Mabrouk!

Congratulations. The contract on our new house is signed. They start digging tomorrow, and expected to be able to move in March! Amazing. Hard to believe we will have a house on that grassy slope of land we own.
It has been a long and tedious job, of which Anders has had to carry the load pretty much alone.
But as it looks now, insha'allah, we will have a brand new, passive-house with breathing walls, organic paint, solar panels and recycling systems on water and heat.
More to come. We are in the process of setting up a house blog, and I am in the process of finishing my paper. Thus, the lacking activity here. Deadline 20 Novemeber, so I will be back in time to document the twins birthday and the beginnings of Advent. I am really looking forward to that. As it is now, I escape to the office upstairs as soon as they are asleep, and have no time to prepare any activities.

Our good friends Ramona and Joshua are stranded in California for a while, resting and healing a broken foot. We hope they come back asap, as the kids ask about them everyday, and their room is awfully empty. Here is a link to their bicycle blog, adventures across Europe. And a little cross-blogging as well.

We have already had snow, ice and sledding. It is going to be long winter...

Mountaineering 2

As I have mentioned previously, we are into hiking now-a-days with the kids. Amazing how far a two year old can run! These are from a few weeks ago. Just a simple after dinner walk. Almost two hours, up and down. Beautiful area we live in now. Looks almost like the jungle. Anders is the photographer- thus all me, no him.

Simple Sunday

July's painting in our birthday calendar, by Ruth Elsassar.

Constantly drying woolies.

Say no more.

Summer days are longer then others. And they are crammed, packed, full with what and where and packing- unpacking. Beach, mountain, walk, picnic, snacks, coffee, tea, rain, boots, sandals. The weather is shifting, but warm. Been alone with the kids since Wednesday, and am getting into the routine, the meal planning, the songs, and the clothes, the laundry and the washing up.

Today we had second breakfast up in the woods, in the rain. We all came home drenched. Did not help they all decided to go wading in the lake with there clothes on. Their boots were NOT waterproof when the water levels reached their armpits, and flowed down the insides of their rain pants.

We had lunch outside in the garden with homemade soup and bread. Then, after watercolour painting and miscellaneous catastrophes, we ended up heading down to the beach at 4pm, the sun beating down, and went swimming. Back to make dinner, falafel with all the extras, and then off to bath, story, bed. Well, that is our days.

There are small things in our environment that are vital components of our day worth mentioning. The play silks are always in use, everywhere-all the time. The bird feeders we have hanging outside are a frequent focus, and conversation topic. Jasmin is an avid and genius, Memory -game player (the one where you find two of the same). She gets me to play all the time. I tell myself it is good brain food for me as well.

Birthday breakfast, with our birthday ring, and main gift wrapped in 5 silks, to be taken off one by one.

My little girl has reminded once and for all how old I am getting. She turned 5 in July, spent a wonderful morning eating breakfast outside with Farfar (Anders' dad) and Bente. Hard to fathom at some times. Other times, when she is arguing her point to her mother, I believe it.

The greatest change in our lives at the moment starts tomorrow. Jasmin will be switching to the outdoors- kindergarten here where we live. All 5 year olds, running around outside all day, based in a lavvo (a Norwegian tee-pee) if it rains. It will great for her. She has never been the ultimate sit-still-and draw-girl. She does, but would rather rough-house, and run up a trail.

The little ones will starting kindergarten too, three days a week, so I can finish my degree before it gets outdated (or I do...). I am excited for them, but already dread the moments I will miss out on, the small ow's I will not be able to blow on, and the smiles that will be gone to the wind. I am happy for myself too, seems like a vacation at the moment, the thought of NO kids, just ME, and books, papers, lunch and my Mac. I know things will look different as the deadline creeps up, but for now, all is joy.

Lea and farfar.

The whites beaches of Denmark. And crawly kids.

Anders and I planned LAST summer we were going to both get a kite surfing course this summer. That was our adrenalin ration for the year. When we lost the house and was dragged through the insurance this winter, we decided to post bone it, till we had time AND money. (Well, truth be, Anders is taking a weekend course this COMING weekend, so we have one down...) Anyway, second best was slack lining. Anders bought a small set-up, and we practised as we travelled around Denmark. Super fun, and easy to learn. And children get it quite quick.

One small change February Challenge

We have shifted to Optima Products in the house cleaning no problem. Along with the EcoVer dish soap and Sonett wool wash around the house, we are in good shape.

