Norskis in the Park

Today our local Sons of Norway lodge (Hardanger Lodge) had a picnic at Optimist Park. 79°, sunny, slightly breezy . . . perfect weather!

They say that one ought to eat colorful foods to maximize nutrient intake. (Please overlook the sodium and sugar intake. And dessert isn't even pictured!)

Some lodge members played kubb before and after the meal. It's a yard game that originated with the Vikings, whose game pieces purportedly were the skulls of their enemies! Coincidentally, the U.S. National Kubb Championship is just today wrapping up in Eau Claire, WI. Maybe we'll qualify for next year's tourney.

2011 June 13-19

Friday, June 17

The arrival of house guests: Susan's sister Cassie and her two kids, Davis (two years old) and Marly (three months old--and my soon-to-be goddaughter)!

Davis needed sunglasses for the car ride.  Clever style of wearing them!

Abigail and I were delighted to meet Marly Sue!

Norwegian Pride, Swedish Food, and Norse Mythology

Norwegians celebrated Syttende Mai ["May 17th," Norway's Constitution Day] a few days ago (remember?), but our local Sons of Norway lodge waited until today for its annual Syttende Mai party so that we could take advantage of a weekend day to have a potluck picnic and play some outdoor games.  As Youth Director for our lodge, I was trying to figure out what I could do with the kids that would be Norwegian and fun.

I learned that Norwegians typically precede Syttende Mai with a community-wide dugnad ["volunteering"], tidying up the neighborhood before the big celebrations for Constitution Day--so I proposed the idea to the girls, who were "into" the idea of picking up garbage.  A Syttende Mai celebration usually features a barnetog ["children's parade"], and the girls were willing to do their best to put on a three-person parade; they have miniature Norwegian flags that they could wave, and they proposed wearing bathrobes instead of bunads [literally "costumes," but really they're traditional forms of dress that correspond to distinct regions in Norway; see this].

None of that came to pass, though, because the picnic was canceled on account of rain.  A continuation of days and days and days of rain, as a matter of fact.  The lodge president phoned this morning and said that we'll just have to make our Sankthansaften ["St. John's Eve," a Midsummer's Eve celebration; see this] picnic next month all the grander to make up for it.

But we made today a very Scandinavian-themed day anyway.  This is what we did:

I'm a Superstar

As members of the Sons of Norway, we receive a monthly magazine called Viking, which we like a lot.  The June issue arrived in our mailbox today, and look what I discovered on the page dedicated to news about events from our particular district:

What's that?  You don't see anything particularly notable?  Well, let me zoom in for you:

Multi-Generational and Multi-Lingual Sunday

A couple fun events from today:

Simultaneous Norske Obligations in Two Cities

Last summer I was asked to serve on the board of directors for Trollfjorden Language and Cultural Camp, the Norwegian camp that our family has attended the past two summers (see 2010 and 2009).  There are generally two board meetings between summertime camp sessions: one in the fall and another in the spring.  At the fall meeting (at a board member's home near Glenburn, ND), I was elected treasurer, so I have had some money-related duties to carry out since then.  The spring board meeting was today in Minot, ND, so I made a quick up-and-back trip today without the ladies.  They couldn't come because they had an important event of their own to attend:

Green Overload

Just like last weekend, our Scandinavian Saturday supper tonight was preceded by a day full of errands and followed by a trip to the university for an arts performance.  Unlike last weekend, however, we managed to make several dishes for the meal.  Suzanna was my helper today, and she ended up making most of the meal!

Looks good, doesn't it?  I know you want to know what it all is, so I'll tell you:

Newly Installed

At today's Sons of Norway lodge meeting, the new officers for the year were installed.  Susan, who served as newsletter editor last year, will do so again this year.  She will also take on the role of secretary, taking minutes at every meeting (and she used her new netbook to do that today!).  I used to be vice president, but now I'm taking over Susan's old role as youth director.  Suzanna was lodge musician last year and will continue in that capacity this year.  We'll see what these new roles and duties bring our way throughout the year!

Norwegian Pre-Christmas Christmas

This afternoon we attended the monthly meeting of our Sons of Norway lodge, followed by its Christmas supper and program.  Before the meal, Suzanna (who serves as Musician for our lodge) enlisted her sisters to help her lead the meeting attendees in singing the Norwegian Christmas hymn "Jeg Er Så Glad Hver Julekveld" ["I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve"].  After the meal, the program director asked everyone to share aloud a favorite Christmas memory, after which Suzanna and her sisters led the lodge members in singing aloud several familiar Christmas carols.  Fun and festive!

Our friend Monica brought Santa hats for the girls to wear this afternoon.  Here they are posing by the keyboard that Monica donated to the lodge for Suzanna to use in leading us in singing the national anthems and other songs for lodge programs.

Music, Sculpture, Theatre, and a Bonus Video

Abigail got up early with me this morning to clear out the driveway so that she, her sisters, and Susan could get to church at 7:30 A.M. for choir rehearsals, Sunday school, and church.  I stayed behind and finished the snowblowing and shoveling, which turned out to be a two-hour job.  Fun.  Then I did some school work, knowing that I'd have no time to finish it this afternoon or evening due to our jam-packed schedule of three main events:

Special Events

Yesterday Suzanna took her grandpa (Susan's dad, Roger) to a Veterans Day program held on the university campus.  Suzanna's geography teacher, himself in the military, encouraged his students to attend and suggested that they invite a veteran to accompany them . . . . so Suzanna did that!  She didn't have school yesterday anyway, so she phoned Grandpa and asked if he could pick her up.  Afterward I asked Suzanna for a debriefing, and she said that it had been interesting but that the speakers "weren't really talking with seventh-graders in mind"; she didn't know really what their speeches were about.  At least it was quality grandpa/granddaughter time.

