Crafts, cake and my baby.

So Sofie is still sick, but she is slowly getting better. She started out teething, then she got a really bad ear infection of which the first antibiotics didn't work on, then when she finally started to get better with a new antibiotic she gets a virus. It has been a hard week and a half.

I have not taken the time to do any crafts this whole time. I'm barely taking time to cook for the rest of the family. Honestly it is mostly because I find it hard to cook or do anything with only one free arm.

Still due to a lot of gagging accidents in her bed (she is trying to relieve the itching of the new teeth coming in) I have become proficient of changing her mattress cover with only one hand. Which reminds me of last year when I learned to put on mascara one handed while holding a colicy baby in the other. I can't believe that on Saturday it will be a year since I had my little baby.

Today is the last day of school before summer. Isabels kindergarden class has invited the parents to come early to enjoy a little summer concert of the songs they have learned this year. I am so excited. My little girl is getting so big.

Friday was birthday celebration day for all the summer birthday kids. Isabels birthday is July 1st and she had decided that she needed to bring cake for everyone in her class and she also wanted to give all her teachers a gift. Unfortunately that means that mom has to come to the rescue.

Thanks to this blog that I found a while back. I knew exactly what I could make quick and easy and still be proud to give. Post it Note holders. I am so happy with the ones I made. It only took me about 20 minutes to make and most of the time was spent finding the supply and putting it back again.

Isabel was proud to give and the teachers glad to receive them.

My hubby stepped in to help when he heard about the cake. He found two boxes of brownie mix in the cupboard that was leftover from our brownie craze last fall. So while he made them, he sent me out to go shopping for supplies.

I wanted to decorate the brownies, but knew I had to use a frosting that would harden so that I could wrap them into plastic for the kids to bring home from school.

My solution was purple chocolates from Wilton.

I melted half a bag of chocolates with 6 Tbs of margerin and added powder sugar till it got the consistency I wanted. Then I carefully spred it over the brownies and added the flowers for decor.

After I was all done I wrapped them all in plastic bags. 23 brownies for her whole class. 1 left over. It looked so lonely...
I had to take a bite... Ups forgot to take a picture. There it is.
One very tasty, gooey piece of brownie. Good thing I had already wrapped the others. Otherwise there might not have been any leftovers when I was done.

Umm, brownies...

So for the kids birthday party on Saturday I will make a chocolate cake with a chocolate rainbow made from the same chocolates that I used on Thursday. It is going to be gorgeous.

Getting things done...

On the 4th I went out and bought a few plants for my planter boxes. It only took me till the 12th to get them planted.
Isabel and I got everything out on the deck and got to it. We made a big mess, but the in the end the result was fabulous.

Finally one thing on my list that got done.

If only the weather could stay nice so that we could be outside enjoying our little garden.

All I have to do now is expand it...


One thing down, many more to go.
Being a scatterbrain I just found the lists I wrote on February 9th. So lets see, what have I managed to accomplish so far.
UFO's
1. Made a t-shirt out of a mens t-shirt for Isabel. Had some trouble with it and it didn't end up the way I wanted to, but Isabel loves that it is Scooby Doo on it.
2. Scarfs? What scarfs...
3. The quilt is still decorating my crafttable.
4. Buttons on the baby doll dress. Got to buy them first.
5. Pillowcases are done.
6. Oi, there is some embroideries I need to do. Where did I put those.

IDEAS
1. I made not only a dress for Isabel, but also one for Sofie.
2. Purse?

FIXINGS
Yeah, all done.

HOUSE
Out of 7 things only 1 has got done and that is taking the dishwasher out and getting a table in its place.

And the crochet dress never got done and my mom had to buy Sofie a dress instead. Oh well, maybe it will get done by the time I have grandchildren.

On we go to get more done.
This week I didn't get much done at all since Sofie has been sick. She is getting better now though.
Good luck to all of you getting stuff done.

Linking up to Amys New Nostalgia Anti-Procrastination Linkup.

My little girl is sick

Picture taken June 6th.
It has been one of those weeks.

Tuesday was fun and busy. Sofie and I went to a couple of play dates, she had fun and I had fun. Everything seemed like normal, though she had had a little cold for the last week or so. I just thought it was all due to the new teeth coming in.

Then comes Wednesday with a high fever and no appetite. She barely sleeps for more than an hour at the time and seems to have a tummy ache.

Thursday and she seems even worse, but since hubby is home we decide to wait it out since it still seems very much like Isabel when she was teething. And since we had a family dentist appointment in the afternoon and he told us that her two upper front teeth was coming in, that really confirmed our thought about it just being teething.

Friday and I finally get to take her temperature. 103.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Guess if I felt bad then. Not only had we not slept well for two nights, but I knew she had a fever. I called the doctor right away and got an appointment a couple of hours later.

DOUBLE WHAMMY...
Ear infection. My poor little girl. I know exactly how she has it as I just had one myself while I was in Norway. On top of that she is still getting the two front teeth.
Now she is on antibiotics and I just hope she will feel better soon.

It is so hard to see your little ones being sick and it is so frustrating not knowing what I can do to make her feel better. All I can do is keep on nursing her when she is hungry or thirsty, and give her Tylenol to relieve her discomfort.

Getting in the groove

I am actually procrastinating writing a post on my blog. There is a lot of things I would like to write about, but I just don't want to do it. It is sort of intimidating.

