Stormy Saturday.

After all the sun and warmth we were finally hit by heavy rain, storm and hail. Still down with a cold so I wouldn't have mind to have a cozy day inside but with theses two energetic ladies climbing the walls we just had to go out for a few hours to jump in some puddles and get wet...

Here we go...

And just after one week at the new daycare the whole family is down with a terrible cold. The morning started with that Lovisa had some kind of fit and hurt her big toe. H had to bring her to the doctor and before that he had to bring a hysteric Andréa (that was in a very bad mood) to the daycare. Sometimes it's good to leave insanely early in the morning, then you don't need to deal with stuff like this. Well, I got involved anyway since H called me with panic in his voice and asked me to call the clinic 8 am in the morning. Fortunately the toe is fine, nothing broken. On top of this it looks like our neighbor got robbed, during broad daylight. Now comforting myself with goodies, or how about ecological hampa protein, raw cacao powder, agave syrup, frozen berries, half a banana and milk - mix, enjoy and hopefully scare away this nasty cold...

No more diapers!

I realized I forgot to give you the big news! We don't need to buy anymore diapers in this family! Since beginning of July Andréa is diaper free. It was so easy with her, we didn't need a "poop-and-pee-diploma" like Lovisa, we just decided that we'll give it a try during the vacation and Andréa was more than ready, very eager to run around naked and pee in the bushes. And only a few weeks after Andréa stopped using diapers during the day we took the night diaper away as well. I can count the "accidents" on one hand, very few... It's quit a relief and a big step, to have two daughters that manages to go to the toilet on their own (oh well, I still wipe their butts but one thing at a time right...). Yeah, yeah, soon enough they'll be running off with their boyfriends and I'll probably be wishing they would be in their diapers again...

Sleeping butt-naked is nice!

Alternative training.

I'm trying to fix my "runners-knee" but it's tough not being able to run like I'm used to. I bought a balance-ball (or a fitness-ball) to build up my strength and my that is efficient training, I've discovered muscles that I didn't know I had - ouch! It's quite amazing, you can exercise your whole body with this simple and fairly cheap, gigantic ball.


I also bought this:

That's an even bigger challenge than the balance-ball, with the AB-roller you work on your arm-, back-, chest- and stomachmuscles. It's like doing push-ups just ten times harder. 

I also do a lot of stretching of my legs and hips every day. To not loose my shape entirely I've continued with the cycling to and from work, 30 kilometers per day. Hopefully my little knee will heal fast and good now.

Bottom line, to be able to be a good runner it's not all about running. It's about building up your body from inside to be strong enough to become a good runner. It all starts from within like so many other great things...

Saunalaiva, a bloody knee and Lovisa day.

The floating sauna that my dad worked on for over a year is finally ready. The big opening took place yesterday with the yearly "fermented-herring party" combined with a sauna party. Very nice indeed. The sauna is so beautiful and worked excellent, the water had just the right temperature and the August evening was so breathtaking and fresh it could possibly be... Lovisa and Andréa had their first true Sauna experience and Lovisa loved it while Andréa was a bit more skeptic...

Saunalaiva 1 - the name of dad's piece of art...

Of course a boat has to have the proper inauguration...

The floating sauna in the beautiful August night...

I've been taking a break from my running for a week since my knee has been bugging me. For a couple of days now I felt better and this morning I finally went out for a test run. Oh, I missed my morning runs!

Unfortunately I still felt a little bit of pain in my knee after running a few kilometers so I guess I have to give it some more time and do alternative training (cycling 30 kilometers to work every day will do) and stretching and hopefully I'll be OK. I'm a bit worried, it's only a few weeks left before I'm suppose to run Stockholm halfmarathon...

After running I realized it was Lovisas and my nameday! We celebrated with going to IKEA, one of Lovisas favourite things and after we had a nice Sunday "fika" or how about "Gotländska" pancakes (saffronpancakes) with whipped cream and cloudberry jam - mmmmm...


And suitable enough I realized our napkins had our name:


Now bedtime to charge low batteries for a new week...

A parentalday is coming to an end...

The third day at the new daycare and today was my turn to spend it with the girls. "Schooling in" is a must and very popular in Sweden. This daycare has a two weeks schooling in period but since my girls are used to going to daycare we figure one week will do it. I remember when I first took Lovisa (she was about 15 months old) to the private daycare we had in Montreal and they didn't even let me in, they just grabbed her by the door and I had to say bye, bye and go home, crying mu eyes out of course. In Sweden it's the opposite, it almost feel like the schooling in period is a bit to much sometimes. But of course - children are different and for some two weeks is really necessary and for others, like my girls, a few days are enough.

