Got my stimulus check today, the second one, plus the printed copies of my 2020 blog books. A good mail day, for sure. The volume of my 2020 blog book is VERY slim. one of the slimmest, but the last four years have all been slim, so. It makes me wonder what the heck I wrote so much about in earlier years. I suspect some years just made fatter books because there were lots of photos included in them. Now that the kids are gone, I’m not taking very many photos, and when I do, I tend to put them on Instagram, not here.
Weird, that I seem to keep things separate on my various social media platforms. It’s rare that I share Instagram posts to Facebook. And I never share my blog there (on my own feed, I mean). I guess if I did I would get more than the handful of readers I have now, but I don’t really care. I put my writing here, my photos on Insta, and my off-the-cuff comments on Facebook. I don’t use Twitter or anything else, so it’s just these three personal spaces.
Anders and his sister sorted and packed up his mom’s room in record time, met with the funeral home and made a bunch of decisions. They took stuff to the dump and a big pile to charity, plus brought home a few boxes and things to our respective homes. We also have 4 paintings and an antique clock to get valued and then put up for auction. And a whole box of photo albums to go through. Anders says he thinks most of the photos are from trips his parents went on, and pictures of his dad’s model airplanes, so probably not much to keep. They are meeting with the minister from Oxie church tomorrow morning, early, to finalize funeral arrangements. There will be an actual in-person funeral, as we found out we’re allowed to have a total of 20 people in the church (including the priest, organist and usher). We won’t be anywhere near that many, as with Anders’ uncle (if he comes), and Maria’s family, plus us, we would only be 8. Which is fine. The obituary is coming out in the paper on Sunday and then we also need to make a few phone calls to Märta’s friends and one remaining cousin. The nice thing is that they will also organize a livestream so those who cannot attend in person, like Martin, can watch online.
Anders and Karin are leaving to go skiing tomorrow, for a week, with Anders’ friend from work. They’re going up north in Sweden, about a 12-hour drive, but it’s to a smaller ski area, and it’s not a holiday week, so I’m hoping it won’t be packed with people. Anders says his mom would have told him, “Of course you are going!” and it will be good for him to think about something else for a week. They’ve all promised to be extra super careful and won’t be going to any after-skis or being stupid about being around people.
Normally, I would be looking forward to a week alone, but since I so rarely leave the house or see anyone, and I will be working anyway, it just seems like it will be a regular, albeit quieter/lonelier week. Once I’m done with Dickinson, I’ll finally start watching The Mandalorian, I guess.
Karin and I went for a 5K walk on Sunday, up the gravel road and out into the fields north of Flyinge. There are only a handful of houses and farms up there, and we were only passed by 1 car and one father and daughter with dog, out for a bike ride. It was the first of my 12 5Ks of 2021, which I promised myself to try and do this year. It wasn’t hard at all, even though sometimes when walking in the neighborhood, I really feel my ages in my hips and knees. Karin says after I’ve done a couple, I’ll be wanting to bump it up to 2 a month, or 3. I laughed and said I thought that was pretty doubtful. I am still doing 20 minutes almost every day on the treadmill, too, though none of that is helping with weight loss. I’m glad we went for the walk last weekend, as we got a few inches of snow last night and it’s quite icy and slippery out on the roads now.
We’ve had two weeks of HelloFresh, and I’m sold (partly because Anders does all the cooking, haha)! Really good recipes, really fresh ingredients, and really fun flavor combinations. We’ve put a hold on for next week since he’s away, and I have one recipe left from this week that I’ll make for myself this weekend, since we didn’t get them all done, due to the circumstances. I hope some of the recipes will repeat, actually, because there have already been some that I think are keepers. Anders says the recipes aren’t EASY as there’s often a lot of prep and fiddling, and there’s a lot of packaging, due to the small portions needed for recipes for 2 people, but he’s pleased as well, so we’ll continue. Might choose to order some for 4 people instead, so we have leftovers. The portions they provide are almost always perfect for two people, though we have managed a lunch or two out of some of them.
It seems to be harder to write every couple of days when I’m working full-time. But, here I am. And at some point, I hope, so are you.