Out with the old, in with the... old?

If you've read my previous post, this one might seem strange...

Yesterday was Queensday here in Holland. A national holiday with all kinds of festivities. Sort of a tradition for me, is to scour the "Vrijmarkten" (thriftmarkets) for all kinds of secondhand goodies.
Since we moved to Almere, the scouring starts the evening before Queensday, because the thriftmarkets start at 6PM here.
Queensday itself was spent in Harderwijk, where I grew up and my mom still lives.

Hubby went to Amsterdam with a friend and I hung Joshua in the ringsling for my shopping trip. He fell asleep after about an hour of looking at everything. So many new impressions...



















This is what I scored:


Almere

Harderwijk

As you can probably guess, I am veeeery happy... Especially with the storehouse in the first picture and the vintage Acitivity Centre. They were such great finds!
(Most of the books (except for the Dick Bruna ones) are for the bookcrate at work)

Now I'm of to the couch for some crocheting-time...!

Love,

Caroline

Sunday Recap #4

This week wasn't really eventful...
- Tuesday we had a study day at work. I spend the morning being absolutely annoyed, because I found out the "teachers" hadn't made any progress with teaching my colleagues AT ALL in the last half year...
I wasn't the only one who was annoyed, a lot of my colleagues thought the whole morning was one big waste of (very precious) time...
The afternoon was reserved for filling out reportcards, and since my duo and I didn't have to fill them out, we had a lot of time to organize other stuff.
(My duo did spend some time reading reportcards, since we do have to do the parent-teachertalks....)

- I had a really fun conversation with someone from HiPP's distributor. They sent me a big box of organic babyfood for a project I'm working on... I was almost literally jumping up and down when I opened the box...!

- I read about 60 pages in "Groen Doen" and was inspired to do some research of my own.
I'm bloghopping organic and ecological weblogs, which is an interesting experience. I discovered loads of handy things, but I also scratch myself behind the ears at some of the things I read...
Making your own toothpaste? Using reuseable ladypads for monthly hygene? Not really my cup of tea... But a showercoach and a standby-killer are more up my alley...
I also discovered lots of sites which seem interesting, but need some more looking at, before I "promote" them here..
Two I am already a big fan of are: BabyBeGood and EcoMama...

- Joshua started seriously rolling on to his side!

- I made a cute card for someone who needed a little support... You know who you are!

- I made hubby some birthday breakfast... :D

- I figured out I need a different strategy for my Sunday Recaps...
Up until now (including this post), I write my SR's on Sunday.
But a lot of the stuff that seems interesting during the week, has been forgotten on Sunday...
So coming week, I'm going to make small notes, which can easily be uploaded on Sunday. I hope this works a bit better...

So this is it for this week...

Love,

Caroline

Sunday Recap #3

This week:
- My monday at work was a very pleasant surprise...
My new duopartner prepped everything for me, so I could really easily start the week with my our kids. There was a nice list of important stuff, the craftsupplies were ready and she switched names on the tasklist for me...

- My new boots arrived. I was a little bit weary about the size, but they're okay. I do have blisters after wearing them for one whole day. The kids at school really liked them too.

- I made arrangements with Andries' parents, for them to babysit Joshua every monday. They offered a few times and I didn't think they were really serious but they were.
I'm soooo grateful that they want to do this, which means Joshua gets to grow up and spend loooots of time with his grandparents.
Now to figure out a way for my mom to spend more time with our little guy, but that shouldn't be a big problem...

- I didn't read any books, too busy with other stuff...

- Rebekka and Sietse came over for a visit. Sietse playes with Joshua's Fisher Price garage and house. And Rebekka and I talked about lots of things...

- I recieved an e-mail from the lady who sold me the bathseat last week. Her husband gave it away, so the returned me my money.
I searched for another one on Marktplaats and I found lots, placed a bid on a bathseat with more play options and the next day I recieved an e-mail that I could buy this one.
I payed immediately and this seat was sent to us.
The day it came in the mail, I put Joshua in the bathtub in his new seat and he loved it!

- We went shopping for some babysupplies to leave at Andries' parents. A bottle, a pacifier (I <3 oma), a bib (I <3 opa), daipers, a bottle of organic juice (diksap), some organic fruitpurees and some milkpowderjars.

