Category: thankful

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Thankful Thursday

Olof

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you are enjoying a beautiful day and meal with the people you love!

This week I am thankful for having a home to live in. It is not perfect. Not by far. It is on a busy street and on top of a hill so no teaching my child to ride a bike here. But it is built 1927 and I love its old bones. I love the character and how it felt like a home when I first walked in and it was void of anything. I love it’s smell and the built ins. I love that the closets in the 2 smaller rooms have windows in them (the 2 small windows above the door are in the closets). I love the hard wood floors through out and that there is NO carpet anywhere in our home (carpet is NASTY). I would rather have concrete floors than filthy carpet. The fact that it is our home, that we own it, is just so much better. It´s a lot of work to keep up with an old home like this but I love it so.

Óðinn at 3 months

Magni a few weeks old

Óðinn 2 and Magni 4 months

Magni 7 months playing on the hard wood in the living room

Magni happy on the horrible linoleum floor in the kitchen

The boys playing in the knitted toys a little over a year ago

The boys playing in the living room this summer.

I also love that my children learned to walk here, said their first words, had their first tumbles and there first giggles. They learned to play hide and seek here, they touched their first piano, they had their first sleepless night because of teething in this house. There are marks on the walls and floors from an artistic streak in my children and there is well worn furniture that shows that  a family with young children lives here. I dream of a bigger home in the north east where we have land to grow our own food and keep chickens and maybe a small dairy cow but this will always be the home where I my babies became children and where my husband and I learned to be parents.

In this photo Alex just figured out how to suck his thumb in the living room

Now, looking forward to witnessing Alex learning his firsts here too. To try to be present in this house, in this time, with my children, and take in these firsts, both good and bad, because they are all the building blocks of who we become as people and I am lucky to witness my boys grow to hopefully become fine young men and then watch them make homes with their life partners where hopefully my grandchildren will have their firsts.

Now I’m off to make the meal for Alexander’s first Thanksgiving. He will not be eating the food directly but he will be enjoying the nourishment that this meal, that reminds us to give thanks for the things and people we have in our lives, provides me to make his milk.

What are you thankful for today?

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On Being Thankful

Olof

Since this is the month of Thanksgiving I am going to give thanks each Thursday.

M proud of his hand turkey

I´m so thankful for these amazing boys that I have given birth to. I´m extremely thankful for them being healthy and happy. Each day I try to look at them and realize what a miracle they really are even if they are fighting and being naughty. Even when I´ve had one of those days where there is pee all over the bathroom floor and the walls have become art pieces.

I´m thankful for a husband that is healthy and the best dad that I could have hoped for my children. He is such a great provider and the love of my life. Doesn´t hurt that he is my best friend as well.

I´m thankful for my parents that have been there for me through thick and thin. My mother has been present at all 3 of my births and such a great labor coach.

I´m thankful for all my siblings and the support that each one of them has given me at one time or another through out my life.

I´m am thankful for this healthy body of mine. I look at each stretch mark, flabby skin, and wrinkle as my story of how I  have lived life. Each scar as a testament to living life to it´s fullest and not with fear. That I have  really had 3 beautiful children, spent fun days on the beach with friends, climbed over barbed wire fences and been at wild parties in my time.

What are you thankful for?

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Giving Thanks During this Holiday Season.

Olof

I wanted to post a posting that shows the things that I am thankful for. I know Thanksgiving was a week ago but I was busy with a house full of guests and a final project that I needed to finish.

I am thankful for:
My wonderful life.
My beautiful son that taught me how much I could love because before having him I thought I knew what unconditional love was but I had no idea how drunk in love you could get with your child. My child could do anything and I would still love him.
My great husband that works so hard to provide and take care of his ever growing family. He is my best friend and the first love of my life. He is the one that taught me to slow down and face what ever comes my way. He is also so very supportive of my decisions on going to school and the best dad for my son that I could have asked for.
My amazing body that is growing a healthy baby boy that is due January 29th of 2010. I still watch my belly in awe when it starts moving all on its own and I think wow, there is a human being in there that is alive and thinking but doesn´t need air because I supply him with oxygen with my body.
My home that I have owned for the last 4 and a half years and my son has spent his first years of life.
My POS car that I have owned for over 8 years now and amazes me that it still runs. I´m thankful for every time it starts and gets me from point A to point B. It is its last winter though and it won´t make it through another summer. A new car is on the to do list.
My brain. It has gotten me this far in my masters degree and helped my adapt to the countries that I have lived in.
My parents. They are a god´s send. They have raised me and helped me get to where I am. I would never have become the person I am with out their support and guidance. It´s their unconditional love and support that is making it possible for me to go back to Iceland to have this baby. They are also always ready to let my husband and I go out for a date when they come to visit and we never have to ask.
My large family that is always there for me no matter how long I have been away. I´ve lived in a foreign country now for 10 years and have only gone home to Iceland for visits that have not lasted longer than 3 months at a time.
My in-laws for being so kind to my son and help my husband with the things that need to be done around the house.
My friends that have stuck by me through the years. I have a few that have been there for me through thick and thin.
My Icelandic citizenship and all that that entails. I´m getting great student loans and even though I´m going to school I still get my 6 months of maternity leave.
My abilities to knit. I am thankful for my grandmother teaching me to knit when I was very young and now I can take a ball of yarn and some needles and make almost anything cloth like. It helps that I come from a very creative family.
My business www.clothdiaperhut.com and the extra income it brings in for my family. (we ship everywhere in the world by the way)
How cheap it is to live in Tulsa. Would never be able to go to grad school and own a home like I do if the cost of living wasn´t as cheap as it is here.
The ability to be at home with my son during the day and watch him grow and develop from being a baby to a toddler.
O´s daycare that takes good care of him 3 days a week from 2pm-5:30pm making it possible for me to go to school and have a day to get errands done with out having a toddler in tow.
My Roomba vacuum that makes life just a little easier.
Healthy frozen meals that you can buy at the grocery store that has saved me and my family from too much fast food and saved us so much money.
My husbands ability to make great wine and beer that we can give to friends and family at x-mas and that one day I will be able to enjoy when I quit being pregnant and breastfeeding. One day he will make a business of this ability of his.
That my cats are now outside cats and are not bringing in fleas and cat hair. And no more cat litter being carried all over the house.

That is it for now I need to get back to my nesting in my house. I´ve had the urge to rearrange everything and get ready for baby which can make a mess.

With love,
Olof