Seven Up

It's normal that I count kids where ever we are going. One, two, three, four, five, six... Usually I'm glad if counting gives me right number.

Summers are exiting 'course right number can be everything from zero to twelve. There has been no day when I have had every single kid with me, at least they have friends with them. Except the day. No friends, only my own kids. And I started the usually counting. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... Seven? Seven!

Yep. Seven. We are waiting number seven to arrive around February. Here we go again. Oh my.

My little princess

Every now and then I wonder how my babies could grow so fast. After six years, three different schools and four teachers, my oldest girl finished her elementary school. She did amazing job, found many friends and now it is her turn to move on.

Next step is clear. It's all about junior high and surviving through her teenage years. Hopefully she continues her studies just like before.

Summer is here and kids are free to play with their friends and eat lots of ice cream. One thing is certain. They will not even think about school until August.

The Wheat Flour

I admit. I am very afraid to return home from every trip without kids. Sometimes it is enough to just close your eyes, sometimes not.

Our little boys are amazing. If no one tells them what to do, they will use their imagination. And result will terrify everyone.

That's only the boys room. Whole apartment was like this, covered with wheat flour. It took good six hours to clean it up and a glass of wine and darkness to get over it.

I wonder, what on earth they thought about?

End of One Chapter

Everyone knows that I'm a little bit crazy. I've been playing role playing games for more than fifteen years. Last weekend I took five of our kids with me to a trip through those years.

Ropecon is the largest non-commercial role play festival in Europe. And it takes place in Finland. Seventeen years it has been in Espoo, Otaniemi. It has been growing and this was the last time when I had a chance to walk around paths which I have learned to love.

Taken from Ropecon-site

My story starts fifteen years ago, I was only fifteen years old, tiny teenager, afraid of anything new. I was so lost in Ropecon with the father of my four oldest kids. It takes many years to get that courage to take active part in that event.

Finally at Ropecon 2005 I found historic dancing and I've been missing it since then.

Through the years we have been sleeping in our car, eating breakfast outside the same location every year. Some of the kids have been there before, some not. Now I had the chance to show them where everything started.

We saw rock-scissors-paper- game which was kids absolute favorite.

I also had the chance to dance, and I enjoyed every second of it.

Meanwhile kids read their books

and ate lots of candy...

When kids seemed tired, I packed them back to the car and drove them home. Later that same night I went back to take part to a dancing ball, very last time at Otaniemi. Slow and sad Waltz (Two to Twirl) showed me every moment of the years gone by. It was like the Yesterday once more, and I have to walk out.

It's the end of one chapter. Next year we will start something new at the new location in Helsinki. Hopefully we will meet there!

Who needs a midwife, we have Youtube!

They say, that it is like winning in lottery to be born in Finland. We have public maternity clinic system which doesn't ask if you can afford it or not.

Almost every kid in Finland is born at a hospital. Almost every mom has to stay two nights at the hospital after giving birth. Until to June 2015, mothers have a chance to check the hospital beforehand, visit there and get familiar with the environment before the actual childbirth. Those visits have been a part of our "birthing classes", usually only first timers use this option, but also those who have unusually strong fears, or those who have just moved to a new city or town.

Midwives answer our questions on those visiting tours by the way.

Number 5, two days old

Well... What we'll have after June? We will have a youtube video. Many of our hospitals have already replaced "birthing classes" with a pile of paper and youtube videos. At the same time our midwives tell the media, that new moms got no clue on newborns needs or how the pain is important part of childbirth. Oh my....

Now there is this new law also, which means that around our capital city they will shut down couple of parental units. It's also almost criminal to even think of giving birth at home and we don't have those "Midwife Centers" in Finland.

Number 6, two days old

I was just wondering, when machines replace midwives and somebody gets an idea of youtube guided birth. Once our moms gave birth at sauna without medical help... Why should the modern mom handle it with youtube, is beyond me....

