NordenBladet – Today we had a long sleep – until half past nine. After breakfast (today a toast with cheese, sausage, fresh salad, tomato and basil + coffee and a tiny bit of yesterday’s homemade glorious cookie cake) I went for a walk. It was windy outside and there was no great wish to stay outside for very long, so I cleaned the house a bit and decided that I will take some time for blogging. For the past two weeks we have been working on our home, or more precisely, homes. We have more than one. Soon more about this, but first our breakfast pictures.
Let us start from children. There’s a plan to renovate their rooms (paint the walls white) and change the furniture and lamps. I have grown tired of the pinecone-pattern wallpaper and the old red sofas (see the pictures HERE). Also I’d like to replace some of the curtains and most of the paintings. I have now been painting a lot together with Ivanka and thus prefer to see our own paintings on the walls. Hopefully the renovations will not take more than a few weeks, because I plan to renovate ON MY OWN! This is how awesome a woman I am, hahaaa 😀
Children are in the middle of an active school year. Both of my daughters have been vaccinated with one shot (I wrote more about their vaccinations HERE), and they will now be receiving the second shot on October 30. This year Ivanka Shoshana has an especially busy schedule. Since her school (Tallinn Tondi School) offers from this year a great variety of different hobby groups, then we selected something for her for each day. Now, besides the current extracurricular individual ceramics class (that she already attends for years), she additionally attends swimming classes, horseback riding classes and folk music group, liberating dance class, crafting group and ballroom dance training. This is quite a serious workload. At home I practice mathematics with her – with the help of hands she can already calculate quite well until twenty. It is, however, sad that the dose (Rispolept 1 mg) has had to be doubled. When earlier she received a quarter of the medication and then in March already a quarter in the morning and in the evening (how distance learning affects an autistic child and how our lives are impacted by her puberty, can be read HERE), then today we give half the pill in the morning an half in the evening. First I was quite scared of any kind of medicine, but today my view is that they actually cure and help treat the condition. You need not feel bad when your child has to take medication (to be honest, it still isn’t easy)… yet only natural treatment, a calm environment and good words won’t help… even as much as you so hope.
Estella Elisheva continues to be committed to the violin (this week she had two performances and there will soon be a new big contest) and also to football. I am happy to hear beautiful violin music at home almost every day. Ivanka also likes music and since we have quite many instruments at home (piano, violin, synthesizer, drums, music workstation etc) then she, too, often takes a seat behind the synthesizer, puts on the headphones and mixes some music. How cool is that?
This week Estella applied for the AIS (American Councils for International Education) program to become an exchange student in America. Let’s see how it will turn out. There is great interest towards the program and the competition is intense. For the first round the candidates had to fill in a few applications and submit two essays, each one up to 300 words.
Now about my activities. We have been working in the garden with Allan a lot, and have made plans for renovating the house and the apartment. We purchased two cool tools – Kärcher K 7 PREMIUM SMART CONTROL pressure washer (it cost ca 450.- EUR) and Makita leaf blower (price ca 270.- EUR).
In just a second I will describe the ups and downs of both! First the pressure washer. Indeed, a straight A, really. It is possible to complete so many different types of tasks with this tool – starting from car wash, up to cleaning the roof of the house. We made the old limestone path shine and with playful effortlessness eliminated moss from the stones. Extra to that we also removed the paint from old chairs, etc. This is indeed a multifunctional tool. I recommend it!
Regarding the leaf blower I am slightly more skeptical, yet I must admit that we also didn’t test it for very long (so far). It is more pleasant to use the leaf blower in places that are more difficult to reach with the rake (bushes, flower beds, etc), yet with a big rake it takes just as long or even less time to collect the leaves. The negative side is definitely the battery (18V 6AH Makita battery), that does not last so long. Those who wish to use the leaf blower, make sure to also have the second spare battery at hand. Besides, due to its size, it is a tool for men rather than for women. We have a large garden, and a lot of leaves. Thus there is plenty of work for the rake, for the leaf blower, for children… However, it is super fun to work together! The fresh air and the workout in your own garden is the best! We have also developed our own tricks… For example, we do not use a wheelbarrow (wheelbarrows) to transport the leaves, this effort is all in vain. We rake all the leaves onto a large piece of plastic and then drag it all to the compost pile. This way everything will be clean very quickly!
That’s all for now! I just prepared dinner (boiled sweet potato, minced meat sauce, tomato salad and sweet lettuce with sour cream) and we are about to dine. Soon there will be guests and in the evening we will go to Viru Hotel cabaret night “Creme de la Creme”.
Hugs! 🙂
Do read also my previous blog posts (all posts are available in four languages – Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and English!)
Recent blog posts:
Helena-Reet: Taking down the exhibition “Our home witch kitchen” in ERM and DRAWING LOTS who from the visitors won E&S PRODUCTS!
Helena-Reet: The 22nd date – WELL THAT IS ONE FINE day every month!
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Helena-Reet: Helena-Reet: About whey protein and the peaceful beginning of the day, about the new lawn tractor, the tableware set “Ivanka”, and some more about this day…
Helena-Reet: Summertime!!! Our weekend + BIG GALLERY!
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