Our Halloween celebrations

Not being from a Halloween celebrating country and not living in a Halloween celebrating country, the celebration of Halloween is new to me but it is a tradition we have made our own. And I love any celebration of the seasons, and any excuse to brighten up the darkness, so it fits into life quite nicely.The kids have been excited for days, weeks. The concept of running around knocking on doors and being given candy is about as thrilling as they can imagine. It was like Christmas eve here yesterday, the waiting and waiting went on longer than they thought possible.

It's the third year in a row we have celebrated with a dinner with friends and it has become a combined Thanksgiving-Halloween celebration with a turkey and pumpkin pie. Luckily the 31st falls in the school holidays here so a mid-week celebration has not yet posed a problem. And as with any celebration the preparation is as much a part of the fun as the event itself, especially Halloween preparation.This year the magic started with a birthday box arriving from Australia from Mormor (mother's mother for the non-Swedes amongst us). Knowing it contained costumes they were allowed to open it early while talking to Mormor on the phone. Two very happy little chickadees decided to wear their new costumes for Halloween, the boy even wanted to sleep in his!

Now that we had costumes there was the turkey, the pumpkin pie and the pumpkins to prepare. Turkeys were once hard to come by in Sweden, but are now readily available in most of the big grocery stores and I knew just where to go to get both a turkey and pumpkins at a reasonable price. Gone are the days of paying exorbitant prices for pumpkins at Hötorget, the fruit and veggie market in town! But saying that you can never be too sure and I was relieved once we had actually made our purchases.

Pumpkin carving is usually a big deal for the Canadian amongst us and designs are usually carefully considered according to pumpkin size, shape and over-all difficulty. He and the kids scoured the internet until they found the right designs and carving was soon underway.Once everything was prepared, including the roasting of the pumpkin seeds, it was time to bake Halloween cookies. With the aroma of freshly baked cookies lingering the guests arrived and it was time to play, talk, put the turkey in the oven and paint faces. The table was set, the wine corked and a delicious dinner was enjoyed by the adults at least. The kids were too excited and too eager to get outside and go door-knocking.
Finally the time had come. A few final adjustments were made and the candy bags were gathered.

They were ready, the were prepared. They were scary. Or not. The were definitely excited!

And the neighbors were all well-prepared and expecting our arrival - I had warned them and handed out candy earlier in the day to make sure!

And we weren't the only ones having a dress-up party! We brightened up a few peoples' day - who can resist this cute little bunch? The neighbors love it when the kids come knocking!

These little trick-or-treaters were thrilled with their adventure - each coming back with a bag filled with candy (or lollies as we say in my part of the world) and a few other goodies from the 10 neighboring apartments. They then settled down in front of a movie and chomped away while the adults got a chance to relax and talk.

Whether our neighbors were celebrating Halloween or not, it was sure hard to miss its presence in our street!

Halloween is a fun, crazy, silly tradition. It is about kids, seasons and doing things out of the ordinary. It spices up life as we head into the coldest, darkest part of the year.

Hope your Halloween was as great as ours!

Living Life Through My Kids

I always thought that expression meant pushing your children to pursue your goals, your unfulfilled goals and dreams, but it seems it has a whole different meaning. I've come to realise it is also about meeting people through your children.

It seems that these days most of our socialising is thanks to the kids and the families we have met through school and daycare. Yes, Yvonne you did tell me it would happen, and my apologies to old friends who we haven't seen for a while.....

I chatted on the phone one night last week for an hour, not bad for someone who doesn't like to talk on the phone. And we were only supposed to be arranging to get together. Saturday we spent the evening with another daycare/school family until way too late. Sunday I spent the afternoon in the park with my son, his bestest friend and his mother. Last night I chatted to another friend, a daycare dad, on the phone who was just "checking in" to see how things were with us.


It is fantastic to meet so many wonderful people through the kids, people who just happen to be the parents of children who just happen to be friends with my kids. Very enriching!

