The Heymann Family Journal

Last night Juergen went to Philip's parent teacher evening. He was talking with the school director who asked him where we lived. When he gave him the address the director said, "Oh, you live in Steinbach's house". It almost sounded like he knew Karl Steinbach personally. Maybe he did? He said the Steinbach's where 3 brothers. The fled Hungry after World War 2. They opened a cloth factory across the train tracks. It employed a large number of people in the area. People were very grateful for the jobs. But China basically took over the cloth industry. They eventually had to close the factory. He gave land to the city to build the schools. Steinbach is a Jewish name, but we don't know if He was Jewish? His brother lived in the Villa next door. They had a disabled child that died young. Maybe the director knows more, but that is all Juergen learned about the man who built our house. We looked at the house 4 years ago when it was first for sale. T...

I think I'll serve this at the dedication party for my God child Anna. I love peaches!!!

Nicole and I did some work on the office. I realize she will be going to school soon. I will be glad to get back into a routine, but I'm enjoying my days with her. Working on this house and Leimen is a little stressful, but not really. We just do everyday what we can. I'm not worried it won't get done (eventually). We have made enough progress to make thing comfortable. I think we will settle on Nov 12th as our house warming date. We made a big list of people to invite. If half of them come, it will be a pretty big party. I'm hoping the weather will be Ok. If so, we can have a big fire and roast marshmallows. I would also like to have a large tent for us all to sit and eat together. I want a program for the little kids in the afternoon. Maybe some face painting and a craft ...making a lantern. I want the teens to make a funny video together. Our house is perfect to stage a murder (in the video). I want our friends to bring their guitars for a jam session ...

So if we change the party date to November 12th, we should have a big campfire in the garden. Lot's of lanterns would be cool! And maybe straw bales to sit on. We could jam on the guitars. Hot chocolate would taste great, and of course S'mores!

We wanted to have our house warming party on October 29th, but that's during the fall vacation. Too many friends will be out of town then. So we will try to have the party on October 22 instead. Oh the stress! Believe me, it will not be "perfect" but we will try to make it nice anyway! Up date: Oct 22 doesn't work for some of our favorite friends. Maybe we need to move it to Nov. 12th. I'm going to have to call some people to see if that's not a better day. I know I can not please everyone, but it wouldn’t be so fun if some of my best friends can not come. Juergen was feeling stressed over the Oct 22 date anyway.

They have this party tent on sale on eBay. It is pretty large, and strong. It is 5 meters x 8 meters and has 180 m² space. If we had this in our garden then our guests could all sit down together at our party. something to consider. I'm sure we could keep it stored in the attic.

I like the cob salad and quiche ideas here. Maybe something for our house warming party.

I walked Sarah to the school bus today. She rides on a giant bus. I guess that's what the school has. I'm sure they don't fill the bus! But I saw Sarah's new best friend. She is a pretty blond girl named Michelle. So sweet! Thank God she has a good friend! As we were walking to the bus I noticed all the beautiful plants in the area. And I also saw a very cool gate. It looked Asian. I'll have to take a picture of it when I find my camera. I liked the gate so much, I'm wondering if we couldn't build some gates like it? I'll probably go back to Leimen to keep working on the old house. We need to paint the boy's old bedroom. It's a mess! They used markers on the walls. It might be easier to just wallpaper over it? I took a look at the other houses on the market. There are nicer houses for the same price, but they are not located so well. The few houses for sale in our area are not as nice, or cost much more. But I start to get afrai...

This looks good!

I think I'll make about 6 different kinds of soup for our house warming party. Sort of a soup, salad, and good bread kind of dinner. Maybe we can order platters of sandwiches and fruit? I want it easy. This Mushroom soup looks pretty good. I also make good chicken noodle soup and beef stew. I like a good broccoli cheese soup and pumpkin soup. Do you have any favorite soups? Maybe a ham and potato soup?

The handworkers are not coming today. Nicole and I are going to Leimen to clean. Jessica can watch a movie on the VCR in her old room. I hope she cooperates. I finished canning and labeling the 18 jars of grape juice I made this weekend. It's very tasty stuff. That will be very good in a hot punch this winter! We are starting to plan our house warming party/ and my 50th birthday party. God willing, that will be on October 29th. We will be having a costume party and talent show. It's the day after my birthday. The invitations will go out soon I hope. We want to rent a big tent for the garden, and tables with benches. I'm not sure how many people will come? It is during the fall vacation. But we want to have a big house warming party to bless our new home. If you want to come, please let me know. I'll be sure to invite you.

