I hate goodbyes.  It seems that no matter where we live, we’re constantly saying goodbye to people that mean so much to us.  Military families know exactly what I’m talking about!

Years ago at Girl Scout camp, we used to sing a little song on our last night together.  We’d stand up from our log benches, cross our arms in front of us, and then hold hands with each of our neighbors.  Creating this setting took about five minutes!  But once every girl figured out which hand goes on top of the other, we’d have an enormous circle of girls and women standing around a campfire.  Some would start crying.  The night would be dark.  We’d be filled with so many amazing camp memories of our week.  And together we’d sing this song:

Mmm-hmmm I want to linger, mmm-hmmm a little longer.  Mmmm-hmmm a little longer here with you.

My very favorite part of the song was the end.  We’d all be looking at our new friends and sing:

This is goodnight and not goodbye.

Whenever Martin and I have to move, I remind myself that there is always tomorrow.  Friendships don’t have to die.  If they are friendships that are meant to last, they do.  A lifetime of Girl Scouting has proved that to me time and time again because the best friendships are the types where you can hop right back together as if months and months had never separated you.

I have cried so often when Martin and I have returned to a place, only to find friendships that did not survive while I was 100s or 1000s of miles away.  What can I do?  Moving so often can be such a lonely thing.

My hopes are always strong that friendships will last.  I hope that when we’re back in the US, I can rekindle old friendships because we’ll be hours from people I love instead of hours and hours and hours.

So here’s me pouring my heart out.

I’ve never made friends like I did this year in Berlin.  Naturally, my friends have always spoken English.  But all the people above?  No English.  Just stumbling through German together.  It’s been an amazing experience.  And oddly, in my last goodbye with some of these people was at a Starbucks.

Seriously – you walk into a Starbucks in Berlin and you would think you’re in any Starbucks in the US.  They’re exactly the same!  Even the menu is primarily in English.  (Don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to not know if I should order “coffee” or “Kaffee”, which aren’t pronounced the same way at all.)

I almost wonder if these girls were trying to tell me something by picking the sort of place that I’ll see everywhere in the US.  Is this goodnight and not goodbye?

Can you relate?  Where do your closest friends live and how do you bridge the distances with those far away?

Home is wherever I am… with you.

Virginia, USA  circa 2004

Martin and I have been thinking.

We’ve decided to tip on our cowboy hats and spend the summer in the United States.

I keep saying, “We’re going home for the summer.”

But is that home?

I thought Berlin was home.

So I do not know if a person can call two very different places home.

(Do not ask me what “home” means!)

I only know one thing.

I’m scared.

Last time we went back to the US, I was hit with really bad culture shock.  Ohhh – it was so bad!

I was back in the world that I knew.  But I didn’t understand it any more.

I remember more details about those first 24 hours back in the US than any other 24 hours in my life.

From speaking German to the AMERICAN flight attendants because I couldn’t remember how to speak English to strangers.

To feeling overwhelmed by waaaay too many choices for a toothbrush at Safeway at 11 pm when our luggage did not arrive.

To watching the clerk at the organic grocery store sniff my tea selections.

Then there was the sheriff who had his hat on the chair where I was going sit for breakfast.  ”Pardon me, ma’am.”

All of the bright clothing at Old Navy had me squinting and covering my eyes when I needed to buy some pajamas.

Everyone was so loud.

Everyone kept talking to me.

I think culture shock really happens when you return to a place that you know.  (well… knew.  A place that you knew.)  Culture shock isn’t something that happens on vacations or when you first move somewhere.  That’s because everything is new and exciting.

So I am scared.  But I’m also really excited.

Martin and I will get to do more of this:

(By that, I mean camping and hiking, not climbing across dead trees that hang off cliffs, MARTIN!)

And of course this:

Ooooh yes!

I’ll see people I love.

(EEEEH!)

I’ll grow the journal shop.

And you know what?

I’ll never go to the grocery store only to discover it is closed for a holiday that I didn’t know about.

(Do American grocery stores ever close now?  So much to re-learn!)

I’ll understand everything people are saying.

Oh man… I will understand EVERYTHING.

The Decluttering Project will continue.  I’d working overtime to get it put together before I start thinking about packing up.  I’m picking out chocolates to bring back for people, and I am oh-so-thankful to have all of you on this journey with me.  Martin and I will be living in the countryside again, and I have some great plans to share with all of you.  Yeehaw!

Everyone here in Berlin keeps asking us about cowboys.  Germans are addicted.  Cowboys, cowboys, cowboys!  I smile and tell them, “Yes!  We’ll be around cowboys all the time.”  We’re excited to go to the rodeo again, camp in national forests, make our own yummy marshmallows and graham crackers for homemade s’mores, and eat America’s amazing cheddar cheese and Puffins breakfast cereal.

Here’s what’s planned in the next few months:  A little simplifying.  A little German lifestyle meshed with a dash of western style.  A little cooking.  A little decluttering and handmade.  And a whole lot of embracing life because that’s exactly what I hope we can all do this summer. I think you’ll love what’s coming up!  Meanwhile, I’m practicing my “Howdy there!”.

