Circuit panoramique des Gorges du Verdon

Despite rain half the day, we had a super outing. We let the kids sleep in and had a slow morning. We were on the road at noon, heading from Aiguines towards Castellane. We drove along the length of the Gorges du Verdon on the Rive Gauche (on a map, the southern side of the canyon). It was...astounding. I've been to the US Grand Canyon and while it was enormous, it was so big that you couldn't ever see the river. And it was all dry and brown.

This canyon is also immense, but you can see all the way from the top to the bottom. The water is normally bright turquoise, although today is was a muddy green due to the extensive rain. And it's lush and green here, instead of dead and brown. So this has a thumbs-up for me, way more than the US Grand Canyon!

I still can't believe this is just 2 hours away from us.

We took several stops along the way to look at the view and take pictures. The road was VERY winding, with a curve or hairpin turn every few seconds. We had some children feeling carsick but no one puked!

We finally made it to Castellane, a beautiful medieval village with a church perched on the enormous cliff towering above the village. We hiked up to the top, going up first via the path on the back of the mountain. That turned into quite the adventure as 90% of the trail was literally a stream! (Normally it's not--the kids went camping here 2 years ago and it was just a rocky path). It was fine for us but more challenging for my sister's youngest, who is just 6 years old. But we made it up. There used to be a whole walled city and castle, but King Louis XI or IX destroyed it in the 15th century. So now there are just a few ruins left, plus the church on the very top.

We came down the path on the front of the cliff, which was mostly dry. Then we wandered around the village, bought ice cream and juice at a grocery store, and looked at real estate advertisements in the store windows. It's tempting to buy a small maison de village that needs restoring...

We drove back on the Rive Droite (northern side) so in all, we got the full panoramic loop. Amazing. It would be so fun to be here in the summer and do rafting, kayaking, and canyoning. And more hiking of course!

I had several work meetings as soon as I walked in the door. But I was able to take some time off to go explore our little village with Eric and Zari. It's really cold today, like way colder than it is in the winter in Nice. But it's supposed to be lots warmer tomorrow and sunny. We're going to do a hike along the bottom of the canyon. It will be longer but not too much elevation gain, so I think even the little ones will be ok.

We pushed our own kids super hard when they were small, and they all did brilliantly. Some of our most memorable hikes were 14 km (Corsica) & 11 (Mer de Glace in Chamonix, 1000 meters elevation gain) when Ivy was 2 & 3 years old. Ivy was on my back but everyone else did the full hike. Inga was 4 for the Corsica hike and she still remembers doing it all on her own.

I haven't had time to put together any videos, but here's the church we hiked up to, as seen from the village.

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Grand Canyon of Europe

We're spending 4 days at the Gorges du Verdon, the largest canyon in Europe. It's only a 2-hour drive away from us, and I can't believe we've never gone in 10+ years! (Well, I can believe--soccer makes it hard to get away).

Unfortunately it's been extremely cold and rainy and today was 100% rain all day long. That didn't phase us, though. We still got out and even did a little hike. We drove past Lac de Ste-Croix (brilliant turquoise water, even in gloomy rain and mist) and caught a glimpse of the canyon as it opened into the lake. We visited a charming perched village, Moustiers-Ste-Marie, set alongside dramatic cliffs. There was a chapel up the ravine, just a 15 minute hike up.

This village is a center of faïence (white-glazed pottery, often then painted with decorative designs--there's even a museum dedicated to it!

Once we'd seen the village, it was time to check into our lodging. We both reserved little townhouses in another charming perched village on the Rive Gauche. Ours is tiny and cozy. Downstairs is a living/dining/kitchen and upstairs is a sort of sleeping loft, accessed via a ladder/staircase. Once you're upstairs, there a bedroom for us, a bathroom & WC, and an open room with a double bed and another sleeping loft above it with a double bed and a single bed. The kids love it.

My sister and her family are staying down the street in a Hobbit house! The doorway is only about 4' tall and you climb up into it, like you're climbing through a window! But once you're inside, the roof slopes up and it is a spacious apartment with vaulted ceilings and exposed rock walls.

Some of the cousins are house-swapping. Dio is staying over with the oldest cousin (Inga's age) and his next younger sister is staying with us. She and Ivy and Inga are giggling away.

