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Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

EXPECTATIONS, BABIES, PLANS AND THE WAY LIFE SOMETIMES GOES

Things don’t always go according to plan but then again that is the way life is!

We managed to get a picture of us sisters, all pregnant equal months apart!
It was a fun situation,  the three of us expecting at the same time and I was not sure if we’d manage to meet up before my sister gave birth. But some time ago we did! We took a photo of us, and I am happy we did and like it,  although we were not long in that state together. Our triple-pregnancy did not end by a delivery however, but by me miscarrying.

Miscarriage is not something that you talk that much about (over here); many don't want to talk about it, for personal reasons of course, ever say they have had one, some somehow take it as a failure. In general it is seldom mentioned when happened, like it's considered a) too painful and b) not to be seen as too big of a thing as it is rather common in the end. So I though I wouldn't post about this after all, but then again why not, shit happens, and sometimes you get to read about it. The internet however is full of forums discussing the matter (well, it is after all the internet...), and if you are going through, or have had one it's both comforting and terrifying to read those stories. Reading personal stories and not just clinical facts was supporting in some ways- my miscarriage came slowly and without pain at first so it took me a few hopeful days of what if’s before it became inevitably clear to me that it was over. I almost wished for the elevators of The Shining, so I could have known right away, instead of being in a state of not being sure (no one will take you in for a check up if you are not very ill) for days. I was still only in my first trimester and I know it is very common for things to go wrong and you are always taught to be prepared for the worst, which I was. But it is still sad and disappointing anyway. Then again I have had a friend lose her baby half way trough pregnancy and I know people who have had stillborn children. A good friend is battling cancer and children die by the hour in Gaza, for example. And I had an easy pregnancy that resulted in one healthy very happy child that I got to hold right away after he was born. So; I am still to be considered lucky! But while it is good to compare your worries with the rest of the world's in order to get some of that perspective it is also okay for you to put it all into context to your own life; it is okay to feel bad about your own sorrows even though others may have it worse. It is common to lose a pregnancy but it does not happen to everyone. Well, this time it happened to me; us. And I know many who will read this can relate, so that's why it made it here in the end.

In most cases I have always been very forward looking and trying not to dwell on things I can’t do anything about, and I had many days to process this as it went on. Life goes on, it went on already and there will be new chances. Now it almost feels like I was never pregnant again.

And, early last morning it was time for a new person to enter this world (and I got a new title at the same time)- I became an aunt as my sister gave birth to a little boy! It will be so exciting to get to meet him and for Dag to see his little cousin too!


GARDEN LIFE


Oh summer, with those warm summer days that feel like they were endless when you think back on them but in real life went by all too fast!

Summer is not over yet, by far, I hope, but school has started and Eddi's back to work and we've moved our base camp back into the city so the change towards autumn has been made already. Well, those few days when the older boys are not with us we tend to stay out at the farm anyway, but I've noticed the change in nature too - the heatwave is gone and there is something about the wind in the trees that sounds different.

But we had some ver hot and sunny weeks when the outdoors and the indoors blended - doors and windows were open all the time, the temperature around +30C every day. I did a lot of work this summer, but spent some days in between just laying around the garden doing a lot and nothing at the same time. 

Most mornings I did my work out and stretching under a blue sky.

Then we waited out the heat with Dag in the hammock chair.

We had dinner outside too, late, when the heaviest heat was over.
(The dress is now pink-and-red btw. Damn it you, red skirt for not keeping your shit - well, colour- together!)

Every now and then Dag ran around in nothing but sunscreen.

And I could wear my thin summer dresses.

This one in particular is from Love Ur Look. Me likes.

I also picked a lot of berries. It's nice when you can do that in bikinis.

This year we had a crazy amount of cherries! I've picked around 12l and there would still be as mud left but I just can't take it anymore.

The cats took it easy in the heat too.

And some flowers bravely stood in bloom until they dried away.


BY HIMSELF


Dag has for some time been approaching, and now definitely reached the age that most parents recognise; when he needs to try and do absolutely everything himself.

It is heartbreakingly adorable but can also be highly annoying at the same time, in those moments when you are in a hurry or really need to get things done.

Having two bigger (half-)brothers that are a lot older than him of course also pushes it, because he wants to do everything the same way. Plus the huge need to HELP MOMMY.

Dag wants to use a knife while eating. He has been eating with a big fork a long the time since he does not want to be the only one with a spoon in the table and baby cuttleries is hard to hand to him when the whole family is dining. THE BIG ONE. (I can then have the tiny fork.) But he's quite skilful around the kitchen already so he can handle a lot. (He actually managed to peel some clementines rather well the other day. And once he had done one he wouldn’t stop. TO MOMMY he says and pushes a whole one , warm and rather well worked-on, inside my mouth so he can go on peeling a new one for himself.)

