Sorry, I forgot! I’m forcing branches to bloom every year for the last five years. And it worked! Always on time! Ready to decorate Easter table. But this year when I wanted to write about it and show “before” and “after” something went wrong. I guess the branches feels the rainy days outside. Despite the fact … More Update: Branches after 10 days
This year my Easter bunny left sitting on the top of my vintage cupboard. This bunny is special. It was delivered to our home at the day when Linna was born. Why?! I don’t know. I was so carried away by the easter bunnies letter and all the activities for the girls, that decoration wasn’t … More Easter bunny
End of the April. And deer family is still visiting us?! It is so cold this year. I might say, that spring isn’t started yet. Three weeks ago we had a bit of a sunshine and now it’s snowing. Terrible! A few years ago we had plum trees blooming at the moment. But now… … More Our deer friend
Interesting. I can’t recall how I found it, but I did and now I’m obsessed with 1st season of The Lucy Show! The Lucy Show! It’s from 60’s and I think that’s the reason why I like it so much! You can watch it on youtube. StoryLine (from IMDb): After the death of her husband, Lucy Carmichael … More The Lucy Show
A few weeks ago we went for a longer walk with all our girls (Nelle, Linna, and Helmī Saule). It’s not easy for us to went for a longer walk. Nelle doesn’t like walking, she likes to go with a balance bike. Also, if Nelle has a balance bike, Linna wants it too. But she … More Coltsfoot is blooming
Common hazel is blooming. I woudn’t notice it few years ago, but know my oldest doughter is almost 5 years old and she shows me everything: birds in sky, blooming flowers, bees and buterflies and few days ago she showed me “Wierd things are coming out of those branches! What is that?”. So it’s a bloom … More Common hazel / Corylus avellana is blooming
Try to read this: ! w0k3 up 4nd f!nd 0u7 7h47 ! h4v3 4 n3w 7r0phy !n w0rdpr355. 7h!5 7!m3 !7 !5 1337 1!k35. wh47 !5 50 5p3(!41 480u7 1337 y0u m!9h7 45k? 8u7 ! kn3w !7 r!9h7 4w4y. !7’5 4 50-(4113d 1337 14n9u493. w!k!: 1337 (0r “1337”), 4150 kn0wn 45 31337 0r 13375p34k, … More 1337 1!k35 / 1337 likes
Winter is still standing behind springs shoulder. It was snowing yesterday! Easter snow?! Never happened before (or maybe I can’t recall…) Yesterday the ground was wet and warm and snow didn’t stay for long. But today I woke up to the white ground…. and it is freezing cold outside! -7C! The lowest temperature on April 18 … More Snow, freeze, and Christmas… I meant Easter!
Happy Easter to you all! We are having fun making greeting cards. I love “Fingerprint activities” book by USBORNE. So many ideas how to paint using your fingertips. And girls love it too. Ilze
I should walk to that pussy willow tree again tomorrow… or whenever the sun will come out! This is the first tree, that is blooming here in Latvia…. and one of the first plants that are blooming: snowdrops and pussy willows… what else? I can’t recall. Coltsfoot?! But I guess that’s later. So…the pussy … More Pussy willow tree in bloom
Bird watching is something interesting. And you can do it no matter if you have a whole day or just an hour. This time I took my camera and run out for few minutes to capture the Mother Natures beauty. Spring. I like to run out for few minutes to be alone. These 10 – 20 … More Common chaffinch / Fringilla coelebs
Finally, I can say I’m cured and the spring is here too! Finally, spring greens are coming out and we can make green smoothies, juices, and elixirs to get back on track. I’m low on iron as every spring and spring greens are essential for me to feel energized and healthy. Do you feel tired … More 3 Edible Spring Greens
So, here is an update of my branches I took inside 5 days ago! I put them in the warm water to force the blooming. I brought one branch from a plum tree, a cherry tree, a bird-cherry tree, and a larch tree. Now. This is how it looks 5 days later. I still have 7 days … More Update: Branches after 5 days
I love bringing Spring indoors by displaying extra long branches on an easter table. If we speak about flowers in summer than I can say it’s very rear and special occasion if I’m bringing blooming flowers inside. I love them better outside. What relates to extra long branches – I love them! Every spring I … More Bring spring inside
After all the scissor cutting practices are finished, a child might want to demonstrate his/her cutting skills. And what’s a better way then easter greeting card for a dad or a grandma?! I made few greeting cards for my oldest girl to cut out to show dad how good is her scissor cutting skill. Learn more about Scissors Cutting Practice … More Scissor Cutting Practice: Shapes / Free Easter Printable
One day I realize that I can’t eat bread that has yeast in it. So now I have to bake my own bread and guess what, this bread is the most delicious seed bread that I have ever tasted. And it’s easy to make. You don’t have to knead it and don’t have to wait … More Yeast free quick pumpkin bread
Scissor cutting practice is important for developing the fine motor skills that young children need in order to hold pencils, pens, and crayons. Children should start scissor cutting practice before learning how to write. About the Scissors cutting skill development you can find in my previous post: Scissors Cutting Practice for Preschoolers. Practice sheets for short and long … More Scissor cutting practice: Simple Shapes / Free Easter printable
