Something for the weekend

After a week of colds and sickness, it's time these two had some fun!

Note: even more rambling and stream of consciousnessy than usual.

We did it, friends! One more week behind us and a weekend ahead of us. We are celebrating this feat by curling up in the couch with an episode of the Graham Norton show and quite probably a highly tasty and unhealthy treat. Brownies, maybe? Ooh, it's a bit late to start baking, but it might be worth it for brownies. Let me go turn on the oven.

OK, the brownies are baking, and I also took a short break to help Nick with some shelves he's building for the bathrooms. Hopefully I can reveal them to you soon, because I think they're going to look great! Now where was I?

Oh, yapping away about nothing in particular! I remember now. (I'm good at that.) How is your weekend looking? Do you have any fun plans, or do you have two days of nothing ahead of you? Those are my fave. Or maybe you have to work? Those are not my fave. Sorry, friend.

Our Saturday is jam-packed with adventure. We're off to see a movie in the morning, then lunch, then I am taking a Christmas card photo for some friends (who have much more faith in my abilities as a photographer than I do!), then we're grabbing takeout and bringing it over to some of our very best friends in all the world so we can hang out and chat while our collective kids run wild around us. In between and around these events we will also do some grocery shopping and hopefully work on those shelves. We're in the process of staining them right now, and you have to wait six hours between each coat, so it's going to take days before we actually get them on the walls. And then Sunday we have no plans at all (besides the usual three hours of church - ha!)!

A few things from the week:

• I surprised my family with tickets to go see Big Hero 6 this weekend, so we've been watching previews all week. I think I might be more excited to see it than the kids, and that's saying something! I love that they're both big enough that we can do stuff like this with them now, and it gives us that extra incentive to see kids' movies that we were interested in anyway. But now we can see them and look like great parents! Now watch this preview and tell me if you don't at least crack a smile at "we jumped out a window!" or "furry baby!". 
• I've been getting back into knitting again, and shrieked with glee when I came across this knitting pattern for a fox cowl by Heidi May. Her whole line is pretty shriek-worthy, truth be told. Go check her out over at The Velvet Acorn, and go all weak at the knees at all that pixie-chic goodness. 
• More on the knitting front: I also discovered Little Cotton Rabbits' Etsy store today, and am completely falling apart over the cuteness that Julie has created. I am sorely tempted to order a set of her patterns and set about knitting a pair of matching rabbits for Espen and Gwen. I am too enamored with the idea to even consider the possibility of excessive cutesy-ness. 
• On a different note, I really liked this article about the Afghan Women's cycling team. It's inspiring to me to learn about the challenges they are willing to face to pursue their passion, and to realize that they are fighting for so much more than the freedom to ride a bicycle. I may have lived in three different countries, but they have always been places of safety, freedom and privilege. We take so much for granted compared to our brothers and sisters around the world. Also, I want one of the Afghan Women's  cycling team's jackets. Aren't they awesome?
• Equally inspiring are these teenage girls from Liberia that go door-to-door teaching their neighbors how to avoid contracting Ebola. Their message is a simple one (don't shake hands, wash them), but people are listening to them because they come from within the community, rather than outside it. 
• We've been having quite a few North family dance parties lately, and one of Espen's favorite songs to dance to is I Won't Let You Down by OK Go. If you haven't seen the music video yet, definitely go check it out. It was filmed in one take by a drone, and is just so clever and fun. The song is good too. 
• This is from a Norwegian newspaper, but the pictures are great. Just move the sliders from side to side to see Berlin today and before the wall fell 25 years ago. Do you remember the wall coming down? Were you even alive? I was nine when it happened, and I remember watching it on the news with my parents in Norway. I didn't fully understand what was happening, but I could sense the magnitude of it. It was a huge deal at the time, and is still a big moment in European history. 

Have a lovely weekend!