Juan has been mentioning polenta for months now, in fact it started a few months before we left Stockholm! Poor guy, it’s just not in my repertoire and I haven’t had the time or energy lately to do proper research into making a dish. I think he even bought a package on one of our first grocery store trips when we moved to Lyon, but there the package has sat, in our cupboard until tonight.
Things weren’t looking good for him unfortunately. It was 8:45pm and I was on the couch reading. I had two yogurt containers in front of me and a few orange peels. (Hey, I’m eight months pregnant, I gotta eat when I am hungry!) Juan came into the living room with a bag of chips, a beer and a sorry look on his face. He really should have been born a northern European as his body really likes eating early, hearty dinners whereas I prefer to only start thinking about dinner at about 9pm. Weird, we know!
After the majority of the chips were consumed he left to go scrounge for himself. You see, I hadn’t moved from the couch and had just let him in on my idea of dinner – the one package of non-MSG noodles we had left. He was bummed. I offered to make a salad, I’m not that mean. 
After a few minutes he announced, with a certain vigor in his voice, that he was making dinner! I walked inside the kitchen and there it was, the bag of polenta. It was known to occasionally make its way out of the cupboard onto the table as a silent hint as to what I should be cooking for my darling husband, who loved me forever and ever. But no, tonight Juan was going to tackle the beast himself and get rid of his ‘gusanito.’
I watched the scene play out from the bedroom as I got changed into my pjs. (back to the whole pregnant thing, it’s not as easy as it once was!) Juan was not alone in his quest, he had his faithful hound:
She usually shows up when Juan and cheese make an appearance together – lucky for her this is a lot more frequent in France.
Juan decided to make a recipe on the back of the polenta package ‘Polenta à la Quatres Fromages.’ I have to hand it to him, it was probably the one which required the most skill and time. Unfortunately it was the only one which could be semi-assembled with the mish mash of ingredients we had in our fridge.
I knew that not everything was going smooth when Juan walked past me, still determined but with a slight worry in his eye, and came back with our trusty French dictionary. You see, sometimes food companies use package recipes as marketing. In the store the shopping aisles are crowded and you only have a few seconds to quickly scan the recipe. It’s easy to think, “Yeah, I can do that!”, but when it comes to actually following the instructions, in a third un-mastered language nonetheless, the recipe leaves you feeling like you are stuck in a rowboat in the middle of the sea with only a wooden spoon in your hand. I’m proud to say that my husband persevered! With the polenta cooked evenly and the raclette cheese finely grated the last step was a full hour’s bake in the oven. I am not sure how much time it took from start to finish, but I think in the end it paid off. The polenta looked and smelled delicious. Hat’s off to the chef!
So this is what my wardrobe is reduced to after packing up stuff for the summer and stuff that won’t fit till after February. Obviously it will continue to dwindle , but now I just need to lug it across Europe for the next few months until we finally get settled into our place in Lyon and wait till the baby arrives.
This is what baby’s wardrobe looks like so far! Neat, eh. Every time I get frustrated or a bit down it’s nice to look at his things! How could anyone be upset holding a onesie? This likely won’t work when he’s having a tantrum in the middle of a mall or skipping school at 14 – but for now it works. My mom was the first to buy baby clothes. It was kind of a shock to go from the idea of a baby in your head to holding a set of his future bibs. I’m not playing with doll clothes anymore!
We leave Sweden on Friday! I still can’t believe it. Yikes!!! Juan just looks at me and smiles though, so I know how excited it makes him. 
So, the other day I flipped open my reduced priced MarieClaire (thanks Pressbyrån) and I happened to find a really neat article about fashion bloggers. One that specially caught my eye was Gala Gonzalez, a Spanish expat in London. She is an obvious choice for being a stylish person purely based on her work; she’s the creative director for Adolfo Dominguez’s ‘young line’ Linea U. Wow, so why am I mentioning this on my blog? Well, I had an ‘Aha moment’. You see, Gala’s ‘thing’ is just showing you what she’s wearing for the day! I really like her style and she isn’t pretentious at all. Lots of her stuff even comes off the rack from places like Topshop, vintage or second hand (along with the freebees she gets thrown her way by major brands, hello Loewe Amazona bag, mentioned in the article)!
So, why me? Well, I’m currently pregnant and I thought it would be neat to showcase what I am wearing. What I would be wearing later on in the pregnancy really weighed on my mind at the beginning, and now that I know it isn’t such a big deal, I thought I could share. Obviously I am not in any competition to either to sophisticated Gala or the incredibly stylish pregnant Heidi Klum, but I thought I could give it a try!
Without further ado, I bring you: Linchi’s Closet.
So, what am I wearing over my ever-growing bump? Well, let me tell you! Despite my 26w of pregnancy most of it is not maternity! In fact, the only maternity item I am wearing is a nursing tank top I just recently bought from Lindex as it’s more comfortable than most of my bras. Plus, it’s great for layering under non-maternity tops which don’t offer as much over the belly coverage as one would like.
Gypsy market long sleeve T
Lindex organic cotton nursing tank
Gina Tricot vest
Old Navy belt
Stretch Ichi jeans (non-maternity)
Doc Marten boots
I’ve learned a lot since becoming pregnant. Never again will I become one of those people who ask mundane questions to pregnant ladies. I was ignorant before, but now I have seen the light. I will scream at the next person who asks me how I feel. Let’s get a few things straight:
1) You are standing right in front of me. Maybe I forgot to put on concealer today, but do I look that bad? Really?
2) As a wise friend just told me, ‘Pregnancy is not a debilitating disease. It’s natural! Women survive it everyday and go on to do it again.’ She’s 100% right.