Tomorrow we'll be exploring the Rive Gauche, working our way to Castellane (weather permitting). Then on Friday it's supposed to be sunny so we'll do a big hike.

After dinner we all gathered at my sister's place and played games, including the winking murder game, whatever it's called. I even got them to play a few rounds of the "1 minute game," where everyone lies on the floor with their eyes closed and silently counts to 1 minute, then raises their hand when they think it's been a minute. The littlest cousin only made it to 25 seconds! Eric's parents used to do this game all the time, probably to get a break from the noise of 7 children.

We have shoes drying on top of radiators...jackets hanging up to dry...hoping for a bit less rain tomorrow!

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A pain in the eyes

My eye exercise class leaves me with headaches. It's normal and goes away by the next day. But it's sure annoying!

We're packing to visit the Gorges du Verdon for 4 days. Unfortunately it's been cold and rainy and the forecast says more of the same. We'll hike as much as we can.

Zari finished her last day of university classes. She has lots of exams between now and June, but no more classes! I can't believe how quickly that went.

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I felt feverish last night but a bit more functional during the day today. But I opted to stay home while my sister took her family and Ivy and Dio to Eze, Villa Kerylos, and Villefranche.

Not much else noteworthy to report...need to get to bed!

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Ivy had a tournament all day. I went with her in the morning and stayed until Eric arrived at around 12:30 pm. I was so cold by time he arrived. Despite dressing in a thick sweater and a jacket over that, I couldn't stay warm (it's hard to when you're sitting still for hours).

When I left, they had tied 2 games (0-0 and 1-1). They had several more afterwards and ended up winning 3rd place, scoring 3-2 in the last game. Ivy scored one goal in that final game.

I walked home (about 45+ minutes) hoping the brisk walk would warm me up. Nope! Still super chilled when I arrived home.

After dinner, I was just feeling a bit overwhelmed so I lay down on my bed with blankets and pretty much didn't get up for several hours. I'm up now to write in my journal but otherwise I'm not feeling great. I may be coming down with what has been making the rounds with Eric, Ivy, and (yesterday) Zari.

I did go out in the afternoon with my sister and her family and whoever was at home. We went to the photography museum in Old Nice, which had an amazing exhibition by a deep water photographer. It was superb. Then they went to the beach but I went home to try to warm up.

They're planning an excursion tomorrow, maybe Menton or Monaco or Vintimiglia. Whichever of the kids don't have school or soccer will go as well. I might but not if I'm feeling icky.

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Cousins!

My sister, her husband, and their 4 kids arrived yesterday evening from California. We did little excursions here in Nice today: Château, beach, coulée verte. We had a bigger excursion planned but their family slept until mid-morning.

Dio is flying home and Inga and her cousin (2 days older than her) are picking him up at the airport. We had to push them out the door and reassure them that they could do it and figure it out.

We made a huge batch of sushi for dinner, and I got a double surprise bag from a 2Good2Go bakery. It was a definite score today! We got 2 fancy pastries (chocolate tart, Tropezienne), about 14 other pastries (croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche, donuts, madeleine, etc.), 4 sandwiches, 2 small baguettes, and 1 large loaf of bread. Amazing for 8 Euros!

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A Day At the Museum

Dio went to the British Museum today with his cousins. It's a Freeze Family First. I've only been in London once for 1.5 days back when Zari was a baby and we were interviewed on GMTV about her birth. It was quite the whirlwind. We walked all over but didn't go inside anything.

He says the most interesting thing so far has been the Tube. He's never been in a huge metro system before (excluding when he was in Paris as a 1-year-old).

I had a productive work day that began with a run/walk with my friend. (A countertop piece got dropped on my foot yesterday and my toes are bruised enough that I couldn't get my Vibram FiveFingers shoes on! So I walked in regular running shoes while she ran beside me.)

We went this evening to pick up Ivy from her sleepover and spent over 1.5 hours in a traffic jam and only made it a few kilometers away! We tried every possible route and everything was completely shut down. We finally turned around and went back home. They were happy to host Ivy for another night. We were going to have an apéro at their house...we missed out!

Inga had a friendly soccer match and came home discouraged because she got put on defense after 10 minutes. She's best as an attacker or midfielder and for some reason her coach keeps putting her on defense, we think we cause she's tall and can do almost anything well. But he's wasting her there.

Since we were in the car, we stopped by Lidl and did a big shopping trip.

