The Easter Tree

Traditions in our house are mixed between German and US cultures (and sometimes Chinese, too). Easter is no different. The German's have an Easter tree. Ours is always a palm leafed type of a tree/plant. One year I think we didn't have one, so Uwe found palm fronds somewhere and we decorated that. Anyway, this year we have a palm leafed plant that I brought in from the balcony. If I was a green thumb or anywhere near a horticulturist I could tell you the name. But, sadly, I did not get that grand gene from my mother.
We decorate our Easter tree with painted eggs. Some are store bought decorated plastic eggs sent from Oma and Opa. Others are ones that we decorate ourselves. You know the blown out egg type. Then we paint them in various colors. I have been able to save a few from the past years. Two are from our first year in Wuhan. Can you believe they made one move within the city and a move across the strait?

Matthea loved painting. Maybe too much. I couldn't get a picture of her in process because I was holding her egg, so here is the after shot.

Little Megs was so funny to watch. She liked mixing colors to explore the art of making new colors. Fortunately, she did not go too

Marcus in deep concentration. I think that this will be one tradition that he won't outgrow.

The girls Easter morning in front of our Easter tree.

All three kids in front of the Easter tree.

Easter Trees, would this make a good article piece? Hmm, I'll have to research this a bit more. Maybe could even be a short children's piece on it too. Ahh, the joys of discovering story ideas and plots from my personal life....

3 Kids, 1 Mom, 14 Eggs

OK, I was a bit of an over achiever with the eggs and the bowls of dye (as you can see in the photo). Looking at this photo, I think I had as many bowls of dye as eggs...what was I thinking? The coke on the table was what kept me sane. But the kids had fun. I'm so thrilled that Marcus still likes to do this. Soon, he is going to be "too cool" or "too old" or both. Dreading that day, so I need to enjoy each moment I can while I can.








This was Matthea's first year to be allowed anywhere near the dye. She has a strong belief that any water, no matter what, should be splashed and splattered. But, this year she was able to control this urge a bit, so I let her have a go. She did throw the egg in the bowl and shove her thumb through the shell, but overall she did great. She loved putting the stickers on after the eggs had dried. Which was much easier to take pictures of.





Megan, dear Megan. First, to answer questions regarding her glasses...they are not real. They were sunglasses that the lenses were taken out. She, seriously, wears them all day and only takes them off at night. Yes, we get comments about them all the time.
This is her first year to remember Easter. We hope and pray she will learn the real meaning in the midst of all the fun. She loved dyeing eggs and wanted to do more, of course. She just wanted to do purple and pink eggs, her favorite colors. We got her to expand out and do a yellow one and blue as well.


Our eggs turned out great. We only got dye on our hands, face, table, floor, and I'm sure hair and clothes. We hope to paint eggs with Uwe tomorrow. I'm pulling in recruits for that project.

"Did You Look at a Map?"

That would be what my eight year old asked me as I realized we were on the wrong MRT train. Guess I should start at the beginning...

Marcus had been invited to a friend's house for the afternoon. Matthea had Speech Therapy at one hospital and then at another hospital a foot scanning session (story in itself). The plan was for all four of us (me and the 3 kids) to go to Speech with Matthea. Then we'd take Marcus to his friend's house via MRT (subway); then take Matthea to her foot appointment; then back to pick up Marcus before heading home. Sounded easy to me.

The MRT system here in Taipei is really great. But, to get from hospital number one to the friend's house we had to change trains twice. This doesn't sound too bad, except one must remember that changing trains means going up and down escalators with 3 children (which 2 of them are just learning how escalators work).

We got off at the first train switch. We followed the crowds up the escalator. Walked a ways, then went down another escalator. I saw a train coming to a stop and thought, "Perfect timing. We'll jump on and be there soon." About two stops later I heard the announcement for the next stop. I looked at the MRT map on the train and realized....we were going the wrong direction!

