things I like lately

The simple, big vase from IKEA is perfect for the forsythia branches.

- Famapa's new portfolio website - love her blog too! (fun fact: we got aquatinted via Flickr and met in London in 2010)
- Charlott Pettersen's blog
- Brooklyn apartment tour
- lots of help from my mother-in-law this week whilst I worked late (parent-teacher conferences)
- my mother-in-law brought forsythia branches from their garden - they are so bright and yellow
- my mother brought pots of mini daffodils
- Wednesday afternoon dinner at my parents' place - Atlantic halibut with boiled potatoes, carrots and Sandefjordsmør (a sauce made of cream, butter and parsley) - yum!
- Wednesday afternoon playtime with my nephew (four months old)
- sodd leftovers from my nephews baptism (a traditional meat and vegetables soup from the Trøndelag area)
- cake leftovers (also from my nephew's baptism) all week
- eating ice cream in the sun on the terrace - Sara's request
- Rugsprø Original with Norvegia fyldig cheese - for ever and ever!
- red nails
- dear friends from Bergen are visiting this weekend - including Hama
- a reason to use the vintage champagne glasses from Paris
- a new dark blue linen blouse
- the feeling when the lumbago let go
- finding a roll of film (scanned, on my Mac) from Paris that I have not yet shared with you (coming soon) - which reminds me; I really should dig out my film camera again - have hardly touched it since we moved from Bergen
- Greek yoghurt with Crüsli solfrokost and honey

- - -

Things I don't like lately

- another working weekend - new paper due Friday
- a week of lumbago
- the pile of IKEA cabinets that needs to be assembled

post hike lunch: Hella

Kodak Ektar 100, Canon EOS 500N

After our little hike up Ørnfløya, we grilled hot dogs at Hella, Kvaløya. Even though this was the end of June, it was pretty cold - around 6 degrees Celsius. Hats and layers of wool were very welcome! Apparently this is a really good spot for fishing. There was so much fish it looked like the sea was boiling. I have never seen anything like it! Speaking of animals; on our drive out to Hella, was passed by both a reindeer and a mama moose with two calves. Cool!

life, week 11

Keeping it real: grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. Twice this week.

Preparing for my first history class. First theme: the American revolution

afternoon spring light in the bathroom

Fuel for the evening work.

playground art

No pouring rain required an afternoon visit to the neighbourhood playground/kindergarten.

Yes!



idyll on the HSH campus

spring bling

the blue hour with fellow students at Stord

good morning, Stord // I had the alarm set for 8 am - bliss! But I woke up at 0655 am and couldn't sleep more. So typical! 

student life

idyll on the HSH campus, part two

The once-a-week-grocery-shopping-routine has started. So glad we did it together, because his bulk buying skills are so much more advanced than mine.

Such a shame to be working indoors in this gorgeous weather. But the best stress relief is to get the job done - no matter how the weather conditions are. Right?

We all love my mum's homemade bacalao - especially when accompanied by family visiting from the other side of the country. 

Sunday, before 8 am

Kudos to the church for providing entertainment for the three year old who found sitting still in her cousin's baptism a little challenging.

Bunad galore and big smiles in my nephew's baptism.

- - -

Week 11: March 9-15

life, week 10

en sånn mandag // Monday bleh

6 pm work view // still too much to do

100 % comfort // also: 5:30 pm brightness!

I love discovering the light in our new house.

She requested an afternoon bike ride in the sun. I happily obliged.

low ambitions Friday afternoon

(home) working weekend 

He made omelette for Sunday breakfast. "Delicious!" the three year old exclaimed (in English, not Norwegian).

Sunday morning rush our in the living room.

Signs of their morning

Maybe this story about the pacifier fairy will inspire her to put away the pacifiers?



grading student papers // luckily there are a few stars among the Wikipedia copy/paste ones

- - -

Week 10: March 2-8

things I like lately

from my spring archives // Fuji Velvia 100, Canon EOS 500N

- Blackbird, The Beatles
- in-between some very wet and windy days, there have been some gorgeous sunny spring days
- blue. Blue skies, the blue hour. So much beautiful blue lately.
- the warmth of the spring sun
- crocus galore at the HSH campus
- meeting my fellow students again
- dinner at Brygga 11 - such a delicious tradition
- komletorsdag i kantina på HSH
- a good night's sleep at Grand hotel, Leirvik (nice to not be woken up Sara during the night)
- nail polish that looks great for a whole week (Essie's a-list)
- a group session in the sun by the sea during a long day of lectures
- seeing how much Sara loves our new bike trailer
- a weekend of family fun; my sister, her boyfriend and their baby boy are here for the little one's baptism
- looking forward to baby cuddles with my nephew
- thinking of no knead bread - should get into the swing of making it again
- planning to have avocado on toast for lunch - with a little bit of salt and fresh ground pepper on top
- this photo
- Sara singing in the bathtub
- discovering the light in our new house

- - -

Things I don't like lately

- feeling overwhelmed by all the papers that are due before my oral exam May 7
- a very stiff back - probably due to the lack of excercise - I can't seem to find time to prioritise exercise

my tomato soup

I promised my friend Hanne ages ago that I would share this recipe with her. Finally, here it is!

