Our best time is now

Today is a magnificent and very special day
Today, as early as 06:11, I have been a mother for 21 years. The best 21 years of my life, without a doubt!
The little boy with brown eyes, curly brown hair and the sweetest smile, I have loved since the first second and the love is ever growing and mind blowing, hurricane like and eternity. All at once.
There's no such love and the firstborn is.... firstborn.
Alexander, I love you so much - there's no way you'll ever know how much.
And I know you love me endlessly, last time you told me so was in a text message just a few days ago.
You know you make my day, week, year, life when you do that, right?!

Here's to Alexander the great: happy birthday, sweet baby boy <3

Here he celebrates aging 1 year, today he celebrates being 21. 

How the years pass!

Apart from the obvious: my thankfulness for the sons I have, I also think there are so many things to notice in a regular day.
We need to do that more, we need to get better at doing it.

Like finally being able to plant pansies, I truly appreciate it.

Perky yellow!

Appreciating, for damn sure, the hubs lending a helping hand outside...

Ooops there!

My second born captured a happy-go-lucky mama walzing about!

A simple little thing, like coffee in the garden.

Take a moment, look to your left and then to your right!
I'll bet you can find a lot of things to be thankful for, just by doing that.

I really thought about that walking with co-workers (passing out our spring program folder), looking at all those spectacular big beautiful houses in my work area. I envied their houses, their gardens and even their grand cars. Those wooden decks were to die for and a lot of things were...

I paused for a second and thought to myself: "we have a very cute red front door" - and we do!
Our tiny little attached house, with a tiny stamp-size garden has a cute red front door. It also has lanterns hanging in our only tree! That's something.

It comes with a grill also...

And tiny flowers.

Compliments of good forces: The Dog!

BBQ - ain't nothing like it.

And that ever so sweet boy - in indian attire.

After the grilled meat, this awaited. Another first for the season. Another rite of passage for me.

Duely appreciated.

Jogging Saturday morning I owned the world!
I was so free and happy and couldn't care less about hubby's employment- and money-worries (or my soft tummy, for that matter), no I was inspired and was running faster than ever.
I felt good. I FEEL good!


So, we need to put in a new kitchen and two new bathrooms. Yes, we do, these are from the eighties and not really any fun. We also want a wooden deck - I'd love that!
But we've done quite a few things already on this house and if we hadn't, everything would be from the eighties. I love the stairs now, I love the wall paper in the kitchen and I love our living room. I will enjoy painting The Boy's walls this spring, 'cuz he really wants it.
I will thoroughly enjoy sipping Mojitos in that Adirondeck chair we bought last year, so yes I sure have a lot to be thankful for and to notice.

And since our best time is now, I'll enjoy the red door, the deckchair, the old kitchen and bathrooms. I'll enjoy our tiny house, because it's ours! Our life is ours and our best time is: now.
Definitely.
Our only time is now.


The weekend was fab!
Have a grand - noticable - Monday!

(me? I'll give that first born of mine a call, to hear his sweet 21 year old voice!)

Dreamin'...

Dreams
I once had a "dreamblog", where I used to count down to the big dream of having a house of our own. I would also dream of having a dog, another son and a carefree life.
I actually dreamt of working as a library manager too, so you see why it did strike me as striking (!) today when I came to remember this dreamblog of mine.

It is nothing other than fantastic that one can dream big, one year, and then another year all the dreams have come true - and you didn't even think about it!

(yeah making that very house beautiful is also in the cards, dream wise and thankful wise)

Painting still going on! I'm now done even with the bedroom. 

Now hubs is in the middle of the stair case.

We celebrated Father's Day last Sunday. With small simple things.

A gift and a tiny fall bouquet.

Sitting down by the kitchen table together. 

The Boy had a chance to show us some of his favorite episodes on kids TV.

Simple dreamin'?

Nowadays I have simple dreams. If I then dreamt of peace and quiet, a house that's mine and another child, I now dream of evenings with candles. I dream of a really good home cooked  meal, come Sunday and a foam bath, come Friday evening. Things like that.

