Lucia

The 13th of December, we celebrate Saint Lucia. I am assuming it is a Catholic tradition, but really, I do not know. It is confusing since there are Pagen and protestant traditions, but anything with a Saint, is usually Catholic. The weird part is that the Swedish Church is protestant. Anyone know?

Anyways, we have Luciatåg, meaning Lucia train. There are four figures, the Gingerbread man, Saint Lucia, Santa Claus, and a dude with a big duntz cap with a star on it, called Star Guy. haha.

Lucia bears candles, and everyone follows and they all sing Swedish Christmas songs.

It's really cute with all the kids, but the more I think of the thing, the weirder is seems.

Here are the kids, Elliot is the Gingerbread man, and Perry is Santa.

Morgan was with me watching the whole show. =)

Winter chicken.

All three of my children has worn this hat in the beginning of winter. It is so ugly, that it is AWESOME. It really is a bad cruel joke that everyone thinks is cute.

I wanted to post it up since I love winter hats with pom poms, funny things that dangle and good old kitsch.

Have a good laugh, and enjoy the cold weather.

Holy COW!

My in-laws annually order beef from a farm up north. It's great since the animals are treated well, and there are no weird chemicals or what not. It's pretty eco friendly. They have been doing it for decades, and now we ordered some meat for the first time. I had no idea how much we were getting. I still get confused when people talk about kilos and not pounds. So we got 2 huge boxes filled with meat. The first box had different cuts of meat, and the second was ground beef.

Now brace yourself, I am talking about a whole box of just ground beef. "What does that look like?" you ask?

Here is a pic. It's a little blurry since Perry kept on trying to jump in the box and touch it.


I was overwhelmed at the amount of meat. Still am.

Sick day Tally.

In 4 weeks, the kids have been home for 3 weeks. 1 week in daycare.
I feel like November and October has just flew by and got wasted, which isn't so bad since winter in Sweden is dark and dreary.

2 weeks of the flu and 1 week with a stomach flu or some kind of food poisoning. I am exhausted and waiting for the sick season to end.

I am longing for December, so Advent can start and we can decorate. Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here, so all the stores are pimped up with Christmas items already. I am planning to sew some fun Christmas themed curtains (which I've never thought was necessary, but lots of people do it here). Christmas is a big deal here, and there is SO MUCH tradition.

I just hope no one will be sick again anytime soon, I am slowly getting grouchy with all my whining babies. haha. Need some Christmas cheer. Or a big fat Turkey.

The quest of a dry bed

Day 1.

It is a disaster!

5pm Last drink of water.
8pm Peed in his lined nappy pants. LOTS
10pm Peed. (In the toilet since he refused to sleep in his bed. He knew tonight was different and couldn't sleep)
1am Peed in his Nappy pants again in bed. Kim tired and exhausted, put on pull up diapers.
8am Elliot woke up, and his diaper is wet.

Where does all the liquid come from????

Swine flu vaccine under age 3.

On Sunday I went to take Perry to get his Swine flu vaccination. They offer it once a week in my town, since the supply is low and they are trying to be fair by giving it out in batches. Apparently the week before it was chaotic since people waited in line for hours to get the shot. This Sunday I thought I would be smart since there were only 500 shots, so I went to the clinic 1 hour early. To my surprise, there were hundreds of people already there. The line was so long, that it curved around the mall. Did I mention it was raining too?

I stood on line for almost an hour when someone asked me if Perry was getting vaccinated. Apparently, the information was wrong on the internet and they were not vaccinating children under 3 since they had no life saving devices if something went wrong. No one was informed and there were only families with small children there. I was pissed. They could have put up a sign.

It's almost like watching a bad movie...people are starting to panic here since there are not enough vaccine to go around and many families with children are still not vaccinated yet.

The thing that pisses me even more off, is that we already got our shot, but at the time, kids under 3 couldn't get it. Now a week later, they changed their mind. Today I read the paper and they are discussing it over, that maybe it is not safe. What the hell???

