Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!! 

I would love to share the wonder of my own Father with you, although, it's been awhile since he left us for a full time postilion in heaven as a prayerful saint, I still tend to get the ugly cry syndrome when I talk about him so I thought I'd tell you about another great guy, my husband.

Reiner

That's him - the one on the right. In the blue shirt. Isn't he wonderful?










Reiner, is one of the most amazing men I've had the pleasure to know. German born, hence the name of this blog Cabbage and Weinerschnitzel, the cabbage of course is Irish and Wein - okay, well, you get the point..

Anyway, my husband and his family moved to the great US of A quite a long time ago. He actually learned how to speak fluent English in South Carolina as a child. Even though I get very aggravated at times with his constant use of poor prepositional phrases, (well? doesn't that aggravate everyone?) I have to tell you His Mother (and Father) did a really great job in raising this awesome guy.

As a father to our sons he has taught them how to be attentive and compassionate young men. Always, thinking of each other and others around them unless of course they have chocolate or something else sweet to. Well. For the most part He's taught them how be admiral and loving individuals. Best of all he taught them how to love and respect my Mother and me.

He quite often makes every effort to set aside quality time to be with each of our sons. My sister can attest to seeing my husband hard at work on the roof of our garage only to take a moment or 30 away and climb down a  ladder just to help our younger boys create a wooden hatchet so they could play Davey Crockett. (Hey, were homeschoolers, in our world, he still exist.)

So how could I resist when our oldest suggested this great father's day gift!!  Oh! Sorry. I can't show you because unfortunately, IT didn't come in on time........ very frustrating!   We decided to keep it for plan B. Perhaps the children will give it to him at Christmas and then I can let you all in on the great gift that I bought. Perhaps it'll get here by then.

But then again, I guess he's already gotten his gift. Our children. I know he is and has been a great gift for them. and me. 

Yep. He's quite special.

Here's hoping your gifts came in on time. Happy Father's Day everyone!!

Goodbye Mr. Blue Fire

Some days are really tough. 

And sometimes it helps when you have a special best-friend like your brother to see you through the loss of your beloved fish. Good-bye Mr. Blue Fire.

The art of Photography

I'm not sure if you've noticed but I am new to the blogging world. I know a few people with blogs; my sister for one and my cousin being the another. In trying to find my way around other blogs I've noticed and i feel encourage by the many blogger's great ability to take great photos and have wonderful captions for specific post.

In looking over my sisters blog  Advent and other Fine(nell) Adventures I appreciate the fact that she has become quite the talented photographer. She has come up with a creative way to place her photo's in an impressive collage formation. Recently, I asked her if she would teach me some of her ideas. Here is her answer from a recent post in reply to a comment sent from another blogger on her site:

You asked how I made the balloon collages? I simply put pictures into a collage setting on my picasa up load  ((this is the first step to the picasa up load on my computer not the one you send pictures to...understand?...I hope so :) ))

I used a white back ground and ta-da done :) Once I figured it out it was easy.

Margaret ~ NO! :)

That's me. Margaret, aka Maggie, aka M. I'm sure you get the drift. We won't go with the any of the other aka's. Don't worry. She'll teach me. (I think. I hope.) You have to admit, it is a funny reply. She's clever although her daughter may disagree,

she is funny.                                 (Definitely need an updated photo of my niece!)

I just love the description under her blog title "Where the Irish, Polish and German Laugh, Weep, and Love their way through life". So charming. Don't you think?

In addition to my sisters elite photographic experience, I noticed that others really know how to take good pictures and capture the moment in an awesome post to get their point across.  

For example, in my cousin's blog The Amazing Trips , Jen wrote a smart post titled "Out on a limp". I was actually there for the picture taking experience in which I witnessed her literally lay on the ground, while her youngest,

William, one of the triplets, climbed on her as she was capturing this great photo!

and this one.

and this one

Although my children told me, my dear cousin warned against publishing pictures of her on a blog that she basically created for me...I couldn't resist.    Could you? 

In any event, I found it impressive that she was holding papers under her arm, undeterred by her busy surroundings as she photographed children climbing a tree, just after taking snap shots for a special get well wish for her niece for yet another post. Pretty impressive, huh?

Besides the fact of getting in a great ab workout, perhaps it's just one of many ways every great Mother, contortionist, blogging, photographer should be.

Cabbage & Wienerschnitzel: Student becomes Teacher

Cabbage & Wienerschnitzel: Student becomes Teacher: "This is Brian. Brian loves to read. He reads just about everything. Anywhere. Everywhere. His interest sparks from dinosaurs to modern d..."

