Ude paa landet

The second day it snowed here around where we lived, my boys wanted to go sledging.
Great idea. We even took one of Jonathans friends with us. The car was fill of excited boys and sledges.

Anden dag med snevejr tog jeg drengene og en af Jonathans venner med ud på kælkebakken i Gjerlev. Bilen fyldt med spændte drenge og slæder kørte vi afsted.

Despite the lack of snow the boys had a blast going downhill.

Trods den manglende sne havde drengene nogle gode timer på kælkebakken.

Brave Jonathan wanted to try the wildest hill…

Modige Jonathan prøvede den vildeste bakke….

A not so brave Jonathan after he had landed in the bottom of the valley. It was a crazy ride, with lots of bumps. He didnt fall of, but he sure jumped in the air several times on the way downhill.
He stood up, warned his friend not to do the same and ran towards me, and THEN he bursted into tears, mostly because of the chock he was in after that ride.

En ikke så modig Jonathan efter at han havde advaret sin ven imod at tage bakke. Dvs han nåede at løbe hen til mig før han brød ud i gråd, nok mest over chokket da det var noget af en tur han fik ned af den bakke.

Can you ride your sledge downhill where there is little to no snow? I’ve seen it been done, but the boys and I do prefer it with more snow – so maybe tomorrow we should do it again.

Kan man kælke uden sne. Jeg så det i sidste uge med mine drenge, men både drengene og jeg foretrækker absolut en snefyldt bakke – så måske skulle vi prøve igen i morgen.

The boys, Sally and I went for a walk in the snow today. It was cold but refreshing.

I dag tog drengene, Sally og jeg en tur ud i den kolde men forfriskende sne.

The only one who really wanted to go outside in the cold was Sally, but when we had walked four km on the snowy fields and we all were cold, we sure all were happy.

Den eneste der glædede sig til turen var Sally. Men da vi nåede vores hus efter en fire km lang og kold tur, var humøret højt hos os alle.

Jonathan struggles with pain in his legs regularly and today was no exception, so he needed a rest halfway, which made Sally curious.

Jonathan som sædvanen tro døjede med ondt-i-benene, måtte tage sig en slapper midtvejs, hvilket fangede Sallys nysgerrighed.

What Sally enjoyed most on our walk was that she could run as far as she wanted, there were no strings attached to her, her leach was not in use. And boy did she enjoy it. She ran several hundreds of meters in front of us, but always returned within a few minutes, to check if we were all ok the she ran off again. (watch the video below)

Sally nød mest at være totalt fri på turen, “der er ingen bånd der binder mig” syntes at være hendes melodi på turen. Hundesnoren var gemt godt af vejen i min frakkelomme. Hun stor nød at kunne løber flere hundrede meter væk fra os, for så at løbe tilbage og checke om alt var ok, for så at løbe væk igen. (se videoen herunder)

MVI_5485

She sure enjoyed her freedom – but was it total freedom? If it was, then why did she keep returning to us? Why did she make sure she never lost us out of her sight?

Sally nød sin frihed – men var det total frihed? Hvis det var, hvorfor kom hun så hele tiden tilbage til os? Hvorfor checkede hun hele tiden om hun kunne se os?

In January we in Hirtshals for our monthly Younth group meeting. Leif preached over the shortest book of the Bible, Philemon. He focused on the topic FREEDOM. On how we can be a slave of sin or free in Christ, be a slave to Christ but free. Its not a topic I haven’t heard before, but it touched me this Friday evening.

Am I a slave? And whos slave am I then? Do I feel free in Christ? And what does this freedom mean to me?

Tidligere i januar var vi i Hirtshals for at have ungdomsmøde. Leif prædikede over den korteste bog i Bibelen, nemlig Filemon. Han fokuserede på emnet FRIHED, hvordan vi kan være slaver af syn eller frie i Kristus, være Kristi slave men frie. Jeg har før hørt prædiker over dette emne, men denne fredag rørte det mig.

