Tagged: famdamily

29
May
2026

WHIRLWIND WEEK

Well, that went fast! John and family arrived just in time for dinner on Saturday and we were going full throttle ever since. We had absolutely perfect weather the entire week as well; Sweden showing off its best side. The lilacs are in full bloom and our yard is looking beautiful thanks to Anders. We played lots of games including Yardtzee (coined by Karin), 0-100, Uno, City-Country-Idiot, and lots of Trivial Pursuit questions. The kids were great, and Lola was the most well-behaved dog ever. We went to Lund’s Pinball Academy, and the Moose tour, and played mini-golf. We had...

23
May
2026

PREPPING FOR HOUSE GUESTS

My brother and his family get here in about 2 hours, for a week-long stay, and I am ready! Well, the house is ready. The yard is ready (apart from planting cucumbers and tomatoes and a little bit of weeding needed under the trellis, which I can’t do because of my stupid knees. Anders took a garage-load of stuff to the dump this morning, and I’ve been cleaning and organizing since I got up. It’s a very warm and humid day, and I just had to wet my hair down because it was being crazy. It’s too short to do...

14
Apr
2026

A LITTLE CATCH UP, A LITTLE CATCH DOWN

A near-whole month has zoomed by, with me out of place for 3 weeks of it. I left for the US on March 19, knowing that I most likely wouldn’t post anything here while I was gone, and I was right. We were BUSY the entire time. Sarah and I lugged out everything from the storage unit that is holding all the stuff from my mom’s that we deemed to valuable to just give away, including quite a bit of furniture, and about 30 boxes. We had help from Bryce and 2 of his friends to get everything out and...

02
Feb
2026

WEEKEND UPDATE, WEEKDAY STARTER, PLUS A LOT OF UGHS

Already writing February on work filenames, which is crazy. It was Christmas a minute ago. January just whipped by. It’s left us with an arctic freeze. It’s been -3 to -9 CELSIUS every day for what feels forever and no end in sight yet. The snow was pretty much gone before the freeze at least up here. Apparently there is still a lot down south and in Österlen. It’s been really windy as well, which means that -3 feels like -15. Brr. On the plus side, the last couple of days have been beautifully clear: sunny and bright blue skies...

19
Jan
2026

OUR WAY WITH WORDS

I’ve been thinking about language that is specific to my family. Phrases and words that we use that no one else does (or maybe a few but not the general public, if you see what I mean). The secret vocabulary that we adopt or invent that enters our conversations, maybe as a joke, and sticks. I’m not talking about baby talk, the garbled misinterpretations that small children add to their language and that slip into our adult lexicons, though those would really count as well. And I’m not talking about generational jargon that we gather as teens and young people...

04
Jan
2026

JINGLE JINGLE, PART THE SECOND*

As usual, I was living in the moment and didn’t take nearly enough photos of our time in the States, but I was apparently better than the rest of my family. Martin says he only took 2 photos the entire time, haha. Here’s the photo dump from our holidays! Essie, Danely, and Karin decorating cookies Karin and Martin decorating cookies Karin outdoes herself with a cookie too pretty to eat! Anders, Essie, Karin, Grandma Linda, and Martin – ready to open presents Danely is also ready to open presents The elusive Mr Bryce Me and my mom (who is not...

03
Jan
2026

RESOLUTIONS, RELAXING, AND REMINISCING

I’ve been musing about new year’s resolutions and trying to decide if I want to do something. I really enjoyed the years that I had done a once-a-month resolution (5Ks, art, poetry), but I don’t really have any good ideas. I supposed I could do art every month again, since it’s been a few years. Or maybe I will do write a letter every month this year! That’s a good idea, I think! I might even make it write-at-least-1-letter every month for 2026. We got home from North Carolina yesterday after a long day of traveling. We got up a...

31
Dec
2025

RETROSPECTIVE

a! I remembered! I was afraid I would forget and not remember to write my year-end retrospective until I got home and that would mean it would actually have been written in the new year. I think it’s happened once or maybe twice before but I’d much rather have it be my last post of the year. We are at my sister’s place in North Carolina, spending the holidays with her and her family, and my mom. It’s 10 days total and we have 1.5 days left, as we fly home on January 1st. We will actually arrive back in...

20
Dec
2025

EK FAMILY CHRISTMAS LETTER 2025

2025 has been a lot, especially for Liz, and she is glad we have nearly reached the end of it. But there were lots of good things throughout the year as well! Karin spent a week in Canazei in January working for LionAlpin, and she and Anders went back in March for a week of skiing as well. In March, Liz headed to N. Carolina to stay for 4 weeks with Sarah and help with getting mom moved in to Sarah’s house. John arrived for the second 2 weeks of her stay and they managed to get mom’s house nearly...

16
Dec
2025

JINGLE JINGLE, PART THE FIRST

In the spirit of trying to write as many posts as possible this year (and next!), here I am. It’s been a busy day in a busy week. Since I got home just before 5 pm I have tidied up, emptied the dishwasher, refilled it, handwashed a pile of dishes, filled in appointments and activities in my 2026 calendars, eaten dinner, listened to Discover Weekly and added a bunch of new music to my playlist, read a couple of newsletters (am behind by a day), and placed my new mousepad (gaming pad, hahahaha) by the keyboard. Still have to install...