Tagged: goodthings

04
Oct
2012

COMING UP AND GOING DOWN

Anders comes home tonight, and I am SO glad. Single parenting is HARD. I don’t feel like I’ve had a moment to relax or slow down for the entire 2 weeks he’s been gone, but we’ve managed nearly everything and the house hasn’t fallen apart and the kids haven’t died of starvation or anything, so, Yay me! I was at Martin’s school tonight for a parent meeting. The first half was about the trip to London that Martin’s class won. They are going the first week of November, for 3 days, and I get to go, too! I haven’t been...

15
Sep
2012

WAYS TO MAKE YOUR SATURDAY BETTER

Sleep in like a giant slug: take that, jetlag! Pow! Open the porch door and windows to let the fresh air and sunshine in Enjoy the smell of fresh cinnamon buns that your husband is baking (to sell at the soccer game later) Finish a really good book that you didn’t expect to like (Room by Emma Donoghue) Catch up on your magazine reading (1 issue of Intelligent Life, 2 issues of Martha Stewart Living) Eat a yummy lunch of Cream of Potato soup (imported from the USA) with bacon Get the kids to pick up their rooms Do laundry...

12
Aug
2012

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

OMG halfway through August and where have I been? Busy busy busy and obviously not writing. I haven’t even been online that much though I have tried to keep up with reading as much as I can. Kicking back into work routine has consumed most of my mental energy and what hasn’t been occupied with that has been eaten by Lego. No, still not done. I will never be done. Last night, Martin and I went out with sweatshirts and mittens and blankets to lie on the trampoline and watch for shooting stars. It was super clear as I drove...

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...

15
Jun
2012

THE SMALLEST THING ABOUT SUMMER THAT MAKES ME HAPPY

One of my best blog friends, who I sadly have not (YET) met in real life has also been kinda stuck with writing lately, so when she posted not too long ago and lamented this fact, I gave her a writing assignment. I asked her: What is the smallest thing about summer that makes you happy? And she wrote a lovely long post about the small things of summer that make her happy, that kept turning out to be pretty darn big things. That’s the thing about summer. It’s too big in all its beauty to be boiled down to...

20
May
2012

PERFECT REFRESHMENT

The last time I had a 4-day weekend I was super-productive. This time, I’ve been a total slug. A super slug! I HAVE done laundry, because you pretty much can’t NOT do laundry when you’re a family of four, but otherwise? I’ve read and read and read and slept in and watched all of season 3 of The Big Bang Theory and gone for walks and sat on the porch and sat on the trampoline and done nothing much of note. Sometimes the slug just beats the bee. It seems to be harder and harder to find things to write...

17
Apr
2012

A PIEDI

I started walking again, officially yesterday, even though I walked all weekend because we were in ITALY. I mean: going for a walk. One of the really great things about Martin, who is pretty great in lots of ways, is that he always says yes if I ask him to go for a walk. And then we get to talk and laugh and have really great discussions to boot. Honestly, it’s crazy that I don’t do it every day; that’s how rewarding it is. In the midst of all our talk, Martin was telling me Things His Classmates Don’t Know...

09
Mar
2012

EAT. PIE. LOVE.

At the last AWC board meeting, we were discussing the seeming apathy of our club members who aren’t signing up for or participating in many of the activities that are being up on the calendar by our hard-working activities officers. It’s hard organizing activities; it’s a total crapshoot. You never know what’s going to work and what isn’t…some years things get a great turn-out and the next year the same thing has to be cancelled. There are so many factors: time of year, day of week, whether the activity costs money, whether it falls after payday, whatever. You just try...

12
Jan
2012

THE WEEK OF GOOD IDEAS

I don’t know if it’s the mental stimulation of getting back to regular routine after what seems AGES of being discombobulated by first major illness and then seemingly endless holidays, but I have been a font of great ideas this week. It’s a fun feeling, I have to say…especially when they come all in a bunch. Every year at work, we publish our Strategic Outlook for the year. I’ve been doing the creative layout for several years, getting the content from the CEO and CTO and various other management team VPs and putting it together into an 8-page brochure that...

05
Jan
2012

SOFT START

The Swedes have a saying about getting a “soft start” on something (mjukstart), which means to ease in gradually. Right now we are having a mjukstart to the year, which we have every year here due to the fact that January 6 is a National Holiday. It’s Epiphany, which is a religious holiday in a very non-religious country. In fact, the calendar year is full of national holidays based on the old religious celebrations, though they did take away Whitsun a few years ago, or rather traded it for Sweden’s National Day (June 6). Last year, after January 6 we...

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