A mother's nightmare

It was summer of 2009 and we were in Italy in a shop. Ilaria was safe, in my belly. Suddenly we've heard a desperate mother's voice calling for her little child who seemed to be missing. In less than 1 minute she found him leaving the shop together with the mini-shop-cart. She was so scared that she started slapping him. Of course in my mind I accused her, thinking that she was to be blamed for not having payed enough attention and now she was punishing him. I was thinking: "It's not fair!". (My impression created by Italian magazines and RaiUno TV channel is that kidnapping is the most frequent cause of kids lost from their parents, in Italy. And it happens very often.)
Few days ago, while we were in a supermarket I turned my back to Ilaria for maximum 5 seconds. When I turned back to where I knew she was, she wasn't there anymore and I didn't have any clue in which direction she could have gone. I remembered she was attracted by a girl with beautiful dress and she could have gone there again. In the next 5 seconds I found Ilaria there, playing with that girl's flowers on the dress. I was lucky!
In tonight's nightmare it was a little harder. I was at a pool, together with my sister and with Ilaria. Ilaria wasn't my daughter, but my niece. I turned my back to Ilaria for few seconds and here she wasn't there anymore! We started searching her. It was daylight outside when we started searching. And we were searching quiet, afraid to signalize to others that we were looking for a lost child. Probably few hours passed. It was dark outside and we were still searching. Finally we found Ilaria's coat. Inside it, it was a letter from our grandmother. I was disappointing, as I hoped the letter could have given us some hints where Ilaria could have been found. I didn't take time to read the letter, but my sister did. She told me: "she puts all her hope in us. She trust WE will find Ilaria!". I was already losing my hope in ourselves and I was thinking police could do more than us. But after I've heard our grandmother's message I was thinking: "Wait! She's so right! No policeman could do more than a mother's (aunt's) love for her child!". And I started calling Ilaria's name as loud as I could. A lot of cats started to come out from all the dark corners and soon Ilaria joined them! :-) I was lucky again!
It's just a dream, but it seems that somewhere in my mind it's already written "turning your back to your child can become so painful! Don't do it again!". I really hope I won't!
Pin It

Edmund Adler, my favorite painter

He was an Austrian painter and he painted my favorite subject: children.
Look at these paintings and imagine what childhood those children had:


no noisy, pollutant and dangerous cars in their neighborhood

"Cherry delight"?

no noisy battery toys

 "Dolls supper" 

no computer games

 "Playing school"

no TV

  "The weatherman"

no plastic

 "Repairing the little cart"

just simple

  "A new friend"

quiet

"The little postman" 

sweet

 "The young artist"

natural life

 "Flowers for grandmother"

It's obvious that Adler had painted real children from his village, as some children can be observed in many paintings. My all time favorite Adler's subject is the little boy, the youngest and the most curious one. He's adorable:
( I call him "Nătrăcală". :-) )

Simply lovely paintings, aren't they?

P.S.: @Bogdan B.: thanks for reminding me that this blog and me we still have some fans out there!

Pin It

"I am a mother"

I don't belong to LDS Church, but I love their messages. From time to time I visit this page of Mormon Messages and I like them. Recently I discovered a really special one, from my point of view: Hi, I'm Jane. She spoke to me, so I purchased her book:

Yes, another book on motherhood. But her example is something so rare in nowadays: she left her successful career at CBS News and dedicates her time for being "just" a mother! Did you hear something similar lately? I didn't!

I read her book in 3 days. She quotes a lot of persons in her book. There are motivational stories and wonderful words on motherhood.

I quote here some paragraphs I love:

"If I were Satan and wanted to destroy a society, I think I would stage a full blown blitz on women. I would keep them so distraught and distracted that they would never find the calming strength and serenity for which their gender has always been known."

Patricia Holland

"Our mother provides us with our first experience of nurturing. She is our first and most powerful female role model. It is from her that we learn what it is to be a woman... Our cells divided and grew to the beat of her heart. Our skin, hair, heart, lungs, and bones were nourished by her blood, blood that was awash with the neurochemicals formed in response to her thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. If she was fearful [or] anxious..., our bodies knew it. If she felt safe, happy, and fulfilled, we felt that too...

...every daughter contains her mother and all the women who came before her."

Dr. Christiane Northrup

Motherhood is the ideal time to "live in the moment" because it is the perfect time to see life in action, to witness your child taking his first step, picking her first flower, walking out the door for his first day of school, or leaving with a fine young man on her first date. These thing will never happen again.

I love this oft-quoted proverb, which seems so applicable to my life right now:

   The cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,

   For babies grow up, I've learned, to my sorrow.

   So quiet down, cobwebs! Dust, go to sleep!

   I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

                             - Author unknown

Teenagers grow up fast, too. And so do grandchildren. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow just down and really watch our children - at every age - change before our eyes?

Rather than trying to be Supermom, try being simply Mom - and let the wonder in your child's eyes give you the strength to keep on going.

Jane Clayson Johnson

"Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in her shoes."

In August will be 2 years since I'm home only for my family and I think often that if you want to do everything right, by yourself (cooking, laundry, cleaning, daily walks in park, blogging ;-), education...), with a lot of help from husband!, 24 hours is no time enough! So I totally agree with Jane when she says that stay-at-home-moms shouldn't use the "just" word, but simply say proudly "I am a mother"!

Being a mother is more than enough, and it's such a pity that it's considered by many as "doing nothing"!
Anyway, I feel so uplifted everytime I remember that somebody once said:
"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world".
:-)

Kisses from a happy mother!
Raluca

P.S.: On a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) I give for "I am a mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson an 8.

Pin It

Fish paste / Pasta de peste

What it's needed for this simple, cheap and tasteful recipe:

120gr fish meat (I use tuna can), 100gr. butter, 1 onion, juice from 1/2 lemon, salt, pepper 

You start mixing the ingredients. Begin with fish and butter:

After you obtain an homogeneous paste, add all the other ingredients (lemon juice, salt, pepper, chopped onion):

Pofta buna! Bon appetit!
Pin It