My Valentines

1. An unexpected gift for Valentines.

2. Jay returns to the bathroom wearing Em's pyjamas laughing and singing: "I'm St. Nicolaus!"

3. We read a story at bedtime about a game a little girl and her daddy play "if I were you...". We turn-off the light and I turn to Jay: "Would you want to be me? I would love to be you....!" "No!" she says. Then I hear Em's voice coming from her room: "You know who I'd want to be? Me. I like who I am, what I do and how I do it. And if I do something wrong, I know I can change that."

Wednesday's goodies

1. My colleague approaches to tell me how wonderful the book I have lent her is and as I check out what page she is on I know she hasn't even come to the best part of the story yet.

2. Jay recites a new Neza Maurer's poem that she has learnt, and Em goes through her opening lines to the inteview she is having with the very same poet tomorrow. I couldn't be more proud of my girls.

3. I walk down to the store and back. It's cold and I am carrying two bags, no mobile phone to call for a lift, but that is what I had planned and made sure I didn't have any excuses to not have some excercise even if it is below zero degrees. Then just as I approach our house I see a car pull out of the garage and I know my husband thought of driving down the road to meet me part-way, and I think that's nice.  

Notes, vision boards and toes

1. I throw a bunch of notes into my paper recycling bin. They are either my to-do lists that I have been able to tick off or print-outs with tips I no longer need. How liberating!

2. I have been playing with the idea of making a vision board for myself for quite a while now. But I hadn't had the time to do it. Then it hit me today: the background of my icons on my computer screen at work is like a vision board. And I have had a photo of a huge fatty piece of pastry coated with sugar there and I know it hasn't been doing me any good. I replaced it with a gorgeous photo with mountains peaks that I had hiked to 15 years ago. There. My vision board. Summer 2011 it is.

3. I gently touch her toes while she studies details in the illustrations in her magazine. I love touching Jay's toes. They are so tiny and smooth and round... like pearls.

Artsy Thursday it is

1. “One of those is mine!” says Jay as we walk beneath the hanging mobiles of house-drawings in the hallway.

2. As I rush down the street I notice a little girl in a big purple knitted wolly cap.

3. It’s midnight and I am shivering cold but I've completed the story book translation on one sitting and I’m happy. Why do I do it? Nobody asked me to, nobody’s paying, it’s just for my own pleasure to pick up a story in Slovenian and dive into translating it at my best.

Sweet Wednesday

1. I find out that my present did get into the hands of the sweet little girl.

2. A whole cup of sweet creamy milk is poured over a soufflé with a golden crust. It’s gone within a second and the crust is still golden but softer.

3. Looking at the falling snow through a stained glass. My view changes colors depending on which part of the window I look through.

Ring-ting Tuesday!

1. I’m sitting next to the characters from the book and the next thing I know there is a car in front me and I'm walking across a parking lot.

2. At sunset Jay and I go for a walk to the hillside facing south. We ascend an old vineyard (with vines still growing without any attachment to their stakes with a patina of moss) and pick some bright yellow primroses. We each blow a flower, then eat it up and pick new ones. With hedges of primroses all around spring seems near although it’s only just mid-January. Ring-ting!

3. Paper petals in different shades of burgundy on our dining table.

Monday, Monday, so good to me

1. The hilly eastern horizon is on fire with black tree-silhouettes in the foreground and a single star high above. Dawn.

2. So nice to have the daylight stay with us longer. Jay and I are still able to walk to the library in the late late afternoon witnessing a sun-set in the most incredible shades of pink. It delights Jay so much that she does some of her abracadabra jiggles in the middle of our local road and tempts the sky to move closer so she can touch it with her hand. Then we descend further down the road holding our Lila Prap imaged-bag with children’s books each by one handle.

3. One little boy climbing a ladder to reach for the dinosaurs’ book on the top library bookshelf and handing it down to another little boy. But then he realizes it is not the book he wanted and tries to put it back. That’s when I step in and he gratefully accepts my help.

My recent (unaffected-by-the-virus-) beautiful

1. Jay sneaks into the room and leans her head on my arm as I lie on my bed. I turn my head and all I can see are her smiling eyes and her silky blond hair.

