a new beginning

I don't know who follows this blog anymore, but I think there might be some family and friends out there, especially here in the US who'd appreciate just some daily life updates from Norway once in a while after we're there; Lilly and I and eventually Lilly and I and Elle. So I am re-committing to my writing and posting of pictures here. With my credit card points I was able to get a new digital camera that I can bring along to Norway so that Leighton/Elle can keep the one we have here and I can bring the new one to Norway to shoot pictures with and post here.

In case you didn't already see this on Facebook, I got tickets for Lilly and I to fly over to Oslo January 7th. We have a friend picking us up at the airport and can stay in her sister's apartment for the first two weeks while said sister is away. This apartment happens to be in the region of Oslo where it so happens that we have better chances of getting in to a good daycare/preschool, and I have applied for openings there. After our arrival I will have to find us an apartment to live in in that area. And a job. Unless I land one before that. I had a Skype-interview for a job there this morning and it went very well. Crossing fingers.

spring-summer update

Sorry for not posting here for a while; we've just been too busy doing other good stuff! Leighton keeps getting praised at work (and given more and more work and responsibility); Lilly is thriving at her Montessori preschool (the school keeps a photo album of their activities here); and I'm looking forward to the fall publication of my book on feminist porn.

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, spent one day family birthday partying, another day at the beach, and a final one at our local Memorial Day service followed by a local afternoon baseball game. We barbequed on the sunny days, sipping margaritas, and felt quite lucky about our lives. (Beach day pictures here.)

Lilly got her first two-wheeler this spring (hand-me-down from good neighbors). Pictures from our first family bike ride outing are here (confession: Leighton and I had to bike really slowly... But it was so much fun to bike together! And we all enjoyed our lunch and ice creams afterwards at the cafe in Welch village.)

I've been teaching Lilly ballet since this past winter when she first expressed interest. Then it got boring for her with no other kids around. In March, she joined (as the youngest student in the entire school) a class that had been practicing for the spring performance since January. I'm proud to say Lilly did wonderfully at the final recital at the high school theater Friday a week and a half ago. Not afraid of being on the stage at all! Just so happy to have her mom and dad there watching her and cheering her on. More pictures here.

It's just wild to us that Lilly will be finishing her first year of preschool on Friday; in three days! Thank you family for your financial support with that. And to think she will turn FOUR two weeks after that (BTW Cheryl: ladybug-swimsuit still fits!). Lilly is writing and reading letters, excited about the pool opening on Friday (goggles are on her wishlist), and speaks enthusiastically about our vacation to look forward to this summer. She is grateful for her friends (and so looks up to her older ones), in love with her mom and dad, and totally into changing clothes every ten minutes, especially dresses. It's that stage. And it's very cute.

Oh, and we got new IKEA patio furniture last week! And we are so into barbequing and eating outside on the porch. Lilly is loving her (cold) hotdogs with ketchup (Leighton and I prefer both those and our chicken grilled). We got a big nice umbrella too for some shade when it gets too hot.

Here's to a good summer to us all!

summertime!

Drinks outside this spring

It's "summmmertime" as Lilly likes to say whenever the sun is out. We've been enjoying hanging on the porch again, planting in the garden, playing outside. It's so interesting to see what a difference a year can make. Whereas last year, we found ourselves constantly worrying about Lilly running out into the street, we can now let her play outside some by herself, close to the house (with a frequent eye on her). She'll find her toys in the garage: her trike and chalk and bubbles. She'll play in the sandbox. And slide a little. Look at the growing plants and flowers.

Mostly, of course, she prefers us to play with her, or, rather, that the girls next door come over to play with her. They are both ten and Lilly so enjoys their attention.

Sorry we haven't posted much here lately, but it's been a busy time. Leighton's gotten more hours at Laura Baker, giving me less time to write. The time that I have been getting, I've devoted to polishing my book manuscript, putting together a proposal to lure the interest of an agent to help me find the right publisher, and developing my three websites: two blogs and an online resource center, which Leighton has been helping me with a lot: we envision it as a family business down the road.

Though we've been busy, never feeling like there's enough time, we've also been feeling truly blessed by the generosity of friends and family in the last few months. First, dear friends decided to bestow upon us their super nice Subaru. Then my parents offered to buy us all tickets to come visit them in Norway this summer. -- We're leaving on Wednesday, and the same friend who gave us her Subaru is taking us to the airport. Are we lucky, or what?

For Easter, Lilly got a garden kit from grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl. We planted the seeds in the pots outside last week, and she worked so carefully to do it right. -- And fortunately, her idea that stirring the soil again after planting the seeds, did not kill the spirit of these hardy plants: radishes, carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, and spinach are already sprouting.

We've been planting together in my garden too, and though her helping me sometimes feels like it's undoing what I want to get done (or at least slowing it down significantly), her joy in helping me do real work is definitely worth it.

We return from Oslo just in time for Lilly 's three-year birthday, the day after which she'll begin preschool at the Montessori children's house in town. Preschool summer program that is, but still?! Such a big girl. Not a baby. Not a toddler. -- A preschooler.

