A little culture.....

Today we went to Copenhagen with our good friends Laura, Pernille and Thomas. We started with lunch at a restaurant called RizRaz, it was sooo delicious. After lunch we headed over to one of the local churches where there was going to be a Jazz church service.

It was a beautiful old church and there were some well known jazz musicans playing and singing at the service. It was a really lovely service. Kristian loves jazz so he was in his element especially with all the saxophone music that there was.

 A beautiful tree stood in the hallway....a real work of art.

 After the service we had a short walk through Copenhagen before we all headed home again.

This evening Lasse came to visit and stayed for dinner.

Yesterday we had a relaxing day at home. The cats were relaxing too. Although it was relaxing we still did work around the house. Kristian spent the morning cutting the grass around the place, I decided to weed out the weeds that were growing up between the tiles outside.

In the afternoon my neighbour Laura came over to introduce me to a girl who is visiting one of our neighbours for a month or so. She was lovely and we spent some time chatting before we all decided to go for a bike ride. Laura had an old bike that our visitor could use and so we decided we would show her how to get to some of the lakes and beauty spots around here.

We ended the bike ride in Pernille and Thomas´s garden were we were served delicious cold Elderflower juice 

 We have had an invasion of slugs. They were starting to eat my plants so we googled to see how we could get rid of them. The answer was, wait for it......beer!!!

We thought we would give it a try, so we bought a cheap bear, dug a hole, put a container in the hole and filled it with beer. Those slugs sure loved that beer. The word was out in the slug world - that Kristian had the best beer in our wee village!! They were coming out from everywhere and they all were heading to that one spot. haha

Before long those slugs were gone. The container was filled with a huge amount of slugs!! It was sooo gross. Thank goodness I didn´t have to empty it!!! Poor Kristian, it was a dirty job, which he had to do!

After a productive day in the garden we invited our neighbours Pernille and Thomas over for some cake and coffee. We had such a lovely evening together with them and before we knew it, it was way after midnight!!

It has been a lovely weekend and the best thing is that my hubby is now off work!!

Happy 4th July.....

ok, maybe a bit late to be wishing my American friends a happy 4th July, but better late than never.

The first summer we lived here in our new place we held the 4th of July with our neighbour and her daughter. Back then we decided we would make it a tradition. However, last year they both were out travelling so we didn´t get to do it. This year we were at Camilla´s birthday party/graduation party on 4th, so we couldn´t hold it there. A few weeks back we put an X in our calendars on the 10th July and decided that, that would be the night we would celebrate the 4th!!

The theme on the table was red, white and blue....

 

Kristian BBQ´d burgers and we had all the trimmings. The food was delicious.

 

After dinner we played Cludeo.  This is a big hit in our house at the minute!

Then it was time for dessert. Strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, fresh cream, nuts and chocolate. Soooooo delicious and soooo not good for my new healthy life style! :-)

In the middle of everything we got some unexpected visitors. Kristian´s brother Peter, his wife and kids were going to the movies close to us, so they popped by to put in an hour before the movie started. It was sooo great to see them.

A really great evening. Now I have a messy house to tidy up!!! Not in the mood to do it, hence the reason I am on here!!

My kind of day....

The weather today changed. The temperature fell, the wind was howling, the rain was pouring down and I was as happy as Larry!! It was just my kind of weather. 

I decided I needed to get out into it. 

It was the perfect weather for shopping, good food and maybe a movie.

I drove to a nearby town and had a wonderful morning checking out the shops.  (Not many people were out on the walking street, most were in the big shopping centre.)

I treated myself to lunch in my favourite cafe which just happened to be packed with tourists; Americans. Luckily there was a table tucked away in the corner that was available for me. I ordered my lunch and settled down with my book. This was the life!!

I finished my lunch and my first book of my holiday reading. (It was the book Daughter by Jane Shemilt, It was ok, no better than ok, it was good. It had me hooked but I have read better.)  I started another book about the benefits of baking soda. My, I am getting soooo clever! haha 

I then did a bit more window shopping. Just looking around the shops and dreaming was fine with me today.  I didn´t buy anything, except some food for dinner. 

I decided to skip a movie and just head home. I was looking forward to curling up on the sofa to read again and that´s exactly what I did.

Kristian came home from work and Andrew was here too. Leah had gone to Lasse´s to eat. We had a delicious dinner and then spent the evening relaxing.

