Something happens to my soul when I drive through the Norwegian countryside. I do think the Norwegian half of me has beaten out the Ozark Mountain Hillbilly other half because I feel so at home here and never stop appreciating the beauty of the mountains, the fjords, or the small little farms that dot the coastline. Inland in Norway the farms are huge, the barns are huge, the houses are huge. Years ago, those farms had to support the families year round, but the farms along the coast are much smaller since the sea provided most of the food for the families. It’s such a contrast. (I took this photo today out the car window while going fairly fast… it’s of a little village at the edge of the fjord about an hour away from home.)
It was good to be home. We weren’t in the door two minutes before Tante Kari came up to check on us and find out how our trip was. Kory spent some time with both Tante Aslaug and Kari, telling them all that we did. I unpacked and started the washing machine before driving Kaleb over to his friend’s house. This afternoon, the time was filled up with grocery shopping and household projects. Kory spent more time than he cared to, getting the dishwasher to work, and the pressure was on to finish it before the stores closed and he might need an extra part. I have been blessed this day, for THIS is the day I no longer have to wash dishes by hand. Hallelujah! I shouted out, “Thank you, Jesus!” after the first load got going. Kory replied, “No, my name’s Kory. You can thank Jesus, but I’m the one that installed it.” Ha ha.
Kory also began to assemble the closet we bought for Kaleb’s room last week. I’m hoping to unpack Kaleb’s boxes and thin out his inventory before he comes home tomorrow and starts to remember all that he has here. When Kory unwrapped the closet, he saw one of the pieces was broken so we had to rush it back to the store for a new piece before they closed. While we were there we bought a living room rug and happened to run into one of my old classmates, so I invited her and her family over for dinner Monday, when My Pal Vestina will also be here. We’ll have a little reunion of some of my favorite people from my Norsk class. Woo hoo.
A bigger WOO HOO was when Kaleb called this evening to tell me that he started talking to two of his friends about the “point system” I invented to help him with a little behavioral modification back home. They questioned him on why he needed to do that and he told them it was because it was easier for him to see if he was being “Christ like,” because he’s a Christian. They asked what it meant to be a Christian and he told them that he’d asked Jesus in his heart and he tries to follow Jesus’ example, even though it’s nearly impossible for him. Both of his friends, Toban and Karl-Andreas, kept asking questions that he answered the best he could, until they finally told him that they wanted to have Jesus in their hearts, too. Kaleb said he was a bit surprised and didn’t really know what to do, but he prayed with them and told them to ask for forgiveness and to just invite Jesus into their lives. He said while he was praying for them, he got a “really warm tingling feeling” going from his arms all the way through his body. He was pretty excited to tell me about it, and I couldn’t have been more surprised myself. Our little missionary in Norway – who knew?
Kory and I enjoyed a very typical Norwegian dinner tonight – boiled potatoes, boiled carrots and salmon (baked though, not boiled.) It’s as fast as food can get on the dinner table because he was hungry. Most foods here are boiled or steamed. I was surprised when we cleaned out Aunt Ruth’s things and found that she owned, not one, but five steamers. At first I couldn’t believe it, then I realized you can cook an entire dinner, something different in every pot, just by steaming – steamed lamb, steamed potatoes, steamed broccoli, etc. It made me laugh, but also thankful I’m not THAT Norwegian – we only kept two of them. The other funny thing about her personal effects is that there wasn’t a single coffee mug in the entire house. Mugs are considered rather crass and a bit rude and no one really uses them. Even Norwegians, sitting home alone, will drink a cup of coffee out of a fine china coffee cup (with saucer) that holds less than four ounces. I think they love the process of refilling the cup after nearly every sip. Me, I’ll take a twenty ounce mug of steamin’ joe any ol’ day and drink it until it’s cold. OK, that may be the Ozark Mountain Hillbilly finally rearing its head. Kory will agree, I am a bit crass and rude sometimes, and not just while drinking coffee. But my son, he’s a class act all the way.
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