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Because lack of a pretty pictures is NOT a good reason to stop blogging for five months

Inertia is a part of my writer-life. No matter how hard I try to banish it forever, I know it is lurking just out of sight, waiting to lull me into non-writing inactivity. So says the blogger who has been absent for a solid five months.

One part apology, one part explanation, I’ll share my thought processes here, get you all caught up to speed, and hopefully entertain you a bit on the way.

Five months ago, I was planning to take a small break from blogging simply because I was planning to move my family from Helsinki, Finland, to Ulm, Germany. We’d rented a house, purchased things for the house (a new bed for us, a lawn mower, wardrobe cabinets, a couple of chairs), we’d even moved all of Matt’s clothes AND our cat to the house. Oh yeah, and we’d moved Matt into the house.

I was buzzing along, purging loads of stuff from our flat in Helsinki. I felt so, so sad to leave my friends and my life here, but it was hard not to be excited about moving to southern Germany: More sunshine, closer to the mountains, closer to our beloved France.

However, as a huge believer in the power of my own intuition (typically referred to as those “gut feelings” I get that govern just about every decision in my life), something just didn’t seem right. I won’t say I knew we weren’t going to go–my goodness, we got so far as to cancel our Finnish social security, pay the deposit at the new school in Germany, and did I mention we moved the cat???–but I will say that I was only half surprised when I drove off from our flat for the last time, empty as it now was of all of our belongings, picked Matt up from work, and heard the words, “Well, we’re not moving to Germany.”

I’ll spare you the gory details, but we had a solid few days where we weren’t sure if he had a job and a few uncomfortable weeks after that where we knew he had a job, but weren’t sure how long it would last. Then, just over a month after the whole crazy thing began, we were unpacking our stuff into a new home in Finland (yes, at this point, Matt had already retrieved the cat!).

So my two month grace period to move from Helsinki to Ulm grew by one month, as we added a month in temporary lodging to our summer plans. Then I realized that I didn’t really have much to say. The move-not-move was, after all, shocking, stressful, and, after the dust had settled, an amazing relief. Because now I’m still in the country that I have come to love, I’m actually in a bigger, beautiful home with a garden, on a quiet cul-de-sac that appears to dump right onto a bike/running trail that I’m just sure is both lighted and groomed for skiing in the winter. I didn’t have to say goodbye to my friends (OK, I still had to say goodbye to a few who were also leaving Helsinki, but the majority are still here for one more year). I didn’t have to learn a new way of doing things, a new system of driving, of grocery shopping, of school pick-up and drop-off.

Here I am, five months later, and I figure I’d better get back in the blogger saddle if I’m going to. As a friend pointed out, it’s just not right if the person who claims to have Terminal Verbosity runs out of things to say…

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Just a few of the perfectly good items I'm passing on to friends this week!

Sometimes getting started on the spring cleaning is a challenge. If it’s been a few years (decades?) since you did any sort of decluttering, it is even more terrifying daunting. It’s so hard to let go of things, especially if they have sentimental value. And you might not yet be ready to hang on to the happy memory while at the same time letting go of the item associated with that memory.

What if you started by doing a friend (or two, or three) a huge favor? Do you have baby things sitting in boxes even though you know you are done having children? Do you have enough books to give each of your good friends something to read over the summer holidays? Do you have books that would be better used on the shelves of your child’s library? Do you have trousers that aren’t quite right for you, but would look great on your pal? Did you come across some old photos that you could easily scan into your digital filing system, email to the other people in the photo, and then discard?

I know you do, because just about everyone does. So why not start your spring cleaning by passing on some of the items that are contributing to your clutter? Your friends will get a kick out of the impromptu gift and you will make some space, while at the same time getting the ball rolling for some additional purging.

The Rules

You knew there had to be some!

1. If you wouldn’t like to receive it as a gift, don’t pass it on. We’re not purging junk (yet), we’re purging good, usable items that we no longer need or for which we have no room. Think gently used 2011 bestseller, not your copy of Huckleberry Finn from 7th grade.
2. Send it NOW. Do not make a pile of 50 items to send/give to friends and then forget about it in the basement. You will find it next year when the spring cleaning urge strikes and regret it!
3. When in doubt, ask. I would usually gladly accept a used book from a friend, but I’m moving in 6 weeks. If you’re not sure if your friend will want the item, ask them first. Depending on the friend, giving them permission to say no thanks up-front might help!
4. Let go of things with a shelf life sooner rather than later. That booster seat your 9 year old just outgrew will only be safely usable for a set amount of time. Likewise, clothing (children’s or adult’s) is only fashionable for a short window. Well, unless you’ve kept it long enough for it to come back in style. Then, perhaps, we should talk!! But I digress. Move the baby gear and other items now, not next year when it is less likely to be usable.

