Day 198.

We are so on a vacation mode already! I've cleaned and folded laundry all morning, now taking a little break before ironing what needs to be packed for Berlin. DD told me not to stress out so much! Ah, but this is good stress, I hope!

Day 197.

I like short holidays, and more importantly I like coming back home. To a relatively clean home, that is. Leaving the cats with a sitter means that there will be some extra cat pee in one of the corners of the bathroom, but in preparation I've been cleaning the bathrooms...they smell now nice and fresh. I don't. Also, fresh laundry to be folded and ironed. Normally I only iron teatowels, but for travel, I iron all clothes that I pack and sometimes DH's stuff, too. Weird that way.

But, back to business. Still things to do and emails to write and bills to pay. And a child to feed. Or two, if her friend comes over.

Day 196.

Back to normal. Laundry, dinner, feeding cats, quizzing DD for her German test... the usual. Preparing for a small holiday. Berlin. Ah. No complaints there!

Days 193-195.

I hope I haven't lost count of the days! Still recovering from the virus, DH caught it also on Friday.  On Sat, we spent most of the day at the ice hall with DD's competition and volunteer work. I couldn't work in the cafeteria as planned so delivered judge's scores instead. On Saturday evening, DD went to see Sound of Music at the theatre, she liked it, but didn't not quite get all of it. It took us half an hour to undo her massive hairdo...

Today, back at the ice hall. to organise the storage after the comp.  Some clearing up and washing up to do at home, too. A Sunday.

Days 191-192.

So I caught DD's stomach virus. On Wed evening I would have preferred to be shot. But I survived. Still not quite there, but getting there. Ate solid food yesterday, toast never tasted better. Maybe pasta today?!

Now must catch up with life: pay bills, check DD's gear for tomorrow's comp and push the hoover about the house a little.

Day 190.

DD was feeling a lot better after 13 hours of sleep. Who wouldn't? She did her homework, watched a movie, went online and got a little bored during the day. I did some more laundry and baked muffins. Tomorrow we hope things are totally back to normal and we can all go about our routines.

Day 189.

A sudden change of plans. DD started to vomit around 10 pm last night and has been at it ever since. She's a really good patient though, drinks and vomits, vomits and drinks. She's very upset about missing school at least two days...

But she did get her UPS delivered -- her Onepiece has arrived.

Day 188.

DD had practise and went to the movies. DH took his bicycle out for a spin. I took things easy. Preparing myself for next week's meetings and stuff in general. Now going to have coffee. The cake is all gone :(

Days 185-187.

Oops forgot to blog about the last few days. Not because they were boring or insignificant, but because I've been bloody busy. No idea how I will ever manage to find time to work again. Lots of meetings and gettogethers, coffee, cake, DD's dress rehearsal with full hair-do, DH's bday, all sorts of good things going on. And the weather is charming, the sun is out and I swear it's warming us up.

Next week will be busier as on Sat there will be a skating competition and yes, I'm on one of the volunteers. But I will definately get back to my daily routine before that. And take more photos!!

Day 184.

A bit of hoovering and a lot of online time during the day. Trying to finish a project, not getting there. In the afternoon, saw a movie: My Week with Marilyn. Good stuff.

Day 183.

Valentine's Day! DD took little pressie to school to give to her best friends there. Very cute. She got some cards and pressies in return and they had a "hug your schoolmate" day, going around the school asking if they can hug people. DD came home with 70 hugs :)

In the evening, I attendend a meeting that turned into a bit of a drama act at times. Oh well.

Oh and DH and DD baked, or bought frozen buns and prepped them. A little crispy on the outside so they applied liberal amounts of cream.

Day 182.

DD spent the afternoon at a friend's house and came home with a headache and feeling, in general, crappy. Gave her a cup of tea and a painkiller and sent her to bed, which she did not object to.

I spent the day baking and cooking and reading. I do love a good Monday!

Days 180 & 181.

A lot of baking taking place in our house, cookies mainly. DD wants to give them to her little friends for Valentine's Day. First set was taken to the ice hall and received with gratitude -- skaters seem to eat goodies whenever they can and are not too picky :)

DD and her friend went to skate outdoors. Unbelievable. I think it's because they wanted to be seen here.

Day 179.

Took DD and her skis to the ice hall, skis were for the PE class in the afternoon as their teacher had told them that if it would be sunny, the - 15C limit would not hold. Oh well, she came home after 3 pm with the skis unused. Teacher had cancelled the skiing as half the kids did not bring their gear. Very confusing.

I attended a time and work management workshop. Got free breakfast and shared some good moments with 12 ladies I've never met before and with whom I had nothing in common except that we all believed that being busy all the time in the office as well as at home cannot be an ideal state of things.

After the workshop had coffee with a friend, walked home in the freezing cold, made spagetti for dinner and watch the Finnish Idols thingie with DD.

Day 178.

Another cold morning. Walked DD to school, stopped by at the office and went to see a movie at 10 am. The Descendants, very good, very touching and a lot of tears towards the end. After the movie, rushed home via the grocery shop, ate a quick lunch and went to meet DD at the library. She had her hair dresser's appointment and now she has a new hair style!

Day 177.

Had a hairdresser's appointment, always good fun. DD has a newspaper theme at school and one of her assignments was to familiarize herself with today's paper. I suggested that we would together smell the paper, feel the paper and then start reading it. She took the paper and went to read it in another room.

Day 176,

Monday. DD had been sneezing and coughing during the weekend, so I decided, much to her dislike, that she would stay at home and take things easy. She learned to iron tea towels, which is an important skill in our household as we use a lot of tea towels that originate from various army surplus stores and need to be ironed, or they are like iron. She also revised for her upcoming history test and I relearned a lot of trivia about the ancient Sparta.

The rest of the week looks busy:
Tue: hairdresser's
Wed: movie morning and DD's hairdresser's
Thu: time management course (a freebie by my trade union)

Days 174 & 175.

The weekends seem to fly by. It was cold. DD had a Bday party to attend on Saturday and on Sunday we voted on the second round of the presidential elections. And had coffee and cinnemon rolls in town. Nothing major.

Days 172 & 173.

Feeling a little better -- yesterday I was so tired of being sick I could have cried. But did not. Instead, read a good book. DD had too much energy after her morning practise and her 8 am to 3 pm school day, so she had a friend over and after dinner she took a 10-km spin on the exercise bike.Then she slept for 11 hours without turning over once.

Today, after walking DD to school, I  had coffee with a lovely friend and chatted about all things important. Came home and cleaned a little. Now must take a nap and then clean some more. Hopefully next week will be more exciting!

Day 171.

February! I'm feeling a little better, but still cough so much it hurts. Been learning to use my new phone, and had to download Angry Birds for DD. She is so looking forward to me going back to work because she will the phone then :)  In the kitchen, leftover wizardy resulted in a chickpea, onion, broccoli and pasta dish heavily seasoned with garlic and black pepper.