A Quiet Day at Home

Kaleb and Tobias (his pal from school, not the neighborhood boy), were up at the crack of dawn. I was so hoping we could all sleep in, but that just didn’t happen. The boys were respectful and quiet, but I still couldn’t sleep when I knew they were up and probably wanting breakfast. They were more interested in playing with their Pokemon cards however, and didn’t ask for a thing to eat until about 10:30. I guess I should have stayed in bed, but the weather today was as good as any summer day gets around here and I didn’t want to waste that. It was shorts and t-shirt weather and I heard lawnmowers going the entire day. People were out for walks and bike rides, they were working in their yards or just sitting on their decks sunning themselves. It had that total feel of just a lazy day in the middle of summer. I loved it.

Turid called me last night to tell me there was a flea market today at a church just a few miles down the road. It started last night (very unusual), but Kaleb had his friend here and they wanted to play games with us so I sacrificed being the first on the scene in order to stay home and play with them. I decided I needed an excuse for a walk today however, so after I fed the boys I went for a long walk over there. I had to call Kory to come get me as I found a few too many treasures. I love it when I can get antique copper kettles for 75 cents. It’s hard to pass them up because they are such great decorations and they easily hold a little potted plant and look so cute in our windowsills. And the hand-forged metal trays for less than a dollar just call my name as they are so practical and “typisk Norsk,” so I can’t help but buy them. I also got a very cool bicycle for $25, which was the highlight of my day. I’ve been so wanting to go biking with Kaleb, or at least to get around faster than walking, so that was a big treat to myself. Kory thinks it’s crazy, since we’ll only be here two more months. I’m thinking it was a good thing, as I’d much rather have my butt go dead while riding a bicycle than sitting at the computer for hours on end – which I did plenty of today too, as there is just no end to the amount of documentation available on the internet for my friend Paula’s family. Someone stop me, please!

Kory washed the car today – inside and out. He was planning to have another car wash day with the refugees but too many were unavailable, so he just washed ours instead. I laid out in the sunshine in our front yard and took a little nap, and a woman from our home fellowship group rode her bike by and saw me outside so she dropped in for a nice long visit. I love that stuff. Life here isn’t terribly complicated and schedules aren’t as packed full as they seem to be in America. The options are somewhat limited here and if a family it not involved in soccer, there is lots of free time to go around. I would have preferred going somewhere today, but Kaleb needed the social time with his friend and they played very well together the entire day, so that was good.

On my walk today I passed by several mailboxes which reminded me how different they are from the ones we have back home. Everyone has the same type of top opening mailbox, so they all must be covered by a little shelter in order to protect them from the snow (see photo). But the mailbox shelters here have a lot of variety – some of them are real works of art. Sometimes there will be hanging plants mixed in with the mailboxes (see other photo), sometimes people will paint pretty thing right on their mailboxes, and sometimes the mailbox shelter will have a grass rooftop with wildflowers growing out of it (my favorite). Every neighborhood just makes up their own little shelter for however many mailboxes they want to fit in there, but the average size holds about six boxes. And when people move, they take their boxes with them, but the shelter is left behind. The only drag about the mailboxes here is we can’t put any outgoing mail in them – all the mail has to be taken to the post office. But, they do make that rather convenient as our local neighborhood grocery store has a post office right inside the store and it’s open the same hours as the store: 8-22 (20). That’s the code posted on all stores for their opening hours – which means - 8am-10pm Monday-Friday and only until 8pm on Saturday. And of course, NOTHING is open on Sundays, except church. I guess that’s why all the churches have a café in them and they serve food afterwards. I like Sundays, but I like days like today, too. Everyone needs a little piece of quiet every now and then.