Wrapping Up

This week was all about finishing up some projects before leaving to Switzerland and France. This will be our first vacation in Europe since the girls were born. They are almost four! It has been a while. We will leave tomorrow, Sunday, to visit Claire. I hope we can manage the long car ride...

Today we need to get packed up and wrap up a few more things, including finishing the bedside tables. I also wrapped up the cracked coffee table, made a new top for it, and finally finished the video of the cabinets upstairs. Managed to get everything finished up at school too. The weather has been crummy, so it was good to be productive inside.

Sure is nice to be able to time things so well! The feeling of having everything wrapped up before leaving is a good one. Yesterday was King's day, so the girls had some fun in town while I was busy working.

A King's day waffle.

April Summer

All of the sudden, summer has arrived. Unfortunately it is supposed to leave us today with a few thunderstorms this afternoon. It has been in the 70s and 80s this week and sunny! The trees suddenly have leaves. The sandbox has been well-used. The girls have had more fun playing in the garden than anything else lately. They even wanted to do that instead of watching TV!

We also got a lot done. Yesterday we even cleaned off the roof and gutter. Naomi wore her flip flops, and wiped out when she walked on a slippery wet patch. Didn't get a chance to wash the car, but maybe the thunderstorms will do that for us. This week we will have to get all ready to go to Switzerland as we are leaving on Saturday!

I should be able to finish up both projects I am currently doing in the woodshop - the bedside tables and re-doing the cracked up coffee table before we leave. The drawers in the bedside table are going together better than I expected although the finger joint detail didn't turn out so well. The interesting bits are hidden by the drawer slides, but the mistakes are a bit obvious. Oh well. It is still pretty cool that I don't need handles - they open by pushing them in.

The new top for the cracked up coffee table.

It was so good, I made this meal twice this week!

A bit of mountain biking.

Cleaning off the roof.

One Week

We have only had a week of nice weather, but it seems like it has been nice for a month now. Just feels normal. This coming week it is supposed to get up to around 80! What a pleasure. The gardens are happy - and Naomi has been happy to be working in them.

Our neighbor's garden is a different story though. We were all very sad on Friday when they cut down the tree in their front yard. Our house feels really exposed now! These people definitely don't belong in this neighborhood.

School has finally calmed down for me. I have a bit more time now to talk with colleagues and relax a bit during the day. I am curious to see how far the school is willing to go next year with their plans for a new kind of education - less traditional and more project based. Seems like not much will change next year...

I transformed an antique crib from Switzerland into a couch this week.

70 Degrees!

We finally got a break. Warm, sunny weather! Yesterday we got ice cream, fired up the grill, and ate outside! What a relief. The gardens are happy too. Lots of little buds getting opening up on the trees. Naomi also put a lot of work into making things look a lot nicer, and with our neighbors tearing all the plants out of their side we keep appreciating what we have even more!

I picked up a small new project this week. It is an antique baby bed from Switzerland that someone wants turned into a big chair/loveseat. Kind of fun. Also great to be able to use the new tools, although the drill is making a funny noise...

School was much more relaxing this week. Partly because of the nice weather on the way, and partly because my projects have been started, so all that prep work is out of the way. Fun to be setting an example for the direction the school wants to go.

Easter celebration with the twin boys.

New drill - the 90 degree attachment is great.

New torx bits.

Progress on the bedside tables.

A Grumpy Easter

This morning I woke up feeling tired and a bit homesick. The weather outside is pure gloom, so that doesn't help. The girls got some fun new toys from the neighbor that they are playing with, and we will paint some easter eggs later on. Sure would be nice to do something outside!

One annoying thing about being self-employed is that if I take time off for holidays, I just have to make it up at some other point. With teaching, I just get the time off! Hopefully next year I will be scheduled for a Monday or a Friday.

Now that I have made a bit of profit with my business, I have some money to spend. I spent a lot of time this week figuring out how to do so. Time to invest in the best. A second drill and some special bits. We shall see if it is worth the money...I am excited to try it out!!

Yesterday we went to the greenhouse to get some plants and mulch for the garden. Naomi has been working a lot on it, and things are starting to look a lot better! Nice that she has been able to enjoy the weather. Tomorrow we will celebrate Easter with our friends in town who have the twin boys. That seems to be the start of a new tradition.

Amélie found something just her size at the greenhouse!