Nebraska was the place where my memories kicked in. I was old enough to really begin recording my own life in my head. We lived in a quadplex, on a corner lot with a huge yard, right next to an immense amusement park-like playground. It even had a 3-story rocket ship. Across the street from the playground were basketball courts that were flooded for ice skating in the winter and tennis courts where I spent many happy hours with my mom’s tennis racket smacking a tennis ball against the back wall. We had a swingset in the yard and hundreds...

It’s Karin’s birthday today. My little girl is 5 years old. 🙂 Mom revealed that not only did I run when she caught me dawdling along the road to school, but I ran past several houses and then tried to hide in a ditch! LOL She was embarrassed to death to take me into kindergarten an hour late and confess that I was trying to skip school at the tender age of 5 😀 I saw something on TV the other night that actually made me gasp out loud. I had just tossed back in the big chair to relax...

I’ve lived in 29 places in my lifetime. That’s a lot of places to remember. The reason I’m thinking about this is because some days I wonder if the home we have now will be my last one. That is, will we ever move again? I would assume that at SOME POINT, if we stay in this house, which I grow to love more each day, the kids will move out and it will be too big for just the two of us, and we’ll consider moving to an apartment or a place that is, at least, lower maintenance. We...

The first thing one notices is how everything is gray or green. Puddles shine their reflections of the sky, a sadly admiring mirror. Moon-pale mushrooms glow wetly in the grass, some as big as saucers. Mottled and moist, the sycamores are studded with snails. A crabapple tree has littered a circle of unripe fruit, scattering largess to the slugs. Pale purple thistle heads crown the meadow edges. Clouds tower, a sky duvet, backlit by high behind sunshine. The spongy ground is swollen, everything’s damp and mossy. I grabbed a half-hour window of opportunity, taking a brisk walk through a wet-washed...

Note to Self: Next time we have 13 kids over for a birthday party, NO NOISEMAKERS.

At the dinner table, conversation the first: Liz: Daddy makes the best spaghetti sauce in the whole world. Martin: I don’t think so. I like the sauce they have in the cafeteria at school. Liz: No way, josé! I’ve eaten WAY more spaghetti sauces than you and daddy’s is definitely the best. Martin: I’m allowed to think differently. At the dinner table, conversation the second: Karin: Daddy is not the best! Liz: *indignantly* He is, too! Anders: *raises eyebrows, looks at Karin* Liz: Who’s the best, then? Martin: *pause* Lena Philipsson *It hurts

The sky is bloated with rain, the fat white underbelly of the clouds straining to… eh, never mind, do over. Rain splats, it chitters and chats, it crackles on the windshield, a lacy wash of upwardly mobile raindrops racing, spitter splat. Much better. 😛 I’m so tired of rain. You would think that after living for 7.5 years in Sweden, I’d be used to it, but no, hope springs eternal. Apparently, so do rain clouds. I keep leaving my umbrella in the car, to make things wetter. I checked with my mom, and it appears that the weather in Michigan...

It’s so nice to be loved. My family rocks. I e-mailed my mom yesterday to ask her to schedule a couple of sessions for me with her massage therapist while we’re in the States and this morning she e-mailed me back to tell me that she had already done so before she even got my e-mail. And yesterday in the package of birthday presents that my brother sent Karin, he included 3 CDs for me. Dido’s Life For Rent, Amanda Marshall and The Best of REM. Life is good. I ran a bunch of errands yesterday, so my to-do list...

Evening Blessings: singing in 2-part harmony a song I have heard only in my head for 25 years 2-week old kittens and their blue, blue eyes pale evening sunshine like a benediction on the fields 13 para-sailers swooping and soaring over Lomma beach stopping to let a large family of baby geese cross the road Lund won the prize for the worst weather in Sweden for the month of June, snatching the sunless crown from Växjö who usually wears it. Out of the entire month we only had 184 hours of sunshine, 51 less sun-hours than normal. Gothenburg had 301...