Gymnastic and Dance

Time for dance recitals. Here is Julianna ready for the show.

I do enjoy the show, it´s lovely to watch how they love to dance. The teenagers perform street dance, and hip hop but also salsa and jazz.

Elena is to the left.

Julianna is also to the left, with a red scarf.

Julianna completed level 1 in gymnastic.

Sebastian says hi!

Pictures

I got into the shower. Ha ha. Sebastian laughs a lot and his humor is so lovely.

In the evenings especially he acts like a puppy. He gets all excited and crawls as fast as he can back and forth between us.

Once upon a day in gray November there was a day of sunshine!!! We took the bicycles for a ride. It was beautiful and I soaked up the light like a dry plant soaks up water.

It was noon here. Look above how low the sun is, it does not rise higher.

I love the still water, the reflections are so magical and beautiful.

Julianna and Sebastian playing. He was trying to use the hula hoop like she was doing. Then he ended up with rabbit ears. (Further down.)

Julianna has a lamp with red light and one evening I took some cool pictures as she was writing.

Here is a cool shot from her work in Stockholm. There are more pictures to be found at :
http://www.lindex.com/se/StartPage/StartPage.aspx

Here is the bunny.

Hama beading with Majken. She went home to Norway. Hopefully she´ll be back in the new year.

Julianna went to a bandy game with Bart. It was an invitation for new residents to learn the game etc. She enjoyed it and she got a penguin and a bat painted on her face!

On a walk from when Carin was here, in our town park, ready to feed the ducks.

Sunday

This is where I found Julianna and Embla this morning, behind the couch! I had to wake them up as Julianna had gymnastic at 10 am. While she did that I took Elena and Embla to a flea market (called loppis here), they are getting really popular. We found some clothes and I got some things for the girls for Christmas that I know they both want so it was a success.
Then we got Julianna and went to the horses. It was still gray out but at least not raining.

Sebastian got to sit on Micko, and he sure knew what he was doing, and mighty proud too.

Julianna, Elena and Micko.

The girls played in the hay and I got to ride Spinner and that was fun!
We did not get home until 3 pm so Majken helped me to quickly get some food to the starving kids. Then they went back to hama beading.

I relaxed with my puzzle, that is almost done now, before it was time for laundry. Another evening of running down to the basement and over a block and then back, and then up and then repeat about 4 times. I could take the elevator but I try keeping to the stairs cause I like to move.

Julianna fell asleep fast and so did Sebastian.

For some reason I am not feeling so tired. Maybe it´s from being outside, my body could be tired but not my mind, it sure thrives after fresh air. So we´ll see what I´ll do. Maybe write in my dairy that I only write in a few times a month. But you may not find out- cause this is the last day of my week of "A day in our life". It was fun but now I´ll take a rest until something exciting happens. There will be a lot of performances this next month.

Bye bye.

Saturday

We slept in until 10 am except Elena that I found in front of the TV, she often wakes up the same time as her alarm usually wakes her up.
I had planned on going out with the horses today but it was raining so we stayed home.
Girls are really into doing hama beads (I had to look that word up) now so that´s what Julianna got into.
In the afternoon Elena went to Junis that had a movie festival today.
Embla came here to spend the night.
When Elena came home I told her we´d take a month off TV to see how that would be. She was pretty calm and after a while she just asked to see this one show on Fridays. That could work of course as I figured out I could just take a card out of the box to make the TV not work, so I did not have to carry the TV up to the attic ( I can be a little dramatic too sometimes...).
The three of them got along great and had a fun evening.
Sebastian had some tummy ache so I held him and danced him to sleep. He has been kind of "mommyish" (how we say it is Swedish) all week so I´ve carried him a lot plus he woke up with a stuffed nose one day, but it went away.
He also knows what the front door is now, where people disappear. He crawled fast to get out the door crying when Embla´s little sister left with her dad. I don´t know if he missed her or thought it was me leaving as well but he was comforted as I picked him up.
I took these pictures around 10 pm.

Friday

I walked the girls to school and intended to take a long walk after but it was too cold out, I need a warmer hat. I fed the ducks, Sebastian liked watching them, then he fell asleep. I know I have to relax to get warm but I kept tensing up so I went home instead.

When Julianna ended school at 12.15 we (Majken came along) picked her up and drove to the closest mall (10 minutes). I needed some clothes and was satisfied as I found 3 pair of pants and 4 tops. We also had lunch out but it was not very tasty. Julianna bought some Bella Sara cards at the toy store. The 7 card pack that costs $1.99 in Vegas they charge $7.30 for here! But she was happy playing it when we got home. It was a while ago she played it, penguin club as well.

