We've been in our house for 2 weeks now and are starting to figure things out. I still do not like my oven because I haven't quite figured out how to bake evenly. But my from-scratch chocolate cake turned out pretty well and my first attempt at scratch-lemon bars was ok, even though they were a little over-done. Today I made lemon bread, but for some reason everything is turning out crispy on the outside, but it might be ok. Since the lemons on our tree are taking a really long time to ripen, I had to steal a few from one of my friend's tree. I really miss sticks of butter and margarine with the measurements on the paper. I had no idea what a luxury that is.
I'm enjoying having a maid in my house on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She works at another house M-W-F but lives here so we see her from time to time. She takes care of all the cleaning, including laundry. But the washer is tiny and the dryer is slow so I wash my own clothes on the days she is not here, do a load of the kid's stuff on the weekend, and a couple loads of towels. She takes care of all the sheets and kid's laundry on the days she is here, and washes and irons all of Rusty's clothes. I clean the kitchen floor once on the weekend because it gets pretty gross, but other than that, Anna gets it done.
We went to a couple of playgrounds in the estate this weekend, and the equipment reminds me of stuff I used to play on when I was a kid. It is nothing like all the required safety plastic stuff that are in all the parks and schools at home. Here, it's definitely play-at-your-own risk (even though there aren't any signs to realease the estate from liability like you'd see in the US). But the way people see it here, if you get hurt, you were probably doing something you shouldn't have been doing anyways.
Miranda will be starting preschool next Monday, but will only go for a few weeks before she'll have the whole month of August off for winter-term break. They have year-round school here and the term runs January-December. It is located here in the estate but is about a 30-minute walk all down-hill, which means it's all up-hill on the way home. I have the car 3 days during the week, sometimes 4, so we'll either walk or carpool or take the day off on the days I'm without a vehicle.
Jackson decided last week that he does not like mashed-up baby food. Tried several different kinds you buy in the jar, even ones he usually loves, but apparenly he's a big boy now. Friday for dinner we went to Spur (yes, again) and he shared Miranda's grilled cheese and french fries (although here it's called "toasted cheese" and "chips").
We watched some of the women's World Cup this weekend and get to see it live on TV since we're in the same time zone as Germany. Another cold front moved in and it's cold in here again. When I say cold, I mean the high this week is 62 with a low of 39. But without central heating in the house, it can get chilly. Especially when our under-floor heaters in our bedroom keep tripping the circuit breaker so we had to turn them off. Hopefully we'll get that fixed soon! But I'll probably buy another sweater this week. I can't believe I didn't pack any of my sweatshirts! The air is so dry that I had to put lotion by every sink in the house. Miranda's hair is so frizzy and I can't seem to find a good hair gel for her, and my hair goes flat by 4pm. I guess I need to experiment with some local products.
I'm going to make mashed sweet potatoes to go with our pork chops tonight, but they're just potatoes that have a sweeter flavour to them. Haven't seen actual 'orange' sweet potatoes here. Most of the meats and eggs are organic. The labels say "grass-fed" or "free-range" but you don't have to pay extra like you do back home, that's just the way things are here.
Cheers!
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