1 000 likes on my Latvian mom’s blog. That is something I’m grateful for. I wanna thank you all – my readers! Thank you for reading and for liking. For commenting and for good thought sending. Thank you! I’m still in bed with wet cough drinking herbal tea and eating berries. It’s pity I can’t … More Grateful
This weekend wasn’t as planned! Definitely wasn’t! So… as you might know, we wanted to start our first small travel trailer trip to visit my mom. We didn’t! Why? Girls were ill but getting better (on Friday morning). So we thought that we will go… We tried our caravans Truma gas heating system for the first … More Our Natural Remedies
This is THAT day! Finally, we can’t wait any longer and decide to bring our caravan home to clean it up and start to install solar panels on the roof and move in. Here is the video how it looks inside and my feelings…. It was easy to clean… it wasn’t dirty and it’s about … More Getting ready: cleaning treiler / caravan
I’m so obsessed with nice looking materials for my girls to play-learn. I really enjoy the process of making them and the smiles on here faces to use them! And my math related roots says that math is something that we need to learn and it could be so enjoyable and fun activity too! (At least for … More Learn Numbers, Sequence & Counting: Ice Cream Scoops (free printable)
We bought our camper washing machine about a month ago. About our chose and reason why we need one read here. This is our first impression for LEISURE DIRECT GLW-82706 230V PORTABLE WASHING MACHINE. First of all our requirements are: big enough to put in a double sized duvet cover (200 cm x 220 … More Review: LEISURE DIRECT GLW-82706 portable washing machine
I can’t believe it’s already 20th of March! This weekend we celebrated: 3rd birthday of our girl Linna 31st birthday of my husband Janis 55th birthday of Janis father 25th birthday of Janis brother and more… (uncles and cousins, aunts and godmothers) !! We had one big party for all the Birthdays! As usually within … More March: Birthday month
We like savory breakfast better than sweet. Only Sundays are sweet thanks to pancakes. And even on Sundays, we start with bread and cheese or something savory and then ends up with delicious pancakes. Today we had veggie breakfast: cauliflower egg bake with cucumber salad. Ilze
This morning Janis called the parents if they can drive girls to kindergarten (they are living 800m from us and working in town, too, it’s not like they have to go completely different direction for us). Janis had to work till 3:30 am (this is what you get if you are in IT!). So… I opened … More One pot pasta with smoked sausages & cheese
Have you ever heard of 8th march as an International Women’s Day? Do you celebrate it? Comment below! Ilze
Oh! That was a surprise! Something in the apple tree.. jumping… from one to another… squirrel! But wait! It is not a squirrel! What is it!? It is a European pine marten I guess! Can’t see! I stood quietly at the window and looked at the “pine marten”. That was all I can do, had … More European pine marten
About the Scissors cutting skill development you can find in my previous post: Scissors Cutting Practice for Preschoolers. For better results and faster learning start with tearing paper by hand and the cut short cuts and end with wavy lines. I made Easter themed worksheets…. because, why not! I’d say this a Preschool Cutting Activity for 3-year-olds … More Scissor Cutting Skills / FREE Easter Printable Worksheet
It was a wonderfull weekend with my beloved ones. My brother with his girlfriend came to spend some quality time with us & girls. My brother is our Nelle’s godfather. She adores him! We didn’t leave home all weekend. Stayed inside, chatting and chilling, playing and eating. Talked a lot and even tried to make a … More Weekend: Family time
Cutting practice is what going on in our house right now. Nelle loves to cut. I’m surprised how she can do that with right arm, she is left-handed. I bought here left-handed scissors but still cutting with the right arm. Well – let it be! Maybe it’s not too late to teach her to write with right … More Scissors Cutting Practice for Preschoolers
End of the March would be nice! …snowdrops are better then our muddy road! Ilze
Finally, I did it! I opened my “first aid” box and took out all the medicine boxes with an expired date! Before I got pregnant (~10 years ago) I didn’t think about the cause of illness, I deal with the results of it. So did my family doctor. I used pills and liquids, emulsions and steroid … More Unused Medicine
We are getting ready for our travel trailer trip and that includes – washing machine, that would be suitable for using in the trailer. The washing machine was the first thing that came up in my mind when Janis asked to think about things we have to buy. For the family, without children, this would … More Washing machine for camper/trailer
I lost my grandmother (dad’s mother) 15 years ago and another one (mom’s mother) 14 years ago… I remember how sad it was for me. I was a teenager. Janis had both grandmothers until Tuesday… His mom’s mother passed away on February 21, 2017. She was on the bed since the end of December 2016. The funeral … More Grandmother
