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.

Zutphen

I went into the city a couple times this week. The first was for a nice dinner with some friends from school. We went to this place where there is no menu, the guy just cooks what he likes and shares some with you for dinner. There are only a few tables. He lives above the place and uses mostly plant based ingredients. It turned out to be less than 15 euro/pp. Cool old building too!

The next morning I was back for a study day. We saw a documentary about High Tech High in San Diego in an old theater downtown. Depressing how a lot of the teachers really missed the point. The system here is so rigid that it will be quite a challenge to change how we are doing things at school. Nice to be a part of it though.

We have started our fall break. Tomorrow we will take the girls skiing again. I could definitely use some rest, but those girls make that difficult. Hopefully I will get a chance to do a bit of writing. I have been making a lot of progress with that lately. I want to try to submit my short story this week. The novel definitely still needs some work though...

Dinnertime.

Zutphen in the morning.

Naptime on the way to get groceries.

Moving Up

This week I had a couple talks with the management at work about what I have been doing and they were really happy about it. I mentioned that the work is more in line with the higher pay scale, and they agreed. Looks like I will be starting on a promotion. Would be nice to get a bit more money, and I enjoy the tasks, so that is good news. Definitely will be a lot of work though...tough to fit it into the little time that I have.

Yesterday we took a trip to Amsterdam to visit Ron and Edith. Ron cooked us a really nice dinner, but our stomachs definitely aren't used to meat and oil. Amélie peed in the bed last night, probably because of the change in routine, so nobody slept well.

The weather has been strangely beautiful this week. 70s and sunny. Yesterday was around 80. Had to use the air condition in the car all the way home last night - and we didn't get home until 9! Good morning for the Bosrand.

Naomi took the girls to the windmill for a special treat on Friday.