1. I wear lots of shiny things to the office: a blouse with embellishments, long silver earrings and my usual silver-frame glasses. I am full of energy and I show it.
2. I walk into a bookstore and start looking for the same book. Then I buy it. Because there must be a reason that I have been looking for it every time I got into a store.
3. Although it is the last parents-teacher meeting for Em’s class I don’t feel sorry about probably hardly ever running into most of the parents again after the prom in mid-June. I guess I have taken up Em’s attitude. She is looking forward to moving on, to meeting new people, to changes.

1. I discard all other options and follow the initial idea for a good start of my day-off: a 3-hour morning hike in the sun, through the woods and across meadows, with forest berries hidden in the tall grass. A glorious morning. Exhausted but happy.
2. I open the window to listen to the wild winds in the tree tops.
3. Jay’s first back massage, given by Natalija, the kindest professional lady therapist I know.

1. Jay’s is having a self-introduction in front of the class tomorrow. She takes it very seriously and I help her with creating a mind map.
2. I like the next book better. I find it easier to incorporate the suggestions into my thinking.
3. I didn’t expect to find an empty living room. I switch off the TV and go to bed, feeling relaxed and relieved.

1. As soon as Jay opens her eyes in the morning she checks the tiny embellishments on her nails.
2. I get a phone call and an invitation to lunch. Apart from this being unexpected and sweet, it also makes me more productive at work.
3. The little kittens in the ballet Sleeping Beauty are the sweetest. One of them forgets to bow at the end and then the one next to her runs after her and eventually the first kitten appears on the other side of the stage again and they all bow again.

1. Em’s texts me about the great feedback she got for the presentation of a book in her Slovenian class.
2. Jay is among the contestants and chooses the number of the question with a clear confident voice.
3. Before getting ready for bedtime I open the window in Jay's room and lean out. There is all this green behind our house, chirping of the crickets, a smell of Spring in full bloom coming in. I stand there, breathing in deeply. Grateful.

1. I look at my beautiful teenage girl in the group of her peers and I think to myself how she could not be more perfect than she is.
2. At bedtime Jay remembers about her music theory class contest taking place next Tuesday, and I tell her that this is a really big thing because her sister never got to compete, but had to take the class year-end test instead, and that made Jay feel so awesome she almost could not stop laughing.
3. After Em is finished with her presentation of Spain for her English class we watch and listen to the last scene from Bizet’s Carmen on youtube. Em says she would come with me next time I go to the opera.

1. I have a wonderful morning with the girls. Rain and rush to school and then to the office, but a really great start of the day.
2. My friends at the office give me two lottery tickets. I know already what I am going to do with the money.
3. A beautiful birthday card from Jay, with a poem, and another poem from Em. I am very lucky. And very happy.

I am going to miss this view some day.

1. I start Sunday on my own terms. It does take some discipline to get out of bed at 6.30 a.m. to exercise though. But it is so worth it.
2. Jay creates a most beautiful card for my cousin’s son’s Confirmation, with butterflies and flowers.
3. On Sundays like this even a picnic with relatives, with too much food and  no meaningful conversations, seems like a good thing.

1. The excitement over a business idea I got last night lingers through the day. And more ideas popping in my head.
2. As we approach our neighborhood I look up at the hill, the vineyards, the meadows, the sky, and it is so beautiful in all its green, glowing in the afternoon sunlight.
3. Great feedback about Jay’s school work from her teacher.

1. I share my lunch with my friend M. I eat my half of the wholegrain bun with cheese in front of the computer screen but I don’t mind.
2. I enjoy working in the vegetable garden again. Then we play badminton. It’s a bit windy but we manage.
3. Em and I laugh so hard we cry.

1. The morning air is crisp and it makes me shiver a bit as I walk to the office, but I feel alive and fresh.
2. Jay is looking for rhymes because she is writing a poem and best wishes for my birthday. I tell she needn’t hurry so much because there is more than a week time, but she says she enjoys creating for me so much, that she can’t wait. I help her with a rhyme, and soon she comes running back to me, smiling, to tell me she has it all finished.
3. I chose not to answer the phone, knowing it would be a long session, and do my work-out instead.