Housekeeping Tip #10: Bleeding laundry

If you got a new pair of jeans, or a nice red sweater, and you don't want to waste water and energy by washing it separately. You can use salt so the color won't bleed out. In general you can use salt for all bright colored clothing, or just your regular color load.

Add it to you detergent when you put it in the washer. I use about 1-3 tablespoons depending on the size of the load.

The salt will also help clearing out the chalk in the water in your machine. Chalk build up does suck, and kills your washer... so use a little salt once in a while to keep it kicking!

Haircuts and a dry night.

My little boys started to look like little shaggy hippies, so I cut their hair on Saturday night. It took me 1 hour to do all three, which is pretty good. But Perry refused to cut his hair! It came down to the fact that Kim had to hold his head and I was rushing with the buzzer trying to make the cut as even as possible. It was insane.

After I was done, I had to sweep up so much hair. I cut about 3-4 inches on each kid, so you can imagine how messy my floors were, and how long it took to clean it all up. 3 days later and I am still finding hair clippings in my kitchen.

Tonight I will attempt (AGAIN) to train Elliot to be dry throughout the whole night. He is almost 4 and is still bed wetting. Since I have 3 kids and a lack of sleep, I haven't really had the energy to force him to be dry either. So now, I have dumped that responsibility to Kim. It really is a good thing, since he comes home around Midnight from work, so he can easily dump Elliot on the toilet.

I am gonna keep my fingers crossed and hope he will be dry till Christmas. =)

How do you do it?

So Perry is at daycare, he is over 1 years old, so it is time for me to work.
The job hunt is going slowly and it is really a painful process right now. It doesn't help that the economy is still bad either. I am really dreading the fact that another chapter of my life will start and I would rather avoid it as long as possible. But of course that is irrational and won't happen.

The question is "How do you do it?"
I do not understand how a woman would WANT to take up the responsibilty and work full time and have a family and a happy husband. Kudos to the women who do all 3 and make it work, but honestly, no one ever tells you this when you are growing up. All they say is have a great career, then you'll meet prince charming... and you will have a beautiful family. NO ONE ever tells you the downfalls that come with it. All the burden that lays on your shoulder as a woman. I never thought I would be so mentally and physically tired only at the age of 30.

Someone always has to be home, so it's either you work or he works. Luckily you both have day jobs...but then after work it is cook, clean, bath, laundry, homework, and what not. Don't forget the pick up and drop off from school, daycare, and other after school activities. It's like being a personal chauffeur.

Maybe it is do-able. To those of you who can do it, I applaud you. For me? I feel like in over-doing something, you lose a lot in the details, and something always falls apart. You can't have everything, something always suffers.

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. My neighborhood actually had a few houses where the kids could go and trick or treat. I was pleasantly surprised and really excited, since Halloween is a new thing here, and trick or treating hasn't established itself yet. Instead kids come knocking on our door dressed as witches on Easter (a Swedish Pagen tradition).

Of course the weather here was cold and extremely dark, but the kids got all dressed up and braved in the cold to get some free candy! It was awesome!

Not all the houses had candy so we were on the search of jack o'lanterns. If the houses had no decoration, we weren't getting squat. So the whole night was comprised of pointing, and yelling "here's a pumpkin!"

Here is Perry all dressed up. I love love love this costume!

Vaccination

We just got vaccinated for the Swine Flu yesterday.
It is now available for the general public. The past few weeks it was available for those in the high risk group, and in many districts, it is already out of stock.

Thank goodness for socialism in Sweden. We paid $0 for the vaccine.

Apparently, there is discussion if we all have to take the shot twice. Getting it just once might not be strong enough.

So far, the side effects that we are experiencing after 12 hours are sore arms from the area the shot was taken. Feels like I lifted way too many weights. HAHA

Swine flu???

The kids have been sick the past week with:

a high 2 day fever
headaches
chills
fatigue
tiredness
loss of appetite
vomiting
diarrhea

after those symptoms got better, they were left with coughing, runny nose, and sore throats.

