Life at HappyHaven

More spring and some scrapbooking

10:29, Thursday 15 March 2007 .. Posted in Scrapbooking .. 2 comments .. Link

Now it´s spring, like it ususally appeares in middle Sweden: brown lawns, trees without leaves and a little snow in shady places.

Yesterday I made a scrapbook-layout for the scrapbooking-shop I design for. The pictures was taken on my 30th birthday 6 years ago =) , when we went for a trip to have dinner at a small restuarant and to watch the wooper swans gathering at a lake in our area.

Spring!

12:11, Monday 12 March 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

The first day of spring! Almost all snow is gone, the air is warm and soft, the sun is shining for the first time in three weeks or something. Edvin rode the bike from the schoolbus all the way home. The great tit are singing like madness and the newly uncovered yellow lawns are slowly drying up.

This is the absolutely best time of the year!

Lingonberrychutney

07:14, Sunday 11 March 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

I needed some chutney for lunch yesterday, but we didn´t have any type of chutney at home. Some years ago me and my husband often cooked plum chutney and used for almost everything! but last fall no such was made and so the pantry was chutney-empty. So I cooked some from lingonberry-jam that I found in the freezer. It turned out like this:

Lingonberrychutney
Mince 1 onion and 3 cloves of garlic, saute in butter and oil for a few minutes. Add 1 dl (about ½ cup) of lingonberryjam and let it be hot. Add 1 tbs whole yellow mustard seed, 1 tbs whole coriander seed and a dash of appelcider vinegar, and let the chutney reduce a bit.

I served it with hardboiled eggs in curry-sause, rice and sliced banana.

The Household Notebook -my latest obsession

02:20, Monday 5 March 2007 .. Posted in Home and hearth .. 4 comments .. Link

I knew it was going to be fun, but I didn´t know I would like it this much!! I have started to develop my household notebook, and I think of it most of the day! :)
Beeing a flybaby since last midsummer, I have had a quite simple version of a Control Journal for a few months, and now with the third child on its way and me staying at home all day, I have tried to make up a householding system that will work for a larger family with more tired parents, in so many words.

My HN consists of 15 sections. First there is there is:

Dayly and weekly planning. I have all my dayly routines on one sheet and my weekly plan on the opposite one. Between them is a half-pint sheet protector with small lists that I printed out from Graphic Garden. I use them for making my todo-lists for each day. I could have had any scrap of paper really, but it´s nice to make ones tools pretty I think. The actual calendar I use sits on the kitchen wall close to the phone, for everyone to see (theoretically, that is

), with one square per person and day of the week. (Well my eldest son noticed the calender when I had bought it. He tried to write "Edvin will get a toy-monster-truck" all over his first week- as I had said that we will write in things that ARE going to happen

) Then comes

Projects of different extent. I have not worked very much on this section, but it´s supposed to be a place to write down improvements that needs to be done in the house or the garden. We are allready improving at this very moment (means digging out the laundry room- litterally, the floor is gone and all that is left is a deep pit), so I am not sure a dare to add any projects right now...

Long time planning comes next. I have a year-at-a-glance sheet with a more detailed yearly wiev behind it. Here goes the more distant dates, like last and first day of shool and DHs vacation. And my due date!

Cleaning is an important section. I use Flylady´s detailed cleaning lists, adapted to my home. I only started using this in January, so I don´t have very much experience of it yet, but I like it very much so far. In every room I have tasks that should be accomplished every month and tasks that should be done "some" month. I just cross out the latter when they are accomplished, and I figure that I will replace the whole sheet when I run out of the "some month"-stuff, and start all over again.

Menus are next. We have a 5 week menu with 5-6 dishes for every week, and we make the dishes in any order that suites us that particular week. If leftovers are supposed to go into the next meal on the list, I have noted that on the menu. We have found that this is a good way for us, as we sometimes make to much food and have a complete meal also for the next day

and sometimes unplanned things shows up as dinner guests or dinner att my parent house or, very rarely, eating out. [This is an interesting difference I think from the US: in Sweden it is VERY expensive to eat out, so we don´t do that on any regular basis. The "easy way out" for dinner is more likely to be frozen dinners from the store than take away from a restaurant.]

Shoppinglists are in the next section. One for each week of the menu, and a perpetual one which is under constant reconsideration. I do wonder sometimes if it really should be called perpetual when changing every week, but at least I have a starting point when I make my list! We also have a white board over the kitchen counter, that belongs to this section of the HN. This is where everything needed is written down at the moment someone notices that it is missing. (Candy and VIDYO-games are somtimes very much missed by some members of the household.) In the next section I have some

Vegetable side dishes. Grated carrots and shredded white cabbage is OK as they are, but sometimes you want to do something more with the winter-veggies. I often stumble across quick and easy recipes but when I need them they are forgotten. Not any longer! I have only 5-10 recipes, as I want it still to be quick and easy.

