The week so far...

I am almost finished grading.... and I am SO thankful! This week has been filled with (finally) gorgeous weather, a chance to participate in a school run (1.5km) with Nicka, a slow return to sanity (or family insanity by means of selfies), a sunroof that we can finally put down, outside play time and lots of flowers that are slowly coming out of hibernation. Needless to say, all of these factors make for a good early part of the week.

xox to you all!

Happy Mothers' Day

My favourite all time gifts are the homemade ones... and this year, for Mothers' Day, I was spoiled. The amount of love, appreciation, effort and honest feelings that went into these gifts make them so special. I was given some beautiful works of art... and a summary of me that almost made me pee my pants laughing. It is a good thing that I am friends with Oliver's kindergarten teacher because, otherwise, she may be wondering what kind of mother he has... Hahaha!

Happy Mothers' Day to all who have children in their arms and children in their hearts... xox

According to this, I am 83 years old and drink wine every day... well, he is close on both fronts ;)

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I am one lucky mamma!

My new office ;)

This time of the year is absolutely terrible for having piles of papers to correct (yes, it IS my fault but I hate multiple choice exams). As by some "perfect storm", my kids always seem to have the most amount of school ped days at this exact time.This always means that, every time I start correcting a new paper, someone asks me for water... or a snack.... or wants to show me a boo boo... or starts to fight with his brother.... or needs to find some t-shirt that he hasn't worn for the past 2 years.... anyway, you get the idea. Needless to say, this results in my basically memorizing the start to papers (constant re-reading) but never really getting to the end ;) So, yesterday, I took the younger boys (Alexander opted to hang with his neighbourhood posse so we included a friend of Oliver's) to an indoor playground so that I could get a good 3 hours of paper correcting heaven (not really but you get the idea). PLUS, the big bonus was that I didn't have to resort to letting them sit with their tablets all afternoon.... ah-ha! Correcting time AND real play time :) So this was, at least for yesterday, my new office. It also came with coffee and palm trees... awesome!

Maybe this would be appreciated at work as well?

Palm tree heaven ;)

AND good coffee.....

Hours of entertainment

I bet your office doesn't have a tiger slide!

Oliver, actually standing still for a minute

Nicka in action

I took a quick break

Soccer time! I wasn't fast enough to catch them playing.

I need one of these at work!

Buds

My new office environment... with Slush Puppies and palm trees ;)

Homework karma

I admit it: I give homework to my students. Sometimes, it is quite a bit... and, yes, the homework karma is biting me back ;)
My kids get homework... from others... but I am the one who is the target for their frustrations. I always end up saying to them: "I DIDN'T EVEN GIVE THIS TO YOU.... IT IS NOT MY FAULT". Seriously. They act like I am the meanest person in the universe because they have homework. If I ask them about it, I get the dirty looks. I sit with them to help and I end up with the attitude. Heaven forbid that I try to teach them something. "But, mamma, you are not a teacher!" OK... I am not YOUR teacher but, after assigning and correcting homework for 16 years, maybe I have been able to get through to at least one or two students ;) Maybe ;) Maybe I have even made them angry but, you know what, at least I was the person who assigned the homework to them. Maybe, they even get angry with THEIR parents because of the work that I have assigned. Now THAT is homework karma ;)

Wishing you a good rest of the week.... xox

Selective memory ;)

I have to admit that, over the past 5 or 6 years, my memory has taken a serious trip into the terrible department. I don't know if it is fatigue or age or number of kids or I am at my limit of multi-tasking (Andreas thinks it is chemical) but please don't ask me what I just had for breakfast ;) The other day, I completely blanked out trying to remember Oliver's birthday (was it May 15, 2010 or May 10 or... crap!) and forgetting my children's names is a daily event (hey, you! works too). I like to think that this aspect of my brain function is charming and quirky....by the way, who are you again? The only time where I blow this concept out of the water is when we get together with our close friends, the W family (father W, mother W and their 4 kids: our PEI collaborators), and play our regular wine drinking game called: Name That 1980's Tune.
We never planned this game... it just happened. One day, Andreas showed the W's a music app that played different styles of music. Considering that we all grew up in the 1980's (well... at least the father W and I did.... mother W is younger/more into 1990's music and I guess that there was no music in Sweden because Andreas hasn't heard of anything!), this decade is the natural choice ;) Anyway, it is scary how many one hit wonders I remember. Father W and I get really into it. I almost feel bad for the others.... We get pretty intense, competitive and yell 1980's group names across the table ;) Yes, I actually got Scritti Politti on one occasion ;) Scary! At least, one part of my memory is still working and it IS usually the short term that is the first to go....

Wishing you all a happy Monday xox

PS: this post is dedicated to mother W... because we never let her yell out 1990's tunes ;)

Sunday photo spam

Another postcard from Montreal.... My ode to street art ;)

Wishing you all a great Sunday <3