Breakfast Muffins

After popular demand and much nagging, I am finally publishing my recipe for breakfast muffins - they go like hotcakes in this household. They are healthy and nutritious and a lot faster to get down a child when in a hurry on a school morning than anything else!! Much better than the @^!#€%*&! in most cereal boxes.
The best way to make them is to have a digital scale so you can put a bowl on it and zero it each time you add an ingredient, add the wet stuff and Hey presto! another batch is made.

Double batch from original recipe - makes about 30.

Put the oven on 200 C (175 C if fan forced)

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
90 g (grams) plain flour (I use spelt to increase protein content)
110 g wholemeal flour (spelt again)
3 tspn bicarb soda
1/4 tspn salt
2-3 tspn ground cinnamon
60 g bran flakes (I prefer quinnoa flakes - available in health food shops if not elsewhere and even cooked quinnoa and used that this week - made them even more moist)
170 g dried fruit (anything goes here and have also substituted for fresh fruit or 50/50, apple bits this week made them more moist again)
120 g dark brown sugar
100 g white sugar
50 g seeds (I mix sunflower and pumpkin and even some linseed and sesame - great for calcium, zinc and iron levels)
30g chopped whole rye (optional - gives little crunchy bits in muffins and adds a little more roughage)

Mix following in separate bowl
3 eggs
500ml buttermilk (add juice of 1/2 lemon to sour = buttermilk)
100g melted butter (sometimes use good canola oil but that makes final batter more liquidy)

Mix wet and dry ingredients but be gentle with them.
I leave them to sit for 5-10 minutes so wet soaks through dry without over-mixing.

Pour into prepared muffin tin - either greased or paper liners.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Hey presto they are done! Good wholesome muffins that you can give your kids without thinking twice. Mine float them in yogurt for a little variation.
Notes:
You can reduce the sugar level.
You can add vanilla too - add 2 teaspoons to liquids or vanilla sugar to dry ingredients.
Make sure the mixture isn't too liquidy - if it is just add more flour - should not be runny but if it is bake it longer so everything sets.
Experiment! Add more seeds or fruit - the recipe can take it.
Each batch I make is different depending on what flour I have available and what dried fruit I use - the dried cherries, apricots and cranberries have been very popular.

Welcome to good, wholesome and yummy breakfasts that can be eaten on the run if need be!

Edited to say they should be baked in a muffin tray because the mix is initially very runny.

Women on the run from family life

There was a very interesting article in SvD on the weekend as a prelude to the Swedish annual Book Fair that starts this week. Three books are due to be released in the next couple of months, by three women about three women who have fled their own domestication.

Ironic that this article and these books come at a time when Anna Anka is making headlines and filling the online forums, debate sites and article comments. The rest of the world probably doesn’t know who Anna Anka is but here in Sweden she is blowing up a storm with her traditional opinions about the role of men and women.

Picture: The Local

Read more .......

The Joys Of Being A Waldorf Parent

My sister and I chuckled on many occasions over being good Steiner mothers (Steiner in Oz, Waldorf in Europe), which saw her trying all sorts of crafts over the years. Now that my daughter has started school I am really starting to understand what that means.

Starting school in Sweden is weird, at least for an Aussie mum who only knows one way of doing things. Firstly kids start school the year they turn 7, which in some cases means they are almost eight years old. Compare that to starting at 5 in Oz. Then there is no list stating exactly what the school uniform should consist of, which pieces are compulsory and which are non-compulsory, as well as where to buy it, there is no school uniform. There is no list outlining exactly what pens, pencils, writing books and even text books to buy, no fees to be paid before school starts (not even non-compulsory fees as in Oz). These kids don’t even need a lunchbox, a thermos or a drink bottle. All their food is provided by the school and the after-school centre, free of charge.

Instead of the list we have to make sure she has two pairs of slippers, or inside shoes, for both school and after-school care - the no-shoes in the classroom policy is also weird when you are not used to it.

Swedish education law says schools are to provide children with what they need, and they are not legally entitled to charge fees of any description if they are teaching according to the Swedish curriculum. It is all in the name of Sweden’s socialistic roots, in the name of equality. No child should be disadvantaged because of their family’s financial status. Every child should be guaranteed one hot meal a day. It is all about taking care of children, no matter what their lot in life is.

