I am throwing away…

Now I am working at my bookshelves. No, I am not throwing away books, I am not that desparate yet. But papers I keep there in boxes. Like: From the Option Institute in the US when I was there for autistic family training with Marinó 1993. Kripula Yoga Center, two times. 91 and 93. Old articles about autism. Reciepts. And so on. It is like throwing away pieces of the past. The yoga teaching says you should live in the here and now. I try my best. But still, there are papers I can´t throw away. Not yet. But the boxes get fewer each year. When I’ve got nothing left, maybe I’ve finished learning.

What a lot of work I did do! I forgot: 1994, school for Marinó at home, I planned each day for him, from morning to sleeptime down to 15 minutes, what plays to play, which puzzle, what he should exercise, where with whom… and had four other children to think about and I think I did teach german two evenings a week.

That was yesterday. And today I went home early from school, feeling sick. Curious what tomorrow will bring. No news on the mouse, but everybody decided that it was more afraid of us than we of it. Just to leave no doubt: It is a new, clean school with bright rooms and nearly everything we could wish for. The poor mouse had to be quite desparate in the cold to seek shelter with us.

Life is soo exciting!

When I came to school this mornig, three out of five teachers in our special class were sick at home. But we managed well with some help. Then somebody got the crazy idea to clean the cornar where a mouse was supposed to be living, hoping she was not at home. I said, ok, I will take the carpets out of the corner if you promise not to shriek and run away if the mouse is still there. (It had been sighted three days ago and not since.) They promised. Of course the ladies shrieked and run away. I am sorry to say, I have not yet seen this mouse. So we barrikaded ourselves in the other room, I of course had to rescue the children which were sitting unsuspecting at their tables. Of course my little pupil wanted to take the carpet with the mouse droppings with him and we got half an hour of howling for not allowing it. Finally the principal and another teacher, with a broom and a blanket as weapons went on a hour of unsuccessfull mouse hunt. When I left, the room was in shambles. Continue tomorrow.
Outside time is going backwards. Layer for layer the melting snow reviels our past. Monikas birdfeeding leftovers appeared, in the front of the house there was sawdust from my parkett and now green needles from the christmastree. In the corner there are autumn leaves. No dead mouse yet.

Monday morning and through the day

This monday morning I couldn't find my glasses. It is frustating to look for one's glasses without glasses, but I tried not to panic. Still a had to phone the school and tell them that I would be late. Of course I did find them in the end. In the livingroom under my needlepoint.

Outside it is so slippery that I refused to go out on the playground with the children in the big brake. They go out in whatever weather there is and the school supplies warm nice overalls. So today we stayed inside, the children were not so happy but my legs remain unbroken. Hopefully there will be some more thawing rain before it starts snowing again.

In TV I saw that there is snow all over Europe and in the USA. I feel sorry for all of you. Here we got this perfect isolated houses with heating from the water of hot springs, so as long as you stay inside you will not get cold. It must be quite bad for poor or homeless people now who are not so lucky to sit in a warm room.

“Ten feet under” is finished here in TV for the time being. I have been watching these series for some time. So good bye to you undertakers, hope to see again.

New photos

I put new photos under "Christmas" on line. Better late than never.

Lisa: who can ride a horse? Me!

I was great on horseback in the old days. Show me a horse and I was on it’s back. As I live in Iceland it were mostly the iclandic horses as here there is no other breed. But I tried the big ones too, abroad. Some very little informed people call the icelandic horse a pony and think of it as a plaything for children. No, it is by nature a wild and strong animal and I have seen unsuspecting “big” horse riders dissappear at the horizon in a cloud of dust. Ok. I was, as I said, a big rider. I started when I was 10, hanging with feet clung to the sides and fists in the mane and got so far that I used no saddle and could jump onto the back of every neat horse standing beside it, from every side you whish. We had a great lot of great horses running around, at that time my father sold icelandic horses to whatever country in europe and even the US and on the backyard there were at least a hundred pieces at any given time. Horseriding was work, in a way, keeping the right ones together, driving back others who had jumped a fence. Yes, it was a big time for little girls. A nice play we childen did was to throw each other off the horse in full speed. Get a leg and pull or push.
And then I got older, married and got pregnant, again and again and again…. Somehow the horseriding slipped into the background and my children played the plays I used to play (now the grandchildren have started). So, last year my little daughter was nagging and nigging that I should come riding out with her. It was a terrible experience. Not that I could not sit a horse. No, much worse. I didn’t get onto it. Oh, I was so ashamed and sick with laughter. There was no way my fat old ass could make the way from the ground to the horseback without help. But I will not give up. Next summer I will try again and have a little step ready. Just for the fun of it.