Big girl on her trike this spring

Other recent landmarks include me not having to lie in bed with her at night till she's asleep. Though putting on pajamas and brushing her teeth are not among Lilly's favorite things to do, as soon as we're through with those tasks, we can go to bed, nurse and cuddle a little, and then I can get up after ten minutes or so, usually by 8:30 P.M. and with her still awake (she always wants the door ajar, just so, just as I remember wanting it as a child: precision is key). -- As opposed to before when I'd have to lie there for up to an hour, waiting for her to fall asleep (and often falling asleep myself).

It's pretty amazing to me how smoothly this transition evolved; she was just ready for it. Though it was exasperating at times before to lie there with her for so long in the evening, I'm glad we never did the cry-it-out (or monitored crying) method.

In July, Leighton turns thirty. A big day that deserves celebrating in style (please: any creative ideas?).

Speaking of parties; Leighton and Lilly are at some friends for one as I write this post on this warm Memorial Day holiday, giving me some peace and quiet to enjoy myself on our porch. And smell the fresh grass being cut by our neighbor; the lily of the valley in full bloom and the few lilacs holding on. Not a bad holiday.

At the pool last summer

Also to look forward to, is summertime at our city's pool. It opens the weekend we get back from Norway. We've purchased our summer passes and I look forward to picnics and playful (hopefully also some lazy) afternoons there this summer. It's been a wet, cold spring, so I foresee plenty warm summer days. Hey, it's summmmertime, you now?!

make like a tree and be

It'd been a while since I'd gone to yoga. I used to go during the evenings on weekdays. But I felt like that cut into my family time so stopped going altogether. This doesn't make much sense, I know, but trying to find a good time to fit yoga into my schedule, when busy with my new job and internship and working on our websites and my thesis, proved difficult for me; especially since I'm super sentimental and find it hard to get out of the house when I "should" be spending time with Lilly and Anne.

However, yoga really is such a good investment in my health and well-being that I should make the time for it too. Anne and I decided that Saturday mornings, after she gets back from her yoga class, would be a good time for me to go; it would be a good start to the weekend (which we like to think of as family time) and leave the rest of the day open to do things all together.

Leaving the studio last Saturday, I was feeling energized. Sure it helped that we had perfect spring weather. But my practice that morning was great. A bit stiff, yes, but great. During class the instructor said something that made me think (something he had recalled another instructor saying) which made a lot of sense and can be thought of as a good outlook in our everyday. We were just finishing tree pose when he reminded us that "a forest would be boring if all the trees were the same."

Every person is different, every practice is different. In yoga we must remind ourselves that our practice is exactly where it should be for us individually. And we must remind ourselves that our practice will change, as will the needs of our bodies. We shouldn't force a pose, but instead we work with our bodies to find the pose that fits with the abilities of our bodies and our needs during that practice.

In our daily lives we might be tempted to compare ourselves with others, and try to mold ourselves and our lives into the form of others; we might push ourselves into doing something that is not right for us at the time.

I think it's truly interesting when you consider just how different trees and plants really are, and how with every day each grows in new, totally unique ways. Think of how, for example, the plant in our kitchen window reaches for the sun; and how, if rotated in its place, it reaches for the sun in a new direction, completely changing form and the possibility of growth in the future. Or how, if trimmed and pruned, trees grow new branches. To grow and thrive, these are all living with their needs in mind, so to speak.

Something like that. We spent the rest of the day outside. Originally with the intention of working in the yard, we let ourselves relax and enjoy the spring day; the winter this year has been long and cold, keeping us like many Minnesotans indoors, waiting for better weather to get outside and re-energize ourselves. We worked a little, played a lot, went for a walk into town, and opened our porch for the afternoon. Lilly got to play on the slide next door, ride her trike, blow bubbles, and even dig around a bit in the sandbox (which was opened for the first time to dry out). She even skipped her nap and went to bed earlier than usual. Which gave mama and papa some time to re-energize in other ways.

thanks be to hubs, good friends and family!

Thanks to Leighton, good friends and family, I've been treated to quite the birthday celebration this year! It started Friday a week ago when I found a little gift bag by the coffee pot with six tickets to see a theater performance of Sunday on the Rocks that same night. Leighton had been emailing with a group of my closest girlfriends in town to meet me up for dinner at my favorite restaurant in town, Chapati, serving yummy Indian food, before going out to see the play. We all had such a good time. One had brought a chocolate cake for dessert and I got many nice gifts (on top of their treating me to dinner and drinks), including a journal for all my thoughts and a gift card to work one morning in a coffee shop while Lilly would be at my friend's house.

The festivities continued on Saturday when we had friends over for dinner and then Sunday night we finished my birthday cake. First thing Lilly said to me Monday morning, on my actual birthday:

Lilly er så glad i mamma. Og sjokoladekake.
Lilly loves mama so much. And chocolate cake.

We all went out for lunch for the free birthday sandwich Hogan Brothers Acoustic Cafe offers. Lilly was sick with a cold, so other than our lunch outing, I was home with her all day, but it was a good day still.

