A Weekend of Dinners
[Photos from Friday 18 to 20 March 2016, posted online 22 March 2016. Stuffed to the gills!]
Three nights of dinner engagements make for a busy but a fun weekend!
Friday I went to celebrate the 40th birthday of a friend of mine, Saturday we visited Solla and Gunni, and then on Sunday we visited Guðrún and Snorri.
This coincided with spring arriving suddenly, so out of nowhere I was desperate to start tidying up and cleaning now that all the dust mites are screaming for attention. With a bum leg not much got done, but at least the Christmas Cards got taken down from the wall in the hall and album-ed, Finnur attacked the garage, and quite a few death traps got removed. 🙂 (15 images total)
Friday 18 March 2016
The birthday girl!
Fever, Snow, Coffee, No Snow
[Photos from Friday 11 to Monday 14 March 2016, posted online 14 March 2016. Now which date does this belong to, once I restore time?!]
It sounds like viruses are swirling all around these days. This past Friday one of them hit our humble abode, when Bjarki came down with a fever, headache, stomach ache, and an unending thirst for more computer time.
I will admit that I was pretty glad I had an excused to take Friday off from work, since I’d mentally (as well as physically) limped through Thursday. My work stamina is still pretty blah apparently.
The biggest thing that ‘happened’ on Friday was that Emma discovered we have a backyard that she can play in after daycare! It was not obvious to her before because it was always dark out, but now we’ve got happy brightness past dinner-time. Yay!
Saturday was a huge nothing-whatsoever-happened-day, but on Sunday the whole family (me included!) ventured out on a library/coffee house-run. We all desperately needed to get out of the house, but decided against actually infecting the friends that had invited us over for dinner, so downtown to infect strangers we went!
Monday rolled around with Bjarki still at home, but this time Finnur took home-duty, while I escaped to work (funny how that works!). Oh, and after two days of thaw, our backyard is now quite snowless for the first time in over three months! (15 images total)
Emma, having recently discovered this “backyard” thing of ours, where she can go out and play by herself, without us having to go out too (which we can’t/won’t because we’re lazy/it’s cold/feet don’t work). Taking photos through the window works though!
Emma’s 3D Art & Rainy Windows
[Photos from Monday 7 March 2016, posted online 10 March 2016. Feeling speedy!]
Emma’s newest thing is to stack sticky things together. On the plane to and from England for example, she went through a whole sheet of stickers, and stuck them all on top of each other on a piece of paper, instead of spreading them out.
This wet and windy afternoon, she thus took it upon herself to fetch paper, scissors, and glue, and created quite a stack of glued-together paper-pieces. The mother (that would be me) dutifully documented the results of her hard work, as well as the rain streaming down the living room windows. (4 images total)
Emma (in photosmile mode) with her 3D artwork.
Dinner with Ragnar, Agnes and their Munchkins
[Photos from Sunday 06 March 2016, posted online 10 March 2016. It hasn’t even been a whole week!]
Ragnar and Agnes (or Agnar and Ragnes, as I usually miscall them, oh brain!) are old friends of Finnur’s. They’re good fun to be around, but live psychologically far away, so we never used to meet up with them much. (They live only 30 minutes away by car, but it involves driving across barren land towards Keflavik airport, making the trip feel much longer.)
Then, during a stroke of genius, we started planning our next meeting before the current one ended, some 6 weeks in the future. Of course, rescheduling happens, but once it’s on the calendar, chances are we’ll actually meet up sooner rather than never.
As it happened, it was Agnes’ birthday (!!!), but they still came over, and we all had a lovely time.
Some photos from my corner on the couch follow… (11 images total)
Agnes, the birthday babe, with her second born.
My 39 Year Old Birthday
[Photos from Tuesday 01 March 2016, posted online 09 March 2016. I’ve been sleeping off the sugar overdose.]
My last birthday before the big Four-Oh happened the other day.
I spent most of the day lounging on the sofa, but when everybody came home after school and work, I got flowers, chocolate, and a cake! (11 images total)
Mommy got flowers!
Winter-Break Trip to England
[Photos from 24-29 February 2016, posted on 01 March 2016. Yes, it’s my birthday! 🙂]
Long before I fell and broke my ankle, we’d bought tickets for the whole family to visit England over the kids’ winter school break.