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Buckingham Palace

Dio flew to London by himself today to meet up with his cousins, aunt, and uncle. He and Eric had to get up at 4 am for a super early flight. They visited Buckingham palace today, ate delicious Indian food, and were watching the Minecraft movie when I last hear from him. Crazy that he is off in another country having adventures!

Our big adventure for the day was finally receiving our countertops and backsplash. The delivery company refused to drop them off in front of our building with the pallet jack, as they were supposed to do. They wheeled the whole pallet 100 meters from the truck to the tram stop, but wouldn't go a few blocks more to our building. So we had to carry all 6 heavy pieces, one by one, with Ivy guarding the pallet.

Later in the day, when we'd gotten some energy back, we carried them up to our apartment, with assistance from our guests in Le Chateau. (Thank you!)

Ivy and Inga babysat during lunch for our guests downstairs; they have two children ages 4 and 9 who are enthralled with our girls. Ivy is especially popular, probably because she's still a kid and loves to play.

Ivy left mid-afternoon for a sleepover, so the house feels extra empty.

Inga and Eric are playing soccer. It's close to midnight and they are still not home!

A picture of me and my friend Erica (a midwife & epidemiologist who has helped BWB with our data collection project) posing yesterday afternoon for some breech pictures. She and her family are staying in Le Chateau.

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Lots of soccer, lots of friends, lots of fun

Everyone but Ivy had a soccer game this morning through early afternoon. I went to Inga's. Her team won 10-0 and I was filming to try to catch Inga scoring a goal. Somehow I missed her goal, which was the first one of the game! She was frustrated because she was on midfield during the first half but then put on defense during the second half, even though she was clearly not needed on defense. It was a weak team and Cavigal had possession most of the time.

Dio's team lost 0-1 and Dio had a shot on goal at the very end, which was blocked. Zari's team "only" lost 4-0, which is much better than some of their other losses!

Then we got together with my midwife friend and her family who are staying in Le Chateau. The soccer player teenagers were tired, so they stayed home while the rest of us went to the chateau to play and socialize. Then we came back to our apartment for dinner and got treated out to ice cream at Fenocchio.

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First swim

We got together with some friends of ours, a family from New Zealand. He's a professional rugby player here in Nice. They have 3 kids ages 2 and up. Ivy and Inga adore their two youngest girls and the feeling is definitely mutual! The littlest one reminds me of Boo from Monsters Inc.

We had a late lunch together at our apartment and then headed to the beach. We walked a bit further down to the area where there is some sand (volleyball pits during the summer and in the offseason, it's open for anyone to sit/play on). Ivy and I went swimming, along with their oldest.

The water was brisk but very refreshing. I stayed in for 5-10 minutes.

I also had a fun run with my Canadian midwife friend, who is staying with her family in Le Chateau. We're hoping to go running together a few more times before her family leaves.

We finished watching the 4th episode of the new season of Wheel of Time. It definitely helps that I've read the entire series.

We have 3 soccer games tomorrow, then another get-together with our friends in Le Chateau. A fun & friend-filled weekend!

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I started the day with a "coffee group" with some of my friends. It's so nice to sit at a cafe and catch up with each other's lives. Then I got to work in a serious way, hammering away at a huge grant application that we're trying to put together before the deadline. I had several meetings as well.

We're officially on school vacation for the next 2+ weeks!

We're doing things with friends both tomorrow and Sunday and I'm super excited for socializing and a break from work.

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Aabenraa, Denmark

I'm back from a short trip to Aabenraa, Denmark! 🇩🇰 I was there for the Upright Breech Seminar on April 2nd to observe and write up a conference report. (You can read it here if you're interested: https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/aabenraa)

I flew direct to Copenhagen and then caught a 3-hour train to the nearest train station in Rødekro. The hospital is actually in Rødekro and not Aabenraa proper, so I stayed in a hotel just a few blocks from the train station.

I had a 50-minute walk in the morning to get to the hospital auditorium. I walked most of the way along a network of bike paths, which was amazing to see. I started getting blisters on the bottom of my feet at the end of the walk home. My shoes were very comfortable and broken in, but it was still well over 20,000 steps.

Today I did the same travels in reverse, getting home a bit before 11 pm. Ivy and Inga were already in bed when I walked up the staircase to our apartment, but the opened their windows and whispered out to me as I came up.