Do you ever have dreams? I had a dream this morning. It was very clear. I woke up to it. I'm still trying to figure out the meaning. There were 4 sisters. All young women in their 20's. Each one beautiful, talented, smart and gifted. They were also Jewish. It was early in the war, in Germany. They lived in Bad Schönborn and they needed to get out of the country. The one sister was the most beautiful, gifted and talented of the 4. She decided to rely on herself. She tried to get out of Germany but got caught. I can only guess she was killed. It was very sad. I can see her. She had long black hair. she looked allot like Amy Winehouse. So tragic. The other 3 trusted a loyal friend. He was a postman. He delivered packages in a big truck. They waited in the restroom of a gas station. The delivery man parked his truck next to the restroom. They got in the truck when he went in the station to drop off packages. He drove them to France. They took a plane to sa...

I hung curtains in Jessica’s room this morning. Juergen is working off a very long to do list. I will be going to Leimen (God willing) to clean the old house. We want to put the house back on the market to sell. So hopefully I can make some progress cleaning up today. Philip, Thomas and Nicole are swimming with the Bad Schönborn youth group. Tomorrow they have a summer camp reunion. I won't be seeing much of them this weekend. I'm hoping to fall into my bed tired and happy tonight. Glad for the hard days work, and progress made.

A good friend gave me grapes and apples. So today I'm making purple grape juice and apple sauce. While the grapes cook down into juice I was on eBay looking at trees. I bought a Magnolia "Heaven Scent" (a vigorous small erect tree, large fragrant flowers, dappled pinkish lavender. A very beautiful new form. It gets 2 meters high and 3 meters wide in 10 years). I always loved Magnolias. I also want a Japanese maple tree. I'm still trying to figure out what tree to get. I want one with a good form that will look good next to the pound. And I don't know what rhododendrons and azaleas to get. But I need my dad to help me with those plants.

I just bought a Redhaven peach, Goldrich apricot, NancyMirabella plumb, and a Cox apple. I also bought 9 different blueberry plants in different varieties (Nelson, Toro, Chandler, Gold traube, Blue gold, and Blue jay). I got 5 roses in the mail today. They are a small boarder rose called Fairy. Oh boy…how fun! So much garden to fill. I bought all the plants on eBay of course. What else?

Sarah is so afraid she can not do her homework perfect. She will cry for 2 hours before she even try’s. She is smart, but so afraid. It drives me crazy! God needs to heal her emotional need to be perfect. And for now, God has to heal my headache from her crying fit!

It's funny how one photo can stir so many emotions in a person. I'm looking at old photo's I have of the kids. I want to print a few to put on my bedroom wall. I was doing OK until I saw this photo of Jessica and Nicole. It's one of the only photos I have of them together when Jessica was bigger then Nicole. It's before she had autism. It's when life was "normal" and Jessica was the big sister. Today I went to a birthday party of a friend. Nicole watched Jessica for me. Nicole begins University next month. I have no idea what Jessica will be doing, if she will be allowed to go to the work group? And sometimes that really bothers me. Sometimes her sickness feels so bitter and I want to cry. But I always try to remember that this world is not all that there is. We are all like flowers fading. But everything will be new in heaven. And I know one day I'll know Jessica without autism again. They say there are no tears in heaven, but I...

Dad, I love you! I wish you were here so I could cook you some fish. Have a great birthday! Don't hurt anyone with that new chair!

Today was a day to get things done. We unpacked many more boxes, hung pictures on the wall, hung curtains, dealt with light switches, cleaned, shopped and ,and, and,and, and! But we are making very good progress and that feels very good.

Nicole wants to design my garden beds. I want them covered with cob. Here are some ideas of what I have in mind. we can also build a rocket stove in the garden.

I needed to go to Heidelberg this morning to buy some more cork for Jessica’s floor. I also picked up a few more plants for our flower bed. It's hard to imagine how good this bed will look in a few years. Perennials’ take a few years to grow. I think it's going to be lovely. I was at our house in Leimen. I really need to get over there and do some work so we can sell the place. Jessica doesn't want to go to Leimen anymore. This is a bit of a problem. Maybe Juergen will have to take care of Jessica a few evenings while Nicole and I clean the old house. We need to put it back on the market. I wish I could just move on...but there is this major loose end to deal with. I've basically forgotten about the old house and focused on the new one. But I need to finish what needs to be done in Leimen. I've had my break...but I need to deal with Leimen.

Sarah made a friend at school today. She was besides herself with joy! Thank you for praying!

