My Provincial Swedish (so called) Life

Living 30 minutes outside of the city with no job or friends, I could really just show photos of corn and mushrooms all the time. But I will find something else besides how my garden grows to blog about, and actually write a post.

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day, as we had skipped observing American Father's day this summer because we were traveling. Our own Father's Day was also a way to mark the end of my husband's father leave, or pappaledig. He has been off work since June, and we had the whole summer together as a family. In Sweden we get 480 days of paid leave per child. We had one child here March 2009, and moved when my first daughter was 3 1/2. We get the full 480 days for her as well, which we can use until she is 7. But now we have used all the leave for the child born here, thus the celebration, and my husbands return to work.

The sleep-in morning plus a nap, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, balloon-and- banner royal treatment for Fathers day

And come next sometime February to Mid March, our third baby will arrive, bringing another 480 days of leave. Yes, it is that time again for my French press to be filled daily with my favorite mix of dried herbs, to make the same pregnancy tea I was drinking when SwedeBaby was born.

Sweden is a great place to have babies. After working in birth in the USA, where the outcomes are the worst in the developed world, and the medical system (especially in regards to birth) is a god awful wrecked mess , it was a relief to birth in sane, safe Sweden. But I have not been able to work here. Sweden does not recognize my education or ten years running my own birth center, so I am unemployed. Mostly that has been great, as between pregnancy and being immersed in new baby hood, and all the travel we have done with all that pappaledig, I have been happy to not have 50 pregnant women calling at all hours of the night like they did back in the day. I have been plenty busy exploring Sweden and figuring out where to buy chocolate chips and other hard to find items I miss from home . So busy I have not worked on my Swedish hardly at all. Which does nothing to make me feel like this is my real, long term life. It is my so called life.

There are so many reasons it has been good to be here. But I am feeling especially lonely and home sick since coming back from our summer trip. My creative energy was bound up trip planning. We stretched the limits of budget travel and via home exchange and by eating lots of oatmel, we saw the south of France, the Ligurian coast, the islands near Venice, the hills of Italy, lounged in volcanic thermal pools near Capri, ate gelato at Trevini fountain in Rome, and toured the magical Neuscwhannstein castle of the Alps. All by driving the distance that in the USA would take me from Florida to Washington DC. Now the trip is over and my mind is free to look to the future once more, and I am wondering what life will bring next. So when thinking to the next baby, we are planning how we can use the pappaledig time to set us all up to be living the life we want. If we can figure out what that would be.

We said we were moving to Sweden for three years, and we would see how everyone was doing. That date comes up next summer, and I can feel the questioning of 'So, how are we doing?' burning inside.

It is a question every American who marries a Swede, or anyone who lives in one place but has a foot in another country has to constantly live with. I have a American friend here 7 years who is growing unsettled by the conformity Sweden asks of her exceptional children, a sister in law that just moved to Sweden from Washington DC, a new friend about to move here, a blogger I read who is just plotting her return, and a friend married to a Swede living back home in the Sunshine State. Each of us living with all the questions that come when you are living a great life, with an alternate dream life elsewhere.

So I am looking at Sweden with the eyes you have when you come back from a big trip, and are relieved to see home. And with the eyes of someone who is living a temporary, lovely experimental, so called life. And with the eyes of someone who misses her family, and her friends. So I am simply trying to keep them open. And my heart open.

I mostly put up pictures these days, have little time or inclination to write much since having baby #2. But let me share a few random things I could write long blog posts about but never have....

This is the food truck. I hear there was a documentary made about it. It comes down out street every Saturday just before noon. Not too early, not too late, just the right time to get any brunch ingredients you may not have on hand for the weekend.