Er jeg en slave? Og vis slave er jeg i givet fald? Føler jeg mig fri i Kristus? Og hvad betyder denne frihed for mig?

I am a master of postponement and I have realized that most of my household are as well. So I think I have two options:
Either I accept that we do get things done eventually but very rarely right away.
OR
I need to pull my self together and be a role model and hoping the rest of the family will follow.

Jeg er en mester til at udsætte ting, og jeg må indrømme, at resten af familien går lige i mine fodspor. Jeg har to muligheder som jeg ser det:
Enten må jeg bare acceptere, at det er sådan vores familie fungerer – for det gør den jo, vi får tingene lavet efterhånden, bare sjældent lige med det samme
ELLER
Jeg må tage mig sammen og sørge for at blive en rollemodel i ikke at udsætte og håbe, at resten af familien følger trop.

While I was working full time I planned to do at lot while not working. I have done some of that, but I guess the list of things I want to do is only getting bigger.
So I have pondered on this a bit. Am I lazy or is the fact that the list is growing only a sign that I love planning and ideas pops in my head all the time?
I like to think its the last one that is true, but it most likely is a combination of both.

Mens jeg stadig var i fuldtidsarbejde planlagde jeg en masse jeg havde tænkt mig at lave når jeg blev deltidsansat. Jeg har gjort nogle af de ting, men lige nu ser det ud som om listen bare bliver længere og længere.
Jeg har tænkt lidt over dette fænomen. Er det dovenskab, eller bliver listen bare længere og længere fordi jeg elsker at planlægge og ideerne bare bliver ved med at komme?
Jeg ønsker at tænke, at det kun er det sidste som er sandt, men virkeligheden er nok, at det er en kombination af dem begge.

Today I am going to start on one of the many things on my list: The boys bedrooms. They both tidied and cleaned their rooms yesterday (Two weeks ago) so I cant use that as an excuse for not starting.

Jeg vil i dag starte på en af de mange ting på listen: Mine drenges værelser. De fik begge ryddet op og rengjort deres værelser i går (det er nu to uger siden), så den undskyldning er fejet af bordet.

Build-in shelfs before – Indbyggede hylder før

Roof before paint -Loftet inden malingen

They boys are switching rooms, Samuel is getting closer and closer to being a teenager and needs a door in his room, and since Jonathans room isn’t actual a seperate room with a door, Jonathan will move out and into Samuels rooms that is more like an open space thingy upstairs. But before switching I want to paint Samuels new room aka Jonathans old room. Both the ceiling, the walls and the build in shelfs needs paint, which is a costy and slow progress.

Drengene vil gerne bytte værelser. Samuel nærmer sig med drastiske skridt teeenage-alderen og har brug for et rum med en dør, han kan lukke. Og da Jonathan værelse netop er et værelse og ikke bare et åbent gennemgangsrum som Samuels værelse, ønsker de at bytte. Men før de kan skifte har jeg et ønske om at male både vægge, loft og indbyggede hylder, og det er dyr og langsom affære.

Samuels new room – Samuels nye værelse

New white roof – Nyt hvidt loft

View when you enter the room - Det her ser nu når du står i døråbningen.

View from the relaxing chair - Udsigten fra bagerste del af værelset.

My dream is to give Jonathan a room where he can be creative, so he needs lots of boxes and small drawers for all his treasures that he finds and wants to build things out of, and a room for Samuel to be creative with his music. I am also hoping to get room for my own creative mind, a space where I can sew all the things I have in my head.

Min drøm er, at Jonathan skal få et værelse, hvor han kan være kreativ og bygge alle de ting han vil, derfor skal han have en masse små skuffer og kasser til alle dippedutterne, og at lave et værelse til Samuel som fordrer hans kreativitet inden for musikken. Som en sidegevinst håber jeg at få plads til mine egen kreationer med symaskinen.

Jonathans room viewed from Samuels room – Jonathans rum set fra Samuels værelse.

Jonathans room tv is only used for Playstation -Jonathans værelse.

