To everything there is a season

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under Heaven:

A time to be born,

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down,

And a time to build up;

A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

And a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak,

A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

8 months of silence

So how do you start writing again after 8 months of silence?

I don't know the answer to that yet.
In my head I have tried to come up with clever ways of announcing that I'm back, but truth be told I feel neither clever nor am I sure that I'll be back. Writing a blog was such an outlet for me to express myself. I truly enjoyed sitting down at the end of the day sharing my thoughts and the things that brought me joy. But as we entered the new year I found myself feeling completely and utterly empty. Just the thought of writing down anything was overwhelming. I couldn't even open my blog to take a look at the comments. Life is sometimes so demanding that the things you used to love become a chore. And I couldn't handle any more chores. So I quit!

Today life is even more demanding. For reasons that I might share later my heart is broken and I feel even more empty than ever. And for some odd reason the thought of writing again has started to haunt me at night when I should be sleeping. So here I am. I don't know for how long or if I'll be able to do this. But at least the silence is broken

Hot woman in a cold place

I'm back in Norway after our cruise. Unfortunately I have gotten a terrible flue that has put me in bed for a week. Today the fever has peeked at 104.9 and I feel quite exhausted and HOT! My hubby is away and my awesome 12 year old is taking very good care of me. Outside it is MINUS 10 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm grateful my home is warm and comfortable. I'm hoping to find my bloginspiration soon. Until then: take care and be blessed y'all (hey...I used to live in Tulsa!)


I took this photo out my kitchen window today before I crashed on our couch. It is quite beautiful here!

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A sunny day in Pireus

It's a beautiful day in Athens today. The cruiseship is here for a few hours before we leave for Crete. I wish you all a wonderful Holiday season and a Happy New Year!


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The lucky winners of my 100th post Giveaway are....

A little late, but just in time for Christmas. The three lucky winners of a year's magazine subscription are:

Kristen at All in a Mom's life.

Stepahanie Gina at All that Glitters

Tracy at Tattoos and Diapers

Please send me your address and desired magazine by email so that I can order your subscription.

A big thanks to all the rest of you who entered my Giveaway! I will be back with more fun Giveaways in 2010. Better luck next time:-)

Merry Christmas!

I'm sorry...

It has been a busy month and I have been very very tired. My inspiration and desire to blog completely disappeared. This is the first time I have even looked at my blog in almost 3 weeks. I'm sorry for not responding to all your sweet comments and for not visiting my wonderful blogfriends. All I can say is that I hope I'll do better in 2010. And that I truly hope that you all are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season.

I will do a drawing for my Great Giveaway later this afternoon and post the results tomorrow!

To give a short recap of the last few weeks:

Of course I have done plenty of shopping! I love interior design stores and all the wonderful Christmas decorations you can buy. I just wish my house was twice as large and my pocketbook twice as thick... This is a picture from one of my favorite shops in Drøbak.

I decorated very simple this year. We are all leaving for a Mediterranean cruise this Sunday and will be gone for 2 weeks. No need to put up the tree this year. I only used lots of white lights, a few silver ornaments and green sprigs.

One of the highlights of December is my all girls weekend. Every year I bring my best friends to our summerhouse where we eat, drink, talk, watch girly movies and maybe do a little shopping. It's always a blast and this year was no exception.

Of course I brought them to all my favorite little shops in Drøbak and my good friend Nanni had to take lots of pictures for her blog Nannis Verden.

Drøbak is always charming, but around Christmas time it is absolutely quaint.

My daughter was a cutie the 13th of December for St. Lucia's day. In Scandinavia we celebrate this day with the kids dressing up in white, holding candles and serving the grownups "lussekatter" (a special roll that has saffron).

Every year we go to the national museum here in Oslo called "Folkemuseet". It has a wonderful display of old buildings and traditions. The whole area is just absolutely beautifully decorated for Christmas. Their Christmas market is quite unique and has become a tradition for us. We spend the day eating gingerbread cookies and candied apples, riding horse drawn carriages and looking at wonderful things we can buy for Christmas.

After a very busy month at school we had a fun day this week making a gingerbread village. I have blisters all over my hands from assembling 28 houses with burning sugar. I do not want to do this again next year... but the result looks good.

Finally I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Saturday

We are getting closer to Christmas and every weekend is filled with fun activities. Today we have been making gingerbread cookies. Here is the result:

Grace's gingerbread cookies are much more colorful and imaginative than mom's!

The pink NonStops (Norwegian M&M's) were the only pink things I could come up with today. Now we are going to a Christmas fair to see if we can find some fun Christmas presents. I wish you all a fabulous Pink Saturday!

For many more pink Saturday posts please visit Beverly over at How Sweet The Sound.