Category: 365 Project

Day 234: Chores

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It’s a guaranteed rabbit hole in any conversation with fellow parents: how many chores should kids do?

We are still at a pretty basic level.  We expect the girls to clean up after themselves: to tidy their rooms (and whatever else they have scattered around the house), take their plates away, put their laundry in the basket and clean up the kitchen after making their own snacks or breakfasts.

For bigger jobs, such as raking leaves or cleaning up the garden, we expect them to pitch in for a few hours.

I think the girls are soon ready to take on more responsibility around the house. In fact, we’d probably have insisted on it already, if getting them to do their chores weren’t such an enormous chore for Stuart and me.

Day 233: Birthday Dinner

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Stuart, Alanna and Kiara took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday.

Over the years, Stuart and I have perfected the art of maximising the number of dishes you can taste in a restaurant. We never order the same dish, and often go half-and-half on starters, sometimes even on mains.

The girls complicate the maths, as they are just as keen to taste everything. With you have half a starter to start with, sharing it with two other people tends to leave you with very little.

When the dish is very small – or exceptionally good – we claim it is super spicy. But even that doesn’t always work anymore.

Day 232: Doodle

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I sit in a a many meetings. And I mean many.

Years ago, I realised that unless I am looking at data or a demo, I need something to keep my hands busy. Otherwise, I easily slip into multitasking mode and start going through my messages. And if it is not a problem that I am only listening with half an ear, I really should not be in that meeting.

The advantage of remote meetings is that you have more options than just drawing lines in your notebook… Over time, I’ve gone through different activities: knitting, painting watercolors, lifting weights… Meetings are also a great moment to sew new badges onto scout uniforms.

Naturally, not all of these are equally suitable for meetings with the camera on.

Lately, I have taken my doodling up a notch. Still not particularly useful.

But satisfying.

Day 231: Looking Up

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Helsinki city centre is beautiful – when you remember to look up. Many of the buildings have  interesting details, colours and statues, that you rarely notice. In all honesty, despite walking the same road twice a week for years, I still get surprised.

I am sure the styles have very important-sounding official names. I know none of them. But they are pretty.

Day 229: Waiting

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There are many things that go through one’s mind when waiting for one’s child during a comic course.

Who decided that the only chairs in a waiting lobby should be bar stools with uncomfortable seats? For what purpose did someone originally design such an akwardly angled space only to add spectacular windows? How much work is enough work to not feel quilty about leaving early to drive your child to said course?

And most importantly: Is it inevitable that the comic course will always be scheduled at the same time as beginners’ orchestra practice?

Day 227: ‘Shrooming

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Everyman’s rights are a fantastic concept, recognised throughout the Nordics. They allow  anyone to walk, camp or gather berries and mushrooms in forests – no matter who owns the land.

Picking mushrooms is therefore all the rage among us middle-aged Finns.

In all seriosness, I have been interested in mushrooming for a long time. But it is not something you should attempt if you are totally clueless.

Out of the approx 400 species of mushrooms in Finland, only 5-6 can kill you. Another 50 or so just make you sick. However, those are not odds I am willing to gamble on. Especially as only about 30 actually taste good.

So, I took a course. Six hours with a very competent teacher in a sunny forest.

Now I believe I can confidently recognize five edible ones.

Day 225: Kids Comic Book Fair

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There was a kids’ comic book fair in Helsinki today. If not for a friend who sent us a note, we never would’ve known about it. And unfortunately, based on how few people there were, not everyone has such a clued-up friend.

I often wonder how much cool stuff we miss, just because we never see the ads.

But we made it to this one. The best activity was designing their own characters for a comic graveyard. Alanna’s two-tailed cat zombie laughed out loud while scaring others and swinging. Kiara’s 10,000-year-old worm was actually not dead. He was too stubborn to die – but liked hanging out with the dead. But then again, he was bad at math, so who knows how old he really was…

Now we wait to see if either of these characters makes the cut for the actual comic book.