I have now been more or less working on the painting of Samuels new bedroom for weeks, it has been a slow and at times painful progress due to my joint-pains. It has taken five layers to get the ceiling painted even and to get the white paint to cover then wooden ceiling.

Jeg har nu været i gang i nogle uger med at male Samuels nye værelse. Det har været en langsom og smertefuld process pga mine ledsmerter. Jeg har måtte male loftet fem gange får at dække kvaster og andre ting i loftets træbjælker.

BUT I am done now

Men nu er jeg færdig

I teach history class in 6th grade. And After 9 weeks of Christian the 4th and the Renaissance they were ready to start there project on the topic. They could chose among these topics: Wars, Buildings of Chr. IV, How people lived, Society, Colonization, Inventions and Fashion.

Jeg underviser 6. kl. i historie. Efter 9 ugers gennemgang og snak om Chr. IV and renæssancen var de i fredags klar til at påbegynde hver deres projekt om emnet. De kunne vælge imellem: Krige, Chr. IV Bygninger, Hvordan alm. mennesker boede, Samfund, Kolonisering, Opfindelser og Mode. 

I dont want a long written rapport but I want them to make a product that they use while presenting the rest of the class to their topic. So if they have chosen Invention they need to make a model of the invention and use it while they talk about the invention. Or if they have chosen building of Chr IV, they can make a model of one of the building to illustrate it and to tell us about it.

I har fortalt dem at jeg ikke ønsker en lang rapport men at jeg forventer at de laver et produkt der kan støtte op under deres fremlæggelse. Hvis de f.eks. har valgt opfindelser skal de lave en model af datidens opfindelser og bruge produktet mens de fortæller klassen om deres emne. Har de valgt Chr.IV bygninger, kan de lave en model af en af bygninger og bruge modellen når de fremlægger. 

It was one exited 6th that started working on each their topic. And I was amazed how good they were at finding ways to illustrate their chosen topic. In four weeks we will start the presentation of every groups topic.

Det var en meget tændt klasse som begyndte at arbejde med deres projekter, og jeg var forundret over hvor gode de var til at finde på produkter der skulle understøtte deres emne. Om fire uger begynder de at fremlægge. 

I am pretty exited to see how it all turns out. This groups topic is: Inventions in the renaissance and they have been studying how the letterpress machine that was invented by Johann Gutenberg is working and are trying to make a smaller version of it.

Jeg er ret spændt på at se hvordan det hele ender. Denne gruppe har valgt emnet “opfindelser.” Og de har undersøgt hvordan Johann Gutenbergs bogtryksmaskine fungerede og vil lave en i en mindre udgave.

No one says you have to sit on your chair while working, this might be a better way for some.

Ingen siger at man skal sidde på en stol mens man arbejder, dette fingerer måske bedre for nogle.

Poul Pava is a Danish artist, who in a naive and spontaneous way, has specialized in painting the child in all of us. His amazing universe of pictures and colors includes large paintings, postcards, memory games, prints on canvas and much more. Poul Pave’s orginal universe are often tried imitated in other people’s style and design.
And that is exactly what we have done in my art class.

Jonathans work, who was with me this day because he was sick, and both mom and dad had to work that day. The text says: Drengen der havde hjertet med sig/The boy who had his heart with him.

Den danske kunstner Poul Pavas motiver er karakteristiske med deres figurer der beskriver “barnet i os alle” og kendetegnes af Poul Pavas navive og spontane stil. Poul pavas orginale univers og streg ses ofte forsøgt efterlignet i andres stil og design.
Og det er netop det vi har gjort i min billedkunstsklasse.   

Poul Pava uses Danish sayings and then paints them literally. There is this Danish slogan for a florist that says: “Say it with flowers.” Poul Pava could have made a painting of a boy who talked…the words that came out of his mouth would be flowers. And the text under the painting would be: The boy who said it with flowers.