I'm feeling a little better today. Nicole and I are making some good progress with the boxes. I would say we are only about 2 weeks away from finishing. I guess everything takes longer then you think. We started to hang up pictures. We found keys for the bathroom cabinets (they lock). I could put most of the bathroom stuff away today. I finally got to sweep and mop the hallway upstairs. Until now it's had too many boxes on the floor. Nicole is sorting videos and DVD's and their covers. We have a locked cabinet for those videos because of Jessica. I have not found that key yet. But the DVD's and videos will be sorted when we find the key! The good news is there was a big scratch and dent on the van Juergen used to pick up the furniture. We thought he would have to pay a 250€ deductable on the damage. It turns out the damage was there before Juergen picked up the car. They just failed to tell him about it. So we don't need to pay any extra costs for my ...

Sarah started at a new school this week. Already the kids are making fun of her for being Chinese. She practically cried herself to sleep. We wrote a note to the teacher, and we will try to talk with the teacher tomorrow. Oh boy!!! My poor sweet & beautiful Chinese girl! I love that she is Chinese! The kids at school just need to learn a lesson.

Juergen got home and then I went to bed. I slept almost 24 hours straight. Oh my! I was so sick! I had to get up for about 2 hours this morning to take Sarah to school and shop for food. But then I slept again. Now I'm starting to feel better. My fever broke. Juergen just got home from work (early). He is sick. I hope he can sleep too. Philip had a very good first day of school. Sarah is due home in an hour. Thomas called to ask if he could go to a friends house after school. So I guess they are off to a good start.

My head cold has gotten worse. I should spend the whole day sleeping. Juergen is visiting a church to hear a pastor preach. Our pastor will retire in the next few years. The elders are actively searching for his successor. It will mean looking at pastors all over Germany. So I'm not going to be sleeping all day. I have 5 kids. Jessica and Nicole also have this cold. Sarah seems to be getting it too. If she is sick tomorrow, I can not send her to school. That will not be pretty! The timing of the cold could not have been worse. I'm sure Thomas would not mind missing school but Sarah will be devastated! I think I'll let Juergen tell her! She is defiantly the kind that kills the messenger!

Jessica had a ruff night. I was up with her until very late. Juergen took off for Nuremberg early (7am). I wasn't awake when he left. he forgot his cell phone. I have zero idea if he got there, and got the furniture. I guess he should be home soon. And I hope everything went well. I hope the 5 hour drive was relaxing for him. He doesn't get allot of time alone. And I'm hoping the furniture is nice, and that Juergen likes it. But if it's not nice I wouldn't be surprised if Juergen just tells the owner to keep it. Maybe that's why he left his phone? Update: He got home with the furniture. It's very nice, just like it looked. It's got an Italian design. Perfect for our house. And it isn't a cheap set of furniture. it was very well built. I spent the last hour dusting and polishing it inside and out. When I unpack my stuff I'll take some pictures. It's missing the glass shelves in 2 of the cabinets. We need to have those buil...

I took Sarah shopping. We got her a new mattress on sale. I also bought her a rug for her room. it's nice to play on a rug and not hardwood. I also got a cabinet for the Lego and books in the hallway. Thomas is putting that together now. We had so much in our shopping cart, I had to take 2 trips to the car. Thomas and I had to go to his school to clean. The tuition is pretty low at his school. Parents are required to work 50 hours per year for the school. I couldn't do the hours last school year because of the move. But this year I have to try to fit it in. We worked 2 hours cleaning the art room, hallway and music room. So now I only owe them 48 hours. If I can not work, I have to pay for the time. I hope I can work half the hours, and pay half. It takes me so much time to drive there and back. I'm also paying for gas. It's hardly worth the effort. But it is good to be part of his school. And he is doing well there. I want to support it.

It's a pretty dark and cloudy day outside. It seems like summer has past us by. School starts on Monday. The kids first order of business is finding their backpacks, and getting all their stuff in order. We have loads of school supplies. I buy these things every time they go on sale. Nicole put them away in our art room. I need to take a picture of our art room. We have a pretty impressive supply of arts and crafts material. Nicole is very well supplied for the University (that begins in October). Monday will be very hard on me. I hate to get up early in the morning. I think we need to get up at 6:30, maybe even 6am. That will hurt! Sarah will be going to an all day school (7:20-4pm). She is excited about that, but I think it's going to be hard for her. Last year she only had school until 1pm, and she eat lunch at home. And I pray Philip finds good friends at his new school. He can ride his bike to school. Thomas will continue to attend his private Christian ...

