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Posts from the ‘Umbrella (catchall)’ Category

Aug 28

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Playing it fair, or remaining a bully

Life should be a little more fair for people like her.

Having had kids for a while, I have learned some things. One of them is that you have to play fair. There are rules to all games, and if somebody breaks them, he or she cannot be trusted. And kids don’t want to play with the ones who don’t play by the rules. I think this is pretty straight forward. 

Unless you live in Burma. 

Like so many you too may think that things are moving forward at the pace of success in Burma now. The reports I have been getting the last few days are anything but good. In some ways it is worse now than ever.

Because while villages are starving in Karen State because their rice crops have failed again, nobody knows. (We have received requests to help with food/rice for 3620 starving people)

While thousands of Kachin refugees who had to flee to China due to the heavy fighting in their villages are forced back to their villages where the fighting still continues, nobody seems to take notice. Read more here. (Again, Partners staff is there doing what we can to help. We have been able to provide food and shelter among much more.)

While soldiers are shooting at civilians in Karen and Shan State, although there supposedly is a ceasefire agreement in place, the media is suspiciously quiet.(This has been communicated with us by the Free Burma Rangers, but the report is still not available online)

While young girls are forced into prostitution because their families’ land has been confiscated by big international companies governments just continue their investments to “help develop” Burma.(Again, there are no official news about this, so you just will have to trust me and our staff who have been in the areas and seen the situation for themselves. They have interviewed and documented.)

While thousands are killed and forced to flee in Arakan state, the government of Burma is sadly passive, and the world don’t seem to care about a people who has nowhere to go. Read the report that my friend, Matt, wrote here.

You think I am just making this up? I wish that was the case, but I am not. This is all happening right now, as we speak. While countries are excitedly moving into Burma to get their piece of the cake. Follow the links I have given you, and comment, share and spread the word. 

Also, pray for and give to Partners who is trying to do our best to help in this mess. 

Got to go now. I need to figure out what more I can do…

 

Aug 14

3 Comments

The riches of the land (and water)

Yesterday I felt like the woman described in Proverbs 31. Except I did not get up at dawn. The sun raises at 4 am, mind you.

But I got up and made wholesome pancakes, bursting with energy and health from the flax seeds, whole wheat and oats I put in them. (And, yes, they tasted good, thank you.) Then I drove to Ingebjørg, my stepmom and eased her burden by helping her pick some of the cherries from her bountiful tree. With the help from Naomi and Elise we did great. The harvest was impressive.

Back home, our Latvian friends had blessed us with a bag full of fish they had just caught. The only problem: I would have to fillet them by myself. And I was not thrilled.

But, as the Proverbs 31 woman I was, I attacked the fish with, not a plugged nose, but the sharpest knife in the house.

I managed pretty well, don’t you think?

And just as I had gotten the hang of it, my friend Helen came walking by, and she was happy when I said I would give her the rest of the fish for free if they wanted to fillet them by themselves. You see, I have a freezer full of fish already.

I finished pitting the cherries, put them and the fish in the freezer, though in separate bags. Then I had myself a glass of soda with OJ while I read a chapter from the novel I am reading, Sarum, by Edward Rutherford. Interesting reading. Especially since I will go to the UK soon.

And by the end of the day I thought: This was a really good day, and I am blessed to live from the land and the water. Not everybody is as rich as me.

The end.

Jun 8

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A Yo-yo or a spas?

We have all heard of yo-yo diets. The diets that get people to diet so hard for a short while that they can’t handle it any more and then they end up gaining all the weight they just lost. Well, me, I am a yo-yo blogger. First I write a ton, and then I get busy and nobody hears from me for days, even weeks. Perhaps my commitment isn’t strong enough.

But there is so much to do. So many other things than writing blogs about what I am doing. For example did we have a party almost as big as a wedding for Naomi, who got confirmed at the church two weeks ago. The confirmation symbolizes that one wants to follow Jesus still, and, for many, it is a rite of passage—from childhood to adulthood. We had a fancy party to celebrate the life of our little/big Nom-Nom. I am certain she is not an adult yet, but it was a special time of remembering some of the fun times we have had with her over the years. Did I mention it was a sit-down dinner and 45 guests?

