At Shortcut Road

måndag 30 september 2013

Höst

Som när en gardin dras ner och stänger ute solens strålar, kom hösten. Efter denna fantastiska sommar gjorde det faktiskt inget! Man börjar med höstmyskänsla rota fram stickade halsdukar och blockljus..och minns. Det har hänt mycket den här sommaren! Första sommaren i huset, första sommaren Liten badade utan att vara rädd för vattnet (!), första sommaren vi åkt på Conference hela familjen och..ja, första gången för en massa saker!

Bland annat första tomatsoppan på egna tomater. HUR god som helst! (Och ja, jag kan säga det själv)

Solmogna kompisar!

Fräste löken först och sedan i med alla, väl sköljda förstås. Den doften!

Tillsatte grönsaksbuljong, balsamvinäger, grädde, salt och peppar. Toppad med fårost och knaperstekt bacon. Voilá!

Köpte en Butternut Squash här om dagen. DET är höst det!

Må gott i dessa förkyldningstider och var extra snäll mot de som inte hanterar höstgardinen så bra..

Puss!

torsdag 12 september 2013

Lycka!

Vaknade och trodde det var fredag! Men det gör inget. Ikväll ska vi plocka alla mogna tomater i odlingslådan och göra soppa. Det har jag längtat efter i en hel vecka! Grisen cyklade till dagis idag igen (premiär igår) och tycker fortfarande att hon cyklar så himlans fort och bra när det egentligen går en småsvettig mamma bakom och puttar på. Men vem bryr sig? Hon är lycklig! Vad gör det om vi "luras lite", det där leendet från öra till öra är obetalbart!

Är hon lycklig är Mamman lycklig!

Ha en fin onsdag,

Lena

måndag 9 september 2013

Happy Monday Everybody!

I did not exactly jump out of bed of joy this morning but after 2 large lattes, I am starting to wake up. Slowly. Full day of exciting stuff happening so lets get cracking!

Coffee love!

fredag 6 september 2013

Happy Lights

Mina Happy Lights har kommit! (och svärmors)

De är från vemdalendesign.se och finns i alla möjliga roliga färger. Jag kände mig inte så wild and crazy när jag beställde så den roligaste färgen blev den här:

Den heter Winter, de andra; Christmas Silver och Snowball. Jag är superglad för dem allihop!

Happy love och trevlig helg :)

Lena

onsdag 4 september 2013

80 är det nya 100

Jag har funderat på det ganska länge. "Gå ner i tid". "Jobba mindre". "Gå på 80%". Det skulle vara så skönt! Hinna mer, hämta Liten tidigare på dagarna. Hinna lägga den där pärlplattan innan middagen, trä ett halsband, hänga, bara vara mamma. Vara mamma lite mer. Visst mindre pengar in men är det värt all denna stress man utsätter sig för hela tiden? För mig, nej.

Men att jobba mindre är ju inget som jag gör. Det är ju andra som gör. Sånna som är vuxna och har gjort karriär och "offrar" sig för familjen. Man måste ju jobba. Helst mycket. Och lite till. Smärtsamt måste jag erkänna att jag inte har tänkt på min själv som en teammedlem. Utan jag har tänkt på mig här, Pappan där och vårt liv tillsammans med Liten i mitten. Tills här om dagen. Mer om det en annan gång..

Jag har ju funderat på detta ett tag som sagt men jag trodde nog aldrig att jag skulle göra verklighet av det förrns igår. Plötsligt kändes det som det mest självklara i hela världen. Visst det ska ju gå ihop också men vi tror på att det kommer göra det. Ett snack med chefen och nu blir det så en tid fram över.

Tid! Jag har lite mer tid!

Det känns helt fantastiskt :)

Kärlek!

Lena

Mamma...?

Liten rufsig kommer in i badrummet med Kossan, Alfons, Lilla nallen, Kotte, Lilla kossan och jag tror jag såg pippi också skymta mitt i högen. "Mamma..?"

Ibland när jag hör den där speciella tonen, den utsövda, sömndrucket förvirrade, ljusa och redo-för-en-ny-dag-tonen slår hjärtat igång och kärleken som kommer från mig går inte att stoppa. Det är som en våg som väller fram och man blir helt varm i varenda fiber av kroppen av kärlek. Massa kärlek.

Min. Hon är min. Denna lilla sängvarma, mjuka, gosiga, blonda lilla rufsiga är min. Hon tappar halva högen av små kompisar när hon klättrar upp i mitt knä. Vi rättar till högen tillsammans och sedan sitter vi där och bara kramas. En kort påladdning innan hon frågar var Pappan är. Jag svarar att han han ligger i sängen fortfarande. "Jag vill gå till pappa".

Hon tråcklar sig ur min famn och tassar iväg. Någon minut senare hör man hur de fnissar ihop. Är det möjligt att känna så här? Är det fysiskt möjligt att få plats med all denna kärlek? Min familj. Min lilla familj. Som jag älskar så mycket att man tappar andan.

"Jag älskar dig mamma. Till månen." Paus. "Och till Jesus."

Jag kan inte ens beskriva vad jag känner när hon säger så. Kärlek så det rinner över!

Lena

tisdag 27 augusti 2013

I have a dream...about freedom!

50 years ago tomorrow he held his famous speech. A speech that would change the future forever for many people, not only in the US but in all corners of the world. A speech that for many define the moment of true believe that racism and ethnical injustice WILL come to an end. Its a fight still going on today and question is; Will it ever be completely abolished? Where would we have been today though, without this historical day on Lincoln Memorial in Washington?

I wish I had been there. Or in his local church in Atlanta where he was from to hear him preach.. He was 34 when he held his speech, same age as I am today. Five years later he was killed. Makes you think if I die in five years, what would I have accomplished to change the world? While I think about that, please read his speech in full below, and lets honour a great man with great courage and one of the biggest world changers of all time: Mr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"