3) Do you want to hear how uncomfortable it is to sleep on only your sides with a pillow stuck between your legs? Or how many times I have to get up to pee at night? What about how difficult it is getting to put on boots? Or how I don’t like how big my butt is getting? That’s right, I didn’t think so. So next time please just don’t ask. Feel free to help me out of a chair if I look like I am struggling though .
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And now this brings up another pet peeve of mine related to pregnancy. This post I found online sums up my feelings exactly. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, but I personally don’t think it’s a good thing to let the cat out of the bag too early. I am really glad I waited a few months to tell people I was pregnant because this is the second question that shoots out of people’s mouths every time I see them (# 1 see above). After only two months of letting people know it’s getting hard to really hard to say that there’s still lot’s of time left before the due date, our minds change daily and I don’t need/want your opinion on the name I choose to inflict upon my offspring.
Man, I am one opinionated pregnant lady! Sorry
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On a happy note these have shown up in our local supermarket. Christmas really is coming. I pay 1.50€ for two, but I think they are worth every euro cent. This ration of fruit lasts me about two days. Can’t get enough. By the way, I am talking about the persimmon/kaki, although I love me a good pomegranate too!
Reyes is sitting here with me while I type and I am not happy to report that she is snoring! SNORING!!! She did NOT learn this from me. 
Being pregnant and becoming a mom comes with many changes, and not just physically. I’ve been thinking about some of the ways that I do things that I wouldn’t like to continue to do around my child. One of the things that is currently bothering me is plastic. It’s everywhere! I don’t like how it’s used to package and prepare food that nourishes our bodies. Looking at baby stuff almost everything is plastic, from pacifiers, to forks, to toys, to … you name it and you can bet it’s plastic! What happened to the days of metal, glass and rubber?
So, while setting up our kitchen in France I will be looking into removing all plastic from our kitchen. I *might* keep a spatula if I can’t find something suitable made out of bamboo for Juan’s special tortilla de patatas. I still haven’t figured out what I will do for tupperware, but I’m sure we’ll figure something out.
As for kid stuff here are some ideas I’ve had so far are: All Natural Rubber Pacifers, Glass Baby Bottles and Stainless Steel Dishes & Cutlery.
So those are some of the thoughts running through the mind of a new mother.
I am just over 22 weeks a mother, so let me give you an idea of what’s running through my mind:
Instead of contemplating these: 
I purchased myself a pair of these: 
Oh yes, comfort. It’s kind of weird though, the world of maternity clothes. They aren’t something you really want to buy or even start wearing. But, I swear, once I bought them it’s like I had to start wearing them as my stomach instantly grew. I also figure there is no point in keeping them hidden in a drawer. I’ll only be able to wear them a couple of months anyway.
So, lot’s has happened since my last batch of postings. It’s fall now and the big scarves have come out!
Let’s see, I worked a summer job selling tickets for a Stockholm Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour to keep me busy. We’ve had quite a few visitors, with whom we have done some pretty neat stuff. My parents just left and with them we traveled through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and also a bit of Sweden. We’ve been very, very busy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So obviously, Juan and I are still in Stockholm – we should be here until at least the middle of November. After that we are planning on moving to Lyon, France, assuming that Juan signs his contract soon. And after that we will be bringing our first child into this world! We found out recently that it’s a boy. You are welcome to leave suggestions but please don’t ask for our top names yet, it’s still too early. Being pregnant is interesting. Hopefully I’ll write a few more posts about this whole process during the next few months.
I think I found the coolest maternity t-shirt:
Oh the perils of international travel and hair care. Flying all over Europe with only carry-on baggage makes you acquire a multilingual collection of haircare products, take a look:
intn'l haircare
It is obvious I have a bit of a penchant for Schwartzkopf products, but I count Spanish, Swedish, Polish and German. Not bad for me if my native language is English! The peach stuff in the middle is even a special formula for Scandinavian hair I thought I’d try. I thought this was funny this morning while in the shower.
The sky is lovely shade of blue and almost fluorescent green buds are bursting on tree branches. Swedish winter, like Canadian, really helps you appreciate the spring. Last year living in Spain I can only recall a few moments of sitting in awe of the changing of seasons. This is sad considering a Cordobes spring is a thing of wonder mostly due to the smell of azahar, or orange blossom. I guess ice, darkness and the cold will do that too you.
Juan and I have had some great times during these last few weeks. We had our first wine night, which I believe was a true success! Next time I think we’ll invite more people and make it a bit more international. We also crashed no less than two parties last weekend – a personal best! Friends came over, we went to other friends’ – we have been quite social and it’s good.
Sometimes I get a bit uptight before we have guests (and not all guests, just some). Usually this is because of poor time management which leaves me with wet hair or finding a pile of stuff that Juan has ‘cleaned’ from one tabletop to another. I actually don’t like that about myself. I don’t think real friends care if the table they rest their beer on has dust or not, or if they have to wait a bit before I serve food. I don’t know why I do this but I will be working on it, for both Juan’s and my sakes.
In June we will have some visitors which we are really excited about. In fact they will be joining us on our trip to Latvia. Actually these visitors are the perfect visitors. I love it when within an hour of knowing a girl she walks into your kitchen and starts taking about what she wants to cook in it.
Now that I think about it, maybe that’s my problem. I like people to feel like they are in their own house when they visit. I like it when they get up to get their own drinks out of the fridge without asking leaving me to put the finishing touches on dinner. Hmm, yes I think that’s my problem.
1st dandelion
So I think you officially know it’s spring once these things start showing up all over the place. I had to pull out my camera and set it to macro. I’d love to take a photography course one day to help me figure everything out. Until then I just continue to try and take good picture.
What I’m up to:
