebrate Karneval as you want to 🙂 At times I am still overwhelmed and feeling very unsafe but knowing that already makes a ton of difference. Last year I had not even the strength to stay for the whole Karnevalszug but also couldn’t articulate what I needed and wanted and had the hardest time saying no to spending time with friends. This year was so much fun!

Especially spending it in our new hometown. It truly is a small town and in a good way “everybody knows everybody”. Katharina, Annalena and I dressed up as Grandmas and braved the unfamiliar crowd. Very scary at first, but the people made it easy and it ended up being such a fun evening with LOTS of singing und dancing 🙂 🙂

The next day, Saturday, our town had their own Karnevalszug and while waiting for it, we were invited by our neighbours. So fun. Not pictured are my parents who also were in town on Saturday. So fun dressing up as contraction workers – the easiest way to convince Jan and Albrecht to join the celebration 😀

Even Ilse joined. With all the people staying at our place and us coming and going she always gets very unsure and anxious and scared to left behind, so she joined us 🙂

We had a whole fun day planned in Düsseldorf for Sunday but then another storm came and everything was canceled. Annalena, Katharina and I spent the rainy day at home and had a relaxing Sunday and met up with everyone else on Monday in Kempen.

The costume turned out to be so good because a) when it started raining our heads stayed dry lol b) it was very easy to dress warm in it c) without much effort we looked very coordinated and lastly d) a few times candy just straight up hit as at the head – it would have hurt quiet a bit without the helmet 😀

The Karnevalszug in Kempen had so many cool costumes parading and wagons. Also, so fun to spend that time with everyone while singing to the music and dancing.

Can´t wait for next year and am looking forward to making this a tradition!

CONNECT has been a wonderful but very suprising gift to me! And I truly dont know how to capture what the last four weeks have been for me in words.

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Hello, my name is Ilse and I dont like walking three flights of stairs in this heat.

Life lately has been warm and full of “this is really happening”. Right before we started to move out stuff from the flat to the house I stepped on an old nail.

Pretty deep. Albrecht worked on the roof all week and we had been very careful on where to walk and take steps but one evening as I was making dinner on the bbq I took a step back and full force into a nail. My birkenstock took of the rust but it still went into my foot.

I don´t think I have ever had something that hurt this bad. It happened on a Saturday evening and by Sunday morning I could not walk. Which was really unconvinied….not being able to walk on a construction side or walking with crutches is not fun.

I spent the next 3 days basically like this and icying my foot and it healed fine in the end and I enjoy my freedom that I took for granted before lol

We started packing up our flat and one evening it really hit me that this is really happening. This flat felt like home and turning it back into “any” and not “our” flat is abittersweet moment.

The nice thing about this move is that its happening very slowly and organically. Its not this “lets move everything in 2 days and say goodbye to our house”. We have been slowly taking one room after the next, gipsy style on our trailer lol, to the house.

Having something familiar at the house felt so good!

Albrecht always makes fun of my need to have containers and boxes for stuff haha but like, its so conviniend!! It took me 3 minutes and I had pretty much the whole bathroom packed and its still all neat and organized. So handy!

By now the air mattress is back in storage and our bed is also moved to the house.

The only thing I start to miss is a clean-ish kitchen. We have a stove at the house and bought a small fridge but its all downstairs in this mess of old house/used to house lots of mice/still smells weird/construnction side and I really quickly loose my appetit plus we are so occupied with everything else that often times neither of us want to cook. So we are eating a lot take out or at a restaurant. There is a time for everything and if this is what fits this time I will make the most of it. Also, things could really be worse when that is your problem lol

We will be moved out of our flat by the 15th of July, we will have internet at the house at the end of the week and a summer full of stuff to do. It will be interesting and lots of change.

Things are moving along. Last month was still full of plans we made before we even considered buying a house. One of it was that I went to a conference in Berlin and during a free evening I met Janis for dinner.

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Spring is here and I hope its here to stay!

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I can´t even tell you how good the sunny weather and warmer temperatures and more daylight have let me feel!

There is nothing better than being here, walking Ilse, listening to an podcast or just trying to quiet my mind!

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