Spring Tasks / Concerts / Work-Wind-Down
[Photos taken 01 – 19 May 2024, posted online 10 September 2024. I have sent in my first job application in since I quit my job in the spring, as I finally stumbled upon a job posting that spoke to me.]
After the weirdly high number of trips abroad in March and April, there was finally a bit of peace and quiet to start on “spring tasks”. Branches got trimmed, planks were screwed, music was listened to.
I also struggled with how long I would stay on at my job, as my brain toggled between “really need a break” and “really want to finish these tasks”. As the month passed, my stress levels increased (quitting is hard!), and I tried to compensate by going to the gym, which helped a bit.
Finnur had a lot of errands to do at the summer house (new fire-place!), before departing for California on a work-trip, so I ended up cooking a lot more dinners than usual. We also started apartment hunting for mom, as her old apartment was no longer a good fit.
Labor Day – Wednesday 01 May 2024
Nature Running Course / Party Prepping
[Photos taken 01 – 13 January 2024, posted online 26 June 2024. Hopefully the last wet day for a few days today… oh, and the eruption is over.]
January is typically a slow month, with energy restored after lounging over the holidays. This time around I’d signed up for a nature-running course (!!!), and began prepping for a fancy party that we were hosting at the end of January. Life could have been calmer.
We also bought an “adult” guitar for Bjarki, I resumed gymming, and we put all the yule stuff away. We even managed a dinner or two with friends!
Monday 01 January 2024 – New Year’s Day
Endless Food Pics / Shed Completed / Yule Prep
[Photos taken 01 – 30 November 2023, posted online 12 June 2024. Yesterday was the first day of volcano-smog in the capital area from the ongoing volcanic eruption close to the Blue Lagoon, that began two weeks ago (30 May 2024).]
Winter kept coming, it got quite cold, and I began to feed the birds, in part to get the free nature TV going in the backyard! With the added darkness, the outside lights went up, and the November sales were helpful in getting me to buy Christmas presents early.
Finnur had a bunch of tasks to complete at the summer house, so I ended up responsible for more dinners than usual. I took photos of them to prove I was attempting to keep the kids alive. There are also food pics from the summer house, work, a birthday, and at least one restaurant. I wonder if I was just hungry?
The garbage bin shed was quietly completed, I guess I’d run out of wood-photographing-juice. However, screwing in the missing half of the screws would have to wait until May/June, for no real good reason.
The month ended with a mass-layoff at my workplace, which was not a pleasant experience, although I kept my job. Bjarki’s band recital a couple of days later made life a little better though.
Wednesday 01 November 2023
Bjarki Plays @Nótan, Ion Hotel & Visits
[Photos taken 19 – 25 March 2022, posted online 20 July 2022. The two living room walls are now painted, but I’m thinking the new white border around the little windows needs to go… Waiting for Finnur to opine. Have moved my focus to painting parts of the kitchen, and touched off by a broken dimmer knob, am replacing all the black electrical fronts with white ones.]
Every spring the music schools in the country host a series of concerts, dubbed Nótan (The Note), and each school sends an act to perform at one concert. This year, Bjarki’s school asked him and his play-together group (that had met like 5-6 times) to play. He was super nervous, but got through it in one piece.
Straight afterwards, Finnur and I drove out to the country to stay at a hotel out in the boondoggles, to make use of a gift-card I’d given Finnur for Christmas. It looked like 75% of the other guest were also there redeeming the same gift-card, hehe.
We managed to visit grandma on her birthday (very rare occurrence), there was some exercising, Emma got her classroom laser-tag birthday wish, Anna got started on summer plants, and people came for dinner, in our house!! (50-ish images total)
Saturday 19 March 2022
Bad Weather, Good Progress
[Photos taken 08 – 16 December 2019, posted online 31 May 2020. It’s yet another three day weekend, I’m getting a bit too used to them now!]
December marched on. The Sun deserted us for longer and longer periods of time, but life went on. There were family gatherings, Bjarki performed at the his yule-tide recital, I got a new view of a gymnastics hall, and the weather put its mark on all our lives.
Thankfully, the bathroom renovations marched on, and we finally had an operational toilet and shower. (No sink though.) Feeling inspired, a storage “solution” was installed in the garage, to lessen the chaos there. (50-ish images total)
Sunday 08 December 2019
May 2017 Runs On
[Photos taken on 15 May to 20 May 2017, posted online 14 23 September. Spent a long weekend on a work-trip in N-Ireland! (Now two weeks ago!)]
The Ingress game (close cousin to Pokemon Go, played by going to certain locations with your phone) posted a challenge, which involved hunting down about 400 locations in two weeks (before 21 May), and leave markers behind.
Something about that sounded like a good idea, so Finnur and I found ourselves in random locations either after the kids had gone to bed, or taking “the long way home” after work. Very little else got done during those two weeks, and yes, blog posts were put on hold.
Photos got taken, and of course life continued on as usual. Bjarki played his guitar at a spring concert, I tried going out on jogs again (only to hurt my Achilles tendon even more), there was reading, we got visitors, and I even went to a party! (40 images total and 1 video)
Monday 15 May 2017
The view while out on a lunch time jog.
Kids’ Spring Concerts
[Images and videos from 17-18 May 2016, posted online 18 May 2016. 9 pm feels like 5 pm daylight wise.]
Since I last blogged (27 April), Finnur’s traveled to England with his football-buddies for a long weekend, I’ve traveled to Prague with my sewing club girlfriends for a long weekend, and we spent the last weekend (also a long one!) at the summer-cottage by Laugarvatn!
Add to that the usual mix of full-time work, three kiddos, and spring looming with a thousand-and-one projects that seemingly need doing (but don’t get done, they just loom), and there is little to no energy left for frivolous things like, say, blogging.
But, I’m putting my fingers down to post that the big kiddos just finished their spring performances, with Anna on piano, and Bjarki on guitar.
Anna is not a big fan of performing, so she chose a simple short-ish song. The final decision on whether she’ll continue next year will be made on Friday, but most likely this is it for her formal music education.
Bjarki, on the other hand, is less jaded, and is game for another year of guitar.
Enough chit-chat, on with the media! (2 videos and 4 images total)
Tuesday 17 May 2016
Anna went first with “Bláu augun þín”. I apologize for the substandard sound quality!