Author: lizardek

09
Jan
2012

STARTING LINE

I’m motivated to do some things, but not others. I have a long mental list of things I want to get done, resolutions to get started on, overdue and neglected projects to start back up. Instead, I find myself reading. Big surprise! I haven’t even made a real to-do list for much of it because I …can’t figure out where to start. If I send myself email reminders about urgent or semi-urgent things, I get them done, but though it seems smart to send myself emails that say: Call the immigration board about residence card or Schedule appointment with new...

05
Jan
2012

SOFT START

The Swedes have a saying about getting a “soft start” on something (mjukstart), which means to ease in gradually. Right now we are having a mjukstart to the year, which we have every year here due to the fact that January 6 is a National Holiday. It’s Epiphany, which is a religious holiday in a very non-religious country. In fact, the calendar year is full of national holidays based on the old religious celebrations, though they did take away Whitsun a few years ago, or rather traded it for Sweden’s National Day (June 6). Last year, after January 6 we...

04
Jan
2012

DISBELIEF

I’m so sad and upset…one of my favorite people on LJ, someone I’ve been reading practically since I started writing this journal, just passed away. She was the most lovely person, full of wonderful, hilarious observations and stories and a quirky fantastic writer. I’m thankful that I ordered a book of her short stories a few years back so that I can read her words whenever I want to, but O!!! How can the place where her voice was be silenced? My heart goes out to her daughter and the rest of her family. jackiejj, you will be SO missed....

01
Jan
2012

FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE

I’ve often heard the adage that how you spend the first day of the year is how you will spend ALL of it, but I don’t think it’s necessarily true. However, if it is, I will be sleeping, eating, reading, listening to music, doing laundry, having computer issues and relaxing. Which, apart from working and my social life, is basically a thorough summary of how I spent LAST year so maybe the adage is backwards! I don’t really do New Year’s resolutions…I find, like most people, that the motivation disappears quickly, and so I try to set some manageable goals...

30
Dec
2011

RETROSPECTIVE

n just over a week, I will have been in Sweden for 15 years. It’s hard to believe that much time has gone by, because mostly, it seems to have happened in the blink of an eye. Didn’t I just move here? Can I really speak Swedish? Are my kids really this tall? This has been a good year for us, and it has also zoomed by almost too fast for me to keep track of. I’ve managed to slow down to an almost dead stop this week though, and have found (rather to my surprise), that I really NEEDED...

26
Dec
2011

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

One thing that I love to do when giving gifts is to shock the recipient into speechlessness. It’s not very easy to do, and it takes a lot of hard work and observation and sometimes sheer audacity and unexpectedness. Anders and I have done a pretty good job of it the past few years when it’s come to the kids’ Christmas gifts. But with a gift they NEVER expected, from parents who have always said, “No way, save your money, those are too expensive,” we managed to shock the both of them into complete speechlessness this year. Everything else they...

24
Dec
2011

MERRY MERRY!

Anders and I just finished the wrapping, and all we have to do is put the last of the gifts under the tree after the kids are in bed, which they will be in a moment. Martin wins the biggest present under the tree this year; he’s going to goggle when he sees the package…it’s as tall as me! 😀 Our annual Ek Family Christmas letter is below, and here is a link to the photos that go with it. I’m glad that the only thing I have not managed to get done in the week since mostly recovering from...

22
Dec
2011

NOT QUITE STRESSMAS

Why is it that every year when I’m buying Christmas presents, and am so careful to keep the piles even, there inevitably comes a day about a week before the 25th where I get all the bags and boxes out of the closet and put them on the bed and divide them into their respective recipient piles and discover that one of the kids has a disproportionately larger pile of loot than the other, necessitating some rather panicked shopping expeditions in the worst of the holiday madness? Thought I was done. Turns out, I’m not. Even if it’s only a...

19
Dec
2011

KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR

2 weekends ago, after I had spent Saturday night throwing up every hour on the hour and was lying in bed Sunday morning completely exhausted and feverish, my husband put his cool hand on my forehead and said, “STAY IN BED.” He brought me ice water and ginger ale when I moaned. He went to the store and bought a tin of gingersnaps because I thought I might be able to keep them down. He checked on me every so often and rubbed my neck when the headaches struck. When I was throwing up, he brought me water and went...

17
Dec
2011

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS

Being sick and bedridden for a week and a half does not make for exciting blog fodder. Disgusting blog fodder, maybe, but who wants to hear about that? I have not weighed myself to see how much weight I have lost in the past 8 days of not eating anything because today I ate. Actually I ate yesterday, too, but it was pretty minimal, and it was MEDICINAL and also, full of love vitamins: Anders made me chicken soup from scratch. Wasn’t that nice? There is a little bit left, and since there was also leftover macaroni from yesterday, I’m...

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