We’ll see you on the other side here shortly.

Today is June 9.  The 9th is always such a day of joy at our house.  Martin and I met on the 9th of January years ago.  We became engaged on the 9th of July.  So many beautiful moments always begin on the 9th, and I’m not sure why that is.  It could just be that every time I glance at the calendar and see 9, I know that my life is full of goodness and my heart is open to joy.  I am more open to greatness.

I’ve been taking more pictures of our daily life lately.  I’m inspired to document more of our story through pictures – not necessarily for Making This Home.  Rather it’s just for us and our home.  This past year has been life changing.  I still cannot believe how much I have grown with overcoming my fears and learning to fly an airplane.  I now realize that flying alone was the biggest fear of my adult life.

So whenever I have fears or hesitations about what I can’t do or what I think the universe wants me to do, I remind myself of flying an airplane.  Suddenly my frustrations of living in a foreign country and not always understanding the things around me are manageable.  In fact, I learn to embrace them.  Then I come home and constantly find myself jotting bits and pieces into my {Love Where We Live} journal.

That journal has seriously become the greatest escape.  It’s helped me capture and savor the moments.  Like the pictures of this man biking in front of me on the bike path.  I was biking across town to meet a friend.  This man had three little girls in the front bin of his bike.  The girls were about  four-years-old, licking ice cream cones, and happily going along for the ride.  It was total bliss.

(With bike paths like these, you can see why I adore biking through so much of Berlin!)

So today is June 9th.  It’s another big 9 that I will be back tomorrow to share with you.

A special thank you for all the sweet comments, emails, and general friendship so many of you have given me.  Here’s a special treat from the shop.

All home journals at Gadanke are 10% off through the end of tomorrow, June 10th.  Normally $19.25, now $17.35.  (What fun!)

Thank you and enjoy!  Here’s a toast for stretching wings.

Here we go, on to the next decluttering project.  This one is my all-time favorite, so I’m hopeful you can have fun, too.  Plus it’s super fast.  Who doesn’t love that?

How’s your jewelry collection looking? Do you have a place to keep things? Are you using what you have?

I’ll bet we can all declutter our jewelry boxes just a bit.  I always like to get the other women in my family onboard because once we pull out the things we don’t want or use, we trade for a few new pieces of bling.  Plus it’s a whole lot easier to say goodbye to a necklace that I feel neutral about if I know my sister might love sporting it on a date.  It was really helpful to have her go through my jewelry box once with me. “Katie,” she’d say quite plainly.  ”You don’t wear that.”

“Right!” I’d answer.  Away it needed to go.

I think that jewelry decluttering is best started with a goal.  Before you even pull out your things, decide how much you want to get rid of – maybe 1/2 or 1/3.  You’d be surprised how much jewelry clutter you can accumulate.

And you know me.  I like to have a picture of who I can give my unused pieces to because it makes them so much easier to part with. Think of ideas like:

• clunky jewelry to the high school drama club or children’s theater
• valuable and sentimental items to people you love.  A piece of jewelry is a perfect graduation, engagement, or even wedding gift for someone you love.  If you have a religious piece, give it to someone achieving a religious milestone.
• undesired pieces to pawn shops, online stores like ebay or etsy, or gold collectors
• other pieces for victims at battered women’s shelters or other local organizations.

Who would love having what you don’t use?

And for goodness sake, we’ve got to quit holding onto the pieces that are broken!  Either create a plan to get them fixed or kiss them goodbye.

Give lovingly, and I promise.  The collection you will have left is a collection you will love.

Any favorite pieces you’ve received or given?

Catch more of our journey in The Decluttering Project right here.

Nothing brings an international group of women together like chocolate. So when my uncle sent me an email to attend a chocolate truffle class he was giving, I was right on it! I even got Martin to come along.

We’d been hooked on my uncle’s chocolates ever since Christmas.

Yet when Martin and I arrived, I sort of forgot about the plan to learn to make chocolates. Martin and my uncle talked about nerdy stuff until the ladies started pouring in, and the next thing I knew, I was engulfed in a room of the friendliest Bulgarian and German women.

We started with the traditional coffee and cake that friends like to have in Germany.

Then the ooey-gooey fun got started.

The other man there? That’s my uncle. Imagine putting a group of women together in your neighborhood; then give them all different native languages.  Add a baby crawling around in the background.

English words were floating from one end of the room to the other, intercepted by German baking terms and Bulgarian folk songs and explanations.

Then try to teach these women how to make chocolates!

It was amazing chaos – I loved it!

Take a look around our makeshift classroom. It’s a one-room apartment and kitchen that belongs to one of the Bulgarian women. I love her sense of simplicity, and I just know that everything in that home is used and enjoyed.

She uses the things in her home. Why does that feel like such a revolutionary statement in today’s society?

These women were amazing and kind. I believe that people are intrinsically good, and I never expected to be reminded of this fact in such a beautiful way.

So I don’t exactly remember how we made chocolates that day. But I discovered so many more delicious things.

Peek at more deliciously small homes here.