Who has time to write blogs while getting ready for such an event?

And I went to Geneva the following day, with Steve. There we registered the new Human Rights organization we will be involved in, Fortify. An important and significant event. Too important to spend time writing blogs.

This is me walking with my good friend Matt, looking all important in Geneva. White legs.

On the way home we had such a long layover in Denmark that we decided to take the train to Copenhagen. Do you know what a Smooshi is? Not? Well, you will have to go to Copenhagen to find out. But it was really tasty. And, no, it is not a smoothie made from sushi.

Smooshi is yumsie.

And then, like pearls on a string, the events have lined up: Soccer games, handball games, visitors from near and far, another family party, enough laundry to fill a big room, a sick dog (you don’t want the details), lots of weeds and a house that needs to be painted.

Who has time to write a blog? Not me. So here I end it, and hopefully you will hear from me again in a few days.

 

 

May 24

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Sun stress

Right before midnight.

Sun stress. It is not something you get because there is too much sun. No, you get it because you have so little sun in your life that when it comes out, you get fantastically stressed. This is happening to me at this very moment. We have had sunny and warm weather here in the country up by the North Pole for a week. If you have a hard time defining beauty, then come here and watch. Sun setting at 10.30 and the kind of sun heat that is actually pleasant.

But, the problem is that there are:

1. Things one has to do inside while the sun is out outside. Like work. Like the dishes. Like laundry and sorting the bills. This is really frustrating.

2. There are so many things to do outside that we are not able to do the rest of the year, so we (I) feel slightly like an ADHD’er on speed. Gardening, BBQs, going for walks, riding the bike, going for runs, spending time by the ocean, reading outside, painting the fence, hanging the laundry outside, picking wild herbs (Yes, I do that and they are tasty!), getting a tan, picking rocks (from the lawn. Does not qualify as gardening), getting a tan, eating ice cream and going for picnics.

Right now I have brought my office outside. It kind of works, but not really.

I love the sun in Norway. It is always welcome here. Any day. As long as I don’t have to do something really important.

Need to define beauty? Come to Norway in the summer!

 

Apr 19

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Why not dance? It’s spring.

Kristin, one of the world's biggest lovers of spring

It’s spring-time in Norway. Nothing can compare to the feeling of spring in a country that has winter from November until April. Like jolly calves who have just been let outside, we too dance around like dorks. Well, not exactly dancing. We just dance in our heads. Norwegians are reserved people after all, and one does not usually do anything that one’s neighbor isn’t doing.

It’s like we have been in hibernation for six months, and now, when the sun comes out and warms our bodies, we crawl out of our dens. You can see Norwegians outside wherever you turn (in Norway I mean. You can’t usually see them in the rest of the world). It’s not hot by any means, but it feels hot compared to how it has been. So although the temperature only is around 10 degrees Celsius (which is 50 F) we put on our sweaters, take a blanket with us and eat our dinner outside. The nice weather is just too nice to waste.

We go for walks, we rake the lawn, we have visions of our future gardens, and we close our eyes and face the sun. Mmm, the warmth it produces is better than ice-cream.

No snow, no ice, no need to spend more than a minute to get dressed. It is nice going for walks during spring-time.

I think that people who have not lived through a long, dark winter cannot appreciate how nice spring is. They may find it lovely and smile, but they won’t long to be outside like we do, they won’t fall in love left and right like we do, they won’t get all excited when they found the first flower of the year like we do. But we, having lived through the darkness and the cold, see the beauty of spring with all new eyes. It makes us smile. It makes us talk about it at the store. “Now spring is here,” we say to the strangers in line at the grocery store. It’s like the world is smiling at us. Do you have any idea how nice it is to go outside without three layers of clothes on?

It’s like life. Without the harsh realities of life’s winters we cannot appreciate spring as much.

It’s what I am trying to teach my kids when they have a hard time; when they don’t get the best grades, when they don’t get picked for the A team, when they don’t get as much money as their peers, when they don’t seem like perfect people that always get the best of everything. I tell them that this hurts right now, but later in life they will be glad for the experience. It will teach them endurance and it will make them appreciate spring more when it comes.

