söndag 31 januari 2016

OK, I surrender!


OK, so here we go! 



Grönkål 
Avocado
Bladspenat
Gorgonzola
Valnötter
Färska basilikablad

1. Fräs grönkålen och spenat i lite olja. 
2. Tillsätt lite flingsalt och grovmalen svartpeppar, och lägg på tallrik. 
3. Fräs valnötterna i stekpannan.
4. Strö smulad gorgonzola och stekta valnötterna över kålen och spenaten. 
5. Toppa med färsk avocado och några basilika blad. 

Enjoy!

lördag 30 januari 2016

Washington DC bound

Det verkar som yngsta dottern har köpt klipp-kort på flyget minsann. 

För här åks det som en jojo mellan kontinenterna. 

Äldsta dottern har skickat med en shoppinglista

Tysons Corner watch out!


One of the most terrible stories I have heard in my entire life!

Here at the local school, and in the aftermath of some very serious incidents pertaining to the issue,  one of the teachers decided to take up a discussion in class, where the students are refugee children (teenagers), about how our different cultures differ when it comes to questions about gender and equality. The discussion turned out to be very interesting as student from different African and Arabic cultures told stories and gave anecdotes about how boys and girls/men and women interact in their respective countries of origin. The students from Eritrea told their stories as did the students from Somalia and Syria, and it came as no surprise to anyone that the societies are pretty segregated and that boys and girls adhere to totally different rules, based on gender.

Then a student from Afghanistan told the class about a time when he was a part of a mixed group of children, boys and girls, who had taken up a spontaneous soccer game one afternoon, and how the girls wore knee lenght shorts since it was difficult to play soccer in long skirts. All of a sudden a group of Taliban showed up and executed the girls immediately one by one on the spot and in front of the other children by hanging, using the soccer goals for the executions, and left the girls hanging for days in the goals to show everyone what would happen to them if they wore shorts while playing soccer.

I was just made aware of this story by one of the students in the class and I am so horrified that my stomach is turned upside down and I feel sick. How horrendous! It must be one of the worst stories I have ever heard, and as a teacher how do you move forward in that discussion after such information has been shared in class by a child who was there?

Who are these monsters who murder children in the name of religion? What are they so afraid of that children in knee lenght shorts constitute a threat?

I truly believe they are the devil. 
The darkest force on earth!

How do we combat such evil? 

fredag 29 januari 2016

A Hero

It has been twenty years since a very beloved and excellent young man from our family left us. 

On January 28th 1996 my cousin Jörgen, my uncle's only child, was killed in Bosnia where he was serving his country as a part of the Swedish UN Forces. I-4.

Jörgen was 21 years old and killed in an armored vehicle. 

His friend and fellow soldier who was with him in the vehicle at the time was critically hurt and is today in a wheelchair due to the injuries that he sustained. 

Every year on the January 28th, the day of the accident, his friend who now lives in the southern part of Sweden sends the most beautiful flowers to Jörgens grave site, which is so heartwarming and touching to us in the family, and a gesture that means more than words can say to my uncle. 


The flowers sent by Jörgens friend and fellow soldier.


 Today Lando and I walked over to the cemetery, that is within walking distance from our house. 
 to light a candle for Jörgen. 



 "Life is eternal and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight"
- Rossiter Worthington Raymond


Jörgens beautiful mother Nancy had passed away only two years before his death 
and he missed her dreadfully in the worst of ways. 

Now they are together in heaven. 
Two of the most beautiful souls.
 Buried side by side.

Still too hard for us all to accept. 

Rest in Peace

We are so proud of you. 

We love you always and miss you every day. 


"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A crispy clean

house, 
on a Friday afternoon. 

Priceless! 













Have a wonderful Friday!

Beauty is everywhere!

Just look and you shall see...





onsdag 27 januari 2016

Det Okända

I natt vid halv tre tiden vaknar jag och ligger alldeles stilla. Jag blir varse om att något surrar precis som om att någon är i badrummet och blåser håret eller dammsuger i garaget. Ljudet är dovt men av hög hastighet. Jag kliver ur sängen för att undersöka...

