Eric got back from LA with no major issues and went straight to Freeze Family Foot! We had orthodontist appointments, parent-teacher conferences, and (for me) tons of meetings.

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We share a single parking spot inside a garage with another car that belongs to a friend, so every time we have to get the car out, we have to get his car out, pull ours out, and back his in. I managed to do this myself today, not without a lot of stress. It's a complicated space to back into (several curves around concrete pillars, and it's really dark and you have to go in backwards). Phew. I never want to do that again but I survived.

Dio had a game this morning, losing 2-1 with some controversy because Dio got called for a handball but his arm was firmly against his stomach (protecting himself against an incoming ball). Then that got turned into a penalty kick, which was successful. Even I could tell that the handball was incorrectly called and I know next to nothing about soccer!

Zari's team was 1 player short of forfeiting her game (8 people showed up) and they lost 14-0. Eek!

Eric is in the airport in Los Angeles awaiting his flights home. Then I go to Denmark but just for a super short 1-day conference.

I took Zari and Ivy to the beach this afternoon to read and soak up some sun. I started--and finished--a fun book called "Starter Villain." Really fun, although quite short.

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Coming and going

We had one set of Le Chateau guests leave this morning and another check in this evening. Ivy's sleepover group left at noon, leaving behind a bit of a mess and lots of great memories. And one very tired Ivy, who took a nap in the afternoon!

Zari and Dio watched Mickey 17 this afternoon. I had several things going on so I decided not to go with them. Inga had a soccer game in Antibes, and the transportation was complex. She took a tram to a stop near the airport, and then waited for a teammate to pick her up from there. Then after the game was done, her whole team left and she waited at the field in Antibes for someone from her youth group to pick her up for a bowling activity (Dio was going to, and Ivy would have but she had a soccer game). She and Dio are still gone and probably won't be back for a while.

Then Ivy had to go to her soccer game here in town, so she took the tram. I would have gone with her but I had to wait for the new guests to check in. Then I heard some reports that the opposing team never showed up! I decided to head to ivy's game anyway and see what was going on. I arrived at the perfect time--her team was walking back towards the tram. The other team had never shown up so it was a forfeit in her team's favor.

Our hot water heater has been tripping the main breaker since last night, so we're down to almost nothing. I tried several times to turn it back on yesterday and today, but it would only last a few minutes before we lost power to the entire apartment. Finally this evening I tried again and it's been on for about 30 minutes now. I messaged our plumber because this started happening after they cleaned and de-limed the heater. I really hope that cold showers aren't in our near future!

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Eating rotten wood, leaves, and mushrooms

Ivy is having a birthday sleepover with 5 friends (she wanted more but we had to limit it due to limited sleeping spaces!). They are staying in Le Catamaran and having a great time, from all the thumping and giggling we're hearing.

She helped me make the darling cake: a wood stump with toadstools, oyster mushrooms growing on the side of the log, and ivy leaves. We tried all sorts of things to dye the white chocolate for the leaves green and nothing worked: oil dyes, powdered dyes, matcha powder, even painting the leaves with oil-based food coloring. So in the end, we left them white.

Eric is at an academic conference in Los Angeles, just for the weekend. We were really stressed that he would be detained at the border despite being a legal permanent resident. The current administration is terrifying those who are immigrants, even those who, like Eric, have been in the US for over 30 years.

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Eye exercise class

I found an antique desk and chair for the far side of the kitchen, where I had left space for my "office." The desk was 3 cm too wide for the space. Never fear! I can make it work!

I measured, double measured, and then got out my power tools and trimmed the top of the desk (keeping in mind that the walls are not square, so I was cutting at an angle). I cut it perfectly with 1 mm of tolerance. I have to sand, stain, and seal the edges. And maybe re-dye the leather top...and reupholster the chair seat. You know, just a few small tasks, right?

After my prescription changed and I got new glasses, something felt off when I put my glasses on. I went back to the ophthalmologist and he said the prescription was fine, but maybe my eyes weren't totally coordinated due to the changing prescription. He sent me next door to an "orthoptiste" who hooked me up to this fancy VR machine and sent my eyes through a series of tests.

The result? I need to go to "physical therapy" to re-train my eye muscles to coordinate correctly. 12 sessions minimum, twice a week. I told the kids, "I get to go to eye exercise class!"

Eric's been feeling sick the past few days and his voice is super low. Since his superpower is sleeping when sick, he's also been passed out on the couch a lot. I hope he gets better quickly because he's traveling overseas to a conference tomorrow!

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Happy 12th birthday Ivy!

We started the morning off with the reading of her birth story and opening presents (Olympique de Lyon soccer jersey, shoes, cyanotype kit, and a purse from my mom).

We had several people coming and going to soccer practices this evening. We weren't all back together until 10:30 pm! We waited until most people were home at 9:30 and then had late night cake and candles and singing.

