Easter Approaches

2019-04-07Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 09 April to 17 April 2019, posted online 05 October 2019. Lots of strong wind overnight, now it’s pouring with rain. Fall is here!.]

With Finnur in Toronto, it was survival mode for most of the week. Shortly after Finnur arrived back, the school Easter break began, and that Sunday he took the kids to the UK to visit and stay at their granddad’s place for the week, while he worked at the Google office in London.

I remained in Iceland, as I didn’t have any vacation days left, but used the peace and quiet to tidy up two kiddie-rooms that had completely gone over to the trashy-side. (Side note: Why am I solely responsible for the kiddie rooms? How’d that happen?!) (45-ish images total!)

Tuesday 09 April 2019

Emma found a ‘walking-stick’ by daycare, as we were leaving at the end of the day, and insisted on walking home (with me trailing her in the car)!

Wednesday 10 April 2019

About to watch the final run-through of a play that was to be performed during the annual ball for the 8-10th grades of Anna’s school later that evening. Yay for theater-class! The guy on stage it their English/Theater teacher, this was his second year at the school, where he is loved by all!
Anna played the American friend of the girl in yellow, performing her whole role in English.
When I went to pick Emma up later that day, I found her adorable Easter art on the wall.
After we returned all her stuff home, we returned to daycare, but this time Emma biked there (this was turning into a habit). She told me she’d been one of the kids to make this art the day before (it was brighter then too). She’s a persistent one!
One of Anna’s classes (English, I think) asked her to make a lyric music video. As a result, we had these lovely words (DEAD INSIDE!) hanging on our closet doors for a while.

Thursday 11 April 2019

I was curious about the work going on across the street from work (the blue building), on the building that burned, so I walked on over. Turns out they were preparing to install a roof!
SPRING!
Sisters on left-over night. Finnur had arrived from Toronto that morning.
Sewing-club selfie!

Saturday 13 April 2019

Familiar Saturday morning view…
Packing time! Preparations in full swing before Finnur and the kiddos would leave for the UK the following morning.

Sunday 14 April 2019

Snap from Anna from inside Keflavik airport.
I can’t remember why, but I decided I needed to charge the car before heading back home. The shopping center with the speedy charger was completely deserted at 8 in the morning.
I had never noticed these fun light-posts before, right next to the shopping center. Nice!
It was turning out to be a glorious morning.
I chilled for a bit at a cafe and wrote a blog post, before heading home to tiiiidy uuuuup! This was attempt #3 at taping the speaking wires under the window-sill in the living room. Sadly, it didn’t survive for long… I suspect the duct-tape is too old as attempt #1 lasted for quite some time… Maybe a hot-glue-gun will do the trick?
Fun artwork by Ms. Rainbow unearthed from a pile.
Looking niiiiice if I say so myself!
I was tasked with buying varying types of Easter eggs for the family before my own departure to the UK.
So tidy, I could weep. (Sssssh, no talking about the stuff further under the stairs…!)
For dinner I decided to head downtown for some good food.
The place was strangely deserted, apparently the tourist season hadn’t quite started up. But I got a “free” appetizer!
Some lovely fish.
Oh my goodness, that was as good dessert!

Monday 15 April 2019

Mission accomplished!
I spent the time after work preparing to host my own sewing club, only to have a clog form in the downstairs bathroom, causing the floor-level sink-drain to flood. Such excellent timing!! I drove to three stores before I found a de-clogger, which ended up not doing much. (I closed the downstairs bathroom while I had guests, and fixed the problem after they left with a plunger. Yay for plungers!)
Always a lovely gathering!

Tuesday 16 April 2019

In the UK, granddad Gunnar took the kids to the toboggan ride. Bjarki waiting patiently.
Apparently there were some delays, so they had to wait a bit.
Time to go!!
Meanwhile, after work in Iceland, I went to a cafe to steel my nerves for the tidying at home to come.
Since I was alone in the world this week, I had copious mental energy to start a project I’d postponed for a looong time: Anna’s confirmation photo book (yes, that should link to the actual book), from her confirmation TWO YEARS ago.
Hair-photos, from the photo-shoot in our living room. 🙂
Dinner was at Tilveran, which suffered form insufficient coziness. Put wool on the walls people! 🙂
Once home at 8 pm, it was time to attack Bjarki’s room. Mostly it was just stuff that had gathered on random horizontal surfaces (including under the bed) because it had no good home.
By 11 pm I’d found all these Nerf shots! They seemed magical, appearing in places I was sure I’d already cleared them from!
All better now, and all it took was three mad mildly frantic hours…
The top of this chest of drawers had been so full of stuff, no more could be added. Yay for de-cluttering! (And buying a whole second house to offload into!)

Wednesday 17 April 2019

Bjarki’s room turned out to just be a warm-up for the disaster-zone that was Emma’s room. How it got so bad was a combination of time, entropy, and myself not giving a fork since I knew I’d have peace and quiet to attack this mess with everyone out of the house ‘soon’. (Again, why this seems to be solely ‘my’ responsibility is a whole other discussion…!)
A little over an hour later (@17:34) … and I could at least see the floor.
I was in a mad race against time, as I knew I wanted to take some stuff out to the recycling center before they closed at 18:30 (6:30 pm). This was at 18:10.
In the car at 18:25, waiting in line to enter the recycling center. The back seat was also full.
I returned home to finish, and deemed the room ready for human usage at 19:15. Phew! (Thankfully, the room has been kept mostly under control since then.)
I had to make a quick stop at a store, and saw these abominations, and thanked my lucky starts that I didn’t have Emma in tow. Large adorable eyes AAAAAND those sparkly things!!!
Final stop of the day was my mother’s place, where I’d meant to try and fix this clothes hanger, but found that I didn’t have the correct tools with me, and the stores were closed. After a chat, I took off home to pack for my own trip to the UK the following morning!