Missed-a-week
My plan was to update this blog weekly. I have failed. The week after I started this thing we traveled to M's sister's place in a subarctic region of northern Sweden. We stayed for about 5 days with 12 in the house. It was nice to see the kids with their Swedish cousins. K (who is 7) started to imitate her 12 year old cousin's dialect of Swedish. J (who is 6) played non-stop with his cousin who was born exactly a month before him. Little J (who is 3 1/2) enjoyed all the attention that the youngest in the family gets.
We drove 72 Swedish miles... that is 720 km... that is about 500 US miles. We traveled through hills and valleys dotted with sparkling lakes. There is lots of forest in Sweden. (On the "globe" in my head Sweden was always green... even before I came here.) The dark green pine forest comes right down to the rocky shore of the lake. There are red cabins and vacation homes at the edge of the lakes. Church spires dominate in even the smallest community. It is beautiful when the sun shines. Green and red and blue... wildflowers flourishing in every ditch at the roadside. A blue flag with a golden cross waving over the farmhouse. Just what you think Sweden should be.
It took about 12 hours for the trip up and we learned something: our children are growing up! We gave each kid a map with the planned route. We highlighted the towns where we would stop. If we were somehwere else, we would only stop for "potty". We drove two-hour stretches with basically happy kids in the backseat. Used a bathroom and had a snack and a walk in a park to get our wiggles out, and were back on the road in 30 minutes or less. My standard answer to the famous "Are we THERE yet?" was "We are HERE now (point to the map)... let's watch for this next town on the map." And to my surprise, they did just that!
Now we know what they are capable of, so it is up to us to hold them to it! After saying goodbye to Cousins in Jamtland, we drove another 60 swedish miles... 600 km... 450 US miles to M's brother's family in Halland. On the east coast of Sweden north of Stockholm. They live in a red house at the edge of the green forest in a small town with a church steeple. We went to the beach and the tourist town on the coast. Jumped on the trampoline at their house and played with more cousins. They are near the same ages as ours... but right in between. Fun for all!
Now we are home. We are glad it is sunny here. We live in a townhouse at the edge of another forest in central Sweden. We have friends here... bikes here... a pool to splash in. We do lots of laundry. We write letters and read emails from friends in Mozambique. We tell everyone what we do 'there" while we don't actually do all that much while we are "here".
That was last week. Pictures are coming, but first, we need lunch!
We drove 72 Swedish miles... that is 720 km... that is about 500 US miles. We traveled through hills and valleys dotted with sparkling lakes. There is lots of forest in Sweden. (On the "globe" in my head Sweden was always green... even before I came here.) The dark green pine forest comes right down to the rocky shore of the lake. There are red cabins and vacation homes at the edge of the lakes. Church spires dominate in even the smallest community. It is beautiful when the sun shines. Green and red and blue... wildflowers flourishing in every ditch at the roadside. A blue flag with a golden cross waving over the farmhouse. Just what you think Sweden should be.
It took about 12 hours for the trip up and we learned something: our children are growing up! We gave each kid a map with the planned route. We highlighted the towns where we would stop. If we were somehwere else, we would only stop for "potty". We drove two-hour stretches with basically happy kids in the backseat. Used a bathroom and had a snack and a walk in a park to get our wiggles out, and were back on the road in 30 minutes or less. My standard answer to the famous "Are we THERE yet?" was "We are HERE now (point to the map)... let's watch for this next town on the map." And to my surprise, they did just that!
Now we know what they are capable of, so it is up to us to hold them to it! After saying goodbye to Cousins in Jamtland, we drove another 60 swedish miles... 600 km... 450 US miles to M's brother's family in Halland. On the east coast of Sweden north of Stockholm. They live in a red house at the edge of the green forest in a small town with a church steeple. We went to the beach and the tourist town on the coast. Jumped on the trampoline at their house and played with more cousins. They are near the same ages as ours... but right in between. Fun for all!
Now we are home. We are glad it is sunny here. We live in a townhouse at the edge of another forest in central Sweden. We have friends here... bikes here... a pool to splash in. We do lots of laundry. We write letters and read emails from friends in Mozambique. We tell everyone what we do 'there" while we don't actually do all that much while we are "here".
That was last week. Pictures are coming, but first, we need lunch!
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