The Heymann Family Journal

I’m getting ready to go to the airport two times. First to pick up my sister Shelley, and my sister in law Amy, and Amy's sister Sue. Then I bring them to my house to take a nap. Then I return for my brother Rick, His flight arrives 4 hours later. Tomorrow morning Jürgen will pick up my friend Donna from the airport. Then after breakfast we travel to Venice. I'm both excited and stressed! Jürgen is being so great! But I have allot to do today. Loads of laundry. And I'm not packed. And the car has to be packed. But expect everyone’s excitement will give me energy. My sister Dianna is also a big help! Here we go!

My sister Dianna fly’s tomorrow. My other family and friends come on Thursday and Friday. And the big adventure to Italy will begin. I am almost ready!

I picked the grapes I have in my green house today. I juiced them and canned the juice like this. I water bath canned my jars an extra 20 mins just to be sure the jars sealed. I actually have more grapes to juice tomorrow, not done yet. And we have many more grapes in the garden. So allot of good juice this year. We love it.

This is a page from Nicole's newest book. "When you get yourself a dinosaur". She wrote the book and is doing the illustrations. Yes, I'm a proud mom. And Shelley, my sister is going to travel with us to Italy in two weeks. It will be all my sibs, my sister in law, her sister and a good friend from University and Nicole ( 8 of us) traveling. Juergen will stay home to look after the chickens, dog, fish and kids. It is going to be a fun trip. Lots of Art, Food, and gardens.

I’ve probably told you before that my autistic daughter Jessica is the only one of my 5 kids that knows how to put things away. Today she brought me a jar of peanut butter, and pulled a spoon that was covered with peanut butter from the drawer (just where she had put it last night).

Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets - Tomatoes (S01E08)

They have just built refugee camp over the bridge from our house. It will take me 5 minutes to walk there. And I am a little apprehensive about who will be in the camp. But today they had an open house. And it appears they will have both single people and families. All will be here for a few years. Most of them will come from Iraq and Syria. Real refugees of war. And they will be allowed to attend kindergarten and school. And we will be allowed to teach them and help them. That sounds odd, but they don’t really let you do stuff with the people that are only here for a few weeks and months. So maybe we can teach them to garden. We have been training for this for a while. Who will help us build a garden? And if you cannot help with the work, I need money. I will try to set it up, and next spring we will begin (God willing).

This video is from Philips graduation today. I went with Thomas. Sarah also graduated at the same time from the grade school. So Nicole went to her graduation with her godmother Patricia. Jürgen had a speech to give and he couldn’t get out of it. But he attended Thomas’ graduation on Wednesday. We have allot to celebrate!

Someone stole the money can Nicole had in a book store. She was selling post cards to give money to refugees from Iraq. Just sad.

It has been so hot. I have to spend hours watering the garden. And a wasp stung my ring finger. I could not get my wedding ring off and I was worried how swollen the finger got. But I iced my hand and held it high in the air.

Our daughter Jessica started to write at school today. She has autism and use to write allot. But it has been years since she has been willing to write. Today she wrote with 3 different people!

HERE Nicole got 4 paintings in the summer art show at her University.

My chief concern in the Supreme Court ruling on Gay marriage is, will they protect the churches rights not to perform the weddings. I believe in traditional marriage, but I do have sympathy towards gay couples that would like to be married. And I also have sympathy towards the practical issues of insurance, taxes and inheritance. If the USA would allow gay marriage, it is a legal matter. The US is not a Christian country. All marriages should first take place as civil ceremony. This is what they do in Germany. This is the legal side of marriage. But if they start to force churches to violate their beliefs, they are trashing the constitution. In this issue I think the separation between church and state is very important. My faith governs how I live my life, it does not govern society. Obviously millions in America celebrate that fact. But perhaps the church should do a better job living what they profess to believe? We have no testimony because we are morally bankrupt. The First...

I got so busy this weekend I forgot to brag. My daughter Sarah's soccer team won first place in a tournament on Saturday. There were 6 teams. She even scored a goal. Way to go Sarah!!!

It's Father’s day In America. Happy Father’s day to all my dad friends. I was wondering how many families lost their dads during WW2. Father’s day isn’t a big deal in Germany. I know that is partly to do with marketing, but maybe it has something to do with the lack of fathers? I have a great dad, and Juergen does too. Happy Father's Day to you Dad. I love you!

My chickens are named after Jane Austen characters. We have the 3 blonde chicken being the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility (Elinor , Marianne,and Margaret ) the 2 white chickens are Elizabeth and Jane Bennet and the grey chicken is Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Pride and Prejudice).

It rained today and it was easy to find slugs in the garden. I collected a big slimy handful of slugs for my chickens. I thought they would love me for it. Instead they just stared at them, like "uh"!!! I guess it's an acquired taste?

We got a phone call from the man who was selling Brahma chickens. He lives about 45 minutes from us. His birds have won multiple nation awards. So we got in the car and went to buy our birds. We got 3 yellow birds, 2 white birds and one light gray. They are between 8 and 16 weeks old. If fact the two older birds might start laying eggs in a month. They seem to be happy in the beautiful chicken run Jürgen built. I gave them apples and salad along with their feed. And finally we put them in their house. They seem pretty happy. And I am happy to finally have my girls! We at least hope they are all girls. We are not allowed to have roosters. But the farmer will take the roosters back if we got it wrong. So we have an answer to that problem if it happens. They are really cute. I think I’ll spend allot of time with my new baby’s. They are little dinosaur’s. It is fascinating to watch them.