Goodbye, 2018

We are ready for a new year. 2018 has been a tough one. Naomi hasn't been able to work. The girls are wonderful but a lot of work. I had to settle into a new job after a rocky start. We had a necessary and fun summer in Michigan. Things seem to be looking up though. Naomi is starting to feel better although now she is dealing with a broken shoulder. She is getting over her burnout though, and that is most important.

Our holiday has been a busy one thus far. Claire and Matt are with us and that has been a lot of fun. We have also been tackling some administrative tasks that will save us some money and simplify and improve our lives. Our lawyer is really helpful when it comes to Naomi's shoulder.

We found out that the big tree in our backyard needs to be taken down. That is another big job. First we have to get permission from the city council, and that will probably take a couple months. We have someone lined up to cut it down, but we will have to figure out where to store the firewood, and all the branches and such will need to be taken out through the neighbors backyard, otherwise it would have to go through our house.

I am also working on updating the bathroom sink/cabinet in our main bathroom and the sink up on the top floor. No surprise, the sink we ordered came with a defect, so that needs to be replaced. Good thing Naomi can't work. She still hasn't had time to do those video tapes, and that was one of the main 'burnout projects'.

We hope that 2019 will be our first peaceful year together.

Had to replace the bathroom dimmer - 120 euros just for the internal switch!?

Santa came!

Coloring with giant sidewalk chalk in the sun on Christmas day.

Naptime.

Yes, a real live sunflower at a latitude of 52 degrees north on Christmas Day.

Christmas dinner.

Fun with Matt.

Stocking up the freezer.

Their first climbing adventure - Amélie wouldn't put on the harness. She won't put on her backpack for school either. What is that about?!

Vacation!

Finally, we made it to the vacation. Not sure how much of a vacation it will be as we don't get any time off from the girls, but I am sure we will have fun. Claire and Matt are coming tomorrow, and I even managed to get Friday off of work. Amélie is sick, so that is a bummer, but I guess there is a flu going around.

We ordered a new sink for the bathroom upstairs. There goes another 500 euros. Now I have a big cabinet to build. That Santos Mahogany is tough to work with, but I think it will look nice. It will make our bathroom so much better! I am almost finished with a little project for Claire and Matt. Bedside tables. Nice to get back into the workshop!

There was a Christmas market at the girl's school this week. They were supposed to sing a song. Of course, they were too afraid, so they stood with me next to the stage. Then we were supposed to buy something they made. I forgot the tokens. Went back home to get them, but they were apparently only for food and drinks. We needed real money. Went back home again. Good thing I had already made dinner...

Bedside tables for Claire and Matt.

The Christmas craft we had to buy. The girls are getting better at drawing!

Abigail's self portrait on the whiteboard.

The First Snow

We woke up to a bit of whiteness outside this morning. Just a dusting. It will be gone this afternoon, I imagine. Fun to see though - the girls were really excited. We will go for a walk in it shortly.

Yesterday we had a Christmas party to go to. That was fun, but tiring. Too much sugar, of course. The girls take ages to warm up and go play with the other kids, even though they know them. Kind of annoying. They are way too afraid of everything and everyone.

We have someone coming this afternoon to take a look at our tall tree in the backyard. It seems like it might be too much of a risk.

School was a bit more intense this week that I would have liked. Turns out I can't just flip a switch and take a step back from the responsibilities I have taken on as people are looking to me for the expertise. It will be a challenge to keep saying no to things, but okay.

Naomi is busy with declaring costs from her injury to the insurance company. Now they said she needs to involve a lawyer. Great. I am definitely getting fed up with all this sickness.

Working on a bedside table for Matt.

Went for a nice walk through the castle grounds after the gym.

Christmas Party!

Transition Time

I have been working really hard at school this fall, and it has been rewarding. A lot of these tasks have been outside my job description, so I asked for a bump up to the next salary scale. Two people from the management said this wouldn't be a problem. I talked to a third on Friday, and she said it would take a while. Possibly years. She was really unhappy about the way the system works. Unless they make an exception for me, I am sure she is right.

This was rather demotivating. Not really interested in continuing to do work that I don't get paid for when the people who are getting paid for it can't or won't do it. I figure it is best to just slow down a bit, enjoy my time at work with lower levels of stress, and wait for the management to ask me to take on responsibilities instead of just doing things autonomously.

The results of my work speak for themselves. Students are much more motivated and they are getting higher test results. Teachers using my method experience less stress and enjoy what they are doing more. I have enough evidence to at least apply for the promotion, so in the next couple weeks I will try to put together the required portfolio. Kind of a letdown to shift gears, but it will free up some space in my head for other things.

Yesterday we had fun picking out a Christmas tree. This morning we will decorate it. The girls had a really good week. They helped mommy a lot! Naomi is slowly recovering. She has a couple doctor visits this week. Still in a lot of pain, but got her first good night of sleep last night.

Playdough time with Auntie Claire.

Everyone had gloves or mittens from Grandma & Grandpa!

Right before the big crash.

Claire & Matt

We had a really nice visit with Auntie Claire. She was here for over a week. Matt was even able to come up for the weekend. They are heading back to Switzerland in a few hours. Yesterday was a bit of an adventure though...

Normally after a work week I am pretty wiped out and need to rest a lot. That wasn't an option yesterday as Claire and Matt wanted to go skiing with the girls. So we packed up our stuff and went. When we got there, the prices were double what we expected. That was disappointing at first, but it also meant that we could stay for twice as long, so that turned out alright.

We got in some good skiing, the girls were doing great, we had a nice lunch, skied more, Naomi and I actually got some time to ourselves as the girls were having so much fun with Claire and Matt. We decided to take one final run before having a snack and for some reason I decided to wait for Naomi partway down the hill. She is really slow.

