Wednesday, November 28

tolstoy and the purple chair



i made a mistake when i bought this book: i thought the original was not written in english. so i ended up with a translation while i could have read the original american english version. which made me wonder at least once a page: is this a weirdly translated sentence or was the original like this as well? anyway, i got through it easily because the subject is so enchanting: reading a book a day for an entire year, imagine that... it only makes me want to read more and more. on her website, nina sankovitch gives some ideas to make it easier to read all day: read while vacuuming. or even better: read instead of vacuuming. well, my extra reading time must be taken from somewhere, so i guess the grey house might suffer a bit. i have decided it's worth it.

Sunday, November 25

the turn of the screw



hmmm... this one belongs in the category "one of the strangest books i've read". i did not like it and i only read it until the final page because i don't like to leave things unfinished. i can't even find a nice quote to end this blogpost with, since i think all the sentences are long and confusing and not aesthetically pleasing. oh well, there's always the next book...

Thursday, November 22

finished~14



all new ones this time:

~ de traay shower gel honey & milk ~ sounds good and feels equally good.
~ dr. hauschka rose day cream ~ a basic, all natural and very nice day cream.
~ lush fresh farmacy ~ a solid skin cleanser that actually made my skin a bit dry. too bad because it is a lovely product.
~ biotherm aquasource eye perfection ~ this came for free with a moisturizer. it's ok, but i like my eye cream a bit richer (in an attempt to do something about those first lines showing...)
~ labello hydro care lip balm ~ supposedly, this brand only dries your lips out to make you use more and more. but it smells so nice...
~ dove original deodorant ~ i actually prefer more natural deodorants, but so far all the natural ones i've tried contain some unknown ingredient that my skin can't stand. or they don't do the job properly. so, for now i'm back with one that always works well. such a shame that it contains all those nasty ingredients.

Saturday, November 17

what do we know?



often enough, the grass looks greener when i take a peek through other people's windows. but there's another side to this as well. a few houses down from the place where everything looks perfect, there's a nice little house where a family with two very young children lives. as in the perfect house, their dinner table is positioned near the windows. but instead of candles at night and cosy pots of tea during the day, there is always - and i mean every single day - an enormous pile of laundry on the dinner table. so in my mind, these poor young parents are hanging and folding and ironing their laundry at all hours of the day and night. they don't get anything else done because there is just too much laundry in their lives.
this is what we do. we see an infinitesimal part of the picture and we think we know it all.

Thursday, November 15

the grass is greener



on the afternoons i walk little imp home from day care, i always pass a house where a family with somewhat older children lives. everything is in impeccable order whenever i take a peek through their windows (i love taking peeks through people's windows). the kitchen table is positioned near the street. dinner time is nearing, the plates and cutlery are already neatly put down. two posh candles are invariably burning cosily in the centre of the table. the pans are steaming away on the stove in the fancy kitchen. and when we take a walk past this house during any other time of the day, there is a nice big pot of tea on that same table, always ready for anyone in the house who might fancy a cup. 
how easy it is to just go by these appearances and presume everything is simply perfect. i find myself being caught in that trap time and time again.

Monday, November 12

my monday: time to read



one thing that i must confess to missing sometimes, is how i used to have hours and hours to myself that i could spend reading. as all mothers know, everything changes as soon as a little imp arrives, and the times of reading a hundred pages a day are over, but things are definitely improving. a book doesn't take several weeks to get through anymore, but i have to be inventive and use all the precious fifteen-minute-stretches i can find that don't have to be spent on more useful things. honestly, i am grateful for every page i can find time for and i love my reading as much as ever.

Thursday, November 8

beyond the sling



a lovely and uplifting book by a wonderful mother whose style of parenting comes really close to the way i believe happy and confident children best be raised (and fullifilled and strong parents best be made).

the rewards are waiting for us if we follow our intuition.

mayim bialik ~ beyond the sling

Monday, November 5

mini shopaholic



of course the autumn holidays begged for another not-so-intelligent book to while away the lovely lazy hours with. i simply chose the next shopaholic-book for this. it did its work well for almost 500 pages. now the book is finished, the autumn holidays seem forever ago and i'm ready for the harder stuff again.

Friday, November 2

tudors



we have our cosy autumny evenings cut out for us for a long, long time to come. lovely looking forward to this every day again.