Lovisa jumped into her department and hardly had the time to say goodbye to me while Andréa kept me in close range and it took her a few hours before feeling at home and she could play comfortably.




At this daycare you have to bring your stroller if your child still naps because here all the children sleeps outside, regardless of the weather and temperature. During the winter the pedagogues put the toddlers in warm sleepingbags and they can sleep warm and good even in minus degrees. It's awesome since it decrease the risk of infections - more fresh air to the people!

After Andréas naptime it was time to head home and I had to bribe Lovisa with a promise of popcorn in front of the tellie, the typical Swedish "fredagsmys", to make her leave the daycare. But before the "fredagsmys" we had to go to the store. That's a bit like asking for trouble - to do groceries with two wild little girls on a Friday afternoon but sometimes you don't have a choice...


Fortunately they have an airplane at the store...


Now we had "fredagsmys", supper and I've just finished to clean the downstairs and it's time for two little girls to go to bed... Another parentalday is coming to an end...

New daycare...

For different reasons it didn't work out to have a private home daycare for us. Today the girls started a new daycare and we have a really good feeling about it. Especially Lovisa has missed her old daycare a lot and she was overjoyed to start a new, regular daycare. This first day H was with the girls and it went well although Andréa didn't nap, she was to busy exploring and couldn't relax. They got a slow start and finished after lunch today. I picked the girls off, H went to work and me and the girls went to the park and enjoyed the nice weather. Then we went home and stuffed ourself with spaghetti bolognese...

48:25!

The big day was here and of course I didn't feel ready at all. I had a bad nights sleep (or rather 4 years of bad nights!), my knee was hurting (still is unfortunately) and my whole body felt heavy... But I was in a good mood, in good company and it felt like even if the race didn't turn out the way I wanted at least I was going to have a good time. Here we are, a few hours before the race, excited and a bit nervous:


It's funny how everything turns out to be about food "what should we eat before the race?", "What should we eat just before the race, or shouldn't we eat??" and most important "What should we eat after the race - just chocolate and sparkling wine or chocolate, sparkling wine and salty peanuts???"... I baked bread containing all kinds of healthy goodies including "Chia seeds" that's suppose to be one of the reasons that made the Tarahumara indians to become one of the worlds best long distance runners and the bread turned out to be really tasty, I had it with a spicy thai soup for lunch before the race:


The kids joined us to look at the festivities around "Runner's corner" before the start:




At 09:35 pm we took off into the dark streets of Södermalm in the heart of Stockholm. The first thing that hit me was how dark it was to run, even if we ran in the middle of the city, partly I could hardly see where I put my feet. The first kilometer was crowded and I felt frustrated unable to find my own rhythm... Struggling on the second kilometer went a bit to fast and also the third. Then the track took a turn and got more tricky and we slowly closed up to the feared hill to "Sofia kyrka". It was steep, hard and long... I think my fifth kilometer also was the slowest one... After this I could relax a bit and enjoy the race. It was mostly men around me and I got both pushed and "elbowed" a few times... But the atmosphere was amazing with live bands playing along the route, disco lights and smoke, partying people cheering us on. It was extra fun to run in my old neighborhood (it was around here H and me lived before moving to Canada) but it all looked strange in the dark with the crowd surrounding the streets and I found myself wondering where the h-ll I was more than once... When I reached the last hill, between 8 and 9 kilometer, I still wasn't sure if I could make it under 50 minutes and this hill, climbing up to "Mosebacke" was harder than I anticipated. Many runners around me gave in and started to walk. That only made me more stubborn and I found myself running like a crazy person up and almost there I thought I was going to throw up but then the Russian folk music band reached my ears and I knew I was almost home... Running the last kilometer was so much fun and painful in the same time and when I saw the goal, far ahead, I realized that I just might reach my goal and I took the time to raise my hand to the crowd, taking in all the ovations.

After the race it felt amazingly good with a hot shower, sparkling whine, chocolate and salty peanuts in nice company. And of course we had to keep celebrating today, for lunch we ate a lovely vegetarian buffet:


And for dessert Stockholm's best Baklava:


To sum it up, this was an amazing race, probably the best and most entertaining one I ever ran. My knee still hurts, which makes me a bit worried, but I'm so happy about my new 10K personal best... Holding on to this feeling for a while longer...

Crammed with carbs...

