Life on the hill

To-do list

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:11:42 GMT

Christmas shopping - Done!
Get car serviced - Done!
Find out car needs new shock absorbers - Done!
Order painfully expensive shock absorbers - Done!
Find cheaper mechanic - Done!
Buy winter tires- Done!
Get family vaccinated against flu - Done!
Find out winter tires are wrong size - Done!
Get new winter tires again and have them put on car - Done!
Find out actual make of first set of winter tires - Done!
Nurse sick daughter back to former level of mischievousness - Done!
Nurse other daughter back to former level of mischievousness - Done!
Buy enough pet food to last through the holidays - Done!
Bake gingerbread with family - Done!
Move bookshelves in livingroom as planned three months ago - Done!
Finish sewing curtains that I started on three months ago -
Calculate tax debt for this year -
Apply for recalculation of income tax for next year -
Find place to do occupational therapy - Working on it!
Find job -
Put first set of winter tires up for sale -
Wrap Christmas gifts -
Put summer clothes in storage -
Move recycling from garage to recycling center -
Back-up computer files - Working on it!
Reinstall tired, annoyed, annoying computer -
Return e-mails to family and friends -
Resume strategy for maintaining mental health -
World peace - Enough already!

Update blog - Done!

Job interview - the results

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:00:57 GMT

Thank you all for your well wishes, they truly came in handy when there was no hot water when I woke up on Wednesday, I had no clean pants that fit, and a storm did it's best to keep me from getting to and from Malmö.

The interview itself was good and informative and provided me with lots of information, but unfortunately I am still unemployed. My background was too IT and not medical/hardcore technical enough for the technical documentation department they are building at Epsilon. I would recommend them for anyone looking for an employer with a conscience, that plans ahead and believes in making the most of what both younger and older generations have to offer, and isn't afraid to invest during a recession.

It was so nice just for a company to want to meet me, to not feel like a leper for a little while.

So as things stand this evening, I am still looking for somewhere to do my occupational therapy. I will be surprised if my counselors at the OT program I'm in don't have any new leads for me tomorrow, though.

Job interview -

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:31:21 GMT

in Malmö, tomorrow afternoon. I don't think there will be time for socializing after, but I'll be available on cell phone and e-mail around 4 p.m.

Gotta sleep-prepare-choose-an-outfit-and-hope-it's-clean-bite-fingernails-now- BYE!

In Meowmoriam

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:59:55 GMT

Today we mourn the passing of Missan "Mysan" Meow.

Born sometime in the late 1980s or early '90s, Missan was a part of the package when we bought our house at Berchshill. Due to an inability to get along with our other cats and a strong aversion towards our old dog, Hoshi, Missan preferred to live in our cellar, curled up near the wood-furnace at night and exiting through a cat-flap for her numerous mouse-hunts. Her unpolished appearance and stiff gait led us to believe that Missan would not be with us much longer when we first met, five years ago.

It wasn't until a couple of months prior to her passing that we noticed further signs of Missan's dimishing health. It seemed as if she could no longer jump through the cat flap anymore and waited instead for us to let her in and out during our daily visits to the cellar. When brought into the house proper due to grooming issues that needed to be remedied during the dusty renovation of our cellar, Missan was rather thin, virtually toothless, and slept over eighteen hours a day.

Missan quickly made herself at home on our top floor, banishing all other cats from that part of the house and regularly marking her territory. Although the smallest and oldest of our cats, Missan could and did kick any cat's butt. Despite her aggression towards other four-legged beings, Missan loved to cuddle and be groomed by humans, thus her middle-name Mysan (cozy). She was quick to purr and routinely demanded attention with a deep, haunting "Meow!"

Growing intestinal problems and behavioral quirks led to our decision to allow Missan to move on to her tenth life this afternoon. Let it be known that she went with a purr and smile as she left the pain of her ninth life behind . May she hunt happily in the heaven of animals and find a warm lap to lie on!

The field mice of Berchshill will sleep more soundly tonight.