It has a whole mini grocery store in it. We try to patronize the food truck whenever we have the chance, as we want it to keep coming. It is frequented by the elderly people on our street who come here to their little houses they still have as weekend and vacation cottages, the few houses not yet converted into regular suburban homes that harken back to the time this was a place people only came to escape the city. One little old lady from the neighborhood who lives nearby used to buy my little girl a treat each time she saw her on the truck. The lady has now moved to the village center so she can have more help for her sick husband. The food truck, a little part of my old fashoned, provincial so called life in Sweden. ~

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Today I began getting my 18 month old settled into her part time day care, and my girl went back to her sweet little Waldorf school. We will pay about $1800 this YEAR for for 25 hours of private Waldorf school for the girls. In Florida, it would be less hours and cost $15,400 for a year for both girls. If they still go to this school when primary school aged, it will be free. It would cost $30,000 annually to send both of the children to Waldorf school in the USA for the grades....an amount equal to an decent annual salary.

When I picked up my big girl at 4pm it was cold, gray, and and she was outside in a rain suit rolling down a hill over and over with her friends. She was breathless, sweaty, and happy. If she was in the USA, she would be in a classroom all day, with state mandated goals, and worksheets for homework every night, an no time to play and certainly no hills to play on in the rain. I really think it is healthy to wait until kids are seven to start school as they do in Sweden. I could go on and on about that point. But suffice to say I am happy my girl has a chance to wiggle, dig, explore, and lives in a place where people believe there is no such thing as bad weather, only inadequate clothing.

After school we stopped at the grocery store. The big nice one a village over with a better selection than our local store. When you walk in, there is a TV playing Winnie the Pooh movies and kid sized table and chairs.... you are invited to just leave your kid at the door watching TV while you shop!!!

Never, oh never would this happen in the USA. When we were home in winter, I had to tighten my girls roaming radius in public to conform with American standards for fear of kidnapping. Even so, I had her returned to me as 'lost' once when she was in view an aisle over at a thrift store. The sense of safety and freedom for children in Sweden is one of the things I like. Kids ride their bikes, and take public transportation everywhere. In my town in the USA there is not a single child to be found on the street.

The big sister got to sit while we shopped, little sister just got in the picture when I paused for a photo.

Did I say I could skip writing and just put up pictures of wilderness, produce, and mushrooms? Well it is true.

Because these grow here.

Saw this one on the street on the way to the food truck this weekend.

So Elsa Beskow

And after picking corn we drove through the forest and stopped to see mushroom after mushroom on the forest floor in Hackeberga Nature reserve.

A fairy condo development

This one is called 'Chicken of the Woods' and is edible. But being pregnant, I am not taking up mushrooming just now...a bad time to make an beginner's error, so I will take photos for now...

So much to love about Sweden.

And so many minutes to spend thinking about it in this quiet, so called life.

Home for July

Swededaddy's nap spot, the hammock

We are home in July. We worked on our chore lists and traveled in June, and plan to travel again come August. So this is our month at home, July. We are savoring the sweet summer at home, doing a bunch of nothing. SwedeDaddy is home on pappaledig, which means he is not working and we all are just together. We sleep in, eat pancakes, work in the garden, and swim. I think I left the house to do something other than pick something up at the store or go swimming for the first time in two weeks when we went out picking berries. It is enough for us that we can open the house and use the whole space around us with out having to suit people up in snow gear or keep things closed up as we must in winter. We have a nice big fenced yard, and so in summer, our house becomes a lot bigger. We mostly eat on the porch, and the kids run in and out all day.

Swededaddy takes stroller walks - bike rides to the grocery store with the girls

They feed the ducks

At home in the yard, SwedeGirl jumps on the trampoline

Eager to copy her sister, SwedeBaby gets a turn on her own trampoline. She has this until she is big enough for the large one

They play with the kids in the neighborhoodThe flowers are blooming all over the yard. I transplanted these from the abandoned garden we found....I had tried to grow some from seeds so I was happy to be gifted with this short cut!

I planted these from seed. I planted lots flower seeds, and it has been so dry precious few have bloomed.

The Roses. We are grateful to those who lived in this house before, the planted such pretty landscaping, and we have lots of roses.

