April is here.....

And we survived our first Swedish winter on our own....
Our moving here late in the year meant we had no time to prepare properly, especially with firewood. That meant we had to drive to my parents on a regular basis in order to get some. We had to drag the wood uphill, bag by bag and Ron then had to split it first and store it inside, befor we could even use it. All this limited our ability to properly heat our house, making it feel chilly more often than that it was nice and cosy. Luckily we are not people who like to have our homes heated like an oven. Many here do, as we noticed when we got to other people's homes for cleaning there. 24 degrees was no exception, and is no fun to work in either.
The upside on this was that we regularly had excercise in the open air and that we were thankfull for every piece of wood we loaded into the heater. This warmed us from the inside out as well.
The kids have developed a special fondness for sleeping under real wool blankets. Annalena and Sven likes to sleep under them even without sheets. They love that scratchy and warm feeling the wool provides, as does Ron.  I don't like the scratchy feeling and do need a sheet between me and  the blanket. Which of course does pose a problem, when two people share a bed..........

But finally spring has come for real. After an extended cold period. As we understood it, average temperature for the last couple of weeks was much lower than usual; about 10 degrees colder. We also had a lot of strong, eastern wind and that, combined with dry snow, makes for some unpleasant weather.

For next winter we have a lot more time to prepare properly. Starting with firewood. Luckily we have a good neighbor called Ingemar and he still had some wood lying around. Good birchwood, dried for at least two years. Since they have no use for it anymore we could take it of their hands for a fair price. And so we did. only we had to wait a little while before we could relocate the stuff because of the fact that the pallets were still frozen to the ground, but once they were loose, with the help of another good neighbor Håkan, the pallets were relocated to our side of the "fence"

comes in handy when the neighbor has the right machinery

With the weather improving daily, the kids are out more as well. Since Annalena is a very good treeclimber, little sister Elsa  wants to be that as well. But being the "little" sister does make it a "little" harder. Especially when the branches are actually too high to reach. But she is persistent, very persistent..... and thuss

Since spring is really here, it is also time for the villages springmarket, Vårmarknad, which will be at april 27. I booked a table and of course I need to have something to put on the table. And Annalena wanted to help...... so we set the table for an afternoon of felting. It would be Annalena's first work so let's start with something easy, a simple little shoulderbag. Of course, stubborn as she is, she didn't want to keep it simple. It had tot have different colors on the in and outside. As you wish young lady..........

We are still waiting for her to finnish what she started. One day we will be able to show the endresult. Don't know when but someday.....

We also finally found a solution for Ron's hobby. He didn't have a decent place to sit down and start building his military models again.........now that he finally got his inspiration back. But since we moved our wardrobe ( you know, the place where you hang  your coat when you come in) down to the basement, we had two spare closets in the hall upstairs. With a little modifation we turned that into a nice buildingspace for Ron, with a folding table. 

in use..........

and cleaned up

Another thing we decided was very necessary was a haircut for all the kids an myself. The last time we had that was just before we moved to Sweden and done by our lovely friend Marielle. She was sorely missed up here in the north. I tried to a bit of haircutting myself, but we all agreed that was not a succes. We never thought a haircut could be so expensive. But after a little searching and comparing we found a hairsalon not to far from where my workcompanie's office is in Falun, with a more appropriate pricelevel. I made a phonecall, booked a time for all four of us (Ron does his own "haircut" ) and of we went. It all went smooth and fast (probably because there was no hairwashing included.... little did we know) and with a lot less hair we walked out again, even cheaper than anticipated. That's always nice.

before...........

and after........

Sorry,  I'm not in the picture, but somebody has to take the picture..... right.....