OK it's not a marathon I'm running tomorrow but anyhow, I think it's very important to have enough carbs in your system... Tonight's supper: vegetarian pizza and alcohol free beer...

And for dessert (there's always room for something sweet!) Sia's extraordinary tasty maple-walnut icecream, try it and you'll never regret it... Or you'll regret it forever because you're just going to want more and more and more...

Now I have to try to digest while sleeping...

New ceiling light and another new pair of shoes!

I did my last interval training before Saturday's race yesterday evening and after a interval training session I always try to do some core-training but it's hard to motivate myself to do this, it's so boring! I had a nice view though, looking up on our fairly new ceiling light while sweating on the floor...



I always feel unprepared a few days before a race. Like now; I feel tired, heavy, I have a sore knee and a lump on my foot! OK, it's a very small lump but it's still annoying...

I also bought new shoes for work, a pair of Nike free, the ones that's almost like walking around barefoot and that's suppose to help my tiny muscles in my feet to get stronger so I become a better runner with less risk of injuries. Doesn't that sound marvelous?



Now bedtime.

New shoes, frozen yoghurt and running.

Yesterday I sneaked off into the city and bought a new pair of  running shoes. I also had time to buy new running pants and a top. Now I'm totally prepared for Saturday's race. The big question is if I'm really capable of running 10K sub 50 minutes, we'll just see... The track is apparently pretty hilly... Here are my new pink darlings:




To celebrate the new shoes I just had to get some frozen yogurt and if you by any chance pass by Mäster Samuelsgatan in central Stockholm don't miss this place! Yummie!


And the new shoes are amazingly comfortable and running them in with this view was pretty amazing too...

No lazy days.

After working one week we aren't rested at all. Vacation was wonderful but hardly vacation in the sense of resting and sleeping... And even if we spent a lot of time at the house we always had some ongoing project to attend to and as always the girls are a very demanding, never ending project! But here's a little peak of a few projects that we did during our vacation:

H finished the deck. I really like the stairs leading down to the garden, it's nice with stairs, it opens up our deck and allow tired parents to rest their legs and drink a cup of coffee while watching the children play...

We finally have kitchen curtains! Thanks to my childhood friend that is an excellent seamstress...

We did numerous of trips to IKEA and that is very exhausting indeed!



We also installed lights, H painted the whole house, we fixed a lot of stuff in the garden and I would say that now we need a couple of weeks vacation from vacation... 

Supper without the girls...

The girls are spending a couple of days at my dad's since H and me are working and our home daycare still is closed. And when the girls are gone we don't bother to much about eating healthy,  nutritional food...

Harvest and Harlekin.

We don't have a big garden, it's just the right size if you ask me - big enough to grow a few goodies - small enough to handle it. Raspberries and rhubarb are two of my favorite things and goes very well together.




Sunday coffee on the porch with new, old china, a gift from my mother. The finish Arabia produced this series called "Harlekin", it's different but I really like the pattern and the colors. The coffee always tastes a bit better in a nice cup!




I found tiny glasses for the girls to have lemonade or juice in at IKEA. I think they're really snaps glasses to drink liquor in but they do look like tiny lemonade glasses to me. The girls like to drink from "real" glasses and I can give them refill with a good conscience since they're so tiny...

African princesses and Finish sourdough bread.

It was an amazing summer day yesterday and maybe the hottest day of the whole summer when we packed the car and headed for Värmland once again. This time to the yearly family reunion party that has become a tradition in the Loiske family.

The girls eating icecream during a pitstop, wearing dresses from Africa, a gift from my dad.

The party started with that Lovisas sprained her ankle and Andréa hurt her knee but otherwise the reunion party was wonderful as usual. When we left one of my cousins gave me a loaf of bread and not just any loaf of bread, it was the kind that my grandmother always use to bake, Finish sourdough bread containing a bacterial culture from the nineteenth century. Breakfast this morning was amazingly good with a touch of nostalgia.

Last day of vacation...

I spent my last day of vacation on the beach, under a clear blue sky in a 25 degrees warm summer breeze together with my favorite girls... Ahh sweet vacation I'm going to miss you...



Tomorrow we're going to the yearly Loiske-family-reunion party in Värmland - feels like a perfect end of a perfect vacation.

The swinging family!

I often think about that it's sad that we have so few, if any, pictures of the whole family. Usually it's me taking pics of the girls and sometimes H. I guess it's about time to go to a professional photographer to take the obligatory family picture but we didn't get around to it just yet...

A few weeks back we visited some good friends and thanks to them at least we got this:




Thanks Laleh!