Real world example

This week, I decluttered most of my flat. I have a tremendous pile of stuff that is neatly packaged to go to the local charity shop, but I also have one shelf of items to give to friends. Those items include:

• My Finnish language materials – oh yes, they’ve already been replaced with their German equivalents.
• A pair of shoes that I bought last year that don’t fit right, but are super cute and still fashionable!
• A dozen or so recent novels that I’ve already read.
• Several pairs of trousers that are now too big.
• A couple of children’s books that my kids have outgrown, but that are still in good condition.
• A couple of children’s toys that were received as duplicate gifts and can now be passed on.
• A few items of the kids’ artwork that I don’t want to move to Germany, but that are cute enough to adorn relatives’ fridges.

It’s just a dozen or so items, but it’s a great place to start. See if gifting a few things you no longer need will get the ball rolling on your spring cleaning project!

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Man, I still remember how gorgeous I felt in that red dress!

By the time I’ve said the words, “Do you think I should get rid of this?” I already know the answer: Yes! Sometimes, though, I need a little push and that’s why I ask for it (my friends and husband usually deliver!). After decluttering my books once again over the weekend (always a painful process for this bibliophile) and then helping a friend begin the process of digitizing her filing system, I should have been more prepared than I was for the realization that it was time to let go of some of the dresses that have been haunting my closet for a decade or more.

If you’re on the minimalist bandwagon already, you know why the dresses have to go (if I haven’t worn them in 10 years or more, I’m unlikely to do so). Even if you’re not, you can probably agree that moving the dresses (which have already been moved to England, then back to Colorado, then to Finland) on to Germany next month is really a waste of space and resources.

As usual, I couldn’t just put the dresses in the ever-growing purge pile and be done with it; I had to ruminate. What I realized is that I’ve been hanging on to those dresses not because I ever hope to wear them again (let’s face it up-front–the post-baby tatas will never again gracefully fill a size 6 dress), but because they represent a time in my life when I was young and carefree, a time when I felt more like a sexy vixen and less like, well, the VP of the PTO.

Then I realized what I need isn’t a thing (the dress), but a feeling (I’m gorgeous!). While I was ruminating, Matt very sweetly offered to buy me “Red Dress 2.0.” I can’t say that I need another red dress, but the offer did give me the courage I needed to toss it, and its brethren, into the pile.

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The key holder on our messenger bag inspired this project!

I dispensed with a major pet peeve of mine–digging through my purse to find my keys–today with a simple craft project using only items I had laying around the house!

My beloved Timbuk2 messenger bag has a nifty little clip on the end of a ribbon, so I can attach my keys and never lose them in the otherwise cavernous bag. So why not my other purses?

Now each of my purses is outfitted with a clip made to hold my keys. It was quick and easy, even for a novice with needle and thread like myself.

Materials

• 1 keychain with a swivel hook and several detachable key rings or several individual swivel-hooks as pictured
• several 4-8″ pieces of remnant ribbon, preferably in colors that coordinate with your handbags
• heavy-duty thread that matches the thread
• sewing needle

Here’s how I did it…

Everyone probably has something similar to this in their junk drawer, right?

My original idea was just to completely replicate the Timbuk2 bag, so I set off rummaging through all the shit treasures in our junk drawer and tool box looking for several clips.

Instead, I found this little gem! I bought it some time ago to do something similar to this and it failed because modern-day car keys are too big to fit on the tiny rings and it was far too bulky to carry around in my already heavy purse.

But what if I turned it upside down and used each little detachable key-ring in a different purse? That would give me four built-in key holders at any one time so that I could easily change bags on the run. Score!

For purses that had a clip on the inside, I wouldn’t even need to do any sewing, but for ones that didn’t, I would just sew in a ribbon just like the Timbuk2 bag.

My everyday keys.

Here are the keys that I carry on a more or less daily basis: one set of house keys, one car key.

They fit easily onto the swivel hook of the blue keychain, meaning that I can detach them without taking my gloves off when it’s -20C! That’s less convenience and more necessity here in Helsinki.