Our 2-week school break starts this weekend! Dio will be visiting cousins in London and then my sister arrives from California with her family (4 kids). We'll be visiting the Gorges de Verdon--Europe's Grand Canyon--for 4 days. I'm so excited!

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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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Many Zoom meetings today...comme d'hab!

I captured a candid camera video of Inga and Dio goofing around speaking with very bad accents.



3 out of 4 kids had soccer today.

Oh--great news--Zari got accepted into Trinity College at the University of Toronto with a first year scholarship that would cover tuition and a bit more! She also is accepted at the University of Ottawa. All of the other places she's still waiting to hear back from, but so far these are both excellent choices and very interesting to her.

It's still going to be a challenge to fund housing. Room & board, if she lives on campus in Toronto, is $20k Canadian ($14k USD) for 8 months. (Ouch!) We crunched some numbers and even if she worked 20 hours per week, she would not make nearly enough to pay for room and board. So now we have to apply for more scholarships and see if she can get enough financial aid to make it affordable. We're also going to see what the cost is to live off-campus and cook her own food.

Meanwhile in France, the *entire* yearly cost for university is 175 Euros. Gasp.

I still harbor a hope that she would stay here. She'd graduate in 2 more years and then could be starting grad school at age 20! But of course she needs to live her own life so we'll just give her lots of options and help her figure out how to make them work.

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We've made some delicious cookies yesterday and today: apricot butter cookies (like my German grandma used to make), also with another flavor variation of red currant filling, plus thin mint cookies.

My day was filled with breech work (lots of meetings, working on the video analysis project & a new twin publication, video captioning), plus treating some mold that was growing on some spots on the walls. I did go running, which I haven't done for a while.

Dinner was roasted potatoes with creamy herbed pork chops.

Lots of homework for Inga and Zari.

Oh, Zari applied for her visa yesterday and was provisionally accepted, just awaiting the final card! We had to go to the prefecture with her. We handed the clerk a stack of 150 pages that we had prepared, with help from our attorneys. She looked at them, frowned, and said, "Vous avez trop de documents! Vraiment trop!" She gave about half of them back to us and continued frowning as if we had done it just to annoy her. By the end she looked less grumpy but at first, phew! I felt like a misbehaving school child getting sent to the principal's office.

Progress picture of the kitchen. All done except the countertops and backsplashes (arriving in about a month) and my desk, which will go on the far right side. We're deciding between making a built-in desk vs buying an antique.

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Back to normal life...7 am wakeup, school, work. We had some tired children this morning!

I got a lot of things checked off on my to-do list, which was satisfying.

Zari has her appointment at the Prefecture tomorrow morning, for which we had to print almost 150 pages of supporting documents. Our attorney advised us to go along with her; I'm hoping they'll let us in since the "convocation" doesn't name us specifically, just her. They can be like that at the Prefecture.

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Some wins, some losses

Everyone but Ivy had soccer games today. I went to Dio's this morning, and his team won 3-0. Inga and Zari had afternoon games. Inga's team won 3-1 with Inga scoring one beautiful goal. Zari's team lost 5-0.

My mom made an amazing dinner, which I couldn't eat because today is my fasting day. It will be so good tomorrow!

• Mixed greens with beets, goat cheese, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, and a homemade dressing
• Roasted butternut squash
• Lemon basil salmon
• Molten lava cakes with whipping cream

I'm feeling a bit fuzzy headed but that's probably the fasting :)

I have tons of work to catch up on tomorrow--well, all next week! I always have more work than time so this will just add to the pile.

Back to school tomorrow after 2 weeks' break.

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Home

Except for a super long line at the Mont Blanc tunnel, we had an uneventful drive home with no stops required. Lots of goofiness in the car, sometimes too much noise (from Dio and Inga), many snacks consumed.

I'll deal with putting all of the ski gear away tomorrow. Right now our living room is stuffed with bags of equipment.

I forgot that I'd turned the water heater on vacation mode, so we have a lineup of kids who want to shower but no hot water.

Two soccer games tomorrow, hopefully some good down time as well.

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Chamonix day 6

We had a lovely last day of skiing. Sunny, calm, and probably the warmest day yet. The bottom slopes were like skiing on a "granita" (slushy drink)! We stayed up top as much as possible and the snow was still good almost everywhere.

