Everyday life--weekend (and last) edition

Promise. 

Last installation of everyday photos from my week-in-our-life photo project. 

Brrrr. It was cold around here.  The good news, the silver lining? 

Fireplace fire time.  Mmmm...cozy.

Clockwise from top left:  1.we hosted all the youth from church (I'm the new Young Women's president) to come watch General Conference on our makeshift "big screen" (=white sheet and a borrowed projector) for the traditional "pizza conference" Saturday morning session.  2. the chess board came out for a duel to the deathmatch between the two boys of the family.  3.  Maddy in her football-game-watching get-up on Friday night.  Note the earrings crafted from black-and-white striped paper clips.  4. I love me a good fire  5.  sausage, eggs, and the New York Times on Sunday morning  6. Greg and son, battling it out chess-style (Sam won)

Hygge time

The kids in Tivoli Garden, Copenhagen, 2004

G and I are both Danish by heritage (let's not look too closely to see if we're related, ok?). G's Danish ancestry is a little more (air quotes) important (air quotes) since his g-g-g grandfather wrote the Danish national anthem (I know, can you believe I live with such a celebrity on a daily basis?). We celebrate the whole St. Lucia thing and are firm believers in the power of a good batch of aebleskivers (& I've got a killer recipe if you'd like to try them--thanks Jen J).  Greg speaks Danish, thanks to a couple of years living there.  That came in handy when we returned with the kids a few years ago to see the motherland (which is another post for another day).  

Basically, we're Danish wannabees. 

The Danes have a word--hygge (HOO-ga + also the adjective hygglig HOOG-lee)--to capture that whole concept of a warm, cozy time with friends and family and the feelings you get being together. It seems to guide their decorating, their priorities, and, really, their approach to life. I love it...I like to think there's a bit of natural hygge in my blood.   I think it's what I mean by Basic Joy: the calm, cozy, relaxed, simple, homey comfort of finding the goodness in moments.  (And now I'm humming the celebrate the moments of your life coffee jingle.) 

This time of year makes me feel particularly hygglig.  I was on the way home from school today and had a sudden rush of it.  Oh, yeah...it's autumn all right. I don't need to wait for the autumnal equinox to tell me it's time to cozy up and get comfortable--I had to come right home and get hygglig.  For me, that meant making taco soup, baking chocolate chip cookies*, lighting some candles, and putting on some good cozy music. The Danes are seriously on to something.

What makes you feel hygglig?  How do you create it?

_____________

Link love:

~ Hygge House blog by Danish expat wonder girl Alex Beauchamp

~ *the BEST chocolate cookie recipe.  Just try it.  They're divine...the best tasting cc cookie (and dough) with a great chewy texture inside and nice thin shell of shiny crispiness. I didn't believe it either but decided to try it--via Annie's eats, no relation :).

~ Camilla at home is an inspiring scandinavian home decor blog.  I love to see the images she chooses.  Very hygge.  She gives little English translations for her posts and she's got lots of links to other great scandinavian blogs.

Good Morning Maxfield {and to you, too}

My cousin Jeremy (that's him in the middle in the jacket) is the bass player in a terrific band, Good Morning Maxfield. They have been chosen as one of the top 20 bands in the nation to compete for a spot in the Austin City Limits Festival this year.  It's a Big Deal.  They now need your vote this week to get to the final round in Austin.

You can help with one click! Dreams coming true right there, folks!

With just a little click of your pointer finger!

Go to this link and vote for them.

Vote for Good Morning Maxfield

{You can vote every day until this Saturday.}

I figure the other bands probably have the college vote

but do they have the mommy blogger vote?

I think not!

p.s. these photos were taken on the front porch of my grandparents' house. 

I love that place.

{photos via Good Morning Maxfield}

***Update: Thanks so much, everyone who voted.  I just checked the Austin City Limits website and it looks like Good Morning Maxfield made it into the top 5, which means they're headed to Austin for the next round.  Yay!***

Meet the pup

Here's
Louie (as in Armstrong)/Theo (Thelonius)/Quincy (John Adams)/
Truman/Hank/Otis/Edmund
Simon/Charlie/Edward/Jasper/George/
Scout/Hugo/Waldo/Henry/Ralph
Pax/Dill/Huck/Ernest

If we were in a hospital with a baby,
the nurses would be giving us huge pressure to
decide already!
for birth certificate purposes.
Soon.

He is a sweetheart.
Already paper trained by the breeder (I know!)
Calm and snuggly when he's inside,
Prancy and funny when he's out playing.
So far no whining or crying,
although I think he misses his brothers.
{Keep your fingers crossed for us tonight...
we're doing the crate by the bed.}

I'm exhausted.
A little like bringing home a baby
without the post-birth aches and hormones.
{But just a little. Babies are babies, dogs are dogs.}
Truly, wish me luck for tonight.
I'm kinda dreading it.

Arranging marriages (slyly)

We've had a houseguest last night and today, a top-notch 11-year-old boy from Arizona. His dad (Hi Chuck!) and mom (Hello Angie!) are friends from wayyyyy back. As in, G dated Angie in high school (not as awkward as you would think. Anymore!), Chuck's one of his best friends from the old days, & Chuck and I were pals in person and by pen for years, etc. etc. (Logan people tend to play musical chairs with dating partners until the combination feels right, I guess.)

Anyway, as I was saying before I meandered into friendship geneology, Chuck had business here and brought his son S along for some quality time but needed a place for him to be while he did said business.

I excused Maddy and Sam from school today (we're Homeschooling for One Day, I told them) and showed them the town. We did the Old North Bridge. We ate at Helen's. It wasn't until I was sitting on a bench in the Museum of Science, watching them try out the experiments--laughing & teasing & getting along--that I started having Scheming Thoughts.

I have to admit it's happened before. Is it such a crime that my mind starts jumping ahead a decade (and a half...ish?) to marriage material? We don't live in a culture that arranges marriages formally and we certainly are past the days when property and social advancement and inheritance all depend on the advantageous union of two families.

Am I overly Mrs-Bennet-ish (When you have five daughters, Lizzie, tell me what else will occupy your thoughts, and then perhaps you can understand) to get giddy at the thought of matching my children with the kids of our friends? We know how they've been raised, we've watched them grow (albeit sometimes via Christmas cards), and we'de love to keep them in our lives FOREVER (too stalkerish?). We know quality stock when we see it (and S was such a cute, funny, well- behaved guest...great future material, I'm sure).

Here's the kicker: if kids get one whiff of this idea, it will never happen. There's no stronger ardor repellent than the maternal words "what about that nice [last name] boy?" for killing the passion in a young girl's heart.

So, instead. A holiday together here, a taped up Christmas card there. Exchanging e-mail addresses. One must start so early. Mrs. Bennet would be so proud.