TRUE LOVE FOR VALENTINE´S DAY

  I´m a do-it-yourself gal. I apply the approach to love also. A true, deep love comes from within, but it has to be kept alive, as life keeps changing.
  I´m no romantic, but I´ve been fortunate to experience a genuine love that conquers all for the past 19 1/2 years. And it´s still growing stronger. How the heck is that possible?! I never dreamed of a husband, kids, or family life, let alone everlasting love.
  As we approach our 20th anniversary, I´ve done some summing up on how to keep love flourishing through thick and thin.

Check it out on my column Nelland Living!

  Love is precious, cherish and pamper it for the sake of yourself! Happy and love-filled Valentine´s Day weekend!

PRE-CHRISTMAS PARTY

  My husband and I rarely go out to parties in town. But the other weekend we did manage to do that, just the two of us! We staid in a hotel in midtown Helsinki, and fully enjoyed grown-up time together. We did a tiny bit of shopping, ate and drank well, laid on the beds being lazy and watching tv with no interruptions, had some wine, and finally went in to the bar downstairs to do some jamming. I met a few of my husband´s colleagues, whom I´d never seen before, and it was so cool getting to know them a bit. You know, to get faces to the already familiar names I´d heard so many stories about over the years.

Our hotel room was right next to the presidential suite, so the view could not get any better than that. (Remember this tunic I made last spring?)

It´s just a shame that at this time of year it gets dark at 4pm, so we could not enjoy this full view for very long. But who cares really, we weren´t there for the view initially!  =)

Learning to take selfies, which I´ve always found narcissistic really. But since everybody is doing it nowadays, it´s probably ok...

Here´s my party look for the evening. I wore a pair of black suede pants with the top (which I also wore a year ago to a girls´ night out).

  The rest of the evening was spent in the restaurant, pub, and bar mingling, dancing, and laughing. We staid up until 4.30am! I can´t even remember the last time I staid awake for that long, let alone in a bar! Good times!

  A night out with my husband, staying overnight in a hotel (with him =), and spending a lazy next morning is what I call luxury. When you have small kids, it is easy to just go by their demands, serving them, and forgetting about yourself. It is crucial to a good relationship to get some time alone with your significant other, preferably away from home. Because you´re not just mommies and daddies, you are also "girlfriends" and "boyfriends" who do have that spark there. And that spark needs to be lit up every now and then to strengthen your love and appreciation to each other. At least that´s how it works with us. The roots of a good family lay in the good relationship between mommy and daddy. It should not be valued less important than the kids´ needs. We should all be equal, kids and grown-ups. That´s what I teach to my kids too.

SUMMER CABIN SEASON OPENED

  Last weekend was one of the many yet to come at our summer cabin this year. We went there just the two of us, my husband and I, but it was not all just hugs and kisses. We still have a big task to do clearing out the storm damages from last winter.

 

Under the bright early summer sun we worked. And thanks to my sister, I now wear day cream with sunblock. She´s lectured me about the importance of it, and she is right. Thanks!

The island where our cabin is located is so small, that there is not enough ground to clear out all the salt from the sea water. Therefore there is no running water, or plumbing for that matter. An outhouse is the only option. We started off by taking down the old and nasty outhouse with a chainsaw and...

... a sledgehammer. I say "we", but the truth is I did not touch either one. I kindly carried away the pieces of crap my husband had demolished. Team work, baby! Last fall we begun building a new shed for firewood, tools, and a new outhouse. Good thing we did, because now we have so many knocked down tree trunks to chop and store, that we badly need the storage space. It was also lucky that we did not get so far as to take down the old outhouse last fall, because it took a huge hit by one of the major spruces in the storm. Had it not been there still, the new shed might even have cracked.

Since we were, after all, spending a holiday weekend, I took the time to adore nature´s beauty. It is always calming and comforting.

The ground is quite barren, but luckily fertile enough for some species to flourish.

And it was very windy from the cold North. Water temperature was only 48 Fahrenheit (9 Centigrade), but it did not stop my husband from swimming! Although it is devastating even to think about dipping in, the reality is that he has not suffered from common colds since we bought the place nearly three years ago and started swimming in the freezing waters. I wish I could do that!

Here´s what we accomplished. The sauna will heat up countless of times with this amount of firewood! Yipee!

But there is still a lot more to do... This is not nearly all of it either... The shed proceeded towards finish line too, missing only windows, doors, and trims now. We are very satisfied with the result of the weekend, we exceeded our goals.

On my way home, only ten minutes from our house, hit a big snowfall. With all these hills on the way, I was not sure if I was going to make it home. How pathetic would that be, having first driven nearly three hours, and then in the last minute hit the ditch?!

STORM DAMAGES

  What a weekend! We´ve had quite a few storms this winter, and one of them knocked down big spruce trees at our summer cabin. Luckily there was not much damage to the buildings but, oh dear what a mess! My husband and I spent the entire weekend clearing out the "war zone".