The same is true for me.

 

Feb 17

There is usually a good reason why I haven’t written

Dinner every night. With vegetables

These are some of the things I have done the last week:

I have carried lots of wood from way across the driveway. And this is no small task when the weather is something I thought I only read about in scary suspense books, wind, rain, snow, hail, darkness. And do not forget the rockhard ice on the ground. The ice is so shiny you can look down and see yourself.

I have made fires inside my house where it has been relatively cold in the mornings when I got up. One day it was 17 degrees and that calls for a roaring fire.

I have driven as far as to the North Pole and back with my kids. They are so busy with all their activities, and Steve and I kind of forgot about that when we chose to live on the other side of the world. I have gotten used to driving on all kinds of surfaces, and have heard quite a few new songs on the radio.

I have organized the Christmas cards we got for Christmas 2011 (Yes, smarty pants, we have taken out the Christmas tree already!)

I have sorted the garbage diligently although I have been tempted to cheat. One thing I don’t do though (although they tell us to): I don’t wash the baggies before throwing them in the plastic garbage. My commitment to the environment is strong, but not THAT strong.

I have made dinner for my kids every day. There were always fresh vegetables. Today we studied the benefits of each vegetable while we ate. I call the OCD. But did you know how great sweet potatoes actually are?

I passed six men slightly older than myself on skis. It almost killed me, but I broke my personal record. Nothing better to go fast on skis than six men chasing you.

I finally closed a bank account that I don’t know where came from. There was some money in the account too. Enough for groceries for a week.

I overcame Mt. Laundry. Again. I threw some of the sock without a mate away. I always find that hard to do, because as soon as you do that you will find the mate.

I finished reading a book with Kristin called Doctor Proktor’s farting powder. It was full of suspense and the bad guys lost and the good ones won. Lots of interesting way to deal with the bad guys too.

I went to a parent meeting. I asked a mother, for the fourth time, who her kid was.

I went to watch my daughter play in the theatre.

I cleaned the floors and the toilets after the theatre was over. It is a small price to pay for happy kids who are not out on the streets doing drugs.

I cleaned my own toilets. It has to be done.

I dusted the desk in my room.

I paid overdue bills.

I took the dog for walks every day. He loves me more than anybody. I understand why.

I did the dishes my kids should have done.

I picked up the stuff my kids should have picked up.

I practiced for my daughter’s geography test.

I corrected another daughter’s essay.

I helped figure out a third daughter’s math problems.

I ate too much chocolate and drank coffee too late at night.

I did not do all the stuff I had planned. Like writing blogs more often.

Wonder why.

Feb 5

5 Comments

Does English licorice mess with our memory?

Last night I decided: I will start living very healthily. I will stop eating English licorice even though there is a bowl of it on the top shelf of the cabinet. I will not have a beer, even if it is Friday or Saturday night. I will not justify eating chocolate every time I have exercised. I will not make sauces with lots of cream that mostly only one person in the family (ME) likes. I will not snack on potato chips while I am not drinking beer. And I will, as previously mentioned, not drink beer (except from s-o-m-e-t-i-m-e-s). I will never again buy frozen pizza to feed my kids. I will never again bake any kind of bread with less than 50% whole grain. I will drink lots of water. I will not start smoking.

I thought of this while finishing up some chips, the last sip of beer and some English licorice that was getting stale. Enough of this I thought.

Bad things are happening to me. It has to do with my phone.

I left it in the car when going to fly. I could not borrow somebody’s phone and call Steve to come back with it, because I did not remember his number. It was a real bad situation.

I dropped it and the front shattered and is looking like an iced-over water puddle that we step on in the beginning of winter before it gets really cold. This incident happened two days ago. And I don’t usually drop phones.I felt very distraught by this.

I left it in the grocery store somewhere last night and it is Sunday and the store won’t open until Monday, and I am afraid that some immigrant worker found it while they were cleaning the store and since they are underpaid they decided to keep it even though it has a shattered front. Since I find passwords annoying, my phone is not locked, and I am wondering what kinds of personal information I dumbly stored on it. I blush when I think of the SMSs to my husband. :-(

My kids are out and about, and I can’t call them and they can’t call me and I don’t know when I need to pick them up.

