Monday and mood-lifting jeans

Yesterday was Sunday, a rather bleak, rainy and boring Sunday. Dark clouds and blue skies were constantly fighting but the threatening clouds definitely had the upper hand.

There was nothing else to do than to make sweet buns, snuggle and play with Little H, watch “So you think you can dance” (I love it!) on TV and knit ferociously on a present for Little Cousin L due to arrive in a few weeks. As if I am going to complete my “knit-work” it in time. Poor time-management yet again.
Brought the knitting on the train this morning, and I’m sure the ladies around were scrutinizing every knot and thinking what an amateur, and the young trendies thinking what a sad almost-middle -aged housewife. Tomorrow it is back to reading books with impressive titles (important for the image amongst the fellow commuters).
Well, this week I am going to wear and write about some of my favorite items. Yesterday, as I did not leave the house and was constantly close to snot, spit, spaghetti and other stain-makers I lounged around in my comfy trousers, t-shirt and cardigan. Nothing worth mentioning here really.

So today it was back to business, but since my carefully beloved item of clothing required extensive ironing, it was never going to happen. I had to opt for a newly acquired favorite. My dark, even suitable for work jeans got worn patches on their knees after my maternity leave, where I spent a lot of time crawling around on the floor. Good fitting jeans are not easy to find, especially if you do not want / can afford to spend an arm and a leg on them.

THE jeans (on a model of course)

The jeans should not be too tight fitting,but have a little bit of stretch for comfort, not too low on the waist, not too tight around the tummy as not to leave too much flab “hanging over”. The fabric should be soft, but still firm. They should fit nicely, but again not too tight over the bum. The list of requirements are endless.

Well, I have found (until now), the most perfect jeans I have ever owned. They tick most of the boxes above and has cool pockets at the back too.

These jeans are another item I love and they certainly cheered me up on a grey Monday. I even got a compliment from one of my colleagues, so those jeans made my day!

Do you have an item of clothing that makes you happy?

It’s a beautiful day…

Time flies when you are having fun. Well, time flies when you’re working, having visitors from abroad, taking care of a toddler, nurturing friendships, being a (house)wife and so on. In other words: Yes, time does fly when having fun!

Little H is still teething and it is a painful process, both for her and for her parents. Our sleep is interrupted by cries of pain and an inconsolable Little H which we can do nothing to comfort other than to cradle her in our arms, making soothing sounds and drug her with painkillers when it gets too much for us all… The paracetamol is a last resort, I promise.
After a few rough nights and little sleep for Pappa Kas (he is the best, takes the nightshift voluntarily, probably wanting to avoid a bitchy wife, which I am after less than 8 hours sleep), we decided that I was the one to comfort Little H when she needed it during the night, and that I was to get up with her in the morning.

I went to bed early, read a few pages in my book (“Night train to Lisbon” by Pascal Mercier – a real snooze) and fell asleep, only to wake up by Little H’ crying – eight and a half hour later! She had slept through the night. I took her into our bed for a snuggle and managed to get her to slumber for another 30 minutes before we got up. What a morning!
After the morning milk we did a quick hand-over and Pappa Kas was ready for the 2nd shift while was doing some work. At noon, a quarter past, to be exact, me and Little H were jogging in well-known late style down to meet the mummies of little O and cutie J.
It was so nice to see them, both mummies and young ones. It feels like the days of maternity leave were ages ago, and that I have been back in work for such a long time. I think it is six weeks.

It was good to be back amongst the mummies, and little H smiled and was delighted over company her own age. It lasted about 20 minutes before Little H’s behavior got back to “normal”, and we had a few tantrums. The play-date ended up with me having coffee stains on my shirt and scarf, Little H having lost a dummy (in a chain fastened to her jacket- how does she do it?), and Little O being scared to death by getting a very wet kiss from a certain little drooling lady.

Well, that’s just life for me and Little H isn’t it? She was singing (high pitched screaming) all the way back home where we woke up Pappa Kas who had been sleeping on the sofa.

What a great day!



Yum yum gimme some...




Blæææh




Life's great eh?



Not exactly the right size

As a wanna-be yummy mummy, not only in the fashion sense, I try to “domesticate” myself in various ways. I have a long way to go. Pappa Kas says that I do not put my heart in it, but who can put their heart into cleaning pots and pans?

My preferred housework is baking and not scrubbing bathrooms, my chore of choice must be putting on a washing machine. If I have time to do some housework, I bake a cake, make home-made cereal or rearrange my wardrobe. Or I do crafty stuff…

Myth has it that I am a fairly crafty person. I can handle a sewing machine, I can halfway crochet, I can halfway knit and have many many other old-lady traits such as sewing on buttons, drinking tea, be partial to a glass of port on Sunday afternoons and wear woollen underwear when under minus five degrees Celsius outside.

