lazy dayz

We're down visiting some family. Yesterday I met three of my siblings and all the kids cousins. Today one of the siblings had a birthday we celebrated and among others one of my cousins with family came and ate some cake.

Tomorrow we will try to meet some old friends who live here and on friday it is time for more family and on saturday we have a wedding to attend.

It is a bit stressful to live so far away in the other part of the country so that every minute of free time should be planned to meet people we moved away from. But on the other hand - one could have bigger problems than having too much loved ones to visit...

The photos are from yesterday at my parents allotment with my kids and their cousins, my older sisters and some polar bears (or is it my sisters dogs?) and my mum.

I can now spell acclimatization without hesitating

So yesterday my kids started at their new preschool. I don't really know if preschool is the right name. My dictionaries are mostly online and my paper dictionaries do not make a difference between preschool, daycare and kindergarten. It is a place for kids between age 1-5 with educational activities a few hours but mostly just a place to be at when the parents work or like me, go to school.

I knew they had my old name in their papers and we hadn't told them anything about my transition before we arrived. I think it is good to meet people in person when I tell them about transgender stuff. That helps many people not to do the big you-are-a-sick-bastard-thing. When you meet someone eye to eye most people really tries to listen.

That is mostly the thing I want to avoid. People calling me names in front of the kids. So we went to the preschool knowing nothing about them except for the time and place to arrive. We knew that we will have a two week acclimatization period when we get to know the teachers and the kids get a chance to a slow introductory period. So I will meet the personal quite a lot for a few days now.

We arrived and a preschool teacher said hello, reached out to shake hands and presented herself. I will call her Y. We all said our names and I added "In your papers it says oldname. I was born in a more female body but felt like I needed to look more like I felt. In a couple of months I will get the name in order". That is about how much I think one can say before having to take a break and se how it was received. Y just looked cool and nodded and said "that is good to know". Then she turned to the kids and started go give them the grand tour. Then it didn't come up more in any way yesterday.

Today Y told me that they have spoken about same sex parents with the children earlier but she thinks that the kids are so alike both me and Noa that it is obvious that we both are the birth parents and she wanted to know how I wanted the personnel to respond to the the other kids and parents questions. I told her that most of the times our kids give good answers them self but if anyone asks the teachers I want them to answer as openly and direct as possible. Y exhaled and looked relieved. She said that she thought that most people would understand these things if they only was educated. She had watched a documentary about a transwoman with wife and three kids and said that she thought it was obvious that the woman was feeling much better by the transition. Then we talked on for a bit and I felt so happy that she will be in daily contact with my children.

The acclimatization goes well so far not only for me but for the kids to. Frode cried when he realized we were going home and the oldest just asked me if I could promise that they stay longer tomorrow.

Other than that. The weather is crazy. The little snow we had is melting, yesterday it rained! I love the sunsets from my bedroom but tomorrow we have to be at the preschool at 9 a.m. and the sun doesn't rise until after, maybe 9.15, maybe some minutes later. Then it sets again a few minutes after 2 p.m..

The picture at the top is from this mornings sunrise. They are building a few new houses nearby and I have this thing for constructions sites. It is a magical world for me. My father was working a lot when I grew up and he made stucco elements. The times when I got to visit him at construction sites was always very special to me and I still feel happy when I see houses being built.

the older, the smarter?

Yesterday and today me and my kids did a very small but still gingerbread town. They are only front side and that gave me the opportunity to try to explain dimensions to a five year old. She wanted to do a regular house with four walls and a roof but I said that we would do them 2D instead of 3D. For a minute I thought that she would accept that but of course she asked what dimensions was and there wasn't many minutes until she could tell me that what we where baking was in 3D. I should have learned by now that I can't fool them and come with easy answers. When my English speaking readers will visit us I feel pretty sure that the very first word you will learn is varför why.

Our sugary town has seven buildings. Two of them is churches, one is a school and the rest is toy stores. I made a cross to make a church and then Ella, the middle child, wanted to do a cross too. First she told me that it was a one church with two buildings but then she got quiet for a while and changed her mind and said that it was two different churches, one for some and one for the ones that are not allowed in the first one.

It hurts that she is four years old and thinks of that sort of things. We have tried to not talk about not being welcome in our old Church and said that we wanted to change Church. But they are bright and observant all three of them. But I got happy right away when she said that my Church had to be the boring one because everyone was welcome at her Church. She gave me the tip later on that I should only have one color candy on my Church so everyone could see that it is a more boring place.

I realized that I can't project my own feelings of being rejected to her. She wasn't sad at all. She just felt that it was strange but natural with people that wants to be alone with people just like them and that she felt like it was their loss to miss a wonderful world of diversity. I hope that I will be as tolerating as her some day.

Happy new year!

Today it is the first day of the Christian year. The new liturgical year that my lutheran Church follows begins today but I actually spent it in my parents pentecostal Church, who don't follow any liturgy in a strict sense of the word. But sure as many they have traditions a order of worship that everyone knows of and follows almost as strict as any defined liturgy. Well, the Sunday service I attended there today was very moving and fruitful. I don't know how much I read into it myself but it was very focused on the importance of being truthful, forgiving and honest to others but to one self to in order to focus on spreading the Word. That is something I have thought about a lot for the last year and it was good to hear someone else talk about it for a while.

This week I have met all four of my siblings, my three, soon to be four nieces and nephews my brothers in law and my parents. Not everyone at the same time at once, but still, all of them in a week. That's very nice.

Now I have to find some sleep. I have two weeks of intense school work left until I have a few weeks of holiday vacation when we will move up north. I don't know how much I will be writing, I shouldn't post here until I know that I will have the time and energy to do everything I have to get my grades. I have two distance courses I haven't got a hold on yet.