Expenditure is the next section. It is a simple list for each month, with a place for writing in something about what was bought and seven columns (like food, household, travel, clothing) to put the sum in. We feel that we need to know a little bit more about where the money flows as I am out of work now. I´m not actually worried, but I don´t intend to get reasons to be either!

Articles are collected in a section of its own. Right now I have a printed version of Home Management Binder 101 from this blog. Thankyou Candy!!

Phonenumbers and you-are-here has mine and my husbands cellphone numbers, phone number to school and pre-school, and name, adress and phone numbers to our closest relatives and neighbours.
In this section I also have a list that somewhat embarrases me. Not that I have it, but that I need a list for it: I have listed my oldest friends, who all live at some distance from me and that I know I want to keep in contact with -for the rest of my life, actually! I have their adresses and (all) their phonenumbers and e-mail-adresses, and at the side of the list I write in when I last was in touch with them in any way. I really don´t want friendship to be that... calculated?... but over the last few years I have begun to lose contact with many of them, and they are to dear to me to be lost! Especially since my kids (and theirs) came along, it is not so easy any more just to make a phone call in the evening and get caught up with the latest news. So this is the solution I came up with. Now I can clearly see how (awfully

) long it has been since I wrote or called the last time.

Pre-school, School and Church has their own sections, and Edvin and Isak (my DSs) has one each for activities (not that they hav so many

, they are only 4.5 and 6 yet).

At the back of the HN is ABC-dividers with adresses to friends, soon to be completed with our own "yellow pages" with the plumber, electrician, doctor and so on. I also have a plastic envelope made for sitting in a binder, that holds two pens, some postcards, stamps and post-it notes. I would really like to have something like a real pocket divider that I have seen in some american blogs but they don´t seem to exist over here. (Unfortunately it´s no good idea to order one from the US, either, as we use A4 instead of lettersize AND that a swedish three ring binder actually uses four wholes with a measuring standard completely uniqe to Sweden -how smart is that?!!

) I´m thinking of sewing my own -but I am not really a seamstress so that might go.

This is nesting on a high level, I think, and it really makes me a bit more comfortable in that we are going to be able to be parents of three without crashing and burning

. At least not for the cause of the household!

What is a new life, anyway?

03:06, Sunday 18 February 2007 .. Posted in Some thoughts .. 3 comments .. Link

I´ve allways thought about myself as a quite theoretical person, academic if you like. My reaction to most new things in my life (child labour, curtains, interrail travelling, owning a house, cooking for a family) is to go to the library and borrow a book about it. But today at the service I realized that one thing did I learn hands on, and I hadn´t even seen it until today.

The sermon was partially about John 12:20-33. In the middle of this text is a word that allways has been complicated to me. I don´t have any english Bibles so you have to cope with my own translation from swedish, the word goes something like this:
"The one who loves his life will lose it, but the one who here in the world hates his life, he shall save it for an eternal life."
Such difficult words! I love to live, I love the life, I love *my* life! I have never hated my life, not even when I had a depression ten years ago did I hate life. (It was more like I hated myself back then, but that is another, and finished story.)

But today I went to church with only my eldest son as a company. I was playing the piano during the service, and he is not very fond of that (!) but for some reason he wanted to follow. I think he liked the thought of getting some mummy-time with me and without his brother. Between the songs and playing he sat close to me, cuddling with his nose to my cheek and I thought of what difference my children has made to my life. I hope I was not too selfish before they came along, but now I know I never have a chance! It´s like my life doesn´t belong to me anymore, everything I (and my husband) do has to be evaluated in the light of my kids existence.

BANG! There it was: I have lost my life! And what did I get instead? A life full of meaning, better than I could have dreamed of. I never again have to wonder about whether I do the right things in my life, or if I should do something else, because getting a child feel seen, understood and secure is, when you have the chance to do it, the most important thing in life.

Parenthood has tought me what it is to give away your life for someone else. It took more than six years for me to understand this! I´m so grateful, to the Lord and to my children, that they let me go on this exciting journey to a new and unknown life.

Flowers for mum

04:30, Saturday 17 February 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

The rest of my family went to town to groceryshop today (which basically ment buying saturday-candy, actually

). When they came home I heard to small boys shouting: "Mummy!! We have got a SURPRICE for you!" and in they came holding something between them. A small red potted rose! "It´s for YOU!"
Then I did one of those strange things that grown-ups do, according to my six-year-old; I cried *even though* I was happy.

My husband said later that they all had had the same thought, he thought of getting me something when they were out, and when they all saw the flowers at the grocerystore, the kids had said: "Let´s buy this for mummy!"

After a week of cranky, arguing children I needed this so much!

