Sunny Monday morning greetings from a little cottage in Austria! I’m currently away on a skiing holiday but of course I had to sit down for a bit and type up my weekly photo diary for you. Last week was mostly spent in intense work mode. If everything had gone to plan, I would’ve had two weeks to prepare for my holiday and produce lots of content in advance. Unfortunately I got sick the first week, so I had to do everything in a few days. That’s also why I missed a blog post last Friday, apologies for that! At least there won’t be a break in my video uploads though, and that’s the most important thing. Anyways, let’s take a look at everything I was up to besides all the filming and editing :)
Monday afternoon was dedicated to a meeting at scouting. We’re taking the kids to Germany for summer camp this year, and it’s high time to start looking for a suitable campsite. We found a few options so fingers crossed one of them is available!
The weekend before, I received a message from the new tenant of my old studio in Utrecht that a PR package had arrived for me there. This still happens every now and then, awkwardly enough. On Tuesday I hopped over there to pick it up.
I made use of the opportunity, and the loveliest sunny day, to take a walk around all my favourite parts of the neighbourhood. It’s been well over a year now since I moved away from here, but I still miss the place like crazy. It really was the loveliest neighbourhood to live in, I just wish it wasn’t so far away from all my friends and family. I took a walk around the park where I used to take my daily walks, and then went over to the city center by foot.
The beautiful Dom tower <3 It’s always so nice to be back in Utrecht. I feel like if I got the chance, I’d move back here in a heartbeat. Although that would mean I’d have to leave my social life behind again… The never-resolvable dilemma.
When I got home, I tried out my new Guppyfriend washing bag for the first time. I mentioned this item in the low impact wishlist I published a while back, and my brother got it for me as a birthday present. It’s a bag that catches the little microfiber particles that come off synthetic clothing in the wash, so that they don’t end up in the ocean. I already found some fluff on my first wash, which I disposed of in the waste bin. I’ll be washing all my synthetics and microfiber cleaning cloths in this from now on!
I was finally able to do a big clean up around the house for the first time since my birthday party. It was much needed, as I’m sure you can imagine. I absolutely adore the look, feeling and smell of a freshly cleaned home! I stood here for a bit and reveled in it, haha.
On Wednesday, I vlogged! Look out for the video this upcoming Thursday :)
Diarmuid enjoying a delicious piece of broccoli stem.
On Thursday night, as I came home from the gym, I decided to make banana protein pancakes. I mixed a banana, pea protein powder, oats and a splash of soy milk to make the batter…
Which I couldn’t get to remain pancake-shaped for the life of me. I gave up in the end and just served the cooked batter as a kind of thick oatmeal, haha! With a bit of peanut butter and honey. The taste was quite alright, but I will need to look up a recipe next time I decide to make this.
It was time to treat the boys with some flea drops. They each get a little drop in their necks, which has to sit there for as long as possible to work. They greatly dislike the feeling of being unclean though, and will try to get it off and lick it off each other. I thought it was a good idea to let them play on the ground for a bit as a distraction. It worked wonderfully, they loved exploring a new area of the house. They loved it a bit too much though, as playing on the ground is all that Bran wants to do now :) He’s even started jumping off the sofa, which is something they never used to do before. When I get back home I might see if I can make the floor a bit safer for him and let him roam around more. There are a few nearly impossible-to-clean spots here and there where I’d really not like him to go (such as under the heater behind the sofa and behind the stove in the kitchen) but besides those, it should be alright if he does roam around supervised.
I ran out of mixed rat food a few days back and Pádraig refused to eat the blocks I did still have. Pádraig isn’t our strongest boy, and he’s currently off meds for a bit so the doctor can do a culture of his very persistent respiratory infection, so it’s really important that he eats enough. I’d been meaning to start mixing custom food for the boys so they have a diet that’s more grain-heavy, partially because I suspect the block I’ve been feeding all my rats since the beginning is what’s making them all chubby. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to start doing that. I got some muesli, mixed grain cereal, and dried pasta for them to mix with the blocks and mixed rat food I usually give them.
They seem to love the mix so far, including Pádraig, so that’s great. I’ve been trying to make them all lose weight for a while so hopefully this works to let them drop some without being deprived in the process.
On Saturday morning we hopped on a plane to Austria, for a skiing trip with my family. I’ll be spending the rest of the week here!
This is my little nook for the week :)
Yesterday was our first skiing day. It’s really nice to be back on the slopes!
We got really lucky with the weather yesterday as it was warm and sunny, but not so much as to make the snow melt. Perfect weather.
Well then, I’m going to leave you here as we’re about to go out onto the mountain again. I hope you’ve had an amazing week, keep an eye out for my vlog on Thursday! :)
Fun read, as always :-) Have a wonderful time on the rest of your holiday!
Love the update! I hope you are enjoying your holiday!!