Labor Day

Today there was no school. It was really nice last night to have no lunches to make. Making lunches for the kids doesn't take much time. This is Norway, so all they take are two open faces slices of bread with something on them. Anders and Johan almost always go for butter and brown cheese on one set for school and then butter and liver paste for the snack they eat at their afterschool program. This can vary at times, but not much. I had Espen start making his own lunches when he was in 5th grade and already have Anders geared up for doing it next year. Making lunches isn't the biggest deal, but still one more chore that has to be done. And I am so happy when I don't have to do it!



I've been working all day on my English term paper, and I now have 7 and a half pages which are fairly decent. And it's not due until May 9th. I'm pretty happy with that. We're having a workshop in class tomorrow (I have to go to school, even though the kids have the day off) about this paper, so hopefully I can get some more tips to make it even better. But then I need to start working on the portfolio I'm putting together for my Social Studies class. It's due on the 14th and needs a lot of work. Can't wait to be done with school - although the fact that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with this English paper makes me feel much less stressed.

It's been rainy, yucky weather today. The kids have been hanging out with their friends, here and there. I wish it was nice weather so that everyone could be outside, but they have been very well-behaved. A few years, there is no way I would be able to work on a paper and have all of the kids and their friends in the house, but that is exactly what I have done today. That's a sign that they're all getting older, I guess.

I think Gaute and I are going to go out for dinner tonight. We rarely do - last time we were going to, we decided it would be too expensive and went to the grocery store instead :-(. It's nice to get out and share a meal without the kids, though. Espen, our official babysitter these days, readily agreed to watch his brothers. Espen is a fantastic babysitter. He really steps up when we need him to. The house is always clean and the little guys in bed when he has been watching them. He has even been known to read for Johan. We pay him about 10 dollars to watch them for a whole evening. Extremely cheap compare to what we would pay a "real" babysitter, but he's thrilled. We always let them buy some chips and Coke while we're gone, too, so Anders and Johan are quite happy, as well.

Not sure where we'll go tonight. Hopefully I won't be as nerdy as I usually am, spending hours online before we ever go out trying to find the most perfect place...