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.

Monday's happy twists and turns

1.
Another morning and I am late for work. I walk hastily towards the daycare centre holding Jay’s hand in mine when I remember Neza Maurer’s poem:

Drobne prstke imam,
da se mame držim.
Dokler ne zrastejo,
se ne spustim.

I have tiny fingers
holding on to my Mom.
Until they grow bigger
I won't let go of her hand.

2.
The wind is rustling in the treetops so loudly I can hardly hear myself walk over dead leaves. But then the path descends to the other side of the hill and it’s like leaving a battlefield behind and entering a shelter in the middle of the woods.

3.
The story has a twist and I can’t wait to read on. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a book.

Keeping me warm on a cold Tuesday

1. I open my e-mails and find a message from my friends abroad, the exact people I was planning to write to.

2. Hot white chocolate with coconut and a friend to talk to.

3. I come home late and find my girls wearing pyjamas and reading from a children's magazine in the big bed. They have just learnt a poem about ducklings for me.

My Thursday gifts

1.
I start my 29-Day Giving Challenge. The book I read a few weeks ago, was really inspiring. It’s been a great day to give!

2.
Jay is inspecting her face very closely in the mirror.
“What beautiful teeth I have… I don’t have any pimples…!”
(That comes from having a bigger sister.)
“Becca has got a pimple on her nose!”
(?!)
“How do you know it’s a pimple?”
“She told me!”
What more can I say…?! I laugh.
Jay is 4 years old. Becca, her best friend in daycare, is also 4.

3.
There is a beautiful card with a young woman standing in a field of lavender in my mailbox. And I remember Provence ’96.

Tripping on a Potato Wednesday

1. autumn colours in the hilly regions of Dolenjska
2. glass beads with eyes and knobs
3. feeding ducks by the castle Otočec

Children are having so-called »potato« school holidays (the name comes from the potato harvest which took place weeks ago). Extra animation required! I can't remember ever going for a trip to southeastern Slovenia so I suggest we set wheels towards Novo mesto...

We take the highway (Ljubljana-Zagreb) and enjoy wonderful view of the hilly region which is well-known to wine enthusiasts as it is the home to Cvicek wine, a blend of several different varieties of wine from the local vineyards. On an ordinary working day it is crazy to expect to find a parking space downtown but we take our chances and drive all the way up to the Chapter Church of St. Nicholas and bingo! – park our car. The museum we are heading to is just one street away!

 

I have been to Dolenjski muzej many years ago and the findings amazed me. I figured Em would find it interesting also to see locally excavated items dating back to the late Stone Age. She has started history this year and expressions, such as “century” and “Age” sound much more familiar than they did a year ago.

The exhibits show the settlements in the Dolenjska region from Stone Age until Middle Ages. We see a rich collection of tools, weapons, jewelry and pottery. The central part of the exhibition presents items from the late Iron Age (8th-4th century BC): colourful glass beads with eyes and knobs, produced in local workshops, complemented with amber jewelry, iron and bronze weapons, bronze vessels and situlae with human figurines. Most of the jewelry pieces were among rich findings from the early Iron Age graves.

Em agrees that the Stone Age tools, glass vessels and jewelry are remarkable while Jay busies herself looking for passages from one room to another. I am glad I was able to fight the common prejudices about children visiting museums once again…!

The castle Otočec, the only castle located on an island (amid the Krka river) in Slovenia, was our next stop.

It dates back to renaissance although its existence was documented already in 13th century. Unfortunately the castle was devastated by the partisans during WWII therefore there are no remains of any spectacular interior glamour other than what has been created decades later when the castle was turned into a 5* hotel, often used as a protocol site for accommodating special guests.

Needless to say we choose not to have our lunch here, but we do feed the ducks with some bread we have left from our morning snacking in the car.

I don’t think the ducks would fancy any of the castle specialties more…!

The recent beautiful...

1. A Saturday walk on the beach in Ankaran, the only place you can count on finding shells any time of the year.

2. Girls' painting nails on a Sunday evening.
 

 3. Monday dumplings rolled with love by Jay.

Gratefulness on Wednesday!

1. After a long wait by the side of the road I feel relieved to see my car and a familiar face in the driver’s seat. Then I notice the badly scratched side of the car and my Mom’s pale face. And I am grateful. It could have been so much worse than a minor crash.

2. The fragrance of freshly baked bread: white bread, corn bread, buckwheat bread with walnuts, buns, croissants. I am one of 10 bakerladies!

3. Em is eager to brief me on an interview she will be having at school with a writer of children’s stories. I am amazed at how many of his books she has already read and how fearless she is about the whole event.  

A Tuesday of surprises

1. Just as I extend my leg to make another step a golden maple leaf lands exactly on the ground right in front of me. I step over it. I like Autumn, I really do.

2. The school gym where we usually have our Tuesday pilates class is being occupied for a school project so we use a wide multi-purpose hall next to the library for our one-hour activity instead. I find it easier to live through the exercises looking at the inspiring pupils’ drawings, paintings and other art projects exhibited all around.

3. My daughter shares details about an incident from school that give me shivers but I feel relieved when I hear her point of view on the happening.