One month to Christmas!

And that statement could make any full-time-working mother to get an ulcer and that's why I'm happy to say that today I bought all the big Christmas gifts and all the Christmas cards. After debating whether the girls should have Ipads or cross-country skies we finally decided to go with the skies. I really want us to be a healthy out-door family and then it doesn't feel completely right to buy and Ipad to a 2,5 year old, even if it probably would be convinient to have when we travel to Canada next summer...

The rest of this week has been extremely busy as usual. I worked, cooked, cleaned, picked up the girls from daycare, ran 54,3 km (!) and then it was Friday evening and time to decompress... On Saturday we attended my stepmothers vernissage and even though the girls were screaming and running all over the place we actually manage to buy a painting. That feels so grown-up, to walk around on an exhibition and decide that yes, this would look good in our guest-toilet (well, not in the toilet but on the wall facing the person sitting on the toilet...), lets buy it! The exhibition is on until December 13th so you still have plenty of time to stop by and see some lovely art.

And after this crazy Sunday when I got all the Christmas gifts, cards and tons of groceries, H made us a lovely meal - fondue. And this is the only picture from this week, the girls just took their bath and were all excited over the fondue and the fact that they could eat supper in their robs...

Another November week is to an end and next week we're entering a brighter month thank God...

Faster and darker.

Another crazy week has come to an end. We had inauguration of our new MRI camera and I had trouble finding clothes for the occasion, when you usually always have working clothes it's hard to be private at work... Anyway, I found some clothes, the band was cut, champagne was served and everyone was happy...

After the inauguration...

It's getting darker and darker, a colleague of mine fell on her bike the other morning because it was icy and unfortunately it's just a matter of time before I have to store my bike away for the winter. My colleague got away with a few scratches and a sore shoulder but it's starting to feel dangerous to cycle when it's completely black and icy in the morning... A bit of cold and ice doesn't stop me from running though and my plan is to keep running about 3 times per week all winter. I'm trying to run faster and faster and one morning I actually beat my record to work, sub 1 hour and 15 minutes! And in case you're wondering it's not snot on my GPS watch, it's mud from the ground...

This weekend we had good friends over that spend the night and slept over. It's nice to have people sleeping over, the girls thinks it's a big adventure. They were so excited yesterday that they didn't fall asleep until after 10 pm which made them extremely tired today and they managed to fall asleep during a 10 minute car ride home from the store and they kept on sleeping after we carried them in our house placing them in our armchairs... Talk about tired...

My sleeping beauty's... Now time to put the rascals to bed and prepare for a new week...

Honesty.

We're surrounded of November darkness, the worst kind of darkness that goes in to your head and slowly breaks you down... The girls insists on sleeping in our bed every night still and both H and me looks more dead than alive... I've really tried to reason with the girls, explained that mum and dad needs to sleep and we don't sleep well when they're in our beds. They seem to understand it but of course every night they forget it.

During their bath tonight I said "Tonight you can sleep the whole night in your own comfy, cozy bed" Hence they both shouted in each others mouth "NO! WE WANT TO SLEEP WITH YOU!"

Before bedtime Lovisa asked me what day it was and when I said it's Tuesday and tomorrow it's Wednesday and you're going to daycare she sighed loud and said "Do I really have to go to daycare tomorrow again?!? I've been going there for 70 years now, it's tiresome".

At least they're honest about their feelings, something that we grownups seem to have a hard time being...

September and October check-up!

September and October have been two amazing running months. Many kilometers, two races and a personal best. I'm just going to keep on running!

During the halfmarathon in September

January: 50,1 km
February: 42,3 km
March: 39,7 km
April: 38,5 km
May: 61,0 km
June: 103,9 km
July: 165,6 km
August: 84,5 km
September: 106,1 km. cycling 444,9 km, 5 strength training
October: 118,5 km, 504,2 km, 1 strength training
Total so far during 2013: 810,2 km

In September I ran Stockholm halfmarathon and by doing that one of my goals of 2013 was achieved. In October I beat my personal best in 10K during Hässelbyloppet and yet another goal of 2013 was achieved. The only goal that's left is actually to run 1000K total during 2013 and I have it in reach, as long as I don't get sick or injured I might just make it...