I köket hittar jag källan till ljudet- Den sprillans nya köksfläkten i vårt sprillans nya kök är igång, på högsta läget. Tilläggas skall att detta inte är någon digital fläkt eller en fläkt som lätt kan gå igång. Nej knappen måste flyttas till höger över små spärrar som knackar och som kräver att man tar i.

Och nej, vi har inte glömt att stänga fläkten igår kväll och det vet jag av tre anledningar:

1. När jag gick och la mig i sovrummet vid 21-tiden för att titta på Veckans Brott med Leif G.W. Persson hade jag städat av och släckt i köket, och i hela huset- Skulle fläkten ha varit på då så hade jag hört det då.

2. Jag använde inte köksfläkten överhuvudtaget igår.

3. Jag var uppe vid ett tiden på natten för att gå på toa och för att släppa ut Lando, som behövde gå ut, och hade fläkten varit på då så hade jag hört det.


Finns det någon av er som besitter förmågan att känna in och ge mig en ledtråd? 


Ha en fin dag!


tisdag 26 januari 2016

Remember

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. 
So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. 

So just focus, and keep aiming!



Tulip at my kitchen table

måndag 25 januari 2016

East Coast bound?

Today I spoke to my long time friend and fellow navy wife Annie Dipert in Springfield Virginia, and let me tell you that woman has an excellent head on her shoulders. 

Lucky me to have such a friend indeed. 
Thank you God for putting her in my path back in 1995 in Rota, Spain!

The Diperts have a lovely home in Springfield that they have renovated beautifully and today Annie was giving me some advice and insights in regards to where to look for a townhouse to buy in the DC area (Maryland or Virginia) since most likely both girls are East Coast bound for college. 

If that is the case I am planning on living part time in Sweden and part time in the US, and thus need a place to call home over there.  

We lived in Maryland after we had moved back stateside from Spain in 1999, but only stayed for two years before it was time to move to Italy, and thus my experience and knowledge about the areas are not that good. I do love Annapolis and I know that Bethesda, where Bella is born, is very nice, but other than that I am clueless. Now I am curious about Reston, Springfield, and Falls Church but the areas closer to the ocean do have a strong pull...And with that said Annapolis is at the top of my list. 

I am not at all in a great hurry since nothing is for sure yet,
but will start to look around and research the market carefully. 

Fun, fun, fun! 


Annapolis. 

I used to come here all the time. 


Downtown Annapolis. 

Love it!


Annapolis

söndag 24 januari 2016

Sköna söndag

Inga måsten, bara mys. 

En runda med hunden och en med dammsugaren 
(bara för att den råkade stå framme och för att allt hundhår syns så förbaskat onödigt bra i januarisolens skarpa sken) 

och så njuta av tulpaner och nybakad semla till eftermiddagskaffet.  

Nu har jag intagit bästa platsen i huset med söndagsupplagorna av Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet, för man måste ju se till att få nyheter från mer än ett håll :-) 


Utsikten från bästa läsfåtöljen. 


Älskar tulpaner!


Utanför huset. Där borta ligger sjön. 


På Lando-promenad i gnistrande snö med - 8 grader. 

Perfekt vinterväder om man frågar mig. 



Det är ju det här som saboterar alla försök till att hålla igen så här års. 

Men, what the heck! 

lördag 23 januari 2016

Just some

pictures from Sweden. 


Walking by the lake house lake. 


I love seasons. That is actually what I missed the most (except family) when we lived on Coronado in Southern California. It always looked the same. The ocean and the Bougainvillea, was always there, always beautiful, but always looked the same. Here nature changes every day, every hour. Love it!



Let me tell ya...this dog! 

He has really no clue how big he is and insists on sharing my reading chair with me all the time. 


The dog who shares my chair. 


Moreover, he has no idea that soccer season is over long time ago and therefore he plays soccer in the snow every day...


...with his mama. 

When I sit on one of the couches he lays on the other and gives me this look. 

Yeah, let me tell ya...this dog!


Man blir bara så glad!

Så glad att man vill baka en ljuvlig äppelpaj och åka och köpa de vackraste tulpaner som finns.


Nja, så fina tulpaner som jag var ute efter hade de inte på den lokala ICA-butiken,
men dessa får duga.


Känslor av lättnad, värme, kärlek och tacksamhet finns inombords.

