On My Own

Well, it had to happen sometime... Josh had to start his job! So, today was my first day where I was really on my own after I walked to school with the kids. It was another sunny day with brisk temperatures in the low 50's so I took my time walking home from school, checking out the stores, restaurants and cafè's along the way. I found a wonderful French pastry shop where I decided to pick up this beautiful cake as a treat for the kids tonight! I then came home and hit the organizing hard. I have been accumulating paperwork and things that needed attention in the past week. Without my real computer and my usual system, I was feeling a little lost so I went through things and did what I could on my iPad to get on top of things. I then tackled the kitchen! No one can make sense out of someone else's kitchen arrangements so I set about setting things up the way that I wanted them. Now, if I just has our shipment of things to put in place, I would be doing great! The woman that lived here before certainly had a different life than I do! She had only a few pots, pans, and kitchen utensils but 41(!) vases and a whole drawer of candles and pretty napkins!!  Coco and I also walked to the subway station today, to try to buy some long term subway passes. We figured it all out, only to be thwarted in the end because the machine would not accept my credit card. European credit cards have a computer chip in the end while ours do not. Guess I will have to wait a few more days for our cards to come. By the time I got home, the kids were finished with school! The only had a half day today and no school on Thursday and Friday because of school holidays! Not a bad way to have your first week of school! Admittedly, we spent the remainder of the day being pretty lazy. The kids got their new school issued lap tops, so they were content to just play around on those. We are all feeling pretty tired from all of the new activities this week. Not having a car and walking everywhere is good for us and actually quite enjoyable but we are going to need to build up some tolerance.  Calvin and I did walk around the corner to a shopping area where we bought him a warmer jacket and some long sleeve shirts!