Poul Pava bruger ordsprog og slogans når han maler. Han kunne f.eks. bruge sloganet: Sig det med blomster” på denne måde: Et maleri med en dreng der snakker, og så kommer der blomster ud af munden på drengen. Maleriet ville hedde: Drengen som sagde det med blomster.

I really enjoy Poul Pavas naive paintings, and especially that he uses slogans/sayings and used them literally. My mom also paints some naive paintings, you might enjoy hers at this page and then visit Galleri 2 then hit Art/Sjove malerier/til salg.

Jeg er vild med Poul Pavas naive streg, især er jeg vild med at han bruger slogans/ordsprog og maler det bogstaveligt. Min mor maler også en gang imellem naive, du kan se dem her ved at gå ind på Galleri 2 og trykke på Art/Sjove malerier/til salg.

Jonathan got his turtle this past fall, he had wanted one for over a year. He did a lot to make sure he was going to get it, he never nagged about it, he might have said something like: “Samuel got at dog worth more than 1000 kr. last Christmas, so maybe it isn’t bad behavior to ask if I can get something worth 1000 kr.?”
He borrowed books on turtles, he wrote about turtles and he even made his own turtle. He has a whole collection of plastic or fabric turtles.  He sleeps with his turtles some nights. And after a year or so we finally found the perfect turtle for our son. But I guess the I-want-a-turtle-really-bad turned into turtles-aren’t-more-fun-alive-than-as-toys.

Jonathan fik sin længe ønskede skildpadde sidste efterår, han havde ønsket sig en i over et år. Han gjorde meget for at få den, dog plagede han aldrig, han sagde højst noget lignende: “Sidste jul fik Samuel en hund til over 1000 kr, måske er det min tur at få noget til 1000 kr.”
Jonathan lånte bøger, han skrev om skildpadder and fortalte om skildpadder, ja, han syede sågar sin egen skildpadde. Han har en hel samlig legetøjsskildpadder som han har sovet med. Og efter et års venten fandt vi skildpadden til Jonathan, men hvad sker der: pludselig er Jeg-ønsker-mig-så-meget-en-skildpadde blevet til skildpadder-er-ikke-sødere-i-live-end-som-legetøj.

Well maybe I am not totally fair, Jonathan got Geo late in the fall and I guess due to the winter and environmental changes he decided to go into hibernation, and I don’t blame Jonathan for not thinking that is so much fun. He has said several times in a sad tone that he can’t wait for the summer to arrive so he can see Geo to be more active.

Ok, måske var jeg lidt hård imod Jonathan. Han fik Geo sent i efteråret og jeg gætter at ændringen i miljø samt vinteren taget i betragtning fik ham at gå i hi. Så jeg undrer mig ikke over Jonathans manglende begejstring. Han har sagt op til flere gange, at han ikke kan vente til sommeren kommer, for da bliver Geo aktiv.

Today it looks like Geo decided that it is time quit sleeping 23 hours a day. After at least three rounds in his terrarium, I decided he needed to come downstairs for a walk, to explore the environment and to …

I dag virkede det som om Geo havde besluttet sig for ikke at sover 23 af døgnets 24 timer, derfor besluttede jeg efter hans tre ture rundt i hans terrarium at han skulle få lov til at komme nedenunder at spadsere og udforske og…

sally going berserk over Geo

I want to have him for dinner

After this I took poor Geo upstairs so he could walk around and explore Jonathan’s bedroom while I painted the walls.

Efter disse episoder tog jeg stakkels Geo op på Jonathan’s værelse, hvor han i fred og ro kunne spadsere og udforske mens jeg malede.

A little over two months ago, I thought I was going to be unemployed, but the school I worked out needed a substitute teacher for the schools librarian who went on a sick leave. So the past two months and the next two months I am enjoying being a librarian.

For godt to måneder siden troede jeg at jeg ville være arbejdsløs, men skolen jeg arbejdede på fik pludselig brug for en vikar på biblioteket, da en lærer langtids-sygemeldte sig. Og de to næste måneder leger jeg bibliotekar – og det nyder jeg.

