Merry christmas!

fourth of advent

We finally lit the fourth candle (finally for the children - a little too quick for me).

December has been busy. Once more I spent a night at hospital, this time with my little girl who got a hard soccer ball kicked at her head, which resulted in a concussion.

We are thankful that she got over it quickly.

Than my husband lay new flooring in our entry - I'm SO thankful for this. The old stained carpet with it's strange blue color gone!!!  :)

Anyhow it's soon christmas and yesterday I finally got the chance to get some greenery from my in-law's  garden and made several wreaths and I added some greenery around the house...

... and finally the christmas feeling is here!

a day's worth of wood

The temperatures have dropped below the freezing point.

That means keeping the fire alive is high on my priority.

It's strange to have only one child home in the mornings.

But we enjoy these mornings tremendously, he and I.

And the more is going on in the afternoons with homework, music lessons, soccer practice and cooking dinner... 

but in the evenings we lit some candles and gather in the living room while the wood stove still spreads its warmth.

even in the stable there was no room for them...

because babyboy thinks it makes a great garage for his cars ;).

Funny. But it made me think. 

Am I so busy, that even "in the stable" there's no space for Jesus?

Restored.

(at least until babyboy needs another garage)

a little christmas in the breakfeast nook...

The christmas season started rather dramatic for us.

In summer I started again to work a little at the local nursing home (I'm a R.N.), so I was still at work Saturday evening, when babyboy crashed into a door while having something in his mouth, which lead to an injury at one of his tonsils and back in the throat.

After I came home (instead of hanging advent stars in the windows - as I had planned), I organized a babysitter to come over and packed my toothbrush while my husband went to the local ER with babyboy.

They sent us to town to the hospital.

I spent the night with him in hospital and Sunday morning the doctors decided it was best to sew the injury with some stiches under a general anaesthetic.

It was not a nice feeling, laying my unconcious baby down on the operation table, leaving him there while I had to leave the room.

But everything went so well. We could take him home with us already the same day. And now, three days later everything is just fine. ;)

I even got some christmas decoration up by now!

This year's advent's candles are nearly the same as last year's.

Just that I turned the mugs around. To keep the candles secure a little hot glue does the trick.

And I used red candles.

 In my childhood advent wreath's always had red candles.

Tomorrow is first of december.

The count down is about to start!

the dark season

November is around the corner. It's the month I celebrate my birthday. So I decided to take the month of :).

yesterday on the beach

I mentioned earlier, that I've been doing some re-focusing, decluttering and attempted to simplify our life. 

While we made some progress, I feel we are not quite there ... will we ever be?

Scince summer I have been working some afternoons/evenings at the local old people's home.

While I love my job as a RN, I don't like spending time away from my family.

Anyhow I have decided to cut down my online time and to take a blogging break for november.

I still will check in her sometimes and catch up on my favorite blogs.

And hopefully I will be ready to come back inspired for the holiday season in december.

Love, Margitta

Getting all cozy for fall...

It's raining and stormy outside,

temperatures dropped the last days,

it's getting dark early...

Time to get it cozy inside...

Enjoy the weekend!

a trip to Oslo

Do you sometimes feel this urge to do something crazy? We did last week. This time it involved renting a caravan and driving over the mountaines (covered with the first layer of snow) to see the capital. 

Oslo, here we come!

Oslo get's often called the largest village of the world.

True, one doesn't exactly get the metropolitian feeling one get's in Paris or London, but than we had no trouble to find a parking lot right in the city centre.

And the kids we're excited to see the king's castle and the changing of the guard's.

(Although the boys agreed that joining the king's life guard was not very tempting, scince it involves wearing some ridiculess hats and standing very still most of the time ;)

Another highlight was visiting the Kon Tiki museum and learning more about Thor Heyerdahls expeditions.

Little princess bought a package with shark teeth(!!!) and thinks that's the coolest thing she ever had.

Creating memories.

Visiting new friend and a new church.

(Thank you family Myrland for your welcoming home!)

And most of the time these kids are really fun to have around! ;)

when blogging friends become friends IRL

I first started to follow Merethe's blogg  "Many little blessings", because her blogg title had caught my I and I realized - like me - she had five children and we shared the same faith.

And than, look at her cozy house!

Merethe has a great eye for detail!!!

And her kids look like they came right out of a magazine...

So, when we had the chance to visit this family last week, we were excited.

They live in eastern Norway, but as we planned a little trip to Oslo their town was on our way.

So here we are!

Thank you so much, Eirik and Merethe for your hospitality!

And I really hope you'll make the trip over the mountains soon to visit us ;)

Fall Break

The kids have fall break from school this week and I'm taking a little blogging break. 

But first a little more about the craft/sewing room:

With five "men" in the family, this will be the retreat for us two "girls".

My little daughter really loves to draw and craft, so she got her own desk.

(if the boys want to join us. they may of course, but usually they are quite busy with soccer, computers, biking, reading.... ;)

I organized all my sewing stuff and nearly all the craft supplies...

The build inn's hold my fabric stash.

I still need some curtains... first I wanted to use some light blue army sheets, but I think I rather go for something white and frilly!?

See you next week!

girl's room inspiration

I'm gathering inspiration for a little redo of my daughter's room.

Isn't this a really sweet girl's room?

I found the pic on pinterest (here), but the scource leads to nowhere...

so if you know it's origin let me know.

scource

This is another room... but I love the stripes!

scource

Add a plastic spoon (!!!) mirror.

And perhaps a little yellow?

scource

Is this the way to go?

how sweet to hold a newborn baby...

This week I had the pleasure to photograph a two week old baby.

It was really fun!

Even though she was not very willing to fall asleep ;)

So small, yet so much personality!

I'm no professional photographer and have no clue what I'm doing, 

but it gives me joy and I hope to learn more!

I just wish I had taken more pics of my own newborn's...

(next time - if there will be a next time ;)

next step

Next step towards my farmhouse diningroom was to add open shelving.

This shelf cost me 10,90 NOK (less than 2$).

The staining technique is so simple and cheap...

I'll share more about it soon.

Next step is to exchange the lightning fixture... have allready another thifted one ;).

But allready now I enjoy having a cup of tea here!

Welcome!

(Never mind the floor is dry by now;)