Ready to Sell

We’re there. Today is the day that the realtor came and took the pictures for our ad and now our condo is on the market.

We got everything done last week. Of course I am several days late in writing this post because I’ve just had way to much to do as you can probably understand.

My condo is pristine as long as you don’t open the doors to my storage area under my stairs or the kids big closet.

Lets look back at my last to do lists.

Isabel’s to do list

• Norwegian Homework
• Purge outdoor clothes
• Purge shoes
• Pick up and organize toys

Sofie’s to do list

• Purge and organize toys
• Dust and clean table tops

Jesse’s to do list

• Prime and paint living room walls
• Drop stuff off at Goodwill
• Use carpet cleaner in living room
• Post stuff on Craigslist

Marianne’s to do list

• Prep walls in living room
• Attach molding in dining room
• Touch up paint
• Clean the floors downstairs
• Use carpet cleaner in living room
• Purge and organize storage closet
• Help kids with chores
• Make dinner list for May
• Organize outdoor clothes closet
• Clean baseboards
• Clean powder room
• Buy and hang up curtain rods and curtains in laundry room
• Put away Easter decor
• Decorate living room for sale
• Clean decks

It feels good to be done. Now comes the hard job of keeping the condo as pristine as possible. Not easy when you have two kids where one is a toddler. Any time people might call to ask to come see it and we have to pick up and get out of here before they come. It will be interesting having strangers coming through our condo every once in a while.

Now I just have to get on to my next task which is preparing a double birthday party for my girls the second weekend of June.

Mothers day

I hope everyone had a good mothers day or at least better than mine. Lets just say that with everything going on for readying the condo for sale, my oldest one is having some behavioral problems and my youngest one some stumach issues. It all topped up on Sunday with me having to prepare and host a mothers day dinner for 8 people.

The only thing that made me smile on Sunday was this video and with that I will wish all you mamas out there a late happy Mothers day.

Big thank you to Pretty Handy Girl and her mom who made my day with this video.

Norwegian Cream Cake

One of my earliest memories is of my dad and I waking up early in the morning to make breakfast for my mom on Mother’s day. He had been out to buy flowers and a card that we brought in to my mom with a big cup of coffee. Later in the day my grandma would come over for dinner and we would serve a beautiful Cream cake that my mom made the day before.

Later after my grandmother passed away we would take my mom out for dinner. Always with a piece of Cream cake for dessert afterwards.

The Cream cake is one of the most popular cakes in Norway and the reason for that is its versatility.

May 17th is the Norwegian Constitution Day. It is a national holiday and we have parades, we dress in our national costumes and we eat more Cream cake than any other time in the year. If you have ever been to any Norwegian district on this day, you will know that they too celebrate May 17th there, but it is not the same as in Norway. I don’t know if you can tell, but I am homesick now. So why don’t I just share the recipe for Cream cake with you all. Here it is:

Cake

4 eggs and 4.6 oz (weight) sugar is beaten till very airy.

4.6 oz (weight) all purpose flour and 1 tsp baking powder is carefully folded into the egg and sugar mixture.

1.2 oz (weight) melted, but cooled down butter is folded in.

Pour into a well greased Baking tin with removable bottom (dia. 8 5/8", volume 2 qt at IKEA or equal to this) and put in the middle of the oven at 345 F for 25-35 minutes. Do not open the oven to early or it will fall flat, it is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

When it has cooled off you cut it into three layers.

Cream

1 lb Strawberries, cleaned and sliced up.

1 vanilla bean, take the seeds out and divide in parts of 1/3 and 2/3.

1Tbsp sugar mixed with 1/3 vanilla bean seeds.

3 1/4 cup of cream mixed with 2 Tbsp sugar and 2/3 vanilla bean seed, whipped not to much, but not runny either.

2/3 cup of Port or Cognac .

Put one of the cake layers on a cake stand, sprinkle 1/3 of the Port or Cognac all over it. Layer 1/4 of the strawberries on it, sprinkle with your homemade vanilla sugar and cover with 1/4 of the cream. Put one more layer of cake on top and repeat. When the top layer of cake is on, you sprinkle the last of the Port or Cognac over it and then cover the whole cake with the last 1/2 of the cream. Then decorate with the last 1/2 of the strawberries. Lastly you enjoy it.

To make it more kid friendly you can substitute the Port or Cognac with milk or a juice.

To make it easier you can mash 1/2 of the strawberries and fold it into the cream and put it between the cake layers.

You can also substitute the strawberries with anything else you would like. I love bananas and kiwi, or strawberries and blueberries.

Please let me know if you ever make this and tell me what you thought of it.

Recipe and picture source.

The Family To Do’s

We are back at our regular schedule again this week, well except for my husband who actually has three days off. This means that we will get more done and that we might be ready to put the house on the market by next week.

Last week I made a very short list and I barely made it.

make a newsletter for MOPS.

make teacher appreciation gifts for the PTA.

get my house back together after the guests leaves.

purge and organize the water closet room.

This week I will be making a list for every one in the household. These are all things that is not on our ordinary to do lists, except for Isabel’s Norwegian Homework because we have to do twice as much this week on it due to catching up this week.

