It's already October. I can't understand how time flies and that September is already gone. This last week has been wonderful. Chilly mornings, the sun warming a bit in the middle of the day, the leaves are turning red and yellow. We had our first frost night here yesterday; it's time to bring in my olive tree.
This September has been good. Not like we expected, but good. Nora was supposed to begin kindergarten in August so that I could focus on growing my business, but she didn't like it there at all. We decided that she should stay at home as long as she needs. To many of you living abroad this may not sound strange, but here in Sweden it's not common to let your 2,5 year old child be at home (maybe with an exception if you have baby siblings) and because of that we're the only ones (with children) in our neighbourhood being at home during the day. There are some small babies as well, but I don't see much of them. That's very unfortunate as Nora has no one to play with and I have no one to talk with. So we begun going to something called "Öppna förskolan", "Open kindergarten". It's not really like a kindergarten because the parents are there with their kids and you come and go and do as you want. Mostly it's just babies there too, but on Mondays it's "Craft café" and then some older kids (3-5 years) attend as well. At the craft café we can paint with pens, pencils, acrylics, we can make cards or necklaces, do decoupage, play with clay ... and many other things, just paying a small amout of money for the material we use. I love craft café! Öppna förskolan is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays too so we use to go one of those days to play, read books and just get away from home for a while. In the beginnig of August I had no idea that this was what I would do in September :-)
Despite never being alone I actually have managed to make some progress with my business. That's good.
And September has been full of walks, of the last flowers of summer (picked by Nora), of good food and good friends. I've learnt to make raw desserts! Who could have guessed that by the beginng of August? Not me.
September has been nice. Now I'm welcoming October. I have lots of plans and things I want to do, and things I need to do. What about you? How was your September and do you have any plans for October?
Wow, the idea of all 2.5 year olds being out of the home is really foreign to me! I love the idea of open kindergarten though, that sounds just lovely. :)
ReplyDeleteOctober is a a mixed month for me. My Dad and Step-Mum are coming to visit from Australia. I haven't seen them since I moved here in 2004, and they've never met my daughters so I am excited about that. But it's also the month we need to decide if we can afford for me to not go back to work. I have to let work know in 4-6 weeks because my maternity leave is coming to an end soon. It's stressful.
Here's to another month of great blogging!
Amy -> That must be really exciting, especially for your girls, that their grandpa is coming to visit! Suddenly my dad seems to live very close, it's "only" a 6-7 hours drive away ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm a little curious: If you have to go back to work, where are your daughters during the day then? What is the most common solution where you live?
I met an American girl on the train a few months ago. She was an au pair in Germany and went to Sweden for a couple of days to visit some new friends. She told me she wanted to be an au pair in Sweden but it was almost impossible to find a family since almost everyone use kindergarten (which is because we only pay a fraction of the real costs and no matter how many kids you've got there's a limit on how much you pay, so it's very generous. Having an au pair would be much much more expensive.) She said where she was now, in Germany, kindergarten was so expensive that for many families it was not even an option, instead many moms stayed at home or they had someone taking care of the kids. It was really interesting talking to this girl, I love learning such things and hearing how people around the world live a family life and take care of kids, work etc :-)
I am glad you found the open kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteI am loving October!
Stephanie -> I can only agree *smile*
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