Mättande smoothie

Mättande smoothie
1 port

5 jordgubbar
½ banan
1 msk havrekli
2 msk lättyoghurt
2 dl sojamjölk/lättmjölk

Låt havrekli svälla i mjölken i tio minuter. Tillsätt resten av ingredienserna. Mixa och drick.

Kalorier: 224
Kolhydrater: 39 g
Protein: 7,7 g
Fett: 4 g

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Satisfying smoothie
1 portion

5 strawberries
½ banana
1 tbs. crushed oats
2 tbs. light yoghurt
7 ozs. soymilk or skim milk

Let the crushed oats swell up in the milk for about ten minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix and drink.

Calories: 224
Carbohydrates: 39 g
Protein: 7.7 g
Fat: 4 g

*** You can’t buy fresh strawberries in Sweden in the Winter, at least not in Åmål. And they would be so expensive it wouldn’t be worth it (with being imported and all). So instead I just use 1 whole banana – and it is delicious. This is our favorite one yet and Leia loves it. At the store I couldn’t find any crushed oats, so I bought crushed wheat instead; it is the same product, just a different grain and it is still good for you. The oats probably give a better flavor though. I am anxious for summer though, and using some of our fresh strawberries out of the garden.

All of thee above.

Ugh.. tired, stressed, overworked, underappreciated, overwhelmed.. etc.. etc.. etc.. I’m sure there are more things that I could qualify for.. :)

I don’t even know where to begin. :/ :)
I am just SO tired and so stressed with school. It is so much work it is ridiculous.

Right now I am trying to get through my first section in my book, which covers 3 chapters – a total of 100 pages, because I have a test not this Tuesday, but the Tuesday after. Each chapter has a set of questions, it took me 4 typed pages to answer the questions for 1 chapter. I’ve caught up a lot the last week so I feel a bit better about it, but I don’t have time to do anything else. I haven’t even touched my Swedish work at all yet this term.

After I get this test out of the way, then I don’t think it will be so bad. It is the only test I have to take. The teacher said that for the other 2 sections I can do home-assignments instead of taking a test. So that was very nice of her. But I still have to do a news-presentation. I decided to do mine over the healthcare reform going on in the US. I thought that it would be very interesting for the Swedes in my class to learn a little about how legislature is passed in the US. And then I have to do a huge paper about the differences between a poor country and a rich country, I was given Sudan and Norway (both oil countries). So I also have to research for that paper. And I have to do a final paper for my Swedish class and some other small assignments.

But this test is very, very important (for Samhällskunskap – Social Studies). I have to pass the class if I want to continue my education, so that means that I have to pass the test.

I loose 2 hours a day walking Leia to daycare, not including the time it takes to get her ready (snowsuit and all). So sometimes I just keep her home because it equals out to not making that much of a difference for the few hours she is there.

I go to bed between 1-2AM and get up with her at 6AM.
I am running on fumes. :(
It takes a lot of time to get through the reading for my class. Right now I think I am living on caffeine. :)

Leia completely drains me during the day. And then I have to fix dinner and Fredrik spends a bit of time with her before she has bed which is when I start on my school stuff. Then I put her to bed and then school work until I can’t keep my eyes open.

I’ve been getting so stressed I’ve been worried about having an anxiety attack. I get them when I get overly stressed and now it is making it worse because I am getting stressed about worrying about getting an anxiety attack.. :/ :D So it just makes it worse.

And the house.. ugh.. the house is a mess.. :D
But I don’t care – I don’t have the time to care now. The downstairs bathroom is the only room that is very neat, clean and the way it should be. I make sure that the dishes are clean and that we have clean clothes, other than that – the house is cluttered. Not nasty or dirty or anything, just messy and cluttered. :( And I hate it. Since I have OCD it makes it very difficult for me to sit and do my work knowing that there are a pile of papers that should be put away. And it makes me even more stressed and it takes even longer to do anything.

To help me relax, I do sit and watch Law & Order SVU (my most favorite show) between 20-21.00 every evening. Just to make sure that I get to do something that I wanna do.

