Book: Sarah's key/Se numea Sarah (TatianaDeRosnay) - 9

'I'll come back for you later. I promise.'
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old Jewish girl, is arrested by the French police in the middle of the night, along with her mother and father. Desperate to protect her younger brother, she locks him in a cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as she can.

That's written on the book's back cover and those were enough words to make me want to read the book.
I'm always interested to read and find out more about Jews' fate during WWII. I still cannot believe my ears when I hear there are people nowadays denying Holocaust! There is so much evil in our world...
The book is fascinating. It's easy to be read. It took me only 3 days to finish it. And the actions described in it are so exciting that I was surprising myself on many pages reading few words on top of the page then jumping directly to the page's bottom, as I couldn't stand the tension and just wanted to find out faster what's next!
The story is fiction, but it could have been so easily true, in those days full of terror. 
A very good novel which worth to be read. It made me appreciate my life and my freedom, as they are. I could be angry daily on a neighbor, on a fellow citizen, on an insolent person, on a particular situation, but at any moment of the day and night I am free to live my life as I want, near my family!
Don't take your freedom for granted! Remember! Never forget! There were times when others could order for families to be split, for lives to be shortened...

On a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) I give it a 9.

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Some of Ilaria's hobbies lately

Ilaria is full of energy and ideas lately. She even shortened her afternoon sleeping time to half, probably in order to have more time for her hobbies.

Above all nice things in this world, she loves people the most. When we are outside she is very busy with having eye contact, smiling and exchanging few "words" with everybody. If the other person don't give a damn, she won't insist. She "reads" people so well already!

She is also passionate about:

* writing:

She seems to be right handed. When using her left hand she is really clumsy and immediately change the pen to right hand.

* dancing with Daddy every single evening. They even have "their song": Under Paris skies

* chasing doves in parks

* using curtains as handkerchief (from where did she learn this? no idea! I hope that's pure imagination)

* digging the soil into the flowers pots, with her bare hands, even when she has tools available!

* making herself useful when Daddy vacuums the floors:

Have a funny day!

Kisses!

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Happy Woman's Day! and a reminder for mothers

Today, on Woman's Day, I want to share here a wise reminder which I love. As mothers, we should never forget to enjoy every moment spent with our children, as... nothing lasts forever!


No more outmeal kisses
Erma Bombeck

A young mother writes: "I know you've written before about the empty-nest syndrome -- that lonely period after the children are grown and gone. Right now, I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry and muddy boots. The baby is teething; the boys are fighting. My husband just called and said to eat without him, and I fell off my diet. Lay it on me again, will you?"

OK.
One of these days, you'll shout, "Why don't you kids grow up and act your age!"
And they will.

Or, "You guys get outside and find yourselves something to do ... and don't slam the door!"
And they won't.

You'll straighten up the boys' bedroom neat and tidy -- bumper stickers discarded, bedspread tucked and smooth, toys displayed on the shelves. Hangers in the closet. Animals caged. And you'll say out loud, "Now I want it to stay this way."
And it will.

You'll prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't been picked to death and a cake with no finger traces in the icing, and you'll say, "Now, there's a meal for company."
And you'll eat it alone.

You'll say: "I want complete privacy on the phone. No dancing around. No demolition crews. Silence! Do you hear?" And you'll have it.

No more plastic tablecloths stained with spaghetti.
No more bedspreads to protect the sofa from damp bottoms.
No more gates to stumble over at the top of the basement steps.
No more clothespins under the sofa.
No more playpens to arrange a room around.
No more anxious nights under a vaporizer tent.
No more sand on the sheets or Popeye movies in the bathrooms.
No more iron-on patches, wet, knotted shoestrings, tight boots, or rubber bands for ponytails.
Imagine. A lipstick with a point on it. No baby sitter for New Year's Eve. Washing only once a week. Seeing a steak that isn't ground. Having your teeth cleaned without a baby on your lap.

No PTA meetings.
No car pools.
No blaring radios.
No one washing her hair at 11 o'clock at night.
Having your own roll of Scotch tape.
Think about it. No more Christmas presents out of toothpicks and library paste.
No more sloppy oatmeal kisses.
No more tooth fairy.
No giggles in the dark.
No knees to heal, no responsibility.

Only a voice crying, "Why don't you grow up?"

and the silence echoing, "I did."

(more beautiful wise words you can read here)


Happy Woman's Day!
♥
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One thousand gifts (part two)

I continue the wonderful experience of counting my life's blessings, linking to Ann Voskamp's gratitude community:


I am grateful also for:
27. darling people who find time to address me nice words on this blog
28. birds singing early in the morning
29. Internet
30. white winters
31. people who share
32. pizza
33. Adrian entertaining Ilaria from the moment he enters the house's door
34. automatic washing machine
35. snowdrops
36. Domenico Modugno's music
37. water in pipes
38. elevator, which we use daily

Have a blessed week!
Raluca

P.S.: My previous "One thousand gifts" post can be found here.
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I hate spring!

I love every spring season detail: flowers, birds singing, sun shining, trees budding,... But while I dream to see out of my window something like this:

all I see every spring after the snow is melted is this dirty part of the world:


I'm not complaining about my life here. I have so many thing to be grateful for! Here is a small part of them. I just hope better days will come and our children won't learn about seasons only from books, during the week-ends or visiting their grandparents!

When living in this country sometimes it gets so hard to dream...

How is your spring this year? More like my dream or more like my reality?
Have a wonderful week-end!
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1st of March, snowdrops and a crafty Mama

Today was the 1st day of spring. By looking outside the window one couldn't tell it's not winter anymore, as here, in Brasov, is still snowing! Since there wasn't much to do outside today, I organised an indoor... photoshoot. I think Ilaria was really missing one ;-) Here she is, posing for her Mom, wearing an outfit handmade specially to celebrate 1st of March (white and red are the two colors which announce spring in Romanian tradition):

Ilaria's special outfit was handmade by the crafty Mom, friend of mine, Dana. More of her beauties can be seen here: Dana's Knitting.

Late in the night, close to bedtime, Daddy came home from work and completed our day by offering us snowdrops bouquets (another symbol of spring)

All in all we had a good first day of spring. Thanks Dana for Ilaria's outfit and for reminding me it's spring ;-) Thanks Adrian for the snowdrops!

We wish you a gorgeous spring!

Ralu & Co.

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