It's Getting Spooky In Here

A couple of gourds have been the extent of my Halloween decorating in years past, but the holiday is becoming a bit of a thing over here so Jambo and I decided to kick it up a notch this year. We picked out a pumpkin together at a farm, decorated it with glitter, and set it outside by the mailbox so all of our neighbors can see how glitzy we are in this family. We saved the big project for the inside, though. Over the past three evenings, we've painted, decorated, and hung nine toilet-paper-roll bats. We got a little creative with the colors, did a special certain-football-team-themed bat for papa, and hung them upside-down despite my aesthetic sensibilities because, well, as Jamie reminded me, "bats hang upside-down". I didn't think Jamie was that into crafts, but this one took a great deal of commitment from the little guy and we had a lot of fun, so who knows? It may become a bit of a thing over here.  

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

October 10th

October 11th

October 13th

Swedish Family Life

I stumbled across excellent blog post on Facebook the other day. If you've been following along here for the past six years (SIX YEARS!!!) you've read about almost all of this already, but this post is a great summary of what life is like for a young family living in Sweden. So read it, get hankering to visit, then do it. We'll light the candles, put the cinnamon buns in the oven, and wait for you.

Daily Jamie

October 6th

October 7th

October 8th

October 9th

Dippity Don't

A few weeks ago I bought a package of Lipton French onion soup mix at the American food store. There are plenty of chip dips here in Sweden (more than I'm aware of in America I'd even venture to say) but nothing that tastes just like Lipton dip. I typically only ever ate it at my grandparents' so buying some here when I was able to find it felt like a really good six dollar investment in nostalgia. I made The Swede his own dip for tonight's fredagsmys so he wouldn't eat up all of mine, but I did insist he test it. As luck would have it, Lipton dip is apparently the only American food that isn't totally awesome so I get to keep it all to myself. In fact, The Swede disliked it so much that he covered and marked the bowls before putting them in the fridge.  

Daily Jamie

October 3rd

October 4th

Wilderness Family

We just got back from the cabin where, among other outdoor activities, The Swede and the kids built a fort at the edge of the woods on our property. Julia had been talking about it for months, but Elin and Jamie got into it most of all. They set up chairs and a bed made from stumps and scrap wood and even got a bucket of water and mopped all the surfaces. I can't wait to see how it comes together and watch their imaginations turn it into all kinds of places. The fort my family built in the forest when I was a kid (seen below in an unfortunately double-exposed photo from circa 1992) was the site of many hours of creative play. Ours was pretty badass in comparison to the one at Molsta, but to be fair my parents had the very practical experience of having actually lived in the woods at one point, so it's really no contest. 

Daily Jamie

Daily Jamie

September 27th

September 28th

September 29th

You Complete Me

This guy got back on Saturday and life just felt right again.

Daily Jamie

At The Carwash, Yeah

The Swede has been at a conference this week and I've been driving his car while he's gone 'cause, well, look: it has a sunroof. And to be honest, a couple of extra horses, which I oughtn't care about, but boy do those horses make it fun to drive. At any rate, I went ahead and detailed the inside with my own two hands on my lunch break yesterday and today, after I picked Jambo up from school, we took a trip through the carwash. Jamie wasn't into it at all until we actually got into the carwash and then, as you can see, it was the funnest. So even though I typically think a professional carwash is a big waste of money, I'm hoping The Swede will appreciate his like-new ride and at the very least I've discovered something to do with Jamie if he's feeling grumpy.

Daily Jamie

September 21st

September 22nd

September 23rd

September 24th

Daily Jamie

I call this one God Made Dirt & Dirt Don't Hurt

Daily Jamie

Harvesting

We and our neighbors can't seem to get enough of each other and even after a week together on a desert island, when invited to pick apples in the country with Axel and Marie-Louise, we jumped at the chance. 

Marie-Louise works at a conference center a few miles outside of town and the apple trees on the property were dripping with fruit. It was a little too late for most of them, but I got a couple pounds of nice-looking ones.

We wandered the grounds a bit and since we were so far away from anywhere, really, the kids could scream and run around to their hearts' content. It was so, so pretty out there and it was an absolutely perfect early-fall day so we took a ton of pictures. One thing that was a little weird, though, was that the nearby military base was firing machine gun shots the entire time. It looked like paradise and sounded like a war zone.

When we got home, I peeled and sliced all the apples and was too bored by the end to bake anything so I just doused them in sugar and cinnamon and fried them up, Cracker Barrel-style. So good. I can't wait till breakfast so I can eat them again.

Where We've Been

Gran Canaria! The Swede, Jamie and I were fortunate enough to spend the past week on this Spanish island off the west coast of Africa with Jamie's best friend and his mom. It was bliss. Constant sunshine, lots of swimming, shows and dancing for the kids, sangria, sangria, ice cream, sangria. The days all blended into each other as our skin became darker and the number of cannon balls into the pool grew larger. Aside from a few Instagrams, I've been blessedly offline.  I never cracked open a laptap and tried not to look at my phone, except to take a few pictures so these boys can tell their own kids about their first vacation together. The result is the usual Daily Jamies, several pictures of palms, and some swimwear shots of The Swede and I that the internet never need lay eyes upon. As of yesterday it was back to reality and I'm so grateful to say that reality is just as good, if significantly less warm.

Daily Jamie

September 9th

September 10th

September 11th

September 12th

September 13th

September 14th

September 15th

September 16th

September 18th

Daily Jamie

September 4th

September 5th

September 6th

A Little Thing Called Confidence

When you check your new 'do in the barber shop mirror and know you're looking gooooooood.

Daily Jamie

Stealth, as this dude does not like getting his picture taken these days.

You're Getting Sleepy

Our neighbor mentioned this bedtime book she'd heard about, "The Rabbit That Really Wanted to Fall Asleep" last week and I ordered it right away. It's written by a behavioralist and the text and the way in which you read it were designed to help children fall asleep quickly. We have marathon bedtime sessions around here and the one putting Jamie to bed often falls asleep before he does, killing the evening for The Swede and me, so testing the book was never a question. It arrived in the mail yesterday and it was The Swede's night to put Jamie to bed. When I came home from choir rehearsal, The Swede, looking a little freaked out, declared that he had hypnotized Jamie and the kid had fallen asleep on the second page. He woke up well-rested and in a better mood than I'd seen on an early school morning in a while. Tonight, my night, went slightly less well as we made it all the way to page four. Maybe it's the accent, heh. But The Swede was right, it was straight-up hypnotism and a little bit creepy how well it worked. And now, excuse me while I go tell every parent I know about this miracle.

Daily Jamie