Submitting to peer-pressure

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:48:44 GMT

3 moods I was in today: tired, chatty, ambitious

3 feelings I experienced today: dismay, amusement, irritation

3 things I'm looking forward to this weekend: It's half-over, but I was looking forward to swimming, Nurse Jackie, and guilt-free late nights

3 things I need to accomplish this weekend: financial report, fruit/vegetable order for next week, school questionnaire

3 things I keep wasting time on: On-line window-shopping, Rubik's Cube, movies I wasn't planning to watch (on tv)

3 things that have made me happy lately: Gooood lamb with red wine sauce, my daughter saying "I love you", meeting people

3 people I'm thinking of: Malin, Henrik, Mikael

3 places I wish I were: in a hot bath, in an empty, queen-sized bed, in my husband's arms

3 work-related tasks I did a lot of this week: fill out questionnaires, read want-ads, explore university classes for the spring

3 people I wish had blogs: my mom, my sister, and, oh my gosh - psykolog wrote several posts in 2006! How did I not notice that?

3 LJ'ers I'd like to meet in real life that I haven't yet: um, are there even three on my friends list that I've never met? Let's see: sandykins57 , ladyvox

3 shamefully neglected projects: curtains, couch, bathroom fan

3 things I miss: my American family, going on vacation, the complete absence of physical pain

3 fruits I never get tired of: peaches, raspberries, wild strawberries

3 things I'm glad don't actually exist in real life: elves (my 3-year-old is currently terrified if them), dragons and predator aliens... but who can say for sure that they don't???

3 things I wish there would be an end to: cruelty, hopelessness and greed

3 ways to end this list: ~~baby~~ toddler screaming, pee break, zzz....

Wake-up call

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:08:04 GMT

So how did I manage to miss the fact that Sweden has implemented a totally new system of putting together college degrees? They did it like two years ago :O Suddenly I understand why sealwhiskers has had such a hard time convincing US employers of the validity of her degree and getting it updated to the new standard.

I was hoping to get a bigger, better, more marketable degree by taking more classes, but the rues for combining old and new courses is so complicated that I think I'll just graduate from Stockholm University (i.e. order my diploma according to the old rules) this winter and get it over with. If I go back to college, I can always simply start on a new degree. It's not like an BA was going to do me that much good anyway :P

Okay, so maybe I should talk to a student counselor just in case.

Worked out

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:31:20 GMT

Here's something I haven't been able to say in awhile: I had a great workout today! Having finally decided on where to get a new gym membership, I literally got back in the saddle today for a spinning class. What really got me to make a decision and run with it was

A: I got enough money from my mom for my birthday to pay for the membership of my choice, and
B: The idea of putting my maternity clothes back on without being pregnant isn't at all appealing.

So thanks Mom, and thanks to everyone else who wished me a happy birthday! (I have to say that having so many people send me a birthday greeting may be reason enough to stay on Facebook or another year)

On the road

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:14:42 GMT

I'll say this for unemployment - it gives me the opportunity to see people and places I wouldn't otherwise. Perhaps because I hate going week after week with no new challenges other than writing job applications, I find excuses to hit the road. Yesterday it was Copenhagen: kachunknorge had a long stopover there on her way home from the Far East and we both had meaning to drop in on misschili and make ourselves useful. Well, I don't know how useful I was after all that driving, but Kachunk cooked us up a delicious lunch, an apple galette and prepared dinner while Misschili and I yawned and napped and apologized for our fatigue.

Later I understood that kachunk was nearly as tired as the two of us, but she was determined to fight her jet lag and stay up until her regular evening bed time. This worked well, for me though, as she offered to accompany me to the grocery store to stock up on ~~booze~~ essential cooking ingredients before I returned to Sweden.

Thanks Kachunk and Misschili for the visit! I fear that Kachunk and I may have worn Misschili out completely (and traumatized her cat!), but it was good to see her looking well and slowly returning to a sort of normalcy. There are still some Danish bureaucrats that need a good talking to about helping the disabled adjust to new circumstances, though. Grr!