Isabel’s to do list

• Norwegian Homework
• Purge outdoor clothes
• Purge shoes
• Pick up and organize toys

Sofie’s to do list

• Purge and organize toys
• Dust and clean table tops

Jesse’s to do list

• Prime and paint living room walls
• Drop stuff off at Goodwill
• Use carpet cleaner in living room
• Post stuff on Craigslist

Marianne’s to do list

• Prep walls in living room
• Attach molding in dining room
• Touch up paint
• Clean the floors downstairs
• Use carpet cleaner in living room
• Purge and organize storage closet
• Help kids with chores
• Make dinner list for May
• Organize outdoor clothes closet
• Clean baseboards
• Clean powder room
• Buy and hang up curtain rods and curtains in laundry room
• Put away Easter decor
• Decorate living room for sale
• Clean decks

There will probably be more added on to this as we go along.

And look at that we actually got a head start :)

Linking up to A-P Tuesday at New Nostalgia.

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

If you are Isabel’s teachers please stop reading right now, otherwise keep going.

A few weeks ago I took my mouth to full and offered to make all 35 teacher appreciation gifts  at Isabel’s school for the PTA. They gave me a budget of $75 to buy supply for, but I had no idea what to do though.

I headed over to Skip to my Lou who is doing a whole series on teacher appreciation gifts. There was so much to choose from and it was really hard to narrow it down. The reason I chose what I did was that it was easy to alter to my skill level and I wouldn’t have to spend to much time on it as I am really busy right now.

This was my inspiration. Image and idea from Stampers Dream.

I don’t have that many paper crafting tools  so I knew I couldn’t do it exactly the way Michelle at Stampers Dream did it, but I knew I could make with the tools I have.

I cut 12x12 sheets of scrapbooking paper  in four 6x6 squares. Using some double sided scrapbooking tape on one side I wrapped the Chocolate bars in the paper.

To decorate the top I used Microsoft Publisher to make the text using the saying Michelle used on hers. I printed it out on some nice scrapbooking cardstock. Then I bought Fiskars Circle cutter and used it to cut the sayings out in perfect circles. 

I also cut coordinating scrapbooking cardstock  in a slightly bigger circle. Using the double sided scrapbooking tape again I taped the circles together and then onto the front of the chocolate bars.

I bought some pearl bling stickers that I used as well.

I am so happy with the result. My final price on these were $31. I bought 9 sheets of scrapbooking paper, 35 chocolate bars, the Circle cutter, and 2 pearl bling.

On Wednesday I am going to meet with the PTA leader and put these in the teachers mailboxes at school. I really hope they will like them.

Sorry about the pictures. On them it says A sweet thank you for all you do. Teacher Treats. Now I just have to find out how to say who it is from.

Sharing this with these great bloggers

Grateful Sunday 22

Last week I actually think I forgot to link up to Whole Experience for Multitudes on Mondays One thousand gifts, I was just so busy it is amazing I actually remembered to write my list.

This week has been very busy as well since we have had guests visiting from Norway. I love it when it is busy, but it has been nice having a couple of quiet and calm days.

This week I am grateful for

211.  My cousin and her family having a safe trip and coming here to stay with us for almost a whole week.

212. Children bonding despite of speaking different languages.

213. Toddlers dancing.

214. Cream of wheat filling little tummies.

215. Teacher appreciation gifts for the PTA being all done.

216. Beautiful weather in between all the rain showers.

217. A zoo trip with four little girls.

218. Men bonding as family and friends.

219. Women bonding despite different views on religion.

220. Lam steak feeding many more than intended.

Saturday Coffee and lot’s on my mind.

I am so tired today. The weather is beautiful and I just spent three hours at my mother in laws helping her with some weeding. I have so much I should be doing at home, but it was so nice to be outside chatting with the neighbors and mil and having the kids play with all the other kids in the neighborhood. Where we live there are kids, but we are on different schedules and rarely get to play together outside.

Last Saturday we went to the zoo for the Easter egg hunt there. I really thought Sofie would just freak out by the eggs and start throwing them around, but she got busy and picked as many eggs as she could. Isabel found a special golden egg which she got to keep.

This week my cousin from Norway were visiting with her family. Having my family here was so nice, but I am feeling so much more homesick now. My cousin and I never really knew each other growing up as I am eight years younger than she. It wasn’t till my oldest and her youngest was born that we actually met and got to know each other. Isabel and Sol is born only three months apart and they have so much fun together despite one speaking Norwegian and the other one English.

I had Isabel skip school on Wednesday so that we could take her cousin to the zoo. We spent the whole day there and had so much fun. No one should ever go to Seattle and not see the Troll under the bridge in Freemont. So of course I had to get lost to find it and by the time we got there it was pouring down, but we got the required pictures.

My parents are already at our summerhouse. They got there before Easter this year and as far as I know they have big plans this year for the garden. At least I hope so. Usually they grow potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, onion, salads and lots of flowers.

My cousin and her family will actually be in the area as well while we are in Norway and we will be able to visit with them there. We are so excited about that.

Seattle Sounders just beat Toronto 3-0. Yes we are a soccer family. Well my husband is the soccer fan, but I actually coached a boys soccer team at one point and I do take some interest to it.

It is bedtime now, but first I need some ice cream and then I’ll do the pictures and posting it tomorrow. Hopefully I will be back at posting every day again next week.

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