The next stop we got off. This was when my son asked the question, "Didn't you look at a map?" To which my answer was, "Well, yes briefly." Guess it wasn't well enough.

At this point I made a fast decision that a taxi would be faster. So, up another escalator or two we went and found a taxi.

Off we raced to the friend's house. We made it there a bit late, but we made it. Now, that was just half the trip. The girls and I headed to the next hospital which was another trip on the MRT.

Matthea got a free pair of tennis shoes with arch supports. She was asked to help in a research study regarding arch supports. They have a computer that scans the bottom of your foot that they are testing as part of the research. Well, my little pumpkin wouldn't even put her feet inside the bag to get the picture taken. Fortunately, they had other means to see the pressure points on her feet when she walked. We did leave with a new pair of shoes and insoles that help her stand straighter. We go back in 2 months to see if there is any change.

So, back to the MRT we went to pick up Marcus. We made it home all in one piece. Extremely tired, but in one piece. The whole plan took 5 hours. And to think I could have saved a little bit of time had I gotten on the right train.

Supper? No problem, my wonderful husband had it all taken care of. He had grilled.

Things I think I learned:
1. Stop glancing at maps and study them, especially when I'm not sure where I'm going and when I have the kids.
2. Don't plan so much in one afternoon...(I have the hardest time with this lesson, I keep repeating this mistake over and over.)

Sickness in the House

I feel as if I've been nurse these past few weeks. Two of my children have been sick, as well as, my husband. But, in the midst of it all I came up with a new story. It was inspired by my daughter, Matthea. She come to me with her blanket in hand wanting to sit and be held. This piece is still in draft form, but will probably send it to a magazine when I have time.

Title: Untitled at this point
Age Group: Young Children (2-5 years)

“Mama, I don’t feel good,” said Gill.

Gill’s mom felt her warm head and sighed, “Oh dear, you have a temperature, honey.”

“What’s a timber chair, Mama?” asked Gill.

“A tem-per-a-ture is a fever. I’ve got some medicine to make it better,” said her mom.

“I think that if I sit on your lap I’ll feel better, Mama,” said Gill.

“Well, you can do that after you take the medicine,” said Mama.

Gill’s mom poured pink liquid into a little cup. Gill looked at the liquid and said, “I’m feeling better. I don’t need any medicine.”

“Oh, really?” answered her mom, “I think that you should still take the medicine anyway. Here’s some water.”

Gill slowly reached up and smelled the sweet bubble gum scent of the medicine. She tipped the cup up to her mouth. She immediately grabbed the cup of water and gulped it down. Her mom took her hand and led her to the rocking chair where she held her and rocked her.

The next morning, Gill still had a temperature with a cough. Her mom decided that she needed to see a doctor.

“But, Mama, I have a better idea,” said Gill.

“What is that?” asked her mom.

Gill answered, “You can sit in the rocking chair and rock me. That worked last night, remember?”

Mama smiled, “Well, yes I remember. How about after you see the doctor we rock?”

“But, I don’t want a shot?” said Gill.

“Oh, I don’t think that you will have to have a shot. Why don’t you get your medical kit and I’ll show you what the doctor will,” said her mom.

Gill went to her room and got out her medical kit. Her mom opened it and pulled out a long cord with ear plugs on the end.

“Gill, this is called a steth-a-scope. The doctor will use this to hear your heart and to listen to you breathe,” said her mom as she put the ear plugs into her ears.

As she put the round part up to Gill’s chest, she asked her to take a deep breath. Then she pulled out a small hammer with a hole in the middle out from the bag.

“Gill, this is called an ear scope. The doctor will use this to look in your ears,” said mom as she looked in her ears.

“Oh, this is fun,” said Gill.

“Yes, this is fun and seeing a real doctor will be fun too,” promised her mom.

“Can I take my medical kit along?” asked Gill

“Of course,” said her mom.

