In between

I love how long shadows are in winter!

Small joys

- wearing clothes that are not covered in baby vomit....yet.
- wearing a pretty brooch
- a baby that is so incredibly happy to be picked up in the morning that she squeaks with joy!

Breakfast

My favourite meal has to be breakfast. Not just any breakfast, but a proper breakfast with tasty bread, coffee and lots of fillings for your sandwich, Norwegian style. Preferably eaten in company of lovely friends and lasting at least a couple of hours. After I moved to England over six years ago, I very quickly lost my enthusiasm, due to the lack of exciting sandwich fillers (such as brown cheese, pickled herring, Svolværpostei and Tomato mackerel) and most importantly the offensive quality of British bread. Good, healthy, tasty bread is near impossible to find. I often make my own bread, and Husband makes a delicious sour dough bread, but after becoming a mum this has now moved further down on my list of priorities. As I find myself being very tired these days, and consequently craving sugar and carbohydrates, I've been looking for something nice, healthy and easy that will fill my stomach in the morning. I found this recipe in this blog, and these pancakes are a new breakfast favourite! I have made a few small changes to the recipe. Make the mixture the night before and leave it to soak in the fridge overnight.

5 dl porridge oats (I often use a mix of oats, such as rye and barley)
1 dl flour
1,5 tbsp sugar (or honey)
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
500 ml milk (or yogurt, Norwegian kefir or buttermilk. I prefer normal milk)
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted butter

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately before mixing together. Leave overnight in the fridge. Rye and barley oats are a bit tougher than porridge oats, even after soaking over night. I like the chewiness of them in the pancakes, but if you want the pancakes smoother, use porridge oats.

I prefer eating these with banana and jam, or with fresh berries. A weekend twist: banana and maple syrup!


Yum!

Wisdom for my daughter

After becoming a mummy there are a few things I spend my time thinking about a lot. One of the things I think about is what I want to teach my daughter. A few obvious things spring to mind, such as kindness towards others, empathy, manners, creativity, love of books etc, but I think the most important thing I want to teach her is to love herself. I want her to be proud of herself for who she is and will be, to be kind to herself and to love and take care of her own body. The best way to teach her this is by being a good example. I wish I could say that I am proud of myself, that I love my body with all its flaws. But the truth is that I feel insecure. I, like so many other women, criticise my own reflection,  compare myself to others, and some of the things I say to my mirror image are not nice. When I look at myself I focus on the things I wish were different, and I'm not always very good at taking care of my body. I am ashamed to admit this. Yes, I am proud that this body has grown a baby, that I gave birth with no other pain relief than gas and air, that I am continuing to grow this baby with my milk. My body has grown, and is still growing, the most wonderful baby in this world. But this process has also left its marks on my body. I try telling myself that I should be proud of these marks, that they are proof of what I have achieved, simply with my own body. But I can't help comparing myself to others, to images I see in magazines, on tv. Images that I know have been manipulated, images that aren't real. The brutal truth is that I am not proud of my body. And I want to make a promise to my daughter, and to myself. I will try to be a good example to her. I will love my body, with all its flaws, and be proud of myself. I will be a good example to her. I will not let her see the way I sometimes look at myself in the mirror, the way I judge myself. I will show her that taking care of your body and being healthy is important, as is accepting the way our bodies were made. I will be proud and I will love.

This is my goal for 2013, and for the years to come.

Winter wonderland

These photos were taken last week, when we had frost and sparkling sunshine. Since then we've had about 20cm of snow and the country has gone into a state of emergency (pretty much). I'm loving the snow, and hope it stays for a while.

A very happy Monday to you!

Frosty heart

I love winter, and I'm crossing my fingers that we'll get some more proper winter weather really soon..

New perspectives

Sometimes, if you dare to look at things with a different focus, you'll see whole new worlds opening up.