The peonies were amazing this year

And this is a healthy big old stockrose, right next to the garden

It attracts bees

Pollination!

I have always loved these, so glad I have these pretty blue flowers in our yard. Hortensia, I think.

So we just hang out close to home......

We have had friends over for a BBQ, here is the dad playing in the back yard. This backyard set up has been good- the kiddie pool, slip n slide, and swing set next to the garden. There is a lot of hose time going on in the back yard wit hall the gardening, and when the kids are not swimming they fill the watering cans with pool water and go water the garden. Great fun for the baby, and she is doing something useful which makes her feel important.

Water spray

Splashy Swimming

Slip n sliding.....

Pool water in watering can on the way to the garden....

I found two matching elephant watering cans at various yard sales and thrift shops. This pink elephant is so cute, huh?

We have not gone many places, but when we do it is usually to swim in the local pool or lake, It usually ends in ice cream, too. We have had some sunny sandy swimmy days at our favorite nearby lake shore.

Sunny

Goofy

Sandy

Swimmy

Relaxing

Walking in the woods. We were on a mission to collect elder flower to make saft/ elder cordial, but we were late in the season and got very few flowers, then let them go to far before we did anything with them. Oh well, next year.

Our favorite big old tree. It looked like lovers this day, the female to the right and a male to the left.

This little grasshopper hopped onto Swedegirl and stayed with her all afternoon. Here I was grasshopper sitting while she climbed the tree....

Grasshoppers were our 'animal medicine' guide on our move to Sweden. Animal medicine is a native American idea that if you are open and receptive, animals will show up in your life as a messengers of spirit, and by noticing the nature of the creature, you are being an offered a lesson for your life journey. Grasshoppers are the symbol of an opportunity to take a big leap forward, and leave old karma behind. They are considered good luck. We had a huge 3 inch grasshopper hop on us one occasion as we planned what it took to leave Florida. It was so distinct we both thought, oh, this is an animal messenger moment! While this little guy was not making such a big statement with his size, the fact that he let himself be our 5 year olds pet for about 5 hours straight left an impression! This little guy was a fun reminder of our totem grasshopper from when we moved, as our two year anniversary of arriving in Sweden is tomorrow. When I told my incredulous best friend I hoped to move, we noticed we were standing under a poster that said leap of faith. We made the leap. And here we are.

And ready for the next leaps.

We can take it!

It is my mantra, my intention to increase my capacity for joy, love, adventure, and abundance....

Summer Solstice

We are far enough north that the sunlight never fades from the sky on this longest day of the year. There is a brief twilight between 11 and 2.

This is as dark as it will get

Reveling in the glory of summer is deeply a part of the Swedish psyche. The power of the sun is so palpable here, and it's season so brief. The Swedish flag, with it's yellow cross on a blue background, looks like a sunny summer day. Solstice is celebrated in Sweden with as much gusto as Christmas is in other parts of the world.

Midsommar will officially be observed on Saturday June 26th. We will be celebrating all week by helping decorate and raise maypoles, and then dance around them, all over Dalarna from Thursday on- in this village, at the town gathering place, and at the cultural museum.

But we still have plenty to celebrate this solstice day. We secretly made preparations for a family birthday party to honor the latest of our family to arrive in Sweden, AS, who turns 30 today. We are staying on her mom's family farm, which has been in her family for generations. AS spent all of her childhood summers here.

In Sweden, you start the birthday festivities by serenading the birthday person in bed. The whole lot of us sang AS awake, and brought coffee and sweet buns for all. As a little birthday gift to her, I will NOT post a picture of her in her PJs, all sleepy, being sung to by her whole family.

Then we picked wild flowers to make wreathes

The Party

It looks like the weather is going to be nice all week!

My girl and the Birthday Girl

SwedeBaby

Swedish Birthday Cake- Strawberries and Whipped Cream on White Cake layers with Jam.

