It was the people that came that made the day so good. All but one of my extended family could be there. My brother and his family as well. And some of my good good friends too. Some I hadn’t seen for a year or more. So nice to catch up and see how much the children have grown.

As usual I wanted to have a barbecue. Setting out the meat and vegetables and letting my guests take whatever they wanted and grill it themselves. I was a bit worried about the weather, but we did all right. Most of the children played outside for a long time, and we had room in the farm house for all when needed.

Off course I wished we could have been outside all day in the sunshine and soaked up the warm weather; that would have been great! Sitting under our apple treas, going to and from the BBQ as we wished and needed.

Maybe next time. I like to do this kind of birthday celebration every 5 years. I have already placed the weather wish for 2016 Then I want some sun!

Thanks for reading this. I promise there will be some photos from this day eventually…. and maybe some words as well about being 40.

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Look for my 10 on the 10th blog post later today. I need some sleep

My mom cooked us dinner (lovely fish dinner) and we spent the most of the afternoon outside in the beautiful spring weather. MT and his two cousins had fun (most of the time) running around, playing ball and discover nature. They also helped me cut a few branches for our Easter service on Palm Sunday.

My brother helped me with some light issues on my car and my SIL helped me make a wreath of thorns for our Easter service on Palm Sunday. In the evening there were coffee and cakes.

It was a really nice and relaxing day and I’m so glad we got to spend some hours together.

(all photos link to my Flickr account where each photo has a little bit of description to it if you want to read.)

Thank you for looking! Have a great Monday

We’re going swimming at a pool and MT is over the top excited (it’s part of his birthday gift from me). Glad to spend some more time with him before work and school starts up again tomorrow.

So we had a little garden party last Sunday, with my brother + family and my mom and dad. It was so nice to fire the BBQ grill again and be together on one of the few nice, warm and sunny days of August (so far). And MT was so happy, after being a bit sad over missing out on our last gathering in the garden (my birthday, also see below).

The nice thing about Sunday was that it took little to no planning. We just brought with us whatever we had on hand. I didn’t even have time to clean the house before this or set the table outside, we just didn’t care about the mess. It was more important for us to enjoy the afternoon and evening together. And to be honest they are family and know about my quirks and messes anyway.

My brother was nice enough to be the grill chef and barbecue the food for us. Thanks again We enjoyed being together, the food and the weather.

And we had some fun too.

Both kids and grown ups.

Later we spent some time talking about this and that, so great to be together and catch up on life. And the I got some help from all the guys to move a closet into my bed room too. Yay, it was a really good day. Now I have room for more clothes upstairs. Note to self: The closet needs some washing… and you need to fill it with clothes too.

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Anyhow, here is a scrapbook layout I made from the last barbecue in the garden, the birthday one (the one MT missed and felt a little left out of when he realized that his cousins where there and he was on vacation in western Norway).

Credits:
Template by Scrapping with Liz
Papers and element from Finley by Sweet Tomato designs (the red paper and banner is recolored)
Click the image and jump over to Flickr for journaling…

Today have been a mix max of feelings and time spent with family and friends. We’ve both laughed and cried while we celebrated a woman that was very dear to us and that we got to spend so much quality time with.

It was the day of our Grandma’s funeral and we all had planned and gotten different things to do, say or sing. Even a couple of her great grand children placed roses on her coffin to say their thanks.

It’s been a good day, and I’m glad to know that my mummy feels that way to. It was of course sad as well and we all wanted her to be there with us like she’s been for so many years. It felt so good to be together with so many that had loved her and to know that she knew how many of us felt – we are a family of talkers (more or less) and my Grandma was good with reading people.

I’m just leaving you with a few photos from the day. I took a lot of people photos, not many of them any great since I didn’t use flash and people moved around…. Anyhow above and below are a few of those I took today, ending with a beautiful full moon taken outside our house when we got back home.

I’m going to go to sleep now; this day have been far to long already. I didn’t sleep much last night (4-5 hours) worrying about the speech I was going to hold about my Grandma at the funeral (it went well, thankfully) – so I’m really tired to put it mildly.

Below is my favorite, recent, photo of Grandma (or Mormor as I call her in Norwegian = mothers mother). There will be more later in the week about her and about this day. But for now: Good Night!

She was old, 98.5 years old, so it didn’t come as a BIG surprise – but it happened so fast – one day she was bright alert and on the go – the next one she is no more.