Power Wheels

In August, I was proud to say that my 1 year old son has successfully figured out how to ride a electric powered bike. He figured out how to press the accelerate button, but the funny part was, he had to stand to get enough pressure on it. He looked like a mini professional standing while driving the power wheels. A real bad ass.

Too bad the cool was killed since I had to follow him and steer. =)

Racism, jokes, or ignorance?

Every Tuesday is an after school English class on the other side of town.
Since there aren't so many Koreans living in my neighborhood, we chose English as his home language, and he gets extra schooling for his home language.

We went to this school, and while I was waiting for his 45 minute class to end, I decided to play in the playground with the other two kids. It was after school hours with a teacher's aid there. In Sweden, the kids can stay after school if the parent's work. They can stay until 5pm with adult supervision.

When we got there, a small kid (maybe 7) starts yelling out "ching chong." After repeating it a few times, I was infuriated, and asked him if he was talking to me. I told him that I was speaking English to my children, but he didn't care, and continued his name calling for 30 minutes. The teacher's aid just ignored the situation. In the end I told the boy that it was not nice to say "ching chong." Of course he didn't care. The teacher's aid tried to explain (after 30 mins of name calling!) that I wasn't chinese, and I spoke English.

Does it even matter that I wasn't Chinese? It is still rude and ignorant.

Finally when the boy understood I was speaking English. He starting yelling quotes from Achmed the terrorist. "I kill you" I guess that is what Americans say???

Morgan in Kindergarten.

First day of school is always exciting, but of course I was nervous and super pessimistic that things would go wrong. Morgan was really happy and eager to get to school. After the first few days, he adjusted really well. Mostly because he has been home with me and his brothers the past year, and it think it was getting to him. Finally, he was able to meet some kids his own age.

The funny thing is that he doesn't ever want to come home after school, and he is starting to pick up the school lingo...I believe they call it slang these days. HAHA. I totally wasn't expecting that. But with the good comes the bad. Morgan has started to learn how to curse. *sigh* I take it pretty seriously since my mouth is a POTTY mouth too. But I have cut back significantly. Hopefully he will learn not to do it at home (at least).

Next...birds and the bees, drugs, and what not. They grow up so fast!

Kraftskiva (Crayfish Party)

August is crayfish month. It's the season to eat lots of crayfish and drink lots of snapps.

I don't really know so much about the tradition behind it, but we eat, drink, and of course sing. Swedes love to sing and drink. It's tradition to go to one of our friend's house, and this year they served really nice Swedish crayfish. They were huge and super tasty. Think almost like mini-lobsters.

Since I moved here, I am now addicted to these little suckers. I even learned to eat the whole thing (not the shell or brain part, but everything in between) thanks to my mother-in-law. I didn't, however, master her fancy way of lining up the shells in a pretty round circle. Give me another 5 years. haha.

Here are some pics of the yummy yummy food. I am drooling just thinking about it.

Daniel the Godfather.

Daniel is Morgan's Godfather and Kim's best friend.
We met him at a park in Södermalm over the summer when he was visiting. We got some great shots with the kids, drank coffee and had a good time.

I was really nervous that the kids might not have a good time, but in the end they enjoyed playing with the sand and ants. However, they didn't like walking aimlessly in the city, since we didn't know where to go or do.

Poor Daniel had to carry Elliot on his shoulders in the end. But I guess that is what Godfathers are for???? :-)

Fell off the face of the Earth.

Well, I didn't really but it feels like I did.
This summer was all work and not much play. Now that it settled down, I am doing so many different projects, and feel kinda lost.

All the boys are either in school or in daycare now, so I have to figure out what to do with myself. Of course I would love to be at home and take care of the house...but being poor is not an option.

Do you know that it takes me 2 freaking days to do laundry??? I work on the weekends so I missed doing laundry on Friday-Sunday. Monday and Tuesday was strictly laundry with 8 loads. Doesn't sound like much, but the machines here take over an hour to wash cold. Imagine trying to do a warm or hot load.