A new phone costs more than I want to pay right now. I had secretly planned to buy a new dress.

So when I thought about the last week’s unfortunate incidents last night, I thought that maybe it is my diet that must change. If I stay very healthy I may also become sharp as a wit. I may at least be able to memorize my kids mobile numbers. I thought about starting doing cross word puzzles too, but that seems a little extreme, don’t you think?

Jan 25

4 Comments

What is luxury anyhow?

Luxury

Once I was watching Steve as he took a half-a-liter vanilla yogurt container and poured most of it into his cereal. “What are you doing?” I half shouted in despair and shock. “You cannot use all that yogurt and you cannot pour it out of the container like that.” Steve looked pretty surprised at my violent reaction. He had no idea he had done anything wrong.

Yogurt is not particularly expensive in Norway, not compared to other groceries at least. But to me, yogurt is a luxury that one should eat sparingly and with much gratefulness. One should not take yogurt for granted.

When I grew up they did not sell the yogurt in big containers, just small ones that was enough for a nice little snack. In my family with four kids and one income, yogurt was a luxury we only got some times. And when we did, it was very special. We would never open the fridge and just pull out and eat a container of yogurt. Never. At least we would have to ask first, and that was after behaving well for a while.

So even now, a hundred years later, I have the feeling that yogurt is always sparse and we need to treat it with respect and modesty. To not do so violates my yogurt values.

I feel the same way with OJ. It is cheaper to buy than milk, and I can probably have it in my fridge for the rest of my life. But still, I always feel like to fill a whole glass with OJ is a luxury I don’t deserve. I always just fill it half way up. Twice. I honestly don’t think there was OJ in our fridge more than a handful of times when I grew up. The few times we tasted it, I felt like I had tasted Paradise.

Russian Caviar? Luxury? Well, I guess in most people’s eyes it is because it is so darn expensive. But for me, that is less luxurious than OJ and Vanilla yogurt. I am not even sure if I would have eaten the Russian caviar had I had it in my fridge. It does not go well with musli or with homemade bread.

A free light show on the sky

Last night at 11 PM I sat with Steve at our balcony, all bundled up in warm clothes. The temperature was minus 10 and on the sky the northern lights were dancing salsa. It was a show more spectacular than one you could watch in Vegas. And it cost us nothing (except from lack of sleep). Luxury? Oh, yes.

What else do I think is luxurious?

Avocados. I will never take an avocado for granted. It is luxury in pale green.

Walking my dog on a dirt road with the mountain and and the forest on one side, and the ocean on the other. After living in a big city for 20 years, that is luxury.

Sleeping past 6 AM. That is decadence actually. 16 years as a mom has taught me to value my sleep.

A good cup of cafe latte. And by that I mean a good cup. And it can’t be in a paper cup, and it can’t be drunk in the car or while walking. What is the pleasure and the luxurious feeling of rushing through a cup of coffee like that. No, my friend, sit down, listen to jazz, watch something pretty or read something stimulating, savor the coffee with a piece of good chocolate. Get in touch with the inner you.

A good marriage. How many can honestly say their spouse is their best friend after 21 years? To have a person to share one’s joys, fears, frustrations, thoughts or laughs with is worth more than the jackpot.

Time alone. Baby, that is my biggest treat to myself. Time spent alone when I can do absolutely what I want to do. Is there a better gift? What can be more luxurious than reading a whole chapter of your book without getting interrupted?

Pine nuts. They are more scarce than yogurt and taste so good when I on a rare occasion splurge and buy them.

Time and ability to exercise. I have lived through times in my life when I had to move as little as possible. That was enough for me to realize what an incredible luxury it is to have a body I can move.

And the list goes on. What is luxury for you? Not a new diamond, I hope.

Oct 20

1 Comment

Put on your armor when walking in the storm.

Wear your armor in the snow storm!

After writing blogs for more than a year now, I feel like I must be repeating myself a lot. Basically, I don’t have that many new and original ideas. It mostly goes in the same issues. Same, same, but different, as they say in Vietnam.

So what I have to say today is not original by no means. So feel free to stop reading.

