Preparations

Our focus today was mostly on preparing for tomorrow.  We will be up in the mountains for a few days, and that’s something we have never done before, so it takes a little planning. 

(Photo above was from yesterday, photo below was the view today from our front door.... other house photos are from days past as I was too busy to take photos today!)

We realize the Norwegian saying is true: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes,” because we only have “bad clothes.”  Norwegians have closets full of high quality expensive hiking gear – everything from the wool long johns to Gortex pants and breathable wool sox.  Hiking boots alone are about $300, so I’d say the cash outlay to properly dress for the trip we are about to take, not including the backpack and other gear, would be at least $1000 per person.  Since kids grow out of things quickly, this hiking business is big business.

Lucky for me today, cousin Bjørn told me about a store that was having a big clearance sale at the mall, so I bought a small backpack for $40 at 70% off. (Kory saw one at the last loppemarked we were at last weekend but failed to tell me about it since he didn’t think we’d need one. ugh.)  I also bought a lightweight sleeping bag for about $30 (at 50% off) and a few other small things on clearance. 

My friend Tina just gave Kaleb some incredibly nice Gore-tex hiking boots that her son Daniel had outgrown, and we borrowed some hiking socks from her for the weekend.  I used those boots the other day and they are dee-lux.  She also gave him some wool long johns and some “cabin socks” – what you wear in the cabin once you take off your hiking boots.

There is a whole genre of clothes I’m unaware of here in Norway, and traditions I’ve yet to experience, so this is going to be some kind of weekend.

I had to plan, buy and prepare food for the weekend, too, since Kory can’t eat a darn thing that’s easy to make or already half made, so planning is the key.  I did bring a suitcase full of some dehydrated fat-free vegan soups, which will come in handy, as they have in the past when we’ve been out of “fast food” options on the go.  We dug out our camping supplies and winter gear from our storage unit, since there will certainly be snow on the ground when we get up high.  It’s supposed to be in the 20s at night, but hopefully the cabin has wood to burn and a fireplace to burn it in so that’s much better than sleeping in a tent.

Kaleb came home from school in a pretty good mood today but I ruined that for him when I told him he couldn’t sit down and read a book until he did a few chores and helped me prepare for our trip.  He had a church outing tonight after dinner at the house of the guy who rented from us this past winter while waiting for this new house to be finished.  We took a look inside when we dropped Kaleb off – it’s the new modern look for Norway now so it’s very hip and minimalistic (above... the frig, freezer and dishwasher are all "hidden"in this photo.)  It’s so weird to see new boxy modern houses sitting next to the more traditional angled houses.  They will definitely date themselves in a decade or two, that’s for sure.

The funniest thing happened tonight just after we dropped Kaleb off.  I called Tina to see if we could borrow some things for the weekend, since we were about five minutes from her house.  As we were pulling out of the house where Kaleb was, she answered the phone.  The neighborhood we were in is full of new modern houses, some still being built, so my eye caught some people working two houses down.  As I was talking to Tina on the phone, when we drove by, I saw a woman standing outside one of the houses that looked a lot like Tina – and she was talking on the phone.  I yelled into the phone “Is that YOU?” and she turned around and sure enough, it was.  Her husband’s cousin was building that house so they came by to see it and help with something.  It was such a funny moment.  She gladly rode with us back to her house so we could get the stuff we needed, and we laughed about the timing of that all the way there.

While we were with Tina, Bjørn called to talk about a few things for tomorrow, so we dropped over at his house afterwards to find out what more we need to bring.  While we were there, they handed down a few of Tobias’ old things – a wool undershirt and his old favorite raincoat (which I love).  Inger also gave me some nearly new hiking pants that she had “undergrown” (she’s lost a lot of inches hiking in the mountains).  I couldn’t believe they fit me and she just gave them to me.  Lucky, lucky me.  Talk about a blessing.  And then, I guess, so Kory didn’t feel left out, Bjørn gave Kory a brand new bike he got for free when he bought his I-phone!  He already had a fancy new bike so he didn’t need this one!  We’ve been looking around for a bike for Kory and this was just the ticket because free is always a good thing. I couldn’t believe it.  God certainly supplies all our needs.  We saw rainbows all day today, so it was a constant reminder not just that God will never flood the earth again (even though it felt like it at times here), but that He keeps ALL his promises.  Hallelujah for that.