Lazy Day

As I was lying in bed this morning planning out the day, it had great possibilities because I believed the weather forecast from yesterday when it said we’d have a little sunshine today with no rain.  I had a mountain to climb and today was the day to do it, except for the fact it rained.  It’s no fun to climb mountains in the rain because the trails are muddy enough already and the only motivation I have is the view up on top.

So I sat with my morning cup of coffee and tried to come up with Plan B.  Kory and Kaleb sat around with their various electronic devices and waited for me to come up with something, as the rain continued to pour.

I had to bake a cake since we were invited out for dinner tonight, at five o’clock or so I thought.  I decided to use the day to pack for our trip to Greece and get that task off my list.  I ironed clothes to take along and sorted through things to toss out before we leave. It was a tedious, rather boring day.  We played a game together just to pass the time.

Several hours later, after we still weren’t sure about how to use the day, it was about two o’clock and the sun finally came out.  By then, it was too late to climb a mountain, or so I thought, so we just sat around again and didn’t do much.  No one even wanted to go for a walk as our electronic devices were keeping us well entertained.  I wrote another article for next week’s paper, and it was good. J

As we were leaving the house at five to go to dinner, I rechecked the text message I’d gotten, inviting us over in the first place, and realized that dinner wasn’t until seven.  I could have cried.  They use the military times here so when I see “17” or “19” it just doesn’t compute the same in my brain as when I see 5 or 7, so there in lies the problem.  We certainly would have had enough time to climb a mountain if I’d known we had so much time, so then I was mad at myself the rest of the day for wasting a perfectly good afternoon.  At least we’re packed for our next journey and I printed out all our tickets and itineraries, so it felt like something got done anyway.

We had a wonderful meal over at the Bjerknes’ house tonight.  Kory even ate chicken so he was a happy man.  Kaleb challenged most everyone in the family to chess and beat all but one.  I was telling them my love for finding records of the dead here in Norway and Haavard challenged me to find out what happened to his great uncle that moved to America maybe a hundred years ago.  They heard so little from him after that.  All he gave me to work on was his name, and that he moved to Alaska.  I tried for hours at their house to find him, but had no luck, so I knew it was something about the spelling of his name.  Once I got home, however I couldn’t sleep until I found some kind of information on him, and sure enough, I saw that he was in the 1940 census in Juneau and served in WWII, but never married.  His name was spelled completely different than the Norwegian rendition so it was near miraculous that I found him.  Haavard was thinking it would be nice to visit his grave sometime, so at least now we know what city he went to.  I was so proud of myself, but now am so tired as it’s two in the morning and I’m beat.

The sunset tonight was spectacular so we drove around before we went to dinner, taking photos from different spots of all the color in the heavens.  Glorious, to say the least. 

Family Ties

It was Ingebjørg’s last day with us today and as much as I wanted to join her and Kory on a little jaunt around the fjord, they wouldn’t have had as much time for such things because someone had to be home making the next meal and cleaning up from the last one.  Good thing my heart is in the right place about such things otherwise I would have been sad to be left behind.

Ingebjørg’s good friend’s daughter lives in the same city where Kory grew up, so he took her over there this morning for a cup of a coffee and a little greeting.  Turns out, she lives in the house right next door to where he lived before he moved to America.  She had a nice visit and was so glad to make contact, and it was nice for us to help facilitate it, as she doesn’t get out much. (Photo below is of the bus stop Kory painted in 2009!)

I had lunch waiting for them when they returned home, and just afterwards they went in a different direction, to visit a first cousin of Ingebjørg’s that lives down by where we used to live in 2008.  Ingebjørg had never visited that cousin at her home before so it was a real thrill for her to make contact.  I wish I’d gone along on that visit, as Kory said their house was full of things I love – all the Norwegian wood carved stuff, hand painted furniture and beautiful Norwegian embroideries.  Fortunately, we were welcome back to stop in again sometime, as they made an interesting discovery during the visit.

Ingebjørg’s mom is Kory’s first cousin, so they are first cousins once removed.  The lady of the house (above) where they visited this afternoon is first cousin to Ingebjørg on her father’s side.  The man of the house, it was discovered today, is a first cousin once removed to Kory’s cousin Odd.  So through a few marriages, we are connected to that couple.  But what’s so bizarre is that Ingebjørg is originally from Oslo and is related on Kory’s dad side of the family, and here was a couple with links to both sides of Kory’s family, right under our noses.  So funny, but also kinda scary to realize just how many people he’s related to around here!

 (photo below is of my "deck buddy" today as he hung out on our deck for hours today - not at all afraid of me.  I was worried he was injured so I prayed for him and eventually he flew away - or got eaten by a larger bird... not sure. :)

So Ingebjørg had herself one incredible day and we were glad for that.  I was at home - keeping the home fires burning, as it were.  I also had a few minutes to keep investigating this other family mystery about the illegitimate relative, so I had to go show Tante Kari all I had found.  She filled me in on a few more details to help in my search, but so far, there are more questions than answers.  I love this detective work and honestly, I have to force myself to bed at night otherwise I’d stay up all hours researching things. 