I know it has been awhile since I have written – but I’m sure you understand. And it is annoying because there is so much that I would like to write about and I just don’t have the time. And lots of pictures I want to post.

Fredrik is doing well. Very, very bored at work. He found a job in Uppsala (a university town) and a job in Oslo. He looked at houses in Uppsala and they are outrageous – so that is out of the question. (Even though it would be awesome to live that close to a university.) He has a meeting with the.. ehh.. regional boss, which is officed in Östersund (where we often go camping up north of us – faaaar away) — that meeting is on Monday.

Leia is doing well. Colors all the time, it is her favorite thing to do. :) She is really good, too. She is writing ‘4′ now. But sometimes she does it backwards.

Very, very cold today, – 15 degC (5 degF). And it snowed a good lot on Friday.

It gets frustrating that we don’t have anyone we can depend upon for anything. It makes life very difficult. Someone that could watch Leia for a few hours or pick her up from daycare for me. So that I could clean or study without interuption. Or Fredrik and I could have an evening to ourselves, or have a night out of the week where she could sleep somewhere else so that I didn’t have to worry about getting up with her at 3 or 4. But that is the way it is. It is just the 3 of us.

On a good note – we found Leia’s cat today.
About 3 weeks ago we lost the bigger of her 2 pink cats. We haven’t seen it at all, even though we knew it was in the house somewhere. Leia found it this morning and she was SO happy! She gave him lots of hugs and kisses and I was jumping up and down. It is nice having him back.

Gubbe

Leia LOVES to draw stick figures. Yesterday evening, I drew my orange stick figure on the paper, and then Leia drew hers right next to mine. :) And I love it!

Not bad for a two year old?
I love the detail of the eyes, ears and hair. :))
She has been drawing them for awhile now, but this is the best one yet.

Protein-rich smoothie with apple

Proteinrik smoothie med äpple – 1 port.

1 st äpple, rött utan skal
2 dl sojamjölk, el lättmjölk
1 tsk fruktsocker
0,5 tsk kanel
0,5 dl kesella, 1% fett

Skala och skär äpplet i bitar. Lägg alla ingredienser utom sojadrycken i en mixer och mixa allt till en slät massa. Häll i soja/mjölkdrycken och mixa klart.

Energi: 200 kcal
Kolhydrater: 26 g
Protein: 13 g
Fett: 5 g

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Protein-rich smoothie with apple – 1 portion

1 apple, red without skin
7 ozs soy milk or skim milk
1 tsp fruit sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
1½ tbs. cottage cheese, 1% fat

Peal and chop apple into small pieces. Put all the ingredients except the milk in a mixer and mix until very smooth. Add the milk and mix.

Calories: 200
Carbohydrates: 26 g
Protein: 13 g
Fat: 5 g

***I use whole milk (3% fett) for Leia and skim (lättmjölk) for myself. She needs the fat from the milk. And I didn’t feel like buying a special sugar to use for the drinks, so I just use regular sugar. Leia doesn’t like this one very much and I wasn’t too fond of it either. The cinnamon isn’t so wonderful, I’d maybe add less cinnamon.

Protein-rich smoothie with banana.

Proteinrik smoothie med banan – 1 port.

0,5 banan
2 dl sojamjölk, el lättmjölk
1 tsk fruktsocker
0,5 dl kesella, 1% fett

Lägg alla ingredienser utom sojadrycken i en mixer och mixa allt till en slät massa. Häll i soja/mjölkdrycken och mixa klart.

Energi: 181 kcal
Kolhydrater: 20 g
Protein: 13 g
Fett: 5 g

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Protein-rich smoothie with banana – 1 portion

½ banana
7 ozs soy milk or skim milk
1 tsp fruit sugar
1½ tbs. cottage cheese, 1% fat

Put all the ingredients except the milk in a mixer and mix until very smooth. Add the milk and mix.

