Monday, January 26, 2015

Dairy

Fun, fun, fun at the grocery store!


Sunday, January 11, 2015

Silly

We were sitting around the table when Alba out of the blue started doing this slow blink.


Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Homecoming

I know I shouldn't complain, but it was hard going to work today after being off for nearly three for Christmas. I missed the kids even though I knew they were having a good time with Andrew. It all got better when I came home to this though: 


Green tip #5: Reuse. We're slowly exchanging disposable items in our home. We use cloth diapers and are trying to switch to cloth wipes (although the disposables are a little hard to get rid of) and we use either an overturned plate on top of a bowl or glass containers or jars for leftovers and for freezing instead of cellophane and freezer bags. When we plan ahead, we bring cloth bags to go shopping and if I have to buy a bag, I always choose paper. At our grocery store we really don't need to bag any fruits or veggies separately since we scan them ourselves and put them directly in our shopping bags. We wash our dish rags and sponges until they start falling apart and I began using cloth feminine hygiene products since it's super easy to throw them in the same bin as the diapers. I know of people who even use cloth for their own toilet needs, but I'm not sure we're there yet. Some things are tricky though, like what to use instead of plastic bags for our non-recyclable waste, or what to do about all those food containers that you get if you can't buy food in bulk. Have you stopped using any disposable items? How did you replace them or did you realize you didn't need them at all?

Monday, January 5, 2015

Never Too Late for Christmas

Finally! My computer has arrived and as promised, I have barely gotten it out of the box before posting this. We had the flu for Christmas, so unfortunately we ended up celebrating mostly by ourselves except for my mom who ventured to see us since she didn't want to miss the kids opening their gifts. It still turned out pretty well and Inara and Alba both seemed happy despite Santa's lack of an appearance (which is customary in Sweden).

Some Christmas preparations:








Andrew and Inara made this awesome gingerbread house. Inara has only been allowed to eat a couple of pieces of candy every other day or so, but somehow there are lots of little finger prints in the powdered sugar and a few more jelly bears missing than there should be.

Making sugar cookies with grandma. Inara actually suggested this since she remembered making sugar cookies with grandma K. last Thanksgiving.

Wrapping a gift for a friend. I dare say it was one of the most well-taped presents out there.
We were focusing on skyping with family for the gift opening, so not a lot of pictures of that, but the girls had lots of fun and got a bunch of nice gift from family and friends. Christmas this year was a lot of fun despite illnesses. It's a lot more rewarding and also a little stressful to make Christmas special for a kid who's old enough to remember things (although Inara remembers last Christmas too, I guess).