In case any of you don't follow me on Facebook, I now have a dog-training blog (in Swedish) at mental-bloggen.blogspot.com/

Sleep issues, part 59

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:36:13 GMT

Because I go through my fits of in-/hypersomnia, I take sleeping and the things surrounding it very seriously. My bedroom is for sleeping, period. I utilized that wonderful invention called a Fyndhörna* at IKEA to purchase the best, most comfortable mattress available. Unfortunately, Swedes don't think something as trivial as a thread count is worth putting on the package of a set of sheets, but I do take sheets seriously as well.

But there is still my family to contend with: the husband snores. The less he exercises, the more he snores. Am I ready to light a fire under his behind to get him to visit the gym more often? You betcha! I also had him get a spray for his throat to prevent the snoring a bit for Mother's Day (or maybe it was Valentine's Day?) Nonetheless, I have to use earplugs every night and have grown prone to outer ear infections. Occasionally dipping the earplugs in hand sanitizer seems to be helping, however (and lord knows there's plenty of that around this fall!) So I am handling the hubby.

Now the kids... they are good kids, good sleepers. After June's initial year of constant wake-ups, colic and ear-infections, things have settled down... until about four in the morning a couple of nights a week, when she desires a grown-up-sized teddy bear to help her sleep until her inner-alarm clock goes off at six. Fine - she's already sleeping in a grown-up-sized bed, so I often seize the opportunity to escape the snoring husband or have him join her.

Michelle, who was every mother's dream as far as sleeping and schedules went after four months of age, has recently become more of a restless sleeper. She wants to fall asleep in our ~~sanctuary~~ bed. She has nightmares. She needs the potty. She wants to cuddle in the morning. It's all pretty endearing and often cozy, but then there are nights like the one I had last night:
It started out ok: I went upstairs at 7 p.m. for a brief lie-down that turned into four hours of high-quality sleep. Then Mikael came to bed snore - poke - "Stop snoring!" - snore - poke, etc. Followed by Michelle wailing like a banshee. I took Michelle into our room. Mikael snored. Michelle fussed and kicked and... fell asleep! SNORE I carried Michelle back to her room. WAIL We returned to my bedroom. SNORE I went into Michelle's room to try to sleep in her child sized (shorter than a twin-sized) bed.

After a few hours of calf cramps, sleeping with bent knees and tossing and turning, a wail from June. Ah, the hubby woke up and tucked her in again. Seemingly minutes later, another wail. I had cramps in my legs again, so I went in, intending to sleep some more in June's bed, but June still fussed and whined. I changed her diaper, sneaking a peek at the clock while I was up: 6 a.m. Darn it! A cat pawed at June door. June made inquisitive sounds (not many real words yet, just hints and insinuations "Mama? Pappa? A-ah?") until I finally put on Barnkanalen**, hoping my earplugs would allow me a little more rest. But June was feeling social and required my participation in her entertainment, i.e. it behoved her to bounce up and down on my back while the Tweenies sang about the difference between hot and cold. And that was my night - over.

And now here I am, 22 hours later, with a brain that craves sleep, but keeps saying "No, don't go up there! Who knows what will be in your bed?!" Well, whoever is there, at least they will be gone in two hours when Mikael has his turn at the morning-shift.

And those of you who don't have husbands or small children: ENJOY!

* The discount corner - a hidden away area at every IKEA warehouse where they sell items with outrageous discounts for no apparent reason.

** The national children's channel, which can always be relied on to show toddler-friendly shows early in the morning

From sleep to reality to dreams

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:47:53 GMT

The road trip caught up with me yesterday and I basically slept all day, pausing only for a meal and to take a call from a temp agency (When I mentioned that I had been ill, I could just hear the agent saying "Next..." to herself. I would be very surprised to hear from them again.)