No one got injured, which is always a stressor during ski vacation. I feel like I'm holding my breath until day 6 has passed and then I can finally relax :)

Pictures at the very top with Mont Blanc in the background

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Chamonix day 5

Well today was a bust--for me. I went to bed last night, quite tired, but then I was wide awake. Hours passed and I was so bored listening to Eric breathe, listening to the grooming machines grinding and beeping in the distance, listening to various kids and Eric wake up a few times to use the bathroom. And here I was still wide awake. I read for a bit but mostly just laid there...all night...still wide awake when it got light out. Still awake when my alarm went off.

Ugh. So I skipped skiing today. I tried napping in the morning but wasn't able to sleep either. So then I just kept myself going by doing work, walking to the grocery store, etc.

I'm surprised I've been sleeping so terribly, given that we're skiing all day. I've only had one night of normal sleep and the rest has been significantly disrupted.

Anyway enough of my (lack of) sleep saga. Tomorrow is our last day so I am determined to go skiing no matter how much or little I sleep. The snow has been getting worse so it will probably be both icy and slushy tomorrow, especially on the lower slopes. We'll stay as high as possible.

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Chamonix day 4

We had some talk of insubordination today: "I'm tired. I want to end early. I'm bored of skiing the same things every day." I admit, I felt some of those same things, too! It's hard work skiing 6 days in a row. And while there are several resorts all part of our ski pass, we've been staying in our favorite one because it has the best snow. But that means we ski the same runs...over and over. There is a ton of "hors piste" (off trail) skiing, but that is losing a bit of appeal since we don't have any fresh snow and it's getting more compacted.

But, Eric came up with the idea of playing "follow the leader" in the afternoon. We took turns letting one person choose where to ski and we all had to follow. So far 4/6 have had their turn. Everyone else has chosen off-trail but I like sticking on the groomed runs and going smooth and fast.

Tomorrow morning Ivy and Inga will have their turns.

I had to end about a half hour earlier than everyone else because my left shin started killing me--like being stabbed every time I leaned on it. Very out of the blue. It was not fun skiing that last long run home!

We saw another priest/Father skiing today. It may have been the same person as yesterday.

We've been watching very random TV shows, and the kids' favorite is an Australian reality TV show where the airport customs officers stop people for all sorts of infractions. My and Eric's favorite is Chateau XXL, featuring several couples/families who are renovating chateaus in France (all English people, so I'm guessing it was first an English TV show and then got dubbed over). Inga was groaning because it was "so boring and I want to watch the customs show!! Not this stupid boring chateau show!"

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Chamonix day 3

Despite being exhausted from skiing, I couldn't fall asleep until something like 2 am or later. I opted to rest in the morning and rejoin everyone after lunch.

Most interesting thing we saw today: a Catholic priest/monk/friar skiing in full priestly robes. I'm not sure of the correct terminology for his office, but he had a long black dress on, no rope around the waist that I could see. Plus he was skiing! Not something you see every day!

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Chamonix day 2

Not much new to report. Same gorgeous, clear, calm weather, slightly below freezing at the top and slightly above at the bottom. Lots of great skiing. Sore legs, tired bodies, happy minds at the end of the day.

Eric and I did a quick grocery run after we got home (a 10-minute walk to the center of the village). We have most of what we need for the week but there are always miscellaneous ingredients that we need.

The 3 youngest had enough energy to go sledding in the dark after dinner.

No snow in the forecast at all this week, so alas no fresh powder this time. There are a few remote places that you can get to if you're intrepid where there is a bit of unskied powder, but every day it shrinks. Amost everywhere you can imagine, and some places where I cannot imagine how people even got there, has been skied over.

I did a load of hand washed laundry tonight (no washing machine--the big downside of this apartment). Otherwise it's pretty fanastic. A few minor inconveniences such as no knives for chopping vegetables, no hot pads for taking things out of the oven, etc. But we can make do.

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Chamonix day 1

We finished our first day of hurtling ourselves down a mountain on sticks, with great enjoyment. The apartment has no wifi, so I either have to sit outside in the snow or lift my computer up to this one area by the bedroom window (about 4' off the ground) where I can get a very weak signal. Anyway all is good over in sunny, snowy Mont Blanc.

