Category: Family

Day 252: Yoga

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I like yoga.

When the girls were babies, they liked to crawl and climb all over me when I tried to practice. Anything but peacefull.

As they got a bit older, I would teach them a few basic poses. They would do yoga with me – at least for the duration of their attention span, four minutes or so.

Some years ago, I discovered a YouTube channel that makes yoga adventures for kids. At 10-20 min long, these held Alanna’ and Kiara’s attention long enough to finish them – and now they occassionally do them just the two of them.

So  after eight years, I am finally able to practice in peace again.

If the mood strikes me.

Day 248: Winding Down

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When I was a small child, our summer cottage (with no electricity or inside plumbing) was not suitable  winter use. We would come for a day (or more) in autumn to rake the leaves and close everything up for winter.

I mostly remember having hot chocolate and sandwitches in the sauna steps with my brother, while the adults did… whatever adults do in these situations. We would spend the night at my grandmother’s house in a nearby town.

Now we can stay overnight and cook proper meals in a warm kitchen.

The girls spend time on the shore, doing many of the same things I did with my brother.

Unfortunately, I am now the adult doing whatever adults do…

Luckily, that is not too much.

Day 247: Family Halloween

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Our family tradition of celebrating Halloween at the summer cottage started somewhat by accident. It is the right time of the year for some autumn maintenance and gardening. A few years ago, our work weekend  happened to fall on Halloween, so we turned it into a celebration.

So now, even though we were several weeks early (calendar juggling is a reality even within the family), there is no reason small enough for a celebration. 

Halloween is definitely not a Finnish tradition, and has only caught on here in the last 10 years or so. When I was a kid, it was as distant as Carnival in Brazil. You had heard of it, but it had nothing to do with you.

So, I still find it hard to believe my kids will grow up carving pumpkins every year.

Day 246: Weight Of the Family

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I picked up two family Bibles from my uncle today to deliver to my mum.

They are no light reading. The older of the two was printed in 1849 (177 years!) and weighs around 8 kg. It is impressive that it has remained in the family for so long.

I also find the written Finnish in the Bible fascinating. I can understand about 80% of it – and much of that is because I can guess the words from context, or already know the passage. But a lot has changed in less than200 years.

That’s a weighty piece of history.

Day 245: Food For Thought

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I am extremely lucky that Stuart enjoys cooking. Even more so because he has taken over almost all the cooking during the busy work weeks.

However, sometimes (but never during those busy work weeks) I miss cooking.

As with any skill, your “touch” gets rusty when you don’t use it. I used to instinctively know how to season and flavor a dish. Now I need to measure everything and trust the recipe. Which – to be honest – typically tastes fine. But feels different.

I keep promising myself I will get back to it.

One day.

Day 238: Reading

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I was listening to Alanna read her homework chapter to Stuart tonight. I was surprised how well Stuart was able to catch all the little mistakes, whether she mixed up letters (which can change the meaning of a word) or got the endings wrong.

Considering that he probably didn’t even understand what all the words meant, it is quite a feat.

Definitely requires a lot more concentration from him than from me.

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 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.