Neglected

...that’s what this blog is at the moment. Between the breastfeeding, diaper changing (and washing…), and the craziness of renovating our house (one wall at the time…) and just living, it’s just not at the top of my priority list. I felt a strange urge to just delete this whole blog (and start another one…*sigh*), but I’m going to give it another chance. I have a long history of starting new projects and not finishing or keeping up, so maybe I’ll just accept that I cannot write a post every day or even weekly at the moment. It’s just how it is, but it still is. I also felt like writing in Norwegian again, because sometimes writing in English takes a bit longer and I catch my self using it as another excuse to neglect this blog…

But here we are. Or I am at least.

I just came back from the library with two books that I’m expecting quite a lot from. They are both in the category I ironically describe as “things I don’t want to know” – as in “ignorance is bliss”. One is written by a Norwegian educationalist, researcher and writer; Erik Sigsgaard and is called “Kjeft Mindre – Historier om oppdragelse”, or in English… something like Yell/scold Less – Stories about upbringing”. I have a 5yo and I have a bad temper. Nuf’ said. I need that book.

The other one is written by a Danish family who turned their life around completely after living many years on a bad diet and a life full of toxins and chemicals. They have raised quite a stir in Denmark and a bit of discussion in Norway as well with their books and advice about food. Basically they recommend a diet free of milk, gluten, sugar, “fast” carbohydrates and artificial stuff/E-numbers/food additives among other things. Their book is called “Kjernesunn Familie” in Norwegian. Kjerne = Core. Sunn = Healthy. Familie = Family. You get the picture. I need this book as well. We need it. Too much pasta, too much additives, sugar and stuff that really does no good to our health either physically or mentally.

Driving home with T. (the 5yo) this evening; “mama, I want ice cream”! Me – trying to explain why she cannot have ice cream every day. She – having a total breakdown in the backseat because of it; not giving a damn (pardon the French) about my logic explanations of course. So I stopped at the grocery store and bought some fruit and we went home and made our own ice cream. Version one – Black currants from the garden, a dash of organic soy milk and a teaspoon or two of xylitol ("Bjørkesøt" -instead of sugar; made from the birch tree). Version two – Banana and soy milk. Version three – mango. They are in the freezer at the moment. Quite an experiment. I hope she likes it – at least she enjoyed making them.

And I’m making “jam”;- soaking organic dried apricots. Tomorrow I’ll probably boil them for a few seconds, and then throw them in the blender. Voilá – organic apricot jam – no sugar. Did you know that most “conventional” dried apricots are treated with sulphur to keep the colour orange? Buy organic brown apricots. Apricots do not stay orange when they’re dried…



PS. I just love the library. What an amazing public service. Libraries make me happy, and proud and humble somehow.

IRL

JardarMama (beautiful blog!) had a blogpost about the good life a while back. - And about not having/taking the time to blog about it regularly. I can relate.

But here are a few things from my good life.


A new diaper soaker is in the making. This time in some crazy purple sock yarn.


More yarn goodness: Mirasol Hacho. This is serious eyecandy; hand dyed multi coloured merino (so beautiful that I considered just placing it in a bowl or something for decoration…), and so soft and luscious. By buying it you can support The Mirasol Project.

"The philosophy behind the Mirasol Project is very simple, the Mirasol Project supports local communities in Peru through the sales of the Mirasol Yarn Collection.

Peru’s heritage and culture of textile artistry is rich and ancient. The Mirasol Yarn Collection includes yarn made from the animals tended by these communities for generations in the Peruvian highlands. Without them we would not have this beautiful yarn."


Fresh flowers almost every day from my 5yo… These are one of my favourites – lily of the valley.


And some “knitting” in progress also by the 5yo… Rumour has it that this is becoming a sweater for her baby sister. I cannot wait.

Food Waste Reduction Challenge – part I

We’re on. One month of food waste reduction.

This whole challenge made me think about food in many ways, not just about how to waste less, but also about how it’s made, where it comes from, who gets paid for it, where it travels, the footprint it makes, where it ends up and many other things.

Crunchy has a few good tips on how to start off – I’m getting to that. Our fridge seriously needs to get cleaned out and I bet I’ll find remnants from Christmas and other stuff in there that will probably walk out by its own soon.

Today I have made a two week meal plan for the first time in my life. Based on what’s in the fridge and freezer at the moment. To me this challenge is not only about food waste reduction, but also about saving money, eating healthier and more locally produced/organic/environmentally friendly. A meal plan is an obvious step in the right direction. We also went grocery shopping and bought a lot less than usually because of the meal plan. Yey! We still have a lot of potential when it comes to grocery shopping though. Too much stuff that is unnecessary and unhealthy gets in to this house.

Since food waste is the main theme in this challenge, I’m going to start composting again. As of tomorrow the compost bucket is going back in. I had a compost pile in the garden last summer, but this winter most of our food waste goes straight in with miscellaneous garbage. And we even have rabbits…. SO – Two boxes/buckets are going up on the wall in the stairway down to our basement. One for rabbit food and one for food waste/compost. So at lest it is used in a much better way than just throwing it in plastic bags and waiting for the garbage truck to transport it someplace else…

Emerging

This seems to happen now and then. Life - real life intensifies and takes all the time and energy available. So this blog ends up alone and unloved for quite a while. But hopefully my energy levels are raising, and things are falling into place. So this blog is reinventing itself. Again.

Who am I and what am I doing here?

Hello there! I'm a woman in my late twenties, Norwegian, mama of two little girls (aged two months and 5 years). I'm married and we live in a remote location in the south(ish) east of Norway. We've been here for four years now and we love it. We have two dog, several rabbits (flemish giants and french lop) and lots of other animals grazing outside our front door. Horses, cows, sheep, goats, geese, chickens, turkeys... So as you probably can imagine - we live "in the country". We don't own a farm, but our neighbors are mainly small scale farmers, and we're hoping to turn our lot into a high yield permaculture garden - some day...

This blog will be about "the ordinary stuff" - moments and glimpses of our everyday lives. To give you an idea of what that includes and what I probably will write about - here are some of the things that are important to us:

Permaculture. Simple living. Thinking globally, acting locally. Paganism. "Traditional" Scandinavian shamanism. Asatru. Attachment/connection parenting. Photography and film making. Stop motion animation. Creative, poetic and thought provoking documentaries. Crafting and creating. Knitting. Crafting with kids. Writing. Thriftshops and fleamarkets. Anything and everything vintage. Food. Cooking. Vegetarianism. Preserving food. Herbs. Country living. Small scale farming. Self sufficiency. Gardening in general. The vegetable garden. Creating stuff out of willow. Animals. Natural building. Educational philosophies and (natural) learning. Waldorf education. And still more...

We'll be so happy if you leave us a comment!