Weekend Coffee Share

Welcome to the weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? I have a lovely Christmas coffee to offer. It’s a dark roast with a hint of almond and gingerbread. It’s delicious. It is early Saturday morning here in Sweden and I am about to have my first cup of coffee, please join me.

If we were having coffee I would tell you the the world is white and it looks like a million diamonds is spread out evenly on the ground, the cold makes everything sparkle. It’s been between 5-15F all week. I believe the cold weather is here to stay. (There’s a distant sound of a tractor clearing the snow outside my house.)

It has been a rather calm week, my daughter are well now, but it took her a lot of time to recover from her fever. We both took Covid tests earlier this week, both came back negative. I am planning on a relaxing weekend, giving her time to fully recover her spirits. There is a wonderful, traditional Christmas market with local crafts and Christmas food, up at the old Copper mine tomorrow. My plan was to go there early tomorrow morning, before the big crowds. Everything is outdoors. However, all things considered, I believe we will save it for another year and make sure we are ready to be back to school and work full force on Monday. 

I’ve been taking shorter walks every day, to get some fresh air and keep my sanity. I had a birthday on Thursday, and I took the photos in this post that day. (It snowed yesterday, and we have a little more snow now.) My birthday was a very beautiful day. I reflected upon how grateful I am to be at this point in my life, in this place, with my children, experiencing another season together, having a job that I love, colleagues that I miss when I am not at work, and the opportunity to further educate myself to make my work more meaningful (to me and others.) I am very grateful.

Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share! Enjoy your weekend!

Love,

Maria 

What does cozy mean to you?

A hot beverage on a cold day certainly makes things more cozy in my world.

As I am writing this I am coped up in my apartment with my daughter that is sick. She’s been ill since last Wednesday, no, she is not dying. First she had the winter vomiting disease (not fun!) and then it turned into a sore throat and fever. We took a Covid test yesterday and are waiting for the result. What does this have to do with cozy? Well, it’s not fun to be sick, but we are making the very best of the situation. (After the winter vomiting disease left us we are doing so much better, anything is manageable after that.)

A Christmas themed tray that I usually serve seasonal fruit and nuts on during the winter. The house pictured on the tray looks like the traditional houses in my region Dalarna (Sweden.)

It’s 8F outside, the world we see through our window is white, not so much snow yet, but frost. The frost is building up with new layers every day due to the cold. Everything is white. This past Sunday was the 1st of Advent, when you traditionally start decorating for Christmas in Sweden. They light up our town with beautiful decorations starting on the 1st of Advent. I haven’t seen what it looks like yet this year, since I am at home with my daughter, but I cannot wait to see the decorations as soon as she gets well.

I carried our Christmas decorations up from the storage unit in the house next doors, and we washed some Christmas themed tablecloths (we never have tablecloths the rest of the year,) and rinsed of the decorations in warm water (they were a little dusty.) My daughter thinks that the ritual of opening the boxes of Christmas decorations is magical. I think it’s rather cozy to transform our home to match the anticipation for Christmas. I am a minimalist, and I don’t overdo the decorations, but I do appreciate some Christmas feeling. 

Santa in my window
Advent lights in the center of my kitchen window, a very important Nordic Christmas tradition. Everyone have Advent lights. Greetings from Jack Frost on the outside. Yesterday the frost stayed on the windows until 2pm, the sunset was at 3pm..

My daughter told me a couple months ago that she don’t believe in Santa (or the Easter bunny) anymore. She did last year. She also said that she would be very disappointed if I didn’t pretend that he was real, she wanted to keep the magic even if she knows that Santa isn’t real. So while I was hanging up the stockings (not a Swedish tradition, but something we brought with us from the US,) I reminded both of my children that it is not allowed to touch the stockings, because if they do the magic disappears. My daughter kept a straight face and swore that she wouldn’t touch the stockings. LOL. 

Santas helper filled the stockings last night. Kids still haven’t noticed..