days passing by

Saturday
It has been snowing on the trees and the ground tonight, once again, and a cat has been taking a morning walk through my garden, a pearly little pattern in the soft, white blanket. A bird came fluttering past, but Monika has not yet offered breakfast.
For the late afternoon on sunday we are invited to Margrét’s birthday and look foreward to it. She has been baking last night and is still doing things now, so I will go in trousers with a stretchband at the waist.

Tuesday
I slept my first night in my new bed which was delivered yesterday evening and slept well, thank you. Now I don’t close the door to my bedroom so I can have a peep now and then at my beautifull room.
Oh, the delivery of the bed. At a little past six a man knocked on our door and I came running and asked him out of breath and smiling; You come with the bed, don’t you? First he looked rather confused, Oh no, he was very sorry he just delivered some letters. I hope, he did understand more then just the word “bed”. There could be rather many reasons why he looked confused and a little frightend.

Friday
A week has past rather quickly, I was buisy at school and poduced a lot of working materials for the children, a story to teach them talking, a story to say good bye, a word and picture domino and things like that. Lots of people are sick at the moment, the flu, common cold with fever and more. It is still very cold outside, slippery in places but nice and bright but for the occational storm. Live is rather nice these days but for ocational emotinal storms..there we go again.

Sunday.
I am so sorry, days are passing by and luckily nothing interesting happens. So there are few news to tell.
Yea, my husband and me did some driving around in the car today. You know what? He always takes different routes from point A to B than I do. It is so irritating. There I got this nice route with the least red lights and the by far shortest way and he just won’t listen. But anyhow, we got home again.

Having no news, I could talk about politics. But it is so stupid. Somehow the politicians, most of them, no, not you, are so terribly stupid. How DO they dare to take decisions as they do? Making war, for the worst. Deciding where to spend our tax money, for the best. And so on. But it is boring and making me angry, so I will stop right now.

I have been reading so much, I don´t really remember what I did read since last. Three books after Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse 5”, the greatest antiwar book I’ve ever read, about the american nonhero who stands in an unknown place in France whishing to be somewhere else, and so it goes. “Galapagos”, same author, same depression, now the big brains are under poetic fire, a bit boring, and last “breakfast of champions”, still more depression and the life is nonsense however you look at it. A nice way to start the new year!
“101 days in Bagdad” by Asne Seierstad, norwegian reporter, she also wrote about the bookshop owner in Kabul. Very interesting to read though it was written in the spring of 2003, right before the war on Irak started. About the war: the word “awe” still makes me furious. Awe for the destruction the godlike american nation can pour over the humans of other countries? Hmmm. Not that I was a fan of Saddam, he could be shredded for all I care.
For the icelandic readers: ”Dauðans óvissi tími”, Þráinn Bertelsson, no must. A police story with icelandic political sidesteps, not my biggest amusement.
AND I am reading the first three chapters of “Leadership for Differentiating Schools and Classrooms”, A. Tomlinson;S. Allen, 2000. A Must for the school. It’s better than it sounds. Why the first three chapters only? It comes as it is translated into icelandic. There the name is: “Leiðsögn um einstaklingsmiðaða kennsluhætti.” And we just got so far.

