the greatest

This is one of my favorite songs ever. And the video talks to my heart so much, if I was a singer and I had to make a video, I would probably make something like that. Something that would show my love for people, and old women in particular.

Chan Marshall is a very inspiring woman to me, how she became like a butterfly with the years, shining with beauty and yet so fragile at the same time. I think she got a little crazy on her last haircut but I love that she had the guts to dare, at 40. And Cherokee (not sure about this video though) and Ruin definitely were the songs of my spring and summer.

As I am approaching 40 myself, I understand more and more that life is a journey. Not a long time ago, I was still feeling like I would be there forever. Now I know life is fragile and if you don't fix your problems now, they might really ruin your moment on this earth. I feel I have less time now to fix my problems and enjoy life, and it's good that I feel this kind of urge in a way because it helps me move on and up.

Somebody told me yesterday that the love and happiness you give today is given forever, but the years gone with you not giving love and happiness can never be given back.

This is a time in my life where I don't want to be the greatest anymore. I just want to be the best I can, with my ups and downs.

thought of the day

I've always been proud of my blog. I don't care if it's one small tiny space lost in the ocean of millions of blogs. I just wanted to write and share my experience with other women (men are absolutely welcome but I don't fool myself: these topics will mainly interest women).

Well, it's been like that. And this is how I met Nora, FCC, Alexis, Maria, Kerry, Polly, and Kiki, and... No one among my friends and family - except for my man and my daughter - knows about my blog. I've always prefered to gather new friends, even "virtual" ones, women from all over the world, and not get easy comments from friends or family members who are going to like whatever I write, no matter what.

Writing this blog has kept me connected to other women when I was pregnant and off work, and then when Swann was a baby and I was at home taking care of him, and then after, going back to work. I realized that we often feel the same emotions about our babies, our kids, our motherhood, our womanhood and through the blogs, I have found new inspirations (education, decoration, music...). And even if I have less time to write, I still love this blog and enjoy visiting the others'. And so what if some people read my blog and don't like what I write, especially if they do it in a looking-through-the-peephole kind 
of way, somewhere I am sure they wished they had the guts to actually go out and write a blog. So they can keep coming if they feel like it, they might even learn something about life.

And by the way, I just graduated with a master's degree and I am quite proud of myself (this explains also why you haven't heard a lot about me: working and studying takes time!). This was a long process to do so, as you know I am not exactly 25 anymore, but I am pretty happy with my master in foreign languages and cultures didactics. Now I can put on the table my work exeprience and four degrees in different foreign languages and didactics, like my man says, this makes me "a very intelligent woman" ☀☀☀ (also read l...o...l)

Seriously, I don't think intelligence has anything to do at all with academic education. If anything, I have been watching well-educated people act like real morons lately and I don't think that going to university helps leading an intelligent or happy life, even though it can definitely help in other fields. I think it's more what you do with your degrees, and mostly what drives you, how you make your decisions in life and how you handle good and bad.

Picture by Philippe Halsman

Have a lovely weekend and feel strong and pretty!

hello august

July:

My little boy "swimming" and talking more and more.

My lovely girl diving in the water, playing and having fun.

My new haircut - straight heavy bangs, and I love it.

My man's big birthday, looking more handsome and charming than ever. 

Goodbye July, hello August ♥♥♥

12 candles

Happy 12 years-old to my beautiful daughter.

This was a beautiful day, all in colors like this picture.
And I don't care what anybody says, I'm going to spoil her like a Gypsy mother because she means the world to me, and she deserves it.

I love you Florina, eşti cea mai frumoasă ♡♡♡

just do it

Why is it so hard to just do it?

I want to wake up early in the morning and do some workout and go out in the world and achieve my dreams. I just want to do it. Make it happen. Get right back on my feet when I fall and get stronger each time I feel defeated.

If others can make it, why can't I?

Photo found here

Apart from that, this video really made me laugh today. Yeah,why not start with a good laugh, this will definitely help. And I mean it.

Have a lovely and powerful weekend! And thank you Earl for being my best friend ever ♡♡♡

At the movies

Yesterday, we all went to the movies at the Forum des Images Ciné Concert. It's a great concept, where small kids from 18 months-old to 4 years-old can enjoy the ambiance of the cinema watching non-speaking cartoons with a musician playing live on stage. It's a lot of fun. 

It was Swann's second time at this kind of movies, I think he liked the cartoons a little less this time but he really had a good time running around, and clapping, and going up and down the stairs, and adding his handprint to the wall of fame.

Florina was definitely a bit too old for the cartoons, but she managed to read her magazine during the projection using her phone (☀)and had fun playing with her brother afterwards. 

Now they are at a period where they love/hate eachother. Naive as I can be, I didn't expect that to happen. He hits her, she screams at him. He scolds her, she scolds him. He says hi, she doesn't notice. She wants to kiss him goodnight, he turns his head the other way. And then all of a sudden, it all works well and they play together.

The big surprise

I had said to my daughter that my birthday had gone a little unnoticed in the family this year. I didn't even post about it (well, also, I was quite p*ssed to turn 38). My birthday is now surrounded by kids' birthdays and so we made them parties and I kind of stepped on the side to let them have their moments.

But yesterday evening I came back home to find my sisters and sister and brother-in-law, my mother and friends right there, in my living room, shouting "happy birthday!" and that was a surprise that my 11 year-old daughter had organized for me. Yes-she-did. She gathered everybody and organized the food and drinking part, she baked cakes on her own, and with the help of my man and mother and sisters, she made me the best surprise I've ever had. This was my very first surprise party (people probably know I am not so good with surprises...).

So yes I showed up wearing sneakers when everybody was nicely dressed, yes I was wearing an old sweater, yes the bedrooms and bathroom seriously needed some vacuum cleaning, but to hell with that, I had a FUN time! And honestly, it really blows my mind to think that my daughter did it for me. I feel so touched. I've had some down periods lately, and I felt like an awful mother screaming and having no patience, and to see my daughter's love for me means the world to me.

Florina, I love you ♡♡♡. What an amazing girl you are!!! Thank you so much!