And then, get this, on Tuesday morning we drove up to the cities to pick up a new car that our dear friends Nancy and Stephanie offered to us as a gift! A super nice blue Subaru Outback station wagon from 2000. WOW! So now we have two cars, which is so nice for us, especially since Leighton's been working from 4-6 p.m. lately, leaving Lilly and I fairly house bound. And this car is such an improvement to the old Volvo that has all sorts of problems, which we haven't had checked because it would have left us carless while being fixed.

I got the cold Lilly and Leighton have been having later in the week, but I also got a couple of writing gigs. With that on top of all the rest, I can't really complain, now can I. Thank you all dear friends and family for thinking of me with sweet wishes, cards, and gifts. I am so grateful!

holding on

I love the change of season; spring thaw and the arrival of the first crocuses, daffodils and tulips, followed by forsythia and lilacs. The end of the academic year, the opening of the city pool, and boom summer's here. The back-to school anticipation, the crisper air and change of colors to sparkling red and orange hues. The first snow.

But seriously, summer is really the only season I hold on to. I mean who, in Minnesota, holds on to winter (aside for compulsive skiers and ice fishing enthusiasts) after it's been around for about, oh, half a year or so. With loads of snow and sub-zero temperatures. Spring is really just a flash around here, fall can be beautiful (till it turns dark and gray and chilly). But summer, oh summer. Even when it's a steaming hot (with the tornado siren going off with heat advisories; and yes, we've had several tornado warnings this summer too), muggy buggy summer like this one has been (with our house besieged by colds from about mid July to mid August). And to be honest, summer usually lasts from way before school's out. This year we had HOT summer weather in May (but of course we had our month of sick then too).

This week, we're seriously holding on. Labor day is on Monday and then it's back to school on Tuesday. The city pool closed for the season on Sunday. It was the last day Grism's corn was available. On Saturday, Walker Art Center will have its final outdoors Free First Saturday for families before heading inside for the rest of the year.

This holding on is not a sad bad thing. It's slightly nostalgic, but it's more about savoring each and every moment of these final precious days of summer. Be they with friends in the park, or at the zoo as a family. At the pool with friends and/or as a family. Out on the porch (when it's not too hot). In the garden (when it's not too buggy). Stopping by Hogan bros downtown after dinner for ice cream and to hang out with friends. Spending time preparing delicious dinners with fresh ingredients from our garden and the farmer's market. Creating memories to savor when winter gets long...

With friends in the stone ring at the Arboretum

Lilly taking a break in the stone ring

Hanging out in the porch

Fun at the zoo (there were real giraffes too...)

Happy Leighton and Lilly at the zoo

The lily in bloom

Making a splash at the pool

Playing in the park by the farmer's market

 Spicy shrimp over red quinoa with black beans and fresh garden salad

Lilly likes shrimp

summer highlights

We're approaching Labor Day, which to me introduces fall. The pool closes for the season on Sunday. School's starting up soon. It's a time of holding on, and looking back.

Here are my summer favorite memories so far:

- Lilly's birthday and birthday part
- day trip to Lake Pepin with dinner at Harbor View
- picnic at the beach at Lake Byllesby
- our mini vacation in Duluth
- a fun family day at the Walker art museum
- Leighton's birthday (including a yoga date for the two of us, lunch out as a family, an afternoon visit to Cannon Valley Winery, finished off with a dinner date out for Leighton and I, and then a drink on the patio outside of the restaurant before getting Lilly who was at a playdate at the house of some dear friends)
- the times we've been at the pool (including for three hours this afternoon, pushing nap time till 3)
- a day at the farm with my friend with our kids
-visiting a friend of mine at the hospital the first day after she gave birth to a precious baby girl
- following another friend of mine stay in hospital for a month till giving birth to twins end of July
- spending a weekend afternoon (that Lilly wouldn't nap) at the pub patio sharing a pitcher of beer with Leighton while we played with Lilly
- spending another weekend afternoon at the pub patio with a girlfriend for cocktails, NO kids
- a girls' night out at a restaurant in the cities (got to wear heals and got NOT to wear a nursing bra)
- more playdates with friends who were off work (and because I had more time too, what with being with Lilly all day everyday and less scheduled classes to attend), doing fun different things like river walks and ice cream making
- going to the farmer's market and the new weekend market along the river
- taking a summer music and movement class for Lilly at the YMCA
- spending an afternoon as a family at an outdoor barn fest concert in Red Wing
- summer time cooking, including harvesting from the garden (interspersed with weeding) and making my own pesto with basil from our bountiful basil garden
- BBQs in our backyard and at friends' houses
- some nice walks with friends, in the Arb on Sunday mornings or in the evening around the neighborhood
- leisurely strolls with Lilly

Lilly at the Barn Fest concert in Red Wing

Lilly in the garden over at some friends' house for a BBQ

Lilly in our backyard pool

 Lilly at the city pool

Lilly in our backyard at a family BBQ

Leighton at same said BBQ

Me, the chef of homemade pizzas with homemade pesto

Lilly and papa on a stroll around the house

Leighton on his birthday, having lunch out

Me hanging out in our porch