Hello November!

And just like that it's November and less than 2 months until Christmas, that's insane! But also good, the darkness doesn't get any darker than right now and hopefully we'll have some snow to lighten up our day soon. I'm kind of happy even without the snow though because as long as it's plus degrees, snow- and ice-free I keep on cycling to work, every day in rain and wind, and that make me feel so good...

The past week's been crazy busy as usual, work, work, work, Halloween with to much candy, a weekend filled with socializing with family and friends. Friday afternoon my mother arrived from Värmland and the girls were over excited.

 Welcome mum!

On Saturday we had a Halloween party with good friends and we ate, ate and ate some more. Snacks, fishsoup, applepie and pumpkinpie with icecream and on top of this lots of candy! But as H said "it's only Halloween once a year"... And I can't help thinking "yes, but it's also Christmas, Easter, birthdays and Vacation when we tend to over-eat" but I kept my mouth shut. But this with candy is a struggle, the kids get manic when they now we have candy at home, they just keep asking for more, just one more, just one last candy, please, please, PLEASE!!! And when I refuse I'm the stupidest mum in the whole world and everything sucks big time! Phew, it is good it's only Halloween once per year... Anyway, Saturday was nice, it's so lovely to see friends and have a good time and look at the beautiful flowers we got:

And all of a sudden it's Sunday, mum went home and we tried our best to do something useful on a boring, grey Sunday like cycling, running, eating left-overs and making a cozy fire in our fireplace...

Now we've given two tired girls their bath, I cut their hair, read them fours books and sang them four songs. I'm so ready for bed...

Coughing out a blogpost...

I know I had the same feeling last fall... A feeling that I just want to fall asleep and wake up when it's all over, the darkness, the cold (well, not so cold yet but just the feeling that's it's getting there) and the bloody infections from hell! Wake me up in March when it's brighter, healthier and happier...

This weekend the girls have been waiting for something more fun to happen than me trying not to cough up my lungs, H has changed the car tires so we can be safe when the first snow falls, we did tons of groceries, we cleaned the house and probably did at least 10 batches of laundries. I bought a beautiful pumpkin that we carved up and just like last year I managed to forget how much work it is to take care of the pulp and carve out the little funny face... It's a work-out, at least when you have a cold from hell...

The girls making faces on the trampoline, maybe for the last time this season?

My perfect pumpin!

 Practicing...

And here it is all lightened up in the dark October evening...

I'm sorry I don't update the blog more frequent nowadays but unfortunately this is all I have time for right now and maybe this is the way the blog is going to be from now on, updated about once per week. In the "blogworld" one week is an eternity but in my world one week goes by in the speed of light... Swish!

Beam me up.

It's not a good time for blogging. My life's to busy with challenging things and leaves no time for extras. This week's been insanely challenging. My new job takes a lot of my energy and I'm exhausted, nor am I used to work full time. Once the weekend is here H and me think we're going to be able to do all these things that we didn't have time for during the week but the weekend is so short and the girls demanding. Today was the worst day in a long time. We've been arguing about everything, the girls been fighting over everything, from tiny stupid details to big fist fights...

At least we manage to bake a delicious apple pie and we manage to eat it without anyone shouting or yelling to...

Lovisa's new thing: making a face...

Andréa is in her worst terrible two's, doing everything she's not suppose to...

I was so pooped this evening I wasn't far from crying, the house is a mess, the girls impossible and H and me exhausted and outside it's dark and cold. Could somebody please just beam me up to a warm, nice place were nobody yells at me?

Well, at least I bought myself a nice pair of compression socks and "ran them in" today. They're not the sexiest socks I've seen but very comfortable! Now tea and sleep...