I finished my book on the benefits of Baking Soda and started another one on the benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar. Wow it´s amazing.....they are good for just about everything that we can have wrong with us!!

Now if you don´t know about these things you need to read up on them. The benefits for the body are amazing. Some doctors are even using baking soda to treat cancers!! 

I started an experiment about 3 - 4weeks ago. I decided that I would eat healthy and start to take natural, heathly supplements to see if I could feel a difference in my well being. No more rubbish food, I would eat more vegetables, more fruits, and fish. 

 I would get Omega 3 supplement by taking a spoonful of  Cod Liver Oil every morning. (it has lemon added so it tastes ok) Kristian has been doing it for a year now and feels great.  I decided also to drink a mixture of Apple Cider Vinegar, Water and Baking Soda because it has sooo many benefits for the body. I love vinegar so it´s not hard for me to get down.   

Coconut is another natural product that I have started using as a moisturiser for my skin. So I basically get up in the morning, put coconut on my face, get my lunch ready for work, eat a banana, take my cod liver oil, make my vinegar drink and drink that, take my vitamin pill and garlic pill and go into the shower. The coconut has had time to sink into my skin. I don´t wash my face with soap so I just rinse the hot water over it and come out and pat it dry. My skin feels sooo good after that. 

The thing is I have been feeling really good. I have actually kept to my healthy eating and have not craved the unhealthy stuff. ( I did have a couple days were I went a bit mad because we were at parties but when it was everyday life I was able to eat healthy and not miss all the rubbish!) I have now lost 5kg!!! 

I think it has helped me doing this heatlhy eating, not to lose weight, but to feel better. My mindset has been - I don´t care about the weight, I care about feeling healthy and good. I think that has helped me not focusing on losing the weight. But when I eat these right foods I automatically lose the weight. 

Here is an interesting thing,(well I think it´s interesting :-).....Last week at work I was talking to my co-worker and we both were saying how ugly our legs were because of our varicose veins. (It was hot and we were wearing 3/4 length trousers while all the young ones were in shorts!!) 

My co-worker was showing me her veins. I have a huge vein on the back of my left leg just where the knee bends. I always called it my "snake." It stuck out sooo much and was about 10 cm long. It wiggled in and out just like a snake! Well, I went to show her my "snake" but I was sooo surprised at how small it felt. It didn´t seem to stick out very much and I said this to her. "That´s weird" I said, " it doesnt seem that big anymore!" 

I totally forgot about that moment until tonight.  I was reading the book about Apple Cider Vinegar and what different things it was good for. The book said that drinking some Apple Cider Vinegar everyday could help to reduce varicose veins. Wow!! that´s when I remembered about what happened with my colleague. 

So I showed my "snake" to Kristian tonight and asked him what he thought. Was it sticking out like it normally did or did it seem like it had shrunk? He too thought it had shrunk, that it was not as bad as it once had been. 

Rather interesting I think!! Maybe it´s because I´ve lost weight, or maybe it is because of the Apple Cider Vinegar.  Who knows?!

All I know is that I feel great!!! Long may it last!! 

Ok, rather a long post....better get to bed. That´s my next goal - to get 8 hours sleep every night! Been reading about how important that is too. Our body is such an interesting thing - a real masterpiece that God has created. We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made! (Psalm 139)

I´m sooo relaxed....

After two days of holiday I am feeling soooo relaxed.

 

I spent Monday morning on the internet looking for books. It was nearly as good as being in a real bookshop! I searched and researched what books I wanted to buy. I read different reviews before finally deciding what I should buy for my Kindle. I went a bit mad and bought a few more books than I needed:-)

 

Books are my weakness. From a child I have loved to read. I remember how, when the school holidays started, I would walk down to our local library and spend ages looking at the books. I then would pick 3 books to take home to read.  I would read them within the week. I would have a notebook in which I would write book reviews and give the books a certain amount of stars. Then it was off again to the library to return the read books and to borrow 3 more.

 

Things haven´t changed much since then, except now I buy my books for my Kindle instead of borrowing them from the library. (Oh and I don´t have a notebook for reviews and stars! ) But the feeling I get is the same. The feeling of knowing you have a pile of books to get through is just the best. I get sooo happy when I have my pile of books all downloaded and ready to be read.  I can hardly wait to get started!!

 

On Monday evening Leah and I went over to eat dinner with our neighbour Laura and her daughter. We had arranged a girly night together.

