My Choice

Last year I wrote this post about finding and defining enjoyment. I'm picking up the thread on joy as a choise. It's really about focusing on remembering that those everyday tasks are chosen. At least some of those things that needs to be done can be turned into enjoyment when identified as chosen to fill this life. Instead of thinking about completing a task or what must be done after, it's about focusing on that I've chosen to do it. This is what I want in my life. This is what I choose. This is where I want to be. It's a way to maintain and redirect my energy by remembering I am doing what makes me happy which allows my mind to slip into a state of blissful reverie as my body enjoys the physical pleasure of the task, if it's that kind of task (which these never ending things that I've originally chosen often are).

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

Elvin's Cinnamon buns

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for: 

• building a snowcastle in the backyard with my youngest
• Laying on my back in the snowcastle for a moment with a snowpillow under my head looking at the bare tree above, listening to the birds
• a night spent playing a boardgame with my family, again
• a pancake-cake
• spring-plans; re-evaluating our plans for our renovation project. We'll probably finish the roof on house no.1 and start with the interior; kitchen, shower, kids rooms. The re-evaluated plan is about not doing any major work on house no. 2 this year, (except for maybe organizing the interior a bit)
• thoughts about tomato seeds
• time spent at the sledge hill
• organizing the attic, throwing, donating and putting things up for sale
• home made bread baked together with joy
• Elvins cinnamon buns
• sunshine on snow
• the sight of streetlit snowfall before going to bed at night
• cozy winter stories, from books or found on the net
• finding another age appropriate winter themed book; The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable for reading aloud after Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen and The Snow Queen by HC Andersen.
• time spent reading to Elvin at bedtime
• weekends

Timon is baking bread for the week to come; plain with cheese or jam for breakfasts and filled for dinners. We did these thin soft breads not very long ago and wanted to try them again. 

..and Elvin decided to make his much loved cinnamon buns

Pancake-cake

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for: 

• precious moments spent playing in the snow with my sons
• hot chocolate shared on top of the sledding hill
• my oldest picking up her youngest brother at preschool when I had to work late 
• Lova always tuning in to him in her very special way, spending time with him every day
• Elvin taking over some of the bed time ritual for several nights this week, enjoying the brother time
• Siblings playing with the train set
• Sister and brother playing boardgames
• an evening spent playing a boardgame with my family until late at night, actually for over 4 hours.
• chocolate cakes made by Elvin
• Elvin unloading the dishwasher
• quotes helping me focus 
• clothes  sold on ebay
• the feeling of satisfaction when clearing out some boxes in the attic
• empty baskets after putting up grown out clothes either for sale on ebay or in the right boxes in the attic
• time spent sewing
• reading Taryn's gratitude list, inspiring me to see my own blessings and write my own list

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude Sunday

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for: 

• the whole week off
• spending time alone for a couple of days working alone with those tiles again, this time alone, really enjoying it and being totally content, the weather and view was perfect and I could really imbibe the beauty and fresh air surrounding me as the sun set over the lake. I felt no irritation that no one were joining me, no stress.
• taking up sewing and feeling energized by it
• coming up with lots of ideas for sewing projects
• spending some time alone with my husband on halloween
• contentment brought by a more tidy garden and working together
• moving stones in the garden and coming up with some ideas using them for Christmas gifts
• the sparkling joy in coming up with more DIY ideas for Christmas gifts and the eagerness to start working on some of them
• cooking with my son. I tried a dish I haven't eaten since I was a child.
• hugs and loving words from him throughout the days
• apples for the winter, putting those that ought to last longer into boxes
• continuing making applesauce from the rest of the apples. The contentment it brings knowing I'm doing my best to prioritize preserving and making the most of the apples we've harvested this year
• delicious chocolate balls made by my sons. The joy in watching them work together
• my oldest, never complaining about her daily chores
• my middle son for working in the garden and taking his brother to the playground and putting him to sleep tonight in his own bed which is quite an achievement around here! His over all willingness to help out, his energy and strong will. He gets things done.
• connection moments with my middle daughter 
• finding a suitable story for Martinmas which is about geese for me, celebrating Mårten the Goose which is a tradition from the southern part of Sweden where I come from

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude Sunday

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

* 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for: 