Calories: 181
Carbohydrates: 20 g
Protein: 13 g
Fat: 5 g

***I use whole milk (3% fett) for Leia and skim (lättmjölk) for myself. She needs the fat from the milk. And I didn’t feel like buying a special sugar to use for the drinks, so I just use regular sugar.

Muffffffins.

I made some delicious chocolate-banana muffins this past week. It was supposed to be made into a bread-loaf, but I think that muffins are easier, a good portion size, and easy to freeze.

Leia only eats toast now. :/ We can’t get her to eat anything else.. *sigh* :) When she first started eating she was on an all veggie diet, then she did the protein diet, and now she is doing the carb diet. :)) She’ll eat toast with butter, and we put a very little bit of jam on it. She’ll eat crackers, too. But that is all we can get her to eat. So since she won’t eat, I’ve started making smoothies for her, and they are pretty good! Very simple to make. When Leia started eating, I made my own, homemade baby food, and Fredrik bought me a hand-held mixer to purée the food, so I use that mixer and it is perfect.

I figured that I needed to get more nutrients in her somehow, and she loves any drink – so it works! She calls it “milk” so she doesn’t realize that it is anything special. Since I know that some of you also might have picky eaters, I’ll start posting any good recipes that I find!

Leia has also officially said her first bad word. On Monday, when I realized the tire was flat, I said a not so good word – and Leia said it right after me.. :D So it really makes you think about what you say.

Worst week ever?

Last week was pretty good. Fredrik only had to work on Thursday and Friday. He had to take the car to have it tested and we had the fireplace tested, and I spent the week working on new curtains for the house.

Then Monday came along and it has been the worst week ever.

Monday - I had an afternoon meeting at school. I was on my way to drop-off Leia before hand and half-way down the street, I realized why it was impossible to push the stroller.. flat tire. So I had to go back to the house, carry all the stuff down to the garage, get Leia in the car seat, get the car out of the garage and get us where we needed to be. Meeting was pointless but necessary. Find out this is the last term they are having classes in town; they are moving the entire Komvux (adult education center) to the high school, at the most farthest-South point of town. *sigh* Thank goodness this is my last Komvux term, because I would refuse to go all the way out there.

Tuesday - I woke up with a headache so bad I thought my head was going to pop off. I slept very poorly and I had a fever and felt very, very sick. During my shower I got so dizzy and sick that I had to get out of the shower. (While Leia was constantly knocking on the bathroom door saying “tvätta munnen — tvätta munnen” — which literally means to wash your mouth, but she means to brush her teeth. That child loves to brush her teeth!!) Fever went away, I had breakfast and then felt much better. Fredrik got the stroller tire fixed in Bengtsfors. I had plans to clean the house all day, but Leia was very, very, very cranky, so I didn’t get anything done. She just screamed and whined all day, so it wasn’t very fun.. :/ But then it wasn’t very surprising that she woke up soon after falling asleep and didn’t sleep that night. So I was up with her, but she stayed in bed and I layed on a matress beside her bed. So no sleep that night.

Wendesday - I had to get up super early because I had class at 09.00. So I had to get up early to get Leia and I ready; had to drop her off and then I had class. No surprise that I ended up sick with a cold Wed morning. Since I didn’t get any sleep and I was dead tired, Fredrik left late for work and dropped both Leia and I off. I was SO greatful to him for doing that. My class went really well, there are only 7 of us (for Samhälls A – Social Studies), and I am the only non-Swede. Usually the classes are mostly foreigners, but now it is just me. So no simple Swedish.. :/ :) But it was fun! And my teacher was awesome. She’s helping get me organized for the entire term, since I have Leia at home and can’t come to our “classes.” (No real class – just time we can go and ask her questions.) I can talk more about my class later, though. :)

Completely dead tired after walking Leia home after my class and being sick, in -20 degC weather. She actually fell asleep on the way home, so I took my time. I got home barely before Fredrik and I was so dead tired. We had soup for dinner, and we all went to bed early.