All the doctors I talked to leading up to the trip said that I should be able to travel, but I was doubtful because my foot would get swollen and painful very fast when down low. Then the cast came off (on a Tuesday) and I realized that the majority of the pain was from my swollen skin pushing up against the cast, so the odds of going to England the next day went from 10% to 90%.
Then I looked at the seats I’d booked, and realized that we’d have two adjacent window seats on the correct side of the plane, meaning I could keep my leg on the armrest in front of me. Thus I decided I would go after all, because a change of scenery is always a good thing. Happily, we discovered that Easyjet has pretty flimsy seats, so there was plenty of space for my leg. (Icelandair has bulkier seats, and the gap between the seatback and the fuselage is smaller.)
Also, compressure socks are amazing! (41 images total, including TWO PHOTOS of SCARS 13 images down as Friday begins)
Group photo, taken by Finnur, as we were about to head for the airport.
Emma’s 3rd Birthday Party
[Photos from 21 February 2016, posted on 25 February 2016. In a galaxy far, far away…]
We celebrated Emma’s third birthday with a family party. It was pretty interesting trying to get everything done with one adult hopping about on one foot, but we managed.
Photos! (28 images total)
Three-year-old Emma, getting sung for.
Emma Ósk is 3 Years Old
[Photos from 12 February 2016, posted on 16 February 2016. It’s light out until 6:30 pm!]
Our adorable munchkin is now 3 years old! (9 images total)
Daycare sent us this fun image of Emma!
Early February: In Sickness and in Health
[Photos from Wednesdays 10-17 February 2016, posted on 17 February 2016. It’s late though, might not make it.]
It’s been a slightly unusual week in casa del Fjallalind. We began with Ash Wednesday (sort of our Halloween), where photos were taken of the big siblings in costumes, but adorable little BuzzEmma Lightyear slipped past her daddy’s camera. On Thursday, both toilets needed fixing. On Friday was Emma’s 3rd birthday, which sadly ended with her getting a stomach bug.
On Saturday, Finnur had a big day and evening planned with some friends, so we’d arranged for sleepovers for both Emma and Bjarki. (Yes, Finnur’s parents, also known as The Saints, took Emma on with a dodgy stomach. Adda & co. also deserve applause for taking on a child from a stomach-bugged home.) Shortly after they left, Anna went to visit a friend, which left me all alone, yet again. And then my grandmother Hrefna called from our parking lot to see if we were home, and then I wasn’t alone anymore!
Sunday was a quiet day, but Monday saw Anna being sent home from school with a dodgy stomach. She never vomited, but came close a couple of times. She stayed home Tuesday, and today, Wednesday, Emma was sent home from daycare with a nasty persistent cough. Finnur took her to the health clinic, and although she does not appear to have pneumonia, she has ‘something’, so she’ll be taking zithromax (commonly given for the ‘walking pneumonia’ among other things) for the next couple of days.
On to some photos! (13 images total)
Emma today (17 Feb), after drinking yogurt from a cup.
Cream-Puff Day Prep 2015
[Photos from Sunday 7 February 2016, posted online 8 February 2016. It’s a nice day out!]
With cream-puff day (bolludagur) looming, it was time to make cream-puffs! Anna and I made the puffs themselves, while Finnur and Anna did the filling and topping.
We used the following recipe, re-posted from here, and translated to English:
4 dl water
160 g butter
250 g flour
0.25 tsp baking powder (some recipes use salt and no baking powder)
5 eggs if molding with spoons, 6 if squeezing out of a tubePut water and butter in a pot, and bring to a boil, melting all the butter. Meanwhile, mix together flour and baking powder. When the water and butter start boiling, remove from heat, and mix in the flour and baking powder. Stir vigorously with a spatula until the dough is smooth and consistent, and does not stick to the pot.
COOL the dough well, you don’t want to cook the eggs when you put them in! Put one egg in at a time, stirring it well into the dough. The end result should hold its shape pretty well. If it’s liquidy, you’re probably in trouble.
Mold with two spoons and put on a baking plate. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 210°C (200°C if using blow). Do not open the oven until the puffs are almost done, or they may deflate.
So, with that out of the way, here are some photos! (12 photos total)
The end result. Yum!