Tagged: famdamily

10
Apr
2009

SO MUCH TO DO IN STOCKHOLM

Stockholm was a whirlwind—lots and lots of walking, subway rides and museums. We packed every day absolutely full and were on the go from early in the morning. The youth hostel where we stayed was great. It’s a former prison on a lovely green island right in the center of Stockholm and the hotel rooms are the old cells. Karin and I shared a room, and the boys shared one in a different wing. We girls got the one with the bathroom and shower, in the more modern section of the prison. It was just renovated (again) to add the...

29
Mar
2009

LIGHTS OUT

I have no coherent thoughts right now. Starting and stopping sentences every few seconds. I’ve started this over and over in my head, mentally backspacing and deleting and finally gave up and just started typing. Not sure that will get it going, but since my weekend has been all about getting things done, there you have it. Yesterday, for Earth Hour, which my kids were really excited about participating in (the 2 video game addicts: go figure) even to the extent of pumping arms in the air and yelling WOO HOO! when 8:30 rolled around (Karin), we had preparations well...

28
Mar
2009

THIS, THAT, THE OTHER & THEN SOME

It’s a busy but leisurely Saturday here Chez Ek. I’ve got a mile-long list of housecleaning chores and other things to do, but am taking my time about them and not getting all stressed out. Yesterday, I had my salary review at work and it didn’t go at all how I had hoped, especially after my disappointment last year. I DID get a raise, but it basically covered the cost-of-living increase and what it boils down to is that in Sweden, performance isn’t really tied to salary. If you do a good job, you get what the unions say is...

08
Feb
2009

REUNIONS & RECIPES

Things have felt a little whirly the past 2 days, even though most of yesterday was spent gazing around at the quiet clean stillness of my lovely house; enjoying the last hours before my family descended upon me…which I welcomed with open arms. I had been invited to a birthday party yesterday evening, and had accepted the invitation because when Anders & I first discussed their ETA, he figured it would be pretty late: around 10:30 or 11 p.m. before they made it home, as they were driving all day and would probably eat on the road. But I called...

01
Feb
2009

EVERY MINUTE OF IT

Many people who have families and husbands and live by a certain routine and level of activity might be completely at a loss if faced with a sudden abundance of alone time. How can you function when the people that you care for and adjust your life around are out of the picture for a time? I know most mothers crave some downtime; time to themselves to rebuild their stores of energy or just some peace and quiet for a few short hours. But I know an equal amount of them who claim not to know what to do with...

10
Jan
2009

MISS SCARLET, IN THE KITCHEN WITH THE CANDLESTICK

I’m succeeding slowly in getting the kids interested in playing board games. We started some time ago with Monopoly, and we played Sorry! recently and then my mom’s family Christmas present arrived for us yesterday: CLUE! The kids and I played last night, and I won just to show them how it was done. Then we all played tonight, after we got home from Anders’ nephew’s birthday party, at which Martin talked to me non-stop about CLUE and the characters and the rooms and the weapons and asked me a million questions until my head was about to explode, and...

04
Jan
2009

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

We’ve been at our wit’s end with Martin’s eating habits lately. Karin’s no walk in the park either, for that matter. She doesn’t like chocolate, cheese, bread or sauces. Martin eats his meals with tiny mouse bites and gags easily and won’t eat anything that has the slightest discoloration or oddness to it: if it’s too hard or too dry or too anything, he just won’t eat it. Both of them are very decided about what edibles they “don’t like” or “won’t eat” but strangely, they’re both usually pretty good about at least trying new things. Yesterday, we were trying...

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