Thursday - Decided I was too sick to get up and take Leia to daycare, Fredrik calls them that she is staying home. Leia was really good, maybe cause she knew her mommy didn’t feel so good. :) So we snuggled in the couch all day, drew lots of “gubbes” (“old men”) – stick figure men that she LOVES to draw now, and we played with Legos. Fredrik came home early to take the car to its service, since the back brakes had to be fixed. Also the windshield fluid pump stopped working – had to have it replaced. He took the car, they gave him a loaner. And later when he was supposed to pick it up, they said it wouldn’t be done until Friday, but that we could keep their car. I felt too bad to make dinner, so Fredrik went to pick up McD’s, and then we completely forgot about our meeting at Leia’s daycare. :(((( It was a big important meeting, and we feel like complete idiots.

Friday - Fredrik leaves very early to pick up the car before he goes to work, and we get the bill for the car service, 7000sek (1200$). The icing on the “perfect” week that we had. They did say that the brakes crumbled when they took them off – so a good thing that we got them changed.

It was just one of those weeks that you can not wait until it is overwith.

A bit warmer.

No.. not the weather.. but now that the fireplace is going, it has been much, much warmer in the house! We have been able to turn down the heating dramatically, and we are just lighting little fires here and there. Since it was tested.. last Tuesday I think it was.. Or maybe Monday..? Hmm.. but anyways.. The guy came and tested it and he said that it was put together very well. Not a problem with it, so he said we could start slowly, and light a little here and there, and then gradually work up the intensity. So now we are lighting a few logs and then let it die out and then a bit later we light again. Leia hasn’t bothered it once! If anything, she will go up to it and shut the outer doors.. :) She knows fire is very dangerous and she is very careful around the fireplace — she doesn’t go around it at all.

A few pictures of the fireplace:

I officially start school tomorrow; I have an orientation in the afternoon. Well, they call it registration, but that is wrong.. because I am already registered for the classes or they wouldn’t have me in their database, would they?? So I am calling it (properly) orientation, since we are confirming *ehmm* our registration and getting our first basic information. And then my class starts on Wednesday, but it will normally be on Tuesdays.

And Fredrik went back to work last Thursday and he is hating it.. :P
He is bored and there is nothing to do, but it isn’t just him, it is the whole office. It is just that time of year — can’t do construction or measuring with this type of weather. And after having off so much time with his pappa-leave (working 2-3 days a week), he doesn’t understand how anyone can work 5 days a week. :D

Okay – that is all for now, I’ll try to post tomorrow before I have to get to the school.

Cooool riiider.. I wanna coooool riiider..

..Although I don’t have Leia singing that song (Cool Rider) in these clips. The clips aren’t spectacular or anything – but she is enjoying her favorite musical/movie. :) Like I said, they aren’t special and she unfortunately isn’t as enthusiastic with the singing as she normally is – but this is the best that I’ve been able to film so far – so enjoy!

A new year.

Leia started her new year in her brand new bed. :) It wasn’t a problem to fit it in the car, so that was a nice relief. She loves it and rightfully so. :) She has so much more room now to move around. Now we just need to sell her crib. Leia helped her father put together her bed. :) She wouldn’t have had it any other way. She had her nose right into everything.. :)

And she helped me measure for the new bathroom shelves. :) They were definitely needed and we like the new addition to the bathroom.

Leia loves Grease 2 sooooooooo much.
She calls it “music.” :) She sits and watches it from start to finish and sings along with the whole movie. And she loooooooves Michelle Pfeifer..! She would sit and watch it all day long if we let her. Most children sit and watch Disney movies or nature shows — my 2 year old sits and watches bad musicals.. :D

Leia is very into Legos right now. :) She loves to build houses and cars (of course), and she always wants us to spell out letters and numbers.. *sigh* :)

And I don’t think that I have mentioned this before, but Leia is writing now.
Not sure if that is normal or not. At what age do children start writing letters and numbers??

It started a month or so ago.. maybe earlier.. she wrote an M. Of all things, an M — just out of the blue. We thought it was a fluke and then she kept writing it. And now she writes M, I, A, J, U, V, O, P and she writes 4 and 9. She holds her crayon perfectly and we are so proud of her!

