A line-up of plush toys that I found when I got home at night, after working late.

Ingrid and I played a board game.

Adrian eating a rice cake.

One of the best descriptions of me as a person was uttered by a random acquaintance, many years ago: “You’re one of those people who thinks all the time.” – “Du är en sån där som tänker hela tiden.” (Exclaimed in a tone of very slight condescension and puzzlement, as if the person cannot imagine ever being like that.)

And indeed I do. I cannot help thinking. It often requires an effort for me not to think.

Some kinds of thinking are more useful than others. Introspection, for example, I would group among the more useful ones.

Somewhere in the middle is the thinking that evaluates things – my life, my daily activities, the world around me – and considers how they can be improved.

Among the less useful ones is me questioning myself. So then I kind of have to convince myself, that questioning part of my brain, about something that I have already decided to do.

Weekday morning. Both kids in their pyjamas. Adrian has fleecy one-piece pyjamas; Ingrid’s are Frost-themed.

Adrian is having porridge (with raspberry jam and cinnamon and oat milk); Ingrid has a cheese bun. Both love drinking berry juices.

Adrian wants everything close at hand. Ingrid cannot help fiddling with things.

Adrian likes to bring plush toys to the table – there’s The Frog on the table, and Johan the stuffed doll on the windowsill behind Ingrid. Ingrid likes candles, and since we have candlesticks on the kitchen table anyway during winter, she decided she wanted candlelight for breakfast as well.

When I feel tired and uninspired and restless and everything seems dull, these are some of the things that can make me feel better:

• Reading
• Knitting – it keeps the hands busy, and provides just enough activity for the brain, but not too much
• Doing some small boring chore so I can cross it off my list
• Eating something small, nice and sweet, for example a brownie that Eric has baked, or maybe some dried mango
• Doing something physical outside, like digging, shovelling snow or mowing the lawn

Late in the evening, after the end of screen time, Adrian is usually too tired and uninspired to come up with something to do, but he also refuses to go to bed. So he hovers – over whoever is doing something, just sort of passing time. Here he is hanging over Ingrid while she is drawing.

A few common themes emerge when I survey the different ways my character is tangibly expressed – in the clothes I choose to wear, in how I choose to decorate our home and garden, in my writing and photography, in crafts.

In no particular order:

• Colourful
• Natural, inspired by nature
• Lively
• Not minimalist
• Soft
• Tension between mess and calm
• Warm
• Slightly unconventional, quietly rebellious
• Guarded, enclosed

This afternoon I went for a long and vigorous walk (after spending the morning at an adventure pool with the family).

I need time outdoors in order to feel good. It is not quite as important for Eric, and the kids would not join me for long walks even if I bribed them, so I have started going out on my own.

I didn’t find any photo-worthy moments in the woods in Ursvik, so this is just a snapshot of the sky at the end of the walk.

Adrian playing with a marble run that Ingrid and I built.