ketchup

There are a couple ways to spell ketchup. There's also catsup and katsup. Which sounds a little like catch up which also means update. Has it been with worth your effort so far?

Been a couple weeks since we posted an update.

-John finished up a month long Swedish language praktik at a county elementary school. It was a lot of fun and I think the day in day out helped engrain some swedish in his/my head. Though my English is getting a little wobbly at times. That just might be age. After the praktik I came back for more testing at SFI school. Got a good + on my SFI C test. I'm hoping to test SFI D over the summer and go on to Swedish as a second language(SAS) or perhaps just find a job with what Swedish skills I have.
Since Mon works in town, I'll likely be dropping off and picking up kids from their schools out here everyday. Any job I have will be framed by that so I'm not sure how far into town I can work. The further out of town the more Swedish will be required. I know it will take time to be fluid though mormor says I'll never sound native Swedish. I don't quite have the Swedish chef bounce in my voice, though Mon says he is modeled after someone from southern Sweden, not Stockholm.


-Look out US - we are nearly on our way. We take off Monday for two weeks back in the States. We'll mainly be hanging out around Cincinnati with family and friends. It will be our first trip back since we moved to Sweden. It should be interesting to see if our perspective has changed at all. The same can be said about Sweden while we are in the States. Hmm. Having lived on both continents we can see that each country has their own merits. Either way we are mainly looking forward to seeing folks and bringing extra suitcases to buy cheap American junk!

-Garden project has more or less been put on indefinite hold this season. I dug up a 15 x 10 patch and started the language praktik. That was almost two months ago. There was still a lot of prep work to do on the soil and building a pen. Unfortunately even with all the work it wasn't going to guarantee any yield. We have had an extremely dry May and June. Though it's rained a couple days since we were holding our breath for a while. A former classmate of mine still offered some strawberry (jordgubbar) plants and says they love sandy soil. If we take some we'll still have to pen them in some how. Whatever we do will be after the US.

-Instead of focusing on the garden project John redid the patio and sidewalk outside the front door. There had once been a mozaic flat rock patio there flat and walkable. Over time it has become overgrown with protruding cherry tree roots. I pulled everything up, laid down landscape cloth and three inches of base and gravel. Relaid foot stones, extended the sidewalk from last year and hauled up rocks from the rock beach to line it with. It was a pretty good week long project now under wrap. Turned out pretty nice though the boys and their cousins sure have given it a pretty good testing in its short new life. May post pictures later but we don't have any of the finished work.

-We are on vacation. Kids are officially on break. Mon is on vacation til the end of July. Besides the trip to the States we may venture up to northern Sweden to mormor's hometown of Åsele for the market days and/or possibly swing by the cabin in Härjedalen to see morfar and Tina while they are up here in Sweden.

-Writers group is on a two month break. At everyone's request we're resuming in August. Two writers are going to start presenting work. Me and somebody else are going to try to have something ready by September. Our numbers have been small but those who have come have been inspired to write. Looking forward to seeing where our budding community goes. My goal long term is to get something published - short fiction. The challenge is finding time to write. I think once decisions about school or work are made the schedule should see some sense of normalcy. For now this writer is scribbling a lot of notes.

Upcoming blogs: midsommar and jakob's camera; in cleaning up for midsommar we came across Jake's long lost camera. It came with us but we didn't know where it went when we got here. Aunt Margaret sent a memory card for it in December but we had no idea where it went. Since loading new batteries in it and the new memory card Jake has taken close to 200 pictures, of which about 5 are kind of keepers. Well, you'll see.