Her new favorite word is “öppna” (open), and she has finally said her first, whole, grammatically correct sentence: “Den vill jag ha.” (I want that.) And she was referring to Julmust of course.. :D And another common phrase is “äta mat” (eat food) — I’m not sure as to what else she would be eating, but she loves to say it when we sit down to dinner. :)

Tomorrow we are going to Mio – as they have started their New Year sale. We always keep an eye out for our favorite couch – just to see if it might go on sale. :))

Happy New Year!

Gott Nytt År !!

A little greeting and then I hope to write something more later today. :)
Leia slept through all of the fireworks last night! We thought that she would wake up – and we were sorta hoping she would! So that she could see how pretty they are. Even with the cold, the neighbors got out and had a nice display. Not like it has been in other years, but with the deathly cold temperatures, we didn’t think anyone would get out at all to set fireworks. It is completely dead around here. No one leaves their homes unless they absolutely have to. Sorta sad though – being on vacation and everything, and not getting to go out and play in the snow with Leia, but it is just too cold. Still hovering between -15 to -24 degC (5 to -11 degF).

When we got to IKEA in Karlstad the other day, when we were looking for a parking spot – a woman walked out of the store — eating an ice cream.. it was -24 degC !!!! :/

But we bought a bed for Leia. :) And we put it together yesterday and she slept in it last night. So I will add some pictures later. We also bought some shelves for the downstairs bathroom.

More later!
We hope everyone had a nice New Year’s and that 2010 will hold something special for everyone.

[I'm hoping for some good movies on TV today!
Watched Mary Poppins with Leia for the first time on Wednesday. :) Since she loves musicals we figured she would love it. The COOP in Säffle had a few select Disney movies for 99:- (14$), so we bought Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty.]

COLD.

-22 degC this morning (-7.6 degF).
Very cold. :/

We decided to go to Karlstad today, so we aren’t looking forward to going out in the cold weather. We tried to order a bed for Leia online, but they don’t deliever them (which is really odd), so we are going to IKEA today to hopefully try to make the enormous box fit in the car. :/ Fredrik is planning on driving the car around for a bit before we leave on our trip, to warm it up because it is just so cold. Not very economically or evironmentally friendly, but when you have a baby – sometimes you have to do those things.

It is going to be crowded today.. :/ We should have gone earlier in the week, but we didn’t think we would have to be going at all.. :/ Very strange that they don’t deliever the baby/toddler beds. :/ The small items they sell they don’t ship, which makes sense, that would be a packaging nightmare. But usually anything in boxes they ship. Ugh.. So our 10th trip to Karlstad in the last 3 months?! :)) And we all know how much Fredrik (men in general) LOVE going to IKEA with their wives… :D

At least we get to have lunch at IKEA. Leia eats an entire 10-piece meatball meal by herself.

Okay.. finish getting ready and try to warm up the car enough for Leia to get in there and then we head out for a little day of shopping in Karlstad!

Merry Jul.

Merry Christmas eller God Jul – depending on which language you prefer.. :P

Leia VERY much enjoyed opening her Christmas presents. :)) Fredrik and I couldn’t open our presents fast enough – so that she could continue opening hers. She would open one, and she was always very excited and happy about what it was. But then she would set it down and say “annat, annat!” (another). :))

I put together a collage of some pictures. I have a few little videos, mostly of her very slowly and carefully tearing off pieces of wrapping paper, or trying to restick the name tag to the present because she accidently took it off. *sigh*

We all received some very nice presents!
Thank you to everyone who thought of us this year!

We were planning on going to the summer house, maybe even today or tomorrow, but the weather is so bad that we have decided to not go. We are a bit disappointed because we were going to take a little day trip to Svinesund and look around at the shopping area. It has been so long since we have been there that we were all looking forward to it. But the weather is just too bad right now. We have a good 2 feet of snow right now, about ½ a meter I would say. Today we dug the car out of the snow, and after the street plows went through, the neighbor used his snow blower and helped us even more! Very nice of him to do that!

