First shoes!

Yesterday was a momentous occasion... we took our little baby into the centre of town and got her her first pair of shoes. She transformed instantly into a proper little girl and was so pleased stamping her little feet around. Where has my little, helpless bundle gone? Those soft little feet which plod around on tiptoes as she's supported by her arms, became these booted stompers raring to go...

Ava on the foot-measuring illuminous green rocking-horse!

The shop assistant was really helpful and Ava got to sit on a big green rocking horse as she had her feet measured (although they had to get a separate measuring unit for her as her little legs weren't long enough to reach the one attached to the horse itself) She loved it, although it was a challenge to keep her little toes from wriggling as the lady tried to measure her!

Wriggly toes...

Mama checks if they fit!

Such a big girl!

I just can't believe we've reached this phase... its such a far cry from that little bundle that was placed in my arms almost a year ago. She's so desperate to walk now... cruising round everything and wanting to walk everywhere (with our help of course!) but not quite trusting herself to take a step alone. When we put her shoes on her in the shop yesterday, they seemed to give her a new sense of power, and she stood alone for about 3 seconds... its just amazing when you think how helpless and dependent she was such a short time ago... and now, she's almost grown up.

"Look at me!!!"

Practicing walking!

"I'm so pretty with my new shoes, I could kiss myself!"

As you can see, Ava seems to be a happy bunny with her new big-girl shoes. Let's just hope her Mama can find it in her to rejoice as much that this little Bubba is turning into a proper little girl!

BBQ by the fjord...

Lots of lovely relaxing days by the fjord, and none to few BBQs! I love being so close to the water... yesterday we went down to the waterside for an outdoor service. 29th July is the anniversary of "Holy Olav" bringing christianity to Norway, so the people of the peninsula were out for a special outdoor service. Was lovely to sit by the waters edge, sing some hymns, and although I couldn't understand all that was said, I was able to spend some time just praying for this country that I've grown to love over the past 5 years.

Had quite a quiet weekend, but no shortage of the infamous norwegian hot dogs since we've been here, and the boys have all been for a swim in the fjord... Ava and I are still psyching ourselves up for that ice-cold SPLASH! Not quite sure we're brave enough this year (its warm, but not boiling weather!)

Our beautiful Norwegian home from home

Bubba watching the bonfire

Papa and Onkel Henning grilling... yummy hotdogs!

Look at that view!

Gorgeous girly!

Such a good Papa!

On Friday Magni and I went down to the old schoolhouse... its where they used to teach the children - a one room schoolhouse that finally closed down in the 70s when it had only 4 pupils left. It is a goldmine! Literally one of those "ghost-town" buildings... everything is left exactly as it was! Anyway, I'm heading there today to get some photos and will hopefully speak to some of the locals about what it was like, so I'm hoping to blog on that later this week. I find it absolutely fascinating.

Anyway... more on that to come... happy Monday everyone!

PS - was SO proud to be British this weekend... Olympic opening ceremony was incredible, and well done Lizzy Armitstead for our first medal!

First ice-cream...

 

'nuff said!

Happy weekend everyone!

Poorly Bubba...

Yesterday was a long day. I was up from 3.45am with a poorly baby who had a nasty temperature and just wasn't a happy bunny. It was the first time Ava's ever had a temperature and it wasn't fun. How much we worry about these little people! I was thankful to have remembered to bring the Calpol with me. After lots of cuddles and sleep and reading stories and sitting watching telly (!) she seemed a lot better in the afternoon and by the evening the fever seemed to have gone...

Feeling a little bit sad:(

Hugs with Bestamor make everything better...

Storytime with Papa...

And cuddles with Maxi-Hund of course!

Looking forward to having my bright, chirpy girl back today, and thankful that the worst seems to have passed (as I got a full nights sleep last night AND she decided to have a lie-in this morning!!)

Four years ago....

Yesterday was a special day for us...

This was us four years ago...

and here we are four years later...

Grateful to God for his grace in our marriage, and for a husband who points me to Jesus.