Again and again the question arises at our home and in my head: Why do I blog? Some people have the opinion that they would not like to talk about themselves for everybody to read. I don´t see a problem there. I know some people who read my block: Friends around the world, so I don´t have to write to them individually but about privat things, family members here and abroad who like to know how we spend our days. And last, not least, I blog just because of the fun of it. Chatting away about things I do, matters I think about.
And on the way I also regognize new things about myself. Never would I have thought that I was as much a housewife as I am. But I seem to be, cleaning, stacking things away, ironing. I also shop a lot more than I thought I did. This later point I don´t like at all and will do something about it. As for now I go once again through my cupboards etc. and try to throw away everything I don´t want. I was going to write “need”, but that would not be the truth, I don’t “need” most of the things I own. But still I like them. But old bedcloths I keep to make someday a patchwork blanket? No, I think I will put them away. Etc., Etc.
I know, it gets boring to read how I clean. But it was so much fun! Margret came and sat on a kitchen chair, had coffee and chatted away. Meanwhile I emptied cupboards and asked her if she would like this and that and those bowls and she said yes to most of it and the rest I threw away or packed for the red cross. Oh, you should see my kitchen now! A place to breath. And (don’t tell anybody!) new dishes and cups and bowls … it looks so nice. And my wardrobe has become so organized – like in an advertisement, I could get a chair and sit down in front of it and admire my handiwork, but I don’t.
Furthermore I finally finished the babyjacket with gloves and little shoes and a cap and even threw it through the washingmachine so tommorrow it will be dry and ready to give. And you know, today the reciever was born, a fat little boy seven days too late.
I will let you rest now and keep on sewing my new lacy curtains tommorrow.
You see, the days are brighter longer, so little by little I get my energie going again. I will not say it again, I promise! (that the sun is higher up)

a lot of nonsense

Yesterday I bought a really beautifull little tablerunner for my dinnertable. I put it there and I am sure it is handmade, though it doesn´t say so. It was really cheap, I would have no more than 10 minutes to work for the money it cost me. Made in China. What does give us, the humans in the western world, the right to exploit the eastern world on a grand scale as it does? The women, and I am sure they are women, can only get pences for many hours of work. When I get something for nearly nothing, somebody must have been cheated on the way.

The 20th of January the day will be one hour longer than the shortest day of the year and the sun is already smiling into our kitchen window at high noon. From now on the days will get longer quite quickly, the reason of this is the tilt of the earth of 23,5 degrees towards the sun. Look at for better information than I can give down below. On the way I got the speed at which we are thrown around in the universe: 29,8 km/sec around the sun. So, no reason to be proud of your fast cars! One more point I find interesting: We are furthest from the sun in summer in the northern hemispere and nearest to the sun in winter as the earth doesn´t make a perfect circle around the sun. And, did you, here on the upper side of the globe, ever realize that the noon sun shines from the north when you are in Australia?

Hmm, where did my link go? Sorry, maybe it comes later.

I just did realize that I didn’t express myself in the right way the other day. I should not have said: What should I do, but: What should I do first. First, this little word makes a whole lot of difference, without it it looks like I had nothing to do and was wondering what to do with my time. No, the meaning was just the opposite: There are so many things I would like to do that I don’t really know where to start. And all these things are of equal importance to me and have to be fit into a defenite timespan. So, I have to decide what is the most important thing to do at what time. For example sewing my needlepoint is best done in the daytime, as dusting or cleaning the floor because of the light (or vice verca- the no light.) Knitting and reading on the other hand can wait for the lamps, knitting preferably while watching TV. Shopping I have to do while the shops are open, depending on what it is I have to buy, those are different times again. Going shopping I have also to consider the different density of the traffic at different times of the day as well as the places where I want to go to so as not to drive back and forth but in a neat circle. Besides this I also have to consider my working time at those days I am working. At those times the question arrives if I go home first or go directly after work to where I want to go.
Then, of course, still more important things do happen and then I am ready to throw all my plans overboard. For today I had planned to finish to go through my clothes and put them back into my wardrobe in the now beautifull room with a new and shiny floor. Then I was going to go through my kitchen. But, delightfully, Jakobina arrived from the countryside at noontime and three sweet grandchildren ran to hug grandma. And so I followed them for their bright company through IKEA and diverse shops and had a great day.
As it is,I sleep in our guestroom, waiting for my new bed to arrive on monday. Now I know why my guests leave my nice guestroom bed after a few nights. But that’s ok too, who wants guests all the time? (No, no DO come, I’ll fix the bed!)