The farmhouse we are staying in

Living The SwedeLife is so great it will make you want to move here!!!

And so my sister in law and brother in law did!!! Just last week.

You can see how it goes by following their new blog, The Swedish Experiment.

We will be seeing them at their place for midsommar, so look for us dueling bloggers to be writing about the same events!

May life here be just as sweet for you as it has been for us.

Vitsippia Made me Do It

So another story.

The vision of the spring forest and the lovely little white vitsippia is what romanced me into dropping everything and moving across the world.

We took these photos on a family walk in the neighborhood last week.

It was two years ago we decided to move to Sweden. Perhaps it began with the Vitsippia, or, we can go back a bit more and give credit to the babysitter. We had an uninterupted conversation one February evening. We had found a good local teenage baby sitter and finally got a night out after parenting for nearly three years. Over a real dinner out, we remembered we had said we would consider moving to Sweden when our daughter was three, and it was just a few weeks from her third birthday. It seemed like a nice time to try it, before she was school aged, and when SwedeDaddy's sister's kids were still young and at home. And his mother is aging, more likely to be needing help, so being closer would be good. We opened up ourselves to the possibility. We had really been preparing for years in a way, as I had structured my business so it could be sold if we wanted to move, and I had in fact already sold it sometime back.

I began checking out the logistics of resident visas and needed paperwork. In March, SwedeDaddy realized his Swedish passport was about to expire in just two weeks, and thanks to 9/11 security issues, he could only renew in New York City or Sweden. It cost as much to go to Sweden as New York on short notice, so we thought we could head to Sweden, renew the passport and check out the country. We had to plan a trip right away. I encouraged him to send a few job applications, and he sent several seven days before we left. I started looking into housing and apartments for rent, searched schools online and set up a few interviews for the Swedegirl at preschools, and for me in a language program. We thought we would just see how it all looked....

We flew out in April. By early May, SwedeDaddy had accepted a job, SwedeGirl had a spot at a great Waldorf daycare, I was set to enroll in a language program, we had found someone to buy our Florida house, and were ready to close on one in Sweden. In one month time, TheSwedeLife went from a distant option to a solid plan. We were loading a container in June, and boarded our plane July 21st. It happened so quick we questioned our sanity, and we were not alone, people all around us were surprised to be saying good bye so soon....

Two weeks before leaving, we realized we were also expecting a second baby. Just in time to tell my parents and family in person. We

were so lucky we choose to make such a bold move. Two months later, the economy crashed, real estate was a mess, and there were no jobs to found. Had we not made the move just then, it is likely we would not have at all.

When we came to visit in April, my impressions was Sweden was like a dreamland....modern technology and design in the cities, but the smell of farm poop from the freshly fertilized fields. Nature and culture married. Family friendly policies, and humane working conditions. When we got SwedeDaddy's job offer with 6 weeks of paid vacation time, we literally laughed out loud. Such a change from just a few days a year that had to be spent at Christmas.

As we dreamed of Sweden, we were emailing with the American photographer that was selling us our house. We sent her on missions into the forest to capture images of the woods behind our house, which at the time of our visit, had been full of the first flowers of the year, Vitsippia. I spent hours dripping with sweat in the Florida heat dreaming of walking in cool forests, and of living in the little red cottage in the woods situated just three houses away from SwedeDaddy's sister's family.

Now, it is my life. That forest has become a lovely place for my now 5 year old to practice her balance walking by on logs, and for us to explore with the baby. The little red house is the place we rest our heads each night. We are here, and it is home.

A hatched egg SwedeGirl found

Living the SwedeLife

We said we would try it for three years and see where that brings us.

One and half years down, and I can only wonder where life will ask us to follow.

I hope that whatever path lies ahead presents itself as clearly as the path to Sweden did, and that it unfolds just as effortlessly. So many important 'decisions' in my life have been made by merely turning my head, and noticing that that is where life seems to be going. And then having the courage to follow along.