relaxed day

Today was a very relaxed, largely stay-at-home day. (Max has had a cold and a slight fever and hasn't felt like going out for a couple of days.) I guess I really needed one of those, because it felt luxurious!

For the first time since our first couple of jet-lagged days, I didn't get ready this morning. I cleaned the kitchen,

(Max took this one! I think he's catching the documentation bug.)

talked to Jill on the phone for awhile, cleaned the bathrooms, did some laundry -- which seems to take forever! Many of the wash cycles last 1 1/2 - 2 hours, and I have still had some clothes ruined because stains didn't come out...


I often have to run the dryer 2 or 3 times to get the clothes dry enough to put away. I also hang-dry most of the clothes to prevent shrinkage. (Interesting side note: the dryers here do not have drain hook-ups. You can plug them into almost any outlet. There is a reservoir for the water which you must empty after every load.)

Eva's all ready to go with her purse and her map.

Eva and I went to the post office. Bought stamps, used up a lot of dumb little coins I had floating around, mailed some postcards.


Then we got a few groceries. Emphasis on the word "few", since I could only buy what I could carry home while pushing the stroller. This is my eco-friendly shopping bag:


In addition to the baguettes peeking out, I bought 4 big bottles of lemon-flavored water, a 6-pack of Diet Coke, butter, 2 packages of Kinder Surprise eggs for the kids, a package of gaufres liegeoises (photo forthcoming for you, Anne), creme fraiche, mache (my favorite salad green here -- think it might be called lamb's lettuce in English?) and two different kinds of light bulbs (all of our lights seem to be burning out, they use many different types of bulbs, and since the ceilings are so high, I can't reach to replace them -- even on a chair!).

After lunch, Eva had a nap, and I finally took a shower. I had plans to read and maybe nap myself, but Lucas was bored with his constant companion Max out of commission, so instead we read a chapter of Harry Potter (3), and watched the movie up to where we are in the book, a favorite Lucas pasttime.

When Eva woke up, she wanted to go for another walk, and Lucas also had a little bit of cabin fever (!). So we decided to go check out one of the bakeries that I read about in my chocolate book and also happens to be within walking distance of our apartment. I bought the last two of the highly-recommended chocolate eclairs. (Drat! Forgot to take a photo!) Max really enjoyed it, I was less enthusiastic, Marc said he was not into it at all. Check that one off the list!

I made banana chocolate-chip muffins for the kids. They were thrilled to have a little taste of home. Then I made a lentil salad for dinner. It sounded so good, but it ended up being way too salty. (When will I ever learn to taste things as I cook?)

Put the kids to bed, a little blogging, and now off to ice my knee. That's all folks!

**DANG! It's driving me crazy that I don't know how to type accents!!! Next on my to-do list...**