Me and Grandma have a lot of history that is very dear to me, I’ve spent a great part of my childhood visiting her and Grandpa in their yellow house (that was sold when after Grandpa died 17 years ago). My Grandma was a woman with a strong opinion about just about everything, we spent a lot of time discussing issues of all kinds. Sometimes we disagreed greatly, usually we both got a lot to think about after debating. Most often we found some common ground in the end, and there was little or no hard feelings afterward. I think that was because we both loved each other deeply; no disagreement could change that!! After I started working as a pastor and moved away from home we haven’t had time to discuss all kinds of topics, but we have (off course) talked about church and theological issues, as she grew older she got a  bit milder and it was more a conversation than a discussion. I’m going to miss talking with her!!!

My Grandma had a great sense of humor and she laughed often.

Over the next week or so I’ll be using this blog to help me remember stuff about my Grandmother. It’s a nice way to gather my thoughts and find what  I think should be said in her funeral (I promised to help my mom with that). I guess I’ll be showing off a few photos as well as I have already.

We went to a family party yesterday afternoon. It was nice to be with them and sort of a tradition each summer. We ate barbecue outside and then cakes and coffee inside (since it started raining). In the late evening the rain stopped and the temperature wasn’t that bad so we all (not all come to think of it, but me, kiddo, my brother and his wife and kids) went to have a night swim in a nearby lake. The water was so warm and we had a great time together. Swimming, laughing, splashing and talking. Love you guys!!

Hoping to return to this lake another time this summer.

Credits: elements from shine on and unscripted no.3 by TaylorMade; papers and elements from bloom+grow by Ali Edwards, Amy Wolf and Meredith Fenwich; papers and element from de*lovely by Paislee Press and The Queen of Quirk; template by me

Journal: This weekend our good friend Bea came to stay with us. It was so nice to catch up, celebrate birthdays, drink coffee and just hang out together. I shot a few photos of Bea and MT, this one is my favorite. I love MT’s half smile and the way Bea looks at him. So much humor and love there!

As you can see, I’m testing my own block/boxy templates. Head over to my lime scrapped if you want a template freebie (available in a couple of days…).

I love you and I am seriously proud of you!! Keep smiling and loving to learn about the world!

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Can you believe it?! My kid is 6 years old today! Come fall he’s starting school for real. He’s a big boy now. Don’t think for a minute he lets me forget that

He was so happy this morning, jumping around, opening a few gifts with much joy and thankfulness. When we got to preschool/kindergarten the whole building smelled of waffles. They made it for him Later today he’s going to get a crown to wear and they are going to sing for him. I smile by the thought of how big his smile must be by then! He’ll also get fun tasks at the table and else during the day.

In the afternoon we are going to have a party at home with his friends. 5 boys and 3 or 4 girls. It’s going to be wild and chaotic, but also fun and memorable. I think I need to charge my camera My mom is coming over to help me a little (but mostly to keep me sane company).

Now I’m going to make me a cup of coffee and get started on the many tasks around the house. And I have to start making the gello or else it’ll be too liquid to eat (and we can’t have that!).

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And HAPPY EARTH DAY to everyone!!

I’ll get back to that part of the day later…..

Photo from the baptism Easter Day 2006.

But first I had a little work to do, an Easter service up in the mountain. In a small, cozy church. I didn’t bring my camera, so I have sadly no photos to show. The service didn’t start before 3 pm so we had plenty of time to enjoy the morning and early day.

MT was happy to find some candy for him in the living room and thought it was a nice breakfast (ahem).

Later he made Cupcakes for the party, almost all by him self, and spent an hour on the computer playing. Grandma and Grandpa came early and Grandpa joined us going to church while Grandma stayed behind taking care of the house Even thought there have been a lot of melting lately it was plenty of snow left up in the mountain, the last bit of the way we went skiing. MT enjoyed having Grandpa there and kept inviting him to a competition, “come on Grandpa, try to be faster than me!”

In the church we had a nice time celebrating the resurrection of Christ. So good to sing happy Easter songs after Lent and Good Friday’s blues.

When we got home our guests were right behind us and while the kids played and the adults talked I put the final touches to the cakes and such. We had such a great time together. Glad they all stayed for a while. When MT finally got into bed he was so happy about the day – and so was I!

This is my favorite way to spend Easter Day: candy, service, Jesus, family and being together.

Happy birthday!

I’m just in time to congratulate you on your day. Hope it was nice! Above is my current favorite photo of you

Enjoy life, be your self and be proud! Love you lill brother