Category: general

18
Jan
2009

THE MORE WE WRITE THE LESS WE DIE*

I read Post Secret via my RSS feed every Sunday. Sometimes I can’t relate to some of the secrets that are posted, but most of the time I am touched, moved, amused or saddened by the things that people confess to. This one, posted today, struck me cold and silent for a moment. Isn’t this SO TRUE? I can’t grasp it either. I can’t fathom the fact that I won’t live forever. Can you? We talked about it a bit at book group on Thursday night, though the central focus was, of course, on books, and the central anguish in...

16
Jan
2009

THEY’LL THANK ME FOR IT SOME DAY

Conversation in the car: Karin: Mom, EVERYONE has a Wii except for us. Liz: What, EVERYONE? EVERY SINGLE ONE? Really? That’s so sad! Karin: It’s true. Liz: Awww, you poor thing, and here you’ve only JUST gotten Playstation 2. Karin: *sighs* Liz: Too bad you have such sucky parents that only buy the old stuff and the used stuff and the hand-me-down stuff. Karin: Yeah. Liz: Hey! Wrong answer!! Karin: *giggles madly* Poor Karin. It’s true, though. We are really cheap when it comes to the toys and gadgets our kids have. It’s not that we don’t buy them things,...

14
Jan
2009

BITS OF TID

I hate the beginning-of-the-year-no-money-after-the-holidays feeling. Would give up a body part for a long massage. Preferably my neck. Have power-walked for 20 minutes 2 days in a row at WORK…on the treadmill in the stinky boy’s gym in the basement. Otherwise all power-walking has been on my own new christmas-present-treadmill or outside and I have only missed 2 days so far since Christmas. Go me! Those of you with kids: what’s their bedtime on school nights vs weekend nights? And how old are they? If they’re older than 9 or 11, what time did they go to bed when they...

12
Jan
2009

THE MOMENT IS HELD UNTIL SOMEONE SEES IT, THEN IT IS THEIRS*

The digital camera has made a photographer of many people who may have thought they never had the talent to shoot beautiful images. It’s usually easy to use, light to carry, and you can take as many photos as you like. The addition of Photoshop has also almost certainly revolutionized photography, giving photographers and artists alike the chance to make the fine adjustments that provide the difference between a good photograph and a great one. I know, for my part, using a camera is primarily meant to document: things the children are doing, happenings and events like birthdays and holidays,...

11
Jan
2009

A YEAR IN THE LIFE, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF

I moved to Sweden twelve years ago today. In total I’ve lived 18 years of my life abroad, all of it in Europe. Strangely enough, however, I don’t feel European. But, nor do I feel totally American. I seem to be sitting somewhere on the great expat divide, neither fish nor fowl. Maybe that is how global citizens should feel. It would be nice, I think, to be considered a citizen of Earth, rather than having to adhere to one particular nationality or country. Twelve years! The first year was so strange, like a little mini adventure. We were newly...

10
Jan
2009

MISS SCARLET, IN THE KITCHEN WITH THE CANDLESTICK

I’m succeeding slowly in getting the kids interested in playing board games. We started some time ago with Monopoly, and we played Sorry! recently and then my mom’s family Christmas present arrived for us yesterday: CLUE! The kids and I played last night, and I won just to show them how it was done. Then we all played tonight, after we got home from Anders’ nephew’s birthday party, at which Martin talked to me non-stop about CLUE and the characters and the rooms and the weapons and asked me a million questions until my head was about to explode, and...

09
Jan
2009

NEVER SAY NEVER

What job would you never take? What food would you never eat? What place would you never visit? What lie would you never tell? Four quick questions off the top of my head, just to jump-start myself and get the writing juices flowing. People say “Never say never” all the time, because fact is, lots of people say they’ll never do or say something and later find themselves saying or doing that very thing under circumstances they could never have imagined years earlier. “I’ll never be like my dad,” a teenager yells, only to catch himself years later saying the...

05
Jan
2009

A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT

Craving sunshine nearly as much as I’m craving snow, I was delighted to see the sun smiling in a bright blue sky when I woke, vacation-late as usual, this morning. Anders and the kids were headed out the door to their grandparents; Anders is going to help them paint their bathroom this week, and I, quite honestly, am glad of some alone time. I worked on my editing project for a couple of hours and ate a big salad for lunch, and then the call of the sunshine overwhelmed me at last and pushed me out the door. Brrr! It...

04
Jan
2009

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

We’ve been at our wit’s end with Martin’s eating habits lately. Karin’s no walk in the park either, for that matter. She doesn’t like chocolate, cheese, bread or sauces. Martin eats his meals with tiny mouse bites and gags easily and won’t eat anything that has the slightest discoloration or oddness to it: if it’s too hard or too dry or too anything, he just won’t eat it. Both of them are very decided about what edibles they “don’t like” or “won’t eat” but strangely, they’re both usually pretty good about at least trying new things. Yesterday, we were trying...

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