Today I continued the autumn clean-up of my garden. I have big plans to move my herb garden, fill up the flower beds with perennials and give the grass and weeds on the slopes of the garden some competition by transplanting some perennials to them as well. I'm not sure how I will make this happen, though, because it will require a lot of digging and the hubby can't help me before he is finished fireproofing the furnace room and splitting some firewood. No harm in dreaming though:

If I could I would:

Plant perennials
Parboil and preserve vegetables and fruit for the winter
Sow broad beans
Dig in the celery
Clear the weeds from the gravel
Put up a fence along the back of our yard
Build a greenhouse out of our old windows
Put my renegade tomato plants (that sprouted up in the rose bed) in the green house
Thin out the lupins that are taking over the front yard
Prune the apple and plum trees
Buy and plant an apple tree - our apples are only good for pies, so I would like a sweet yet crisp apple, like Ingrid Marie
Take Mental downtown for a walk, i.e. social training, every day
Dog-proof the dog run once and for all
Straighten up the garage and finish the doorway to the guest room, thereby making it useable
Find a reasonable way to furnish the living room
Hang new curtains just about everywhere
Get in shape and then have a baby
Go back to being a chef
etc...

Progress

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:32:49 GMT

I have seen more friends in the past three weeks than I have probably seen in the previous three years:

There was lunch at Hillesgården, a nearby park, health center and restaurant and perhaps the best kept secret in the foothills to Hallandsåsen that I live in.
Then there was a trip to Gothenburg to take the girls to the Liseberg amusement park, visit with a good friend, and visit my dog's breeder.
And this past weekend I helped a friend move and got to take a road trip with her and another friend, who was the designated back-up driver. But it turned out I could drive to Örebro and back by myself. Social life, here I come!
We stopped at a place I have wanted to explore for a long time:

Brahehus was built in the 17th century and has the most amazing view in Sweden:

We finally ended up at another LJ friend's house where the eating was good, the couch was big, and the living was easy. In order to get home from our final destination of Eslöv, I suggested the hubby pick me up and we take our girls to the zoo. Skånes Djurpark was a lovely experience - it is always nice to visit a zoo where the animals seem well-treated. There were playgrounds at 200-yard intervals throughout the park, which made it perfect for a family outing

The girls do a little dance

A seal for sealwhiskers:

We got to see the wolf pack and bears as well. A fox seemed to have gotten lost in the bear pen:

It looks like he's pleading for help, doesn't it?

I have also bought more pairs of shoes in the past two weeks than I have in the past ten years. This was financed by selling some old dog training books on Tradera. Cha-ching!

My joints are screaming for mercy , but I am feeling alive and inspired and very hopeful for the future. A final bonus is that I taught my three-year-old how to roll out pasta and she loves it enough to want to do it herself. Child-labor, anyone? ;)

Review of my Retriever

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:47:08 GMT

This is actually a reply to a post by LivingRheum that got too long, but I though some of you might be interested in how things are going with Mental, my service-dog-to-be.

My old dog died just after my second daughter was born and a friend who has MS convinced me to switch breeds and get a Flatcoated Retriever, the idea being that retrievers are so much easier to train to be service dogs, are child-friendly, and have an easier time relaxing than my old dog (who was a Belgian Malinois).

My breeder of choice happened to have a five-month-old puppy, which saved us the hassle of house-training. At a year and a half, Mental is a big boy, but doesn't require a leash on walks and gets his exercise either through retrieving in water or running beside my bicycle (I use a contraption called a Springer Bicycle Jogger to keep him safe from the spinning wheels). Mental was a little too much of a retriever at first, offering me everything from the children's toys to every shoe in the house, but is more focused now and all I have to do is point at something and say "Can I have that?" for him to retrieve it.

Clicker-training is the most important tool in training a service dog (or any dog, in my opinion), and I would recommend books by Karen Pryor and Morgan Spector to anyone looking to find a positive, non-"jerk and pull"-method of dog training.

