Quiet day

Well this has been a very quiet day so far, in a nice way. The air was clear this morning and the frost reached down into the valley. The puddles were frozen on my walk to the gym and it was noticeably colder. I didn't check the thermometer so cannot report on it. We have fallen into a really sweet morning routine; I get up and head to the gym and Jacob gets up with Zelia, dresses her, feeds her and sometimes reads a story. I come home shower, eat, play and then both Z and I take a nap. Today, I thought to head out shortly after her nap but by the time I actually got things together and dressed her is was 1pm and as we were walking out the door Jacob returned from his field trip.

I had made soup yesterday (there will be a lot of soup eating here) and we had it for lunch along with some extra fish cakes from the other night. One of the guests for Rosh Hashanah brought us rutabagas and they went into the soup. Good thing, because Zelia could not get enough of them. Then after a short meltdown she was out, fast asleep on the bed.

So now Jacob has left for a massage, I finished some laundry and am washing her diapers. There is a lot of laundry doing here - smaller machine, hanging to dry. I think putting vinegar into the "fabric softener" dish worked. So if anyone is looking for a non-toxic, non-chemical way to soften your clothes, some white vinegar does the trick. And no, it does not make your clothes smell and now the clothes are not crunchy - fabulous!

When she wakes we will go out to buy an English-Icelandic dictionary and I will begin working on the words for body parts. I want to e able to use them when I begin teaching pilates. Also, we would like to check out the library. It opens at 1pm and has a children's section, so time to explore.

Jacob's class went to a beach to learn about beach assessment methods. He explained that there is a survey used by a man in the US that they all agreed is quite flawed and then there is their Professor's method. He is a professor from Whales. Anyway, they assess the beach through several lenses, for development, tourism, they look at the sand, garbage, surrounding scenery, etc and then give the beach a grade. They found only 3 pieces of trash on the entire beach! yes! I was thinking, as he was explaining this, that this would be great for Panama. He said out in the ocean they saw a whale and a seal came pretty close to shore, nothing close enough to photograph unfortunately. It was VERY cold and all were thankful for the hot chocolate, tea and cake Jacob brought:) The program has been going very well and he is enjoying all that he is learning. It is opening up so many new fields of interest and job possibilities - very cool.

We are heading out for a walk finally, will report back later if something worthy happens:)