Grocery shopping, Norway style (sort of)

What does $100 worth of groceries look like in Norway? Something like this:

This is a typical week of groceries for our family. All of those milk cartons you see are less than 4 gallons of milk. 

You’ll notice a few things are missing. Meat, cheese, butter, baking supplies, pasta, cereal, diapers, cleaning supplies, etc. Those items come to us by way of Amazon, the embassy commissary, or our quarterly bulk shipment from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

When I’m in the checkout each week, I always feel a little smug about how wholesome my cart full of food looks. I just conveniently forget about the Marshmallow Maties and Kraft Mac and Cheese back at home. That aside, we do eat far less processed food than before coming here and if we do have “junk” food, almost all of it is homemade. 

Last Two Months of Winter

Now into the first week of April there are signs that winter is waining. Day time temperatures are above freezing and night time temps rarely drop below the low 20's. In fact, today was the first time I felt comfortable breaking out the hose and wash bucket to wash the car in the driveway.  

With winter coming to a slow close, I figured I'd better highlight some of the fun we've had since February.

Down to the City

Going downtown is always an adventure. Herding three kids through the city can be challenging and most definitely tiring. A week before heading out to Caitlin's wedding, we all went into town. There we went to McDonald's, peaked into a few stores and bought some candy before hoping onto the T-Ban to head back to the car.

Walking on the Ocean

We regularly pass by the a place on the water where we see people out on the ice hiking to who knows where. Everyone was curious and one day we decided to go out. The weather that day was near freezing so the snow was a little soft and because it was salty, the walking was hard. Lucy wasn't a fan, but everyone else could have gone longer. My favorite part was giving the kids some snow balls and telling them to taste them. I don't understand, they usually really like eating snow. Maybe there was a tad too much salt.

Birthday Activities

This year each kid picked an activity for their birthday. Madeline took a friend swimming and had a great time. James took the family bowling.

Snow Fort

We got some snow brick molds from someone when I first got here. In early February I built a snow fort and it has been standing ever since. In the last week the fort has started to shrink as the snow really starts to melt. Next year I want to build an honest to goodness igloo.

Ikea

We have found a new favorite Saturday activity. We go to Ikea and drop the two older kids off at the play area and then we walk around the showroom with Lucy. James and Madeline love it, Lucy doesn't care, and we get to go on what could almost be considered a date. At the end we get hot dogs and ice cream.  

The Ski Jump

On top of one of the hills around Oslo is a spectacular looking ski jump. This is where the Lillehammer Olympics ski jump competition took place. The pictures don't begin to demonstrate how spectacular the place is nor does it show how steep it really is. In the picture where we are climbing the steps, we are actually climbing using hands and all. I can't believe there are actually people out there with the courage to go off jumps like that.

We are still really enjoying things here. Now the days are long and sunny. Temperatures are warming and before too long we'll be taking pictures of green trees and purple flowers.