valentine's day

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.

Brian Andreas


i have a date tonight with my husband.
we've decided on frozen pizza & wine. (and a movie)

i really can't think of a better way to spend valentine's day.

it's freezing cold outside.
i love it.

source: old couple

i've always loved sad stories

i am not a sad person. maybe a little bitter sometimes. but definitely not sad.
sad stories are pretty much irresistible to me, though.
and you should probably know i don't really care for happy endings.
[only in real life.] but never in movies.
they seem quite fake to me.
sometimes i feel like i need to tell people what happy endings are really like.

for happy endings to be truly happy, they often carry a little sadness within.

and i enjoy a little sadness in life.
for it is expected and imperative.
and it also has this inevitable binding force
that makes you notice the good side of life.

and i have such an ambivalent attitude when it comes to feelings.

art comes from sadness.
grace in the form of rain that washes the soul.
la tristesse vient de l'eau.

losing something you never really had can be truly heartbreaking.

and it's harder coming to terms with this kind of loss.

source: image

i love you like...

the sound wisdom of a gradma
the precious innocence of youth
the kind words of a teacher
the slow, not-so-sad blues

a nice, crackling fireplace
and sleepy afternoons
the freezing cold winter days
and those hot summer nights

unpaved roads
breakfast in bed
lazy, rainy mornings
the life of a newlywed

our weekend through the lens of Instagram

more on pajamas pants:

the art of doing nothing 

dare to bake?

the art of doing nothing part 2: Italian style

 here's something else i didn't do this weekend

forgotten treasures: 

how many times have you looked for something

and found other things you didn't even remember you had?

daily doses of wisdom

feeding our kids

a glimpse on future weekends

source: old couple picture

is there anything better than...

... spend the entire weekend in pajama pants?

 it's freezing cold outside right now. winter is our favorite season and we always make sure to feel cozy and warm at home.

newlywed life is awesome! we're so lucky we don't have to work weekends. and it's even better when we have the whole weekend to ourselves.

pizza, wine and movies. seriously, what more could i ask for?

it was about time

i was talking to a cousin the other day about this blog. and he was all like: why don’t you write more often? and why don’t you write about this and that..?

it made me think about how limited our time is.

and how i always used to come up with thousands of new year’s resolutions... i used to start with some nice, attainable goals. then, well...

i don't know. maybe it's just that i'd get a little too excited and my list would end up something like this:

-          go out with my friends more often

-          read more

-          join a book club

-          go out on dates with my husband every week

-          actually send real Christmas cards this year (yeah, i always regret not having started it earlier - oh, and now it's too late and they won't be getting it before Christmas anyway.. so what's the point?)

-          work out on a daily basis

-          start a business

-          take up an old hobby (like photography)

-          writing lots of emails to my long distance friends every week/month

-          visit my in-laws once a week

-          work extra hours to save for a car upgrade

-          sleep more hours

-          volunteer at our local church

-          take an online course on applied finance

-          start a blog and post regularly

-          pay off the house

-          completely change my eating habits

-          have a baby

-          learn how to play the guitar

-          help with advertising my husband’s business

-          write a book

-          learn French

-          run my first half marathon

-          travel around the world in 80 days...

and you know me.. i am all for those things, really. i am.

and i guess when we all think about new year’s resolutions, we normally go for the 10+ list of things we must add to our regular (and most likely already full) schedule without leaving our current responsibilities unattended.

but let’s face it: there is not enough time to do everything we want! i mean.. seriously, i’d love to be able to accomplish every single thing I want in life, but there just isn’t time to do them all.

i don’t know about you, but i used to do that. i used to write these 10+, 20+, 100+ lists before the new year came and surprise, surprise!, i didn’t even remember most of what was in there by February! so, what are resolutions good for anyway if you don’t even know that you can actually commit to doing them after all?

i have been doing things differently for the past few years, though, and it has been working fine for me. i'm sure some people would think i don't feel extra inspired or maybe that i aim too low to avoid disappointment. but it's definitely not it - i guess am a lot more focused now than i have ever been and i'm proud to to say that i am actually getting things done. less things. important things.

i have learned to prioritize.

and frankly, i am getting pretty damn good at it :)

i have come to realize that wanting too many things done at once is probably the best way to get absolutely nothing done. and it is such a waste of time to think anyone could multitask to that extent...

i’m not a huge expert on the matter, but when playing darts, i've been taught to aim the dart point to the area i wanted to hit. that's because when you’re not sure where you wanna hit, you get distracted and focus on many places at the same time... which will, more often than not, cause you to completely miss the target. i guess the same thing happens in life.

and i am sure we can all relate to it at some point in our lives.

we've all been there.. there's always a season in our lives in which we can’t seem to fully commit to anything.. we start new projects with lots of enthusiasm and end up quitting almost as fast as we had started.

until i decided i didn't want to keep making the same mistake over and over again.

and i guess it's all about understanding that when we choose something, we are inevitably forced to say  no  to something else.

