Our morning routines

We're very lucky having a three months old baby sleeping the whole night through. She's fed at 21 or 22 and then put to bed (awake, she finds her sleep herself, without crying), and sleeps until 7.30 or 8.00. She's even slept to 8.30!

Today (and this is fairly representative for a normal weekday morning), she woke up at 7.30 making noises (not crying) to wake me up. I got up and got dressed and went back to pick her up, and she smiles at me when seeing me coming to get her. We went downstairs and I made her a bottle and fed her whilst watching the morning show (Good Morning Norway) at TV and eating my breakfast (sandwiches prepared by my husband).

Usually our son is up and sits together with me watching the show and eating his breakfast. But today he slept until 8. And I made him his breakfast (yoghurt and müsli). Then I dress our girl and our son and tidy up and make us all ready to walk to his kindergarten. Allthough I'm at home now, he's in kindergarten from 9.30 until 15.00 to play with the other kids. There's no one home at this time of day for him to play with. The walk to and from his kindergarten takes appr. half an hour. When I'm back at 10.00 I read the newspaper and have a cup of tea.

My husband has already gone to work by bus by the time we get up.

Baptism problem solved

I had a talk with the new priest, and he understood my situation being the only Catholic in the family and having no Catholic friends og acquaintances. And he said that he'd ask someone to be the Catholic sponsor for our baby girl and pray for her.

Our girl is to be baptized next weekend, and the party is to be held at a hotel. So there's minimal stress for us. My mother will bake some cakes and make the dress ready (she only needs to exchange the ribbons, from blue to pink). She made the dress to our son's baptism 3,5 years ago. It is very beautiful.

I now look forward to the day both to have her baptized and thus a member of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit. And to celebrate her, our beautiful and gorgeous little girl.

Apropos little - she's grown 10 cm since her birth three months ago. She's now 61 cm long.

"Going to church is no fun"

Today the whole family went to church. My husband as moral support for me, as it's been half a year since I last went because I felt pressured to lead sunday school for the little ones. And I don't want to do it. I've attended the sunday school together with my son, and said I could help out whenever present, but not be in charge. This message somehow didn't get through to the people in charge, and I was sent a list of spring's sunday school dates and asked "which one(s) do you want to lead?" I was in a difficult dilemma... I didn't want to lead and I felt I couldn't say no and still attend mass and sunday school, so I stopped going to church for this last 6 months.

It was of course a difficult thing to do, as I need to go to church regularly to get my spiritual refills, but I didn't have the courage to face the organisators of the sunday school and their continous questions about me leading it.

But today I made a new start. We got a new priest and it's a new month, and I gathered courage by thinking that the organisators are in fact rude by pressuring me to do something I don't want to, and that I have as much right as they to come to church. And I brought along both our new baby girl, our son and my husband.

After mass I was exhausted of the tension I had inside. A couple of women congratulated me with the baby, but other than that I didn't speek to anyone. One of the sunday school organisator asked if having a new baby was the reason why I hadn't been to church for a while, and I simply answered yes.

The problem with this church is that it's too small. Both in terms of actual size of the building and in terms of people going there. That seems like a contradiction, but it's true. There's too many people at every mass, and the church is too hot and overcrowded with people. And there's few other families with small children. Perhaps they belong to the church but doesn't attend mass due to the seating problems (one does get a bad concious for ones active child occupying a seat whilst adults are standing at the back of the church). And there's certainly very few (if any) other Norwegian families with small children. I think our son is the only Norwegian kid. The others are Polish and Vietnamese. And they have their own masses and their own communities within the church. It's somewhat strange being a minority in ones own country... I don't mind getting to know people of different heritages, but it's not easy when they tend to talk their own language amongst themselves.

Our son said that it was no fun going to church. And I agreed with him. It's not funny, but it can be nice and spiritual refilling. But today's mass didn't actually make me want to do it again... it's too hot in the church, with too many people and too little space and air, and I'm constantly thinking about how to make our son learn something and behave properly. It's a stress, and I'm happy when the mass is finished. Attending the sunday school isn't very good either, because it tends to be only a place where the kids can play, and doesn't receive any teaching, and because it's in a different room, I don't get to hear the priest's sermon.

I really don't know what to do. I'm convinced that the Catholic church is the right place for me to worship, and it's the right faith to teach my children, but the masses are not children-friendly, and there's no avtivities for families and kids under the age of 7 (when they're starting to prepare themselves for the first holy communion). And I know that in the lutheran church close to where we live, there's a thriving congregation consisting of many families like our, and they have a vast offer of sunday school adjusted to the kids' ages. What's more important? Activities or content? Lutheran activities and Catholic content would be perfect...

Kabul beauty school

I've read this book, and recommend it to others. It's interesting to read about women's situations around the world.

Click the picture to open the publisher's page about the book. (I tried to paste the text, but nothing appeared...:(

Baptism problem

The Church says that we need a Catholic sponsor for our girl's baptism. And I don't know anyone to ask. I'm the only Catholic in my family, and I have no Catholic friends or acquaintances. I've thought about this since I first learned that I was pregnant, wondering how to solve this problem.

I've contacted the priest in my church and explained the problem to him. And he says that we (I assume he'll help us) could find a sponsor in the church. He understood my thinking (I asked if we really needed to have a Catholic sponsor as we don't know anyone) but he said that this rule is from the early days of the church showing that a baptism is the church/congregation's collective responsability. And that a person in my situation (being the only Catholic in my family and friends) really needed a good sponsor. That's a nice thought, but having to invite a stranger to a family party (which the baptism is to us) does give me angst. I have a serious problem with making new friends, and is really bad at small talk and talking to people I don't know very well.

But, I really want our baby girl to be baptized, and my mother has made a baptism dress, and if we wait too long, she'll outgrow this dress. I'll be happy when the baptism is done. My husband says that a person willing to become a sponsor for a strange baby probably is an outward person, easy to talk to. I hope he's right. It could be nice to know an experienced Catholic who could help me teach my children the Catholic faith. As my husband doesn't believe in God, that's my sole responsability.

Long gone

Since my last post (in October last year) a lot has happened in my life. I'll write more about that later. This is just a quick update.

Our beautiful baby girl was born on May the 20th (c-section) and she's perfect. Our son is a kind big brother showing a lot of care for his little sister. He's sometime little bit of jealous, but that's normal. I'm currently staying at home on mother's leave. I will be at home until spring next year, at least. I'm at the moment not at all longing to get back to work, in fact quite the opposite.

I'm enjoying life as a mother of two (three if counting the dog).

Cavalier ring

I've ordered this ring from Sculptorstudio in sterling silver. Judging from the photos (I haven't received it yet) it's the finest Cavalier ring I've seen. It's even the cheapest!

I love my Cavalier!