Whenever I look at the calendar I’m caught off-guard by the fact that’s it’s only mid-August. With the distinct chill of autumn in the air and Lydia’s having gone back to school today, it’s indisputably fall, no matter how much the date might suggest otherwise (yes, yes, I know … mid- to late August is indeed fall in northern Sweden, but where I come from it’s not even late summer yet).

This morning I packed Tage into his stroller and he, Lydia, and I set off to the school. It’s custom here for parents to follow along with their children on the first day of school, and about half of the other parents from Lydia’s class were there, so we all sat in the back of the classroom for thirty minutes or so until the first-day hustle and bustle subsided a little. It’s remarkable and touching for me to see what a tight-knit group those kids have become in the past two years. This is their third year together in the same class–they even have the same teacher and the same classroom as last year–and they’ve really become a well-oiled machine. It’s a small class, only fourteen kids, and as a group they just work.

When Pia gathered up the kids to go to a welcoming assembly, Tage and I left to come home and we spent the rest of the morning here hanging out with Helena, who’d been here since Monday evening when she and Fredrik came over to help us clear out some of the excess in our liquor cabinet. Fredrik went home yesterday morning, but Helena stayed another night so we could a have a bit of “girl time,” what with Olof out of town. We made delicious calzones for dinner and watched 50 First Dates and talked and laughed a lot.

Olof’s mom called about lunchtime and asked if I wanted to come down and eat soup and since Helena was taking the 12:30 bus home, I said sure. We dropped Helena off at the bus station, then Tage, Asbjørn, and I drove to the in-laws’ house. I had been planning to walk, since we could all use the fresh air and exercise, but blue skies turned suddenly to a downpour and I decided it was best to take the car. Lydia came down and joined us after school and we visited for a couple of hours before coming home.

All in all, a nice day, some of the best parts of which were a wonderful package with seven (SEVEN!) new pelargonium cuttings from my friend Carolyn and the boxes of Lydia’s party supplies that I ordered last week from the States. I had been expecting to pay a hefty tax on the party stuff, but somehow we escaped unscathed and didn’t have to pay any more than what we charged on the credit card when we ordered. Now all we have to do it wait another two-and-a-half weeks until her big party. That could prove a bit of a challenge.