Birthday bliss

What a wonderful weekend my loved ones arranged for me to celebrate my birthday! Saturday at the seaside enjoying the first sunny and warm spring day, building sand castles, eating icescream and admiring both the beauty of the natural reserve, as well as the close-by luxorius villas. It is always a debate, weather the 3h a day is worth it, but at the end of the day it always turns out to be. We ended the day sipping a glass of cava at a relaxed lounge bar while kids were playing at the playground. These moments really fill and stay in my heart❤ My birthday started with a toilet session with my toddler, but fortunately I just made it back to bed eyes closed, before the door opened with the birthday ceremonies, a happy birthday song, group hugs and a mountain of presents! They are SO CUTE my bunch of smaller and bigger babies!!Of course, by group pressure, I had to start opening my gifts from the Neuhouse chocolate box and share a tour with each little party goer. My 8 and 11 year old girls had picked me two sweet pink bottles from Rituals described as "crackling shower gel sensation" and something else that resembled 1st of May celebration foam flying around my shower cabine when on test drive. They smelled as sweet as my little girls. (In parenthesis, I learned these two angels had managed to bargain a tube of mascara each from dad during the shopping fare, sneaky ones.) I also got a portable coffee thermos, that resembled a huge camera zoom "to the photographer of life", as well as a XL size tea cup, which stated in French: Avant mon cafe du matin, je suis a) gentille b) fresch c) de bonne humour d) ta gueule. The last one was selected. The kids looked worried about my expression, as I actually am a morning person always greeting them with a cheery smile, hug and good morning breakfast served. Apparently it was the only mug in store. The fabulous moms was sold-out To compensate the lazy Saturday strolling, today was the sporty day. We packed the car again, 5 bikes up and headed towards the Lakes (Lac de l'eau de l'heure) an hour away. It was so refreshing again o change the scenery from the city dust. We arrived at noon to this holiday district with every possible water sport activity available . The biking trail was beautiful,by the lake side waterfront. No crowds, just the nature and shimmering lake. The whole family enjoyed greatly and 20 Km went flying. Definitely worth a return visit!
To finish the day a glass of cava and Roland Garros, as a new tennis enthousiast I am. Thank you my loved ones for being in my life. Happy and grateful mama.

The little moments that make my life magic

I wish to seize these daily moments, which could go so easily unnotices, forever and forever: Picking-up and blowing dandelion seeds with my toddler. Listening my pre-teen detailed presentation of every dog race we encounter in our walks to the park. Accepting a trade to playing sudoku in the evening with my girly to evening story. Walking street borders hand in hand with my baby. Listening to the incredible enthousiasm and expression of my 5-year old on his recently built lego car. Helping my crafter sew a doll. Or prepare an origami. Or a miniature house. Baking Finnish cinnamon rolls with my girls making a mess of my kitchen. Bringing my little ones to the pre-school next door. Greeting our friend neighbours on our way. Dreaming of secondary school with my pre-teen. Dreaming of the end of building works and decorations of the rooms for my girls. Blowing on the bobos to make them go away and seeing them heal every time. Giving the 10th hug & kisses to little ones way past the sleeping time. Giving them "halipuli" in the evening, meaning the HUGE cuddling battle on our bed. Preparing the picknick and lunch to 4 boxes every morning. Playing tennis with my daughters and son, despite we spend way more time picking up balls than playing. Eating a family sushi on Wednesdays. Witnessing the joy of kids taking delivery mans' parcels and opening them. If only the thrill on each of their face could be captured! Doing the round on each room in the evening, spending a little special moment with each of them, to wrap-up the days big moments and concerns. Helping them do their homework. Rehearsing for exams. Sharing the success of exam well done. Bathing my baby girl, still fitting in the baby bath. Taking the measure of them on our kitcher pillar and admiring how much they've grown. watching together baby photos and telling them stories from their babyhood. Sitting down in the afternoon ans holding an art session - evrybody is on their crayons. Reading to my toddler and drifting to a sweet gentle restorative afternoon nap next to her. Singing Finnish childrens songs with her and witnessing her trying to imitate the oh-so-complicated-and-long words. Taking my son to his twice-weekly session at the logopede, whom he loves. Having together a family Friday movie&chips evening. Going for a run with my pre-teen and enjoying together the post-run glow while streching in the backyard. Receiving mother's days singing, hugs and heart-brakingly-adorable self-crafted gifts, which become all priceless to me. I will stop here for now, while knowing clearly: I am the luckiest girl on earth and I love every bit and piece of my life! Thank you universe for all these little blessings you have send to enlighten my each and every day. Moments with them are more precious than anything I can imagine and I truly will cherish them until days end.