Finally. The pencil sharpener is here and Nelle came to me with the smile and asked to sharpen the pencils. I would sing heavily if I didn’t have the electric pencil sharpener bought on eBay. l had to sharpen all 71 pencils twice after I wrote that post about kids and their pencils and need of electric sharpener. … More Pencil sharpener from ebay
I thought of sharing some birds we have here in Latvia in the winter time. We have feeders near a window but in distance, so we don’t disturb them. Mostly tits are coming to our feeder, sometimes woodpeckers. I love to watch them eat and sit in the nearest trees and sometimes we are lucky to see … More Feeder Birds: European crested tit
Now it looks like a fairytale land for sure! This is how I remembering all my birthdays: sun, snow, and at least -5C! Today my first thing in the morning was jumping out of bed, chaotically get dressed and run out with my camera…. I love it! I remember how I woke up at 4 am in the … More Oh! Hello, hello snow!
It would be our first travel trailer trip. Actually, the third trip for me and Janis together, the second trip with kids (actually the first was 4 years ago when Nelle was only 9 months old and she was the one and only kid: we visited our friends in Germany!). AND this is our first … More Our travel trailer trip through Europe
I’m 34 now (almost, at 8:30pm)! Well… I’m surprised! I can’t remember the birthday with mud and rain! It’s usually something between “Snow forever!” or “Wow, It’s getting pretty cold!”. I remember how half of my birthday guests didn’t arrive because of cold. It was -27C for a week and I turned 25 in that freezing winter. … More Birthday Girl: 34
Another tagine recipe from our kitchen is with minced pork. We are buying pork from local certified Organic farm Purmalas and cooking together with Latvian winter vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions. The same here I start this after a breakfast and it’s ready for lunch.
As you know I got my Tagine (I wanted for 3 years!) as a gift. A traditional Moroccan vegetable dish is cooked in Tagine but I wasn’t aiming for Moroccan style I wanted Tagine for slow cooking. With means: less liquid is needed overall and food cooks slowly until completely tender. And you also know that I … More Vegetable Tagine
Let start with the name. Is it travel trailer or is it camper!? Both words are fine with me! First family travel trailer trip through Europe vs First family camper trip through Europe. Ok, Ok! I can’t wait for it (the name doesn’t matter)! I’m so excited and the girls are too! It feels like it would … More Our travel trailer / camper
I’ve had such a short time together with my Tagine… Why? I loved it so much! I cooked in it twice a week (sometimes 4 days straight) but today.. today it has ended. Ended cause my Helmī (1 y 5 m) simply get it down from the table where I left it. I left it … More Tagine / Tajine food
It’s been a while since I saw a doe in my garden for the last time. Finally, they are here once again! I love these animals. They are so beautiful, majestic, and free animals! The way they are eating, the way they are jumping, the way they are walking. I love it! Our living room … More Visitors
Oh nice, this year I had a surprise. Flowers on a kitchen table! Not expected at all! We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. We don’t need to! We love each other every day and we aren’t spending money on things and flowers.Encouraging, Inspiring and making laugh. Helping each other, forgiving and being together. Growing our girls together. Not dividing … More Surprise: Valentine’s Day
We visited our doctor when the first “look like chicken pox” showed up. And she said it is an allergy! We won’t believe her and the reason is: We eat at home and usually I plan, prepare and cook our meals and it is 20 recipes repeating; Most of our food are organic or from local … More Mistical Allergy
I love instant noodle meals. BUT. The lack of nutrients and high amounts of salt and saturated fat and several unhealthy ingredients keeps these meals away from my plate. Another issue for me is they are packaged in Styrofoam, which contains a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA), which is known to interfere with how hormones … More Homemade Ramen with Mushrooms & Boiled Eggs
We bought set of wooden blocks for girls to play a few years ago. They still use them when playing with other wooden sets but not that much anymore. I don’t like throw away toys (nor other things!). That old set has cubes in it and now it’s time to use them again. Since Nelle (will be … More Wooden Cubes Pattern set
Yesterday we had s busy day by making and using popsicle stick pattern cards. I found few popsicle stick pattern cards on the Internet for Nelle to try out. Every new card was greeted with such an enthusiasm and happy face ready to start to match the pattern on the card with the colored popsicle sticks… After … More Popsicle stick pattern cards
All my girls are home cause I’m still not sure if Helmī (>1 year old) has Chicken pox or not! We visited doctor yesterday and she said it is not the Chicken pox but she can’t say what it is!!! The diagnose was “Unknown allergic reaction”. OK, I might say it is fine – we ate few kiwis … More Chicken pox?