I want to make some lists again, what crafts I would like to do, what I would like to do this summer and things I should or need to do around the house. Then again I just don't want to do it and so I procrastinate.

I hereby promise myself that by next Tuesday I will have at least one list made and I will have emptied my camera onto my computer so that I can finally post some more pictures from Norway.

To help me keep my promise to myself I am linking up to Amy at New Nostalgia and her Anti-procrastination party on Tuesdays.

Norway musings

This is the view from my aunt and uncles house in Norway where I just spent three weeks.

I first came here when I was 11 years old and my uncle had taken over the farm after his father, my grandfather. Him and my aunt had just moved in together and I came there with my mom to meet her. My first memory of my aunt is of her sitting in the dining room, almost 9 months pregnant and with a terrible cold. She gave birth to my second youngest cousin only weeks later.

I would go there with my mom every other Easter or every other Christmas and every single summer. It was paradise on earth. There was always a full house with their four bedrooms filled to the rims. It is still just like that. My youngest cousin is now the only one still living at home while my second youngest cousin who just turned 20 has moved out. But when family is in town then everyone comes home to visit.

I had to laugh at my husband while we were there. He was asking me if it wasn't nice to not having to do my usual chores while visiting. I don't know what planet he was on. Since my family were all at either work or school, I ended up helping out at the house. Instead of doing chores for 4 people, I were doing chores for 7 to 10 people. Cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and helping 2 instead of one with homework. Still I enjoyed it.

I can't wait to go back again and I know I will get to do so next summer. My best friend and also my cousin 6 times removed is getting married to her love of 10 years. And I and the kids are going to be there for her.

Back again, savoring life.

I am finally back to America, well I came back may 8th, and I am back to blogging again, I guess since this is my first blog entry since April.

Our trip to Norway was wonderful. We had four weeks of snow, rain, more snow, lots of sun and even a blizzard. And then to be with my family, I loved every minute of it. My oldest daughter even started to speak more Norwegian again. We had family parties, played games, talked till late at night, cooked together, went on walks, and so much more. Most of all I enjoyed hanging out with my 14 year old cousin of whom I am Godmother to. She is so much fun and I specially enjoyed that she felt comfortable speaking with me about even difficult things. She had just got a new camera when I came to visit and since I had forgot to bring the charger for my own camera she ended up taking a lot of pictures for me. Now I'm just waiting for her to send me the pictures and then I will write more about my stay in Norway.

I savored every moment of my stay at home in Norway. The best of all was that my husband finally gave me an answer of when we will move back home to Norway. Spring or summer of 2012. I am so excited. Now I just have to get my place nice and ready to sell.

Since coming home I have had to deal with jet lag, kids having jet lag and the baby teething. We have totally changed our daily routines too and I find that I have more time now than before to take some quiet time for myself. Due to the jet lag I have now started to get up at 5 AM and that gives me 1.5 hour that I can use for prayer, excerise, breakfast and planning. Needless to say that I savor that time and it doesn't seem so bad anymore to have to go to bed at 9 PM at night, at least not if I want to be rested the next day. It is good to get these things done in the morning since I have more energy then instead for doing it at night when I am exausted from a days worth of caring for my family. Now I just have to find time for blogging too.

I must admit I have been finding it hard and even a little terrifying to start up again blogging, but thanks to Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary I am back. Today I am linking up to join her and the other Company girls for coffee. Taking her up on her small thing for today Savoring every little thing in life. Like getting up early to spend some quiet time in prayer or going to the nursery today to pick up some flowers for my little container garden.

Thank you for visiting, I do hope you leave me a little comment.

Project Norway Trip

Welcome fellow procrastinators ;)
I am finally in Norway and I am so excited.
On behalf of my daughter I am really sad that it started to rain the day before we got here, because almost all the snow that she was looking forward to see is now almost gone.
On behalf of myself I am almost glad the weather is bad because then I don't miss my camera too much. I really wanted to take some nice pictures to show you all what my home town looks like. Unfortunately I forgot my camera back home. Then again I can always borrow my moms and take some pictures before I go to my moms home town on Friday.

Going on this trip has been a big project in itself. Packing for tree people. Making sure everyone has enough clothes and the right clothes. Diapers and toys. Making sure someone can watch the cat and that the dog has everything she will need at my inlaws house.

I sure did procrastinate a lot while packing. Even though I like to be done early I started the day before leaving packing for the kids. I still made it though.

Sofie is not getting a handmade dress for her Christening next weekend. It is not done due to my procrastination, but I do hope to be done with it before it is too small for her to at least wear it once to have a picture taken at some point. Man, my heart is racing in pure stress over that dress not being done and that even though my mom bought her a beautiful white dress to wear just in case...

The sewing table with my daughters quilt on is nicely tucked away in a corner waiting for me to get home. My mom even bought me more fabric so I got even more projects waiting for me now.

My newest ongoing project that has to be done by Thursday night is to go through a lot of the boxes that I keep at my parents house filled with clothes for the kids and my husband and I. I want to get rid of some of it. It is a big project to say the least. So far I have gone through two boxes. I am giving away one box with clothes that Sofie too has outgrown and the other box is mostly clothes that she can wear now or grow into. Tomorrow I need to get more done.

Well, I guess that is all from me today. I really should get in bed now. I will try to check in with all of you tomorrow or some other day if I can. I am a little busy you know ;)

Linking up to Anti-Procrastination Tuesday at New Nostalgia.