So while most parents have little to organise for their children starting school (I’m assuming), the Waldorf parents amongst us are busy, busy, busy. With Makaila starting Grade 1 we were given two important tasks back in the spring – a name-tag and a crayon case, along with detailed instructions as to how these tasks should be completed.

Naturally, like all enthusiastic, well-prepared parents we did not use the summer wisely, nor did we con one of Ty’s talented aunts into doing it for us – we left it hanging over our heads until the pressure built sufficiently!

Once I finally got started on the name-tag, I decided it wasn’t all that bad - although it is tough to embroider when you haven’t really done it before. I bought one of those cross stitch kits when I was about 11 years old, the ones where the pattern is printed on the fabric and all the colours are chosen for you. It was of a clown and I’m not sure what possessed me to buy it but I clearly remember my dad giving me a hard time, telling me I would never finish it. Guess whether or not I did……

Anyway despite struggling with the stitches I actually enjoyed sitting doing this handcraft in the evenings. Then one night when we were discussing how on earth I was going to embroider her most beloved animal, a killer whale, it was taken from me. Ty took over. After all, equality is the name of the game in this country.

We found a great picture on the net which we were able to copy and he did it over two nights. A friend even called in and was so inspired when he saw Ty sitting embroidering at the kitchen table last night that he went home and got started on his daughter’s name tag (gotta love these Swedish men!). We (both) added the finishing touches (water) and hey presto – it was done! Here’s the final result. Not bad huh!

The next task was the crayon case and I knew that would be fairly easy – which does not explain my procrastination! It took me the better part of the afternoon-evening but I got it finished and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Just so long as no one looks too closely at the stitching because it is extremely amateurish.

The kids were so amazed to see me pull out a borrowed sewing machine that they watched my every move and questioned all I did. Kieran tried to get an understanding of exactly how the machine worked and was so fascinated he snapped a few shots of me in action.

Counting to make sure I've left enough space.

The finished product aims to reduce classroom noise.

Tied up ready to be put away.

What started off as a “Oh no! How are we going to manage these little projects” has ended with a “Well that was fun. What’s next” kinda feeling.

Makaila was totally and utterly thrilled with both pieces – and I think kind of amazed by her parents. Now that brings joy to these Waldorf parents!

Getting unpacked and sorted out

We've spent days unpacking (7 suitcases x23kg plus hand luggage!!) and finding room for everything, sorting through things, weeding out anything that is too small or no longer used/needed). It is still not all done but after a major overhaul in the kids' room today we are getting there.

It is always nice to come home, living in someone else's place and out of suitcases for over 6 weeks takes its toll and we've done it twice in the last 12 months - that's 3 months of the year away from home!!

Our saving grace when we go to Canada is the cottage, it is our refuge, our home away from home where we can really unpack, relax and be ourselves.
Walking back into our apartment brings a very unique feeling and I feel it upon each return, with some variation. It is hard to put words to it but the place always feels so crisp and neat and depending on where we have been it often feels very, very small. Sometimes I walk into a room and get a shock at how small it is, sometimes the whole place shocks me for how small it is - especially when we have been in Australia where we have so, so much space at my mum's place.

But even if it feels small it feels undeniably ours and I like it - at least until we have unpacked all the suitcases and then it is just crazy and it drives me crazy having all the stuff everywhere!! And as I said, it takes days to get it sorted out..... On the upside it forces us to go through everything every six months or so - every thing in here has to have a good reason for staying!

I'm tired of living in a small apartment, 73 square metres is not a lot of space when you have two kids - even if the original owners did have three and lived here for 50 some years.... That's Stockholm living for you - our friends and peers at home would hardly believe their eyes!
But we have to be patient and hang in there a little longer. Our time will come, I know it will. And there are lots of good things about living in a small space - epecially when you are a hoarder by nature - it has been a good, long lesson for me. This small space has a positive impact on the kids too, in lots of ways - Makaila has made it quite clear that she wouldn't want her own room - even if she could (we'll see how long that lasts).