We haven’t decorated the Christmas tree yet, but if my daughter have enough energy today, or tomorrow we might do that. We were gifted a beautiful artificial tree last year, it’s going to be perfect for many years to come. Spending time with my family anticipating the holiday season is definitely a cozy time of the year for me. We are expecting more snow this weekend, and I believe the colder weather is here to stay, making things even cosier, as we bundle up with more layer of clothes. 

One of our Christmas themed tablecloths. God Jul = Merry Christmas.
Hot chocolate is a cozy treat on special occasions at our house.

This week I’m linking up with my friend Terri’s Sunday Stills, and the theme for the week is Cozy. What does cozy mean to you? While reading Terri’s post and some of the other participants post the appealing word got an even wider meaning to me. Still, the deepest meaning of the word in my world, would be stress-free time with loved ones. Tell me in a comment what cozy means to you, or write you own post about it. Feel free to leave a link to your post if you choose to write a post about it.

Love,

Maria

Weekend Coffee Share – You are lucky it is a virtual coffee chat!

Welcome to the weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? This week I also have some blueberry soup to offer. I felt like having some myself today. It’s cold outside, around 15F. I know it’s probably going to be a lot colder soon, but in the beginning of the season the cold always feels colder, if you know what I mean. Blueberry soup is perfect for cold days, lots of vitamin C and energy. Hot drinks and hot soup is something I consume a lot of during the winter. So far today I’ve had hot coffee, hot tea and hot blueberry soup, not to forget the bean soup I had for lunch.. LOL. The days are shorter, colder, and darker now. The sunrises and sunsets have been very colourful all week. What’s the weather like in your area?

Blueberry soup and cheese sandwiches, made out of homemade bread and locally produced cheese.

On Monday morning I took a long bike ride before work. The world was frozen, but not much snow. During the day it snowed, and the ground had a fine white cover all around in time for my ride home. Next week we are expecting more cold and beautiful weather 10-17F most of the week. I hope we get more snow. 

More than half of my daughter’s school have been down with the winter vomiting disease, teachers and students alike. Good thing this coffee chat is virtual. My daughter became ill on Wednesday morning, at school. I had to leave work quickly and get her (it was really bad timing to not be at work this week..) She was very ill. I’ve lost count on how many times she vomited. She also had a high fever. She started to get better mid day Thursday, after about 30hours of misery. She’s been weak today as well, but no vomiting, or fever. She is still contagious (until Sunday,) but so far neither her brother, nor I have fallen ill, we’ve taken all the precautions we can to stay healthy. 

Due to this unforeseen illness my plans of a big Thanksgiving celebration for my daughter had to be cancelled. Thanksgiving is very important to her. She usually celebrates with her dad and his side of the family. We are going to make a turkey and pumpkin pie for Christmas instead. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week: Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful time with your family.

Frost on my kitchen window early this morning.

Given that things are progressing in the right way the rest of this weekend (my son and I stays healthy,) I am planning on decorating for Christmas on Sunday. I’m looking forward to that. I can’t believe that it will be December in just a few days. When do you usually decorate for Christmas? 

Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love,

Maria 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hi, and welcome to the weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? I’ll let you decide if you want to sit inside, or out outside. How are you? Are you enjoying a great week?

My balcony garden/sunroom today, Nov 20th, 2021. It’s still enjoyable to have coffee here 🙂

This week have been a little out of the norm. On Monday, at our evening meeting at work, our principal told us that she isn’t going to be our principal for very much longer. That she is going to work for another private school. It came as a shock to all of us. I personally really like working for her. From the very beginning, when she hired me almost two years ago, I’ve felt that she understands me, and appreciate everything I do. Of course I’m wishing her good luck at her new job, but I will miss her for sure. Not knowing who the new boss is going to be, and what he/she is going to be like, has some uncertainty to it. I get along with everyone, but I don’t like everyone as much as I like my current boss. In the end it will work out, I know that. 

Last night’s sunset.

Last night when I got home the sunset was glorious! I took these photos standing in my apartment, looking out the window in my living room.