Elena went home with a friend after school but showed up for dinner and a TV evening.

I am ready to take the TV up to the attic. Elena gets so listless and does not take initiatives to do hardly anything. I feel that we argue about her TV watching too often and she gets a fit when told no. Which is fine but tiring for me as well.

When we got the TV in August we discussed if we were to have rules about it or not. We said we would watch her and see if there was any difference in behavior after TV watching etc. We agreed on that she could watch as she wishes but not after 8 pm when she has school the next day. We´ve had many discussions since and we´ve told her how we do not like what we see and so on. She often agrees with us but still does not turn it off and on the days when I´ve said no TV she plays with Julianna or does crafts or even sometimes has a good time alone in her room. I can see her creativity and I enjoy her and her attitude is loads better.

So, I do not like NOT giving my kids what they want but she is also part of our family and her behavior affects us... you know what I am saying her I´m sure. I think I know what Miranda would say (I feel grateful to still have your assistance in my head!) and I feel that Elena is not yet ready to make these decisions herself. We had similar discussions about candy and she is not able to limit herself. She will with time I´ve been told but after two years and quite a weight gain we gave up. Maybe she is just not ready yet, it´s also not good to set the child up for failure. I am rambling her cause I feel guilty. I wish I did not have to make this decisions, but that is also part of being a parent.

I think we´ll take the TV away for a month to feel the difference.

I do know there is lots of good things on TV as well, and when we got the TV I thought maybe I´ll find those programs but I never took the time too. Elena is the only one who uses it, Julianna wants to watch a movie once in a while but we can do that on the computer like we used to.

Enough said.

Julianna had gymnastic practice and I went to feed the horses. They are not so happy, their field is very wet and muddy, and they do not like walking in that.

We are all longing for colder temperature so the rain turns to snow and the ground freezes.

Thursday

We´ve had some trouble with our doors in this old apartment. This morning I could not open the hallway closet door and Sebastian´s winter clothes were in there so I sent the kids off to school alone but that works fine once in a while.

I was feeling tired and went back to sleep with Sebastian. Later we went grocery shopping.

I was asked to help out with our friends kids tonight, Embla and her little sister Bella. Julianna gets to stay at after school care on Thursdays and play as she has no other activities that day. She begged to be able to go there too, as the other kids go there most every day. So at about 5 pm we had them all at home until 9.30. Majken cooked dinner and the kids played and played. I like having lots of kids around.

Someone sent me a website with info about families that travel all the time and as I read that I sure felt a longing for traveling. Being at a daycare (picking up Bella) also got me thinking about the children here in Sweden that is away from home from 7 am to 5 pm, and I felt angry with Swedish society again and how everyone does most things the same so they are not really making choices they just do what others do and that bugs me.

Still I went to bed happy and grateful for my life and my wonderful children.

PS The girls dad helped me open the closet door as he picked them up.

Wednesday

Bart walked with Julianna to school and Elena stayed home today as she was not feeling great. She fell back asleep and slept another 4 hours and then felt good. I got to stay in bed and cuddle with Sebastian. Today he turned 8 months!

He is thinking about walking now. He lifts his foot while standing and thinks about taking a step but chooses to sit down and crawl instead. He can get up to standing without holding on to anything too, his balance is amazing.

I had a nice time talking with Bart this am then he left for a week´s work in Switzerland.

I picked up Julianna and Embla from school and we went to the cultural school in town where I had a voice lesson and then Julianna had violin class. Sebastian stayed home with Majken, well actually she took him for a walk, so I had a really great (and focused) lesson. It´s more personal development for me, always emotional and I am finding out how physically challenging it is to sing. But I love it!

The girls go to a 2 hr art class on Wednesdays and today they seemed to have done something really cool that they could not really explain to me but I will get to see on "vernissage" day. Sounded like some image lightshow..?

After dinner we stopped by Elena´s friend Moa´s house and her mom gave Julianna (and Embla) lots of used clothing. Julianna got new skates too. Here she is posing in some new outfits.

The girls are now asleep in the living room camping out in our new comfy corner.

I joined the www.spiritualcinemacircle.com and got some movies in the mail. Included on the DVD is also short movies and I love them when I feel like watching something short and inspiring before bed. So I am off to watch a 17 minute movie. Oops... so I thought. Here comes Elena and she´s hungry. Well maybe I´ll watch it later after tea and a sandwich with Elena. Elena loves everything late night, she is such a night owl. I really enjoy time with her then but I am often more tired then her. Time for "trying to be supermom" to be a morning and night person. Got to go.

