More Finland...

OK.  I promised some more about Finland.  With friends and family spread out over this planet, covering 10 time zones, it is hard to keep in touch with you all.  My one sister asks me occasionally how we are doing over here, because "so and so" was wondering!  Well.  We are officially doing really well!  So now you can share that piece of info with whomever your heart desires!  I'm glad to say that too btw!

Last fall was a whirlwind of activities.  It seemed like and endless stream of practical things that needed our attention.  Importing the cars.  Finding a new doctor for our diabetic daughter.  Planning for our house.  All school related things for our 4 schoolaged kids.  Getting in to the "system" in a new country.  Well, I'm glad to say that most of those things are now out of the way, and the wheels are turning more smoothly.  As all that went on thou, I never felt that I had the time to "feel" how I felt about living here.  It felt as if we were still in "moving mode".  Then Christmas came out of nowhere, and with that a nice visit from my parents.  Then we headed up to Northern Sweden and Norway to share the Christmas and New Year holiday with family and friends.  Coming back here after being gone for 11 days actually felt like coming HOME!  The kids felt that way too!  That was such a neat experience.... Driving down the main highway of our city, with all the lights and snow, feeling like home!  We all took that as a good sign!

January is January.  Right?  I never heard anybody claiming January to be their favourite month of the year, and for a good reason I think.... We did have a pretty mild January however, so that meant the kids were outside a lot! Yohoo!!! That pretty much saved us all from severe cabin fever!  Talking about which, we have been relatively healthy I feel.  We had a bout of some fever and flu, but that's pretty much it!
I can feel a difference in the air compared to Windsor thou.  Normally our kids have runny noses all winter, but here they have barely used a Kleenex!
Things to be thankful for.  Health!

Lately I've had the time to reflect on how we are all doing here.  And I've had some "heart to heart talks" with the kids as well.  After the obvious fact that we all miss many dear friends and family members, they have all said that they really like it here!
The school is a lot more relaxed as far as regulations.  They ski and skate and play freely in the snow.  They enjoy textile and woodwork class, and my oldest daughter told me that they are allowed to use paint here in art class "Becasue nobody is worried about making a mess!!!" (she's almost 13 btw...)
Wow.  I was a bit stunned that this had actually stopped them from using paint in the classroom back in Canada!  The language is coming along for all of us, although we sometimes wish we could fastforward the learning pace.  But, each day it gets a bit better!

Now we are looking forward to another summer here.  Hopefully in our new house!  The kids can't wait to pick blueberries and enjoy the beautiful nature that is right THERE!!!  So!  I'm happy to say that we are doing well and feel positive about the future in this new country of ours!
And Oh!  I almost forgot, there are many stores that I haven't visited yet.... for me to discover!!