Progress

Yeah - about that lasagne.

I made the meat sauce but in the end didn't have the energy to do the bechemel sauce. So I'll take a short cut.

I have some kale in the fridge that I have taken out to thaw and I'll mix that with a box of cottage cheese and use that instead of the cheese sauce.
We all like that variation.

That way I won't have to use as much cheese either.

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I made a dent in the ironing! Awesome. Now there might actually be room to pin and cut the Nature Walk tomorrow after we come home from the parents' meeting at school.

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Sofia has been begging for ages to have one of her favourite daycare friends over on a play date and it has just never fit in our schedule, but new term, new ways. Today I texted the girl's mom and offered to bring E home with us next week.
E was thrilled and Sofia too.

Then I did a double check in my calendar and saw I had forgotten about Sofia's dental appointment that afternoon.
But instead of rescheduling the play date I'll make a new appointment.

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I've also gotten around to print the invitations for Isabel's party. Finally. I'll hand them out on Thursday since Rickard's picking the girls up tomorrow.

We're inviting all the girls in Isabel's class. With Sofia that adds up to 12 girls. Now I have the food/cake sorted, I just have to figure out some games or activities for them in case they can't come up with something on their own.

Apathetic

I haven't sewn properly for what feels like weeks. I had a burst the other day when I did buttonholes on the girls' 2+2 blouses.
But since then. Nothing.

I have a pile of laundry to iron and my kitchen is a mess. The bathrooms need a good scrubbing and my wardrobe could do with a sorting.

But in the end, after the girls are in bed I sink into the sofa and do nothing.

Maybe it's the turn of the season, it's been cold and windy here for the past few days.

Isabel has started school and they have gym classes now. It said on the info paper we got that they would be outside as much as possible so I have planned to make her a Nature Walk Pullover and pants as a kind of track suit. The fabric is washed, the pattern is drafted and I just have to pin it and get started.

Tonight the girls and I are making a lasagne in preparation for Thursday when Isabel has riding class. I had planned to make a pie last night for our dinner tonight, but it never happened.
Maybe I'll get that done tonight instead.

For now I should get back to work - but first. Coffee.

A place for everything ...

We have a central vacuuming system that I love but a huge downside is the 9 meter long hose that needs to find a home somewhere when not in use.
We tried the cleaning cupboard, but the container for the system takes up a lot of space there and we ended up not bothering and just leave the hose out for the next time.
With two kids in the house I run the vacuum pretty much daily anyway.

So I got a huge basket that had room for the whole hose and it's lived next to the stairs for a while.

Or rather, that was where I intended it to live but Rickard kept bumping into it when he came down the stairs and kept putting it in the laundry room.

But the laundry room is too small to hold the basket and still have room to sort through the laundry so that in turn caused me to ignore laundry cause there was no room to manoeuvre.
In the end laundry threatened to take over our lives and I moved the basket out to where I considered it to live so I could sort through it all. Then Rickard would stumble over it and move it back and the cycle would start over.

I did some cleaning yesterday while arranging things around the new table.
I'm not a fan of cleaning or tidying so I tend to put it off in favour of sewing, reading or movie watching, but after a bit it just gets out of hand (like with the laundry).

So yesterday as I moved the girls' shoes around in the hall to get that sandbox they tend to bring home in their shoes out of the house I did some re-arranging and suddenly the big basket found a place in the hall, just across the wall from where it was before, in a less trafficked area.

It's still neat and tidy in the basket, it's close to the outlet where we connect it and it's out of the way so that Rickard won't stumble over it.

I'd call that a win-win-win.

Now I'm just considering dumping the basket for this bin. It's a pretty steep price for a stainless steel bin that we don't really need.

Studying nook

We have this area in the living room/dining area that is definitely underused. I have put an extra table there when we had parties to display cake and cookies on.

After the party was over the table just stood there and collected junk and it always looked untidy.

So the other day when the IKEA catalogue arrived in our mailbox (yes, in Sweden it is delivered in the mail once a year and I usually hold on to it to keep it as reference through out the year if we find that we "need" something) I had a brain wave when I saw a table on the front page that would suit our needs. Needs that hadn't been defined until then.



Isabel started First grade last week and even though she won't have a lot of homework I want to instil a homework routine for her if I can.

