The truth about bacon...

Bacon is a rainbow of flesh and fat., originally uploaded by Vilseskogen.

New art by AREA

Autumn mountains... love it!

Some art from AREA

Simply a great piece of art!  Thanks, AREA!!!  (more of her art here)

The most popular baby names in Sweden 2011

	Flickor/Girls			Pojkar/Boys
1	Alice		1	William
2	Maja		2	Lucas
3	Elsa		3	Oscar
4	Julia		4	Hugo
5	Linnéa		5	Elias
6	Ella		6	Oliver
7	Ebba		7	Liam
8	Molly		8	Alexander
9	Wilma		9	Viktor
10	Emma		10	Emil
11	Nellie		11	Axel
12	Alva		12	Anton
13	Isabelle		13	Erik
14	Olivia		14	Leo
15	Agnes		15	Filip
16	Klara		16	Vincent
17	Elin		17	Olle
18	Emilia		18	Arvid
19	Freja		19	Ludvig
20	Ellen		20	Theo
21	Lilly		21	Charlie
22	Nova		22	Isak
23	Moa		23	Edvin
24	Ida		24	Albin
25	Stella		25	Gustav
26	Alma		26	Elliot
27	Saga		27	Nils
28	Amanda		28	Adam
29	Alicia		29	Melvin
30	Astrid		30	Wilmer
31	Vera		31	Max
32	Tuva		32	Viggo
33	Isabella		33	Noah
34	Felicia		34	Benjamin
35	Elvira		35	Alfred
36	Sara		36	Alvin
37	Selma		37	Leon
38	Signe		38	Kevin
39	Matilda		39	Simon
40	Hanna		40	Theodor
41	Ester		41	Casper
42	Ellie		42	Jonathan
43	Thea		43	Melker
44	Tyra		44	Sixten
45	Tilde		45	Ville
46	Lova		46	Rasmus

"Are you going to blog about that your daughter got into Pratt?"

Asked my daughter. Yes, I am.  Right here. Right now.  We found out a few hours ago and said talented, wonderful daughter is all excited.  Pratt Institute in New York City is one of the best art schools, and here is a sample of her art. Congratulations!!!!!!  What a wonderful Christmas present.

Congratulations to the newly married!

Right now it is 6 PM in USA on August 18, which means that it is August 19 in Sweden, and today (in Sweden) is the wedding day for cousin EH and his C.  Warmest congratulations to them and their four children (in various parental configurations).  We are so happy for you, and sorry we can't be there.

May you

...have many wonderful breakfasts...

...lots of great summer weather...

...and winter weather too...

... great times with kids...

....see interesting places...

...and have fun and laugh...even when reality is a tangled web of work, dinner, laundry, laughs, colds, diapers, Lego pieces in the wrong places, flat tires on bikes, no good lettuce at ICA, and too many e-mails to respond too...

Congratulations from across the pond!

In Memoriam: my uncle Olle

It is a little over a month since my beloved uncle, Olle, died.  He was a contributor to this family blog, he and I had discussions on everything from Swedish politics to scientific policy and history, and we all miss him terribly. What a wonderful person he was. In his memory, I am here posting one of his gorgeous photos, and you can see more of them on his photo gallery here. Thanks for everything, Olle.

Happy birthday LS!

Picture borrowed from http://moefamily.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/congratulations-norway/

Today is Norway´s national holiday and the birthday of LS. I don´t know if this has formed a closer relationship with Norway for her, but I suspect so. Me on the other hand, having the same birthday as the national day as Laos, feel no such connection ;) (smiling)

I hope you have a great birthday LS!

All our love from Sweden to you!

We live in strange times, when family time has to be scheduled..

From a recent newsletter from the school district and township we live in:

"What does Night Off mean?
It means a community-wide observance of the importance of family by taking the night off from
regularly scheduled commitments. The schools, township, houses of worship, scouts, and
various community organizations agree to a night without meetings, practices, games,
rehearsals, and homework on March 3rd.

Each family decides how they wish to recognize the importance of family. A family can
participate in a wide range of activities such as eating dinner together, playing board games or musical instruments, going skating or to a movie, or attending a sporting event, just to name a
few.

Why? To encourage and promote quality family time." {My bold italics}

My questions -
For us that have family night most nights of the week, do we get the night off to do something without our families? Can we have a Night On?

They need to schedule a night so families can eat dinner together? Other families must not be like ours. We eat dinner together every night. But I already knew we were the exception, this announcement just puts it on paper so it becomes the truth.

What qualifies as quality family time? Three hours one night out of 365 days? This reeks of Big Brother mentality. "We will schedule your quality time, from 6.05 PM to 8.34 PM on a Tuesday in March." Or do they really think people have to be taught how to get together as families? Probably, yes.

I find the whole thing depressing. Here are some more real things for families to do together, any day of the year: turn off the TV, take a hike, plant some seeds, compost your green stuff, carry firewood, photograph a sunset, draw a faucet, cook a meal, paint a door, make a cookie, build a bird house, chop some rose bushes, build a fire, smoke some bacon, listen to old stories, blog your thoughts, discuss black holes and infinity, pet a cat, donate some books, go to the library, write a letter, design some ear rings,l watch George Carlin on Youtube about cats and dogs.... (note how none of these costs any money and don't involve commercial things you have to travel to like movie theaters, skating rinks, sports events, etc.).

So, is this an issue in Sweden? Do people have to be taught how to have quality family time over there?

Busy weekend

It has been one of those weekends here at Screech Owl Meadow (I just made up that name, in Swedish I guess it would be sparvuggleglantan). Busy, busy, and now our bodies are aching as a result. When I started makin this list of what we accomplish I got amazed. 4 people can do a lot! (Kids, thanks!!!) We did: Digging holes in the basement, wheelbarrows of gravel, rocks, and old coal, scraping and painting window sills, washing mosquito nets for windows, washing windows, oiling soapstone counters, scrubbing kitchen linoleum floor and then shine it up, washing 3 loads of laundry and hang it outside, clean all bathrooms, put up new shower curtain in kids bathroom, wash walls in kids bath (once a year this needs to be done), two people got eye exams, one got new classes, we got new pillows and a wider comforter, make jerk seasoning, made dinner two nights (filet mignon and lobster! and jerk shrimp, hot and good), mop the stairs, fix the lawn mover (for the 100th time), change water filer (too late, filled with icky black stuff), made labels for all homemade oils and vinegars (about 15 bottles so far), take in laundry, shake carpets, wipe down walls over stove in kitchen, read New York Times, clean up stuff hanging out of a cat's butt (ough! horrible), kids' cleaning rooms, order garlic for fall planting, order a insulating box for the attic stairs, going to Lowes to get renovation stuff and carrying it to the barn, going to liqour store for wine, getting corn at the farmer's market, dropping of a child's desk at a friends, went to sleepover party and pig roast (AREA) and playdate (LA), planned dinners for next week, did homework (kids), wiped down shelves, looked for a missing hook for the kids shower curtain, tried to find the lost tablet pen (no luck), carried stuff to the barn, into the attic, and upstairs, and watch to Road to Perdition. No wonder we are tired tonight.

And no kids asked for Sunday candy all day! Thanks PP, AREA, and LA for all your help.

Congratulations!

A flower for our new addition to our extended family, and this one was born on Friday in Norway. Congratulations and welcome to the world!