Making Choices

Big one? Little one? Can I have both?

I taught my son a lesson in choices today. I felt mean and petty. It is so easy to please him. But I see it as my job to make him strong. Even at the age of not-even-two.

This morning we were making breakfast for kindie as normal. He has three lunch boxes. One with a piranha, one with a racing car and one with a crab. I havn't figured out which one he likes the best, but this particular morning it was all about the crab.

So we filled it with a prim (spreadable brown cheese) sandwich, a banana and apple wedges. He took the box by the handle and was on the way to the door when he decided that he did not want the crab one, he wanted the fish one. I explained that we already were using the crab one. He decided to have good cry about it.

Bracing myself I explained again. He tried to ask for the car box. Thinking it would make a difference in Mammas decision.

It did not.

He commenced to roll about on the floor. Throwing a great tantrum. A wobbler if you like. Something his Mamma was (and occasionally still is) very good at.

But being a tantrum gold medalist I also know that they are all about the drama, and not so much about the content. Needless to say, he forgot about the lunch box when, in my fretting to get everything ready for kindie, dropped a stone on the floor. Wobbler stopped immediately.

And started again when he decided he didn't want to wear the shoes he was wearing.

And the message. Life throws you difficult choices, but sometimes we just crave the drama. Need the drama. They are practice for when we really need to throw a real tantrum.

And that choices are never easy. However ridicuous they seem.

Stones, Sand and Sunshine

Took at family trip to my fave beach today. Great fun. For boys, and especially for mums playing around with the camera. Managed to get a water flowing effect. Very proud.

Seasonal Changes

So I've been thinking and writing a lot lately.

As a journalist in a local paper I have to be versitile. Writing in the same little town that you were raised in also poses some interesting situations. Like a source being one of you best friends mothers (not too hard to get around). Or knowing someone involved in a crime you're covering.

Anyone who has lived in a small town knows about this. Knowing both the good and bad things about someone, but still having to relate to them in one way or another.

I've noticed that the closer I get to a source I know, the less critical I get. It's natural. Most of the time I can get someone else to cover for me when it gets too close. I have not gotten into trouble, yet...

I've also been thinking about being a public person. I'm used to being recognised. I'm used to people I don't know having opinions about me. I hope they treat me with the same courtesy that I treat them. I'm not so sure. All that I can rely on are the good ones.

Lately I have been writing a bit about identity. I've always thought that being the only person im my country with my name has made me vounerable. Apparently not. When it comes to identity theft at least. Having a unique name means you don't blend, and so I'm not interesting to potential theifs. The drawbacks of having a unique name were pretty clear to me when, after a particularliy grusomme story, my previous editor in chief wanted to know if he should tell the police to drive by my house a few times that weekend. I declined.

It's tough when it gets personal.

When I got a call from a businessmans wife wanting to know why I wanted to hurt her husband it felt like a punch in the gut. Fortunately I managed to communicate with her in spite of wanting to pretend to be someone else. I'm very used to confronting sources, and also being confronted myself. But that's easy when I'm the professional journalist. Harder when I'm only me.

It might be the season slowly morfing into darker evenings and rusty colours. But I find myself thinking about where my life is now, where I want it to go, and how I will get there.The last year, for various reasons, has been like a changing season in my life. Me morfing from one person to another.

And.

Plonk.

Right when I needed it.

This amazing oppertunity crosses my path.

And it makes itself hard to miss.

So suddely I'm off to Denmark for the weekend. Most of the people around me think it's the most crazy thing I've done since I coloured my hair blue.

But I'm so sure. It is so right. Meeting kindred souls in the world is not as easy as one thinks (although I'm exceptionally lucky to have met quite a few in my relatively short lifespan).

Four people ready to get to know me.

Not the journalist, or childhood friend, or mum, or girlfriend, or collegue, or public person, or any of the other roles...

But me.

Only me.

And I'm sure I'll find friends for life.

Stavangerscapes

Pre-used Park

Geoparken is a really cool park/play area next to the Oil Museum in Stavanger. It was a Stavanger 2008 project when the city was an European Culture Capital.

It's a place where kids of all ages mingle. Grafitti artists can legally decorate the walls, and recycled oil industry installations are used in a new and exciting way. I love the messiness of it. Definitely not a conventional park.


The grafitti wall get painted over with white paint, and it can be decorated all over again. You can crawl through pipelines, and jump on buoys.

Confession #5

Picture from here

I would totally have Fernando Torres' babies. (Do I sound like a teenager yet?)

This is actually really hard and embarrassing for me to admit, as I can come off as a desperate sex-starved mum in her thirties. The last part is true though (mum and 31).

But I have to admit that watching football with Big Man isn't as tough when this young (jail bait) hottie is on the field. I coo over the slo mo pictures of Torres with his sweaty hair and oh so cute freckles.

I actually felt my stomach sink when Big Man (yes, I know he is the father of my child, and love of my life) pointed out that Torres was married and had a baby.

(cue cringe now)

It's out.

Kitchenscapes

I'm so stoked with my new kitchen that I decided to post some details. And incidentally some from my hallway, as it also got freshened up in the process. I love the combo white-grey-yellow.

Hallibut and Scones

My new kitchen inspires me to cook proper food.

Friday I cooked hallibut with potato mash, pickled cabbage and bacon and chantarelle vinaigrette. Yum! It was of course served with a glass of my favourite sauvignon blanc (I already had some of this while cooking too). I love the sound of the crystal glass against our new granite surface top.

And this morning I made scones. From a pack. But it's local from Stangeland Mølle, and made from beautiful stone ground flower. Topped them with some organic sunflower seeds that the whole family loves, and paired with Dad-in-laws yummy strawberry jam and a spoon of sour cream and a coffee I'm in breakfast bliss heaven.