And then he's cleaning the table. When I was washing walls and doors the other day it wasn’t as successful as the floors were very wet after him “helping out”.

And when we go grocery shopping he has to, really has to, put everything in his little cart himself. The whole world will fall apart if I am the one to put it down or even. god forbid, put it in my cart.
Well as a parent you develop lots of ways to innocently trick your child, and so I have developed a system for secretly moving some items into my cart as we shop along. Altough sometimes he outsmartens me too, as surprising and random things might show up at the cashier.


But shopping - he has a lion-cap that he shopped himself! ("The Lion Cap" has to be said with a rrrroaring sound when you say LION.) Sort of. We were at the mall doing some errands when Dag showed me he wanted to visit this one accessory shop. Um, OK. Then and went right to one shelf an pointed at the lion cap and said THAT ONE. I was not raised as a child that got everything I pointed at, and so will Dag be,  but in this case I had to give him the hat that he surprisingly enough must have spotted earlier and remembered!

As it was father’s day yesterday (over here) I will end this post with a pic of me and my father thirty years ago. Like Dag (or, Gad as he says)  in a mini dirndl!


FARMER'S & SLOW FOOD FAIR IN OUR HOODS



This weekend there's a farmer's market and artesan food fair for locally and mainly organically grown and produced products at a farm close to ours.

After a storm last night autumn was as it's best this morning, crisp and sunny.

Suitably for the occasion I put on my cowboy boots that I got from Ina for making her some promo material for her shop.

Dag got to wear a team shirt.



The fair is at Mangs which is just around the corner (in countryside measurements) from our farm. It's a very idyllic place. The fair itself is rather small but with a huge amount of visitors.

Eddi & his brother's farm is all-organic. Here's the stand.

We have linseed, fava beans, honey, rolled oats and rye flour. (Or well, "we"; I did not make that much to produce those. But I have made the packing and print material for all the products.)

We also had sour dough bread that a local bread enthusiast has baked of our products.

And care products for home and house, like linseed soap which is an all-natural product that can be used to clean anything and everything.


The boys had also picked linseed flowers which they sold. Not Dag though (although he did a nice try to pick some with me earlier this fall; they are rather hard to collect neatly actually).


He spotted the tractors right away and it topk many tears to get him off the BIG TRACTOR after some time of admiring.


I took him to admire the alpacas instead. Which are super cute. Such cuddly shape! And they  make cute noises as well.


A couple of our lambs are also admirable at the fair for the kids to pet and feed. Dag was super excited because you know, he can also see them almost every day at home.


To let him try out something he does not get to do all the time like look at tractors and lambs, he got to ride a pony. And then we got cinnamon rolls made with goat milk and they were so good.
(They sell them close to the yellow house just next to the pony rides, if you happen to go there. YUM!)


Here are some more alpacas BECAUE JUST LOOK AT THESE!

The market is open today on Sunday from 10 to 16hrs. To get to Mangs turn off road 51 at Degerby and then follow the signs to the market, which is a 10-15 minute drive from there.


GARDEN LIFE


Oh summer, with those warm summer days that feel like they were endless when you think back on them but in real life went by all too fast!

Summer is not over yet, by far, I hope, but school has started and Eddi's back to work and we've moved our base camp back into the city so the change towards autumn has been made already. Well, those few days when the older boys are not with us we tend to stay out at the farm anyway, but I've noticed the change in nature too - the heatwave is gone and there is something about the wind in the trees that sounds different.

But we had some ver hot and sunny weeks when the outdoors and the indoors blended - doors and windows were open all the time, the temperature around +30C every day. I did a lot of work this summer, but spent some days in between just laying around the garden doing a lot and nothing at the same time. 

Most mornings I did my work out and stretching under a blue sky.

Then we waited out the heat with Dag in the hammock chair.

We had dinner outside too, late, when the heaviest heat was over.
(The dress is now pink-and-red btw. Damn it you, red skirt for not keeping your shit - well, colour- together!)

Every now and then Dag ran around in nothing but sunscreen.

And I could wear my thin summer dresses.

This one in particular is from Love Ur Look. Me likes.

I also picked a lot of berries. It's nice when you can do that in bikinis.

This year we had a crazy amount of cherries! I've picked around 12l and there would still be as mud left but I just can't take it anymore.

The cats took it easy in the heat too.

And some flowers bravely stood in bloom until they dried away.