Tagged: famdamily

04
Jul
2013

R&R

Vacation traveling with teenagers is a lot different than vacation traveling with young kids. It feels harder now, because they are so much more opinionated about what they want to do, or rather about what they DON’T want to do, which is invariably whatever WE want to do. But we mostly manage to compromise or get someone to give in, and mostly everyone gets to do SOMETHING they want to do, and everyone ends up satisfied, for the most part. Though it sometimes takes a lot of eye-rolling and sarcasm to get there. And nowadays, it’s all about the free...

27
Jan
2013

SWING LOW

With most of the family still sick or in recovery, it was wonderful to have a weekend that we were able to convalesce in as well as get things done that have been shoved aside by head cold, coughing, fever and general achiness. Even with being pretty productive, the kids and I got a lot of relaxation in and I feel pretty good about it, even if the part of my brain that is stressing about work had to be forcibly shoved back and down for a few days. Martin got sick 2 weeks ago, but only missed one day...

09
Jan
2013

STATE OF MIND

We got talking at dinner time about the fact that our kids don’t know a lot of American history. Yesterday I was doing a quick anacrostic that I had printed out before we flew home to do on the plane and then forgot about, and it was titled “Are you smarter than a grade schooler?” Martin was sitting with me while I was flying through the answers, and then complained that all the questions were too “American”. In other words, you had to have been educated in the States to know most of them. So, tonight, back on the subject,...

21
Dec
2012

Ek family Christmas letter

I just checked and I have been writing an annual Christmas letter since 2002, so that makes this the 11th in a row! I’m not sure if I was writing one before that and just don’t have the copies, but it’s hard to believe that 2012 is already over and we are breathing hard down 2013’s neck! The year has been, as all our years seem to be, a busy one. Work and school and activities and active social lives all around keep our calendars full each week. Anders is still at Tetra Pak, working in the Technical Training Center...

17
Dec
2012

IT’S BEGINNING

Our washing machine is trying to escape. Every time it hits the spin cycle, it vibrates so ferociously that it moves forward at least a foot. “Back!” I say, when I come in to check how far it’s gotten, “Back, I say!” and I manhandle it back into its space under the counter. Then it hits the next spin cycle and lurches forward again. We can hear it all through the house. I’m on load 3 of packing preparation. Packing hasn’t actually commenced, though suitcases have been brought down by (protesting) children from the attic. I refuse to go up...

23
Nov
2012

THINGS TO DO

….and suddenly it’s Friday again and an entire week has gone up in ether. It’s been a particularly crazy one, it seems, though it wasn’t REALLY anything out of the ordinary. Karin was sick on Monday with a sore throat and head cold and Martin was sick on Wednesday with an upset stomach. Martin and I went to a gymnasium open house at Kathedralskolan in Lund and now he’s considering IB again for which I’m glad, and today we went to his half-year parent-teacher conference and he has some things that haven’t been turned in which is risking major bad...

20
Jul
2012

WEEK IN REVIEW PLUS A BIRTHDAY GIRL

Liz: Tomorrow you’re going to be a teenager and I’m going to be old. Karin: You’re already old. Hrm. Obviously, she’s been practicing. Karin turned 13 on Friday the 13th but there were no thunderstorms to mark the occasion like there were the day she was born. And nothing unlucky happened either, except that the Converse sneakers that she got from my Mom didn’t fit and are going back to the US to be exchanged. She got the soccer shoes she REALLY wanted and tickets to see Veronica Maggio in concert, among other things. 2 days later she left for...

07
Jul
2012

SHOT

Not surprisingly there are few to no images of the men behind the cameras during our family reunion in northern Germany…I ended up with none of Tom, Sarah’s husband, and only got some of my brother because my mom shared her photos with me. John, Sammy & Mom (photo by Simone Slaughter) John & Sarah (photo by Linda Slaughter) Sammy & Simone (photo by Linda Slaughter) Rachel (photo by Tom Fletcher) Sarah (photo by Tom Fletcher) Simone, Sammy & Bryce (photo by Tom Fletcher) Anders (photo by Karin Ek) Bryce (photo by Karin Ek) Typical pastime (photo by Anders Ek)...

01
Jul
2012

WHERE THE HEART IS

There are some times when I fervently wish that I lived closer to my first family. My brother lives in southern Germany, my sister in the middle of Illinois and my mom in the thumb of Michigan. And no one gets me the way they do. A look, a shared sense of humor, a laugh, a dig at someone else’s well-honed defenses…there’s just nothing like the connection between you, your parents and your siblings. Last week, my brother and his wife and their almost-one-year old son drove up from the bottom end of Germany to the top end, bringing along...

06
Feb
2012

THE STORY OF THE FROG LAMP

Once upon a time, during the years I lived in Chicago, my parents became completely obsessed with antiquing. They went to auctions and collected things and bought some really beautiful stuff. And because there are approximately a million antique dealers and architectural salvage companies, and flea markets and 2nd hand stores in and around Chicago, when they came to visit me, I went with them, too. And caught the bug. However, since I had champagne tastes on a beer budget (like how I throw around those alcohol references as if I know what I’m talking about?) I never bought much....

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