This morning one of my colleges, and I, went to a nearby ski resort that had a huge sale of last years ski equipment. We waited in line, outside, for almost two hours to get in. They helped everyone in separate rooms, there were no crowds inside. Both my college and I, got new (to us) Dynastar carving skis for a fraction of the cost of a new pair. I like snowboarding more than skiing, but when I take the kids at work to the ski slope it’s easier if I ski. Finding used, quality equipment to use when I go skiing with the kids works perfect for me. In USD I paid $35 for a quality pair of used skis, last years model (they only had smaller scratches on the top, the underneath and the edges were in great shape.) It checks many of the boxes in my world. I really like the thought of reusing perfectly good equipment/things. 

We had number 56 in the waiting line. People were really respectful keeping distances, even though there are no official restrictions like that anymore.

Can I give you a refill on your beverage? What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods? As you can see in the photo from this morning, our snow is gone. It’s been too warm. It’s starting to get colder again, and next week we are expecting snow for at least 3-4 days. Hopefully it stays this time.

What are you doing this weekend? I have some writing to do, an evaluation of my departments work this semester/end of the year report. It is time-consuming, but I actually enjoy writing this sort of things. I also promised my daughter to build a gingerbread house with her.

Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love,

Maria 

A frozen bike ride through Falun

I woke up early (4.30am) this Saturday morning. I wrote a bit on the school report I mentioned in my coffee share yesterday, and then I felt that I really needed to go outside for a bike ride.

Falun Skate Park. The big house in the background is a school, Västra Skolan, dating back to the early 1900’s.

It was a cold, 26F, morning. The beauty of the morning, and the fresh air definitely made it worthwhile going outside early. My bike tires crushed some ice on the ground here and there.

At Falu Coppermine

I rode my bike up to Falu Copper mine. It was once the worlds largest copper mine.

You are allowed to enter several of the mining buildings, I didn’t do that today, I choose to stay outside. You can walk, or ride a bike around the big mine. It was icy in some spots and I picked my way carefully.

This is the view of the mine from the opposite side of the entrance. I did look with binoculars, hoping to see the Eagle Howls that have a nest on one of the sides of the mine. I wasn’t lucky to see them today. I’ve seen them many times before. They are enormous.

You can see the town of Falun in the background. Notice that some of the roofs on the older buildings are made out of copper.

Looking down into the great pit.

During my ride this morning I also rode through Kålgården, and Östanfors, popular areas with nice walking trails. Östanfors has many old, beautiful red log houses dating back a century, or two.

It’s difficult to find a place in Falun where you don’t see a church, or the ski jumps. Along with the mine (that everything existed around) those are major landmarks of our town. Thank you for coming with me on this cold, but beautiful frozen bike ride through Falun. I better get back to writing my school report. See you later.

Love,

Maria

Weekend Coffee Share – Winter is coming

Hi, and welcome to the weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? How are you? I hope your week is fabulous! I’d say that my week is pretty good so far. It’s late Friday afternoon, and there’s a whole weekend to enjoy ahead of us. I love my job, but I also love that feeling of freedom when the weekend arrives. I do have some writing for school, and work to do this weekend, but still 🙂

Monday morning before work.

What is the weather like in your area? It’s been a beautiful week here in my part of Sweden. We had some snow in the beginning of the week. Most of it is gone now, but not all. We had mild weather yesterday, it’s been cold today (28F) and sunny. I have not been riding my bike this week, but I’ll probably get around to that this weekend. I have been taking several long walks though, and I feel great! 

Tuesday morning before work.
Early this morning before work.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? I’m going to relax at home with my daughter tonight, and get started on the writing first thing tomorrow morning. I believe the school report that is due Monday is around 2000 words. I’ve read all the literature, and I’ve made up the framework for the report, but there is a lot of writing to do before it’s done. I’m going to spend at least 6 hours writing tomorrow, and do the finishing touches on Sunday. I enjoy the process, and with some fun breaks of outdoor activities it’s going to be a great weekend. I’ll probably spend a great deal of time helping my daughter with her Swedish as well, I do that most weekends. Her native language is English, but she goes to a regular class in a Swedish school. I do put some time into helping her every week.

Can I give you a refill on your beverage?  Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share!

Love,

Maria