I remember playing mini golf with Juergen and some friends from Germany the night before Jessica was born. She was 2 weeks late and I was beginning to think it was never going to happen. At about 1am I sat up in bed to go use the toilet. Then like a water balloon popping, my water broke. About 16 hours later Jessica was born. She was blue when she was born. They carried her out of the room. Juergen followed. I was confused and scarred and tired. Sometimes I wonder if that has really changed much. I've been very tired, confused and scarred over the years. She had 4 heart problems. They discovered that the 2nd day in the hospital. She had her first heart op when she was only 3 months old. A 2nd op when she was 5 months old. She's had about 12 ear operations, and surgeries on her arm. But the hardest stuff has been because of autism. She began talking when she was only 6 months old. But she lost her voice at 18 months. And I guess you really can not understand wha...

Today we moved some cabinets around in the basement. Juergen got a very big cabinet in his workshop room/tool room. Thomas built an IKEA cabinet for Nicole’s art room. We helped Philip put his stuff away. I bought 35 plastic boxes for the kids. They will put art stuff and Lego etc in these handy boxes. And little by little we are making progress. The cardboard moving boxes are getting empty. We are finding the floor. It rained very hard today. The cardboard we put on the flower bed got a good soaking. That's a good thing. I need to find a cheap source for mulch. We put over 300 liters of mulch on the flower bed yesterday. That is really only 1/4th the amount we need. I would rather put a stone mulch down, but Juergen wants wood. So we will go with the wood for now. Jessica has a birthday tomorrow. She will be 20 years old. Juergen and I are going to try to finish her TV room as a gift. We have to finish the floor, build the cabinets, move in a big chair and hang up...

I had my "A" team working in the garden today. We added compost to the flower bed. Then they tilled the bed. Then we added a good covering of cardboard (using up moving boxes). Then we added the black weed blocking cloth. Now I need to buy some wood mulch to cover up the whole thing. It's a very large flower bed. In a few days we can start to move plants from the house in Leimen. It's going to be beautiful. The kids were so funny. I bought 6 large bags of compost to add to the bed (360 liters). They said it wasn't enough. I had to go get 6 more bags of compost...they wanted to do it right! They really are an "A" team! They work hard and smart. I'm so proud to have them on my side! And they are all getting an education in organic gardening. How cool is that?

Today Thomas turned 14 years old. He's such a good looking kid! He is already taller then me! He got Lego Mind storms for his birthday. This is a robot you can program. They have Mind storms teams, and competitions. We thought it would be a good group thing he could do. A positive way to spend his time. I guess that's the real challenge with boys. They would rather just veg out in front of a TV or video screen. You have to get them to do more. Thomas loves music. He plays both guitar and drums. He loves soccer. He is the goal keeper. He likes to ride his bike. And he loves video games and Lego. We will have a birthday party after school starts. For now we had a good family breakfast. unfortunately we have to keep working on the house. School starts next week.

Juergen brought our super large TV home last night. It's not hooked up to cable or satellite. We are not sure if we will hook it up. But we all enjoyed watching a movie together. I bought Mulan (a live action Chinese drama) at the store yesterday. The kids were spellbound by the film. I think they love seeing so many Asian actors. There were only Asians in the film. Today Juergen is at church with the kids. I'm home with Jessica. The only thing I miss about my TV is God TV. But I can get it on my computer, I just need to look for it. I shopped on eBay. I found sandbags for sale. I got 200 bags I want to use to build raised beds in my vegetable garden. There is a form of building called “earth sacks". You take plastic bags (like sand bags or rice sacks) and fill them with 90% earth or sand, and 10% cement. Then you stack them up to form a structure. In-between the rows you lay down bobbed wire. The bobbed wire holds the sacks in place. Then you can ad...

I'm feeling pretty run down. I guess that shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone. Juergen put Philip's floor in today. We also put up the curtains in the kitchen, Nicole's room and the living room. The curtain rods are xxl, so they cost allot. The windows in those 3 rooms are very large. That gives us great light but also gives us allot of window to cover.

The boxes are still there but I just had to get out side! The kids and I used the roto tiller and got rid of a very large piece of grass. Actually the kids did most of the work. They tilled up the grass, used rakes to pile the grass up, and then loaded it into a wheelbarrow and haled it to the compost pile. I'll put this grass at the bottom of my raised beds. Now I can add compost and manure to the soil, and cover it with cardboard and mulch. I'll use up the moving boxes for this project. Then we can start moving plants into the new flower bed! I had a A+ team of workers!!!