Tuesday

I started laundry at 6.30 and after breakfast bicycled with the girls to school. I started a cool 3D puzzle and played with Sebastian between laundry runs and vaccuming. It´s nice to have help so I do not have to bring him down with me, he does not like the basement so much, smells bad too.

Majken took the girls and Julianna´s friend Embla to the park after school and not long after that Julianna had gymnastic practice. I took Elena with the car as well, to dance class, as it´s so dark out although it was snowing (the ground is still warm so it melted on the ground). It gets dark at 3.30 already!

I got the last load of laundry in at 5 pm.

I went to the horses cause it´s my night to feed all of them. Always nice, more then nice, to see them.

Here is Elena doing math and dancing between equations.

While Sebastian is enjoying his favorite book.

Looks like a calm evening, I´m going to read for Julianna now.

Monday

What an evening... Elena came home from a friends house after drama class with some anger in her system. She loves drama class and had a great time so I think it was some other energy she came with, she was raging and boy she knows how to be ungrateful better then anyone I know. So the pic of the day is her making her own dinner as my curry stew was not even to be tasted. Then suddenly (and it really was too) she felt fine and Julianna was pissed off when going to bed. One of those nights when I wish I had a bathtub.
Got good work done during the day though, some organizing and computer stuff. Julianna had a friend over after school, they were jumping rope so much the neighbour came and complained about the noise- the neighbour above us! I guess the one below must not have been home.
Then Julianna went across the street to dance class and learned a cool break dance move. Sorry did not have the camera ready for that moment, it was a funny one as well as her pant string broke and her pants kept falling down.
Sebastian had a long nap later and we watched The secret life of bees. I thought it was an incredibly beautiful movie, and emotional too.

Bart left yesterday to go work up north and will be home about midnight.

A friend sent me funny pictures in emails and I love this one so I will post it too.

Believe in yourself it said, but I think "Know you are More then you ever will believe" suits good. Goodnight.

A week, day by day

Here in Europe calenders etc start with Mondays so on Monday I will start a post a day to show a regular week in my life here in Sandviken.
Today Elena is going to a birthday party and wants her hair straightened so I got some work to do. Will post a picture of the result later.

Here is the result. Makeup by Majken.

Water

I do not usually promote openly what I do for health or my beliefs about things unless asked. But when I read this text below I felt an urge to share it so I am doing that. We are using a Kangen machine cause Bart felt
the price was worth it as it is a business as well. The war on the Internet regarding these machines is incredible. I will say no more. Although I am open for comments.

De-mineralized water has little or no minerals, and is not only having zero health value, rather it is dangerous for health. This is the result if you use a distiller, a reverse osmosis unit ( R. O ), or de-ionization ( ion exchange resins ). However, the research on heart diseases and cancer shows a healthy water is hard and moderately high in TDS ( total dissolved solids ). Then why do people purchase these de-mineralizing or water softening systems ? Usually their thinking goes something like this : "We know we must drink water to keep ourselves alive, but often it is so polluted with chlorine, chemicals, toxic metals, etc., that it is not safe to drink it as such. So in order to get rid of these harmful moieties we are buying bottled water, and we have also installed an R.O. water purifier in our house”. Creating a "healthy water" means removing the harmful agents but keeping the beneficial minerals. "For the purpose of health, Minerals in drinking water are more easily and better absorbed than minerals in the solid food", according to Dr. John Sorenson, a leading authority on mineral metabolism. But devices like R.O. purifiers remove everything from the water, harmful bacteria ( if any ) as well as beneficial minerals. This mineral-stripped water cannot sustain life even in a fish bowl. Like humans all fish require minerals to prosper, and if allowed to live in R. O. types of waters they will all perish. If this type of water is consumed for long periods of time, it will certainly result in acute deficiency of essential mineral elements like calcium ( Ca ), magnesium ( Mg ), and the precious mineral---silica ( SiO2 ). Hence, mineralized water is needed for all cellular functions of the body, and if there are no minerals in your drinking water your body will try to rob the minerals from some other parts of your body system to satisfy its needs. Mostly the bones and teeth are the worst victims to lose calcium, magnesium, etc. Although we can take mineral supplements to replace them, but it is not easy to replace the minerals in our body with the same speed with which we have lost them.

Sebastian

Sebastian is now learning to balance by himself. Last week he just let go, we all stared at him, and after he landed on his butt he looked up and smiled. He was just adorable. He also started playing with his toys, not putting them in his mouth. It is amazing how all these little things feel so wonderful for Mommy. The joy in my baby and the joy in sharing.

It was one of those gray wet fall days so we all went to an indoor playland in Gävle. Elena, Julianna and Embla had a great time in the big kids section while Sebastian enjoyed an hour playing and then fell sound asleep.