2. Her friend’s gift, a cyclamen T-shirt with white hand-prints, fits Em perfectly. She does a happy dance in front of the mirror.

3. An e-mail in my inbox informing me that I’ve been picked to write a book review and that will be receiving a free copy of the book in a few days.

Monday's favorites

1. As my colleague and I sit down by the table outside the patisserie the shop lady offers two red blankets through the window. We wrap them around our legs and feel warm and cozy. 

2. I get a call from a person working at some education institution informing me that the seminar I was interested in a while ago is taking place soon. It is tempting.

3. I ask Jay to wait in the bed till I come to read to her. »I will go through this book and then I will play with the culcalator.« She has her own way of saying calculator, her latest favorite device.

Sunday News!

1. There is a scent of spring in the wind.

2. Our guests are thrilled about the home-made pizza with bear’s garlic pesto.  

3. Jay doesn't like combing her hair. Much less having it washed as she dreads getting water in her eyes. But this time she's enjoying it. “Mommy, I hear rustling when bubbles pop!” she says with a big smile on her face topped with a bubbly hair-do.

Vibrant on a Wednesday

1. She glows while sharing details about her holidays with me.

2. I stick a package with two cookies in my handbag but Jay spots them right away.  

3. I feel the healing vibrations of the gong in my body.

Close on a Tuesday

1. The first time I see a gong so close I could touch it. I love the shimmer of light on the brass.

2. I watch Jay lean over to Em and gently touch Em’s face with her little hand to bring it closer so she could confide something only Em should hear. Sisterly love.

3. There is an interview with a photographer on TV. He’s wearing a knitted scarf with stripes in bright shades of pink and orange.

Coooool Monday!

1. Footprints in the snow: my daughter’s, my Mom’s and a dog’s (that we haven’t got yet).

2. Bare branches of oaks against the blueness above me.

3. Warmth with a cooling effect. Peppermint tea.

Cozy Sunday

1. I am wandering the dark streets of Barcelona while lying in my bed. 

2. Snowflakes dance with me in an enchanted land of white. 

3. There is only one spoonful left of the tuna spread Em made.

A new day

I am grateful for new beginnings. Every day is a new beginning.

1. I love Strauss' walzes. It's January 1, indeed.

2. It's sunny and the ground in the forest is soft.

3. My coconut roll looks like a disaster, but it is delicious. Even my Mom thinks so. 

Lovely Wednesday

1. As I walk towards the building made of steel and glass with factory chimneys emitting thick smoke somewhere in the back I hear ducks’ quacking. What a lovely morning!

2. My daughter’s card in the mail, the one she created at school but failed to take home before holidays. New Year’s wishes in rhymes.

3. I see the last sparkle of the fireworks somewhere far on the horizon as I descend the road.  

In the moment

1. Playing hide and seek in the woods, just me and the sun.

2. Picking a moment, not the perfect one, to start a conversation that should have taken place many billion moments ago.

3. Watching my little girl eat a pencake after a cool shower that made her fever drop for 2 degrees.

Chocolate Tuesday

1. I listen to my 11-year old daughter about how she and her friend from class had a cup of tea and chocolate-coated wafers before their morning class. I am happy knowing about her little joys.

2. A cup of hot chocolate with coconut at the new local chocolaterie named after Veronika of Desenice. Veronika was the second wife of Frederick II, the Count of Cilli (15th cent.), who had been put on the first documented witch trial in the country. Intriguing just like chocolate.

3. I finish reading the very last page of the book and I am full of ideas.

Monday's bright!

1. I walk out from a cold building made of steal and glass to a bright sunny day.

2. I remember the very first moments she brightened my life 11 years ago. Happy Birthday, Honey.

3. Lately I have been dwelling in the only place where change really happens. It is not pleasant but it is real.

White Sunday!

1. I look through the window in amazement. Dazzling whiteness against the clear blue sky. 

2. I’m happy with my dark chocolate writing on the white coconut cake.

3. Girls lay next to me, each on one side, in the big bed. I close my eyes and listen to the sweet melody of their voices while they pick on each other.