She's having a sleepover this weekend so we'll have party planning and cake baking and all that fun stuff. Tonight's cake was a Forêt-noire from a bakery. Light but rich, not too sweet. Just how I like it!

I had lots of meetings, the last one starting at 10 pm due to having people in Australia, the US, and Canada.

Also a random picture of my spice racks. They are all organized alphabetically. Yes, that is so satisfying to me after 10 years of having a jumbled, overcrowded spice drawer.

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Late night filming

Zari and I are up well past midnight working on college application stuff! (Not initial applications, but post-admission stuff). The last step was to film a video response to a discussion question, 1-2 minutes long, so evaluators can see how she might be in a classroom setting. We have one hour to do it and we'll get it done with 15 minutes to spare.

It was our last day with my parents. They leave at 4 am tomorrow. We're already looking forward to their return next January. We had a delicious dinner (big salad, wild rice soup, chocolate lava cakes).

Sun in the morning, more rain in the early evening. I went on a few walks, one with my parents, Dio, and Ivy.

Zari was gone much of the day at a soccer game in Draguignan. Her team lost 5-1, but honestly it's an improvement over some of the other massacres! She had some shots on goal and I think she felt good about how she played.

Inga had a match this afternoon, winning 3-1 (I think...sometimes the scores get all mixed up in my head!).

Here's a video of last night's crazy rain.

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The day started with pancakes and ended with swing dancing and rain (but not in the rain!). We slept in and woke up at various times, me first and the last two kids at 9:40 when I roused them out of bed. We made pancakes mid-morning.

We finished the last episode of Night Sky and we are very sad there is no season 2. Now we need to find something else to watch.

Eric brought Ivy to a soccer game mid-afternoon, which her team won 8-2, with Ivy scoring 2 goals.

I went grocery shopping with Zari and Dio's assistance, carrying home 270 Euros of groceries. We had to stop several times to rest our arms. Now the kids cannot complain that we have no food! (They will start again in a few days, I am sure.)

We went to a swing dance / party thing this evening. Ivy danced the most. Zari and Dio weren't as thrilled and mostly sat off on the sidelines.

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You can't beat free

I found a dresser via the online classifieds that was originally listed for 30 Euros. Then the seller said--"tell you what, I'm cleaning out my grandpa's apartment. I'll just give it to you for free." I figured that was pretty low risk!

And it's actually very pretty and in good shape! Eric and I picked it up today and put it in the bedroom of Le Chateau. Now there is finally a dresser and an armoire!

Crazy wind today. All of the parks were closed, shutters were banging, roof tiles and gutters were blowing off. Part of our street got closed off and the firetruck was there with its crane extended 6 stories to secure something loose near the roof's edge.

Then it started pouring in the evening when Eric and Dio were at soccer practice!

We had dinner + games together with another family who are friends of my parents. Their kids--3 boys from 1st to 7th grade--LOVE playing with our kids. They have begged us to come visit them in Florida when we are next in the States.

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I started the day off with a run (sprint intervals) around the port and back. I'm glad I got out. I've just been so unmotivated lately, in part because I have so much work that it feels hard to justify taking time away to exercise. But the work will never be done, no matter how fast I complete my to-do list.

I made Toulouse sausages roasted with fennel, mustard, thyme, and red wine. French comfort food. We also had aubergines à la provençale for our vegetable. It's very close to ratatouille, just a bit heavier on the eggplants. We made chocolate chip cookies after dinner.

What else? Zari is still gone at soccer practice, Inga is showering, and Dio and Ivy are playing Brawlstars together. Eric is watching a soccer match, Francs vs. Croatia.

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My parents have more visitors, although this family is staying at their own Airbnb since they are a family of 5. They arrived early in the morning and I joined them for lunch at our favorite restaurant, L'eau de Vie. So delicious!

I had lots of meetings sprinkled throughout the day.

We took family pictures in the late afternoon with an Australian photographer who has recently moved here from Italy. She was looking for families to photograph to add to her portfolio. I'm excited to see the pictures!

Inga made the first round of selection for a special regional soccer team. They started with 60 players and ended with 30. There will be another cut to get the final group to 15.

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Earthquake

Well, that was exciting--we had an earthquake in Nice this evening! Nothing super strong (magnitude 4.1) but it's the first one I've ever felt in my life.

Zari was in class and she said the auditorium windows began to rattle and the building shook. She thought at first it was an explosion.

The other kids and Eric were at soccer and are super disappointed that they missed it--they were driving at the time.

Zari got really sick yesterday (fever, chills, body aches, headache, sore throat) and spent most of the day on the couch. She is feeling better today, enough to give a big presentation in one of her classes.