The one small change for this month must be food planning and grocery shopping cut down to a bare minimum. This will indeed benefit the environment, our economy and the time and resources we spend on shopping. Planning ahead is a lot less time consuming than anticipated, I cannot see WHY we have been so slow on getting started. Have written for the coming two weeks, and bought in more or less all components. Have to do vegetables and salads a little as we go, since they do not last very long.

One Small Change

Where to start, though we do feel we are doing a little, our situation could be better:

1. We lost all our lovely, and expensive cloth diapers in the fire. And I have not had the energy or economy to buy or make new ones, or used for that matter. But enough is enough! The amount of garbage these two twins make is outrageous, AND expensive. So some "new" old ones please.

2. Composting is going great, we have a warm compost system that is consumating our quite large amounts of left-overs everyday. Which, even though we have a compost system is too much. SO, for the new year buy less, make less and throw LESS away.

3. Amount of chemicals we surround ourselves with. We use Eco-Ver dishwasher soap and all the good Weleda stuff in the bath, but for house cleaning, apart from th tradional Norewgian, "Grønnsåpe"-brown soap, we still use JIFF in the bathroom. The smell says it all. We are 6 people in a bathroom, but that is no excuse. Anders is great fan of a local made series, made right here where we live, based on natural organic products you could basically eat. And they are all PH neutral.

So three areas for improvment and all in line with living up to our living standards.

I came across a blog inciting us all to choose one area for improvement per month until earth day, whivh I intend to try to live up to. I urge you to do the same.

Daily Rhythms

We have been really trying to stay at home these past few weeks. TO get to know the house, to show the children THIS is where we live, and to MOVE in. It really worked. The days spent here and in the surrounding woods are all one needs.

The day flies by in a constant repetitive safe rhythm, revolving around, breathing in, breathing out, meals and rest times, walks and outside time. It is so satisfying to experience the magic of everyday life, of how simple it can be with children. The simpler, the better.

The days for us start early. Due to the time change a few weeks ago, they all are awake and hungry at 5.30am, and I do my best to keep them sleepy until 6am. Despite the dark (until8am) it is quite cosy. The downside is I get NO time to get myself ready for the day. We eat our porridge by candle light. Our meal verse, the same one we use for all the meals:

Jorden har oss brødet givet,

solen har oss sjenket livet.

Kjære sol, kjære jord,

takken i vårt hjerte bor. (in Danish, from a wonderful Danish Waldorf Kindergarden Teacher.)

Thanking the earth and the sun for the bread.

Will try to find the English equivalent.

Clean up and playing around until I have had my coffee.

During the week, Anders leaves at latest 7am, and we start trying to do some circle games, this periods songs and verses and the story I am telling at the time.

Laundry, washing and brushing hair and such come in-between.

Snack time at around 8.30, since we ate so early.

Then we go outside. Which logistically takes 20 minutes in dressing, and surprise diaper changes and Noa's emptying out the wooden blocks, again.

Walks down the small tractor roads here, using the rope swing some bigger kids made, inspecting sheep pooh, jumping in the creek, picking sticks and leaves for the nature table and nuts, not to forget oak nuts, everywhere. Here I try to collect things for any craft idea I have coming up...

lunch 1, is at 11.30. This is a good sort of snack, warm, and then off Noa and Lea go to sleep, for about an hour and a half.

The days I have Jasmin here with me, we do crafts, painting, washing floors and activities I deem near impossible with two one-year olds running around.

We also rest, read a book, and the only way for me to get a rest too, is too rub her back and relax together.

We have fruit and muesli at 2pm, lunch 2. Repeat songs, do housework they all can help with, and go out again till it is time for making dinner and bathing.

An early start gives a well loved definite 7 o'clock bedtime, without any fuss. Wonderful.

"Bless my pillow,

bless my bed,

bless me too from toes to head.

Bless the earth, the sun, the air.

Bless the children everywhere."

This blessing is just enough ritual and beauty for me, without becoming religious.

Courtesy of Little Acorn Learning.

Then it is time to clean up....

A typical new day.

Early morning baking.

View of the glacier.

Picking pinecones

And the twins at work.

Top excitement today was the run-away sheep in the garden and the fantastic crispy autumn weather. Now the little ones are asleep and I'm checking up on emails, reading the news and drinking cortados. The sun is flooding in through the windows, with a spectacular view of the Hardanger Fjord and the Folgefonna Glacier.

Life is far from dull. Life as housewife rocks. I get to hang out with my children, run around outside, do waldorf watercolour painting,- all at the same time I get to read counter insurgency briefings, Hezbollah papers and do my masters research.