Fruit picking...

We had a lazy day, yesterday... walked along the fjord, and went to pick some fresh fruit from the orchard. My parents-in-law are fruit farmers, and so we had great fun picking cherries, filling ourselves up on wild raspberries and hunting down the apples!

Ava had fun pointing at all the cows and stuffing her little mouth full of raspberries until she had bright red juice dripping down her chin and all over her little hands!

YUM!!!

We made it...

... but not without a number of obstacles hitting us on route!

I'm sitting here in the lounge looking out on this view...

Stunning isn't it?

We had rather an eventful trip... we discovered late Sunday night that our flight had been cancelled and we had been transferred from a direct flight from Heathrow to Bergen, to a changeover - Heathrow-Stavanger, Stavanger-Bergen. Not a major problem, just meant we were leaving two hours earlier that expected and carting an 11 month old through multiple airports without a buggy! Joy of joys. To be fair to her, Ava was good as gold, and made the whole transfer thing look easy...

What we weren't informed of, however, was that because Norway is outside of the EU, your luggage doesn't automatically get transferred from one flight to the next (even though we were checked in from London all the way to Bergen). We arrived at Bergen, blissfully oblivious that our luggage was still carouselling back in Stavanger. Again, wouldn't be a major problem if you hadn't just used your last nappy, while two big bag fulls are packed in a suitcase 120 miles away... thankfully I just had enough and was able to change her when we were reunited with our baggage!

Our baggage arrived on the next flight, which meant two hours of hanging around at Bergen Airport, although perhaps it was a blessing in disguise as Ava, who had been in a car-seat/ on our laps in a plane/in baby bjorn through airport since 9am (it was now 7pm!) was able to stretch her legs and crawled merrily around the airport charming everyone and making a beeline for random dogs! We filled ourselves up on hot-dogs (you literally CANNOT beat norwegian hotdogs... they are AMAZING), pizza (all very healthy stuff) and pancakes. At least Ava had Ella's Kitchen!

We finally got on the road, and I'm glad to say it was all smooth from there! Little monkey didn't fall asleep until 9.45, so excited she was by all the fjords and mountains and grinning like a cheshire cat! She slept like a log until we got to the ferry at midnight, then the eyes popped open and her and Papa went exploring, looking at the water and watching the lights!

We finally made it here at 1am, Ava transferred straight to her bed, and we followed not long after. So excited to be here and ready to relax by the fjord for a couple of weeks!

Off to Norway...

This weekend we are busy beavering away packing for heading out to Norway on Monday (as well as playing at a wedding and attending a number of end of term social gatherings!) I cannot wait, because I know the overwhelming busyness will be put into perspective and I will have time and space to enjoy God's beautiful creation, spend time with family and friends, and just to relax.

David and I in Norway two summers ago...

Beautiful wildflowers!

The view out of my bedroom window in Norway!

Pretty boathouses

 Anyway, for the next two and a half weeks, I'll be filling you in on our adventures in Norway as we spend time relaxing amongst the mountains and the fjords...

Lots of pictures to follow!

Hope you all have wonderful summer holidays!

Claire x

Busy days...

At the moment, life is a bit of a whirlwind - with being back at school, end of term dos, visiting German exchange teacher, weddings, small group socials, broken down cars (don't ask!), packing for Norway and prepping the house for visitors while we're away. All that plus the usual general housework, childcare etc on top.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed; probably because my normal "to-do list" planning system has gone to pot, meaning I feel totally out of control. Intend to organise myself again tomorrow...

In the meantime, remembering that God is in control, which I'm very glad about, as at the moment I am feeling very much NOT in control. But he's good and there's no one better I can entrust all the chaos to!

Here's some of what we've been up to!

Practicing walking... serious business... especially when you have your mouth full of food and only one shoe on...

YUMMY food! I LOVE baked camembert - French stick and boiled baby potatoes to dip... delicious!

