Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, can I get you a cup of coffee? Or tea? It’s early Sunday morning, and very quiet in my house. My daughter is still asleep and my son is staying at a friends house. I don’t have any school work, or work work (write educational plans, evaluations, or prepare activities) I need to do. I feel rather relaxed. I had plans to write a coffee share yesterday, but felt that I needed the day to just be in the moment, and do things that I’ve been wanting to do around the house without stressing. You know these things that doesn’t need to be done, and therefor haven’t been top priority, but you want to get them done. Do you have things like that? This time it was rearranging some plants, organise my walk-in closet, organise the storage unit (change of the season things,) and clean the cabinet in the main bathroom. I felt so good getting those things done yesterday. Neither of them was a disaster, but still, it feels fabulous to do a spring cleaning.
I’ve realised lately that it is really challenging to take photos of the plants in your windowsills, considering the light from outside and not showing what’s outside the window. (I live in the city, and a local could easily figure out exactly where I live if I show the outside.) The windows above, and below, are in my daughter’s room.
Yesterday when I was about to order groceries for home delivery, like I’ve done since Covid started, I realised that I am going to start a new tradition there. I’ve developed a routine of ordering groceries every 2-3 weeks, it’s been working great for us, but I found out yesterday that they increased the delivery costs. It now costs almost three times as much compared to the last time I ordered, three weeks ago. I understand why, since gas prices are crazy right now, due to the craziness going on. There are two ways to go about this, I could order once a month, and go to the grocery store in between, or stop getting deliveries all together. I think I am going to start doing a weekly shopping at the grocery store closest to me, it’s a good store (only 0.2US miles away). It might even be good for us health wise, it’s so easy to get extra snacks when you don’t have to carry them. LOL. We eat a lot more fruit and vegetables during the summer, and I like choosing them myself anyways, compared to having a personal shopper pick them out for me. It has been very easy to track my grocery expenses and compare prices online though, something I will miss.
Speaking of fruit and vegetables, the salad greens I planted at the balcony are starting to emerge, still in early stages, but still, soon I’ll have my own nutritious greens. I also put in a big order of alfalfa seeds yesterday. I like to always have some sprouting micro greens available in the kitchen. This winter it’s been a lot of mung beans, and I’ve been craving alfalfa. For some reason all the stores have been out of alfalfa seeds this winter, but yesterday I found one online that had some organic seeds, and I ordered 1kg (2.2 lbs) of them. That will ensure healthy sprouts for my family for a very long time! I also ordered some hemp seeds in bulk for my morning smoothies.
The tomato plants in my window are healthy, and will be more than ready to go when it’s time to plant them outside. At the moment I am improving the soil quality in my pots at the balcony. I am reusing the soil from last year adding; compost, compost juice, egg shells, tea, and coffee grounds. When I transfer the tomatoes to the bigger pots at the balcony the soil will be packed with nutrients.
What else happened this week? On Monday we celebrated International Downs Syndrome Day both at my daughter’s school, and at my school. We rocked our socks (wearing mismatched socks) and talked about that we are all different in some way, why our differences add value, and that we should always respect each other.
I spent Tuesday at the ski slope teaching kids the art of snowboarding. I spent the (late) afternoon at my school. I had that oral examination that I was fretting about last week. I passed. That first class is now over and done 🙂 I am extremely proud of myself. LOL. I am about to start my next class this coming week.
On Wednesday I planted tomatoes with the kids at work. They were thrilled, just as I knew they would be.
On Thursday I arranged a democratic election for the children at work. It’s election year in Sweden, and we talk about that every now and then, what it means to live in a democracy and the responsibilities and benefits that comes with it.
On Friday my daughter participated in a peace march for Ukraine at her school. All the children waved Ukrainian flags that they’ve made themselves. Our city is in the process of getting living quarters ready for refuges. There’s refuges arriving to Sweden by boat, and bus every day now. Many families are opening their homes to refuges as well. I would if I could. At the moment my daughter needs her own space.
We also celebrated Waffle Day here in Sweden this Friday! It’s a big event at my house!
There’s been a lot of mountain biking this week. I rode my bike to work every day, except Tuesday that I spent in the ski slope, I even went on an extra bike ride on Wednesday night just for fun. There is still some icy patches left, but not like before.
Thank you Natalie for hosting the Weekend Coffee Share. I hope you are enjoying a fabulous weekend! What is going on in your corner of the world? Have a refill on your coffee and tell me about it! I believe there’s still some waffles left in the fridge, if you’d like to try 😉
Love,
Maria
GreenDreams 
Sounds like a good week over all. Glad you passed the oral exam! The rocking the socks things sounds like a good way to introduce the topic of uniqueness. And it is important for kids to understand Downs Syndrome, since they will most likely meet people with it through their lives. Perhaps with the warmer weather coming it is time to walk to the local grocery 😉 Soudns like you’ll have a lot of fresh food even without that 🙂 Have a great week!
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Thank you so much Trent! It is indeed a good week 🙂 Cheers to another great one to come !