From lost to found, in just 10 minutes

I lost my mobile phone today.... I put it into my pocket and it fell right through the hole and into my coat and out onto the ground - it was my only explanation.

We had to get off the train, go back home and retrace our steps. Nothing.

I rang it and rang it an rang it from the home phone. No answer.

I was just about to ring and suspend the subscription when an old lady answered. She hadn't been able to work out how to answer it.

I met her 10 minutes later, just blocks from home, where she found it.

I hugged her.

From extreme stress to great relief - all in the space of 10 minutes......
She saved me a lot of money and a lot of phone numbers that would otherwise have been lost.

Thank you.

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, middle-age - here I am!
Hit the big 40 on Saturday which is why I have not had a chance to blog the last couple of days. We had a great party at home with a 60s, 70s or 80s dress and music theme - lots of fun!Not only did I get some really lovely pressies but some friends also made very generous donations to the Australian Bushfire Appeal, in lieu of a present.

So far over AUD 80 million (over 444 mil SEK or 52 mil USD) has been donated as Victorians continue to struggle, fighting fires and fighting to pick up the pieces. Yet as my sister put it, this damage was just two days in our history, peanuts compared to the suffering of the many people in war-torn areas around the world.

I am eternally grateful for the simple things in life - family, friends and the opportunity to celebrate what I have and where I am at!

Hooray for family, friends and celebrations - what more do we really need?!!

The Primrose Solution To Dry Winter Skin

Winter is hard on me, especially on my skin. It is now finally getting a little colder here and I can tell because my hands have been getting drier and drier as the days go on. When the temperature drops my skin itches more and more, making me want to scratch until I draw blood. My legs and my stomach are worst off.

But that is nothing compared to what happens to my hands. They look like I have been in the garden everyday for the last week. Dry is not an adequate description - they are like sandpaper. My skin peels and I get very painful cracks on my fingers. The first one appeared yesterday.

I have tried every type of hand creme available to man - nothing helps. But by accident I discovered Evening Primrose Oil and it has been my saving grace. Taking large doses of primrose oil heals the cracks in my hands and makes my skin smooth and soft again. It even calms down my itchiness.
Today I dug out my big bottle of primrose oil, brought in Australia. It is much cheaper than I could ever get it here, but I also buy a big tub because I take so much in the winter. In Swedish it is called nattljusolja and I have tried and been happy with Efamol, although there are a number of them on the market. Time to start taking it again.

The view from my balcony: sunsets & deer

As we stood preparing dinner last night we watched a beautiful sunset, the time was about 4.15 - 4.30pm.Ty happened to be on the phone to his mother, who couldn't believe the sun was already setting. Yet for us it seems later, at least much later than when we first got back a couple of weeks ago. We are gaining 5 minutes a day - as you will see on this Stockholm daylight chart. We are pleased to have 8 hours of daylight compared to the six hours we had back in December.

This morning I pulled up the blinds in the kids' room to see a big mother dear standing under the window. As I watched she moved over to the path and stood looking around before moving on. It was only then I managed to call the kids and get the camera. Her little ones were following along behind her. We stood watching, the kids in awe. This young one stood and watched us for a while before it moved on.

Here you see the white tails of the two young ones following their mother. They have crossed the path and are on their way up and over the hill. The forest continues between the apartment blocks and down to the water. It is not that unusual for us to see a mother and her young, even if it is occasionally months between sightings. And to think we are just 5-6 kilometres from the centre of Stockholm!

The tragedy in this is all the building that is taking place. Stockholm City Council are planning two more apartment blocks on our street. How much longer before Stockholm will have changed from the green oasis that makes it so magnificent - to a concrete jungle, like all the other concrete cities in the world?

I'm in two minds - do we take away these pockets of forest for higher density living, or allow the city to grow and spread. Then again, I think Stockholm has a high enough density. And what will our resident badger say when more of his forest has disappeared?

A fabulous weekend with an Aussie flavour

filled with friends, laughter, good food and wine!