The other thing I love is that I can easily detach the car key and leave it behind on days that I’m taking public transport instead of driving without breaking a nail fiddling with a conventional keyring. Less clutter and weight in my bag leaves room for my Kindle, a knitting project, snacks for the kids, or a few small groceries picked up on the way somewhere else.

Attach a keyring to the zipper in your purse...

However, my new Marimekko bag has solid zip-pulls, and it’s extra-large, three pocket design meant there were extra nooks and crannies in which to lose my keys. So I pulled out my sewing box and got to work.

I chose a short piece of extra ribbon I had laying around. I eye-balled the length of the ribbon so that the heavy keys would rest on the bottom of the purse instead of dangling with hopes that the ribbon will last longer and that I’ll have less jingling as I walk around town.

The finished product.

Then I put one end of the ribbon through the key ring and folded the ribbon in half so that it overlapped itself by about half an inch. At this point, if you have a sewing machine, I would recommend machine-stitching for extra durability. However, I doubled-up about 18 inches of heavy-duty thread and hand-stitched down the edge of the ribbon, across the cut edge, back up the other side, across the top of the ribbon (just below the keyring) in a square and put a few stitches in the middle of the square for good measure.

Then I folded the other end of the ribbon down half an inch and carefully stitched it to the top edge of the canvas of my bag. I made sure that I was getting the needle all the way through the inside layer of canvas, but that I wasn’t hitting the outside canvas–I didn’t want stitches showing through or want my brand-new bag to pucker.

Leather or other materials may pose more of an issue than cloth, but hopefully you can find a tag or other bit of cloth that you can get a needle through to outfit all of your bags with this nifty little key-holder.

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A picture (or in this case, a scan) is worth a thousand file folders...

This winter I finished a project I started in June of 2010 and posted what I thought was this innocuous little picture of what is left of my paper-based filling system–a tiny set of file drawers that fits next to my desk and is small enough to fit in a suitcase–on Facebook. It set off a lively discussion that continued right into the next morning at school drop-off and I realized that a blog post was in order. It’s a sad fact of life that expat life, no matter how amazing, is unpredictable. And moving your entire life to a new country is never easy. It’s even more difficult, however, when your filing system resembles the Library of Congress in size and complexity.

Last year I wrote about decluttering your child’s artwork and about the huge purge we did in anticipation of our international move, but now I want to focus specifically on how I moved my filing to a paperless system.

1. Choose your tool
2. Start with the present
3. Purge & scan
4. Maintenance Tips

Step 1: Choose your tool
The first step in this adventure is choosing your tools: an electronic filing system and a scanner. As an expat, my local bank, my mortgage lender, my retirement accounts, my insurance, and basically any filing-worthy paper-producing institution in my life are all located 7-10 time zones away. That means I need to be able to get to the details I need quickly and easily whether they’re on paper or stored electronically because I can’t just pop in to the local banking center and ask a question.

Because ease of access from multiple locations and search capability was important to me, and because I didn’t mind paying $5US a month for the convenience of basically unlimited uploads while I was converting my files (you can upload 40MB per month free of charge), I opted for Evernote. Evernote saves documents to your account in the cloud, and also has a mobile app, so I can access my files from any computer world-wide. In the absence of a computer, I can pull details up from anywhere there is a mobile signal. The latest version even includes a Kindle Fire app.

It is certainly not the only option. If you have any sort of storage out there in the cloud, and have access to a scanner, you can create your own virtual filing system. You could probably do it fairly easily in Gmail and then take advantage of Google’s savvy search engine for locating your documents. Other Evernote competitors include Memonic, Microsoft’s One Note and UberNote. I have not personally used any of these, but they all offer fairly detailed FAQs and demos if you have a particular reason that you don’t want to use Evernote.

I have used a combination of my camera (for odd-sized documents) and the inexpensive scanner built into my printer (an HP OfficeJet) to move my files to electronic format. Nothing fancy, just quick and easy-to-use.

Step 2: Start with the present
When I started this project, I had a five-drawer filing cabinet that was stuffed full of files, as well as several file boxes and an additional couple of cardboard boxes filled with our taxes, school transcripts, and mementos. Instead of accumulating additional filing while I was dealing with the huge back-log, I started with present day. It not only allowed me to tackle the archive in chunks as time allowed, but gave me time to familiarize myself with the tool, to think about what tags and categories I wanted for my filing.