One of the best thing with this job is that I have time to talk to every single child visiting the library and that there is time for me to find great books for my boys among all the books this small big library – especially Jonathan likes that I bring books back home.

Noget af det fedeste ved dette job er, at jeg har tid at snakke med hvert enkelt barn, og at der er tid til at finde gode bøger frem, også til mine egne drenge – især Jonathan.

I have enjoyed reading some of these classics among other classics I’ve read since I got this library job.

Jeg har nydt at læse nogle af disse klassikere mens jeg har været bibliotekar.

These books I want to read to my boys, but so far Samuel wants to finish Lord of the Rings, and Jonathan wants to finish a book series by a Danish author Josefine Ottesen.

Disse bøger vil jeg gerne læse for mine drenge, de vil dog først færdiggøre de bøger de pt læser. Samuel er i gang med sidste bind af Ringenes Herre og Jonathan er i gang med en serie af Josefine Ottesen.

Sally don’t know she is a dog, and that dogs are supposed to be scared if not terrified of fireworks or she is plain weird…or maybe both.

Enten er Sally knald i låget eller også ved hun bare ikke at hun er en hund og derfor bør være bange for fyrværkeri – eller også er hun begge dele.

New Years Eve we spent with some of our friends and their dog. Their dog was terrified, Sally thought it was so exiting.

Vi tilbragte nytårs aften sammen med nogle af vores venner og deres hund som var hunderæd, mens Sally råhyggede sig midt i al larmen.

The circus with Sally continued today when the boys used their last fireworks. She was so sad she couldnt go out and have fun with the boys.

Cirkuset fortsatte i dag, hvor drengene var ude for at skyde deres sidste fyrværkeri af.

Sally vil ud

Weird dog

Underlig hund.

Sally wants to be a part in everything we do in this family. When Leif and I cuddle on the sofa she comes and wants to lay between us. Leif can’t kiss me without having Sally trying to get a kiss too.
This wanting-to-be-a-part-of-things made it pretty hard to bake cookies before Christmas, but then I remembered a trick my cousin Maria Fuglø showed me when I visited her this fall. We were walking their puppy, and she (the puppy) was pulling the leach all the time, then Maria let go of the leach and then the puppy stopped walking. We were laughing at this, since it seemed kinda silly. Well, after getting pretty frustrated at Sally for wanting to eat the cookie-dough, I tried that trick.

Sally vil være en del af alle de ting, der sker her i familien. Når Leif og jeg krammer hinanden på sofaen, kommer hun straks og vil ligge lige imellem os. Når Leif giver mig et kys, kommer Sally og prøver at hoppe op, for også at få et kys.
Denne jeg-vil-være-med-i-alting kan være temmelig frustrerende, især når man skal bage, men det fik mig at tænke tilbage på en spadseretur jeg tog sammen med min kusine Maria Fuglø og hendes hvalp i efterårsferien. Hun viste mig, hvordan hendes hvalp, der ellers hele tiden trak i snoren, ville stå helt stille, hvis hun bare slap humdesnoren. Vi grinede lidt af dette og fandt det temmelig underligt. Mens jeg bagte småkager sammen med Jonathan her op til jul, blev jeg var temmelig frustreret over Sallys jeg-vil-være-med-i-alting, og kom jeg i tanker om Marias hvalp, og ville afprøve dette med Sally.

I put Sally in the leach and led her to her pillow, and guess what. She just sat there. She didn’t move, even when the nice smell of newly baked cookies came from the kitchen only a yard from her, she just sat there.

Jeg satte snoren på Sally og fulgte hende over til hendes pude og gæt hvad der skete? Hun blev siddende der. Hun flyttede sig ikke ud af flækken, selv ikke når duften af nybagte småkager kom ud fra køkkenet, bare en meter fra, hvor hendes pude lå.

So thanks Maria for that great trick, I guess it works with all cute dogs

Tak, kære Maria for dette fantastiske trick, jeg tror det virker på alle søde hunde