Yearly Archive: 2011

23
Jun
2011

VACATION STATE OF MIND

My entire family is on vacation except for me. Martin has 8.5 weeks. Karin has 10 weeks. Anders changed his scheduled vacation time and took next week off, so he has 5 weeks off as of today. I’m still working next week (and as we speak, actually) but then I have 4 weeks off. And it’s a 3-day weekend right now (as soon as I quit working, already). But still. 10…8.5…5…4…I think I’m getting the short end of the vacation stick.* It’s 9 pm and the sun is still high in the sky. It’s shining right through the bedroom windows...

20
Jun
2011

DON’T LOOK INTO THE LIGHT

Sometimes it’s good to take a break, even when it’s unexpected, and even when the very thought of it makes you a little twitchy. Our Internet has been wonky for ages. We can either be online on the PC OR the iPad OR the iPhone OR the Internet-TV OR the laptop, but not more than any one of them at once. And we have to constantly disable/enable/disable/enable the Internet on the PC. It’s incredibly annoying, but at least when it stops working COMPLETELY, you have to go and do something else, right? I’ve been hacking away at the to-do list...

14
Jun
2011

BUSY ON

Pay bills, including money to klasskassa Buy teacher gifts for Debbie & Inger Get dryer fixed Search for and buy new or used trampoline WALK WALK WALK Start WW again Send email to regional speakers requesting bios Get presentation title from Laurie Renew Swedish passport for Karin File US taxes Send reminder invite for regional to all clubs Check with Cate about Embassy speaker Email Kamila about ad for company donation Email Tobbe about recycled printer for program & ad Start program layout for regional Schedule a long-overdue massage Book hostels for Iceland Plan Iceland itinerary Replace wilting/dead pansies with...

11
Jun
2011

INVINCIBLE SUMMER

Things that I am grooving on lately: Looking: Swedish summer! Listening: Sara Bareilles — Little Voice Reading: Bill Bryson — At Home, A History of Private Life Drinking: Schweppes Pear Lime Fusion Eating: mozzarella & tomatoes, red seedless grapes Flowering: Paradisbuskena (Paradise bushes! latin: Kolkwitzia Amabilis), it’s called Beauty Bush in English, and it really is incredible. Giant bushes FULL of these gorgeous deep pink flowers Karin took this photo of the farmhouse behind us. It’s falling apart…no one has lived in it or taken care of it for a couple of years now. The green-covered mound to the right...

06
Jun
2011

AFTERNOON ON A SUNNY SUMMER HOLIDAY

The breeze is ruffling the parasol—it’s making flapping sounds like the wings of some large captive bird. A delirious dance of wind and rippling fabric. The eges of the parasol are frayed; it’s almost always windy here and they’ve had several summers’ worth of windy workouts. The sun has heated the wooden boards of the deck to a degree that makes them unpleasant to walk barefoot on. The wood is bleached to a soothing gray and darker knotholes contrast with marching rows of shiny nailheads. Dandelions, grass and clover stretch illicit green fingers up between the planks. Karin just came...

04
Jun
2011

ENTERTAINING MY BROTHER

I wasn’t going to post today because I didn’t really feel like I had that much to say, but my brother is stuck in a hospital room 3.5 hours from home with his wife, who is under observation to make sure her contractions have stopped, so they don’t have a 6.5-week preemie. They had just started their vacation when she started having the contractions and ended up in the hospital. He has books to read (in German) and a TV in the room (in German) but not much else, and Simone can’t even sit up so they’re pretty stuck. She...

02
Jun
2011

HOLIDAYS, CASTLES, ANNIVERSARIES, SHOWERS & A QUESTION

It’s gone a week, nearly, and suddenly it’s June. And I’m beginning to have that panicky feeling of “where has the year gone?” It’s nearly half over! Eeek! Christmas will be here before you know it! Haaa! Anders comes home tomorrow from his 3-weeks of jaunting. He’s home for a week, then gone for a week then gone for the weekend, then gone for a week. THEN he’s on vacation, and we still haven’t bought tickets for our trip to Iceland. I don’t even know if we can really afford it. There seems to be no end to the things...

27
May
2011

MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

Dropping Martin and his schoolmates off at school this morning, his teacher, who is also a friend through the AWC, was walking up toward the car. I beeped the horn at her and waved and she stopped at the passenger door to say hello. We exchanged small talk for a minute and she commiserated on the fact that Anders is traveling so much right now. I said I was hanging in there and that the kids help a lot, nowadays. She laughed and said she’d actually asked Martin just this week what the difference was between having mom home and...

23
May
2011

CAPTURED

There’s nothing nicer than going for a walk in May. The lilacs are blooming, the lupines are blooming, the rapeseed is glowing. The weedy edges of the meadows are leggy and exploding; and wisps float on the sunshine-filled air. A blackbird trills ahead of us; a hedge is filled with sparrows fluttering and busily rustling. Beech hedges shine in the sunlight and everyone we meet is smiling. A new neighbor’s brand-new puppy gambols in the dandelions. At first, the kids didn’t really want to go for the walk, but they warmed up to the idea. 🙂 Do I HAVE to...

21
May
2011

RAPTURE

I think I’m blessed as a mother. It’s a pleasure to me, most of the time, to be around my children, to look at them and to hear what they have to say. As someone who, as a young woman, never particularly wanted children, and was pretty miserable through pregnancy, it’s sometimes boggling to me to look upon my progeny and realize how lucky I am. They’re beautiful. Both physically and mentally. They’re well-proportioned, sleek of skin and formed just right. They’re healthy and strong and their eyes shine, their teeth are straight and everything functions just as it should....

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