Sick-leave

04:24, Saturday 17 February 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

The whole family has had a severe cold for several days, and our two boys has been at home with me. They really like it, and so do I, but that doesn´t stop them from arguing half the day

It´s not easy to be small and not feel well...
I am lucky enough to have my parents living close, and my mother came over and lived with us when my husband was working night. I hope I someday can give forward to my children all she has given me since my kids were born. I wouldn´t know what to do without her!

Another seedlist

01:53, Thursday 15 February 2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

    The first package of seeds arrived today! Mmm, the first sign of summer, and in my head the garden is still perfect. Later on reallity will happen, but for now: I enjoy my fresh, growing kitchen garden.
Those were the seeds that I got today:
Broccoli   Calabrais
Parsnip   Student
Basil    Genovese
Tomato   Gelbe Dattelwein
Tomato   Outdoor Girl
White cabbage    Jersey Wakefield
Pumkin   New England Pie
Carrot   James Scarlet Int.
Pac Choi   Prize Choi
White beet   Bright Lights

I´m waiting for another package with leek, melon, marigold and a lot of other wonderful things.

Happy Valentine!

01:10, Wednesday 14 February 2007 .. 1 comments .. Link

We don´t celebrate Valentine much, but last year I got this porcelain baking tin, and made an almondcake with pink frosting, in it. So I did that this year to, and now it is a tradition, right?

Happy Valentine to all Homestead bloggers!

Some wintersport

03:49, Tuesday 13 February 2007 .. 2 comments .. Link

Yesterday we had a wonderful weather and we forced the kids outdoors! It's allway very hard to get all the clothes on and to leave the cosy house, they think, but the minute we get outside the door they love playing in the snow and breathing fresh air.

Winter in Sweden was late this year, we had no frost or snow until late January. But now the countyside is covered with snow, it was -5 degrees centigrade (witch is 23 F), so we packed some snacks, took out the skies for the children and went tracking wild animals in the haven. Unfortunately the only tracks we found was made by our cats. But they are rather wild on the other hand.

When we got back inside everyone was cold, wet and happy! On times like that I love our fireplace even more than usual!

HappyHaven

04:02, Sunday 11 February 2007 .. Posted in Home and hearth .. 2 comments .. Link

HappyHaven is our spot in the world!

HappyHaven is the direct english translation of the name of our house, actually, and the name dates back to the 18th century. We donÂ´t know much about the history of the place, and I really would like to do some "genealogic research" on the dwellers and houses that have been here. We do know that this used to be a small farm, about 20 hectars of land, and that the neighbouring farm bought the whole lot in the 1950:ies. The house was rented then and in the 80:ies it was bought and made its own property again.

Now HappyHaven is 1.5 hectars of land (which is 15 000 sq meters, but I have no idea what it equals in sq feet or something... :) ), consisting of a small meadow (formerly a rhye-field), a small pasture still with a lot of 40-year old aspen trees, a patch of wood and the garden (a lawn, some appletrees and three flower borders).
The house was built in 1924, and it must be at least the third house in this place I guess, considering the age of the name. It is a two story house with 5 rooms (including living rooms), and its typically swedish: painted in traditional dark red (a special paint from Falun- a swedish town with an old iron mine, where this red paint was a kind of spin-of product), with white corners.

Here is the house, last summer!

Thankyou!! :)

04:09, Saturday 10 February 2007 .. 1 comments .. Link

Thanks a lot for your warm welcome!

And within an hour- I'm overwhelmed!

I added two photos of our little lambs. They are oh so cute, but now they´re all in the freezer...

I know this is life, and most certainly it´s farming, but still it feels kind of strange to kill someone you have cared for -to eat her. (Or as my five-year-old put it: "Why where you so kind to them when they should be slaughtered anyway?".)

On the other hand, I think it "serves me right". I am a non-vegetarian and so I have to face what that really means: to kill some one to eat her. If I only eat meat I don´t know, I am only putting that problem out of sight, right?

What is your experience on this?

A beginning

02:21, Saturday 10 February 2007 .. 6 comments .. Link

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blog ever.
I am 36 yrs, mother of two and expecting my third child in May. Me and my husband live in the countryside in the middle of Sweden. We have a little house and a little piece of land, where apples ripe in the autumn and vegetables in the summer. Last summer we had our first three lambs in the pasture wich gave us both meat and a lot of wood, since we (husband!) had to take down a lot of aspen to let sunlight down to the grass.
I used to work as a biologist, and so ecology and botany are among my biggest interests. Now I am unemployed since new year, which absolutely not means I am out of work

and I am quite content with being a SAHM at this point in pregnancy -and life.

With this blogging thing I want to share the daily life of a very small countryhouse in Sweden, and to get in contact with other homesteaders and self-sufficient-wannabes in different places. Hope to hear from you!!

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