If you’re used to shoving opened mail into a pile and then filing it away once a week (or, let’s be honest here, once a month or once a quarter!), you’ll need to do a little retraining. I will admit that I don’t always open my mail daily, but when I do, I have a decision tree:

• Do I need to do something with this (pay a bill, fill out paperwork, etc.)? If yes, do it right now. Don’t leave it for later. It will get lost in the shuffle and create clutter.
• If I don’t need to do anything with it, do I need to keep it? If yes, do it right now (see the pattern here?!).
• If I don’t need to keep it, or if I’ve scanned it in to Evernote, it goes straight in the recycling with the envelope. Clutter averted!

Remembering to keep on top of the filing is an on-going process. My desk is not always clutter-free, but it’s getting better all the time.

Step 3: Purge & scan
Step three is scanning and purging that giant back-log. My parents were of the “keep it forever” variety when it came to financial statements. I’m pretty sure my Mom has every credit card statement she’s ever gotten in her filing cabinets somewhere. When they retired to Florida and sent me their old dining room set in 2000, they sent me the original receipts for the furniture from 1985!!!!

Since we seem to move every 2-3 years, that style of filing just wasn’t going to work for me. Now, not only have I scanned in that whole backlog, but I have carefully chosen what to keep and what to dump. Here’s a sample of items I used to keep that I no longer do:

• Monthly statements from the insurance company. Now I only keep the most recent copy of the policy and recycle the rest. And by “keep,” I mean scan, upload to Evernote, and recycle.
• Credit card statements, bank statements, investment statements–I have opted for online statements when possible and have verified that I can get access to old account details on the provider’s web site if they’re needed in the future.

There’s a lot of stuff that I think got lost in my labyrinthine filing system before that I make sure I hang on to (electronically) now:

• Receipts and warranties for large purchases
• Test results and other medical records
• Donation receipts and other tax-deductible expenses

This step is absolutely the most daunting and it’s very easy to accidentally sabotage yourself by biting off more than you can chew. I recommend breaking it down into the smallest, most manageable pieces possible so that you don’t get overwhelmed. Don’t pull out a whole drawer and try to tackle it in an afternoon. Pull out a single folder (or if your folders resemble MegaFolders with lots of smaller parcels of documents contained within them, choose a single manageable stack from a single folder and start there). Evaluate each piece based on the decision tree in Step 2. Scan in what needs to be scanned and immediately recycle the rest.

If you know there are whole folders in there that you don’t need, purge those first. It will give you a feeling of success and accomplishment that you’ll very much need when you get to the folders of endless odd-sized receipts and carbon-paper pages that you need to keep, but which won’t auto-load in your scanner’s paper tray and therefore have to be positioned by hand.

I left the entire filing mess in my unfinished basement while I was working on this project and carried a single folder up to my office at a time. By the time we moved to Finland, I had it down to two boxes of filing, which I then stowed in our guest bedroom (no huge unfinished basements in flats in downtown Helsinki!) and again, pulled out one folder at a time.

Step 4: Maintenance Tips

I got this project finished just in time because we’re moving again this summer! This time, only my tiny filing box is coming with us and it’s only about half full. I won’t need to worry about anything vital getting lost in the move because it’s all on my computer, backed up to the Cloud.

A few final tips I’d like to share. First, don’t fall into the trap of running to Acme Container USA and spending loads of money on organizers each time clutter starts to get you down. It was the fact that I needed a second filing cabinet to contain my papers that forced me to consider that there might be another way. Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that I want to keep forever in original format and a good organizational system is great for storing those types of things, but I think most people already have all the containers they need. What they need instead of more containers is less stuff! Purging not only declutters, but it saves you money that you might otherwise have spent on storage you don’t really need.

Second, don’t hold on to “stuff” out of fear or guilt. I had a whole bunch of stuff that was my mom’s that I didn’t really want to bring to Finland with me. It was hard to start the conversation, but by calling her up and asking her what I needed to keep, what I could send back to her, and what I could let go, I was able to declutter quite a lot of stuff without guilt or fear, and without accidentally getting rid of something that would have upset my mama!

And finally, the best way to declutter is not to accumulate in the first place. I love to shop, and the temptation is definitely there to buy one more adorable household item each time I venture to Ikea or Stockmann. To avoid accumulating, I’ve been trying to give everything a second look before I buy. If I love it the first time, and love it again the next time I see it, then perhaps it’s worth a purchase. If it’s gone when I come back the second time, it wasn’t meant to be.