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Packing up

Our ski gear is organized into piles. Everyone has ski pants, jackets, gloves, helmets, goggles, and other accessories. We didn't have time to plan meals and buy groceries ahead of time, which I prefer doing. I'll see if I can do that tomorrow but if not, I guess we'll have to go grocery shopping once we arrive. (I hate thinking about that after a long drive. I just want to settle in and relax.)

I ran lots of errands today between breech work.

Ivy and Inga have been crafting all sorts of Valentine's things out of paper. They're still up gluing and cutting and giggling, way too late. But "it's vacation!" as they always say. Plus they can nap in the car tomorrow.

Edit: back with pictures of the Valentine's cards, which were "from" me to Eric and vice-versa. They spent all day making these elaborate cards. One of them has a 3-D popup thing inside.

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Saved by the Frenchman and his hammer

We finally were able to go hiking! We chose the Crête du mont Macaron, which is a 7 km hike rated as "easy" with a total of 300 m elevation gain (keeping in mind my parents were coming and they both have knee issues).

We left in the morning and thought we'd be back my early to mid afternoon, even with taking our time, stopping for a picnic lunch, etc.

It was a lovely day--totally calm, a bit overcast, but with the occasional burst of sun. Chilly but amazing when the sun came out.

We had just loaded up in the car and had driven a few km down the roads back towards Nice when a big truck came speeding up the other side of the road, taking up part of our lane as well as his. Eric had to veer off onto the side of the road, but unfortunately right at that spot there were big rocks. We heard *crunch bang bang bang bang* and it immediately became apparent that we had blown a tire.

We were on narrow, winding mountain roads so we couldn't really pull over, but we kept going maybe another 50 meters until there was at least a tiny place to stop the car.

Our front passenger wheel was totally destroyed--shredded open in at least 2 spots. So then we had to unload the whole car and figure out how to open up the tool kits and unhook the spare tire. Once that was accomplished, we started loosening the nuts and jacking up the car. It all went more or less smoothly until all of the nuts were off and the car was raised up high.

Then we couldn't get the tire off! It had completely rusted together onto the mount. (Sorry, I don't know the technical terms here!). We tried kicking it, then whacking it with a big rock in multiple places. No luck.

A very nice man pulled over to see if he could help. More whacking and hammering and prying...no luck. Finally he wished us well and drove off.

We finally called roadside assistance, and they said they'd send someone in 45-60 minutes and that we'd get a call from the local "depanneur." I gave them the name of the road we were on and explained that we were out in the country hiking.

More kicking and hammering...more frustration...and my phone rings: "Hello, it's the depanneur. Where are you?" I explained that we were out in the country between X and Y villages and he said, "Oh, they said you were in Nice! I can't help you. You'll need to call roadside assistance again."

I was just about to call when Mr. Frenchman shows up again, this time with tools! In particular, a hefty hammer. "You're lucky--my son realized he had forgotten his stuffed animal so I had to drive by again!" We cranked the wheel all the way to the right so he could hammer at the tire from the back and it started working! Finally it gave way fell to the ground.

We thanked him profusely because this tire would not have come off without that hammer. It was fairly quick to put the spare tire on (a bit deflated, but still ok) and then drive slowly back home. Phew.

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The best themepark

I had some returns to make at Ikea, so we made an excursion out of it, bringing Ivy and Inga and my grandparents. We took the tram and enjoyed wandering VERY SLOWLY through the entire store while Ivy and Inga opened every door, drawer, and cupboard they could find. They loved all of the little apartments they could explore.

Who needs Disneyland when you can go to Ikea for free?

We ate lunch, enjoying half off the hot meals (a Wednesday special, as evidence by the packed cafeteria). We so rarely eat out that it's a huge treat for the kids.

Eric joined us after lunch and we made a quick stop at the Musée National du Sport before going home.

We had a friend of Eric's over after dinner for crepes--someone a few years younger who he hadn't seen since high school. He and his wife and one of their children were spending some time in France. They have 15 children ages 3-23! Fifteen! And they both look super young. I of course had to ask about her births and it was a really fun conversation. Eric made an enormous stack of crepes and we have just two left.

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We've been here for 2 months and still haven't gone hiking once! It's driving me crazy. We were going to go tomorrow but rain is forecast all day.