Unfortunately we haven't been so lucky with cars. One car after another broke down, one way or another. Since neither Ron or I are handy when it comes to cars, we always had to ask my dad if he could help, since taking them to a garage was way beyond our financial limits. My dad however isn't the youngest of lads anymore. Lying down on the frozen floor in freezing temperatures isn't  the best thing for his body. We had been searching for a solution, but hadn't found one yet. My dad, having bought a new car quite recently, tried to find a solution as well........ and found one, at least he  thought so. We sat down for a talk and he explained what he had done. It all came down to us to decide, whether we wanted it or not and how much we could spare per month. My dad and me went to Rolf Ericson Bil in Borlänge, where I took a look at completely new car, a Dacia Logan, wich they'd had in storage for while. I made a test drive through the surrounding area, testing every possible type of road....... meaning not only the asphalt, but going a little off road as well. I returned the car a lot less clean then it was when I left the garage .......
After that, we sat down to talk and see what our possibilities were. It al ended with me buying the car, hoping that this would be the end of our car-misery.

One week later I could pick the car up and drive home, feeling quite relieved.

nice view from and at the house, 

I know,..... it's not a fancy, modern styled, aerodynamic car, but.... it's a practical car that serves the whole family. Lots of space (comes in handy with jobbrelated transports as well as when you go camping with a family of 5) , 3 threepointbelts in the back, so all our kids are safe and cheap in terms of fuell. I learned from Annalena that this was called a "Skåpbil" in Swedish, meaning "Closetcar". I must say it deserves the name, we transported a complete kitchen cabinet in it with room to spare for groceries ........

At the end of the month it was time for the second preliminaries of Schack 4:an for Annalena's class. This time the trip went to Borlänge. Again a whole schoolday of playing chess. Annalena grew kind of fond of the game. The only problem at home was that her big brother obviously didn't follow the same rules as she. Which often resulted in a fight, in which they accused each other of foul play. But this day there were no problems of such kind, there all fourth graders had learned the same rules.  And succesfull they were, once again. This time they ended in second place, meaning a direct ticket to the State Finals, to be held on the first of june in Västerås. So the little lady came home with yet another medal and a big smile on her face.

On the 27 it was time for the Spring market on the towns square. Annalena and Elsa both wanted to join me and help me... they said.
So we packed  the new car, not even a quarter full, and went downtown (downvillage more likely....) After I found my table, I builded up with  a little help from Annalena. Elsa already found some of her friends and was nowhere to be seen anymore. After a slow start the first half, it all worked out pretty well for me in the end. The only thing I learned, not only today, but also from the few markets I did  the last year, was that I really needed to get my own table.  We'll see if i can find myself a good one before the next market is coming up. 

The last day of april has its tradition here, locally called for "Majbrasan", but officially  called Valborgsmässoafton. (for explanation in English look here). Since there was nothing special organised in our own little village, and we had quite a lot of excess wood and gardendebris, we decided to have our own little Majbrasan, in our garden.
In the Netherlands they had completely other things on their minds. This was the day Queen Beatrix was going to step down and leave the throne and crown to her son Willem Alexander. For the first time in I don't no how many years the Netherlands were getting a King again. 

So while all our Dutch friends were watching how their ( and actually still our) country got a new king, Annalena and I were baking muffins, to be eaten when we lit the heap of wood.
The weather was not really what we had hoped for, but hey... it's still april......
Around eight that evening we thought it was wise to set the heap alight. All three kids had the honor to do that.

Soon it all went up in flames, giving off an amazing heat. I always find fire very intriguing and can't help but looking into the heart of it, where it's at its most beautiful....... in my opinion that is. 

our little heap

intriguing

 But as said, we did have somethingg to eat to go with all this, so Annalena ran back into the house and came back with this......

And that tasted really good.

April has been an eventhfull month. I finally got my 75% employement, which makes things a little easier, financially. Ron is still without a job, so that is about all we have. With only child benefit to raise the  amount a little. But so far we managed to get by every month and even found money to spare to buy a little extra furniture to  our house, wich is also still incomplete. Most of our swedish friends just don't understand how we do it, but then again when  I look at the way they're spending their money..... I can't understand that either...
All in all we are happy with what we've got, and appreciate every little extra we get along the way.