Canada day and a long way home.

One day early the Canadian club celebrated Canada day in Haga parken. We ate hot dogs, drank Coors light and played games. The girls got to try out jumping in a sac, tossing water balloons and running with an egg on a spoon trying not to drop it... Fun although one can tell they're still a bit small to really understand the point of these games (I guess some people never understand the point but if they have inherited just a tiny bit of their mothers winner instinct they're going to get it!).


The adults got to play a bit too, H and me tossed an egg to each other and every time we succeeded to catch it in one piece we had to move further apart, hilarious if you ask me, maybe not so much if you ask H who got his hand filled with a raw egg...

The guys doing the tug of war...

After a few hours we said goodbye to the other Canadians and took the car home. At Brommaplan I jumped out and ran the rest of the way home, today's running included interval training and a bit of strength training in the green grass. 

Home after today's workout, wearing a yellow training top that I bought on sale yesterday. I strongly believe that I run a little bit faster in a nice outfit!

Now teatime and preparation for the last working week before vacation...

According to my youngest.

My youngest apparently thinks food tasts better if you spread it out all over your body.

What happened?

The week just disappeared and all of a sudden the girls and H are on vacation! I have to work one more week though.

I'm proud to announce that yesterday I left the bike home and ran to work. I got up at 5:15 am, got dressed, drank half a cup of coffee and ate half a banana and off I went! 15 km in sparkling morning sun. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes with a few pit stops at redlights. It was lovely! Until I got to work and had to climb the stairs, ouch! Need to build up some more leg strength...

Before - am I really going to make it?

At work - I did it!

Today's been all about resting at the house while H is painting the deck outside. Lovely, lovely summer!

Green is the color!

I decided to go with grass green curtains in the living room. I never in my life bought green curtains before but I think I like them... Perhaps not totally in style but they feel summary and give a nice light to the room that this photo doesn't show unfortunately... A little tip for you guys that doesn't like sewing (I'm one), I found a "Fixing Tape" that you just iron on the fabric and swish - you're done!

Evening run.

The smell of summer. The only thing I hear is my own breathing and the sound of nature. The air is fresh and the night is young. Let's just stop for a moment and enjoy life right now. I'm going to put this moment in a little box and save it.

Midsummer weekend in pictures.

Wonderful, wonderful Swedish midsummer.

Lovisa started a new interest: collecting bugs in a jar

Excellent midsummer food: lamb with new potatoes and a lemon herb sauce

Midsummer day means lazy day: lunch at the fast food joint that starts with a big M, not often we do that but sometimes it feels really necessary!

Assembling the new toy in the garden: a trampoline! We share it with our wonderful neighbors that also have children the same age as ours...

Violá! Safety net and kids in place.

Progressive 8.

After a long day that included cycling to and from work,  patients, meetings, listening to children singing in the summer, sitting on a blanket in the green grass under a blue sky eating ice cream, fixing a quick supper, swinging and playing with the kids, getting them ready for bed, reading them stories - it's nothing that beats going out for a run while watching the sun set. No music in my ear just the sound of nature and my own breathing. I started slow the first kilometer and then increased my pace, always trying to beat my last kilometer time, until I reached 7 kilometers, then I ran the last kilometer slow to cool down. 8 progressive, wonderful kilometers. Now shower and bed.

A weekend with my previous life.

When I was 16 years old I joined a local theater group in my hometown. I was active in that group for 13 years and you might say I grew up with the people there and it was like my second family. We rehearsed, talked, laughed, cried, played our shows, ate, drank, travelled and grew together. When I look back on this period now it feels far, far away, like something that happened in a previous life. A few months ago I got a invitation to a reunion weekend up north and I felt right away that I really wanted to go. So I went and when I saw all my old friends it felt like time stood still, even if the years gone by and many off us drifted apart, and that we somehow were the same old gang, just a bit more grey and wrinkled... We laughed, ate, drank, talked and had a marvelous time. And the air up north is so fresh my lungs screamed of joy every time I inhaled. Now I'm on a bus heading towards Stockholm, very tired but happy. I'll always look back on my time with the theater with warmth and thankfulness, I hope my girls get to experience something similar...

Thankful to be alive.