Lots of meetings today, punctuated by errands and a quick walk to see the Carnaval setup. Not much to see yet, since it doesn't officially open until tomorrow

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Putting my life in order

We did a huge tool reorganization, moving all of the renovating tools out of the apartment, cleaning out and organizing our small storage area in the basement, and bringing the less-used and larger tools over to our storage area in our garage. Dio helped me for about 2 hours, carrying every item up and/or down many flights of stairs. I agree to pay him with a new Brawl Stars pass. (Why is that game so interesting? I have no idea!)

Ivy thought she was going to have a baby tooth pulled (needed for her orthodontia) but the dentist we went to doesn't pull kids' teeth. I had to make a new appointment with a pediatric dentist and that will be after ski week. She was much relieved.

I did a huge spice/pantry reorganization. Everything is now in glass jars, labeled, and organized alphabetically and by size. There is something deeply soothing about organizing my household. Eric doesn't get it but at least he puts up with it.

Freeze Family Foot this evening was lots of fun. I had breech meetings while they were gone. Zari can't participate due to her class schedule, unfortunately.

Oh, Zari went to the Prefecture because she has to go there to set an appointment to put in her papers to request a visa. (Typical of a prefecture). The convocation just said to come any day so we looked up the hours (open until 5 pm) and she got there at 2:35 pm.

They wouldn't let her in. "Sorry, you can only be in line from 1:30-2:30."

Of course this isn't posted anywhere on their website. You just have to know.

She has to go back tomorrow (and miss class, because every 1-hour opening at the Prefecture the rest of this week overlaps with her classes and next week she will be 5 hours away hurtling herself down steep mountain slopes on 2 pieces of wood).

Now she knows the joy of The Place Where Hopes and Dreams Go To Die.

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Wave of dizziness

I woke up this morning, opened my eyes, and was hit by a wave of vertigo so strong that I thought I would throw up. I got myself downstairs and to the bathroom and it subsided. Very strange and out of the blue.

I wasn't feeling very well this morning--a bit feverish and quiet "off"--so I stayed home and slept almost the whole morning! If you know me, you know that is so out of character for me. Meaning I really needed that rest.

I'm feeling pretty good, in part because I only fasted 24 hrs and decided to have dinner. I just didn't have the drive to power through until tomorrow on top of feeling unwell.

We watched 2 more episodes of "Around the world in 80 days" and spend some lovely time as a family reading and sunning ourselves on the beach. It's so hard to get the kids out, though! "Do we have to? It's so boring at the beach." Ugh, if only they could hear themselves!

I finally installed the facade door on the washing machine in Le Chateau, after 2+ years (due to a lack of a template).

Lucky Ivy gets to have one of her baby teeth pulled because it's keeping her aftercoming adult tooth from coming in. We have an appointment tomorrow, although I'm not sure if they'll put it right then or have her back for a 2nd appointment.

Everyone but Zari is on holiday so I foresee lots of hikes and other fun activities. Then we go skiing on Saturday!!!!!!!

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I came down with The Plague yesterday afternoon. It hit hard and fast and I could barely move shortly after it started.

I'm feeling a bit icky today but definitely better than 24 hours ago.

Inga and Ivy both had games. Inga's team lost 6-0 and yet again they played Inga on defense the whole time, to everyone's frustration (including a lot of other parents: "Why are the playing Inga on defense? That makes no sense!"). Ivy's team won 4-2. Then they went to a professional game at the big stadium, joined by Dio who I had to basically push out the door because he was feeling a lot of teenage inertia.

No soccer games for anyone tomorrow!

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Help me choose new glasses!

I'm ordering new glasses online. Prices are amazing but I can only try them on virtually. This is as good as I can get, trying to ensure they're to scale but it's not 100% certain. Some may be a bit bigger in the pictures than in real life.

I'm going to buy 2 pairs so help me choose your top 2 favorites!! I'd prefer one pair that are more invisible and the other can be a bit more dramatic. Other news: I came down with a fever, chills, and bodyache this afternoon very rapidly. I'm now huddled under a blanket and next to a hot water bottle.

We're officially on school vacation for the next 2 weeks, everyone except Zari. She gets just 1 week off, the following week.

We had lots of meetings today: with our immigration attorneys to discuss the next steps for us and the kids...me with breech-related stuff...Eric with nonprofit-related stuff with the Board he's serving on.

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Bad vision

My vision has been seeming off and wearing contacts or glasses seemed worse than foregoing entirely. I finally went to an opthlamologist and my "bad" eye is still the same (-1) but my "good" eye is even better (used to be -1, now -0.25). That's why I didn't like wearing glasses or contacts--they were too strong in one eye! I now offically only need to wear contacts in one eye since they don't come in -0.25. I need to get new glasses, though.

