Some of you may remember that a couple of months ago I was having persistant knee pain and got a cortisone shot in each knee as treatment. After a few days of worse-before-it-gets-better agony, the pain went away entirely and I felt like a new woman. For a few weeks. Two or three weeks ago… Read More Friday

I’ve got nothing to write about, but I’m hoping you’ll be distracted from that by a cute picture of my cat.

Helena came over this afternoon to hang out for a few hours, and in honor of her visit I made chocolate chip cookies. As every American in Sweden knows all too well, there are no Nestlé’s Toll House morsels to be bought in the grocery stores here, so we usually resort to breaking up a… Read More Tuesday

Tage mastered yesterday the enviable skill of raising one eyebrow (something he inherited from his father — neither Lydia nor I can do it), and now he’s looking at the world askance.

Like kids all over the Western world, Lydia made a wide variety of Christmas crafts at school over the past several weeks. She made gifts for nearly everyone in the family, paper snowflakes for the windows, ornaments for the trees, and more holiday cards than you could shake a stick at. Like proud mothers all… Read More Art Class

I had my first appointment with the midwife this morning, not that it provided me with much of anything to write about. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m not especially fond of pre-natal care here in Sweden. Yes, I’ve heard all the lines, from “We expect healthy babies here and don’t go looking for… Read More Wednesday

The school lunch menus are planned far in advance, and every couple of months Lydia brings home a printout listing the next several weeks’ fare. We hang the printout on the bulletin board inside the entryway and most days we remember to check it before she leaves for school, so she’ll know what to expect.… Read More Black (well, dark, at any rate) Monday

Yesterday I happened across this website, a ticker showing the cost to the United States and Americans of the war in Iraq, and I’ve been staring at it with a sort of horrified fascination. Here in Sweden I’m pretty insulated from the grim realities of what my government (and I use the word “my” extremely… Read More It’s too much.

I’ve been sitting here since about seven o’clock wondering just how early is too early to go to bed for the night. I am so tired all the time these days, a combination, no doubt, of early pregnancy hormones and the short, dark days. I swear I could sleep for twelve or fourteen hours straight… Read More Wednesday

I just realized that I don’t know what the appropriate Lucia greeting is, if indeed there is one. In any case, I hope it was a good day for all of you here in Sweden (or anywhere else that the day is celebrated, for that matter). I was instructed by Lydia to make both saffron… Read More Happy Lucia Day!