• meals cooked by my Mom
• leaves raked by my parents
• my dad fixing my bike and lending out his car since our was stolen
• collecting autumn leaves
• leaf-preserving through dipping into paraffin that turned out really nice
• the look in my sons eyes when he saw the first snowflakes today this autumn/winter . "You may sing about the gnomes now Mommy" he told me. In Sweden the gnomes turn up at Christmas time, but since I've found out there are very few songs about autumn I have accidentally sung Christmas and winter songs. And my son has kept on reminding me it's to early
• reading "The Story of the Snow Children again. My son actually asked me to read it at breakfast when I read him The Root Children. I told him he had to wait until the first snowflakes were falling. What a joy when they did!
• the prolonged season of apples
• Getting inspired, by all the different varieties of apples mentioned in the old pamphlet The Forest Garden by Robert Hart, to call my mother-in -law to find out if she had more apples on her trees leading to picking lots of apples during some morning hours in good company
• making "plapple sauce" with my youngest (apples+plums)
• Getting a message from the library that the book I reserved had arrived; a translation of Hurry, hurry Mary Dear , an inspiring favorite of mine during the transition time from fall to winter

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitude * Sunday

Gratitude Sunday

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots 

on

Gratitude * Sunday

A chance to slow down and reflect on the little things in life  

I'm grateful for:

• Time spent working on our renovation project. I really enjoy the work we're doing there.
• Grandparents and kids working together. 
• Beautiful autumn views
• Sunny days
• Some simple autumn decorations completed and on place
• Thoughts, dreams and plans for our future garden
• meals cooked by someone else

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for:

• calm moments reading aloud or just a small chat one on one with my older kids at bedtime
• my youngest delight in those stones that I painted as cars years ago, especially the icecream van, a calming down special time spent playing with him as we came home from preschool
• what I often find most energizing  - working together, it could be decluttering at home as well as cooking together or at our Project; woorking at the roof; sorting tiles, loading the trailer 
• cooperative kids
• the feeling after decluttering the chaos that had emerged in our kitchen during the week
• drinking chocolate smoothie on the porch with my littel one reading Woody, Hazel and little Pip
• finding a lot of wild strawberries
• meals outside
• Timon keeping himself busy with some puzzles that I brought down for him as I made the dishes and  prepared the food. A long calm, content, happy while.
• Timon sleeping well in his "new" bed. For at least some hours of the night.
• finding a cosy place under an appletree, singing apple songs, reciting appleverses and stories
• an evening in the caravan puzzling old puzzles that came with the houses, maybe from the fifties. They came in neutral boxes so it was a surprise to se what they would look like 

No pictures today as I have lost the cable to discharge my camera, hope to find it though.


Linking up with Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

G r a t i t u d e * S u n d a y

G r a t i t u d e  *  S u n d a y

{Sunday's heartfelt tradition. A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful. A list of gratitudes.} 

Throughout the week I've felt grateful for:

• Berry picking for almost a whole day in light summer rain
• No mosquitos!
• Finding out that raspberries can be yellow
• Raspberries, gooseberries, black currants
• Apples to be. Coming to our summerhouses finding more appletrees than I new we had. 
• Catching sight of the biggest appletree I've ever seen. With lots of apples. And it's ours.
• Reading to Elvin after Timon had fallen asleep; The Lord of the Rings.
• The sound of rain on our trailer's roof when playing boardgames at night with content kids
• An agreement everyone was happy with
• The satisfaction in managing to keep up with what I had in mind for the day, moving the roof tiles from where we had dropped them to the place were we eventually will bring them back up again and moving  a pile of  scrap wood to a shed for future creative projects, sorting trash while Emmy took care of the little one for a while. 
• The joy in thinking about future projects and all the possibilities that these houses bring
• Elvin trying to fix heat and electricity to our trailer
• Elvin getting my shirt that I had left out as it became colder 
• Lova in a good mood in the morning helping out with carrying scaffold.
• Lova taking care of Timon
• Elvin taking his brother for walks and playing with him
• the sheep and horse for entertaining him
• Jum- Jum (the cat) for the same thing
• The good friends that Emmy has and that they came for her birthday and a very simple but nice and successfull party
• some quiet time all by myself in the trailer before going to bed; reading, writing.
• the sweet remembrance of the probably last day by the lake this summer from last week
• Some summer warmth ,even though we suddenly noticed that autumn is clearly on its way this week
• My mother-in -law taking us to a nice restaurant for brunch to celebrate all the birthdays that has been from spring to late summer. We ate way to much!
• Hugs throughout the day from Lova
• An afternoon spent at my brother in law's. 
• The opportunity to lie in their hammock under an apple tree in the shade undisturbed for a while.

 

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots for Gratitide Sunday