And the neighbor, Ulla, even came over on Christmas Eve and brought Leia a couple of little presents – isn’t that sweet!! :) And one of the old neighbor men came to the door dressed as Santa and gave Leia some candy. It is tradition here that Santa comes on the Eve and hands out presents. We don’t have any relatives nearby to do that so it was a real treat (especially to Fredrik and I) that someone came over to the house for Leia. :)

It snowed all day yesterday and all night last night and then most of today. It is supposed to get very, very cold again and stay that way until New Years. With the fireplace not working too well at the summer house, and the roads very slippery and snowy, we thought it a good idea to stay home instead of going to the house. And we would spend a good couple of hours trying to shovel a spot for the car and paths to get to the house and to the barns for firewood. So we are staying in – like hermets – when we would prefer to be out. But not much we can do about. :)

Some pictures from today:

Lussekatt.

Today, as promised, Leia and I made Lussekatt (saffron buns). And saffron happens to be the most expensive spice in the world, which I read about today. Costing on average 1,500$ a pound (10 500 sek / 450g). In Sweden you buy it in 0,5g (0,2 oz) packages – at the cash register.

Leia helped me make the dough, and it was fun, even if there was orange splashed liquid on the walls after her very zealous mixing. Then she was in charge of shaping the buns and her most favorite part: adding the raisins. Technically raisins are not supposed to be everywhere on the buns, but the buns aren’t technically supposed to be M’s, O’s or 6’s either… :)) But Leia loves her alphabet, so she shaped the buns in the shape of letters, and then she covered them with raisins. :) It was fun. :)

“I läsa.. en bok.”

This morning, I was laying in bed and Leia was making lots of noise in the hallway room upstairs. I asked her what she was doing and she shouts out “I läsa.” Then she appeared in the doorway, book in hand, the other hand on the door, and she said, “en bok.” And then she shut the door. :D

läsa = to read
en bok = a book

Yesterday Leia and I spent the day making sugar cookies. No icing on these. These have green and/or red sprinkles. Leia was in charge of sprinkles. :)

Fredrik also talked to the fireplace/chimney sweep people in Åmål and they said that if they have time, they might come and look at it today, to inspect it but he didn’t think they would have the chance – but that it might could happen if the guy got a little bit of time. And if THAT happens, then we can start using it..! :D

We were supposed to get an enormous snow storm over the last 2 days – but that didn’t happen. The Swedish weather service is extremely unreliable. To get my Swedish weather, I look at American websites. :P
http://www.weather.com
They don’t have the weather for Åmål, but they do for Säffle (the next town over), which is close enough! But it has been very, very cold.. and even getting around -16 degC (3 degF) during the day.

Today Fredrik will make his homemade meatballs for dinner tomorrow. Leia and I will make Lussekatt. I think I also promised Fredrik that I would make some chocolate chip cookies. And maybe something else too, but I’m not sure. I would make peanut butter cookies but I have no more peanut butter in storage. :( They have stopped selling smooth peanut butter (not the Swedish Skippy brand – which really isn’t peanut butter at all, but the importaned American Belle brand) here in Åmål. :( They have plenty of the “crunchy” peanut butter in stock – but I don’t want that. So I’m trying to find some yummy stuff to make.

And Leia is afraid of snow now for some reason.. *sigh* she won’t go outside and she won’t walk in the snow.. :)

We are happy to be spending Christmas with just the 3 of us (4 of us if you count Caesar). :) But it can be a bit lonely over the holidays to be constantly by ourselves.. :( ..So we might go away to the summer house for awhile, just to have a change of scenery, and so Leia can more easily go sledding. (Here, we have to do it on the street in front of our house.)

We are very anxious to open Christmas presents. :) It is going to be lots of fun with Leia.
So today – baking and cleaning! And keep your fingers crossed about the fireplace. (If not today, then he said he will come over definitely soon after Christmas.)