I natt kommer jag att sova gott.

Tack Gud! 

fredag 22 januari 2016

It's Kim-time in Sweden!


and by the way, who needs a refrigerator? 

It is - 9,5 Fahrenheit outside...




Man blir ju onekligen mycket nyfiken

på någon som skriver så bra att den vinner Nobelpriset i litteratur, så jag slog mig ner i skönaste läsfåtöljen med morgonkaffet och började läsa Svetlana Aleksijevitjs 

Bön för Ternobyl- Krönika över framtiden

och jag som bara skulle börja med typ ett par kapitel kunde inte lägga ifrån mig boken. 

Vilka gripande berättelser! 

Det var länge sedan jag läste något som berörde så djupt.  


Boken får mig även att tänka på kärnkraftsolyckan som inträffade i Fukushima i Japan för fem år sedan i samband med den stora jordbävningen och på alla de människor som evakuerats från sina hem och som aldrig någonsin kommer att kunna flytta tillbaka...

Vilka berättelser kommer vi att få läsa om därifrån så småningom?

Kommer vi att även därifrån få höra om människor som smiter tillbaka till sina gamla hem och lever på förbjuden mark trots att det är livsfarligt? 

torsdag 21 januari 2016

Standing knee deep in a river and dying of thirst

When I lived in San Diego I had frequent and regular appointments with Life Coach  Wendy Kranz who can be found on Orange Avenue on Coronado Island and who owns a company called Damn Thirsty where she coaches people from all walks of life, Fortune 500 CEOs and stay at home moms alike. I can highly recommend Wendy, she is absolutely fantastic as she coaches people in their outlook on life and everything else you throw her way. For example she made me realize that how I feel is not the result of what has happened to me, as I conveniently would have had it, but of how I choose to think about it. In other words, it is my thoughts about my predicament that govern how I feel. So I have splendid news for you all: If you can control your thoughts you can control how you feel, so take charge! I have it on great authority that it is easier said than done so we all have to practice, a lot, because it is so much more handy to claim the status of a victim than taking full responsibility of our lives.

Life coach Wendy Kranz

The other day I was thinking about the name Damn Thirsty and how it symbolizes what Wendy Kranz had discovered; that so many of us indeed are thirsting for something more or perhaps something else but without knowing what. Some people, including myself at times, seem to have it all and yet do not feel totally happy, because there is a void that cannot be pinpointed. Why? What more do we need? The thought of constantly being Damn Thirsty made me start thinking about what this really stands for and I have come to the conclusion that perhaps it is authenticity we yearn. In this materialistic world we are not really valued for who we really are deep inside instead we are often are judged and sadly also many times find our own self worth in artificial attributes such as how much money we have in the bank (or what people think we have:-), where we live and what car we drive in addition to age, physical look, weight, and job title, hence who we really are on the inside tend to be totally ignored and overlooked as something that counts, by others and shockingly also often by ourselves. With that said I think it is about time to start to listen to what comes from within rather than to live by what others (people and institutions) are conveying about who we are and what we are worth in this increasingly superficial world.

Human beings, as far as I can tell, seem to be divided into two subspecies: The resigned, who live in quiet desperation, and the exhausted, who exist in restless agitation. The quiet and resigned believe that our time on this earth is random, a roll of cosmic dice, completely beyond our control (you know these people when you hear them as their sighs speak volumes). The rest of us, the restless agitators, sense that there has got to be something more to why we are here, something other than money, career, sex, physical perfection, and materialistic acquisition with the meaning of life.

I believe that it is the lack of authenticity in our society that makes us thirsty, in addition when the precious authentic characteristics that we naturally have within us lack value and the message is that we have to be in a certain way to count and we start to live lives that are not in congruence with who we really are both children and grown-ups succumb to illnesses caused by stress. When people are forced to conform to living and expressing themselves in a way that is against their entire being, which by the way leaves even the strongest of individuals grasping for breath at every turn, stress and inner conflicts arise and we start to feel empty, and thus we find ourselves knee deep in water dying of thirst.  


And that was my dwelling of the day!


Morning glory. 

What is more authentic than nature? 


And what is more authentic than animals? 


Simple abundance!

Have a lovely authentic day y'all!