Nearly a decade of living in the Frozen North has changed me. Oh, probably not in any major way — I was always a commie-loving, tree-hugging liberal, after all — but there are some subtle differences, to be sure. For instance, I now see nothing wrong with eating cheese on a slice of buttered bread,… Read More Re-learning

It was recently brought to my attention by my mother that I haven’t posted a picture of Tage in quite a while, even though the blog has been replete with photos of his sisters, the dogs, the cats, and even the odd snow mountain. Yesterday’s Lilla Vasaloppet — the children’s version of Sweden’s famous cross-country… Read More The boy

You know how they say if you’re not the lead dog the view never changes?

Months and months ago I bought tickets to see Mika play in Stockholm on March 18. I had wanted Olof to go with me, but he doesn’t travel unless he absolutely can’t avoid it, so I offered the second ticket to Lydia. She’s not a huge Mika fan and her response to my invitation was… Read More Showtime

For the past couple of years my younger kids have been big fans of Barbapapa, a French children’s book character from the ’70s who is lately enjoying a revival of popularity here in Sweden. I think he and his kind are a little creepy, but they’re ultimately harmless, so I do buy a Barbapapa book… Read More Head-scratcher

The kids have been on spring break this week and, wonder of wonders, we’ve actually made it through without driving each other too crazy. We’ve kept fairly busy most days, and it’s helped that the weather has been nice enough that even when we were home, we could send Tage and Petra out to play… Read More Renewal

Generally speaking, Prins Bertil is not the alpha cat around here, but when Moa’s crossed the line, she has crossed. the. line.