Trekking through the mud and slime of Bushy Park. We started walking at 2.45pm and I walked through the front door  at 5.30pm SHATTERED. That walk nearly killed me... didn't help that Madam decided she'd had enough of her buggy/pram/play pen after 2 hours (can't blame her) and wanted me to carry her across town to get the bus home. THANK YOU Nicole for carrying her down the long road and across the bridge for me!! :D These two monkeys had fun sharing a ride in Ava's pram though... just look at those cheeky faces!

Anyway... I was back at work today, and in again tomorrow, and then I need to do some SERIOUS packing, sorting, preparing and cleaning on Friday.

Oh help!

June Reading...

I can't believe its the middle of July, and I'm only posting on my June reading... oops!

In June, I tried to read less fiction and a bit more real-life stuff to balance up my fiction-fest in May! Again, I have read some great books and have lots to recommend!

Mugabe and the White African: Ben Freeth

I did a sneaky review on this one already... an amazingly eye-opening book about the issues facing white farmers in Zimbabwe. Really moving and gave me some background on the new stories that having been popping up on our screens over the past couple of years.

Really highly recommend this book if you're looking for a gripping biography which is excellently written and deals with some real issues at the same time.

Heaven is Here: Stephanie Nielson

You know sometimes you read a book that impacts you in quite a huge way? The kind of book you find yourself thinking about days after you've finished reading it? This is one of those. It has had a huge impact on the way I view life... I have become so much more thankful to God for the small mercies of life since reading this book.

Heaven is Here is Stephanie Nielson's biography. Stephanie is an inspiring mother of 5 who, in 2008, was involved in a horrific plane crash that left her covered in 80% burns. The book talks about her struggle to survive and rebuild her life. SO inspiring, moving and challenging. Stephanie is actually a mormon, but I found that reading her story made me grateful to God for the small mercies that I appreciate every day, but which could, in a moment, be taken away.

This is an absolute, 200%, must-read.

Simplicity Parenting: Kim John Payne
This has been a really interesting read about stripping parenting back to the basics... not cluttering or over-booking or busying up our children's lives, but simplifying their home life so they feel more secure and less stressed. While I think a lot of the book is pretty idealistic, and suggests things that seem a bit too "quick fix" for me, it does have a lot of wisdom about teaching children to love the home, not allowing them to get sucked into the "I'm bored" syndrome, and getting rid of a lot of unnecessary "stuff".
Definitely an interesting read, but one you probably want to sift as you go along...


So there are some of the things I read last month. I'm back to my fiction/non-fiction balance this month and will probably fill you in on my July reading in the next couple of weeks...

Hope you've got some new ideas of good books to read!

Claire x

Ava and the dinosaurs...

At the moment we are enjoying hosting a german exchange teacher from Muenchen. Kathrin has been with us since Friday and we are having lots of fun introducing her to this corner of London! On Saturday, we made the brave move of taking Ava up to London and doing the Natural History Museum.

I have held back from doing this, as I have been of the firm opinion that taking Ava into a crowded museum would be nothing but stressful. Boy, how wrong I was...

Watching the wave machine 

This little girl was MESMERIZED. She waved enthusiastically at every dinosaur we saw, grabbed hold of all the rocks, held on tight on the earthquake simulator, played with the water-mills and loved the creepy crawlies. She literally loved it. I felt totally rebuked! We have such wonderful free resources here in London and I have NOT been making the most of them at all. She was so happy and excited the whole way round, and was clearly having the time of her life!

Distracted by the volcano erupting behind her!

Geologist in the making??

Waving at T-Rex!

Even the train on the way home was quite exciting!

So if anyone's wondering if a ten-month-old is too young to take to the Natural History Museum... the answer is no. They will love it! So grateful for London and its resources - hands-on museums are not a given, but our city is full of them!

Resolution 25: Right to the roots...

24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, til I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.

