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.

Only Every Other Year

So we have six kids and the Christmas. It would be a nightmare if I had stopped to think about it. Lucky me, I've had no time to think.

Yesterday, all our kids went mad. They run around and around screaming and fighting. Even the Little One was whining all the time. Around twelve o'clock we had rice porridge (like every year). Before that, the 4-years old had called to Santa just to ask if He really was coming.

Only when candles were burning, the kids were quiet.

Before Santa could come, we had Christmas dinner. Isn't easy to get those kids to sit silent so close to Christmas eve. Together we cleaned the table after dinner and had all treats for those who like. Nobody wanted chocolate...!

And then the Santa came. He left all of the presents inside our hallway, so silently that nobody noticed. Kids found those and carried them under the Christmas tree. Poor tree. I almost lost it.

I had a headache for all the screaming, but kids were happier than ever.

My best moment every Christmas comes, when the kids have fallen asleep. Silent Night, wine and chocolate. I love it!

Handwriting lessons end

Interesting time, indeed.

I found a couple of news about our new national school curriculum. Finland dumps handwriting in favor of typing (23 November 2014, I Programmer). BBC also had a fantastic headline about this: Finland: Typing takes over as handwriting lessons end. Well...

Our kids still need to use pencil and paper after year 2016. They just don't need to have the skill of cursive handwriting.

Three of my kids have learned it. Youngest of them was afraid that teacher doesn't teach her those beautiful letters. I promised to her that if teacher doesn't, I will.

She was the happiest girl in the autumn, when she got an empty cursive handwriting book.

Instead of cursive handwriting, rest of our kids will learn texting and typing. I hope that boys won't be sad about it.

"

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Note to self. Don't leave Christmas presents anywhere, where the kids can find them.

It was in the kitchens' cupboard, so high that they shouldn't have been able to get to it. Little boys moved a chair and climbed over the coffeemaker. And when they got it, they really had to open it... Oh my. Gladly it wasn't for them.

And the Baby, He is almost four months old now and He can roll around.

Sometimes it's hard to keep up with everything.

I'm just out of my mind

After my third child, people started asking, if a religion was a reason for a large family?

One kid after another, our family has been growing. First it was up to three although, that after the second we bought a car with seven seats (just that we can have friends with us where ever we like to go). Three little ones was enough though. I almost lost my physical health and almost lost my sanity. We decided to have a break.

One time is enough and couple of years later I got my fourth one. He was born on Valentines Day and I thought that everything would be perfect. As if. So my husband was gone with another woman and I found myself alone with four little children.

At the one of my darkest moments, my Man walked in from my door and saved the day. One thing led to another and here we are, six kids around us.

I have learned a lot during these twelve years as a mother. Mostly about myself and motherhood, but also the fact that love really multiplies.

What was I saying? Religion isn't the reason, I am just out of my mind.