Another important thing is socialization, which Mental unfortunately hasn't gotten enough of, due to the isolated location of our house and how difficult it is for me to take a walk in the city with an excited dog on a leash (or anywhere else, for that matter). We took an obedience class for the sole purpose of de-dramatizing other dogs and people for Mental, but he really needs to meet new people on a regular enough basis to make him lose interest. He's friendly enough, just overly enthusiastic :)

Mom's 70th

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:24:15 GMT

Busy busy days here during the harvest season, which is also the birthday season in my family. My Mom turned 70 last week and my sister came over from the States to join us for a few days of good eating, playing with the kids and more driving than is good for me. The new car is a dream, though, and Mental the dog has been enjoying tagging along on my errands lately (I can fit him + baby carriage + passenger + 2 kids in the car without any problems whatsoever).

It is strange to think about my mother aging. I mean sure, she's older, but I still can't keep up with her! Her visit here was actually just a stop on her way to a conference in Denmark. She still does volunteer work in Stockholm and gets more exercise in a week than I do in a year. What a woman!

Aside from dinner, a massage, and play dates with the kids, I got Mom a book to write in for her birthday. They have these great sort of scrapbook things for grandparents to fill out now, with questions about their likes, dislikes, means of entertainment, and other details of their childhoods. I want my kids to have the book later, but it was also an egoistic gift for me, because I enjoy hearing about my mother's childhood so much and she so seldom talks about it (being the move-on, next challenge sort of person that she is).

Speaking of childhoods, I managed to find more childhood friends on Facebook now. Thanks to one of them, I have taken on a writing assignment. So sometime this fall I will be able to present The Summer of Joy - a recollection of the last summer I spent in California, staying with my friend Joy and her family in 1986. The best thing about getting in touch with childhood friends is that they have all been so recognizable to me. Hearing about what they have been up to for the past 20-25 years, I just think "Of course, that's just the sort of thing I thought you'd do" I like them for the same reasons now as I did back then, only back then I didn't give any thought to why I liked them.

How lucky I am!

Mom and June at the zoo

Quality time

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:54:25 GMT

Sometimes making the glass seem half-full is a challenge, especially when my posts tend to be about pain and joblessness and... well, you get the picture. So let's try and alter the perspective, shall we?

For the past week, I've gotten a lot of job-applications written, read more (and consequently commented on more) blog posts than usual, followed meaningless, amusing links on the internet, and spent some quality time with the cats.

Cats don't like people who run around a lot (less lap time), aren't home much (less fresh water in the bowl), or really concentrate on whatever work they are doing around the house (unless that work is petting them). Although my life is much more peaceful now than ten years ago, it's still hard to make sure each pet gets its daily cuddle. Consequently, my cats love it when I am bedridden. This week, they got really lucky:

I went through the usual couple of days or swelling ankles thinking "It'll be fine, I'll sit down some more or use my crutches. How can I get worse when I have my own pharmacy here at home?" But one morning, reality hit me when I couldn't get out of bed, and so I ~~ordered room service~~ had my hubby bring me breakfast and finally got around to adding some vital numbers to the phone book on my cell phone.

I was lucky enough to get an appointment with my rheumatologist that same day, but he called me on ignoring that my hands were in pretty bad shape too. Thus I ended up getting four cortisone shots: one in each ankle and each wrist. I have nothing against shots in general, but the injection fluid contains something that is chrystallized at first, but "melts" after a day or two. Until it does, it's kind of like having finely crushed glass in one's joints. This means that I feel a lot worse for a bit. This week it took two full days for the side effects to wear off. Since my husband is on vacation, I didn't have to feel guilty about staying in bed and waiting for the pain to blow over.

The cats loved it. Finally, I acted like a normal, lazy, lethargic creature. I would occasionally look up from my ~~bed warmer~~ computer to the sight of four cats watching me with their little kitty smiles from around the room. And of course, I've had one cat close by my side at all times.

Just when I thought the love/petting fest would be over, I got a cramp in my shoulder, so back to bed with a heat pad strapped over the defiant shoulder I went. One more registration at a recruitment site finished and more lovely reading accomplished! Lula-cat got a good combing out of it as well.

