Lizardek

26
Dec
2021

POST-HOLIDAY BLISS

It’s the day after Christmas, at the end of 2021. It was a good Christmas in many ways…the four of us back together and everything ready in plenty of time so no one was stressed. I had most of my shopping done by the end of November, almost all of it done online, and the last of the things I ordered arrived well in advance. Karin helped Anders with ordering stuff for me, so he wasn’t stressed out either, at least not that I could tell. 🙂 We did a big grocery shop for both Christmas eve and Christmas day...

23
Dec
2021

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2021

This year started as the last one ended, with the pandemic still in full swing. Liz worked from home full-time all the way from October 2020 until the end of the summer this year, when she started back in the office 50%. She’s now up to 70% but is actually hoping to still be able to continue to work from home part-time. In January, Karin moved into a new apartment in Lund. She was still working at Flyinge School. Martin was working at Dominos Pizza in Detroit, still basically hunkered down in quarantine mode. On New Year’s Day, we got...

16
Dec
2021

BEGIN AGAIN

I can’t begin to count the number of times I think about writing here, and don’t. I can’t begin to count the number of times I think about calling someone I love, and don’t. I can’t begin to count the number of things I think about taking a photograph of, and don’t. I can’t begin to count the number of TV series and movies I think about watching, and don’t. I can’t begin to count the number of things that will never live on for posterity because they happen and I didn’t memorialize them in either words or pictures. Ah...

04
Dec
2021

COUNTING DOWN

We’re now in the end run, counting down through the last month of the year. The clock on 2021 is running out. Thankfully, the clock to the winter solstice is counting up and it’s only a month, give or take, until the darkest day, and then the slow return of the light. We’ve had snow on the ground for a week, and extremely cold temperatures. Here in Flyinge, for some reason, everything sticks and ices over and hangs on for weeks after the rest of SkÃ¥ne to the south of us has melted. It’s pretty, so I mostly don’t mind,...

28
Nov
2021

GIVING MEANS GETTING AND WE DO, IN SPADES

Yesterday was our annual Friendsgiving. We were looking forward to it SO much and it didn’t disappoint. It was the first time Martin has been included in 4 years (he DID have family Thanksgivings in Michigan with my mom, and occasionally my sister so he wasn’t totally deprived). The first year after we moved to Sweden, when I was hugely pregnant with Martin, we had Thanksgiving in our apartment, with my mom and Anders’ family, who had never been subjected to traditional American Thanksgiving food before and didn’t quite know what to make of the stuffing or the pumpkin pie....

20
Nov
2021

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEKEND

Dang, this month is getting away from me. It’s the weekend again and I’ve been thinking that I need to get a post written so here I am. This morning I woke up slowly, from very complicated, weird, but interesting dreams that of course I can no longer remember. It’s nice to wake up with a nice feeling like you were in the middle of a good story dream, even if it evaporates all too quickly. I wouldn’t tell you what it was even if I could remember it, because I believe dreams are of zero interest to anyone but...

08
Nov
2021

GIGGLING AND GRAVESTONES

This past Saturday was All Saints Day (also known as All Hallow’s Day) here in Sweden. It was late this year, falling on November 6. A lot of older Swedes are against Halloween simply because when it falls on a Saturday, which means it is ALSO All Saints Day, the sacredness of the holiday is overshadowed by the newfangled ridiculousness of an American holiday which “doesn’t even belong here”. So I’m always glad when Halloween doesn’t hit All Saints Day. What’s really super confusing is that there are TWO All Saints Days, both of which are celebrated in Sweden. One...

06
Nov
2021

DOING NOTHING

Sometimes you really need downtime. This weekend we have no plans, and today showed it. As a person who thrives on checking things off to-do lists, not doing anything is really hard for me, and often impossible, because of course, I can’t do NOTHING for two days, even if it is a weekend with no plans. So, even if I manage to sleep in until after 9 (which requires waking up at 6 to go to the bathroom, and 7 again because my internal clock is apparently set to get up for work regardless, and finally falling back asleep, and...

04
Nov
2021

3 THINGS

Things I like about autumn scuffing through fallen leaves, a nip in the air, trees that turn red Things I already miss about summer blue blue skies late into the evening, being able to go for walks after work and having it still be light out, sitting on the deck enjoying the greenery Things I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, baking Christmas cookies, the end of the fucking pandemic (it will end, won’t it?) Things that are on the menu lately plain bagels with cream cheese and sea salt, clementines, mushroom soup Things in my house that make me happy...

31
Oct
2021

PUMPKIN TO TALK ABOUT

There’s no knowing when you will do something for the last time. I suppose this is why we cling so to tradition. It’s a continuation in an uncertain world. All those years of holiday celebrations, dressing up for Halloween, coloring eggs for Easter, cooking turkeys for Thanksgiving, filling stockings for Christmas; they’re all ways to hold on to what we have, and what we want to remember and most of all what we want to pay forward into our lives. Yesterday, I went and bought Halloween candy and filled our biggest bowl in anticipation of trick-or-treaters tonight. Last year, trick-or-treating...

May 2024
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