Tagged: goodthings

27
Nov
2008

REFLECTIONS BOUNCE BACK AND LIGHT YOU UP, TOO

I’m thankful for the obvious things that quietly light up my life every day. The things I don’t notice, the things I take for granted, the things I’ve become so familiar with that they fade into the humming background until, like a sudden ray of sunshine, my notice and regards falls upon them and illuminates them; makes them new. My funny, freaky, healthy, smart children. My husband who puts up with much more from me than he probably ever expected. The commitment that we hold for each other. My beautiful cozy home. My far-flung family: mom, sister, brother, in-laws, cousins,...

25
Nov
2008

MONSTER HATS

Not too long ago, ms_hackman, who is intimidatingly crafty to begin with, suddenly became obsessed with monster hats and started making them by the dozens and posting them on her LJ. I immediately squeeed with joy over them, because who can resist monster hats?? and she responded by sending 2 of her amazing creations to the kids. Who are totally in love with their monster hats! THANKS, JENNY!! Humongous Happy Belated Birthday Wishes to gnostraeh!

23
Nov
2008

COOOOOOOKIES!

Tomorrow is the Annual AWC Holiday Cookie Exchange, and I’m participating for the 8th year. My recipe criteria this time was simple: easy, fast and no having to go to the store to buy special ingredients. The kids and I spent the morning perusing cookie recipes, rejecting the ones that, despite how good they looked, required things we didn’t have in the house: no oatmeal, no peanut butter, no chocolate-candy centers. Finally, I found a basic cookie recipe and then I tweaked it completely to come up with our very own new holiday cookie! Pretty soon the house was filling...

15
Nov
2008

BEATEN, BUT UNBOWED

I know I’ve lamented before about the fact that my family does not play games together the way my first family did when I was growing up. I miss playing games and remember very fondly the evenings of marathon Monopoly games where we played with several versions set together (you had to exchange money at the current exchange rate when you went from the American to the German version or vice versa) and Risk challenges where my sister and I attempted world domination over each other. My parents taught us to play just about every card game under the sun,...

13
Nov
2008

GEARING UP FOR GOBBLING

Nice things about walking on a dark, chilly, wet night (when it’s not actually raining): Dragonbreath No sweatbands required Streetlights make everything sparkly! That Halloweeny-evening feeling Increased chance of frog sightings Things that have run out in front of my car in the past few days: Female pheasant with a death wish Village cat MAN. ON THE HIGHWAY. NO REFLECTORS. Idjit. Things that were big and round in the sky this morning: Gigantic shiny silver full moon hovering above the horizon ahead of me Great glowing globe of fire hovering above the horizon behind me Things I am thinking an...

12
Nov
2008

PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES & GENEROUS SOULS

Yesterday, I stepped outside my regular life for a day and was treated to a “business trip” to Stockholm where my colleague (the events manager at work) and I visited several hotels and conference centers to check them out for a big event that is being organized for next year. So, instead of getting up and going to work as usual, I got up earlier, drove 40 minutes to Malmö’s little airport, flew an hour north, and then took a train into the center of town, and the subway way out of it again to the other side…out into the...

09
Nov
2008

WIN-WIN

I think today ended up as a win-win day for all of us. I got to sleep in. Anders got an early-morning Father’s Day celebration. Everyone was in a good mood. I got a project completed. The weekend laundry got done. We had some sunshine. I surprised the kids with tickets to the early showing of High School Musical 3. Anders got to nap while we were gone. We had delicious sushi for dinner. Now it’s dark and wet and early evening. I have another project to work on, a good book to read some more in, 2 kids to...

06
Nov
2008

THANK YOU LETTERS

One of things my mom managed to instill in me while I was growing up was the necessity of writing thank you letters. If I had been a guest at someone’s home or received a gift from someone, it was good manners and a courtesy to respond to it with a written thank you note. Writing cards or letters at all seems to be gradually becoming a lost art, which is a shame since getting “real” mail in the post is one of the nicest ways to make someone’s day. Over the years I’ve gotten several surprised and grateful thank...

18
Oct
2008

MID-DAY UPDATE

Anders spent the morning and part of the afternoon taking our computer apart and trying various things to figure out what is wrong with it and his best-guess diagnosis is that the motherboard has gone bad (last seen hanging out at pool halls, leaning up against the alley wall with a handrolled hanging from its lower lip and a sullen expression on its face) and doesn’t even recognize the drives or startup process. Which is at least comforting in the fact that our files are probably okay…we just can’t ACCESS them. Because the PC is leased through Tetra Pak, it’s...

16
Oct
2008

THE GOOD, THE GOOD & THE UGLY

Today was all about good things, right up until about 20 minutes ago. The worst of the week is over and I seem to be not only still standing, but still in a good mood. The dentist visit today was relatively painless despite having to patch a damaged filling and I hit the bookstore on the way to eat lunch at a good sushi place and picked up several new books that have been on my wish list for awhile. I had a good day at work, got a lot done on a big project I’m up to my elbows...

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