Winter

I thought summer was my favorite season. Well I still love the summer! But oh how beautiful the winter can be!
When you see how the branches are loaded with fluffy, bright white snow, when you're skiing in the middle of an ocean of white, when the sky grows dark and the snow still brightens up the night. That's when you just have to love the winter too!

All sounds are different when the grounds are covered in snow - everything just feels softer and less noisy. Winter is great! I love x-country skiing, downhill skiing, ice skating and all the fun activities you can do during winter.

I love having the change of seasons - and still I love summer!

We haven't had too much snow so far this winter - maybe that's why I'm praising it today. But we had a great trip skiing and I hope we are going to be able to do lots of more skiing this winter!

When I was younger

Years and years ago, when Grandpa and I were younger, I had this dream. All (or almost all) I dreamed of was having a big family with a bunch of kids running around making noise and being very vitale.
I grew up surrounded by younger kids, not real siblings, but kids I loved so much they were like my own siblings anyway. I spent almost all my spear time with these kids.

Of course I was not sure I could have any kids on my own, so I planned to adopt my kids and in that way help out children who were in need of parents.

Well, life doesn't always turn out to be the way you plan it or dream of.
I met the man of my life. He wasn't really ready for adopting children (it seems that has changed now) and not for having a whole bunch of them either.

But at least he wanted kids.
And suddenly I was pregnant. I'm not quite sure hubby was as excited as I was when we looked at the ultra sound screen and saw two little heads. We were expecting a tiny bunch of kids on our very first try!
Three years later I was pregnant again. This time as well we expected twins, but our daughters twin didn't make it.

The bunch of kids I dreamed of felt complete. Though I always said I wanted five kids, we were both very happy to have these wonderful three ones.
I have to be honest to say I sometimes dream of a quiet home, a place where kids play in harmony all the time, where the kids help out with house keeping and stuff and where nobody is running around making noise.
It seems my dreams are a bit different than they used to be!
But I'm also fully aware that my three yelling, running, fighting, shouting, and very active children are all perfectly healthy! Can I dream of anything else?

There is something I want to show you

Remember I told you we had our vacation in California this summer too?

Well, I've tried to make a few scrapbook pages from our trip. This first one is from our two days in Universal Studios, Hollywood. We had a blast - and the kids favorite rides were the Transformers ride, Jurasic park, King Kong and the Water World show.

We've never been to Sequoia until this year. Wow - the trees are huge and I'm amazed how resistant they are to fire. Some of them really looked like it was all burned out, but still they were sprouting and growing new branches!
The Moro Rock trail makes a funny name if you know Norwegian, but even in English it was a nice hike in the midst of the forest of gigant trees. And the view from the top of the Moro rock was stunningly beautiful!

On our drive to Sequoia we passed Lake Kaweah. The next day we rented a boat wannabe and went for a ride on the lake. The water temperature was very good and we swam and played a lot in the water. Every now and then big fish kept popping out of the water. And of course the kids were thrilled to drive the boat themselves :)

Running

So many people have seen me along my route now so I guess it's official. I'm a runner! I'm not a fast runner, not a technically good runner, not a friendly runner nor a very enthusiastically runner. But I still run.
Some days are ok, some are not. My asthma doesn't actually play along with me. But I still hope that in a while my lungs will handle this better. And if my God is for me, then who can ever stop me?

I have to tell you a little bit more about my runs and why I'm not a friendly runner. A couple of days ago my three kids and hubby were at a soccer practice. I did my workout and ran past the soccer field on my way home. I thought they'd already left by then, but I happened to pass in the moment they were about to leave. The kids called me and I waved my hand to them. Then they ran up alongside and started cheering and talking. I felt this great anger and the only thing I saw and heard were these annoying kids. No answer, no smile - only running.

It's sort of funny to see how much being exhausted affects me! We've had a conversation about this and the kids now know that trying to be nice should wait until I finished the run ;-) And we all laugh about how stupid a mom can get while running.
And for me, I'll have to work on being a bit more friendly during my runs. I keep hoping it'll come with me getting fitter, but who knows?

It's been a while

Ever since I stopped updating this blog, and even before that, life has been bussy. 

We've had our great vacation in California this summer and I've started running. I think that might be the biggest news.

When I update my Facebook page, people keep reminding me vacation is over. Most people say "back to normal life" or in Norwegian: "Tilbake til hverdagen". That makes me think - what does normal life mean?

What is normal? Is normal life the things we do more than once? Because in my life I keep doing things that other people would not call normal. Yes, I walk my kids to school every morning - that is quite normal. But still there are so many things going on in my life that would probably not be considered normal. But these things keep going on, over and over. That is my "normal life". So maybe normal life is more about the obligations? More about the must-dos than about what is considered more normal and what is less? But then again - what is vacation? Is that the life with no obligations? 

Well I still have to pay the mortgage, I still have the responsibility of my kids and my own actions, I still   have laundry to do, we still need food etc. etc. So after all vacation is as normal as normal life! But I can't say normal life is a vacation!

Family biking

Now the snow is melting fast. The cycle tracks are almost all bare. Therefor we decided to prepare our bikes for the very first ride of the season. A family ride to a place some kilometers from here. We should have brought some bread for the ducks but we didn't think it through before we left home.

It was a bit chilly - actually a lot colder than I thought it was going to be. But it was good. And the sun was shining brightly all the time. Everyone loved the trip.

A few glimpses from our holidays

If you've read my earlier blog posts you know I almost gave up the hope for more snow.
Well since then, we've had loads of more snow!
Actually the ski resorts were closed for the season and then reopened!
Most of my friends were ready for the spring to come and was no longer wanting any more snow. But some of my prayers were heard and answered just the way I wanted them to be!
This means we were able to fill our holidays with family activities. Activities we all love and appreciate.
We've been sledding, XC skiing and downhill skiing.
Here are a few pics to give you a glimpse of what we've been doing.