Welcome to Hej Y'all. I came up
with the name of this blog because, "Hej", pronounced the same as hey
or hay in English, is the primary greeting in Sweden and the word,
"Y'all," is the Southern word I can never escape, no matter how much
of my accent I drop. I live life in the in between of a lot of things. I am
neither totally here nor there. Rarely are things black and white and I reject
most labels. Once you think you have me figured out, you will discover you are
probably wrong.
FAMILY: In 2008, while living in New Jersey, I met a Swedish woman named Camilla over the crazy thing that is the internet. We became instant friends and, through many long, intense conversations, fell head over heels in love. It took another year, several visits and a lot of paperwork, but I packed up and moved everything I owned across an ocean in 2010. We married in September of that year and welcomed an amazing daughter in February of 2013. We hope that our family will someday be more than just 3 and a cat, but we don't exactly know when or how. (There will be a family section of this blog that will be password protected, just to keep it a bit more private. If you would like the password, just leave a comment or message.) I now hold dual-citizenship and am very proud of that.
FAITH: I believe in Jesus and grace and love and that most people are inherently good. I believe in loving people as Jesus loves us. I don't believe that we have to believe the same things in order to show each other respect and love. I am working very hard to put that into practice in my daily life. We're still looking for that perfect church fit for our family. I know we'll find it at some point. I love praise music and reading books from other open-minded Christians. I truly love the honestly of faith that is being shared now. So few fit into that cookie cutter mold and that's okay. It's wonderful, even. In the pretty terrible Kevin Costner film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a child asks Morgan Freeman's character, Azeem, "Did God paint you?" He responds, "For certain." When she asks why, he says, "Because Allah loves wondrous variety." I love that so much.
Food: I am currently a stay-at-home mom and the head chef of our kitchen. I grew up in the Southern US, so my favorite meals tend to have that comfort food quality. I try to use healthy, whole ingredients and usually avoid processed anything. You'll rarely, if ever, see a mix or cream-of-whatever soup. If it can be done from scratch, it will be. I don't have access to the same products in Sweden that I had in the US and there are no 24-hour groceries around, so I have learned to make do. Things usually taste better, anyway. I will try to add a few Swedish recipes, too, just altered enough to be easy. I will always try to link to the original recipe, as I usually modify from something I happen upon.
So, that's this blog in a
nutshell. Thank you for stopping by. If you have any questions or comments,
don't hesitate to contact me.