During my first years in school I recall preferring to do my homework where my parents were. In our case that usually meant the kitchen (or various conference rooms where my parents went to political meetings to discuss boring grown up stuff while I studied maths or Swedish or somethingorother).

I don't know what Isabel will turn out to prefer but just in case she wants to be where we are then I had to prepare a place for her in the living room.

Both Isabel and Sofia loves to paint and craft which added another dimension to the decision.

This table folds down and takes up about 30 cm (1') of space when not in use. It has three drawers down the middle on either side that although too small to keep paper in are perfect for all the crayons and pens and pencils my girls like to use.



The sides folds up individually and both girls can fit on the same side.

The sheet I use as a background for photographing what I sew make a nice wall protector. It has been sort of an unwanted stepchild, always moved around down stairs and always in the way where ever we put it.
We have since added a piece of moulding to the sheet to keep it from getting stuck to the wall.

Another good thing about this table is that it's the same width and height as our kitchen table so when we have lots of guests we can expand that table using this new one. It folds out and becomes 150 cm (60") long which together with our 210 cm (82") table will seat both our families when we celebrate with room for a few stray friends as well.

I'm pretty sure we'll add to the area if Isabel turn out to use it. I'm considering a better notice board. And I have been thinking about dressing the table in oilcloth to protect it a bit more. Sofia loves to do water colours which is a killer on the table surface.

Do you Pinterest?

I love Pinterest.

Rickard is cautiously reluctant to it.

Our conversations lately often start with:

Me: I saw this thing on Pinterest...
Him: Uh huh.
Me: Well, if you move this and change that you could to this!
Him: ...

Well. A few things I see on Pinterest are easy enough to make.

For instance this easy to make dry-erase board. Easy as could be. An empty photo frame of any size you like. In it you put a piece of fabric, wall paper, scrap book paper, news paper clipping, what have you, glass on and it's done!



Well, here's my version. I used a glittery scrap booking paper I had at home and added some hooks to the underside of the frame so I could hang a note book from it where we write our grocery shopping list.
Just copy the info from the board and erase and you won't forget the milk next time.

Out door daycare

I found a bunch of pictures from Isabel's time in outdoor daycare 2007/2008.



This was taken at the Lucia celebrations in 2007. It was super cold and late in the afternoon so Isabel's a bit tired and vacant.
The baby in the pram to the right is actually Sofia!



Here they're all seated with individual bowls of pop corn. I guess they were celebrating something. Isabel is fourth from the right wearing a green/black hat.



Although they were outside all the time they had a shed with some dollies and a doll's pram.
Isabel liked that part.

She moved to a traditional daycare in August 2008 when Sofia started daycare too.

Wild horses couldn't drag me away ...

Isabel started riding classes again tonight. It's her second term and we decided to give her proper riding gear after having ridden in jeans and sweatpants last term.

We went to a horse supply store not far from home to see if we could find some riding pants for her.
Just inside the door they had a rack that said 30 % off Riding Pants. Excellent I thought and started looking through it for a suitable size.

That's when I caught sight of the price tag. Full price 1700 SEK ($270).

Uhm. No.

Just next to that rack they had a more modestly priced selection at 120 SEK.

She also got a pair of boots so she didn't have to ride in her winter boots in 20C degrees.
A pair of gloves and a whip completed it and she was more than happy.

I threw in a pair of stockings too. I had seen some girls at the stables wearing lovely Argyle-patterned stockings over their pants and I liked the look of it.



Today when I picked her up I brought the clothes with me and she had to change at school. One of her little friends went with her into the bathroom to watch her change and pleaded with me to be allowed to tag along.
I had to say No since Rickard's taking Isabel to the stables and they usually get home very late. She argued vigorously but had to accept defeat at last.

It was a very tired Isabel who came home tonight at 7 pm. Rickard was bored, bored because the class had been riding a long tour outside and he could not keep up but had to wait at the stables.
Isabel was so tired and sweaty and was sent straight to the shower before dinner.

Next week I'll pack her a more substantial afternoon snack and have her eat it when we fetch Rickard. She insisted she didn't need any food before class but I made her a sandwich that she ate and forced a banana on her as she left.
It was devoured in the car after class in two bites.

She's quick to give up if something is physically demanding (she takes after me there) but when it comes to riding she hangs in there no matter how tired she is. And she goes back for more.