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I’m glad that things are going so well for you and your children, Maria, and it’s wonderful how they made their own Ukraine flags. The situation in Ukraine has got to come to an end soon. It’s a good idea to not show the outside of your home, you never know who’s watching. Vegas will see 84 degrees today, it’s warming up again finally. Be well! ❤️
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84 degrees that is warm!! I am happy if it’s around 70-75F. I know you like the heat though 🙂 Enjoy! Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
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Congratulations on passing your exam! I’m sure that feels really great, especially paired with all the other positives your week was filled with! Your tomatoes look wonderful, so happy! What variety/ies are you growing? My favorite determinate is an heirloom called Yellow Taxi 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and awesome week ahead!
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Thank you so much! It feels great!
At the moment I am only growing different varieties of cherry tomatoes, that is what my kids prefers to eat. My daughter also planted two other varieties at school. Heirloom tomatoes is the way to go. I believe I had yellow taxi when I lived in California. They want A LOT of sun, right ? Have a wonderful new week!
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I’m a big fan of cherry tomatoes, too, so YAY! 🙂 Yes, Yellow Taxis like some good hot sun…though at our elevation (over 6,000 feet) they can actually get sunburnt if we thin the leaves too much!
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Maria, Congrats on passing your oral exam! Your plants look healthy and thriving; great job taking care of them. Your waffles look even better 🙂 I doubt that there is any left in the fridge now but thank you for your weekend coffee share. Have a great week!
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Your tomato plants look great! When do you get to plant them outside?
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Congrats on ace-ing your oral exam…like there were any doubts that you would! 🙂
Tomato plants have grown huge, they must love your soil. Those waffles look so good, wish I could eat one. Alas, my new diet allows no carbs, nor chocolate, can you imagine? I’m getting used to it, but the first couple weeks were torture. 😉
We’ll have wintery temps the next few days, with tomorrow not even getting above freezing and nights in the teens with lots of wind. March!
Have a good week!
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Sounds like a great week. Your plants look amazing. Our town is too small for delivery but I sometimes order online and do a pickup. I like to do my main shopping myself, but the week in between paydays when I just need a few things, I will order online, especially if I have a busy weekend.
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You’ve had a busy week and I know you and I both are very busy. I’m barely keeping up blogging as it’s almost down to once a month lately. I enjoy seeing your plants grow and I’m so happy you passed your exam. I hope you have a wonderful week!! I’ve shared a very late post but it’s packed full of March adventures! (You see them on FB which is sweet!) Take care my friend! 🥰
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Your Sunday morning sounds so pleasant! Stillness, peace and quiet… all very appealing. I totally get what you mean about photographing the plants in the window. I’ve been cautious about taking photos in the nearby area, although I do it when I go for walks, but I never let the house show in the photos. I know I’ve had some revealing photos but I’ve removed them from the blog. Your photos are very good, by the way! It is challenging with backlight. Your waffles look fantastic too.
Last weekend I planted all my remaining tomato seeds and some chili seeds, and I have plenty coming up now.
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Hi Maria,
This was another great insight to your life in Sweden.
It all sounds wonderful, but your second photo took and kept my attention throughout your article.
In 1975, I’d just made a quickly arranged move out of the only home I’d ever known and into an apartment about 2 hours’ drive away to start my first real job after trade school.
To dress up my desk at that job, I bought a plant that appealed, and that plant grew like it was on steroids. I’m pretty sure it was the exact same Coleus that you have in that photo. I loved the symmetry of how the leaves grew and how spectacular the colors were beneath the near 24×7 florescent fixtures of the computer assembly and test floor where I worked. And all those memories just poured back.
All that from a simple magenta plant which is so robust that if one drew a picture of it, that picture would likely grow and thrive.
I hope you have a great week coming.
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Hi Maria.
Just a heads up. I hope this was a local-to-me problem, but I had the worst time trying to save my comment on your coffee share. I got multiple errors about your blog site having some security issue and Firefox, my browser was refusing to complete my posting of the comment above. I finally exited and restarted my browser and it seemed to fuss again, but ultimately completed the post.
I know just enough about these things to be able to overthink them – it may have had nothing to do with your site. Other sites had accepted my feedback without a burp, but then, most of them were domestic US based and as we both know, sometimes that pond between us matters – somehow.
I decided to let you know only in case others are seeing something similar.
I need to attend to my job so will leave you with my hopes that you’re finishing up a great day at yours and have some comfy things planned for your evening with your kids.
Blessings.
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Mmmm…I love waffles! I use to do the grocery delivery and I enjoyed it a lot because it was convenient and I’d find groceries at my doorstep. But nowadays I am in a phase where I decided to avoid online shopping because I realized I’ve been doing quite a bit of impulsive shopping. My husband is joining along with me too — he even canceled our Amazon Prime account. I decided online shopping also includes the grocery deliveries. We live really close to a grocery store and I have to say going to a grocery store in-person feels great. We live walking distance to an Aldi so there’s always new selections.
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It sounds like you had a great time. These plants look great. I also like gardening, but it is also in my small balcony area. Growing Microgreens and sprouting mung beans are my favourite activities too. For online grocery shopping,I usually do it once a month for heavy items that I can store for a month. Other things, I shop weekly 🙂
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