And while we're on the in law topic. Check out those tomatoes. Got a "delivery" yesterday. They smell amazing. Like tomato leaves, sun and green house dampness.

I went crazy with the camera capturing the details. Stay close for more kitchenscapes.

Another Baby

I'm surrounded.

Two out of my eight closest girlfriends have tiny ones. One from June, one from July.

Four more are coming up: Two in October. One in December. One in March. (Maybe you'll get a couple of belly-shots if I can persuade them)

I love those hands. Oooh, and those ears.

Packed With Inspiration

Three pretty presents for three pretty girls. My confidents, mentors and total supporters. They inspire me. Loads.

It is always magical when we meet, and it always makes me (want to be) a better and stronger person.

I love you sweeties!

Animal Toys

Little Man has some great animal toys. He especially loves the rabbit, and makes a seriously cute face pretending to be one. He likes putting them up on their feet, but also putting them to bed. Shhh... the cow, hen and puppy are sleeping.

Smooth Luck

I love smooth rocks.

I pick them up on every trip to the beach. I reckon we have the best beaches in Europe here on the south west coast of Norway. It is famous with the surfers who have to wear full wetsuits (including hoods) to combat the cold of the North Sea.

I find the beaches are the most beautiful in winter. The colours are amasingly clear. The sun low. The wind brisk. And the warm cheeks when you get out of the wind are totally satisfying.

One of the beaches has a river running out on it full of slippery stone softness. The water sparkling as it makes them even smoother.

I have a whole bowl of stones, shells and other stuff collected on many beaches during many travels.

I pick up a collected rock. It's cool smoothness agains my skin. And I'm back.

Waves and all.

Plums and Babies

Equally plump, sweet and delicious. Enriched my monday.

Confession #4

Picture from here

I'm scared of the dentist.

I really am. And lately I have been admitting to it. And getting crap for it. Deserved crap.

Because, hey. I have given birth. And how can a stupid dentist compare to 24 (yes!) hours of labour. That's what I tell myself in the gym, at work, when I fix things (etc etc).

Example:

- I have given birth so I have the strength to lift sofa. Or:
- I have given birth so I have the energy to run for another ten minutes. Or:
- I have given birth so (insert the appropriate sentence here)

But for some reason that scary scary dentist makses me draw a birth blank.

And I'm a sensible girl. I do what I'm supposed to, but at the moment I really think I need someone to book me that appointment, shove me in that door, and strap me to that chair.

(Please)

It's out.

Feeling Guilty

So I'm feeling dead guilty for not blogging in a while. Which bums me out. Because the whole point about this blog was for it to be something purely for pleasure, and not out of all the Need Tos, Should Dos, and Must Get Tos in my life.

I have enough of them.

So I'm washing my hands off the guilt.

This is my positive Build-Up-My-Soul place. So I'm going to post another beautiful flower picture, and sigh, and feel a little sad about Autumn arriving already.

And I'm going to pause. And remember all the sights on our family drive down the coast today.

• The no tractors allowed sign on the new highway
  
• The messy vegetable stall on the side of the road


• The purple pallets stacked way high and Big Mans suprise at me liking them.


• The horses (white and brown) standing in formation.


• The sheep hiding under the trees in the rain.


• The young cows (kviger) dry humping in the field.


• Little Mans excitement over seeing a digger.


• The very sweet Tibetan dog called Mikkel


• Little Mans excited-but-scared squeel


• The rain, the road and a dry car.
  

Life is pretty all right.

Even with sick kids, rainy days and Autumn blues.

Fried Brain

Insane life at the moment. Sick kid. Sick hubbie. And not feeling too great myself. So I ducked into some old photos and found this gem.

Guest Blogger

Hopefully soon there will be a guest blogger in MissBuckles house. She is obsessed with the 80s and will share her observations of the times she was too young to fathom, but is now catching up on fast. Here is one of her cute shots. Too sweet to eat.

Observations at Work

Right next to where I parked my car for work I found these beautiful scenes.

Red White and Delicious

Thick vanilla yoghurt with Dad in laws home made strawberry jam. Need I say more?

Green Red Summer

When the darkness grabs me mid-winter I'm going to pull out this picture and imagine my feet in the middle of it.

Confession #3

Ray Meagher has played Alf Stewart for two decades and is an institution in Home and Away.

I watch kids shows.

Especially the ones from Australia like Home and Away and H2O. It gets so bad that sometimes I tape them to watch them when I'm (totally) on my own.

I've been hooked on The Tribe, Gossipip Girl (still am), and Danish and Norwegian series on NRK Super.

To tell the truth I get hooked on most series.

I Love Oslo

Spent the last few days in our captal Oslo. Havn't ever really known the city, but I'm getting to loving it. The shopping is fun fun fun. Vintage stuff, but also Norwegian and Scandinavian design that is som much easier to access in the to die for shops.

Ended up spending too much money on mussels, savignon blanc, focaccia and aioli during lazy lunches and dinners. That, including awsome clothes sales, took a huge chunk out of my wallet. The biggest chunk being a brown cashmere dress from Månestråle. (And the dress was definitely a must have for Autumn, and I definitely felt a little nauseous after I bought it and had to confess all to other half when home again)

But shopping (believe it or not) was not the reason I was in Oslo. I got to see Madonna! Now I have been a fan since, at 11, I bought "Like a Prayer" in a shopping mall in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I can truly say it was a unforgettable experience. I cried. I sang.
And I got wet. Very wet. Just as we got into the stadium the sky litterally opened. I had rain gear on (pants and coat) as well as a plastic poncho on too. And I still got soaked to the bone. Madonna was like: - I hope you are enjoying this cause I'm risking my f***ing life for you.

I enjoyed myself.

Chair in Fretex

House in Frogner Detail from Shoe Lounge