Not a whole lot else going on besides the usual. The plumber comes tomorrow and we'll have a fully functioning kitchen with temporary countertops! So excited!

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Every day I'm working my way through little kitchen tasks. We're so close (except for the counters)! But not done and so it drives me crazy because I want to FINISH things.

We'll have a functioning sink, dishwasher, and washing machine by Friday, which means we can finally cook up here again.

I co-taught a big lecture at UCSF yesterday and had tons of other breech work going on. Still catching up on various tasks that seem to multiply faster than I can resolve them!

We had a nice evening downstairs with my parents where we talked and the kids worked on their book nooks. Dio was mostly upstairs doing homework, though.

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After several weeks of rain and/or illness, we were finally able to have our Monday night FFFF: Freeze Family Football (and Friends!). Zari had class, but the rest of the kids went, along with one of Ivy's classmates (who lived in our apartment while we were in the States).

We made a trip to Ikea to return All The Stuff and to buy More Stuff. Not much else to do on the kitchen for 5-6 weeks until the countertops arrive.

I'm getting a big presentation ready for UCSF tomorrow--Whitney Rose Pinger and I will be talking about "Vaginal Breech Birth: Why It Is Important and How To Establish a Collaborative Breech Service."

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Rain, soccer, and more kitchen work

Ivy had a tournament this afternoon, 4 short games. She played a bit but was still quite tired in her post-flu recovery. Inga had an afternoon game (they won 5-0, but she came home depressed because she was yet again put on defense although all of her training and skills is in offense). And more rain much of the day.

My dad and I installed the oven and the crown moldings. I cleaned off the dining room table--I haven't seen the top of it for a few weeks now! We measured and drew up the plans for the countertop and backsplashes and got them sent off to the quartz manufacturer. I did the initial measuring, drew up the plans, and then had my dad come with me and measure again to be sure I didn't miss anything obvious.

Dio and Zari made spicy crab sushi for dinner, along with roasted brussels sprouts (my mom) and tiramisu (me).

I've been waking up way too early the past several mornings, usually between 5:30-6 am--and not on purpose! I just have so much on my mind, mostly planning the next kitchen renovation thing.

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I brought Ivy to a family doctor after school (yes, she was finally feeling well enough to go! No more fever!). Based on her symptoms, Ivy has the flu: 5-7 days of fever, extreme weakness and fatigue, sore legs and back. We came home with multiple prescriptions (of course!) including "Saint Doliprane." They LOVE Doliprane (tylenol/acetaminophen) over here. I filled just the cough syrup antihistamine one.

She also got a prescription for a full spine x-ray since she has had lower back pain for more than a year now. Since Eric has mild scoliosis, the doctor suspects Ivy may have the same so we'll see what's going on there.

And, since French medical care is amazing, our total out of pocket fees were under 11 Euros including the prescription. Had we had no insurance, it would have been 33 Euros total. Nearly unaffordable :)

We went to a few kitchen stores today to look at countertops and finally found one that we both really liked (Quartz Silestone in a pattern called "Blanc Elysee." We are waiting for a few quotes from the kitchen stores, but most likely we'll order from the same place as last time and DIY install it, since it will save thousands of Euros.

We had some brief sun today, then more pouring rain. Rain = snow in the mountains so we are happy!

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Day 6 of The Plague

Ivy is STILL sick! She was looking a bit better in the morning, so we thought she might be able to go to school in the afternoon. However, by lunchtime she was looking just as bad if not worse, and she still had a fever. So no school for her.

I have put almost all of our kitchen things into our kitchen. So exciting. I need to install the knobs and drawer pulls tomorrow. I have also organized all of our craft/sewing/drawing/painting supplies as well as our board games. Everything fits inside the cupboards. I love not having stuff sitting out everywhere (well, there still is stuff everywhere, but it's renovation stuff).

We took a long walk in the rain today to look at countertops, only to find that the store was closed exceptionally becuase all of the people were away at a big job! So weird. We'll go again tomorrow as they assured us they would be open. We'll probably order and DIY the quartz again, like we did in Le Chateau, but we'd like to see the samples in person first before we order.

That's about it for Freeze Family news!

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