Tagged: goodthings

28
Jan
2010

SNOW SHOVELING & MENU PLANNING

I don’t feel much like writing. Listening to myself think all the time is dull. I already know what I’m going to say. It snowed sideways yesterday, for most of the day; the blizzard we had been promised. Indeed, it lived up to its fanfare, dumping nearly a foot of snow over the course of the day. It wasn’t very wet snow, despite the speed with which it stuck, and when I went out in the still chill evening after the storm had passed, to shovel the drive and the walkway, it was a double-puff duvet of white sparkling beauty....

01
Jan
2010

RETROSPECTIVE

A houseful of visitors, a couple of months worth of parties, and a massive head cold left me with little time to update the past few days. I didn’t get my usual year retrospective up before the year actually turned, but that seems to be par for the course for how 2009 went for me. Last night, around the table with our good friends, we each recounted the low point and the high point that the passing year had held for us. One friend recounted the fear and helplessness of watching her best friend’s pregnancy head into complications. One talked...

29
Dec
2009

REPLETE

I’ve been filling up. Filling up with lovely days and family goodness and the stupified silence of children stunned by the awesomeness of their Christmas presents. Filling up with cookies and turkey sandwiches and clementines and love. Too busy to sit down and write, too busy to take a moment because all the moments are taken: real life, days present and future and full. Friday is a full moon, but it’s nearly there now. Last night it was shining clear and crystal down on the sugar frosting sifted across the grass, the hedge, the yard. I’ve not slept well the...

20
Dec
2009

IN THE LANE SNOW IS GLISTENING

Look what happens when someone leaves the snow on overnight! 24 hours plus of snowfall and we have over a foot. I threw the kids outside with a camera and told them to take photos. “Of what?” they asked. DUH! Of things covered in snow! When I got the camera back, they had taken pictures of both the cars and the mailbox and some blobs of snow on the side of the house. Anders is out shoveling, the kids are out sledding and I, in a hilarious twist of irony, am about to DEFROST THE FREEZER. Hahahahahaha!! ABOMINABLE! Clifford the...

29
Nov
2009

MERRY CRANBERRY!

It’s official! The holidays are here! We started decorating the house today, went to a glögg party and I “baked” the first cookies of the season. Using the term “baked” very, very loosely. My friend Debbie served these at a book group this past year and I’ve been badgering her for the recipe ever since. I decided they would be the cookie I’d take to the AWC Holiday Cookie Exchange, and when I called her a couple of weeks ago to remind her, she said, “Darn! I was hoping you’d forgotten about them, because I was going to make you...

29
Nov
2009

NOT ONLY TO UTTER WORDS, BUT TO LIVE BY THEM*

Year after year, the things I am thankful for remain much the same. They’re so obvious, they almost go without saying. And yet, to go without saying them is unthinkable; I can’t take them for granted, and yet isn’t that what we do, so much of the time? We go through our daily lives and we can’t fall down on our knees every moment. There’s lunch to be packed and homework to be done and beds to be made and meetings to go to. There are cookies to be baked and children to be hugged and dogs to be walked....

14
Nov
2009

ZIP-A-DEE-DOO-DAH

A general feeling of not just well-being but a physical spine-tingling glee. So many good things, good news, good vibes going on this week that my hair might as well be standing on end with excitement and The Happy. Mr. Bluebird’s on my shoulder, it’s the truth, it’s actual, everything is satisfactual! Yesterday was one good thing after another: getting up smiling because even though it was hard to get out of bed, it was Friday, having a good and productive day at work, then a lovely dinner with the Wonders: ALL of us this time because Debbie’s husband Ola...

30
Oct
2009

DOWN & UP

Is anyone else boggled by the fact that tomorrow is the last day of October? Already it feels as dark in the early evenings as if it were January, and we are still 2 months away from the equinox. What an down and up day this was…what down and up WEEK, for that matter. At the beginning of it, one of my colleagues, another American who is also a friend, sent out an email to all the Americans in our department, asking if we would be interested in helping to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for our entire department. There are...

03
Oct
2009

THINGS I COULD DO TODAY

My family is gone on a weekend Scout camp. Martin left last night with the older kids…they were planning to sleep outside in “wind-protected lean-tos” if the weather cooperated last night. Since it was clear with a brilliant bright moon I hope they did. Today it’s grey and raining: not so fun for a camp, but Anders and Karin left this morning with their backpacks stuffed to the brim and smiles on their faces so I’m sure they’ll be having a good tiime regardless. I woke up at 7:30 when Anders did, and promptly fell back asleep until they came...

19
Sep
2009

SEEING THE SIGHTS—END

Monday morning dawned bright and early for Labor Day but neither Mom nor I saw it as we were snoozing a bit late, despite needing to get up and get moving in good time to pack in the sights of our last day of “mini-vacation”. We finally hoisted our duffs out of bed and hit the road. Once again we drove west, this time nearly to the border. Our destination was Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Now I know a lot of people pooh-pooh Rockwell, for various reasons, but the man was incredible. In his lifetime he finished some...