saturday morning...

wake up around 7. breakfast... oatmeal (the fake-ish instant stuff, because that's what they carry in the stores here) with milk and coffee (the fake-ish instant stuff, because that's what they predominately seem to drink here (so it tastes better than the fake-ish instant stuff at home)) for greg. oatmeal with bananas, raisins, and ris drik (rice milk) for me, plus tea. one ant on a log plus peanut butter toast and hot chocolate for william. and a bite here and there of everyone else's breakfast for henry. quick, get the guys dressed, change a diaper, and ready (did you go to the bathroom, william?), bundled up, it's a cold morning but with a promise of a little warmth to come, and out the door right at 8:00. not another minute to spare for greg who is taking them on the saturday 5K run with persille and jon and others. last weekend he was late for the start and only caught up to them at the end. today-- they made it on time, and persille and jon were not there anyway. they finished fast, then ran to "the best bakery in roskilde" according to more than one person and then back home with sweet treats which are becoming as much of a tradition as this saturday morning run.

greg loves to run... to work, little 5K jaunts, marathons, anything. me... no. i can't say that i love it. though i don't actually run, so i suppose i might love it if i gave it a chance. i did run on a regular basis for about one year, at the end of college, and it was love-- if you account for the fact that love occasionally leads to disappointment. me, what i want, what i think i need, when i wish them a good adventure and shut the door and relish the fact that all of the chaos has suddenly ceased, is words. it's not often that i let in the silence that comes from turning off the radio for instance, and when i do, it's usually because i am trying to think of the words to put down here. i have serious doubts about my ability to meditate. though, like running, i'm sure it would be good for me.

so, they leave, and i sit and finish my tea, read (in the morning it's usually for input of current information, so now the internet, a newspaper if i could read danish), listen to the news on the radio. when greg mentions to me that i haven't had a real break from the guys in a long time (it's true-- i had only been away from william for one overnight before henry was born & never yet with henry) i know that a "real" break isn't a reality right now. but that's okay, i tell him. i just want to have time to read. and it's true. my favorite time of the day is when i am crawling into bed at night, turning on the little ikea light behind me and opening my book. it's something i hadn't been doing very much before we moved because henry was in our room, and if we turned on the light, it wasn't too long before henry would wake up. and yet we would have put him in our room here without thinking, but our room here is much too small to fit his pack-n-play. it is literally a bed room. so now after henry falls asleep we read to william at night in our room instead of his room and he falls asleep in there. then, when we are ready to go to bed, greg moves william from our room to his, and we have our room back. it's musical chairs as it's always been ever since william was a baby. we're used to it, but reclaiming that space and the time before falling asleep is something i love.

and then they are back with the treats. i am showered, dressed, and so we motivate ourselves to get out, although the weather, despite its early promises, seems to be turning colder. but we must get groceries today if we want them, because tomorrow the stores will be closed (excepting the bakeries in the morning). we will ride our bikes to the grocery store by the train station, one that i'd gone to with the russian chemist and his wife, but first, we stop at that "best bakery" for a loaf of bread and then a ride along the fjord along a path which greg's officemate recommended to him.

it's a dirt path, which is a little tricky for our road tires, but it does offer good views of the fjord and eventually leads us to the grounds of a mental institute, which, in my limited experience and outsider's perspective, always sit on the nicest parcels of land. but we don't stay long. it's getting cold. henry is asleep and so we decide to skip the grocery store in town. greg takes the guys home while i go to (where else?) the super best.

tomorrow, we receive our first box of fruit, vegetables, and eggs from the farm (though most items were not grown on this farm which distributes it to us-- not a csa-- but we will happily take it).

now, to my favorite part of the day. goodnight!