Who Knew?

Who knew I would be the one having trouble adjusting to life in Finland?  To be fair, it's my new schedule that I'm having trouble adjusting to, not the Finnish culture!  My original plan--to explore museums and other attractions with Lily while the boys are at school--is not going to work.

Depending on the day, the boys go to school at 8 or 9 a.m. Fortunately, Rob usually drops them off on his way to the university. (Which means Lily and I get to forgo the dark morning walk!) In the afternoons, however, Lily and I either shuffle back and forth between school and home (about 12 blocks) on foot or bus, or wait in the school lobby for the boys to finish. Sam is usually done at noon and Joey at 1. Since attractions usually open at 10 or 11 a.m., there just isn't time to play tourist!

So, while the boys are having their Finnish experience at school and Rob is meeting fascinating people at the University, Lily and I play a lot of games, color and do laundry (more on my laundry process in a later post)! I gotta say, for someone who was constantly in motion back in Chicago, this "simpler" life is taking a bit of adjustment on my part and I find myself playing a lot of Mahjong on the iPad in the evenings!

(BTW, Joey is working on coming home from school by himself on the bus. We made a trial run the other day, but I couldn't get the buss pass to register because I was holding it backward!)

I've been in kind of a funk the last few days as I accept my new reality and my new schedule, so I decided to bring a bit of home into our apartment and make gingersnaps for this kids' afterschool snack. (A bit ironic since gingerbread cookies are like the national cookie here!)

I collected my ingredients--not really sure if the things I selected were exactly what I needed!



I'm not one to substitute ingredients like my grandma who once substituted vanilla frosting with mayonaise!



The dough turned out quite runny--must be the substitution of margarine for shortening and I couldn't roll it into balls, so I popped the dough into the freezer for a little while.

Voila!



Success!



They don't taste exactly the same, but the kids didn't seem to notice a difference!