Tanja @tanjaostman@dingdash.com

The crabapple trees in our garden blossom for 7-10 days. Carpe diem! I wish time could stand still.

We have celebrated my friend's daughter Jasmine today! In Finland it's a big day to get the white cap after passing the Finnish matriculation exam (upper secondary school). About half of the students choose this path after the compulsory school at the age of 16, and the other half choose an easier more practical education for a vocation. This education called gymnasium is very theoretical and a preparation for university studies. Finnish women are among the highest educated women in the world, and outnumber males in Finnish universities. Unfortunately there aren't jobs for everyone that correspond to their education.

My dear son Edvin finished grade 6 today! Great grades and proud parents. In August he will go to another school in the city. We start school at the age of 7 in Finland so he has just turned 13.

Love is more than a feeling. Great examples from the Scripture how to love. I am still learning how to love and how to receive God's love. "But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Cor 13:13. "Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself ." Matthew 22

No offense British people! Not said it's not as beautiful as American English... it's just harder to understand and pronounce it. I visited my sister in Manchester in 2006 when she lived there, and I almost panicked when it was so difficult to understand her friends. I thought that my English was too bad. Then I met her American friend and understood her! 😂 I don't know how much is has to do with growing up with American movies, tv-series and music, and how much it has to do with British English, is objectively more complicated, especially dialects. When I try to speak English I sound more American than British. I should go to England and practice...

We should listen to the wisdom of former LGBTQ people, since Christians tend to fall into one of two ditches. Neither of them is the way of Christ, which is the third way.
https://youtu.be/3zGdTvyg3HM

Grilling chicken wings, potatoes and mushrooms tonight. For the first time in my life I made hummus. It wasn't too complicated.

Planting flowers that I have bought from a greenhouse.

I love watching our garden in bloom, after a long winter and unusually cold spring time. This is rhododendron.

Finnish spruce.

I'm a little proud that Finland (= Suomi in Finnish on their shirts) won over the US yesterday in their first match in the IIHF World Championship in Latvia yesterday! This is a small country of 5,5 million people and with much, much less money involved in all sports. But on the other hand every Finnish child learns to skate at the age of 7 or younger. In addition many Finnish hockey players who use to compete for our country have already been headhunted to NHL and other leagues in the USA and Canada where they have gotten great training. Who will win the whole competition?

12 min clip. Worth listening. https://youtu.be/iN6KLX1zdJY

Great and funny examples of what makes English difficult! The spelling system is extremely irregular. I've learned a lot of words only by reading English (that you don't learn by watching Hollywood movies), and I have to admit that I don't know if I pronounce them correctly. 😅 English has several times more words than my mother tongue Swedish, and that makes it so fascinating - BUT I agree with the article: Why aren't there specific words for "the day after tomorrow" and "the day before yesterday"? Like "övermorgon" and "förrgår" in Swedish.
https://thelanguagenerds.com/26-reasons-why-the-english-language-is-insane/#more-7923

Lost in translation part 3.