Monday, July 30, 2012

Play and Work

The list of things that I would rather spend my time doing than applying for jobs is very, very long. First off, it's extremely time consuming. Let me just say that trying to accomplish anything thought intensive, while keeping an eye on a one year old, is pretty much impossible. That leaves those precious couple of hours at night after cleaning up / putting Inara to bed + running (Andrew and I alternate nights for the two) to get it done. Writing a good cover letter customized for the position can easily eat up that entire time. 

Second, I loathe the thought of being judged solely based on those two pages worth of CV and cover letter. I constantly picture some HR person picking my application up from a tall stack of papers (although they probably just read them electronically), rolling their eyes and chuckling a little before dropping it straight into the paper shredder and emailing me one of those apologetic, run-of-the-mill responses. I realize this is not the attitude to have, but how can you stay positive when you get no positive feedback? 

Basically, I just want a decent a job, where I'm wanted, that I can take a break from at night. I'm thinking I need to hire an assistant to handle the application process. That would be some great job creation and I would be able to refer to my assistant for all job related matters. 

Don't get me wrong. Having been able to spend this entire summer together as a family has been truly awesome and something I would recommend to anyone who would be willing to get rid of all their stuff and live a more basic life. Unfortunately, it's difficult to put reality aside when you know that the fun can't go on forever. 

We actually had a lovely day yesterday consisting of playing in the sand on the beach, throwing rocks in the water, a simple picnic, and home made ice-cream. Can't complain too much about that.








Homemade sugar+sweetener-free wild strawberry ice-cream!


Friday, July 27, 2012

Run Like the Wind

Almost two weeks ago we ran a 5k/10k race. The weather was awful with rain and cold winds, but almost 400 people still showed up to run in a small town on the east side of the island. We were a bit worried since this race seemed more serious than what we've been in before, and there were some really good runners, but also others just doing it for fun. I ended up with a time of 28.20 for the 5k and Andrew got 48.10 on his 10k. I was happy with my time considering that I had only been training for a couple of weeks and that it was my first race since I had Inara, but mostly I got really inspired to improve. 

Just finished and looking surprisingly happy.

Andrew finishing strong.
My mom watched Inara while we were gone and after the race I noticed that I hadn't thought about her for close to an hour. What a strange feeling of guilt and pride!

We decided last minute to rent our apartment out to tourists for a few weeks to make some while we stay at my mom's, so we've been super busy getting it ready. We got the first people in there today and hopefully some more next week.




Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Sweet

I've always been pretty interested in healthy eating (although I haven't always eaten healthy) and when we were expecting Inara, I knew that I wanted to make the right choices both for her and for myself. If I want to be there for her and be able to grow old and see what she gets up to in life, it's my responsibility to try to stay healthy. Besides, I have a lot of unfinished business out there myself.

We've been able to avoid sugar almost completely with Inara so far, but it just seems cruel to say no if I'm eating a cookie in front of her, so I figure that the best solution is to just minimize sugar for us as well. Lately, it's become sort of a game to try to find recipes for tasty treats without sugar, or to change some old favorites into healthier options. The tricky part really isn't to go sugarless when it comes to baking, the tricky part is to avoid all the hidden sugars in stuff like ketchup and yoghurt. I'm not a fan of artificial sweeteners, light products, food colorings or unnecessary preservatives either, so shopping sometimes takes a bit longer. 

A couple of months ago I tried a completely sugar and fat free recipe for chocolate muffins and was floored by how delicious it turned out. I just felt I couldn't keep this to myself, so here is the recipe (originally from http://rasmartmamma.wordpress.com/category/glutenfritt/):
  
In Swedish:

Råsmarta chokladmuffins, 10 st              
2 dl mandlar
3 ägg
2 dl dadlar
1 banan (väl mogen!)
1 dl havremjölk
2 dl havregryn
1 dl kokos (jag uteslot detta)
5 msk kakao
1 msk bakpulver
ev. en liten skvätt agavesirap

Mixa först cashewnötterna till mjöl i en matberedare. Tillsätt övriga ingredienser och kör vidare tills du har en jämn smet. Dadlar varierar i sötma, så smaka av smeten och tillsätt eventuellt en liten skvätt agavesirap för extra sötma –behövs inte alltid! Smörj en muffinsplåt med olja och ”bröa” med kokos, klicka i smeten i formarna. Grädda i 200 grader i ca 12-13 minuter. Känn på dem, de ska vara fasta men inte helt hårda.

