1. With every dish that I do I feel stronger, knowing there is an essence within me that nobody can trash with disrespect and dishonesty.
2. Both girls agree instantly that we walk down to the library together and off we go. I sense it isn’t exactly Em’s favorite waste of time, but within 20 minutes we reach the castle and mount the stairs to the top floor, all in the right mood.
3. After her logopedic r-pronunciation exercises I tuck Jay in and we gaze into each other’s eyes for a few moments.

1. Em made it through her first cycling marathon. She returns home tired but happy, and I am really proud of her.
2. I should have filed some papers over 2 months ago. The good thing is that today I have completed the forms and will be sending them out tomorrow.
3. We spend some time at the playground watching young tennis players, then walk around the familiar neighborhood, feeling like no 30 years have passed since we moved away from my grandparents’ place.

1. As I enter the vegetable garden to cut some lettuce in the morning, I am greeted by the first flower that has grown from the seeds I have planted so long ago. It’s yellow and fragile and beautiful.
2. After Mom leaves I am left with just enough time to squeeze in a workout before they return from their swimming in the thermal pools.
3. Em goes to bed and I turn off the TV to read Wild by Cheryl Strayed. While reading I find myself thinking about doing a few days’ soul-searching hike myself more than actually concentrating on the story, remembering my aunt’s excitement over the Camino de Santiago, so I check the web for a Santiago trail in Slovenia and find that it actually exists…!

1. I stop at the bookstore and buy another copy of the book for my friend M.
2. Girls tell me over the phone that they have made a to-do list for myself as well, like I had made one for them in the morning. I laugh out loud, right there, in the street. Later I find out it consists of the following: a socks-battle, scrabble, swimming , ice-cream.
3. The scent of the dry oil from my splurge at the drugstore today.

1. Just as I thought the loading was cancelled for another few days I get a call that they will wait and load tomorrow morning. Sometimes good things happen at work, too.
2. Jay’s face lightens up when she sees the cake I brought for her to celebrate the end of a very successful and wonderful school year.
3. Em talks and I listen. I am happy. We both are. It’s late and we are together on the couch. No TV, no distractions.

1. A handful of blueberries left in the fridge for my breakfast bowl.
2. My aunt’s call is unexpected and we happily respond to her invitation to come over. No photos from her Camino de Santiago yet, so we watch some on youtube while she shares stories and impressions.
3. Jay and I walk up to the hill at the back of our house in the evening. It’s humid and rain from the early afternoon shower still drops from the treetops but it’s a nice walk with great views.

1. I stop the car next to the girls just in time for them to hop in as it starts pouring rain again.
2. Jay beams with pride when she comes out from her piano teacher’s room, with two papers in her hands. “She said that we will be seeing each other again next school year.”
3. The in-between returning from the dance production in Piran and leaving for a trip to the amusement park Gardeland with her peers gives me only a few minutes with Em and as much as I miss her and hate all this rush I just take what there is and be happy because she is happy and well.

1. The scents of soaps I buy for Jay to give to her teachers on the last day of school.
2. Watering the flower pots on the patios and windows gives me a sense of calm after a long day, as if it were the last task, the last need of someone / something else's to fulfill.
3. A stormy night. It is the anticipation of thunder after the lightning that gets on my nerves; thunder itself is always a relief. Let there be thunder.

1. Sitting in the shade of the huge old linden tree at Darja’s place.
2. We park in front of our house and Em starts talking, confiding her fears to me.
3. They both love the crust of our home-made pie most.

1. Meadows full of flowers and crisp morning air.
2. I plant some flowers in the vegetable garden and sow three kinds of lettuce.
3. Jay’s and her friend’s play date at our place. I just love listening to their laughter and cries of joy.

1. Running into my old classmate at the mall.
2. Scrabble with Jay in the evening while it’s raining outside.
3. I didn’t expect to have a house full of teenage girls till 11 p.m., but I love it.

1. I made a to-do list for Em in the morning and when I ask about it, she seems really content, having completed pretty much all the tasks.
2. Jay loves pumping rainwater and watering flowers. The pump is in a really poor condition and I am hoping it is going to stop functioning one day soon so we can call for maintenance, but for Jay it is a challenge even if it takes twice as much time to fill the container.
3. Late in the night I realize we have an unexpected summer ants’ invasion in the kitchen. It gives me a reason to clean up a part of the counter with too many tea and herbs containers.

1. While I am having my lunch Jay shows me the lemon tart from the book I bought a few days ago. This is the one she wants us to make first.
2. As I walk into the wide street there is still light from the sunset coming from behind the buildings and the air is fresh.
3. As we talk I remember their house, next to my grandparents’, a small villa in burgundy, like it was from a fairy tale.

Highlights of the last three days:

1. My daughter’s junior prom, her excitement and all other sentiments related to her teachers and classmates over the last few days.
2. Jay wants a fancy notebook that she will use for writing down her own fairy tales.
3. I have been really committed to exercising recently. I think I am developing a habit this time. I even brushed the dust off my stepper today.

1. The clothes I eventually buy are different from what I would have picked if I had been shopping alone, but that’s a good thing.
2. I didn't expect Annie to be so… Annie, the little redhead orphan in the local music school musical. What a great performance!
3. The cooling effect of the cream makes me feel like I am sitting on a bank of a river with my feet in the water.

1. It’s a hot morning but the shade of the oak trees on the south side of the hill embrace me with freshness on my way down.
2. Em wears her high heels for the first time in public. She urges me to walk really slowly next to her.
3. After we finish watching our favorite French movie, sitting on the floor, embraced, she says she cannot believe she only has one week of class left, and I can’t believe it either. Although we sit in the dark I can tell she has tears in her eyes.

1. The girls walk way in front of us. Sisterly love.
2. I make one of my girls’ favorite lunches, the potato roll. The smell of baking in the house.
3. Jay and I wait for Em in the driveway. She is out of breath, pushing the bike uphill, with a smile on her face, after a get-together with her friends.