I am going to try to go over all the things I missed over the summer and post it up gradually. There is so much to show, and so much to tell, but right now my mind is so frazzled since it has passed 8pm.

In the Backyard.

I just cut the kids' hair, and the hubby showered them down...and of course they decide to run out to the backyard half naked.

Here are some cute pics of the boys.

Wild Blueberries.

Morgan and I went off into the woods to pick those blueberries we spotted the other day. Swedish blueberries are much smaller than American blueberries, and they stain really badly. I went to the hardware store and bought "berry pickers" and luckily they were on sale and dirt cheap.

Morgan actually liked picking the berries, and didn't want to stop. We got about a bucket-full; cleaned and froze them in the freezer. We plan to collect some more!!!!

Here is a pic of the berry picker.

Mushroom picking.

Across the street there is a little forest area, and it is filled with wild blueberries and mushrooms. We went out today for a walk, and we ended picking mushrooms. We ended up with two buckets full with Katareller (I think they are called Chantarelle in English).

Here are some pics of our booty! =)

This amount of mushrooms cost about 200 kronor. We got them for 0. Nature is good. Minus the bugs.

Elliot Sleeps. Part 2

Here is another one. He fell asleep while eating dinner. He crawled down his chair, and never made it up.




Last week he fell asleep on an amusement park ride. Apparently he was tuckered out from a long day and couldn't hold it out a little longer. haha.

Elliot Sleeps. Part 1

Elliot is my little Narc.
He falls asleep everywhere and anytime.
Here is a little collage of the best bits. I should have named him Dopey or Sleepy.



Not using their bunk beds, and holding eachother's ears.

While playing/watching tv.

Falling asleep on Kim.

Almost a month.

It's been almost a month since I blogged last. After my brother's month long visit and Perry's birthday, things got busy. First there was Midsommer, and we had guests who slept over for the weekend. Then I ended up started working more hours over the summer. So between working and the house, I've been pretty occupied. Plus not to mention the weather here got extremely hot (swedish standards) I would say 90-95 range. Please bear in mind Swedes do not own air conditioners, since it only gets really hot like 10 days of the year. The past few days we have been using fans which ended up blowing hot air.


Adding to the hot weather, the boys play WAY too much video games. It was too hot to go outside so they spent most of the day playing PS, Wii, and Xbox. Their favorite games right now are Lego Star Wars and Beautiful Katamari. Both which I feel are awesome games.

I haven't taken any pictures since Perry's birthday, so I suppose I have to get my act together and start archiving my summer. =)

Buttermilk in Swedish.

So if you read my previous post, you will see the picture of the Red Velvet cake with Marshmallow frosting I made for Perry's birthday. The recipe called for Buttermilk, but I have NO IDEA was it is called in Swedish. I don't even know if it exists here.

I used whipping cream, and the cake was dry and dense.

I am assuming it may be called filmjölk, which I thought was like a sour yoghurt.

Does anyone know??? Can anyone tell me????

I NEED to KNOW!

Perry is 1

Happy Birthday Perry!

His Birthday was yesterday and we had a nice party right before my brother left back for the States. Unfortunately, it rained all week, and the party had to be indoors. But we were set on grilling some burgers, which were nice and juicy!

I've always tried to make a big deal about the boys' birthdays. But honestly, I've never had a big Korean first birthday, so sometimes I feel like my kids got cheated. All of my Korean friend's had these amazing photo albums that cost hundreds of dollars, and I am lucky just to have one photo of them that is semi professional.

I do throw them a traditional American birthday party with friends and family and LOTS of food, which is still overkill here in Sweden. (Birthdays here are really low key).

But Perry couldn't care less, he had a great time. He ate cake, ice cream, and ran around with the kids. He loved the present packaging, and cared less for the toys and clothes that he got.

I am glad he enjoyed the party. He was so zonked out afterwards, that he slept until 10am the next day. =)

Alliums: Purple sensations 2

Collecting the Seeds.

