Hem sweet Home

Since I have moved here I have noticed that people all tend to ask the same questions of me, all with good intentions of course. "How is it to live in Finland?" "Are you home sick?" "When are your parents coming?" "Do you call your mom every day?"... and the list goes on. That last question though, is what made me want to start another blog. It's really difficult to call home often, and usually it is with much frustration. Our WiFi is not very good in this house, and neither is it the greatest at home. The best way to call is with Skype, and with bad WiFi it can be an excruciating experience. I long to talk, and have a real conversation and be able to SEE everyone without shouting "can you hear me? can you hear me now? Yikes! now I can hear myself! I can't see you at ALL! The video is bad... what? what did you say?" ughh, just thinking of it makes me crabby. Anyone who has had experience with Skype will know exactly what I mean! (And to think, I have been in a 4 year relationship with Frank, mostly over Skype...so glad we're married now!)

Well, Mom, and everyone else who reads this, it is high time for a tour of the home-sweet-home! I am really loving being a housewife, and am secretly glad I don't have a "real job" until Fall. I realize that I am still in the honeymoon stage of "house-wiving", and want to enjoy it while I can! It would be a lot more difficult to enjoy if I had to come home from work everyday, and scramble to get the house in order, and make supper and everything else that has to be done normally. It would be possible, of course, but it would not be so enjoyable :) I still feel like I am playing house most days! Our house sits on a hill overseeing Franks grandpa's land... a couple of hay fields and lots of wilderness. It is pretty windy here... even on a warm day you get chilled by the wind most days because we are so close to the sea. Some day I would like to move a bit more inland to get away from the wind. This house is actually Franks uncle's, and we are renting it for the duration of their stay in Sweden for work, which will probably be about a year, maybe longer. It has an unfinished upstairs that Uffi and Fia (Frank's Uncle and Aunt) are planning to complete as their family grows.

 The mudroom/laundry room

This is our full bath... plus the sauna

Entry way... and the stairs that lead nowhere ;)

The Kitchen... do come over for coffee! I would love some company :)

Our living room... our whole house is sadly bare of small things like rugs and throw pillows... Fia left me some of her curtains to borrow until I have my own, and this is their old furniture (so thankful for it!) I will have to post before and after photos when I do some of my own decorating :) 

Our bedroom... the bedspread is from the US, and has lovely pillow shams to go with it...when I get around to buying more pillows! Montana Pennala also gave me some throw pillow shams that go nearly perfectly with the bed! The lamps were left behind by Fia, but I have added my own touch to them!

 Our Guest room... sorry, only available for single folks for now ;) hehe.. anyone want to come occupy the room and give us some company?!! We would love it!

our half-bath... pretty plain-jane at the moment!












I still have lots of little things to get... rugs, bed-side and coffee tables, pictures to fill the picture frames, curtains...etc! But I am enjoying having a place to make my own, and feeling very content with life right now. To answer those questions at the beginning of this post; Living in Finland is great, it feels like just where I am supposed to be in life right now and that gives me great peace and contentedness. God is taking care of me and Frank, and I can see it most when He smooths over all the little hardships of starting out a new life as a young married couple in a foreign land. No, I'm not homesick! I really miss my family, but I don't feel that it is quite the same. Oh, I would dearly love to grab Annika in a tight hug, and hear her telling me things in her sweet baby voice. I would love to tease my nephews, and be at home for Sunday lunch with everyone else. I would love to be there to receive Christiana and Gabriel's lovingly drawn pictures and see their eyes light up and watch them get shy when I exclaim how awesome their pictures are. I miss my mom and dad and all of my siblings, but no, I'm not homesick.  I feel at home here, in my own little home with my own dear husband. Anyways, lastly; I have no idea when my parents are coming! But it would be great if it weren't too far off! ;) HINT HINT!