From the shadows emerges love

I feel a sudden burst of unconditional love vibrating from my heart in this golden sun-lit Friday, while leaving behind an extremely busy week of work, children's school work, extracullicular activities, birthdays to remember, on-going renovation works, the meal and housekeeping cores and on the top of that some other unexpected clutter, which fills our busy days, minds and keeps us - from my perspective - in an almost 24h operational mode. We have been pushing on with my husband through the pandemic like work horses, not opposing nor resisting, with the ever-optimistic hope there will be a moment of recompensation or rest at one point. I believe in a universal balance, of tough periods in life being followed by more sereine times. Having left behind the competition preparation just a week ago, we have had hardly a moment to breath when we got bad news yesterday needing an important amount of work from both of us. I told my husband I felt unfair, the "sereine period" was a way too short to be able to nourish us sufficiantly to face the next challenges. And there, from these deep feelings of being abandoned in our daily struggles just yesterday, I am alerted today to this extreme intense feelings of gratitude, towards my children and husband, towards all that surrounds us: being healthy, having each other, our beautiful house and surroundings. I feel an urge to write a love letter, to each and everyone, hence this post today.

EU craze

I recall precisely the moment that the notion of European union institutions and Brussels swirreled through my consciousness: June 2002, plage de voilier, Nice Cote d'Azur. I have just stepped down from Promenade des Anglais and heading with my Finnish trainee friends towards the crowds - looks like a beach party! A group of young universitaires approach us and proudly offer us their 1 euro budget "shampagne". We accept gladly. An extremely tanned young man with bright blue eyes appraches me with a smile. He smells a bit like the bottle he is carrying. Next, before I take a breath, he starts an enthousiastic presentation of himself with an exceptional speed and charming accent in his Finnish. The speech takes a tad longer than perhaps is appropriate, but I am mesmeraised by its impressiveness - wow! a traineeship at one of the EU institutions in Brussels!In an EU institution! I was hooked, I wanted to know more. 19 years later, Friday evening, I sit comfortably in the sofa, holding a glass of red vintage Bordeaux. My kids are upstairs, supposingly turning in. The tanned young man enjoying his sauna. I am celebrating my future success. I have yesterday completed the 3rd phase of an open eu competition, a process that started more than 2 years ago, or, in all honesty, 19 years ago. Many times, I have wished I would have never heard of Brussels. Life would definitely have been much more sereine in a smaller setting than in this driven business hub with probably the highest concentration of the european careerists. Without a doubt, life in Brussels is tough. For me, twenties went by studying and trying to find your spot with no connections, thirties working and raising a family with no network. It just shows the level of priviledged surroundings I come from, but it came as a complete shock the amount of work hours one has to put in to get by. SO, after years of systematic and disciplined (audit terminology!) training, attendance to numerous trainings and coachings, having carried books to most of our holidays in the past two years and studied hundrads of hours - here I am ready to turn a page. I am done. Regardless of the outcome. I am proud of myself, but I wish badly it was year 2004. God bless me.