My alliums have stopped blooming and now they are growing seed pods. I cut off the stalks and heads so I can dry them out and collect the seeds. Apparently it takes a few years for the seeds to germinate before they are mature to bloom. I'll probably end up just buying more bulbs at the floral shop, but I have to give it a shot since the seeds are free.

Here is what it looks like.

Chajang myun 2

I made another batch, and froze the sauce in little freezer bags. Last week was the last week my brother was in town, so we were busy cramming all the family bonding.

Too tired to cook dinner, I decided to reheat the Chajang sauce and cook some noodles. It still tasted great, and I was so pleased. Not to mention Perry was in heaven. He loves the stuff.

Why do little kids love it so much?

Poop for Mother's day

This past Sunday was Mother's day in Sweden.

Morgan and Elliot made me very cute Mother's day cards at daycare, which I received right after I picked them up on Friday. They had no clue that they had to wait to give me those cards. =)

The past week I was allowed (ahem***) by my hubby to buy some flowers for my mother's day present myself at the flower shop. That is how I came to own those awesome Alliums.

Since we were going to eat dinner at his parent's house, we drove by the flower shop to buy some flowers for his mom. This is where I was able to buy/receive 20 liters of chicken manure for my Peonies. (I mentioned this before on my previous Peony post)

So that is how I got Poop for mother's day.

Oh yeah, Perry Pooped so much poor Kim had to change it for me. It required a plastic bag for the dirty diaper. Another bag for the soiled clothing. A big shower to get Perry clean. Then a wardrobe change.

I love Mother's day. =)

Perry walks!

It took Perry 1 day to realize walking is fun and cool, and WHAM! he is a walking machine!

The first day instead of taking 1 or 2 steps, he braved 5 steps in front of Farmor (grandma). After that, it was a cinch. At the end of 4 days, he can walk from one end of the room to the other.

Not to mention his climbing. He is like a little monkey!!! Why are all third babies, climbers? It makes no sense. He climbs anything that he can get onto, then screams since he can't get down. It is cute, but I get so worried that he'll fall. He already has a wonky head, I am afraid it'll get even more oddly shaped. haha.

I am still trying to get a good shot of him walking but they all are either boring videos or blurry pictures. Any tips???

Officially he walked 3 weeks before his 1 year old birthday. Just for the record!

Perry with a chocolate cookie. Not poop.

Måns Zelmerlöw

As I said it before Morgan loves the Melodifestivalen/Eurovision Song contest.

This year Måns Zelmerlöw was a winner for Elliot and him. We had the pleasure to go to a shopping mall's 50 anniversary, and they had Måns performing. It was great considering we didn't have to pay for an entrance fee or anything. He sang about 4 songs, and Morgan was in heaven!!!

Elliot was also fascinated. They both sang along and crushed my arms and shoulders, since I had to carry them both so they can see his head bobbing up and down. haha.

Here is a shot of the kids and their posse enjoying a cool concert. =)

Chajang myun

SOOOOOO GOOD!

It is the equivalent to ordering chinese take out, but we call it the korean version of spaghetti. Black bean noodles.


Now that I live in Sweden I only get to eat these delicious noodles when I visit my family in NY. I can buy the instant noodle version, but it is relatively expensive and it is kinda annoying to travel into town to the Korean store here. I usually buy most of my korean groceries locally in the supermarket, all I have to do is stock up on some gochugaru and dengjang.

Since my brother is visiting he stashed a bunch of korean groceries in his luggage. I asked my mom for some chajang sauce and the noodles.

This weekend I attempted to make it myself, and honestly it tasted great! As close to the restaurant version as possible.

It's really sad that I only get to eat this once a year, but now since I have some imported goods, I can enjoy it a little bit more often. yay!

Did I mention how much cheaper and healthier it is to make it yourself?????

Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Like this!

Here are some pics of my growing garden.




In the foreground is garlic we planted in the fall. Take a clove of garlic and plant it 3 inches deep and 6 inches wide. After the summer you can pull them out and will have a head of garlic ready to be eaten. In the background are Chives. It grows back for a few years, then you have to plant new ones.