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The kids' first Metro ride in Helsinki (October 2010). Some people spend a lifetime trying to see what my kids have seen in the past 16 months. One of the many things for which I am thankful.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, according to Plato, that you cannot step in the same river twice due to the constantly-changing nature of the river. It’s a pretty good metaphor for expat life, especially when that expat life involves moving every 2-4 years. I think I’ve mentioned before that I lived in the same general area of a not over-large suburb for the first 18 years of my life, so this constant moving thing does not come naturally to me.

But that’s not to say that I don’t embrace it. In fact, I’m starting to believe that it is the act of stepping into that river, and realizing that it’s different than it was last time, that keeps me moving forward, keeps me interested. And it’s a good thing, because even though we’ve only been in Helsinki 16 short months, we now know that in June we’ll be moving on.

This time, we’re headed to Ulm, Germany. Tucked between Munich and Stuttgart, Ulm is a university town of just over 100,000 people. I’m excited by the location (close to beloved Strasbourg and the Alps, within a day’s drive of Venice, far enough south to escape the winter dark of Northern Europe) and more than a little anxious about leaving behind the amazing friends I’ve made here in Helsinki.

After the brief honeymoon period of our first few weeks, moving here was hard. There was the moving with kids part, then the intense, cold darkness of our first winter in Finland, then the personal tragedy part, then the culture shock, and of course my usual and on-going cultural identity crisis. Oh, and the husband’s insane work schedule. But then there was the amazing travel, the excitement of learning about a new culture, and the joy of realizing that I will experience the kids’ amazing milestones as any happy parent would, regardless of whether I’m in Colorado, Finland, or Germany, or wherever our next adventure may lead.

Whether it was the time of year that we moved, the trips home I made last spring, or the fact that this was our first international assignment with kids, it took me a solid 9 months to settle in here in Helsinki. So it seems really unfair that we have to say goodbye so soon, even if we are totally excited about the new locale. The first few months in a new location, filling your social calendar (and one of the new friends I’ve been gushing about recently pointed out to me that my need for social interaction rivals that of Paris Hilton!!) is an act of will. Nine months in, it becomes much more organic, and I like that.

Afternoons spent exploring the city, knitting, or drinking coffee were a solitary activity for me last year. This year, I usually have company. Last year, Skype was my lifeline. This year, well…Skype is still my lifeline to family and friends back home, but I have support here as well.

It’s scary to think about stepping off a plane and setting up house in yet another country where I don’t speak the language. I mean, at this point, I haven’t even visited Ulm and Matt is already pretty much living there and coming home to visit when he can. I’m happy that I’m able to support him in this (after all, it is pretty much my primary job these days!), and the kids & I are managing well in his absence, but it does add stress that we wouldn’t have if we weren’t moving in a few short months.

So we’re moving again. I’ve got another new language to tackle. It’s a place I hadn’t expected and that is unfamiliar to me. I’ve got awesome friends that I am so sad to leave behind. There are more details involved in the move than I can possibly track. And yet, I know it’s not the same river. The move will not have the comfort that comes with familiarity even though we’ve done this before. Somehow, despite all the uncertainty, I’m feeling pretty zen. That alone proves that it ain’t the same river

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A sunrise fit for Santa himself!

One of the unexpected joys of living in Finland (and there are many) is Santa mania. According to This is Finland, Finns have been claiming that Santa lives in Finland since 1927. Reindeer, after all, can’t survive winter at the North Pole, but they can in Lapland! It follows that Santa’s Village, located in Rovaniemi right on the edge of the Arctic Circle, is a major tourist destination for those who decide to make a winter trek to Finland. Many families with children add a visit to Rovaniemi to their winter itinerary, taking the scenic overnight train north and visiting Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves. From what I’ve heard, it is pure magic for the children, and includes ample shopping and activities to keep adults entertained as well.

The children getting final instructions before their dog sled ride

But when flight prices to Ivalo (even further north than Rovaniemi) dipped to under $100US this fall, I couldn’t resist booking a slightly different Christmas adventure. Unlike last year, when the snow came hard and fast from mid-November onwards, and our white Christmas included nearly three feet of snow, November and December this year were gray and wet. So we were anxious for a little snow, perhaps a glimpse of the Northern Lights, and a memorable arctic adventure for my in-laws who were coming for what will likely be their first and only visit to Finland.

The Nellim Wilderness Hotel was exactly what we had in mind. After the 90 minute flight to Ivalo, a cheerful member of the hotel staff picked us and our gear up and took us the additional 50km to tiny Nellim. On the southern edge of Lake Inari, Nellim is the kind of place you only visit to get away from civilization–there are no malls, no restaurants to speak of, and certainly more reindeer than people!

