Plants & Graduations While Solo Parenting

2019-05-18Friends, Us Standard

[Photos from 18 May – 28 May 2019, posted online 10 November 2019. There’s a huge storm heading our way, disrupting Finnur’s plan to fly to California today…]

Every year I pay a tariff to the gardening gods, and buy a bunch of summer flowers, because I’ve never managed to get my $hit together enough to grow my own. This year we got flowers from Ikea.

Finnur went off to work in London for a week, missing Emma’s “graduation” ceremony from daycare. That also meant I was responsible for dinner, sigh. Emma went to visit her school-to-be, Anna tackled her last exams at her ex-school-to-be, random spring walks continued, we attended a junior college graduation, and basked in the sun, not knowing there would be zero rain for six weeks! (50-ish images total)

Saturday 18 May 2019

Emma helping to plant plants by the wall Finnur spent all last summer rebuilding. Notice that he meticulously kept the top stones in order so the mossy growth would look good once assembled.
A subset of the flowers we bought. Some fared better than others in the rain-less summer that we ended up having.
Potted plants!
We also added a bit of color to the corner of our lot.
Later than night we watched the entirety of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest!
Smiling at some of the antics on the screen.

Monday 20 May 2019

As Finnur The Chef was far far away, dinner became my responsibility (ugh). I planned to by some sweet potatoes, but this is what I found. Double ugh!
Next up was the fish-store… Once inside I realized I hadn’t visited it in months!
Fetching kiddos from the newly fake-grassed football field as it was time for their cousin to go home. (The field used to be a gravel field, and nobody used it, but now it’s super popular.)

Tuesday 21 May 2019

Emma and the rest of the incoming class of first graders were invited to come visit the school, and meet their teachers and see their rooms.
There was not a lot of new info as Emma’s our kid number three at the school, but oh well.
Picking Emma up from her room. They’d gone with their teachers, while the parents got to sit and listen to more info.
Dinner was at the Sushi Train that night. Bjarki felt fine afterwards.

Wednesday 22 May 2019

Prepping Emma for her daycare “graduation” ceremony.
The kids got flowers, and pendants with words about them. There was singing and a few short speeches.
Afterwards we ate a lot of good stuff!
The (slightly out of focus) sisters.
There was so much food!
Looking over Emma’s binder from her years at the school.
Once home I took some photos in the backyard.
Hugging her flower!
As Finnur’s allergic to grass seeds, I used the opportunity while he was away to mow the grass for the second time that spring!
Raking the grass, the good old fashioned way. I got a lot less grass to discard that way than having a bag on the mower.

Thursday 23 May 2019

Enjoying the gorgeous weather outside at work.
Dinner that night was at Ikea…
Walking to our car in one of the charging spots.
Phone photos are getting seriously good.

Friday 24 May 2019

I took the kids to celebrate the junior collega graduation of Soffía and Ágúst’s fifth oldest child.
Anna and myself squinting in the sun.
There was a good crowd of people there.
Yum!
That evening I went on my first ever Friday-night parent-patrol, just in time for Anna’s graduation.

Saturday 25 May 2019

On the advice of people in the know, I bought myself non-wobbly sneakers for lifting in.
Anna was perplexed while studying for an exam.
Gardening continued, the damn grass loves to hide inside that plant!
Self-sown birch plants, which I rescued into a container.
A little bit of progress!

Sunday 26 May 2019

Yet another gorgeous day?!? We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the start of a 6-week long drought.
My first attempt at ‘outside’ braids, Anna’s required hairstyle for an upcoming gymnastics show.
Banana pancakes by Anna!
Finnur arrived home and surveyed his domain!
He brought chocolate for us! 🙂

Monday 27 May 2019

Monday morning began with a staff meeting to explain the upcoming dual registration of the company on two stock markets.
That night I managed to convince Guðrún to come out on an evening walk with me!
The stream that runs close to her house. There seem to be streams everywhere!
Sunset-ish at 23:07.

Tuesday 28 May 2019

The rebuilding of the fire-struck-structure went well for a while. (It’s stalled now as of October.)
I can’t remember why we were vacuuming the house at 3 pm on a Tuesday, but apparently we were?!? I think Emma may have been sick the day before, so this was her ‘recovery day’?
In the yard with the rescued birch plants.
Playing with water in a plastic bag, as I weeded.
Classic tea-time fare.
Emma will outcool me by a mile when she grows up. The sisters were responsible for the temporary tattoos, but I think Emma chose the locations.
The rescued birch plants at the end of the day.