Just planted new Dahlia bulbs. It's starting to sprout!!! Hopefully it'll bloom this summer.


Allium - Purple Sensation. Easy to plant and grow.


Pansies. Collect the seeds and grow them for next spring! Pansies last longer if you deadhead.


Parsley the kids and I planted earlier this spring. They grow back for a few years if you plant them properly in the garden. The peppermint didn't want to grow. =(

Alliums: Purple sensations

I love these flowers even if they smell like onions! (I haven't noticed it)

The past year I have been lusting over those beautiful flowers. I didn't know what they were called or where to get the bulbs. Finally, after searching 3 different greenhouses, I found a few Alliums already in bloom. Now I know I have to plant the bulbs in the fall, and I can buy them online or at the greenhouse as early as August.

They remind me of Horton sees a Who, and they are tall and just gorgeous!!!

Easy to plant, and grow. No need to shelter them in the winter either! EVEN BETTER!

I am definitely going to buy some more in the fall, and I am going to try to collect the seeds from the ones I already have. It takes a few years for the seed to germinate into bulbing flowers, so we'll see if I have the patience to do it. I guess it all falls down to how expensive the bulbs are.

Peonies

I love my Peonies, but they apparently don't like me.

I planted my potted peony in the garden last fall and it has grown but there are no flower heads. I know it can take several years for the peony to adjust to it's new living environment, but of course, I have no patience when it comes to that kind of stuff.

The ants had no problem finding my peony, and are anxiously crawling around the leaves hoping the buds will come soon.

I hate bugs in general, so I should have never grown an interest in gardening. I did pick up a few good tips on getting rid of the ants.

Take a bucket of cool water and add a tablespoon of dishwasher soap. Give it a swirl and give the peony a nice shower. The ants will be grossed out and stay away for a while. They'll come back in a few days, but it'll give a nice temporary result. It's kinda nice to do that when guests come, so you don't have ants crawling near your deck or what not.

If you are planning to cut your peony for an indoor arrangement, fill a bucket with warm water and gently dunk the cut peony in it to get the little ants off. Then let it slightly dry off before you take it in, so the head won't be heavy and droop.

I'll let you know if my peonies grow buds or even bloom. I'll probably throw some good manure in the mix to help it grow a little better. I heard it helps in the spring time when it is growing so fast.

If your peony ain't budding in 2 or 3 years, you probably planted it too deep. Keep the bulb 1 inch under the soil. If your old peony is started to wither or not grow, you need to divide your bulb in the fall, and get rid of the old part of the plant. You may also have root rot, so move the plant in a place with better soil drainage.

Open House at Kindergarden.

Morgan is going to start Kindergarten this upcoming fall. In Sweden it starts at the age of 6, one year later than the States.

I don't know what happened, but we went to the open house on Tuesday and Morgan freaked out and threw a huge temper tantrum that lasted over an hour in front of the school. Thank God I came an hour early since I thought the meeting started earlier. Morgan just screamed and whined that he didn't want to go to that school. I wasn't sure if he was just throwing a tantrum like all 6 yr old kids, or if he was scared or nervous to attend the new school. Either way, he missed about half of the introduction and finally joined the open house meeting. He then realized that it was a really fun school. Finally he had a good time there running around with the other kids.

I guess going to school can be daunting. I have another friend who's child is anxious about school. It is probably hard to tell a child that he will become a big boy or girl and go to a big school to learn new things.

Skansen

Thursday we went to Skansen, which is the name of the Zoo in Stockholm.

We packed 4 huge baguettes and made sandwiches. My friend made homemade Swedish cinnamon buns which made our coffee break freaking AWESOME. When we arrived at the zoo, we started to eat our lunch and of course it rained! Luckily it was a passing rain cloud, and after the little shower, we had a full day of sunshine.

The kids had a great time, since they are old enough to understand which animal is which. Plus there is a little play area with rides, which they thought was fantastic. I think it overshadowed the zoo part. I guess the next outing with be the amusement park. They just added new attractions, and have rides that are more fun for the adults.