It's almost with a little regret that I will be handing the kids over to the in-laws and heading up to Gothenburg for the U2 concert tomorrow.

Almost.

pillow love

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:22:39 GMT

Michelle has finally returned to drawing pictures when given pen and paper, and does all her "writing" on the computer these days. What's even better is that her drawings have subjects - spiders with big, sharp teeth:

Our three-year-old has also developed a narrative voice, and shares just about every thought that enters her mind with us these days. Although this can be very amusing, we are trying to teach her to filter her monologue a little, when we are on the phone for instance. The best thing about our chatterbox is that she tells us how good we are when we clean, do dishes, buy her ice cream, turn on the tv, or - in Mikael's case - have a glass of beer.

She has also taken to taking care of her sister, who isn't really a baby anymore and often protests loudly. But how endearing it is to see big sister fetch June's pacifier, put salad on her plate, hold a cup for her to drink out of, or fetch her favorite stuffed toy.

I wish we could have three! *sigh*

A taste of all things good

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:57:56 GMT

Every time I visited my Swedish grandmother, from when I was a little American girl used to American things, up until mormor Margareta was at least 88 years old, she would offer me a glass of home-made red currant juice. Lucky for me, about the time she stopped making her own juice, I moved into my own house and carried on the tradition of harvesting red currants and turning them into the taste of summer and all things good.
My harvest is tiny, but with a little help from my MIL and her plentiful currant bushes, I manage to make red currant juice every year. I never drink it without thinking about my grandmother. That is how I honor her memory.

Insomnia, part 746

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:43:27 GMT

Ok, I know I promised no more late night/ early morning posting recently, but this seems to be the only time of "day" that I am centered enough to actually post. So let me talk a bit about what's keeping me up at night...

I normally take a weak type of sleeping pill that basically makes me go to bed, but will not make me sleep through the night or fall straight back to sleep, should I be awakened by something (i.e. cats or children or snoring). But recently, the pills haven't quite kept me from staying up and they have also begun to have the side effect of making me feel disoriented and experience some short-term memory loss in the middle of the day. So, no pills for me at the moment!

Left to my own devices, I often can get to sleep on my own, if I just go to bed. But what happens is that I decide to stay up "for another ten minutes or so" after my husband goes to bed, so as to have a little time to myself, during which I get caught up in a tv-show or web page and then I play the "I'll just..."-game until I literally can't keep my eyes open or the twittering of the birds outside and the sunlight streaming in through the windows forces me upstairs to the solace of my earplugs and dark curtains.

And it's not like there is anything that interesting on tv or the web that I can't record or read or catch on YouTube tomorrow... I think this is just my way of avoiding those few minutes before falling asleep that would allow me to start obsessing about things that worry me or things I cannot change. I simply do not want to remember what I am trying to forget because I prefer to be oblivious and somewhat optimistic.

Nor do I want to obsess and worry here either because I have gotten it into my head that I want to write relevant, interesting things and not just orgies of negativity. (All you psychologists out there are now asking "And why do you think you feel this need to entertain us or be 'interesting'?")

At the very least, I would like to mention the small blessings I receive every day, or post a fun link. But I just executed a birthday party for both my husband and daughter for a bunch of in-laws that I continually feel tolerate me for my husband's sake only, had a not-quite invited houseguest over for two nights, found out that my arthritis meds are actually doing some good, but only enough to make considering discontinuing them to have a third child a bad idea and my current physical status bearable but without room for walks and gardening and other things I would enjoy, realized that my metabolism is back to normal and I have gained 5 kilos (12 pounds) in two months, panted and sweat through a week-long, muggy heat wave without the opportunity to go swimming, AND I've been dealing with the conflicting emotions that the tragic death of a friend of the family who was also a very public figure, but whom I actually declined meeting twice and now never will meet has induced in me.

Oh, and still no rehab, no job and I couldn't pay all of our bills this month.