- We did some more work on the bathroom. Still a WIP, so no pictures...

- We removed 6 of the glass shelves that were in our hallway and had our Citroën modelcars on it. I'm in the process of photographing them, so I can put them on Marktplaats.
We're just done with them...

- My mom was admitted to the hospital. She hadn't been able to eat a normal meal in about three weeks and kept throwing up or at least feel nauseous. She had a lot of pain in her stomach.
To make a long story short: they removed het gall-bladder this Friday. It was inflamed and full of galstones.
She was released today, and has to take it veeeery easy. But the pain is gone and she can eat again, albeit small portions...

- This afternoon Andries' parents came to pick up Joshua (they were in Almere, so it saved us a drive to Putten) and now it's just the two of us at home...
It's kind of strange, no evening bottle, no bedtime songs, no watching him sleep... Just quiet....
Andries has already phoned his parents to hear if the little man is settled in....

So, that was my week...
How was yours?

Love,
Caroline

PS I also had a conversation with someone over the phone, which I'm absolutely ecstatic about, but I can't give any details about...! You have NO IDEA how hard it is to keep my mouth shut... ! ! !

WW: I hate being a teacher... ;-P

But thankfully the summerholidays start soon... REALLY soon...

Time off....

That's what I really need... Time off...

Last week has been crazy. Lots of stuff going on at work, introduction-afternoon with the (new)kids and "new" teachers. Fun, but not really well organised this year, so it was kinda hectic...

My substitute and I put the kids right to work on the birthdaycalendar for next year and it's gonna turn out so cool...!
We made frames with a crown on top, some glittery jewels and their names and birthdays below.
In the frame is gonna go a picture of each kid, I took those that afternoon...
There are only two new kids in our class and 6 that are transferring from the "start"class (instroomgroep)..
We're starting with 21 kids (for now, who knows how many parents enroll their kids at the last moment).

It's really weird, I'm constantly talking about "we", but my substitute is starting this class on her own in the new schoolyear and we're all really hoping she can stay after that as my co-worker (duo-partner), but nothing is sure at the moment, since there are LOTS of cuts in educationbudgets...
Which means that there are lots of teachers who have to find another spot and are in "mobility".
They have to be placed at other schools, so we're hoping everyone is placed in January, so my substitute can stay with us...!

It's really fun prepping everything with her, since we're on the same page with so much things. I thought it would be really hard for me to let things go. I'm really a "pull the strings" kinda person.
But she's really laid back and that makes is soooo much easier for me..

We also had parent-teacher conferences, not too much hard conversations... But still tiring for me.
And I started cleaning and clearing stuff in my classroom, so my substitute won't have to rummage through my junk when she starts...

So after work, each day, I had to nap for at least an hour so I could do some stuff around the house and just have a nice evening with my husband....
That's why I haven't been really active blogging this week...
Tomorrow I plan to do a post about my zoo-visit with my niece (lots of pictures) and after that it'll probably another disappearingact for the upcoming week...
Last week of work...!

Love,

Caroline

MM: Cheating...

Since I don't really have the time to take a mirror-picture and my laptop has a webcam, I'm cheating today!

Can you see the stress on my face? I sure can see it, but I like the "glow" the webcam gives me...

Just two more reportcards to type and then it's on to other stressfull stuff...
Just three more weeks (13 schooldays) to go...

Love,

Caroline

EDIT: They're done... ! ! ! (patting myself on the back...)

Aaargh....

Absolutely no creative time for me...

I'm swamped with schoolwork. Reportcards, getting everything ready for the teacher who'll replace me after the summerbreak, transfer-forms for the kids who're going to the next grade.
Last week we had two very hectic, fun-filled days of celebrating. Which took lots of preperationtime on forehand and organisation on the days themself...

And with only nine more weeks to go, 'till my due-date, my body is sooooo tired... So at the moment it's school (work), napping when I get home, dinner, more work on the couch or at the dinnertable and bedtime for me...

Just three more weeks to go and then it's summerbreak. And I have planned lots to do in my free time (when I'm not napping, that is ;D)

Love,

Caroline