Later, when they returned from the doctor’s office, Gill climbed up into her mother’s lap and they rocked together until Gill fell asleep.

Well, that's it. I'll probably set this one aside for awhile and look at it later. I have my writing assignment that is haunting me with the due date.

Cheddar Soup or Humble Pie

A trip to the hospital yesterday confirmed that the two older kids were sick, as well as, Uwe. Marcus went to school today, but Uwe and Matthea stayed home. With everyone feeling sick I thought I should be the good wife/mom and fix a nice cheddar soup for lunch. Meg and I walked to the store and bought the cream and bacon.
I returned ready to overwhelm my husband with my cooking ablilties. I began with pouring the chicken broth in the pot to warm up. I then got the starch ready to thicken up the liquid. Once the broth warmed up I added the starch and waited, and waited, and stirred, and waited some more. But, it never thickened up. I added a bit more starch and stirred and waited, but still nothing. Time was running out, so I gave up and hoped that the cheese would make it thicken up a bit. I openned the cream and added it next. After the soup warmed up again I addd shredded cheddar, stirring until it was all melted. It still was thick, but I thought it might be ok.
I was so excited to make a warm lunch for my sick husband. He is never home for lunch, so I thought it would be fun to have something nice. With this thought I poured a small bowl of soup and tasted it.
"Sweet?", I thought to myself, "Why is this sweet?"
I looked at the cream box. "Whipping Cream" it read, which doesn't mean it has sugar added to it. But, when I read the Chinese I knew what the problem was. It said, "Sweet Cream".
"Great!", I yelled from the kitchen.
"What's wrong?", asked Uwe.
I told him and he tried it as well.
He looked at me and said, "Well, I think it would be a great soup with regular cream and not the sweet one. Don't worry about it. I'll go to Subway and get a couple of sandwiches for us."
And off he headed out.
As I was cleaning up my mess. I thought about my "wonderful cooking abilities" and laughed as I realized that Humble Pie was pretty easy for me to make. So much for me being the wonderful wife today. Thank goodness I have a wonderful husband who didn't marry me for my cooking abilities.

A Paper Towel Kind of Day

I should have known that this day was going to be at least interesting since both Marcus and Matthea stayed home from school sick. All was good until the afternoon. That was when the paper towels came in handy. Megan was taking a nap. Matthea was in her booster chair playing with cars. Marcus, engrossed in a comic book, was lounging on the couch with his legs crossed. He had his cup of hot tea sitting next to him on the red kid's table. Matthea was far enough away, but not far enough. She scooted herself over to the table. Then bending down, she picked up one end of the plastic table sliding the cup of tea onto the tile floor with a crash. Of course, I didn't see any of it in time to intervene. I only heard the crash of the ceramic coffee cup and the yell of my seven year old. The hot tea had spilled onto Marcus's foot and soaked his sock. His foot was ok. After getting him to go change I assessed the damage. The handleless tea cup lay on it's side in the middle of a puddle of tea.
"Why don't I buy paper towels at Costco," was the thought that ran through my mind as I scanned the just mopped floor.

To blog or not to blog, we'll see

"To blog or not to blog," is a question that I haven't been able to answer (or probably more accurately, not taken time to sit and do it). About four months ago I was in a discussion over a blog with some friends and thought, "Yes, this is just what I need to do. I love writing and what a great way to do it." Well, I checked out the blogspot website and found out that we, the Maurers, actually had an account. "What? When did we creat this? I sure don't remember this," was my first thoughts.
I read some of the blog and thought to myself, "Ahhh, yes. I remember this. I had orginally thought I would use it as a newsletter to keep people updated about us." OK, that was I think about 2-3 years ago.
So, today, after reading a friend's blog I got inspired again to try it. But this time I want to use it not as a "newsletter", but maybe as more of a place for me to practice writing through my life. So, here goes the first blog of a new series. Who knows, maybe I'll become a blogger after all!