But who wants to continually hear about all of that? If you read everything behind the cut, your martyrdom is appreciated and will be remembered. But, seriously, if you were me -

Would you sleep?

I'll leave you with a link to a page containing all the things I wish my blog did:

http://mylifeisaverage.com/

Yikes

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:11:25 GMT

Ok, no more 5 a.m. posting for me. If I am only going to post twice a month, I can at least run a proper spellcheck and aim for a little cohesion.
Good news, though, the carpenter brought along his carpenter friends and they got all of the wondows up before 4 p.m.

Interesting news: Our kitchen windows had not been replaced since the nineteen forties - The gaps between their frames and the walls were insulated with old funky blankets, sawdust, and newspapers dated July 1948. I wonder if there is a museum or something I should contact every time we do construction?

Nevermind. I promise to get a proper night's sleep before I post another update.

Sleep issues

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:26:15 GMT

I got up before dawn today to prepare for the arrival of the carpenter that will be replacing our old drafty windows with modern ones. Of course, that alone would not normally get me out of bed at three a.m. - I fell asleep at 7 p.m. yesterday, so I happened to be feeling well-rested when Michelle woke me up.
June has been sleeping better lately (thankls mainly to an allergy medication that knocks her out completely, but that's another story), but Michelle is beginning to have issues of her own. Aside from night terrors, Michelle has pretty much always been a good sleeper and she shuns co-sleeping, lullabies, and the other tools we use to coax June to sleep. This is normally great, but when Michelle has trouble sleeping it leaves us at a loss. About six weeks ago, she started insisting on sleeping in the wicker toy chest in her room. It's too small for her to be able to stretch out her legs, but the stubborn child persisted for nearly two weeks before starting to lie on a makeshift couch we had created out of an old crib mattress and some pillows in a corner of her room.
Unfortunately, a cat was accidentally locked into Michelle's room for an entire day last week and used this mattress as a toilet. I created a sort of fort in the built-in closet in Michelle's room after that, hoping she might be content sleeping there, but she actually opted for her bed for a couple of nights. Then, this morning, she decided she didn't want to sleep there either. I was able to offer her the option of sleeping in June's crib in the master bedroom (June herself is sleeping on a mattress n her own room), but I don't know if Michelle will be content in the crib for very long, big girl that she is now.
Tonight Michelle will be sleeping at my MIL's because of the construction, so maybe I'll come up with some ideas for the complete makeover our house needs, inside and out, in the meantime. Now that June is sleeping better, I am considering letting her and Michelle share a room. The biggest challenge will be our living room, which has doors/windows on three sides. We have lots of furinture to choose from, but none of it matches. Maybe I should just put of redesigning the living room until I have a job. Any ideas from you all on furinishing the children's rooom/s would be appreciated, though!

I'll leave you with a picture of a visitor I disturbed from perching on our roof yesterday. I think I caught him spying on the jackdaws that nest in the chimney in our garage.

For Idahoswede

Sat, 30 May 2009 19:40:07 GMT

A little pic from the garden. Now let's see if I can get LJ-cut to work today...

I love that my lupins are 3 shades of purple, but I'd really like pink ones like idahoswede 's. Maybe we can trade seeds?

This doesn't look like a cut in preview mode :( What am I doing wrong??? Perhaps I should go back to html-mode?

More on Stonega

Mon, 25 May 2009 20:51:50 GMT

So, apparently everybody else in my family knew what was happening in Stonega. I think it was just a case of it being such common knowledge that no one realized that I hadn't been told. Unfortunately, the coal mining company is exploiting the area and I assume this was based on decisions made during the Bush administration. The good news is that my brother, being forewarned and compensated for what would occur, had moved the old family pictures and other things of emotional value to safety.

In other news, my entire body has inexplicably started to ache. It started on Friday and I slept through most of the weekend, despite the lovely weather and extra opportunity to spend time with the hubby. June came down with a high fever yesterday and letting her cling to me all day today nearly did me in completely, but I'm hoping that whatever she has triggered my immune system and that my body will go back to its normal be-nice-to-me-and-I'll-be-nice-to-you level of achiness soon.