Kristin (in the buggy!) and I, age 3 and 1

When I was a kid, my sister and I had very different ways of handling conflict. When I got caught doing something wrong, I learnt very quickly that the best thing to do was show utter remorse, apologise quickly, and the whole thing would be done with. I didn't like the feeling that someone was upset with me, so my goal was (the majority of the time) simply to get through the apologies, accept the punishment and move on as quickly as possible. My sister was a different kettle of fish. She was not such a people-pleaser when it came to arguments, but more of a justice fighter. If she felt she'd been wronged, there was no way under high heaven that she would smile sweetly, say she was sorry and accept the punishment. No way. She would fight and cry and shout and stamp her little feet and usually end up with more of a punishment than if she'd learnt the big sister route of apologising and being done with it.

You may call it wisdom, the way I handled this youthful disciplining, but actually it was far from it. The problem was that it wasn't getting to the root of my sin, I often wasn't really sorry, or often I was sorry about the consequences of my actions for me, but not about the actions themselves.

My sister, in a sense, was actually being much more honest about what was going on inside than I was.

So often, we deal with the exteriors of our sin, and leave the roots, way under the surface, to grow deeper and deeper. Take gossip for example... your friend finds out you have passed on some information that they had asked you to keep confidential. Perhaps you did it because you "simply couldn't keep it to yourself", or perhaps because you counted this person as someone you were entitled to tell (i.e. someone in my family, like my husband, or my mum, doesn't count as passing it on...) Whatever the deal, when you find out that they know... you feel horrible about it. But why do you feel horrible? Sometimes, maybe it is because you have betrayed the confidence, but often, if we're honest we feel horrible because we're worried that that person will no longer trust us, or won't want to be friends with us any more... actually the root of our sin is pride, and people pleasing and the "remorse" we feel is the result of that.

So its time to take the trowel to our sin, to dig deep and get to the roots... not to simply deal with the weeds growing on top, but to find out where they are coming from... way down deep. Getting the roots out is WAY harder work than just pulling the tops off... and it hurts; it can be back-breaking, and long winded and utterly exhausting. But if we want to allow the healthy good stuff to grow in our lives, then we have to be brutal with those sin-weeds.

So lets get to the roots and let's get gardening!

Mini Musician...

Here are some pics of our Mozart in the making...

Piano lessons with Uncle Hans Peter

Look! I can play without even looking!

All by myself...

And this is her best piece so far...

Marshmallow Pops!

Last weekend my lovely friend Caroline had a little girl, Phoebe Jane, and as we were heading round to hers for Bible Study yesterday morning (so impressive... gives birth on Saturday and having 5 women and a LOT of kids round her house 4 days later! Let's just say 4 days after I gave birth I was burying myself into a reclusive hole just trying to survive!)... ANYWAY, as I was saying, as I knew we were heading over, Catrin and I decided to make a little treat for everyone there to celebrate Phoebe's arrival... Marshmallow-pops are cute, scrummy and DEAD easy to make (took us about 10 mins to do 25), they are also the sort of thing you can do with little kids (if you don't mind half the marshmallows disappearing as you work!)

YOU NEED:

A bag of marshmallows

A block of white chocolate

cocktail sticks

Sugar crystals/sprinkles

Cling film

Step One: Set all of your marshmallows out, large side down, and place a cocktail stick in the centre of each one, right down to the bottom. Lay them out on a flattened piece of cling film, stretched out over a flat surface (a tray is ideal as then you can move them)

Step Two: Place a couple of rows of the chocolate into the cup and put in the microwave to melt - I put it in for 20 seconds, stirred it a bit, and then put it in for a further 10 seconds until its all nice and smooth!

Step Three: Dip the bottom of the marshmallow into the cup of chocolate, taking care to smooth all the chocolate off the bottom onto the edge of the cup (this stops dripping, and also, you don't need chocolate on the bottom as that bit isn't going to be seen and will just stick to the cling film anyway!) As soon as you've dipped it, hold the stick over a bowl, and pour your sprinkles over the chocolate. They will stick to the chocolate and just run off the rest of the marshmallow, leaving you with yummy treats.

 Once we'd made the pops themselves, we made little flags with Phoebe's name on to decorate them...

VOILA!

 Why not give them a go?? Dead easy, delicious, and very cute!