Kaleb invited a few friends (Andre and Toban) over for a pizza party tonight and I was so glad he did as he hasn’t had any time with friends outside of school.  They stayed a few hours and ate pizza and candy while playing the new game that Ingebjørg brought.  It’s really a fun game that involves much skill and hard thinking, so it’s a good one for Kaleb, even though he lost both games they played.

We’ve been wanting Kaleb to be more socialized by sending him to school this year, but Andre told me Kaleb just sits and reads during all the breaks and doesn’t talk to anyone, so I guess our best efforts are in vein.  Toban’s not a big talker either, so maybe they are a good match. I don’t think he said two words the whole time he was here.  I can only pray that somehow Kaleb doesn’t develop into a nerdy loner guy as I do my best to expose him to social things but I’ve heard plenty of criticism here in Norway that our lifestyle is his biggest problem – that we are gone too much for him to develop strong friendships.  Maybe so, but I have to believe the amount of travel we do is doing something good for him in ways we don’t know yet, as we seek our direction from God and if ever we feel the need to stay home, we do.  It’s a tough job, this parenting business.  I have to believe God has a plan and we are shaping him and raising him in a way that fits that plan perfectly.  Otherwise, the guilt would be too much to bear.

After Kory returned from taking Ingebjørg to the airport, and I returned from taking Toban home, we had a family game night where I won both games.  Kaleb just hates it when I win.  I guess the fact that I rub it in, doesn’t help any.

Behind the Scenes

It was a fairly lazy day for me today as I was home for most of it.  Kory took Ingebjørg to the mall, via the underground parking lot, so she could see just how hip of a place we have here.  They shopped around for a few hours and bought a few things on clearance at a sport’s store going out of business.  I went later just to buy a swimming cap, as they are required at the swimming hall next door and they charge almost $4 to rent one ($10 to buy one), and this close-out sale had them for less than two bucks.  It was worth the effort.

While the house was quiet today, I wrote another article for the LaConner newspaper on the “Open Line” column they have in newspapers here – that we just found out about.  It’s a bit more involved than the Letters to the Editor we have back home.  It’s often use as a “tattling” kind of thing – making public someone’s inappropriate behavior.  I guess this is how they keep people in line – knowing you’ll read about it the next day in the paper if you do something someone doesn’t appreciate. 

I did a little Bible also while the house was quiet, and otherwise, the day was just spent shopping for food and making it, as we invited both aunts over for dinner tonight (below).  They knew Ingebjørg’s mother, so we thought it would be fun for them to meet her.  (I didn’t get out to take any photos so I’m using some from my birthday last week…)

As an aside, it’s interesting to me what people talk about when they know they are going to die.  When Kory’s mom was dying, she told all kinds of things she’d kept “secret” all her life.  Now that Tante Kari knows her days are numbered, she told Kory recently about a family member that was illegitimate.  No one else knows, apparently, including the person they were married to.  I just had to go snooping to verify if this bit of news was true.

Birth records before 1930 are on the internet, so I spent a good amount of time today trying to find proof of what Kari told Kory, and sure enough, tonight I found it.  The other thing Kari said was she thought the “unknown father” to this person was a close relative of the mother, but at this point, I would say that’s just not so.  I needed to settle that matter in my head because there are some generational health issues in that family line that made me wonder if it might have come from a little inbreeding, but I’m fairly certain the father was NOT related at all, based on the information I found. 

When Tante Kari was here I quietly showed her my findings and she was most impressed with my sleuthing… and with the dinner I made.  I don’t know why family history captivates me so, but it does.  It’s like a puzzle that needs to be assembled but there are many different ways it can come together – and all of them challenging.  I’ve been helping a few people this year find family roots in Norway and it’s hard to believe people make money doing this, since I feel like I should be paying them for all the entertainment it provides me.

So Kaleb’s day was fairly routine.  Both Kory and Ingebjørg were napping when he came home from school, so we had to keep quiet around here.  It got much noisier tonight when we played a few games with Ingebjørg and the aunts.  And that was pretty much our day, as we begin the count down now to our final days here.  Kaleb’s decided next year we’re only staying eight weeks instead of ten.  Maybe, so.  We’ll see.

Double Dipping

The weather held up today as no rain befell us, so the feeling of summer days continues.  It was so welcoming outside this morning that I decided to ride our new bike over to Kristin’s house (several miles away) to attend the weekly prayer meeting.  It was also out of “need” that I rode the bike, since Kory was being a good tourist guide today to his cousin Ingebjørg and they needed the car.  Lucky me.