Got 'til it's gone

Sat, 23 May 2009 20:26:38 GMT

I’ve had a bit of a shock. I just found out that the last of my roots are gone and I didn’t even know it was in the works.

My father grew up in a cabin in the Virginia Appalachians, just across the border from Tennessee and Kentucky. The end of the world if ever I saw it: you left the two-lane highway for a short trip through the dead, one grocery-store, coalmining-town of Big Stone Gap; followed its abandoned storefronts out onto a winding paved road, past houses that have seen better days and brutally stripped hillsides. As the hills start closing in, the road becomes more narrow, transverses railroad tracks, a final turn, more tracks, a dirt road and the house with the corn patch, the abandoned house, the burnt-out house, and next-to-last, my grandfather’s cabin. No street lights or even street signs. It never even was a town, just a coal camp. Stonega.

My brother tells me that this is what all five houses looked like when he went up there today:

Behind these cabins ran a small creek littered with garbage, discarded plastic bags, rusting cans, a tricycle. And only a steep mountainside and the wilderness beyond. Nothing much to get emotional over: that military green shack with its ancient coal stove and tiny kitchen. But I know my grandparents fought to pay for it, and my father had to walk back down that dirt road, across those tracks, and miles back towards Big Stone just to get to his two-room schoolhouse every day. It was where my grandmother, who died when I was 13 years old and thousands of miles away, made me macaroni and cheese from scratch, gave me my last pair of pajamas with pajama feet on them, and where I last saw my grandfather some thirteen of fourteen years ago. It is the place my father spent his youth dying to leave.

During all the moving, my parents’ divorce, the brief visits to the States later to get to know my American family, Stonega is the place I always returned to. I don’t believe anyone in my family has had a relationship with a house or a single piece of property for as long as we all have had that house. It’s the closest I have ever come to coming from somewhere, always an exotic contrast to wherever I was living – from Mulholland Drive to Oslo.

After my grandfather and his second wife died, my eldest brother managed to get the deed put in his name. I don’t know what led to the picture I received today – like our father, my brother never was much for explaining things. I suppose the old coal camp is being torn down to make way for more environmental exploitation or condos or, who knows – maybe even a national park? Whatever is going on, I wish I had been prepared for this day.

For misschili

Sat, 23 May 2009 06:22:49 GMT

Today's kitty-link: Some Kittens Can Fly!

State of the Garden (picture heavy - having cut-issues)

Fri, 22 May 2009 21:45:22 GMT

I must say that gardening is a whole lot easier when one isn't pregnant or breast-feeding or getting up three times nightly to rock little-ones to sleep. This year, I have been able to mow the lawn regularly, show the dandelions and slugs some resistance and beautify the flowerbeds a little, in addition to caring for the vegetable garden. I still could use a few extra pairs of hands and a mini-tractor, but these days I am feeling more proud than appalled when I look out at the yard.

I finally found corn that will grow for me. The secret turned out to be organic seed (bought online). Regular gardening stores only carry F1 hybrids and less than 25% of those would even sprout for me.

We always have more rhubarbs than we can eat. Support for peas in the background.

Mental admires the willows I planted to support the wire fence and to take switches from. Below is Lady's mantle that is thriving very well.

A promise of things to come... A friend planted these smultron (wild strawberries) in a balcony box in Stockholm four years ago. She had nowhere to put them at the end of the season and so they came into my possession, much to Michelle's delight.

I also hope to harvest potatoes, leeks, red and yellow onions, peas, fava beans, pumpkins, squash, melons, broccoli, fennel, kale, egg plants, currants, lettuce and tomatoes this year (plus the usual herbs).

Dawn

Tue, 19 May 2009 22:03:48 GMT

I hate being up at the break of day, but this sort of thing almost makes it worthwhile