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Fun with family finances

I used Mint intermittently, but for the past several decades I've mostly done our family finances the old-fashioned way: Excel and/or calculators. But after doing taxes this last year, I decided it was time to level up and find a tool that would help me keep track of and categorize everything.

Now I am really missing Mint--it was free and more than functional for what I needed.

This weekend I've been on the hunt for finance tracking software. Free would have been nice but there are very few totally free services out there.

I do have a Fidelity account and they have a really great free program, Full View. I was hoping I could make do with that, but it doesn't allow customization of categories and it doesn't sync with Paypal.

I finally settled on Simplifi and I think it will be great. I love having all of our accounts, assets, investments, etc all in one place. Everything is imported and categorized. (This is not an ad--I paid for Simplifi just like everyone else!).

What else? We started the morning with a pancake breakfast, as per our usual tradition. We ran out of maple syrup, which caused much sadness among the Freeze children. The sun was out and I took my usual walk up to Cimiez and back.

Eric took the kids for an impromptu Freeze Family Foot this afternoon, because Inga has a conflict tomorrow evening. I stayed home and (surprise!) worked on financial stuff.

Zari is memorizing a presentation about the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and studying for an exam about reproductive cycles of various types of organisms. I helped Inga study for a physics test about resistance and resistors. Ivy had some studying for math. Dio...well, he doesn't have a lot going on tomorrow, so he has been playing Brawl Stars! Eric just got out of a long meeting regarding La Maison Baldwin, which he has been helping out.

My parents and their friends just got back from a fun, if water-logged, trip to Italy: Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca. My mom is the expert on navigating European train systems, far more than me at this point.

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Three halves

I went to Ivy's soccer game at Cavigal, which was a friendly match between the U11 and U13 girls. They had one half, then a short halftime break, then the second half. After that was done, I figured the game was over. But none of the parents were leaving the bleachers. Weird.

Then everyone went back on the field and played a third half! I was so confused!

Turns out that they kept switching up the teams after each 25-minute half, so it was like 3 mini games. No matter what team Ivy was on, her team won every time, sometimes by a lot.

I was quite chilled by the end, though. I dressed in several layers but the sun disappeared behind clouds at the end.

Inga also had a game, in Grasse, and it was pouring during the first half. She came home chilled and a bit grumpy. I don't blame her. They won 14-0.

We had time, finally, to watch a show together. We saw two episodes of Night Sky. One more to go! We also baked chocolate chip cookies, which turned out perfectly! I only let the kids have one each, despite vigorous protests. (They'd also had a pain au chocolate earlier in the day, so they weren't deprived of sweets by any means.)

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I only had like 4 meetings today! Haha.

More rain today. Soccer games tomorrow for Inga and Ivy and Eric. Zari and Dio and I will probably go to another movie!

We got a "panier surprise" via 2Good2Go--I haven't done this in a while--and it was excellent! 6 pastries, 1 fruit/yogurt/granola cup, 1 large whole grain baguette, 2 smaller baguettes, 3 large sandwiches, and 1 large salade Niçoise...for 4 Euros total! I should do this more often.

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6 meetings

I had 6 meetings scheduled today from 10:30 am - 10:30 pm. Phew! Definitely a record day, or close to it, for me.

I got enough motivation to do my sprint intervals this morning. And we had sun! Rain arrived early evening but it was glorious to have hours of sunlight. And dry laundry.

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I'm so tired that I can't even think of what to write. Soccer afternoon for half the family. Lots of computer-based work for me, much of it feeling like swimming against the current (trying to figure things out but with slow progress). I have meetings all day and into the late evening tomorrow! I need to make sure I exercise or otherwise get outside.

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Best in show

Zari's drawing of Ivy was submitted to an art show at our public library. Zari's drawing won 1st place... AND, Tri-Kappa Choice... AND, Best in Show. We just got the news today.

More rain today. Dio, Inga, and Eric came back from soccer practice totally soaked. I'm doing laundry but it will be wetter after I hang it up!

My parents and their visitors will be in Italy for a week, and unfortunately the forecast is several centimeters of rain each day! Normally the weather is sunny and gorgeous this time of year, with the occasional day or rain.

I've made tremendous progress on my to-do list today. Of course, it always has more tasks being added...but hey, it counts for something, right?

This evening, Ivy's stomach started hurting. She was curled up in pain, whimpering and crying. I gave her a hot water bottle and tried to distract her. Finally she puked up her dinner and then started feeling better. Phew. That was no fun.

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My brain is really foggy tonight due to fasting. I'm definitely feeling it more than usual today!

I had work-related errands this morning (and I saw the sun!). Eric and I took a walk in the afternoon before the rain started up again. We had to cancel Freeze Family Foot.

Ivy got really frustrated this evening because she wanted to "do" something (make/craft). We got out all sorts of craft supplies but we either didn't have all of the supplies for a project, or she tried something and it didn't work out.