[just in case you were wondering why i don't write on this blog all that often]

2012

i have been neglecting this blog for the past few weeks, i know.. and i'm sorry.

the month of December was pretty hectic at work - and i really, really need to de-stress right now. with the beginning of a new year and lots of resolutions to take care of, i'll leave you with three links i'd like you to visit, so you may get to know me a little better:

old-fashioned marriage

men are all the same

success .: the making of :.


or simply keep track of my thoughts here


happy new year! feliz año nuevo! bonne année! glückliches neues Jahr! godt nyttår! gott nytt år! feliz ano novo! buon anno!

anticipation

christmas is right around the corner.

and my heart is filled with anticipation.

i love this holiday season and it's always exciting to start a brand new year.

now it's time for new year's resolutions, new projects, new life.

it's easier for me to make changes happen when a new year is about to begin.

change the course of life. press reset.



the dull will say what's so special about it anyway- it is just another year. and it doesn't really change anything.

and they're right. it doesn't change anything.

we do.

just like the sun that rises every morning, i guess our minds need this psychological resetting of time every now and then.


weeks, months, seasons, years, decades. what would life be like without them?

a series of countless days

an endless night

an everlasting winter

... some people hate the cold, but everybody smiles to the first snow of the season.

a world

i love this painting.

(click to enlarge)

1929! can you believe it?
isn't it amazing?

i took this picture during my latest visit to the Reina Sofia Museum here in Madrid. oh, and people are allowed to take pictures there - just in case you were wondering :)

Ángeles SANTOS TORROELLA

Portbou, 1911

Un mòn 

Un mundo

A world

1929

Óleo sobre lienzo

Oil on canvas

is it just me or does this painting also remind you of a particular animated movie?? :)

thanks... giving

Britta asked me to guest post for her and this is what she got (i really hope she liked it!) :) I thought I'd also share this post here, since it's Thanksgiving and all.. well, she had told me that would probably be a good thing to write about. And she was right. 

See, I have never celebrated Thanksgiving and I don't know much about this holiday. We don't celebrate it here in Spain. I wish we did, though. It is such a beautiful thing to set aside a day to make us remember to be thankful for everything we have. It may sound stupid, since I'm a Christian, but sometimes I feel like I need a reminder so that I can stop and think about the things that I should be thankful for.

gratitude doesn't come naturally to me sometimes.

And, most of us.. well.. we have so much. I mean, we don't think we do - you know, considering how bad the economy is right now and especially if we compare ourselves to richer people, we may come to the conclusion that we don't have enough or even that we are just plain poor.  However, if only we changed the perspective and compared our lives to the lives of millions of people that can't tell when their next meal will be, then we are rich. Seriously, if they could see us right now living our everyday lives (paying a bunch of bills, worrying about our jobs, about our family, even our health), they would think we're all millionaires. Most of them would trade with any of us in a heartbeat.

I was listening to a radio show the other day and they were talking about this survey in which they had asked many people if they thought they were rich. People with low income obviously said no, and people with average and higher incomes also said they didn't think they were rich. Then they were asked a second question: "how much money would you have to make to feel 'rich'? "And the average answer was "I'd have to make double what I make now".

Therefore, people with low income would feel rich if they made what an average person makes. An average person would feel rich if they could at least double their income; and so on..

The truth is no one is ever satisfied. Because - they said -  rich is a moving target. The more you have the more you realize how much more you need.

I don't know about you, but I'd have easily answered that question the same way. But there is always somebody better off, isn't it? This is crazy!

And isn't it sad that we are never content with what we have? That even if, right now, my income was way higher than it is, I'd think that I needed more so I could feel good?? I mean, that's pretty unreasonable, isn't it? Because if we really think about it (and this is mind-boggling stuff), if we set our happiness meter to measure contentment by success, by what we have or by the things we can afford, we're basically screwed! It's probably wiser to have some perspective and be thankful for everything we have, even if it doesn't seem much to us.

Gratitude is a learned behavior to most of us and it requires practice.

See, I remember when I was younger I used to think that by this time in my life

1. I'd be married

2. I'd be living in a big city

3. I'd have a job [and I'd love it] and

4. I've become financially independent and have lots of money

Isn't it amazing that I now have pretty much everything I wanted then? Not that I am loaded with money, but I can pay all the bills and still enjoy some of what is left. Maybe rich really is a moving target - and it sucks!! I feel like our culture has been cheating us all out of confidence and satisfaction.

So I've decided to do something about it.

i am breaking that circle.

I am going to give more. Giving breaks the power of money in our lives and it helps us get our priorities right. My husband and I often buy some extra food, along with our own, to give to people that have too little. But we had never made it a commitment. Until now. So we have agreed on a number, based on an percentage of our income, that we'll dedicate to helping people every month. I encourage you to take the plunge and start doing something for somebody you don't know. Not only because of the good it does for other people, but for the good it does to us. It feels great [and it's definitely humbled us].  

I guess Thanksgiving won't be coming to Spain any soon, but maybe we have just found our own way of celebrating it.

***

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