They kept a constant fire going here next to the sledding hill and ice-fishing area so it was easy to warm up!

The lodge itself is made up of several buildings. The main building houses the restaurant where guests share a hearty and traditional breakfast and dinner (most lunches are eaten on-the-go during the various outings). This is not gourmet fare, and there’s no menu–you get what you get, typically meat, potatoes, soup, salad and bread at dinner and some sort of egg dish with cereals, fruit, yogurt and porridge for breakfast. This is probably not the best location for picky eaters or folks with a lot of dietary restrictions, but if you can be flexible on the food front, the excellent guided adventures more than make up for it.

The other buildings are a short walk (50m) away and include multi-room mini-suites and small apartments, some of which include kitchenettes, fire places, and small living rooms. Our two-room suite was very clean and warm, but again, think hunting lodge, not The Ritz, when you imagine this place.

Each day, you can choose from activities including cross-country skiing (trails leave from the grounds of the lodge and there is even a fairly good sized loop of lighted trail, which is helpful when it gets dark at 1:30pm), sledding, ice-fishing, snowmobiling, snow-shoeing, and dog-sledding. Nellim has over 70 dogs on site and driving the dog sled has to have been one of the coolest experiences of my life. If reading White Fang when you were 8 engendered even an inkling of adventurous desire, driving your own sled out on frozen Lake Inari is something to add to your bucket list!

The sledge for the children came complete with warm reindeer skins for the cold journey!

Since our party of six included two children under the age of 8 and two grandparents with slight mobility issues, we were nervous about how to balance the adventure vacation Matt & I wanted with the needs of everyone else. This is where Nellim Wilderness Hotel really shone! They were flexible and I’m pretty sure they invented tours just to accommodate our slightly special needs. They’re equipped with sledges that can be pulled behind the snowmobiles so that the children could go meet a Lappish reindeer herder  and pet a reindeer, and they’re patient enough to give even the little ones a go on the dog sleds. Skis and snowshoes are available on-site if you don’t have your own, and they had an excellent assortment of winter gear that could supplement what people who winter outside Finland have on hand.

Each night, the guides take groups out to the Russian border (which is quite close by!) to look for the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Although the displays we witnessed were on the mild side, just seeing the entire Milky Way with virtually no light pollution was an experience. Even if you don’t want to go on the paid outings, it’s easy enough to see the lights from the grounds, especially if you walk a few hundred meters from the buildings to escape the small bit of light there.

If you want the outdoor adventure, but really can’t miss Santa’s village, you can still visit the Ivalo area. Just 35km south of Ivalo is Hotel Kakslauttanen, which boasts a Santa’s Village and Igloos as well. We didn’t visit it on this trip, but maybe next time (and yes, the kids are already asking when we can go back!).

Continue reading »]]> Thanks so much to Sara Toole Miller for nominating Terminal Verbosity for a Liebster Award! Her blog, which is all about the writer’s life, is a constant source of inspiration to me in my writing journey!

The Liebster Blog Award is given to blogs that have less than 200 followers and deserve more recognition and encouragement.There are some guidelines that have to be followed while giving or receiving the Award.

The rules for receiving the award:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favorite bloggers and keep it going!

So here are five blogs that I love, and therefore nominate for the Liebster Blog Award:

• Nicole Leonard’s Photography Blog- This woman takes amazing pictures!
• Besides sharing my love of soup, Angel at Elder of the Sweetbunns Brigadeis also living & writing about the expat life!
• Anna at Jenkki in Helsinki not only writes about life as an expat here in Helsinki, but her battle with breast cancer.
• Kellie at My So-Called Green Life is full of fun green tips.
• Christian at The 365 Kitchen is a friend and fellow foodie. Read his new blog to get an awesome recipe every single day!

Thanks again, Sara, and happy blogging everyone!

Continue reading »]]> October was a quiet month at Terminal Verbosity. Not only was I busy indulging my francophile tendencies with an amazing trip to Provence, but I was also busy planning my second novel and first National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) effort. Yes, that means that November will be kind of quiet around here as I have publicly promised to pen 50,000 words in the next 30 days.

If you want to follow my adventures, or are participating in NaNoWriMo yourself and want to be a buddy, look for TerminalVerbosity, or look me up by title: Distopian Dream Girl. Just to tantalize you a bit further, I’ll give you the first line of the novel as it stands on Day 1:

“Kiitos, kiitos, kiitos,” she mumbled under her breath. At least they had a word for thank you in Finland.