Last two days are busy for me. My two bigger girls are having a day off from kindergarten. For them, it’s sleep til 9:30 am and having fun all day without napping! And going to bed at 11:30 pm. For me, it’s a had time especially when it comes when I’m not prepared! And by … More Who’s working and who’s having day off
Tagine is here! I’m so happy to receive this! I couldn’t wait to have it. My first “maybe I need it” was 3 years ago. Then I couldn’t decide how big I want and what style. We have a lovely store in Riga – Muhamors and you can take a look at all the beautiful tagines … More Happy Mail Day #2: Tagine / Tajine
I’ve got half of pumpkin in my fridge this morning. I should make something out of it or it will be wasted. I wanted something satisfying and delicious but without sugar, so the pumpkin puree cookies wasn’t an option. So I made Pumpkin end Lentil cream soup without cream. There is no need to add … More Pumpkin & Lentil soup
This is something that I end up with a few days ago. This dish supposed to be a vegetable risotto… How I ended up with curried Bulgur Pilaf? I listened to myself. Took the carrots out of the fridge.. and onion from an onion basket… then rice…no.. this time I want bulgur.. ok.. how about chickpeas? … More Curried Bulgur Pilaf with chickpea & vegetables
Today is my name day. When I was a child I loved name days and always got a small present or flowers from my mom. When I started to work we celebrate “National day of Ilze” with the collages. There are lot’s of Ilze in Latvia (Jānis is even more popular!). A bit of a statistics: Resident … More Nameday
Can you find the bird in the picture bellow? So small, so quick and likes to look under our old pine trees bark. I think it is Eurasian treecreeper (oh, what a name!). I hope you find it! Never seen before. But maybe the reason is excellent camouflaging technic and teeny-weeny size of it! Nice, I … More Eurasian treecreeper
Lentils. I know, I know.. there is more then one kind of lentils out there! Which ones am I using for the soup!? Red. Red!? Yes, red! I don’t know all those kinds of lentils. Lentils don’t grow here in Latvia and I’m not the expert of lentils. Just stick with colours! This recipe is … More Lentil and Tomato Soup
We are getting ready for our FFTTTTE (First Family Travel Trailer Trip Through Europe… I should change it to Trailer Trip!)… That includes buying some books for me and girls. I ordered few cook books for me and activity books & cards for girls from BookDepository.com in a case of rainy days or long drives! I hope there … More Happy Mail Day #1
Maca. The first time I heard about Maca was few month ago.. Now I start my day with Mocachino and feel energised. I don’t need coffee anymore. OK, I’m not saying that I quit coffee. Just don’t feel I need it every morning and afternoon. Now I have another recipe. I found this one at … More Maca energy balls
This soup is something I made in late autumn 2016… When friend of us brought us 3 extra large pumpkins and said – I have more! Thank you, Aivars! Now I have few pumpkin recipes for my pumpkin haters to cook. Why am I saying haters? Let me explain… When Janis and I first started to live … More Pumpkin, Napa Cabbage and pasta soup
Each of the seasons is special with something different. Coldest months of the year are usually January and February when temperature sometimes fall even to -30° C, but usually no longer than a few days and average temperature in Latvia winter is around -6° C. -Discover Latvia This is what Discover Latvia says about winter in … More Winter in Latvia
Macachino. So, what is Macachino (in my family!)? It’s a super drink I choose when I’m not in the mood for coffee… and it happens very often lately! I used to drink coffee two times per day. White american coffee (I didn’t know there is coffee and american coffee until I asked for coffee in Italia) … More Maca & Cacao drink or Macachino
I wish my kids can help with laundry! My wish was granted! I found instructions for super cool t-shirt folder made out of cardboard in the Facebook few days ago! I was sceptic as all the Latvians are (yes, most of Latvians are sceptic for new things!). This is my first time using something like that. I … More DIY: T-Shirt folder for kids
One day my mom told me that she don’t like Sundays evenings.. I think it was Sunday evening…. Especially when the sun goes down… Sounds terribly wrong for me and so I asked… WHY?! When she was a child she felt sad every Sunday evening. It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or winter.. spring or … More Sunday evening…
I’ve just sharpened 71 colored pencils (is it colored or coloured!?)!!!! 71! 71!! I did it using Prism (manual, pocket) sharpener! The simplest and the oldest variant of all the sharpeners….. Yes, that one! For each one of the 71 pencils! Why we have such a big amount of pencils!? Where did they came from!? Wait a minute!!? I haven’t bought any of … More 71 colored pencils
We had an interview for the local magazine. So. I waited for the manuscript so I can help with IT terminology. Redactor is a middle age woman that don’t know anything about computers (that’s what she said when heard that i’m also from THOSE). So.. I waited.. and waited… and today Janis gave me the newspaper. … More Manuscript… where is it!?
