Boys' morning out

This blog has become kind of quiet over the past two years because 1) the boys are not into having their pictures taken anymore and 2) they usually hide out in the basement with their headphones on ;) Not an interesting blog post ;)

Oliver, being eleven years old and not quite teenager yet, can still be lured out to do things (sometimes) and, today, he was into going fishing with Andreas. Lucky me, I got to stay home and clean. I wonder who got the better morning activity? ;)

Happy Sunday xox

Glimpses of a Sunday

I had a conference at work yesterday so I am trying to cram the whole weekend into today... and not very successfully, may I add ;) Groceries... check! Superficial and unmotivated tidying... check! Organizing lunch supplies for the week... check! Dinner cooking... check! Attempt at making a berry crumble... check! Laundry... oh well... we can't always get everything done ;) 

I do have 3 kids: I tried to get a picture of Alexander (below) but he is not into it so I added a picture of his hand, which was covering my phone camera ;) I will take what I can get ;) 

We had snow over the past few days but we should be at 12C by midweek... this actually gets me looking forward to Monday ;) Still fantasizing about wearing sandals.....

Wishing you all a great week ahead xox

Tulips to block the view of snow... and more snow

My efforts at a berry crumble

Memories

Before it gets raided by Alexander

Milk moustache

Trying to convince me that he is doing homework ;)

This is Alexander's hand. He didn't want me to take his picture ;)

Sunday

Good morning!

Lately, it seems like I only post on Sundays ;)

The weather outside is very typical for this winter (read: crappy). We are getting a mix of rain, sleet, hail and snow. Awesome ;) You know what is even more awesome? I don't have to go out this morning ;) So, I am enjoying some coffee, somewhat quiet boys (read: they are gaming) and writing a seemingly weekly blog post ;)

Happy Sunday to you all! Hope you have a good day xox

The rare moment of peace between brothers ;)

Outside... at least it is not minus 100C ;) Got to look at the bright side ;)

Sunday evening

There is always something about a Sunday evening... as much as I look forward to the week ahead, it also leaves me a bit down: I never get as much done as I had intended to. I never get to folding all the laundry that I wanted to do. I could always use an extra day off for the relaxing that I never managed to get to. My agenda is way too full for next week. Oliver still has homework to do.... On the bright side, we had a good weekend... Andreas and I managed a date night.... I actually washed all the bedding.... The groceries are done.... There is food in the house for lunches tomorrow... AND Andreas is making dinner ;) Bonus!

Hope you all have a great week ahead! Here are some glimpses of our evening... and I still haven't managed to finish the laundry ;)

XOX

Sunday

Today seems like there has been a real turnover: yesterday, both Alexander and Nicklas finished their football season.... we turned the clock back... the tree outside our house lost most of its leaves because of yesterday's windstorm and it just really felt like impending winter. All of these events were completely expected but I can still feel hibernation coming on ;) My way to deal with it was making soup and pumpkin spice bread... the cure all ;)

Hope you all had a great Sunday! Wishing you a calm week ahead xox

Sunday food preps

I love doing a big Sunday cooking day. Given that some weekends are filled with total chaos, I appreciate the weeks when I can do groceries, find interesting ingredients and have the time to actutally put it all together. There is something totally satisfying about cooking multiple meals for the week ahead. It goes beyond feeling organized, I feel relaxed and happy to be putting good food together for our family. Today was about making a beef stew in the slow cooker, roast chicken, curry eggplant and flatbread pizzas for Monday lunches. I also cut up a bunch of vegetables and will be making a fruit salad. If I still have time later, I might attempt some more bread. We also picked up some fresh Zeppoles at the bakery (and Oliver's favourite mini cupcakes... that is OK... more Zepole for me ;) ) to have with afternoon coffee (for Swedish people: yes, for fika). With sun shining through our living room windows and a vacuumed floor- another miracle!- it has been a good Sunday so far.

Hope you are all having a good Sunday too xox!

Sunday

Today was a day to take it easy, finish remaining homework, take a long walk and get ready for the week ahead....  oh yeah... and make sure that all the clocks said the same time ;)

Hope you all had a great Sunday xox

Break day

Today, I decided, was a break day. Given that this coming week is technically March break where I work (and for the kids too!), I thought that I would take this Sunday "off" and do nothing... of course, only after I took Nicka to soccer and finished a review for a journal. Funny thing is I spent most of the day feeling like I forgot to do something.... and, no, I didn't leave Nicka at soccer.... he is at home ;) It feels like I should be doing something for work... even though I took the day off.... terrible, no? Remind me to work on that work/life balance thing... So, to make up for the feeling like I forgot to do something for work, I made bread for home instead. Honey and Oat. You know what? It was a pretty good way to spend part of the day and the boys appreciated it too ;)

Hope you all have a good week ahead! xox

Happy Sunday

Melting snow + warm sunshine = good day! Despite me kicking them off the PS4 to go outside (worst mother in the universe), the boys reluctantly started to enjoy the sun :)

xox

Weekend check list

Every Sunday, I do a kind of mental check list: did I get everything that I needed to do done? Most of the time, I am left with a bit of a depressed feeling because, given all of the things on that darn check list, there is so much that has been left unfinished... If we could have just ONE more day!

So, for the checks: Nicklas' birthday dinner. Soccer for me. Basketball for Alexander. Vacuuming. Cleaning the toilets. Oliver's play dates. A reference letter for work. A few emails for work (including saying yes to a conference in the Netherlands in June but that will be another story). Putting Oliver's Lego fish in water (seriously). Started my lecture for tomorrow. Groceries. Haircuts for 3/4 boys. Dinner with lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Sold top on Ebay sent off. Laundry. Homework for Alexander and Nicklas... so I have been reassured.

So, now the not finished: Soccer for Nicklas (I didn't realize it was cancelled this weekend until Andreas took him....  oops!). Lots of stuff that I wanted to get done for work that I have not finished... including the rest of my lecture for tomorrow. Folding laundry (see above). A long walk with Andreas. Organizing my closet. Putting away the last of the Christmas decorations. A long nap on the couch. Banana bread.  Homework for Oliver (later this evening). Coherent blog posts ;)

Hope your check list is longer than mine... and that you have a good week ahead!

xox

Here are some random weekend pics!

Today

This morning, I woke up to snow falling from the sky and a blanket of white covering EVERYTHING.... BOOO! Despite my initial tendency to go back to bed, I got up and have been miserable ever since ;) Actually, the coffee helped ;) To further torture myself, I cleaned off both of our cars and made sure that our ice scrapers were in the trunks. Thankfully, I came out of denial long enough last week to make sure that our cars had their snow tire appointments at the mechanic.

Here we go again.... ;)

Happy Sunday!

Sunday in the sun

Lately, Alexander and Nicklas are really into football (American style). I would actually put Alexander in the obsessed category but, heck, I am not a football person so I probably don't appreciate it enough ;) So, in light of this new found interest, when I saw Montreal Alouettes tickets (our pro league) being sold for a school fundraising activity, I jumped on them. Luckily for us, instead of the usual crappy late October Montreal weather, we were blessed with 22C and sun. Even if you aren't a fan of the game (still not sure of my own status), you could still enjoy the beautiful weather outside.
Despite the TOTAL loss of the Als, we had a great day. Here are a few photos of the game, courtesy of Andreas because he hates the picture quality of my phone ;)

Happy Monday to you all xox