This is the sight we woke up to on Saturday morning (if 9.30am still counts as morning). First snow had fallen during the night (or actually it was the second snow. The first one fell six weeks ago, but only lasted a few days). On Friday there was no sign of snow, which is exceptional. Usually permanent snow falls in November. Climate change?

Off to work. Overall there were eleven big ones, like these, lying on the ground and on buildings.

A sorry sight. This spruce was all healthy, but still the storm was stronger. I´m just glad I live in an area where we need not worry about tornados, major floods, earth quakes, or massive fires due to drought. The worst natural catastrophies we have around are these high winds that occur every year. But all they do is knock down trees and rip off roofs. Not nice that either, but everything is relative. Shouldn´t complain.

How lucky were we to have two trunks crash right between these two buildings?! The one on the left is merely a shag at the moment, but we plan to restore it and turn it into a guest house. Chain saw, by the way, is the only tool we have available to help us in our massive task. The shores around the little island our cabin is in, are so full of big rocks that no towboats can get close enough. Makes the restoring and building new more challenging too.

 This is what we tackled.

The good thing about all this is that now we shall get more sunshine through!

Oh dear... But what a great overall workout!!!  And I must admit it was therapeutic, in a way, to work together with my husband.  Working together makes even a boring and exhausting task more fun, enjoyable even. We have been together for over 18 years now, and still enjoy each other´s company, specially when away from the everyday whirlwind. (Now those 18 years don´t make me old, we just started young!  =) I´m no one to give marital advice, but I like to keep in mind positivity and respect for the other. Has worked so far...

Nature showed us it´s beautiful side right before it got dark. Especially here, surrounded by the sea, I can really feel the power and enormous strength nature has. It can be cruel but also gentle. And I have great respect for it.

I´m so glad to have caught this on camera.

We set fire on the brances. The trunks will end up as firewood in our sauna.

Sunday morning begun with sunshine and temperature way below freezing. The motor in our boat had frozen, but my husband worked his magic on it, and we were able to get back to mainland. It wasn´t easy, though. The sea had frozen a good way from our harbour, but since we have an aluminum boat, it didn´t get damaged crushing through the over an inch-thick (3 cm) ice.

All this in just two days. (This is at a natural shore, where the water flows freely and is not frozen nearly as much as at our harbour.)

Funny little ice clumps.

It was so clear and serene. I hated to leave. The real world can not reach our cabin, but it calls us back home. There is school, bills to pay, taking the car to the shop, work, grocery store, dirty dishes, etc. But thank goodness we do have our little getaway place, to hide from reality when we need to!

  The results for the weekend? Well, we did get a lot done, but there is still a lot more to do. Basically we now only were able to clear out the trunks (and tons of branches!) from our neighbor´s yard. You see, not all of our big trees had fallen on our side... And we figured it´s most important to clean up our mess from other people´s property first. =)

MY WEDDING RING

  I found it!

  It was missing for nearly two years. So not typical for me to lose anything, let alone something as important as my wedding ring. The ring. The single one I have ever had. It represents both, engagement and marriage. (As a teen I decided to wear only one ring, I thought that would be more stylish.) And I have had it since I was eighteen (which, of course, is not that long ago... =). And  yes, with the same man.

  The first time I ever met my husband-to-be was an incredible coincindence. It´s a complicated story, which I will not get into right now... In addition, I was just about to move to New York for a while. Which I did, so  it was a miracle our relationship lasted through the difficult beginning overall. That was the time right before cellular phones and internet broke through, so we kept in touch by telephones and letters. Oh dear, I still remember how we had a set weekday and time when we would call each other. And I missed him so much! A mere boy, whom I´d only known for five months before heading to NY.

  And here we are now, so many more years later, and I still have that ring in my finger I got from him right before going to New York. When we got engaged that is. Seems unbelievable. Time and life around us has changed, but still we remain together. And happily so. We have been through thick and thin, grown up together, had kids, and all that. But I feel like I haven´t changed all that much, inside or out. Hopefully gotten a little wiser, but that´s all.

  It will be interesting to see what life shall bring upon us in the future. I have never taken it for granted that we shall be together for the rest of our lives. No one can guarantee that. We have to be active ourselves that we remain happy and respectful of each other. A good sense of humour, compromises, and putting our significant other first at times has taken us this far.

 I do hope to stay on this road for a long time. But I need to keep in mind that if one day there are more rocky roads than smooth rides, it might be best to take another path. This I consider an important rule, which also guides me towards cherishing our relationship, and not taking it for granted.

So what happened to the ring? I knew I had lost it while inside the house. But where?! A few days ago I dug out my old body exfoliating gloves. I love to scrub my skin, but hardly ever find the time for it. Obviously, since the last time I did so was that nearly two years ago! When I slipped the gloves on, I felt something hard in the tip of the ring finder. My wedding ring! Unbelievable. And just a few weeks ago I went through stuff in our bathroom, throwing away things I haven´t needed in a long time. I had those gloves in my hand, on their way to the trash, but then decided to give them another chance. If I could find the time to pamper myself sometime in the future. I´m so glad I did!