I so love being outside in the sunshine.  It was nice to take the same route I’ve taken many times on the bus and in the car, but this time by bicycle, at a much slower pace.  It was over half an hour of pedaling and I was exhausted by the time I got to the meeting, but everyone was most impressed that I made it – especially since I told them the route I took.  I forgot there was a much shorter way between our houses and it would have been mostly downhill to Kristens.  I took that route on the way back home, which meant it was mostly uphill, so I walked a lot.  I so need the exercise since the Norwegian chocolate, bread and cheese are doing some real damage to my waistline.  I’m beyond being just a “cheatin’ vegan” here – I’m all out unhealthy.

The best part of the prayer meeting today was hearing yet again the number of answered prayers.  It was so nice to just thank God for things rather than asking Him over and over for things we want and need.  So we spent considerable time in prayer for the nation and this area in particular. (Photo above shows a typical Norwegian front porch - complete with the coffee cup and pot. Photo below shows the fall colors up in the mountains!)

Cousin Axel’s wife, Kari, was at the meeting and she prayed for a place called “Vallehuset” so I had to ask afterwards what that was.  Turns out it’s quite the story.  I had heard the story about the great Aalesund fire in 1904, and this Vallehuset house is the only house that didn’t burn.  It was owned by a strong Christian man that later said God told him to stay put – that if he left his house it would burn, but if he stayed, it wouldn’t.  He stayed, and everything around him burnt to the ground so the pictures taken afterwards tell the whole story – to see a house standing amidst all the rubble and devastation is something to behold and truly a huge miracle.

The house is quite famous in these parts as the entire city burnt down at that time.  Owners of the house in recent years have let it slip in its upkeep and it needed a lot of things done to it or it would just fall apart.  Some very rich local guy heard the house was for sale so he bought it and gave it to Philadelphia Church.  The guy wasn’t a Christian, but he understood it was a house important to those who believe in miracles – so he just gave it to them to use however they want.  When people heard it was going to be fixed up, many tradespeople and companies donated labor and materials to help with the restoration, which is going on right now.

The folks at Philadelphia Church haven’t decided exactly how to use the house, but it will be certainly open to the public with lots of pictures and stories of it’s history.  They also think they will have a café and a prayer room in there.  All the tour buses and cruise ships bring people by that house because it is so unique in its history, so it has tremendous possibilities in this town for reaching people with the gospel.  So that was worth a few prayers.

Kory took cousin Ingebjørg into the city today and they had lunch at a café run by Youth with a Mission.  I couldn’t believe Kory completely broke his diet today and had CHICKEN SALAD for lunch!  What was he thinking?  I pray no damage was done.  They spent the whole day sightseeing in the city, shopping a little and then went out to Alnes where the beautiful lighthouse it situated to enjoy a bit of the surf and sand while the sun was still shining, so they had a grand day.

Kaleb and I went for a little bike ride after he got home from school then he sat and did some of his math program, wanting me to join in and see if I could solve any of the questions.  My only hope was when there were multiple choice answers, as everything I contributed was just a guess.  Sometimes I was right, most times, not.  It’s so impressive though to see Kaleb solve these very complex story problems, even if sometimes they bring him to tears of frustration. 

Ingebjørg bought Kaleb a Norwegian game, which she taught him how to play tonight.  He was pleased that he won his first time around, as he’s a terrible loser.  She also brought him a large chocolate bar and some other candy.  It was so funny to see Kaleb’s reaction to that chocolate.  Instead of “Death by Chocolate” I think he could write a story about “Faith by Chocolate.”  He’s been saving his money to buy chocolate bars to take home to his friends in America and he used up 120 kroner recently to do just that (about $20).  I praised him for being so generous.  Shortly thereafter, he got 100 kroner from a relative we visited, and then found two 10 kroner coins in abandoned shopping carts at the mall as he walked through.   He felt God repaid his generosity.  He’d also previously purchased a large chocolate bar for himself and yesterday ate the second to the last square of it, saving his last bite for a special day.  Then Ingebjørg shows up with the exact same bar of chocolate that he’d been chomping on for weeks, and his eyes lit up in disbelief that he could be so lucky.  I told him God can bless him in all kinds of ways and if He chooses chocolate to do it then he’s doubly blessed.

The home fellowship group with Agape Church women was tonight so I had to leave our dessert time with Ingebjørg and Tante Kari (who came down for coffee and sweets), to attend the meeting.  It’s so strange that meetings start at 8:30 here when usually that’s the time they are over in America.  The thinking is that people can get their kids to bed and then leave the house – but it also means the meetings go very late.  It was my last chance to see the women in my group all together so we had a good time of prayer and discussion and I’m glad I went.  Nothing like starting and ending the day in concentrated prayer to God, for He is so faithful to hear our prayers – even if the answers aren’t what we expect.