When everything stops for a moment

In recent years, perhaps thanks to regular meditation and yoga practice, I have come to enjoy my intuitive capability: thinking of a long-forgotten friend in the morning and picking up the phone just to find a message from her or attracting certain situations and events to materialise. It is greatly entertaining for me, while keeping in surface the playfulness and gratefulness of this wonderful gift. As with everything else in this universe, opposits exist, yin and yan, masculine and feminine, light and shadow. So it is with the intuition, along with positive energies, I sense threats, tension and unexplanable terror at times. This morning, my family followed an exceptional schedule. My husband had to leave early to drive to Southern part of the country and therefore we all had to wake up earlier, kids to prepare for school and bus. It has been raining and extremely windy since yesterday and I disliked the idea of my husband leaving at these wheather conditions. At lunch I receive a message from my mother from 2000 km away "my leading star has corona" she writes in her post with pictures of her Mercedes frozen in the snow (-20 C). The car is covered with plankets and plugged to a heating fan. The picture makes me smile, as it illustrates so well the persistance of my mother when faced with adversity. She is angry as she was planning to drive the 450 km home and there was a snow storm arriving later in the afternoon. I observe the similarities in the stubborness of my two loved ones, one facing snow, the other in storm.I want to send her a message to stay overnight at the chalet, while knowing it is probably useless. I feel anxious the whole morning and have difficulties to concentrate at work. My thoughts go on the roads. At lunch, I am relieved to hear my husband drive in from the front gate. It had been a tough drive. In the afternoon I glance at my phone to have updates from my mom. There are none, but from my sister. There had been an accident, my mom was in the ambulance on her way to the hospital. My breath stops, I cannot believe it happened. At once, while being immensily relieved that she is alive, I feel suddenly upset at her going against the stream, not following universe's signs, not following her intuition. I send prayers and blessings to her that she will be safe. I love you mom.

Lakshmi energy

Traditionally, during this time of the year I have three birthday boys and girls to celebrate translating into organising multiple birthday parties within 9 days to include all VIP crowds. We all love it, the planning, selecting the party theme, choosing the invitees etc. After the year-end celebrations sufficiently behind, we seem to be seeking again the positive energy and beauty of sharing, giving and receiving. I was a concerned how this years celebration will turn out, how would my soon 11 and 8 year old babies accept a simplified version of partying, giving that the covid restrictions are still full on and organizing group gatherings are out of question. We sat donwn one afternoon and I casually brought up the subject of birthday, proposing them to invite their best friend from class to an afternoon of games and cake, and held my breath. I was expecting tears or other signs of disappointment. What are the odds! The capacity and speed of adaptation of my youth to these new restrected circumstances left me speechless! "Oh, that is a great idea Mom, it will be so much fun!! Thank you!" Sigh and relief. There I was, living a moment of truth realizing and learning from my children in a very concrete and wonderful way, of stop living from the past and refraining the mind to now, just this moment only. We had an amazingly fun afternoon, ate lots of cake, danced along Just Dance and played magic games. Simple, yet abundant. Om shreem maha lakshmiyei namaha.

Re-connecting with the essential

I did not tell this before, but the house we are renting is full of symbols and -to me- messages to be taken home. The name of the house, Villa Zen along with the smiling buddha on the front yard welcoming visitors are just the entrée. On the first day, I noticed a small card board with sanscrit text and a graphic symbol in an unusual place, hardly visible on the kitchen corner, behind a cupboard. In the evening, I translated the sanscrit and it turned out to be a mantra to call for prosperity and wealth. I discover there is a whole parallell divine world available to us I had forgotten of! Ten forms of gods or planets, who can be called upon, through these mantras, in case of earthly needs or sorrows: for a broken heart, have faith in oneself and spiritual path, staying truthful to ones values, keeping a calm mind, protecting from all evil and so forth. We determined, there must be ten mantras hidden in this house, and, surely, in our holiday mood, started the card hunt with the kids. As it turned out, we did find them! Behind curtains on ceiling level, behind vases and pictures, on uncommon places such as the wardrope! Clearly, the family living in this house has created an energy field shielding them. I felt puzzled why would the family want to rent out such a wonderful house. My children have been enjoying the many expensive toys left here to play, have read the beautifully written English shortstories by the two children living in this house and admired their drawings, playing at their pool or danced with the ballet bar. My heart sunk, as I discovered the owners are going through a billion dollar divorce, the mother seeking to protect her children, risking at loosing possibly all earthly belongings. I fear sharing this house has not been by choice. I bless them dearly and pray for their protection and good fortune. I ask what witnessing all this triggered in me? Having been initially blinded by the beauty and wealthiness so abondant everywhere here, there is always the dark side to light, the complications, broken families and sorrow. Having 2020 behind me, as the best of years in terms of spending time together and being close to my family and loved ones, I feel all the more gratefule for what I have. There is no value to put on unconditional love, respect and sharing of the everyday life ups and downs of parenting, and yet find your partner next to you, every morning.