Good thing I waited, because she got hit from behind by an out of control snowboarder. This is a pretty common occurrence at this very crowded hill with lots of beginners and drunk people, so their response was quite good. They shut down the hill, brought in the stretcher, and got her out into an ambulance. This took a while, so Naomi was freezing cold and in a lot of pain.

Claire went with her to the hospital while Matt and I had a snack with the girls. We had a lot of trouble finding them at the hospital, but Naomi ended up being alright. No broken bones, just a bad contusion on her shoulder and lots of bruises. She hit her head pretty hard too, but nothing really serious. She is in a sling for the better part of a week and can't do much of anything.

Two interesting observations came out of the experience. The whole morning we had been commenting on how incredibly rude people were. Dutch drivers constantly cutting us off on the autobahn, unfriendly employees taking our money at the ski hill, people cutting in front of us in the line for the tow rope, etc. As soon as Naomi got hurt, everyone we dealt with was incredibly friendly and helpful. Even the guy who hit her was doing everything he could to help out.

The second observation was that these past ten days, Naomi kept witnessing random, violent events. A car crash after yoga, a guy who dropped a brick on his hand, crushing it and spraying blood everywhere, and one or two other things. I told her to be careful, because she would be the next one in the ER. Hmmm...

They even had to cut up her brand new shirt!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday! Claire made it up here in record time and Clifton and Karmen joined us from Rotterdam. The food was the best ever, and the girls had a lot of fun helping to set up the fancy table. Nice to finally use some of Oma's things...maybe for Christmas we can get out the fancier stuff...

Naomi brought away the last boxes of her mom's stuff that she wanted to get rid of this time around. That is a relief. The last big project in that regard seems to be the video tapes, but the VHS players keep breaking. We are on number four now, and it is hit and miss. Is that a sign?

November is the worst month of the year for teachers, and things are definitely cooling off for me at school. I am busy developing and running the new math program. I would also like to put more time into the project based learning program that the school is developing, but I don't have much time for it. I sent the management an email explaining what I thought had to be done this year, and the list seems rather impossible. I am curious what their response will be, if anything.

Put together a simple TV table this week. Still needs some paint.

Amélie holding hands with a boy who will soon be in her class.

Abigail and her tights.

Thanksgiving dinner.

33 Years

This was the birthday week. Luckily it happened to be on my day off, so in the morning we had a little impromptu fire with a few friends outside in the sunshine. That was fun. Once the girls were done with school we did our grocery shopping and had a fancy dinner - shrimp, risotto and asparagus with cheesecake for dessert. It was a nice day.

Things at school are going pretty well. It is a rather exciting period as a lot is changing, and I am contributing to some of the big changes. Nice to see that my ideas are accepted and effective. Just got another convert, so now out of the 9 teachers, 7 of them will be using my plan. Two more to go!

This is the first Sunday in a while that we won't go to the Bosrand. It was also Naomi's grandma's birthday this week, so we will visit her and bring her some cheesecake. She turned 98. No big party this year it seems. Anyway, time to get moving or we will be late!

Cute sleepers. Once every week or two I have to move Amélie up to her own bed.

Haircuts

The girls didn't feel like taking a nap. This is normal, they just play quietly upstairs for a bit. This time it got a bit too quiet. They found mommy's scissors. Amélie figured she could cut hair just as well as anyone. I admire her confidence. Interesting that Abigail was okay with it - didn't see that one coming. Both girls got the Amélie special, and it took us a while to clean it up. Still looks a bit messy, but oh well. Could have been worse.

The leaves have been falling off the trees this week. Rainy weekend, but otherwise lots of sunshine. Yesterday we went to the auction where they tried to sell Naomi's mom's things. It was disappointing. People weren't really buying anything, but we sold a few things. The girls and I left to find some french fries.

I started a project for our friends. They want a new TV table. Kind of hard to find the time to work on it though. Everyone said that once the girls go to school we will have more time, but it has been exactly the opposite.

Amélie's handywork.

Abigail: who is that man? Me: Shel Silverstien. He wrote the book. Abigail: Oh. That look like Uncle Joshua.

There was a closing presentation at school for the first theme of the year.

The Workshop

Finally got back into the workshop yesterday. Abigail came in to help me for the first time! That was fun. She wasn't even afraid of the tools or the noise like I thought she would be. Next time it will be Amélie's turn.

On Friday the girls had a friend from school over for the first time. That is another big milestone. I guess they had fun, but I was at work. Got a lot done this week as many of the teachers were in London for a week long trip with all the 8th grade students. Even went on a little field trip to the zoo on Tuesday, and that was great. When the girls are a bit older we will definitely get a membership there!

Naomi also started working this week. She got to ride her new bike which she loves. It will take a while before she gets used to all that exercise, but I am sure it will do her good.

The first play date at our house!

Fall Break

We had a week off from school, and it was much needed! Naomi ended up being busier than usual; at least the rest of us got some down time. She got her new bike, visited her sick friend (sat in traffic for an extra hour), and went to a funeral. She also took Abigail to Amsterdam while Amélie and I got some time together in Apeldoorn.

On Monday we got to go skiing together, and that was a blast! The girls did incredibly well. They can ski down the bunny hill with no help at all, and without falling! After that we went to visit our friends who live in the area. That was a lot of fun, and Abigail said on the way home that she would be friends forever with that little boy.

I started submitting a short story I wrote to some publications. We shall see if anyone picks it up. The weather is starting to get colder, finally. We had a bit of a frost last night. First one of the year. The sun is shining though, so we will have fun at the Bosrand this morning. In the afternoon it is time to carve some pumpkins!

Abigail in Amsterdam.

Strange sleepers.

Reading together in the morning.

Visiting Germany.