This evening Susan and Suzanna went off to a rosemaling workshop (sponsored by our Sons of Norway lodge) that will continue all day tomorrow, so Abigail, Hillary, and I went by ourselves to a music concert, the next one in the Dickinson Area Concert Association's series for this season.  We thoroughly enjoyed Cahal Dunne, an Irish pianist and singer who has lived in the U.S. for a couple decades.  He told jokes (very funny) between songs and played instrumental solos (expertly--he's a classically trained pianist) and accompanied himself as he sang (with an easy-to-listen-to voice) and changed his suit coat often to match the kinds of songs that he would be playing (e.g., red/white/blue for patriotic tunes).  And it was a super-long concert; we definitely got our money's worth!  You can hear some of his jokes, piano playing, and singing here.

Susan's Handiwork

Look what Susan just finished:

Click on this photo--or any of the others--to see the item in greater detail.

Fast and Delicious

Uff-da!  It's been a whole month since the last time that I and one of my ladies cooked up a Scandinavian Saturday supper for the family.  I made such a meal on October 9.  However, on October 16, Susan made ethnic German foods instead; on October 23, our family was in Minot, ND (and my Scandinavian food that weekend was a meal made by a woman from Norway!); and on October 30, our family had supper with Susan's extended family at a gathering at her aunt and uncle's home.  But we were home tonight, so Abigail took her turn as my helper, and this is what we served:

Intrigued?  Read on!

Sunday Fine Arts

This morning at church, we enjoyed the music of Copper Street Brass, a brass quintet from Minneapolis, MN.  They are phenomenal!  They provided prelude and postlude music but also played brass arrangements of the liturgical music, joining the organist throughout the service.  If you are a lover of live music, you can probably imagine the feeling that we members of the congregation had as the full, rich sounds of the brass instruments filled up the church and washed over us as we sang along.  You can watch some videos and listen to several excerpts of the group's performances here.

This afternoon I headed back to church to lead my Mentor Group in a service project (more on that tomorrow) while Susan took the girls to a Sons of Norway lodge meeting.  You may recall that, at last month's lodge meeting, Hillary had the winning bid on an ethnic troll sculpture.  Well, today was Abigail's turn to submit the winning bid on another sculpture up for auction!  Hillary's sculpture was of a troll witch, and Abigail's is of a troll couple.  And Hillary happened to win a door prize at today's meeting: an autumn-themed candle holder.

Abigail's troll couple sculture and Hillary's door prize

Lutefisk and Lefse

After baking lefse and Scandinavian desserts yesterday, we were ready and eager for our Sons of Norway lodge's annual lutefisk supper this afternoon and evening!  During my morning reading (of on-line newspapers and blogs), I encountered these related tidbits:

• The editor of the Dickinson Press wrote an editorial for today's paper in which he promoted our lodge's lutefisk supper even while making fun of lutefisk itself.
• A columnist (whose writing appears in several ND newspapers) proclaimed this the start of "Norwegian Week" in the state due to some important Norske-themed events in Bismarck and Minot.
• A blogger for the Sons of Norway wrote about an unusual event held in MN this weekend: a lutefisk toss!

That put me in the right frame of mind for the day.  I chose to wear the Norwegian flag tie and Norwegian silver tie clip that I received for my last birthday; and whenever someone at church this morning would remark on my tie, I took the opportunity to promote the lutefisk supper and invite them to attend.

All Hands on Deck for Scandinavian Cooking

Today was all about preparing Scandinavian food with our entire family involved in one project or another.  It was my turn to cook alone for our household's weekly Scandinavian Saturday supper.  Furthermore, we all helped to prepare for our Sons of Norway lodge's annual lutefisk supper, to be held tomorrow, by making lefse and treats to contribute to the dessert table for that meal.  And I've got lots of photos to share, so let's get started!

We Decided to Czech It Out

This morning the girls had Sunday school at our church, and then Susan swiftly drove them to Medora so that they (and other children's choir members from our church) could sing for the church service there that precedes the annual fundraising dinner and auction for Badlands Ministries, which runs the summer Bible camp that the girls attend.  Then she zipped them back to Dickinson so that we could make it to our Sons of Norway lodge's monthly meeting, one of two interesting ethnic events from our day.

Death in the Family

Susan's first day of school this year started with a phone call bearing sad news: her grandma Laura had died the night before.  (That's why Susan wore to school that day a necklace that Laura had rosemaled--remember seeing it in the photo a couple days ago?)  Just last November, Laura's husband (Susan's grandpa) passed away (remember?), and Laura's health declined steadily in the months thereafter.  Laura moved from a nursing home in town to one in Richardton, ND, where she lived her last few weeks with good care and individual attention.  Susan and the girls stopped there to visit with her about a week ago, and Susan's dad Roger and a couple of his sisters spent most of their time with her in her final days.  She died peacefully Tuesday night, and her funeral was today.

Scandinavian Overload

Do you recognize what these children are doing?

Fish Fry and Frozen Food

I know that you want to know what everything is.  Read on!

Because I took Susan out to eat last night to celebrate our anniversary, our family did not have a Scandinavian Saturday supper.  Instead, Abigail (my helper this week) and I planned to make the Nordic meal tonight, and that's just what we did.  Well, we did prepare tonight's dessert yesterday afternoon so that it would have plenty of time to freeze, but otherwise it was a Scandinavian Sunday supper this week.  (It was a Scandinavian Sunday in another way, too: we spent the first part of the afternoon at a Sons of Norway meeting for our lodge.)