On the street

I knew this would be a big year for walking. I'm grateful for the lovely weather we've had while we're all getting into shape and getting used to the long walks. It'll feel like much more of a trudge come winter with her dark mornings and afternoons. I had not, until recently, anticipated the stairs we'd be walking daily in our flat, and until we arrived, I had no idea that Stockholm was built on enormous rocks, so the streets are very hilly and there are often stair from one to the next, as on the walk to the kids' school. Stairs, stairs, everywhere! My quads are burning just writing about it.

I am not a fashionable person - I've often joked that I should have been a grade school teacher, because I dress a little frumpy and a lot practical, like someone who'd spend all day dealing with children. Then I met grade school teachers and realized most of them are much more fashionable than I could ever hope to be. There goes that.

As we prepped for the move, I accepted that I would simply have the clothes I had, and comforted myself with the stories of "geniuses" who wear the same thing every day - the Steve Jobses of the world - because my whole wardrobe consists of jeans and black tops. Occasionally a colored top with a black cardigan (except I lost my favorite black cardigan - the only one I brought - in the first week after arriving, and am having to supplement with a not-at-all-favorite black fleece jacket that took me one step further from style). For a trip like this, with less than one large suitcase per person (because we had to bring some household items in those seven suitcases), practical clothes were way more important than stylish clothes. Not that I owned any stylish clothes to consider.

Still. I felt anxious about walking the streets of Stockholm and feeling frumpy and dumpy. I am especially aware of glances because I am walking five kids down the street, and that's not at all common here! Marianne remarked after the first day of school that her friends were SHOCKED to hear she had FOUR siblings; they thought that was crazy. I'm not shocked to hear that reaction, but I forget sometimes that my crew has grown up in the large family haven that is Lincoln, and St. T's in particular. So you begin with the oddity of a family with five kids traipsing down the street, then add to it that my kids aren't used to the busy foot traffic, "walk-on-the-right, stay out of the way, and watch out for bikes on that bike path next to you!" of the city, so I'm basically herding cats, and we look a little like a circus out there. So yes, people are looking at me. A glance here and there. And I wouldn't mind not looking so frumpy that I, well, match a stereotype I'd rather not match. I want to at least look like I've got my act together. I want to offer that quiet witness to the beauty and fun of raising children instead of looking like a raving lunatic who can't keep her kids out from under foot, and is frumpy to boot.

All that to say, really, that I've been pleasantly surprised. I don't feel all that out of place. Folks in this part of Stockholm run the gamut for attire. Lots of tennis shoes and jeans. Lots of much dressier stuff, especially during the commuting times. Some really quirky pattern-on-pattern combos that I wish I could sneak a quick photo of, because WOW. But the clothes are so widely varied that I think anyone could "fit in" here, and that's put me at ease. I suppose that's just a city, and the variety that comes with it. It's much more about the confidence with which you walk than what you're wearing when you do, and there's a little life lesson for you that I wish we could all learn in 4th or 5th grade, because wouldn't that make life easier for us all?

When the first rainy day came, I realized I'd planned much better for the kids than for myself. At least for the little kids. They had their rain suits and good boots. The older girls have excellent water proof boots, but theirs, like mine, are snow boots. I was wishing I'd bought us all some wellies as well, but let's be honest, I'd never have been able to fit them in the suitcases. Happily, I discovered that, while there are Stockholmers in full rain gear, the majority were out in their regular clothes and shoes with umbrellas, so we're not totally off base and under-prepared.

It's crazy, the things your mind can fixate on and choose to waste worry on, isn't it?

I've had three or four people ask ME for directions in that past few days - for which I was utterly useless, "uh? English?" - so I'm going to assume I'm doing alright at blending, and try to quit worrying about it.