The plan was to go ice-skating with lunch together either before or after, but the rain, the grey skies and big puddles persuaded us to stay in. It quickly turned into an afternoon at home followed by dinner by the open fire.

Our Aussie-Kiwi-Swedish friends came over Saturday and we were joined by another Aussie friend who rang to see what we were up to. It was a great spontaneous get-together filled with lots of joking around and funny stories.

I threw a side of salmon onto a bed of sea salt, put it into the oven for 20-30 minutes and coupled with salad, rice and a fresh dill, parsley & lemon sauce it was a very simple but delicious meal. After our red wine and cheese platter we drank coffee and ate little caramel tarts - condensed milk caramel on butter-nut snaps (the Aussies will know what these are all about - YUM, YUM!) The kids watched a movie until ours fell asleep and our friends decided to take their's home to bed. But the night was still young(ish) and the three of us sat talking until we finally kicked our friend out in the wee hours.

With tomorrow being Australia Day I feel like I got my own little celebration with my Aussie friends!

Today more friends rang to say they were coming over and we had lunch together, looked at photos, talked and laughed. Their son is down under at the moment and while we were there we visited with him and his grandmother, who is not too far from my mum. Our other Aussie connection, our adopted family, our good friends - a complement to our Australia Day weekend.Happy Australia Day tomorrow!

The Great Australian Dream

It is again 5am and I am sitting in bed watching the sun come up, the view across the new suburbs and listening to the magpies warble. My early mornings give me some time before the little ones wake for the day. It is my time to do some work, some writing and some quiet contemplation.

Like most western cities Melbourne is plagued by disease, one that is slowly and quietly sprawling across the country – a disease called urbanisation. The land that lies before me was once farmland, forest before that. Today it is the home of countless Australians in their quest to live a good life.

Owning your own home is the great Australian dream, almost a right rather than a privilege. While we have a reputation of being a country of convicts, those who have emigrated to Australia have mostly been those in search of a better life. The definition of a better life may have changed over the last couple of hundred years, but in essence it is the same. One of the original attractions was the promised land – many of those who arrived in the early days were granted a plot of land, emancipated convicts were granted land, squatters were granted the land after 10 years – people who would never had the opportunity to own land in their home country. 200 years later land is still an important part of the culture, and is still being granted by the government- all first home-buyers are eligible for a government grant – to help them obtain that Great Australian Dream. And it is not just about buying a home, Australians also want to own their own home, and many work hard to pay off their mortgage, enabling them to retire debt-free.


Compare that with Swedes, 50% of whom live in apartments, 30% of Swedes rent and comparatively few aspire to pay off their mortgages the way people do here. The hot topic in Sweden is the slowly diminishing right to live in rental property with occupants taking over ownership and reducing the supply of rental property (more about this another time).

The Australians I meet struggle to understand the concept of bostadsrätt – or owning a share of the building rather than the walls they reside within. They struggle with our lack of right to invest in property and rent it out as we choose, with communal laundries and gardening days. They struggle to understand why people live in apartments, why they make that life-long choice.

Values, goals and life choices are different – it is in the history, it is in the culture, it is in the lifestyle, it is in the climate.

Försäkringskassan, SGI & Swedish Sickness Benefits

Well it is not too often that I get a full week of work with the one company, but this week I managed to land some work, only to be at home with a sick boy today.

His dad took him to work with him yesterday, and said that he could tomorrow and the rest of the week, which left today. We had thought he'd be ok, but that razor sharp cough woke me each time during the night, compounding my stress and contemplation of what to do. When I woke this morning, a few minutes after 6am, just before my alarm, I listened to the rain knowing I could not push him. He could not spend the greater part of the day outside in the dampness. Today was going to be a home-day.

So I kept both of them at home and we had a quite day, watching tv, building train tracks and embroidering. And I got the packing done - finalised! Complete! That takes a load off my mind. While my attitude to packing is fairly casual I still have to do it for 3 people, 2 of whom have grown out of some of their clothes, and account for temperature variation between 16 - 40 oC.

