Sweet dirt
Winter is coming! Really though winter is coming so that means its time to change flowers, trim the apple trees, plant the garlic and onions…..best of all eat what is left of summer. I am learning so many things about autumn and winter. Especially when it comes to growing things. Coming from Hawaii which really has no seasons I am not used to all this stuff. I barely know how to dress for the winter here. I seriously ask my husband how to dress the kids and myself all the time. “Do they need long underwear under this now?” “Do they need a beanie” “Do they need to have a sweater under the overalls” and so much more. Good thing he loves me. I would be so annoyed. Its hard to dress kids before it winter because it can be almost freezing in the morning and then in the afternoon is warm and you are running around with no jacket. See its hard. Plus at the age of the girls they don’t really tell me if they are cold or hot. Coco is finally starting to learn but half the time she just repeats me. So continues the confusion.
This is our little green house. This year we kept it super simple as we where in Hawaii for most of the summer. We have tomatoes and cucumber and some bell pepper in the green house this year. This is Coco’s happy place. She loves being in here. The rocks, pots, dirt, sticks and her little water can. Sometimes its not my favorite to have her help. But I hope she will have memories of helping me in there and playing by my feet. Plus she can eat more tomatoes then any two year old. I swear she must think they are strawberries or something.
After trimming the apple trees I was pulling up some weeds (picture below around Le’i) Le’i was like mom I want those. Ok and I set them aside not thinking much of them. Couple minutes later he comes like this. We where laughing so hard. Mind you its not warm here in Sweden. I love his sense of humor. 
The girls just woke up. Time to go outside and rake up all the leaves…..its not as romantic as its sounds. 🙂
Post number 2
Okay so they say the first post is the hardest. Really? Because I feel a little stuck. I was talking with my sister while laughing asking what should I do now. Sister- “see this is why have never started a blog”. GREAT! The funny thing is I think everyone of my sisters should blog. I have three sisters by the way. They are so creative, cool, fun and all have the cutest little families. Ahhhh sigh missing them all now.
One of the hardest parts about living overseas is for sure missing family and friends. Food, and culture after time it seems to get more normal. You learn how things are done and so you do it. The hardest part is missing family and making new friends. Friends who you can call at anytime for help or just come and hang out to watch an episode of tv, or bring you bagels because you are having a bad day. (They don’t have bagels here, you have to go to a special shop… weird. I love bagels and cream cheese). I feel very blessed to have meet some awesome friends and starting to finally feel like I have the friends where they can show up at my house and it looks like a bomb went off, and not have them judge you because they know you are doing your best.
Here are the kids with some of our chickens. They are really sweet chickens and love us a little more then I would like. Coco tries to catch them. It might be one of my favorite things she does. That and yell at the dog. Right now we have 15 chickens and 13 turkeys…Thanksgiving is going to be amazing this year. For those of you who don’t live in America do you celebrate Thanksgiving? I love thanksgiving. There is no pressure about gifts, just food and thankfulness. Plus my birthday is the next day!
We had no idea when we moved to Sweden we would be living like this “a little homestead”. Totally not what my husband and I had ever done before. We went from going to the beach, surfing, and fishing to herding sheep, collecting eggs and chasing turkeys. Its hilirous if you ask me. I totally pictured us living downtown Gothenburg sipping lattes wearing all black being all Swedish and all. Totally not what God had in mind for us. Funny how things work out. This journey has been so not what I pictured but its better. There are at times I do wish I lived in the heart of the city, but letting my kids enjoy the country as been one of the greatest joys.
all images by capturedbyelin