Jasmin had her first real visitor a few days ago. Her first real friend, who goes to her Kindergarden, and happens to live right next to us in the new house. Having a dialogue on how much freedom to give a four year old, concerning running down tot he neighbours alone, playing outside unsupervised.. Been using The Parenting Passageway a lot lately, which I highly recommend.

Landing on our feet.

A quick update for ourselves and to you reading. We are now installed happily and snug in a new house we are renting. We had quite a serious housefire on the 19th of september, leaving us completely without a home and all our things gone or severely damged.

It has been a alot of work, it has been really tough on the children, and such an ordeal to BUY and find all the things one needs to live. But amazing how quickly one can accumulate. We have been incredibly lucky, and it is just material loss. We are all happy and healthy.
Life goes on quite quickly with small children, wake-up calls at 6am, porridge to be made, walks to be had, the autumn to be experienced and the onset of frosty winter.

Thus, good or bad karma, good or bad luck, is quite realtive to how you take it, we think. We are calm, and sure of eachother and life. The rest is just details.
Admitting we are exhausted is a truth, but unsure or sad would not. We are pretty sure we can stay in this wonderful house until our new one is built, yes- we have to rebuild. Diving into architecture magazines, ready houses, paperwork with the insurence company. Writing detailed inventory lists for the insurence company is equally challenging but necessary, everything must be mentioned if we are to recieve the insurence for it.

Photos from our new view, the house is farther up the hill, great location, and behind the house we can see the mountains covered in the first snow. Sheep just up the drivway.
More photos to come. The first thing Anders did was to buy a digital cmarea for documentaion reasons in the house.
Now back to rythm is priority nr. 1. and then maybe alittle Kindergarden and painting. I missed Michaelmass compleatly, am aiming for an october fest of somekind. Autumnis truly beautiful here, cold and wet, but beautiful.

Monday update

We had a visitor from New Zealand last week, whom the kids and I took up to the Folgefonna glacier. Beautiful, clear skies, icy cold, fresh water. It was an amazing experience even for me.

lea in our garden, picking apples, or alternately snails, is a favorite past time.

Apple picking season has just started. They are still a little sour, but perfect for cakes and juice.

Anders and teh children were up in Fitjadalen while I was away with a couple of couchsurfers (recommendable, check it out on couchsurfers.org) and built a fairyhouse, for the little gnomes by the lake.

Rasberry season is sadly enough over, but the freezer is full and the winters jam is secured.

The days are whizzing by here with us. Autumn has definitely arrived, in a sort of melancholic sneaky way, just acknowledging that summer has passed and no more swimming in the sea was a quite a blow. Living in this area is absolutely fantastic, but the summers are not predictable. On the flip side, darker evenings, rain and cold has it's magic. We are outside just as much, picking berries, digging in numerous sandboxes in the area. Noa likes to find the biggest puddles and lay in them, and then have a handful of mud and sand to go with it.

We can light more candles, have more cosy inside time. make more breads and food that take time, since we don't have to run to the beach at every possible ray of sun.

Mondays are now my study day here at home. I have made a fantastic arrangement with a friend of mine to take turns taking care of each others kids. She takes Noa and Lea Mondays, i get little Elias on Fridays. I think she got the worst end of that deal... Lea is a little unhappy about me leaving, but i am back by 2pm, and all is well and happy.

I have started actively the Kindergarten here at home, and will be posting specifically what i do, to document what and where and why. Doing story time with Jasmin is still a challenge with the twins around, they distract her, and me. And doing circle songs and such are a challenge with Jasmin, as she is SOOO rough with them. The ages are so close, but yet so far apart. I am hoping the magic of repetition and Jasmin being more home with me will solve all the crying and delays. These days are also MY learning experiences, dealing with discipline, implementing structure and routine, song and crafts. Much more challenging then writing a masters theses I tell you. Beyond doubt.

Boat festival

Last weekend was the Norheimsund Boat festival. This is from the Small Boat Regatta, this year we had three boats for all children. Jasmin has come in first and second these last two years, this year we only reached forth.

And we went on Matilde, for a short "pirate" sail, from Norheimsund, to the Fartøyvernsenter,where Anders works. (Check out the website, to see what he does.) Here you can see Jon Christian, our youth that lives with us, up in the rigg.

beginnings

da er det i gang.
håper dette kan bli noe mange kan få glede av.
her skal det komme små glimt fra oss og hva vi holder på med.
plasser vi har besøkt, nye ord de små har lært og ting og tang vi har laget og bakt.

sees snart.
see you all soon.

love from hardanger