This was super nice and relatively quiet in our house tonight. Only Helmī was crying from 6:03am till 7:41am. I can’t get back to sleep anymore…. Long story short. Janis is super-dad! He spends all his “free” time together with them. Paying, tickling and doing some “kids aero yoga” (that’s how I call it!). They have such a … More From 6:03 till 7:41
Today we (me, my mother and kids) went outside for some fresh-air activities. As Helmī was tired and grumpy we decide to put her in the baby stroller, pack here nice and tight and go for the walk. We went outside and the weather looked nice and sunny. But when we went around the corner the wind blowed … More Following the rabbit tracks!
For the first time in 5 years – I slept in (I’m not sure about the right definition here… Overslept… Neah!) Let me explain. My dear mother is with us right now. I woke up at 10am. Some may say that it is not “slept in” if you have to get to work.. it’s overslept! Maybe. But … More I slept in!
Today we gave an interview for the local magazine. Usually I’m not the one who likes to be in magazines. I simply don’t wanna be popular. (Be real, you can’t get popular by giving an interview in local magazine!). …all started at the end of November 2016 when someone wrote me in the Facebook by claiming that … More Interview for a magazine
For me, it’s surviving… After the nights like this (and those mornings when you woke up at 5am and can’t fall asleep anymore) I defiantly don’t drink a coffee. Why? First things first. I got several panic attacks few month ago. That was my first time but my husband suffered from panic attacks 10 years ago … More Surviving the day after a restless night
Sometimes being a mom means you have to be up at night and you can’t sleep in a day either. After 4 years of being mom, it’s getting harder and harder… But tell me why I couldn’t fall asleep last night!? Girls were sleeping! All of them were!! No need for me till 7:40am… but I … More Up till 5am
I woke up and opened my eyes.I couldn’t believe what I saw!I got up and walked to the window…And there it was — a foggy winter morning. The girls were still asleep, so I grabbed my camera and rushed outside. Okay… not before putting on my down coat, scarf, hat, and mittens! 🙂 Today reminded … More Foggy Winter Morning
I wanted to share this moment captured in our old apple garden—it’s not something we were used to seeing! Just a year ago, around this time, our view was filled with cars and crowds in Riga. Now, we’re surrounded by nature and friendly animals. I feel truly blessed to be here with my family, enjoying … More Our New Friend
This is my twist on a classic tomato sauce—perfect with vegan pasta, of course! It’s flavorful, simple to make, and always a hit at our dinner table. According to Wikipedia:“Tomato sauce is any of a very large number of sauces made primarily from tomatoes, usually to be served as part of a dish (rather than … More Homemade Tomato Sauce for Pasta
Wiki: Lavash (Armenian: լավաշ; Persian: لواش; Turkish: lavaş) is a soft, thin flat bread of Armenian origin, popular in the Caucasus, Iran, and Turkey. This recipe is super simple—only 5 ingredients plus Lavash! One bowl, fresh, guilt-free, and no extra salt added. You’ll either love it or not—let’s see… Serves: 2 Ingredients: Directions: Enjoy! Ilze
These are for my mom — she’s turning 60 this October!The idea of including chocolate in the invitations came to me over the summer. I bought a small Latvian chocolate bar (Laimas “Luks”) and started designing a glamorous outer cover to turn it into a sweet and elegant invitation. I’m really happy with how they … More 60th Birthday Invitations with Chocolate inside
This Saturday, I finally finished making the invitations for my daughter Nelle’s very first BIG birthday! Envelopes: Invitations: This time I chose white and pink, even though I usually prefer cream instead of white — it’s just more my style. But unexpectedly, this color combo turned out beautifully! I’m really happy with how everything came … More Invitations for Nelles 1st birthday
a day in the life of a latvian mom 