On another note I also dream of these things:

-Going to Miami again

-Going to New York again

-Going to California

-Going to Paris

-Going to Italy

-Trying a water scooter

-Trying a snow scooter, for that matter

-Going speed boating (yeah, I said I'd do it this summer but I didn't)

-Celebrating Thanksgiving

Lit candles to long home for.

An existence to love.

This crazy little dog keeps his carpe diem cherished: by shutting his blanket as often as he can.

You go dog!

Good "fall-goes-winter" times.

The ill boy

The Boy has been ill the last days. He has had a very high temperature and really been burning up.

Today is day three for him, lying on the couch alternating to the bed and he has high hopes being back in business tomorrow, because tomorrow his friend is supposed to come with us home after school.

Horrible as it is having a boy that's burning up with fever, it's very cute to hear his first sentence of the day, this morning:

-Today I'll have a popsicle for "fika" (the coffee break)!

If nothing else, it tells me well times are in the loop for him, soon!

I just can't believe these lovelies are still in bloom. It's winter, sweetheart - take a well deserved nap!

Fuzzy pic of a gorgeous flower, still in bloom. Yep, the Blackberries.

Thankful

So, of all those dreams I dream big, there's one I can make come true right away: the Thanksgiving celebration! Why not? Good tasty food, sitting down talking about what we're thankful for. I can't wait!

I am thankful, for much the same things that I dream about:

-My family

-My friends

-The fact that I'm slowly making new wonderful friends here in the south

-My cosy home

-My dog

-The evenings in our home, that are some kind of wonderful

-The car rides to work, with hubby, where we sometimes have coffee, sometimes talk and sometimes do both!!

-The walk from The Boy's school, after picking him up, when I feel the free time lying ahead of me the rest of the afternoon/evening

-Blogs, mine and those few I follow. I love seeing other parts of the world, other people's minds and get to follow them. It's a magical wonderful treat

-Instagram - that allows my soul to have candy from all over the world every day

I'm thankful I have a boy who can play air flute to me.

Not to mention air guitar!

Sometimes That Very Boy is not thankful he has a mom with a camera glued to her face...

Always thankful for beauty:

One sunrise, offered recently.

Another one.

It's Thursday instead of Wednesday today. My boy has been very ill, so there was no problem with priorities. It looks like he may get better now, please keep your fingers crossed!

Have a great Thursday, folks!

It's going to be a special weekend in many ways.

Big birds, a little north of their Pelican sisters...

Yes, the geese are who I speak of!
They are indeed grand in every way. This time of year I have come to notice that they follow a certain pattern: in the morning they leave their little cosy area in the middle of our town, where they have a pond and small houses (right next to the monastery from the 1100-something), and head for the fields just behind our neighbourhood. On those fields they spend their day and then they head back to the "city-pond" when sun sets in the early evening.
They make their characteristic sounds and they look beautiful where they fly: free, happy and untaimed!
I love seeing them and I almost always stop just to look and listen.

Why all those comparisons to Miami? you just might wonder!
I love Miami and a lot of things about that city really made an impression and I always long to go there. I also follow a wonderful blog where the blogger lives there, so nowadays I keep getting reminded of what it is I long for: pelicans, the ocean, the palm trees, the colours (above all) and the mode of ease...

***

Another week has passed. As usual I'll tell the story of it, in all its simplicity, in the days coming.
Life in itself is grand and magic. It is a journey aswell as an adventure. No difference this week.

I think this may have been this year's last layer of snow... I think it suits our house!

Funkie always finds himself near his mother. Looking cute too.

I love this! I bought it at my hair hero's new concept place.

I had the day off, on friday, since I was going to work sunday instead. This meant a long breakfast with son and hubby and we had a great time.

Sometimes enough is enough, when it comes to mom getting pics...

A real and utterly true spring sign, finally showed in the garden. Yippie kay yeah!

Splendid times, being spent with the boy.

My hairdresser told me off: I'm not supposed to wear pony tail any longer since it hurts my hair. So, I sported this new try for a hairdo, going to the wood store. What say you?