Merry Christmas!

Well, we made it. Finally a bit of a break! Although it probably won't be. There is so much that needs to be done. More stuff to get rid of, furniture to bring down to the guest room, cabinets to make functional, etc. Hopefully we will feel more at home after all this work!

We had a nice time celebrating Christmas with Susan. She probably won't be around here much longer. Quit her job, gave up her place to stay, not sure where she is headed though. It has been nice to see a bit more of her recently.

The girls are still pretty afraid of Santa. They liked the presents he brought though! They were even able to wait their turn to open each one up. That was nice to see. Lots of fun new stuff for them to play with, so we need to get rid of some old toys too!

Fun with presents!

Sick Week

Finally time for the long, drawn out cold I guess. Could barely get off the couch today. Every day I figure it will be better the next...but then it gets worse. Hopefully I can make it through work the next two days of teaching. No difficult lessons planned, so that helps. It is the week before Christmas break though...

I started working on a video about making the maple cabinets upstairs. Hopefully it turns out nicely. Hopefully the cabinets turn out nicely. This week I want to have them functional so we can transfer our clothes and bring down the furniture to the guest room. Yesterday we worked on cleaning some stuff out.

The girls are doing well. They are having a lot of fun with their new play kitchen. They just woke up from their nap so I think we will go for a walk before it gets too dark.

December, Finally.

November was a bit of a rough month. Now we have some holidays to enjoy! So far it has been fun. We found the girls a play-kitchen for Sinterklaas that they are having a lot of fun with. We also found a little Christmas tree and decorated it yesterday.

Naomi is still having a bit of a rough time, but she is starting to feel better. Susan came to visit us this weekend and it is nice to have her around.

I made a lot of progress with the maple cabinets this week. We are both really looking forward to those being functional. Thanks to a friend, Karmen, my business logo is also finished. I ordered a wood burning stamp of it that should be here in a month or so. Excited about that!

Sinterklaas celebration with Naomi's family.

Abigail practices her ballet moves.

Decorating the tree.

Back to Diapers

After about four weeks of no peeing in the bed, we stopped using diapers with Abigail, and she peed three times in a row. Hmmm. So she gets a diaper at night again, but she pees so much that she overpowers it and still gets the bed wet. Good thing we have a washer and a dryer nearby (the neighbors have their laundry hanging outside right now - it is frozen solid).

The girls have been having a lot of fun with Sinterklaas this week. He is this Santa Claus-ish character who comes from Spain in a steamboat. He gets on his white horse and parades around with a bunch of slave-elves. Little black people who are funny, special talents, and love to make mistakes. Not racist at all, right? Big controversy in Dutch society about that now. Some areas have the little people paint their face other colors than black this year.

Little kids leave a carrot and some sugar blocks in shoes, along with a bowl of water, by the fireplace for Sinterklaas's horse. They find some tiny cookies or chocolate in return the next morning. Today we will have a celebration with Naomi's family where the girls will get presents...we found a play kitchen for them. The girls had another first this weekend - they walked all the way into town without any help from us. It takes me 20 minutes to do that by myself.

Claire drove her fancy new car up from Switzerland to visit us this weekend. All the Europeans think she is crazy for making an 8 hour drive for the weekend. We already knew Claire was crazy, but it is nice to see her again! Speaking of cars, we were too slow with ours, so someone else bought it. Guess we will have to wait for another one to pop up which will probably take a few months...

Diaper Free!

Abigail no longer wears diapers. At all. Not even at night! Amélie still wears them to bed, but both girls are doing really well. They have been a bit grumpy the last couple days, but other than that they are still happy.

Naomi is pretty sick though. She had a late night of work on Thursday and hasn't really recovered from it. I am guessing she will stay home tomorrow, but we have report meetings this coming week, so we shall see. That means more time at school than normal.

Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving with Clifton and Karmen. It was a really nice night. Still no word on the car, apparently they are trying to track down the maintenance records, but if that does come through, than we can go for a drive to Rotterdam. And Germany. This old car really limits our possibilities...

Test Drive

Yesterday we test drove another car. This time with the girls. Liked it. Put in an offer. We shall see if it is accepted or not. Took longer than expected, but that was ok because we were in a very un-Dutch part of the country - lots of hills and pretty fall colors. Strange.

I also had a consultation with some friends in town who also happen to have twin boys about the same age as the girls. They want me to make some beds for their boys. Should be a fun project!

Everyone around this house is a bit sick. Naomi probably has it the worst, but not by too much. We will go to her family today to celebrate her grandma's 96th birthday. Quite a busy weekend. Hopefully we can make it to work tomorrow...

First Draft

This week I finished up the first draft of my novel. It still needs a lot of work, but nice to get what I have written so far wrapped up.