Hurricane strikes

I have been busy, like a little bee with an empty hive of late... Our parliament elections and everything around those. My real social life has never been more active, than as of late.

After all of this, I forgot the one basic rule. Never ever let little boys close their door.

Our girls helped me to clean this mess. Meanwhile boys were told to watch cartoons in the living room. Well, they didn't.

We maybe got this mess sorted, but I did the same mistake again. I closed the door between us. Now everything else is a total mess.

Boys room is now pretty nice tho....

Maybe I should just take the door down and burn it?

Never say never

Many years ago I swore that I would never ever again take a puppy during baby-year. Never.

Oops.

Our Polar Bear is starting to look old. I have always had a dog. I bought my first German Shepherd with only 11 FIM when I was three years old. There had been only a month and a half that I had no dog with me.

Eight years ago I found these amazing Great Pyrenees. They are big and they think by themselves, and they show their love to those who love them.

So never say never. We have now a seven months old puppy and a six months old baby. Well, we will see how bad an idea this was. I hope it wasn't.

Entry hall Before and After

The Entry hall is always problematic. There are shoes, hats, jackets, keys, toys and so on.

There was a chaos and we decided to do something about it. It isn't really ready yet, but it's already much better. JYSK helped a little to do this.

This was our front door before:

And this is now:

Well, yeah, "the after"-picture shows our bedroom door and "before"-picture doesn't. Before, it was just a white door, now there's something to show ;)

Another "Before":

And "After":

One to go, "Before" 1. and 2.:

 And "After":

Overall, the change was not that significant, but the outcome has been tremendous. There are no piled up boots and hats or jackets on the floor. At least not yet. And the amount of clutter in the entry hall was reduced to almost nothing. So far so good.

Gotta Love It

I have been playing The Sims-series forever. I started with original The Sims game and I had every single expansion pack for it. I remember how my kids never grew up, how the Stork brought babies and how I had to stand next to my mailbox if I needed new friends. I loved the game so much. I always had big families and even bigger line to the bathroom 'cause I always had just one bathroom (with a shower, of course)

Then comes the year 2004 and The Sims 2. It was amazing. I could make my sims look like my real friends. I had a full neighborhood for only my friends and their families. I used three years just playing with them and their lives. I watch how my sims were born, and how they died when a satellite just fell on them. I begged Death to save their lives and made them come back as zombies. And I also wrote a story based on this game.

Suddenly my computer had some major issues and I lost everything. After that, I didn't want to start all over again, I only tested for a couple of new tricks, but didn't start any new story.

It is obvious that I had The Sims 3 as soon as I could. I pre-ordered it. It was nice, but it wasn't the same. Toddlers were the only annoying thing and the open neighborhood needed so much time to load up that I rather used my time doing something else. I also couldn't do my "Friends-story" all over again 'cause of the open neighborhood. It just wasn't fun anymore.

At the last autumn, came Sims 4. At first I thought to buy it someday later, but something made me buy it right away. It was love at first sight. There are no annoying toddlers. I don't have to play with babies almost at all. Kids are wonderful with all their new things and feelings. And there are no open neighborhoods.

So I made my friends all over again and now I use my free time on watching, how "realistic" my friends really are. And how much more "realistic" they might be, compared to the earlier and older Sims-games. Even though I still have such a big line to my only bathroom and my sims still take an hour to shower.

If the toddlers come some day in the future, I hope that they will be really realistic and terrible like in real life. They should be biting each other and drawing on to the walls...

My eldest girl loves to play The Sims 3. She loves those toddlers and everything else on it. So different are the players.

Sorry, I have no terrible pictures and this has nothing to do with our real lives. I just want to share this.

Kids and the dog

It's so cold out there that even polar bears wants to live inside.

Still there aren't cold enough for this:

I'd rather write polar bears than ice around water pipe.

So we have a little dog, who happens to love kids. And kids love the dog. They always fight for turns to walk it.

Even the little imp is curious about it....

The dog doesn't bite. Our boys on the other hand... they might.