2021
What can I really say about this year? It feels like a copy of 2020. We are still living in a pandemic and the world is upside down. I think most people had hoped that the vaccine would save the world and everything could finally return to normal. I wish I could have written that it was all over and now everything is going to be the same as before. Unfortunately, I think we will have to live with this virus for many years and that we will never get rid of it. In Sweden, there have never been any lockdowns of society, but instead different restrictions. Personally, I have more or less been able to live my life as usual. I can also state that Sweden's economy has been one of the best economies in the world in 2021 because we have been able to keep our society open.
It's no news that Cooper's been playing with water all year. For him, water is life and not even a pandemic can stop him. As you may have noticed, I have shared longer bathing videos during the year and also started posting some pictures in the bath posts. My hope is that this will provide a better experience. Since I want to constantly develop my Instagram, I have started editing all the videos in Adobe Rush and all the images in Adobe Lightroom. When I started my Instagram in 2016, I couldn't imagine one day sitting and editing my material in Adobe applications.
Last spring, Cooper had a surgery for FORL/TR, it was his fourth surgery and now he has only five teeth left. Those who follow me know that this is a nightmare for me to leave Cooper away. For Cooper it doesn't seem like such a big nightmare and this time his surgery went great and he became himself in just a day again. I think it's a nightmare for Kira, she got extremely worried. Cooper was gone for 6 hours and she sat at the door and waited for him for 5 hours.
My mental health has been a rollercoaster. Compared to other years, 2021 has been one of my better years. As I wrote in my blog post "Loneliness and the Pandemic", these pandemic years have been good for my mental health. Succinctly, I feel good about avoiding all the must-haves in life. If you are curious about what I mean, please read my blog post from earlier this year.
Since we Swedes are experts at talking about the weather, I intend to do it too. When I'm going to decide how good a summer has been, I usually look at how many miles I've driven with the summer car. In the summer of 2021 I drove 460 (US) miles, which can be compared to the hot summer of 2018 when I drove 1200 (US) miles. Summary is that it wasn't a very hot summer in 2021. The best weather was in July and of course I managed to get my holiday in August. But Cooper and Kira still had to spend a number of hours outdoors this summer (with me).
During the year we have participated in eight different interviews and the most exciting was with a Spanish newspaper. Their English was not the best in the world and my Spanish is also not the best in the world (although I studied Spanish 7 years at school). I speak/write English every day, but I rarely use Spanish. But somehow we managed to get a whole interview in Spanish. I'm very bad at giving myself praise, but if I'm going to choose anything throughout the year that makes me proud, it's this.
Something that makes me very happy and gives me hope for humanity was in December when I sold calendars with Cooper and Kira. Since my Instagram isn't about making money, I found a cat shelter that helps homeless cats. The cat shelter got all the money from the sale. I sat in the middle of the night and built the calendar and ordered 10 pieces that I never thought would be sold. But they were sold very quickly, I have the best followers in the world. My hope is that we will be able to do something similar next year and it doesn't have to be a calendar this time. And next time for the whole world and not just Sweden.
I want to say thank you to all the old and new followers and hope you join us next year as well.
If you want to see our life in 2021 in a 2 minute video, press the link below.
Instagram - Our life 2021