Le Catamaran recently opened up and I was able to show it to my friend. I love that apartment! It's just so perfectly cozy. It's fun to revisit it after some time away.

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Wind and rain

All of the city parks were closed today because of the wind. It wasn't extraordinarily windy. We always laugh when things close down because of wind.

It started raining mid-afternoon and hasn't stopped. We have two loads of laundry getting washed again outdoors on the lines. Oh well, the price we pay for living here. Zari played in the rain and they tied 0-0, which is a vast improvement over some of their losses.

We all ate together with my parents and their visitors: green beans, Tuscan butter gnocchi, and lemon cheesecake. So delicious.

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While Eric, Ivy, and Inga had a super soccer Saturday and were gone all day until 6 pm, the other half of us had a nice lazy day. Well, lazy for the kids. I did taxes! I got them off by early afternoon and there was much rejoicing.

Then the 3 of us went to a movie. Zari has a Pass Culture, which gives her several hundred dollars towards cultural events, books, performances, movies, etc. She and Dio went on her pass and I bought a ticket. We saw "A Real Pain," which was interesting and definitely not what I had expected. But still fun to get out and see a movie!

My parents and their visitors went to Èze and Villa Kerylos today, then bought pizza at the local pizza joint, Pizza Pili. We ran into them taking a walk on the Promenade des Anglais after the movie.

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Taxes

On top of all my other duties, I've been doing our taxes. It's not an easy feat because we have so many expenditures and receipts to track and of course I'm doing it all by hand. But...it's almost done and ready to send off to our tax person!

Dinner was sauteed vegetables and hamburgers (Ivy's request) and some cookies I found at Aldi. Fasting day for me so I got to prep but not eat!

Dio's soccer cleats came completely apart. After multiple gluings, they could not be resuscitated so he and Eric went shoe shopping today. It look a long time but he finally found a pair that fit well.

It's feeling like spring here. It comes on slowly and gradually. But mornings are now 9-10 degrees instead of 4-7. I ran without a jacket or gloves (which I usually take off, even in the winter, once I'm warmed up).

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My day:

yawn run shower work taxes meetings dinner socialize read write yawn

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My parents have their second set of visitors. They'll be hosting guests for almost the rest of their stay! We all ate dinner together, managing to cram 10 people around our dining table.

Inga's flooring in the back of her room has 2 coats of finish installed. I'll see if it needs a third coat tomorrow. Then we're mostly wrapped up for home improvement projects this year, except for the kitchen counters and perhaps some repairs in the staircase and common areas. Maybe. We keep saying we want to get to that but other things have gotten in the way.

I have lost my motivation to exercise lately. I love getting out for walks and running errands, but properly "exercising" has not been very appealing. I should, and I like how I feel when I do.

Anyway it's late and I'm tired. Bonne nuit!

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Ivy woke up feeling much better. She was so relieved because her class had a Carnaval party and people could dress up. She was a spear fisher, dressed in a wetsuit, diving mask, weight belt, accroche poisson (with paper fish attached!), and flippers. She won a prize for the most original costume.

I got the flooring in the back of Inga's room done--first I had to fix the wood cleats to the wall with threaded rods, then fit and glue the plywood in place. We were going to install hardwood flooring over the plywood, but honestly it's such nice plywood that I think it will look good just with a few coats of finish.

Dinner was "what's in the fridge?" risotto (mushrooms, Toulouse sausages, red onions, white wine, parmesan cheese) plus roasted cauliflower. It turned out pretty well.

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Happy 14th birthday, Inga! (yesterday)

We had a busy weekend and birthday. On Saturday, both girls had soccer games. Then we had a HUGE gathering at our house with 4 other families and all of their kids for a potluck dinner. It was incredibly fun and incredibly noisy.

We all then walked together to the beach to watch the burning of the king and the fireworks.

Then yesterday, Inga's birthday, we started the day with a pancake breakfast. Dio then had a soccer game in the morning (winning 3-0, which I watched). Zari had a game in the afternoon, so we made sure to do the ritual reading of the birth story and opening presents before Zari left.

Later in the afternoon, we had a smaller gathering with just one other family. They arrived as Inga was starting to pipe the decorations on the cake, so we ended up decorating, then singing/eating/opening presents, and then at the very end, sending the kids to the park.

After they left, we had a delicious dinner cooked by Eric: steamed artichokes dipped in cream and blanquette de veau.

I can't believe she's already 14 and so tall! Sigh...

Today she and I went clothes shopping after school. I bought her a pair of pants and a sweater and she bought herself a zip-up sweatshirt with her birthday money.

Ivy came home at lunch very sick and hardly moved off the couch after that, wrapped in several layers of blankets and shivering and complaining that her whole body hurt.

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