Student becomes Teacher

This is Brian. 

Brian loves to read. He reads just about everything. Anywhere. Everywhere. His interest sparks from dinosaurs to modern day tanks. Over the years of our homeschooling experience his mind has become so rich with information that at times it completely baffles me. I just can't imagine where he gets his thirst for knowledge. Nah, couldn't be from my nephew - I'm told he, my nephew, gets his thirst from his father.

Brian has been reading fluently for quite sometime now. This is a picture of him when he was about 4 or 5 wearing my husbands glasses.

 This morning he was up early and as usual decided to share information from his latest library find. A book called Reign of the Sea Dragons by Sneed B. Collard III

. 

Whether or not you actually believe that these creatures existed, this book talks about while dinosaurs ruled the earth, sea monsters ruled the seas, during the Mesozoic period, around parts of Europe and North America. This book brings an adventure full of scientific discoveries made by various paleontologist around the world to life.

Personally, I was fascinated to learn that a young sea shell seller named Mary Anning  whom the tongue twister "She sells seashells by the seashore" is actually about,  was a 19th century paleontologist.  Her career began as a child around 1810 when she, along with her brother, discovered the first Plesiosaur fossil, which so happens to be a part of the Ichthyosaurs (fish-lizard) family. 

As Brian showed me this morning, if you look at the inside cover, it shows the relationship in size between ancient sea animals and modern mammals of today. Each chapter introduces a new marine reptile giving "just the facts" as to when the specific creature first and last appeared as well as it's specific diet. "Always good to think about just in case one of these creatures could possibly still be in existence when you go for your next swim in the ocean. But, I seriously doubt it; since scientist feel it was oh! millions of years ago since they first appeared. In other words a really long time ago."

He also made a point to credit the fine illustrations by Andrew Plant, a trained zoologist.  Suggesting that with Andrew's amazing detailed sketch, he might just make it big someday.

 All in all, Brian gives this book a thumbs up, or a wink, as the case may be.

Learning in Transit

Recently,  I visited my dearest friend and family member in Virgina. I have always been amazed by my cousin's impeccable organizational skills and her abilities to get things done in a timely and efficient manner. In fact when I visited her in San Diego, I learned alot about  Jen's  organizational skills and tried to apply them as soon as I got home.

Unfortunately, my 'turnaround' lasted about 2 maybe 3 days. It is my hope that someday she will become extremely sympathetic (or tired of hearing me complain) and take pity by staying at my home for a week/month/year or two (YES. It may take that long) and organize! all my stuff.

In case you haven't heard Jen and I ran a marathon with in nearly 5 hours, 57 minutes and 15 seconds! So Of course I pride myself on my amazing new found athletic abilities and awesome health kick.

 

However,  I often feel like I am shortening my great Olympic talent.  At times I feel that it may be due to the type of foods I chose to eat. Never really giving myself that... winning edge. Fuel is the key to a quality marathoner. 

So if a plate doesn't have something brown on it, aka chocolate; than it's not complete and everyone knows that Peanut Butter and Chocolate is a good combination. Isn't that how every household in America does things?

 
Forget that I'm naturally slow and struggle with each breath, there is something missing. Right? Ah! Alas ignorance is my happy bliss.

NO! No. They don't. I was stumped to find out that Jen, the cousin I admire, adore and used to devour relish chocolate peanut butter cups during late night conversations --  serves a special fruit and/or vegetable with every meal.

Guess what? The fruits or vegetables actually added color to the plates! My mouth and mind couldn't comprehend what was happening!  Ingenious! The kids, MY KIDS, tried new things - not brown things. Naturally colored red, pink, blue and green things. "Hey! Mikey! (s)He "likes" it.

When I came home, I went to the store and shopped in the produce department. I saw things there that I never noticed before. I felt like Arial from The Little Mermaid only with shorter hair and a bit heavier singing ""A Whole New World".

I bought fresh. FRESH. Fruit and vegetables. Today. I am a changed woman. I've made a conscious effort to serve fruits and vegetables with every meal. Even the brown ones. You never know where this could lead.

Yep. All in the world is good again.  So Jen... When are you coming down again? I need another lesson.

Trying to navigate this blog!

Ug! It has taken several hours and days to figure out this blog. The log in alone was a PILL! I'm not sure that I can or could find out how to do this again but I'm still testing the waters. Just seems like a lot of work for a few thoughts! For the life of me, I can't figure out how to have comments approved before posting... and several other issues.  So here we go or grow again! :)

Hmmm. Just noticed something. The blog is somehow set up to automatically save what I'm typing. Clever. Well. It may take a while but perhaps I will get used to this idea.