Kids are sleeping soundly and I have had a couple of glasses of wine since dinner, hoping to drug myself into a state of sleep. After all - I have nothing left to write on my list e at 1am tonight - there is nothing more I need to remember - it has all been done. Here's hoping I get more than the 5 hours of anxious restlessness I have had the last couple of nights.

Anyway, as ruthless as it sounds it is tough to give up a day's work to care for a child, and I understand there are often heated discussions in families to determine who will stay at home - whose job is the most important? Who will lose the most financially? As in so many places in the world the husband usually earns more, so it is most often the wife who stays at home to care for the sick child.This is despite the fact that Sweden has a very generous system where the parent who stays home and thus loses a day's pay, receives 80%of their salary back from the government. Now this might sound like a fair system that encourages highly paid parents to stay at home, but there is a ceiling on the payment which in turn discourages highly paid parents from attending to their little ones. Still, I can't help but think we are lucky. While I have no idea what the system is in Australia, I still can't believe my Canadian in-laws do not get paid to stay at home with sick children. What a lot of pressure that must put on a family, not to mention a child who may be unwillingly pushed out of bed and off to school if there is any doubt. Or if finances are tight.While my personal sickness benefits mean that I do not get paid for the first day I am at home sick (hence who only takes 1 day off??) caring for a child gives me coverage from the first day. And even as newly launched business owner I am still entitled to benefits. I have a right to send in a budget for 2009 (with 2008 being the start-up year) and a calculation is done based on that. That calculation is called my SGI and is the basis for my sickness benefits for the first two years of my business - whether it be for myself or for my children. Försäkringskassan is the government body that handles these payments and they not only require a budget but also a information about what salary someone doing the same job would receive, what background you have in the industry and what your calculations are based on - and you don't compile all this information in 10 minutes.

Once upon a time a new business owner's salary or SGI was calculated based on the salary of a person in a similar role, but that is no longer the case. It is almost entirely based on your budget, so be aware of that when you submit it - it will hold for up to two years if you don't provide evidence that you are doing better than you budgeted for.

All these things are worth knowing - friends of mine running their own business have been going without for years - every time a child was sick and they had to employ someone to work they took it as a loss in the business - and all this time they could have been claiming - just as every other employed Swede does. After all, that is what we pay tax for, even those of us who run our own business!

Time for me to get to bed, and hopefully sleep more than five hours!

First Advent Is An Important Tradition

in Sweden and a timely one too. It is dark, grey and bleak outside. The snow has melted and the days continue to get darker. It is a long way until summer.

We need First Advent, it gives us something else to think about, it brightens up our life.
The first of the advent candles are lit, marking the countdown until Christmas, or the fourth Sunday before Christmas.

Advent Candles are put on the window sills around the country.
Stars are hung in windows and doorways.

When we leave for work and school in the mornings in the darkness, they light up our way.
When we come home in the afternoon or evening in the darkness, they light up our way. The combination creates a special, magical feeling that I strongly associate with my first weeks in Sweden, many years ago.

The first Sunday in Advent is also the first day of the church year, and a day when people who are not normally church-goers might attend an advent service, often to see young children singing.

It also means we can officially start drinking glögg and eating pepparkakor.

So many things to write

but just so busy getting stuff done....

• passports
• visas
• web company quotes
• site specifications, layout, design, structure...
  
• picking up suitcases
• preparing for a week of teaching
• invoicing
• relocation clients
  
• Christmas plans
• birthday parties and presents
• preparing for first advent
• winter supplies - gloves, boots, hats
  
• försäkringskassan & SGI (more about that later)
• collecting cash for a pressie
  

and the list goes on....

The socialising, networking and information gathering opportunities are being ignored, for now.

Another remnant, gone...

I just watched my car being put on a flatbed and taken away. Written off. Gone to car heaven.

I've had that car since 97, almost as long as I had the cat. Remnants from my past, a whole lifetime away. Fragments from life as I once knew it, disappearing before my very eyes.

It is strange what it does, to the head, and to the heart.

Goodbye my faithful old car...