Catching Up | Loepsie’s Life

Happy Tuesday my lovely readers! It’s a gloomy, rainy one over here, hopefully yours is a bit sunnier. Last week was my first full week back at work, and I dove into it head-first so it’s not the most exciting of weeks, as you can imagine. I did get to do some fun things here and there though, so let’s take a look!

This was my go-to spot for most of the week. I spent a lot of time catching up on emails, business admin, planning, etc. Desk work all day every day.

All the plants needed a little TLC! Robbert did his best caring for them while I was away, but I’m the primary plant caregiver in our home and those two weeks were insanely hot, so I still had to do a bit of damage control when I came home. Luckily a little (or big) trim was enough to perk most of them up, and it seems like only one might not make it through summer.

Oh, yeah, there was laundry. Loads upon loads of laundry. Sigh.

As my dance class is still on summer break, I’ve had to take care of exercise on my own this week. I went running once but something went wrong and it made me feel really sick, so I decided to stick with skating for the rest of the week. It’s so much fun to explore the neighbourhood this way! The sun goes down much earlier these days though, and that’s too bad as I loved going out after dinner. I’ve found myself still out during or after sunset twice this week and it’s no good skating when you can’t see the ground, so I’ll have to find another time of day to go.

On Tuesday, I vlogged! Catch my entire day in the video above :)

After wishing for it for ages, Robbert finally went out and bought a Nintendo Switch. I told him if he was going to do it, he’d better bring a game for me as well so now I’m the proud owner of Just Dance 2018, haha! Oh my guys, I love it. I invited a friend over right after we got it and we made it to level 21 together in just one evening. We played for hours and hours and hours and it was so much fun!

Diarmuid hanging around as always :)

Halfway through the week I once again felt very frustrated with the amount of work I manage to get done in a day. There have been better and worse weeks but in general, I’ve kind of felt in a rut pretty much since we moved here last November. Last week I decided to try a new tactic. I figured my inefficiency probably had to do with (as much as I don’t want to admit it) a form of social media addiction. I’d very often spend the best part of the day mindlessly scrolling away or getting lost in a black hole of YouTube videos, instead of doing what I had to do. This results in a constant feeling of stress and running behind, even when I don’t actually have that much to do. So I decided to try a very simple solution, and that is to deny myself access to social media between 9 and 5, with an hour long break at 12. I turn off my phone’s internet connection and need to use a bit of discipline behind my computer so as to not open certain websites, but so far I’ve been doing well and it’s worked amazingly. I hope I’ll be able to keep this up, because I’ve already noticed I’m getting loads more done in a day and the days I have done this, I feel like I’ve spent in a much more useful and meaningful way. Fingers crossed I’ll stick to it!

On Friday, after just two days of no social media during work hours, I had actually finished all my work for the week by noon. I did a few more extra tasks and then I decided to invite my brother over and finally tackle a project that has been waiting to be done since we moved: replacing the shower. My brother helped me out tremendously and we installed a wonderful new shower.

It’s a small change but it ups the feeling of luxury in our house so much! Before, we had a faucet with two handles so you’d have to mix the right temperature by hand every time. Now we have a mixer which is a lot more comfortable to use, and we also got an amazing water saving shower head with two rain settings and a pulsating massage setting. LOVE IT! It’s the little luxuries like this that take a home from good to great, in my opinion :)

After we finished installing the shower we had dinner and my brother and I went out to skate together.

It’s been raining a lot this past week. Nature needed it after this impossibly hot and dry summer, but I have to say I personally really do prefer sunny days!

In Tuesday’s vlog I talked about getting a fermentation jar. It arrived the next day, I emailed my grandma to ask for her recipe, and I got to work. Wow did I underestimate it. My chest and hand muscles still hurt from this today, haha! I tried my hardest to pack the cabbage tightly so hopefully everything goes well.

My first ever homemade batch of sauerkraut is currently fermenting away and I can’t wait to try it when it’s done! If it does come out well, that is :)

Treats for my boys <3 I can’t wait for their little friends to arrive in a few weeks! Little baby ratties are the most adorable thing ever and I love watching them interact with the older rats.

The perfect activity for a lazy Sunday: organising a neglected drawer. Our breakfast and snack drawer in the kitchen was the worst, often really hard to close and full of things that had expired or we didn’t even know were there. Now it’s nice and organised again, I put things in jars so they’re stored well, and this drawer is finally functional and nice to use again. Yay!

A few months back Robbert got a ticket to see Alt-J in the Amsterdam forest theatre. The concert sold out really fast and I’ve regretted not getting a ticket since. A few hours before the concert was about to start though, it started raining and people started selling their tickets online left, right and center. I ended up being able to purchase a ticket for WAY less than the orginial price and it was SO worth it! The concert was amazing, despite the rain (it was an outdoor theatre). A few more of our friends bought last minute tickets as well so it ended up being loads of fun.

And that’s the end of my week! I hope you’ve had a great one as well, guys. Talk to you soon!