Not long ago, when we were loading up the car at the grocery store, Abigail said I was driving the car home. I said, "no, mama is driving home." Abigail said, "boom." I laughed and said, "what happens when mama drives the car?" Abigail said, "boom, boom, BOOM!" Ever since then, whenever I ask her, "what happens when mama drives the car," she says, "BOOM." Needless to say, Naomi doesn't like that one too much!

I have been working on the maple cabinets for upstairs again this week, but next week I plan to start on a project for Claire. Pictured below is the last light that I made. It is my favorite!

An (almost) Perfect Week

The girls are getting really good at using the potty. No accidents at daycare this week! Only one at home, and that was while Amélie was sleeping during her afternoon nap, so it barely counts. They still wear diapers at night, but during the day we seem to be past the hard part...

I was able to finish up the last of the lighting work this week. Still a bit of online promotion to do, but the pictures turned out well. Spent some time getting back into building the maple cabinets for upstairs. Goes a bit faster with the second one. In a few weeks they should be ready to hold some clothes, but the mirrored doors will take longer.

School continues to be fine. Naomi cancelled a big training she was supposed to do because she was feeling pretty stressed out. She works at least twice as much as me but on paper her job is only 50% more.

I have picked up speed with the novel lately. Planning to have the first draft ready for readers by Christmas. Let me know if you want to be one...

2 of 3 - I call it Shutter. Naomi did most of the designing.

Ruining the Door

It was a sad week for our new front door. The bottom was cracking and other parts of the finish were not up to par, so we had the company come to fix it. They made it a lot worse. The door was repainted and now it looks plastic. Not to mention the parts that were missed and the big drips. We still don't have the numbers on the house. Things really start to slow down now that winter approaches...

Having a normal week was really nice. We needed a break from working so hard during our vacation. Glad life works this way and not the other way around! The girls have been sick though, and they shared that with us, of course. Good thing we have an inhaler for Abigail...

I pretty much finished the third of three lights this week. Pictures to come. We are really happy with the third one. I will put all three online to see if anyone is interested in buying them. It would be great if we could get some 'product lines' off the ground...

Enjoying the new boots Aunt Claire brought back from Vermont.

Not a Vacation

This was supposed to be Fall Break! We ended up working harder than usual. The weather was pretty bad, so that gave us extra incentive to be busy inside. I finished up the second ceiling light, the garage door is finally painted, the hall is set up for winter now, and we got a lot of things organized and cleaned up. Still lots to do, but our house is a nicer place to be now!

We had a couple of nice visits too. One of my former students and her parents came all the way from Rotterdam and a couple friends spent the night as well. Visitors always give us a bit of incentive to make things a bit nicer around here.

We also found some time for a nice lunch in Deventer. That was combined with a test drive. At least we know what kind of car we are looking for now. It is just a matter of waiting for the right one. There is a big dealership in town that sells mostly to other dealerships, so we can get a car for a couple thousand less from them. We will just wait for the right one to turn up there...

Fun on the slide at the Donkey Farm!

All Alone

Naomi went to England for the week. Thankfully, she got back on time yesterday afternoon! She had a really nice week, and we had a better time around the house than I expected. I actually got a lot of work done because the girls were so well-behaved.

I designed and built a ceiling light this week. I really like it, but Naomi is not a big fan. Hmmmm. It was supposed to be a nice surprise for her. I am hoping people will like them and I can sell a few, but who knows.

Today is a beautiful day and this morning we painted the garage door, changing the color from white to green. I think it will look so much better! The girls are waking up now from their nap, and we will be heading to the Donkey Farm soon. They have really been looking forward to that!

A few touched-up pictures of the hall cabinet from last week.

My first original lighting design...thoughts?

A Quick Project

This week I was able to start and finish a woodworking project. Still need to take some pictures of it for the website though. It is a table for Naomi's cousin's entryway. The wood had been sitting outside for awhile, so it developed a grey patina that they liked. Nice to be able to wrap something up before Naomi left...

I won't be getting much work done this week as Naomi went to England for a school trip. She went with a group of teachers to learn about how to give better lessons in English. I am sure she will have a good time, but taking care of these two girls all on my own for a week is rather daunting. When Naomi had to do this it was summer vacation, and they weren't potty training, so that was a bit easier. We shall see how it goes.

Today I hope to finish up a little shelter to keep the grill and bike car mostly dry. I started it yesterday without putting much thought into it, so it hasn't been going the best. It is all from leftover materials though, so if it falls apart soon, its not like we are out much. Plenty of other things to do before the girls wake up though...

The hall table.

Fun at the park after dropping Mommy off.

Abigail in front of our school.