mother of pearl

How beautifull it was yesterday evening! The sky and the clouds were a symphony in pastellcolours, colours of mother of pearl, dark- and dovegrey, pinkiest pink, salmon pink, violets, blue in all shades, and beneath, still, the christmas lights on the streets and in the windows of nearly every house.
Kaffe Fassett, the famous english designer, once visited Iceland in wintertime and stated that he felt like sitting inside a shell.

Time

As so often, life is a question of time. What should I do? I have quite a lot of options.
I can, and do, play my computergame. Now I am somewhere in southern america. I could keep on reading my book: 101 days in Bagdad by Asne Seiderstad, interesting though it was written 2 years ago. I could knit on my babyjackets or needlepoint the cushion I bought yesterday and started on, impatient as I am. I would like to go on with my sitepage, got new ideas for the next topic. There already is a batch of dirty things in the washing machine. Still and again I should iron. I have visits to make and to go and find the parket I want to have in my bedroom. Yes and before monday morning I have to empty my bedroom as on monday morning there will come a carpenter and put that parket on my bedroom floor and make me a window sill. Than I will get me a new bed and, maybe, curtains. I could blog, which I do, a tiny bit. The christmas tree is still decorating our livingroom, but to get rid of that is the work of the man of the house. I already took the decorations down and stored them nicely for next christmas later this year.
Oh yes, thursday after work my car broke down. Lucky as I am on the parking lot at the school. I stepped on the clutch and “bing” it went. So, no clutch, no driving home. And I who had been so proud of my functioning car just some days ago. But Monika did fetch me, man of the house got it through telefoncalls to the garage and yesterday afternoon it was ready again. And what did I do? I went driving down town and spent lots of money on material for a cushion. It was not my idea. A friend was on a visit and wanted to go to this yarn and handiworky shop. In the end I did spent money and she didn’t.
Outside of my window Monika has put corns on the snow for the birds. So now there is a sweet fluttering up and down and little fluffy bodies picking around. Everytime I look up, there they go and then they fall like brown snowflakes down again.
So, my bloggimgtime is finished. Time for the parket. Have a nice day.

Today I was thankfull for my little red car, being the owner of a car, any car. There was such a storm and the dry snow being blown everywhere around us - me and my car - that is was difficult to find the way to work. The traffic in whole was rather slow. On the way back home the temperature had risen a lot and now the roads were slippery rivers, so no little walk today as I promised me on new years eve.
It was ok to wake up for work...wonders happen...but is was hell to stay awake, mostly after this nice hot lunch at the school's invitation. But is was fun meeting all the dear people I am working with and we got a new teacher in our class, too. And now there comes tommorrow and the little kids to look forward to.

I am thankfull

With the beginning of the new year I am thankfull that

I was born into a comfortable world and not a poor one
we have a safe and warm home
we and our family have enough to eat everyday
we can afford to buy clothes on us
there are good doctors to help when we are sick
the community takes well care of our son
electricity is there when we need it
cold and hot water flows out of faucets
as a woman I can go and study whatever I like
we live in a free and beautiful country

I thank the people who make this possible

2005

Now we have to get used to write a new count for the year, 5 instead of 4. And it was so difficult to get used to the 20.. instead of 19..
We had a nice and quiet evening, yes, it is rather quiet in this house, I realize, and me and Marinó sat on chairs in front of the window and looked at the beautifull fireworks covering the sky. It was amazing once again.
I changed and added to my website if you like to have a look.
Yes and

a happy new year!!