 

 After dinner we played some cards, then had a couple of games of Cluedo and then ended the evening with a good film. We had such a great time.

 

 

Today (Tuesday) the weather has been fantastic. I decided it was time to get some sun. I spent most of the day outside and got a little more sun than I bargined for!! Red as a lobster I am!! Ah well this too will pass.

 

I started my first book and so the most of the day was spent reading, lying on a blanket in the garden. It was wonderful, perfect, peaceful.

 

 

There was one thing to disturb my peace - the little bird in the Photo. It was driving me insane with its click, click, click sounds.  

 

 

The other morning I woke up at 4 am because of this click, click, click noise. I thought someone had a Newton´s Cradle thing outside our window. (It was the same sound that the balls make when they hit each other) It drove me insane. I then discovered it was a bird. It makes the most annoying noise!!

 

Today that little bird has been happily flying about our garden and click, click, clicking away. I was tempted to help our cat catch it!!! But I didn´t!!!

 

This evening we went for a BBQ to our friends Jette and Filip. Unfortunately the weather changed and it started to rain just before we should eat, so we had to sit inside.

 

We had such a fun night with them. We always end up in fits of laughter and tonight was no different.

 

 

There were a few small surprises for us when we arrived. Their cat had had kittens - 3 of them.

  They were just the cutest!!

So far it has been a fantastic start to the summer holidays. Long may it continue!!

More parties.....

Saturday we were, once again, off to a party!

 

This time it was a birthday/graduation party for Camilla.

 

We were to be there at 1pm for lunch. We had a lovely afternoon with her family and friends. It was lovely to meet friends that I had only heard her talk about. Her mum had put on a wonderful lunch for us all and we enjoyed sitting talking and getting to know all the different people that were important to Camilla and her family.

 

She got some lovely gifts! I wouldn´t have minded a few of them. - like the two Ikea gift cards!!! :-)

 We ate far too much again but had a lovely afternoon. Around half past 6 we all headed home.

Sunday in  Denmark was soooo hot! We decided to BBQ for dinner and Camilla and Lasse came to join us.

 

We had roasted marshmallows for dessert.....YUMMY!!

 

After dinner we played badminton.....

 

 

There was an invasion of the neighbour´s cats.

 

 

Camilla, Laura and Kristian came to the rescue for one of the cats. He had a tick on his chin and Camilla just had to get that tick off.  She wants to be a veterinary nurse so this was just up her street!

 

 

 

They got this wee creature out of him.....

 

 

The cat then had to get a treat.....

 

We then went a walk down the lane to see the sheep.

 They were very friendly this evening. They came running over to us, however they didn´t stay long when they realised we had no food with us.

 We ended the evening with a game of Cluedo and Mia, our neighbour came over and joined the fun.

Finally.....

.....the holidays have arrived.

Today I stopped work for 4 weeks!!

It´s been a hard week at work....... :-)

It´s so wonderful to now have holiday, especially since summer time has finally come to Denmark. (The sun is shining and we are having temperatures in the 20s!! It will be hitting 30 degrees on Saturday!) Poor Kristian has still one more week left then he too will have his freedom!!

I am soooo looking forward to relaxing. I plan to read some good books, paint some nice pictures (hopefully), go for some lovely bike rides, eat at some of my favourite cafes, go to the movies,  hang out with the kids, hang out with Kristian, hang out with friends, go to Greece (I know, I know,  bad planning, hope they get their finances sorted before we leave!) and have friends visit. (Some friends will be staying here while we are off travelling.)

Talking about friends, we had an "old" friend visit us this week - Allen. I worked with Allen many years ago. He is orginally from the USA but for a few years worked here in Denmark. Since that time he has worked in many different countries. He left Denmark about 12 years ago and we haven´t seen him in person since. He came for a visit  on Wednesday and stayed two nights with us. It was really great to see him again and catch up with everything he has been doing in his life.

The cat has been enjoying the sun.....

This evening we had a BBQ with the kids. We had such a cosy evening with a lot of laughter.....we all were rather silly (not just me this time!!)  I think the heat is getting to usl!!!

Kristian and I ended the evening by going a walk. Shadow (our cat) followed us like a wee dog. She is soooo funny. She always follows us when we go a walk, then as we get further from the house she starts to meow like crazy!! When we get to the signpost for our village she doesn´t dare go any futher. Funny cat....

It was a beautiful evening.....