Steady Progress

I checked my camera last night and discovered that the week has gone by with only  four (4) photos to show for it, so I went around and captured a few more. I may borrow from the past or other sources as well in an attempt to adequately represent this week.

Last weekend, Stephan was competing in an ice carving event in Northern Michigan.

Great Blue Herons (sculpture and photo by Stephan Koch)

And this weekend he is judging at the Plymouth Ice Festival.

Youngest son, Sam, brought over another piece of his artistry which has already proven very useful.

Kitchen Island

The kitchen island has: a butcher block top, a huge drawer that holds most of the cooking utensils; stemware and Terma Serrano (Non-Alcholic Bitter, Herbal Beverage from Argentina's Sierras) underneath; and at the bottom, wonderful storage space that I haven't decided yet how to use.
For the most part the kitchen has been conquered, except for remembering where I put things. For now I have sticky-note labels on every door and drawer.

Monday, our host in the Basque Country sent this link: Guest column: Consider worker co-operatives. The article speaks of a Corporation we visited and claims, "Spain's famous Mondragón Cooperative has been rated by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 best places to work in Europe."

Tuesday, Mike was up very early. This is what I saw when I came upstairs.

He had set up his basic electronic equipment on a couple folding tables. However, the desk he ordered arrived earlier than expected and was all put together as of Friday.

My writing space is still very much in progress, slow but steady. Meanwhile I use my little Netbook on the kitchen counter. I do love to journal by hand and my 2012 Blurb-made journal arrived this week! So, actually I have more notes than photos.

Twice this week we have been blessed with desserts from Dream Creations, the daughter's budding business. I just had to serve the apple cheese cake on fancy dishes with tea.

We were about to partake of another of Stephan's Christmas pizzas when Mike said, "Aren't you going to take a picture?" I was glad for his reminder and especially to note his support of Project 365!

Mike is so eager to get back into his pottery studio that even after a Saturday of work with the robotics team, he went out in the night, plowed a path through the snow and raced back and forth on the four wheeler to bring in the stuff he had stored in the pole barn after the fire.

The pictured work table and shelves he built Friday after finding the large drawers we concluded had been lost.

Today we finally located the ceramic canisters I purchased for my new kitchen from fellow-ceramist at the neighboring festival.

I keep plodding steadily--unpacking boxes, finding and moving things around, adding decorative touches, reading instruction manuals, learning something new every day.
This weekend I used my new bright and neatly finished laundry room for the first time.

We save a lot by having off-peak electricity. This means that we heat water and use the dishwasher,  washer and dryer only at night or on weekends.

Here I sit by the window in wonder and write this post.