I always have ambitions and ongoing projects. My I-want-to do-list is long, a knitted shawl for myself, some nice new pillows for the sofa, curtains for the down-stairs living room, and making some cute but funky clothes for Little H. The time for household chores are filled for the next couple of years at least. No time for vacuuming, have to sew trousers so that H has something to wear tomorrow…. – I am not sure such an excuse would work on Pappa Kas, but I might give it a try.

I have recently finished two knitted projects. Well finished and finished, buttons are missing, but all the treads have been fastened and the garments ironed. That is good enough for me, and certainly good enough for a fitting.

In a relatively good mood (I really wish those teeth would appear soon and stop the tantrums, on the other hand she might be a full-on moaner and will never stop, but that is not an option), I decided to try on the two knitted vests I have been working on for some time and felt rather smug and proud of the finished products.


Here are the results.

Too big

Not big enough

But I’m not giving up. The night will be spent watching a film and working on a new project.

Dance in the rain

Accidents never come alone. When one thing makes your glass appear half empty, my experience is that other events often take place at more or less the same time and almost empties the glass totally. Leaving you tired and worn down by life in general, making you forget all the wonderful things around you. At least it feels like this for me sometimes.

The last week has been a week where my otherwise fairly happy existence has been shaken by many big and small sad events. I am not going to write about them, but I guess that we’re all affected in some way of the tsunami and its aftermath in Japan. It leaves me feeling small, insignificant and powerless.

Other closer to home sad events has brought the suffering of millions of people on the other side of the earth to my doorstep in various ways.

Today is the day to count my blessings, and to reflect upon how wonderful, but fragile life is.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Author Unknown

Doing it for the kids

Two weeks as a working mother, and it’s going rather smoothly. I can live like this. Little H and Pappa Kas are doing whatever they’re doing until I get home late afternoon, and by the smirks on their faces I guess that they can live like this too.




O' has made "there's something about Mary"

 hairstyle on Little H.

Styling product: drool

 Yesterday I actually took a day off to meet with the Post-Natal group aka. The Skinheads. I am sorry, but the name has stuck although the little ones now have plenty of hair. They all got teeth as well, all except Little H that is, but at least she has enough hair now so that we can guess the color of it. Little H’s great grandmother is saying. “ohhh she’ll be really dark”, while I’m more heading towards perhaps dark blond. As long as she soon gets some teeth she can be ginger for all I care…

It was great to meet up with the mummies again. I am the first of six who has gone back to work, and I was eager to hear the chat from the last couple of weeks. We were at Little O’s house and I felt very much at home. O’s mum is almost like me. She does not have dust on her brain, is not ashamed for not having the dinner on the table when her husband comes home and does not remember the lyrics to the songs we sing at the kids swimming class. Just like me!

When she sent a text inviting us for hot chocolate and home-made sweet buns my instant reply was:”yes of course”, but also: “is your mum doing the baking for you?” – How rude of me! I really need to start thinking before talking! O’s mum replied: “yes, the buns are already in the freezer”. Priceless!
I do not care where the goodies come from, as long as they’re tasty, and O’s Gran has a reputation as the Queen of Cakes, so I did not need to ponder upon whether to take the day off for Little H’s play-date or not.
So there we were, us mummies sitting in the sofa chatting, enjoying our tasty treats and admiring the little ones. We could not avoid talking about how great it was for the kids to be able to play together and how they clearly enjoys each other’s company, for only to discover that they were sitting each by him-/herself playing alone as far away from each other as they could get…

We’re doing it for the kids.

Back in Biz

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I am going back to work after eight months at home with Little H. 8 months of an introductory how-to-be a mummy course, now it is time for Pappa Kas and his four months crash-course.
Am I nervous? Exited? Happy? Worried? Or all of the above?


Nervous: Starting work again is like going back to school after the summer holiday. Everything is the same, but still different. There will be people I haven’t seen in a long time, lots of catching up to do, and the challenge of getting back into the routines, perhaps create some new ones. There will probably be some new classmates ehrmm... colleagues, new scary software and new pregnancies. All will be as usual, but not quite. And me? A little older, a little wiser, but in a mummy- kind-of-way which I do not yet know if I can translate into business acumen.

Excited: for almost the same reasons as above. I am also excited about being amongst grown-ups in a workplace again. I am excited to re-start in a job that I really liked before I went on leave . And the excitement of whether I get a seat or not on the train in the morning is almost unbearable. Every morning and afternoon Monday till Friday I’ll be standing on the platform getting ready for the battle of Seats. Fellow commuters- be aware!

Happy: For changing less diapers. For being able to wear nice outfits without the danger of spit-up or other nastiness hidden in those hard to see places. For seeing my friends and colleagues again. For not having to walk 3 ½ kilometer for a double soy latte (we have several coffee bars close to my workplace).

Worried: For the missing fashion police at home. Who will check the outfits Pappa Kas picks for Little H when they are going out and about?
Well if that is my biggest worry, I guess that I am more than ready to go back to business.

Wish me luck!