Lizardek

28
Dec
2005

FIDGETS

God, I’m in a weird mood today. I’ve felt at loose ends since I got up. I couldn’t settle to anything. I started to make the bed and abandoned it halfway through, as I discovered hours later when I went in to put laundry away and found the pillows still on the bench and the comforter flung halfway up. The kids and I cleaned out a ton of their old toys, something we should have done, but never got around to, before Christmas. Now I have to decide if we’re going to give them away, or donate them, or try...

27
Dec
2005

IF YOU GET MY DRIFT

It’s the epitome of a winter wonderland here. We’ve had snow, fat and flurrious, white and wondrous, softly falling, whipping sideways, whiteout sifting, all day. Sometime around midday, I heard the thunk and swoop of the shovel; Anders was out futilely clearing the driveway as the flakes floated down around him softly and quickly re-coating everything. The kids bundled up and took off like rockets into the snow. I had been admiring the pristine…and trackless…vistas from the window and was suddenly jolted from my reverie by the knowledge that every soft white surface would shortly be a churned and stomped...

26
Dec
2005

FURTHER UP AND FURTHER IN

This morning, we woke to a dusting of snow, and snow still flying sideways, although it wasn’t sticking by then. A day late, snow, you missed the white Christmas by a day! After a few hours it was pretty much gone from the streets, melting as the temperature climbed a few degrees above zero. Driving into town later, the fields so recently brown and bare, were candy-striped green and white with snow in the tractor tracks and in the furrows. A red-tailed hawk perched on a leftover pile of sugarbeets; apparently the highest spot around. Proof That I’m Not the...

25
Dec
2005

FILLED UP

We’re replete with good wishes, goodwill, good food, present satisfaction both on the giving and the receiving end. Tiny Lego pieces are strewn from one end of the playroom to the other. Martin has already finished an entire book of maze puzzles from Grandma Linda. Anders is cooking: a turkey in the oven, it’s American-style tonight! Hayley Westenra croons from the living room, earlier it was Lilla Melodifestivalen from Karin’s shiny new space-age boombox. I’ve cleaned up and taken a nap. The sun shone bright in an amazing blue winter sky all day, not a cloud in sight. To all...

24
Dec
2005

LEAN YOUR EAR THIS WAY

Nearly all the presents are wrapped in shiny red, green and white paper. There are still some stocking stuffers to do, but that won’t take long tonight. Presents are under the tree for opening today, or carefully hidden away for “American” Christmas morning tomorrow. Tins of cookies fill up one entire corner of the kitchen, and a bowl full of clementines provides a bright spot on this rainy day. Rain on Christmas! It’s a true Skåne holiday. Farmor and farfar are on their way, they’ll be arriving just in time for Kalle Anka, the traditional Swedish Disney hour…and after that...

22
Dec
2005

THERE GOES THE HEALTHY EATING PLAN

Yesterday, I made Rice Krispie Holly Bars and Buttercream Almond Sandwiches, plus prepared the dough for today’s cookies: Iced Sugar Cookies, which the kids did a bang-up job of decorating, and ms_hackman‘s every-bit-as-delicious-as-advertised Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies. I still have Fudge Puddles to make but need to go get a mini muffin pan. We also have Grandma’s Gingersnaps and Chocolate Chip Cookies, plus my Snowy Chocolate Chips in the pile…not to mention those AWC Cookie Exchange cookies that are still left in the freezer. Yesterday I called my mom who is at my sister’s for Christmas and she came on the...

21
Dec
2005

FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE

I don’t know everyone who is reading this journal. In fact, I don’t know the majority of you. I’ve met a few people “in real life” and I know that my family and some of the people I know, people I’m close to, people I’m friends with, read it…maybe not on a daily basis, but once in awhile I get a comment or an email to let me know someone stopped by. The community that this technology has opened up never ceases to amaze me. I am blessed by it every day. I wrote once, quite awhile ago, and can’t...

21
Dec
2005

LIGHT THE CORNERS OF MY MIND

I didn’t feel like writing anything yesterday, and then we were gone all evening, and by the time I got home I was too tired and sad to make the effort. Yesterday was the 9-year anniversary of my dad’s death. I felt like I should have done something more to mark the day, to remember him, but usually it just makes me mad because he didn’t NEED to die. He could have done so much to stop the downward slide. Around midnight as we were getting into bed, I said, “I should have called my mom,” and Anders told me...

19
Dec
2005

WHAT A BRIGHT TIME, IT’S THE RIGHT TIME

Much as I love my little village, I suspect I’m a city girl at heart. I still miss Chicago with an ache every time I really think about it. It’s not very often that I get into town these days, and even less often when I get in with a decent amount of time to just walk around taking in the sights, taking in the pulse, and shopping. I had an agenda of sorts today, but I had plenty of time to deal with it, and walked around the center of Malmö people-watching and absorbing the city atmosphere, in a...

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