I don’t know if it’s writer’s block or ennui or just plain laziness, but I feel as though I’ve got absolutely nothing to say lately. I haven’t posted anything of substance here for far too long, and I’ve been more or less ignoríng my email. I owe long, thoughtful emails to at least four or five friends, but I can’t make myself sit down and write them. I’ve got two great ideas brewing for feature articles for the upcoming Mosaic Minds issue, but I haven’t got any farther with either of them than an opening sentence. Words are failing me, or perhaps I’m failing them. Either way, it’s not good.

It’s not like things haven’t been happening. A couple of weeks ago my friends Helena and Fredrik moved in two doors down, into a studio apartment Olof’s parents own, then late last week Fredrik took off for parts down south, where his new job is. I know it’s going to be tough on them living apart for the next while, so we’ve been trying to help out as much as we can to make the transition go smoothly. Helena bought some new wallpaper for the kitchen on Saturday, and with a little assistance from Olof and me, she got it put up over the weekend. It looks so good in there now that I’m almost hoping she does decide to move down south, just so I can move in over there! I’m really jealous of what a cute and cozy little space she’s set up for herself.

Also worth writing about are the two HUGE care packages we got from my mom last week. In addition to Lydia’s Crocs, she sent us two big boxes jam-packed with all sorts of goodies from the States. We got salt-water taffy, Lemonheads, Bottle Caps, Twizzlers, Skittles, and Starburst. The kids all got clothes and books and toys, Olof got thick wool socks and three tins of ginger Altoids, and I got more things than I can remember right now. There were magazines and deodorant (one thing I have not been able to adjust to here is deodorant), a sewing book and three kinds of fabric (all with matching thread), Coffee-mate and yummy chai tea-bags, and a bunch of other things I know I’m forgetting. The first package came the day after we got the Crocs, and the second the day after that, so all last week we were showered with gifts from Onock.

Oh! I just realized that I probably haven’t told the story here of why my kids call my mom “Onock.” When Lydia was two, my mom moved to the town where we lived, and we started going to her house all the time. I always walked in without knocking, but just so she’d know we were coming, I would stick my head in first and call out, “Knock-knock.” Not making the connection between the words and the act of knocking, Lydia thought I was calling my mom’s name — something I didn’t realize until a couple of months later when she started talking (she was a late talker), and said “Onock” instead of “Grandma.” In my family we have always loved word-play and nicknames, and since “Onock” was delightfully offbeat, it stuck. That’s what Tage calls her now, too, and I have no reason to expect that Petra will be any different. So, when you hear Lydia on the Crocs video saying, “I have the best Onock ever,” now you know what she’s talking about.