It is a windy, rainy, sleety, cold(y), nasty, autumny day here by the Polar circle. I don’t care what they say, it’s not particularly cozy. Even with a fire burning, a dramatic view from the living room, a dry house, a good book to read, chamomile tea and slippers,  I don’t think it is cozy to sit inside and look at the crazy weather outside. It makes me cold to look at it. And it messes up the floors when the dog goes outside. (Which he has had to do on his own the last couple of days. “You are on your own,” I say and slam the door shut before the wind grabs a hold of our furniture.)

But today I started feeling a little crazy from all the inside air. I thought that going for a walk wasn’t going to kill me even if it may be a bit uncomfortable. Another issue was that I needed a break from my kids. Don’t tell them.

It’s only October, so it is not even close to the kind of cold we will be having in a couple of months. But let me share what I put on before taking the dog out for a walk in the dark and gloomy night: A smart-wool short-sleeved shirt, a cotton long-sleeved shirt, a lamb-wool sweater, cotton tights, water & wind proof pants, a rain/wind shell, a thick head-band, gloves, a reflective vest and my hiking booths. By the time I was ready I felt like I was boiling. Marley and I went outside. It was dark. It was windy. It rained a little. It was cold. And it was…surprisingly refreshing. As we walked I felt myself feeling happier and happier. The cold air felt good. The wind played in my hair. The rain drops refreshed me. The dark made the world feel eternal. We walked a lot longer than we planned, Marley and me.

When I got inside again I was a lot happier.

I thought:

1. I will do this more often, even if the weather sucks. Who decides what good and bad weather is?

2. Just like Paul speaks about the armor in Ephesians, I needed my armor on tonight when I went walking. Without the right clothes, the trip would have been miserable. But dressed right, it was pleasurable. In life it is just the same. Wear the right armor and be prepared for any situation, even a storm. And chances are that when you face the storm dressed in your armor, you will feel refreshed and rejuvenated after the storm.

The wisdom of the day.

(I still hope for a few more sunny days though. Don’t misunderstand me.)

This is us a week ago. There is actually a mountain behind us. It was such bad weather that we were the only ones outside. We had a blast.

Oct 15

6 Comments

Born to run?

I couldn't find a photo of me running. But walking is OK too. We were born to walk. Yes!

Today I had a great run. It was a perfect fall day, cool, sunny, yellow leaves in the forest, the smell of rotting vegetation. I had new shoes, a very green jacket, my tights and an orange head band. No chance I would be mistaken for a moose. The ground was soggy with water. It has been raining so much that some places there were big puddles I had to navigate over. I did not succeed in staying dry. Not at all. I was soaked by the end of the run.

I just finished a great book. It is called Born to Run. It sounds boring, especially if you are not a runner. But I really loved the book and the way it described the joy of running. You should read it if you are remotely interested.

Of the many things I learned from the book was that running is supposed to be enjoyable. Yeah, I know. Enjoyable. One of the things my sister once told me when I was going for a run and she was happy sitting inside reading her book was: I have yet to see a runner who smiles while running. That stuck with me.

So, back to the book. Chris Mc Dougall thinks we were all born to run. And after reading the book, you will too. And then it is the part about enjoying it.

The last couple of days I have gone for long runs. I decided to follow Mr. McDougall’s advice so I ran slow, took short steps, smiled, and when I started feeling like it was hard work, I slowed down. I even decided to drop the iPod because getting the right kind of music always stresses me out. I decided to just listen to nature and the silence around me.

It has been the best two runs of the year. Honestly.

So I thought about life, in the quiet of the forest, as I was skipping over and through puddles. Life is like a run. We can choose to run it the way we want. We can rush through it, time ourselves, cuss through the intervals, get feet and knee injuries, run out of good playlists, compare ourselves to the others, compete with the best and lose. Or we can decide that we run for the sake of the run. We enjoy the moment, we slow down, we breathe deeply, we listen to the music around us. And we end the race refreshed and ready to start over again the next day.

Tomorrow I will find a new place to run and I am looking forward to it. I am starting to think I was Born to run.

Of course we were born to run. Just look at kids. Kristin and her friend running in the mountains.

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