In English:

Rawsmart Chocolate Muffins (10)
1 cup raw almonds
3 eggs
1 cup dried dates
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup oatmilk
1 cup oats
5 tablespoons coco
1 tablespoon baking powder
If needed, a small amount of agave

Grind the almonds in a food processor until they're a fine powder. Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Since some dates are sweeter than others, you may need a dash of agave, but I didn't. Grease a muffin tin (or use paper molds). Bake at almost 400 F for 12-13 minutes. They should be firm, but not dry. 

Let me know what you thought if you decide to try it! 

Trying the big kid swing.

Monday, July 23, 2012

A few days ago Inara said "no" (nej) for the first time and my guess is that she has said it, oh, probably 500 times since then. Sometimes she says it angrily, sometimes happily, sometimes to us, sometimes to the floor that made her trip, sometimes to herself and sometimes in her sleep. For a couple of months now she's also been saying "I want" (jag vill ha), pointing at everything she sees. So, needless to say, the phrase "No, I want" is now the most uttered set of words in this household. 

 Also, who needs a pillow when there's mommy's head?



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Inspired

I had to stop and take a picture during my run tonight. I must to say I feel incredibly lucky to be able to exercise in such beautiful surroundings.


Today was another day spent blueberry picking. Inara put berries into her own little bucket, then dumped them out, grabbed some out of our buckets and ate them, fed us (mostly berries but also leaves and sticks) and generally had a great time.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Morning Hair





I only wish my hair could look as awesome as Inara's. You can't see it in the picture, but in the last couple of weeks she has sprouted no less than five teeth. The first one is super snaggly and looks like a little shark's tooth. We're suspecting she may have chipped it falling on her face a while ago, but we'll see what it looks when it's completely out.

Keep the Doctor Away

New blog name! No thanks to you, I might add. But, I digress. I will just act like most people do when their telling of a joke is met by utter silence - pretend like it didn't happen. Hope you come back for your daily (or at least weekly) pie! 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Gather Around!

Dear family, friends, stalkers and others who find this blog interesting, we haven't been able to come up with a new name for it and are therefore announcing a NAMING COMPETITION! The grand prize is an autographed picture of Inara herself. Yes, you read that right. Nothing less than an autographed picture of the focal point of this little part of cyber space. We are looking for funny, witty and something that generally makes us look smart. We do reserve the right to refuse all of your crazy suggestions. Best of luck! 

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Names

The blog will be changing names and url, so if you like to read about us and haven't bookmarked it yet, now would be the time!

I should also have mentioned in the post is that it's probably easier just to become a follower of the blog. That way you'll get an email every time there is a new post. Just scroll down the blog and look on the right hand side. Below where it says "follow," enter your email address and hit submt.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Parent Power

Recently, a woman standing in line at a fast food place turned around and punched a six week old baby because it was screaming. The baby was ok, but I couldn't help but ask myself what I would have done in that situation. Like most parents, I didn't have to ponder this very long. Despite seeing myself as someone who is generally against violence, there is a high chance that I would have landed anyone laying a finger on my baby girl in the ER. I asked Andrew what he would have done and his response was similar. We also agreed that in the U.S. court system it would be difficult to find a jury to convict you for assault, since half of the jurors would be likely to have children of their own. There is just something extremely powerful about parents who are standing up for their children. Personally, I  have a hard time actually picturing anything that would be able to stop me if Inara was in danger. Bottom line, if you want to live to see another day, don't mess with my kid.  

On a brighter note, we've been picking a ton of different berries this summer. Wild strawberries (smultron), strawberries, currants, and today blueberries. Some pictures from the excursions:

Wild strawberries


Currants

Happy in the blueberry forest.


We put them in the bucket and she ate them.


Nom nom.

Looking at a spider.

Blueberry hands.

The days haul.



Monday, July 9, 2012

Cooling Off

Today we met up with one of my cousins and her family in the botanical garden. Close to where we were sitting was a little stream where Inara put her feet in.



Also, Andrew got a short video of her making her "super-cute" face:


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Independent

Since Inara turned one, she's pretty much able to take care of herself:

Dressing herself. She actually managed to get one arm through one leg hole. Not bad.
Rocking out to some tunes on the ipod.

Brushing her "teeth."

Making pancakes for father's day.

Got her bags packed.
Unfortunately, she still does not seem to have mastered doing laundry, so either her table manners need to improve or she needs to start practicing. 

After some tacos.
She loves dancing to the tune of her toy train. Needless to say, her dance style is pretty much awesome. It makes me wonder if perhaps our dance styles are equally awesome.