A good tomato sauce is the basis of so many delicious meals; everyone should have a good tomato sauce recipe in their repertoire. Slight variations of this recipe (depending on what vegetables are in the fridge) have become my go to tomato sauce.

I use this sauce both as a thick tomato soup (most often served with grated parmesan, fresh ground pepper and buttered bread on the side), sauce for various pasta dishes and sauce for pizza. Sara loves it mixed with some whole grain macaroni or fusilli.

For extra depth, flavor and nutrition, I use red lentils, carrot and celery root in addition to tomato, and of course onion and garlic.

I’m not very good with exact measurements when it comes to my own recipes, but I still hope you understand where I’m going with this. The sauce freezes well.

2 cans of canned tomatoes (I prefer Mutti)
1 chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 chopped carrots
celery root that equals ca. the same amount as carrot
1 dl of red lentils
a little bit (1-2 dl) of water, or cream if you want a milder taste
a stock cube/fond cup
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Fry onion and garlic in olive oil. Add chopped carrot, celery root and lentils. Add tomatoes, water/cream and stock cube/fond cup. Boil for ca. 30 minutes with the lid on, then puree. Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

Yield, as soup with nothing (like pasta or hard boiled egg) added: ca. 3-4 grown ups

thoughts on being a teacher

G of the blog jammen asked me if I enjoy being a teacher and if I recommend it. I'll be happy to share my thoughts on teaching, but first a little background.

As some of you know, I worked as a freelance journalist and copywriter for several years during and after writing my master thesis in media studies. I shared a bit about how I established myself as a freelancer in this post back in 2009 and I regularly shared my work here on the blog.

In 2011 I got a permanent part time position as a copywriter in a small ad agency. I mostly loved being a freelancer, but I quickly saw the benefits of being employed - especially when it came to the money bit.

I was on maternity leave with Sara for nearly two years. (Here are my thoughts on being a stay at home mom.) During this time, I realised that I didn't want to go back to freelancing. I would rather use my energy on being a mother than chasing my next sale/job/pay. I actually didn't really want to go back the ad agency job either. I felt like doing something else, something more meaningful - a realisation and transition that was a slow yet time-consuming process. Being a freelancer was such a big part of my identity and it was hard to see it go. Teaching had been in the back of my mind for a while, so the autumn of 2013 I decided to take the leap and start studying pedagogics and to work as a substitute teacher. I instantly loved pedagogics, substitute teaching not so much.

In early spring 2014 we decided to move from Bergen to Stavanger and I applied for my first full time teaching job. With hardly any teaching experience, I started my teaching career at a local secondary/middle school in August 2014.

Being a fresh teacher (kontaktlærer, ikke bare faglærer) in a full time job is super intense and a lot of hard work. When you combine it with part time studies, house renovation and living with your in-law's/parents, you are rather silly. Being a teacher is not just about teaching, there is so much more to it. Being the leader of the classroom, how to build good relations with your students, how to grade papers, how to make good plans for each lesson, how to give attention to all the students in your class; not just the ones who speak the loudest, how to... do anything! There is SO much to learn!

The good thing is, I actually enjoy it, a lot. I might even come to love it. But I'm really looking forward to finishing my studies and being able to focus on just (more or less) one thing. And I look forward to being a more experienced, confident teacher.

Do I recommend being a teacher? It depends on what kind of person you are. You must like working with people (kids, teenagers, your colleagues) and you must like conveying knowledge - plus everything in-between, which is a part of being a teacher you don't really know about until you have tried working as a teacher.

I'm glad I got into teaching and I hope to continue doing it for a long while.

Any other teachers want to share their thoughts?

things I like lately

- having our first dinner guests in the new house
- for said dinner Sølve made a delicious reindeer sirloin with potato gratin and a heavenly sauce (Sølve is really good at making sauces; they are quite complicated, so I can never really tell what is in them)
- I made tomato soup and Sara was so happy about it
- slowly getting more and more organised in the house
- red nails (it has been a while)
- panna cotta with raspberry sauce (made by the 9th grade cooking class - I love these kind of leftovers that we teachers get)
- grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for late dinner after a long workday - eaten whilst watching (so far only half of) this movie (I think I like it)
- Joanna/A Cup of Jo's Brooklyn home
- an afternoon bike ride to the grocery store with Sara (well, Sara on the balance bike, me by foot)
- crocus seen in random gardens
- a surprise delivery of tulips from my dear friend J in Bergen (photo above)
- plantsitting a beautiful hydrangea and a hellebore (I think) whilst my in-law's are in South Africa
- looking forward to Ingvild's dinner project - we really need to start planning our dinners again too
- Friday afternoon with popcorn, cartoons and Sara on the daybed in the basement living room - both tired from a long, busy week
- the weekend has started

- - -

Things I don't like lately

- feeling stressed about my workload
- the lack of curtains - we are very much on display...

life, week 9

Monday 4:20 pm - the beginning of our new everyday life routines in our new house

so, so, so hard to focus // paper due Friday

When we came home from kindergarten, she went straight to her room to draw.

The sky is awake, mamma! // How come she wakes up early during the weekend when we can sleep in and I have to wake her up during weekdays?

the Sunday tradition is back

Now that our grocery store is no longer in our nearest neighbourhood, we need a well stocked pantry. Good thing he is good at buying in bulk.

- - -

Week 9: February 23 - March 1