It's weird when something unexpected happens that makes you stop, reflect and think. I cycled home from work yesterday, as usual a bit stressed, thinking about all the musts: picking up the kids, fixing supper, cleaning up a messy house, hoping H for once is going to make it home til suppertime etc etc. I was cycling down a hill on a main street when a car approached from a side road that ends up on "my" main street. I slowed down and the car slowed down and stopped so I thought it was safe to continue cycling. When I was right in front of the car (the car was waiting to make a right turn out on the main street) he pressed the gas and crashed right into my left side. I fell right out on the main street. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and I remember thinking "This can't be happening - I'm really being hit by a car"... I was laying on the street, with my bike half over me and the driver got out of his car and asked how I was. My reaction was anger. I was furious! I yelled something like "Are you out of your mind!? You have to look before driving! This is a cycle path and a walkway! I picked up my cycle and a bag that I had in my hand while cycling and I tried to hold back the tears that I felt was on it's way. He asked once again if I was OK and then he said "I really didn't see you, I was looking in the other direction for cars". I cycled off with a crooked handlebar and with my legs trembling.

I got away with a few scratches and bruises but with a well learned lesson, it's better to be extra careful and accept the fact that it might take a few minutes longer to get home from work than end up bloody or dead in the hospital. And despite H:s protests this morning I cycled to and from work today, very careful and a bit scared but with a new calm in my body. Lesson learned...

Hugging them a bit harder and longer than usual...

A day with Lovisa.

Lovisa woke up yesterday morning with a very swollen foot. I already left for work on my bike so H had to take her to the clinic and the doctor thought it was a bug bite that made her foot look like an elephants... So now she's eating antihistamin and today I stayed home with her since her foot still was swollen and the daycare where going to the sport arena to try track and field...

It's nice to be able to focus on only one of the girls now and then, Lovisa and me went out to do a little bit of shopping, we talked a lot and she got to chose new sunglasses that she wanted to wear in front of the TV and in bed... Yeah, they're really cool, we get it!


Tomorrow I'm hoping to cycle to work again so stay away bugs!  

Just do it!

And I did. I registered to run Stockholm halfmarathon the 14th of September. I'm going to run 21098 meters totally voluntarily, I don't know if it's really cool or just plain crazy. Probably a combination of both, but it's going to be exciting to see what my 35-year old body can do... Or not do... Wish me luck!

Fell in love...

I fell in love with this new tablecloth that had to come home with me from the store today. It grew on me even more when we enjoyed my homemade rhubarbpie (rhubarbs from our garden!) while admiring it this afternoon...

Three haircuts in a row.

I was quite busy this morning, cutting the whole family's hair except my own...

It got a bit out of hand in the end, poor H lost almost all his hair... 

This years first...

A happy Lovisa took her first dip in the great lake Mälaren this weekend. I had to bribe her with an icecream to get her out of the water. I dipped my legs and thought that was quite enough, I'm getting bloody old...

Nice company.

Nice company during my morningrun...

What a week...

Monday: my mother is here visiting, Lovisa is really sick with 40 degrees fever...

Tuesday: Lovisa is better, I drive to my hometown over the day to attend a very emotional funeral, I return home the same evening totally exhausted.

Wednesday: I'm emotional and have the most shitty day at work, I'm stressed and it feels like everything that possibly can go wrong goes wrong...

Thursday: Swedens nationalday and we're off work and soaked in sunshine. We take the girls for a bike ride to the celebration at our closest castle...

Happy girls celebrating Swedens national day!

I got a sunburn...

Friday: back at work and the sun keeps shining. Everything feels a bit easier and now I'm going to relax with H in front of the TV. Have a nice weekend ya'll!

May check-up!

It's getting better all the time! May's training is the best month during the year so far but still, I could have run a bit more, longer and harder... And did a bit more gym training... The cycling during May is pretty damned awesome if I may say so myself...

January: 50,1 km
February: 42,3 km
March: 39,7 km
April: 38,5 km running, 32,4 km cycling
May: 61,0 km, 571,5 km cycling, 1 gym training (core)

Total running: 249,4 km during 2013

Wonderful summer.

Wonderful, beautiful summer - we're so happy you're here, we've missed you enormously!