My New Year’s resolutions

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Two days ago on New Year’s Eve Marcus took my hand and led my out to our balcony a few minutes before midnight. Sophia had been asleep for hours and our guests for the night had left to tuck in their own little one. We wrapped a blanket around the both of us and hugged each other tight to keep warm for the last couple of minutes of the year. We spent them reminiscing our life together so far and the previous years that we had begun and ended in each other’s arms.

I dug my phone out from under the layers to check the time and the air filled with our merry neighbors’ voices chanting the count-down. I freed my hand to wrap it again around my husband, bracing myself for the leap.
As the new year came upon us I marveled at the magic of this simple little moment. All around us were people gathered together to celebrate in style. Other places in the world people were inaudibly shouting “Happy New Year!” to each other over the noise of scores of fireworks and loud music. Yet here we were on our quiet cold little balcony watching the Irish lack of fireworks, and (more…)

Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant

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Christmas is here again and I’m sitting here reflecting on the past month and savoring every last drop of Christmas spirit before it is over for another year. I decided in November to dedicate this Christmas season to being better at serving others around me and being more mindful of my influence in others lives. Instead of committing to do a specific act of service every day (I knew I would cave as soon as I missed a day) I wanted to simply try and get into the habit of always paying attention to how I could help others.

This month has been interesting because of it. I am not going to lie, I could have been much more dedicated and put much more time into it, but I feel that I reached my goal of just being more aware. It has led me to have many big and small good experiences that have especially lead me to appreciate the mere effort and sweat of doing something for others. (more…)

Light the World

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Christmas season is knocking on the door and once again I feel desperate to make the most of it before it slips away for a good 340 days! Do you know the feeling? I just want to spend the days singing Christmas carols, baking cookies and cakes, buying and wrapping gifts and giving lots of hugs!

The thing that I think will really maximize my Christmas spirit this season is service. I’ve had a few moments over the last couple of years when I’ve mentally woken up and realized how little I think of doing good things for other people compared to how much time I spend just getting my own life in order… which is silly really, considering how good helping others makes you feel inside.

So I really wanted to change that (more…)

On family – at the beach

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On Saturday we had planned to get up early and walk down to the beach to get some pretty pictures in the morning light. But naturally we missed our chance due to comfy beds, weekend breakfast, and getting out the door and the ups and downs it entails. Eventually we ended up going just before noon. It was nevertheless a beautiful sunny fall day and was totally worth the 5km’s worth of overall body pain it cost me.

Despite the struggles I often have staying up-to-date on the blog I am so incredibly thankful for the memories I manage to catch and record along the way. It takes a lot of time and effort to haul the camera around, snap the crazy amounts of pictures required to catch a few decent ones, and then carefully editing them one by one. But looking through this little finished handful of (more…)

Here comes Pippi Longstocking

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So honestly I just wanted to smack these pictures up to be remembered for forever. Cause – partial as I may be – I think she’s pretty darn cute.

I hadn’t given any thought to her costume for weeks and suddenly time was up. Funny how often that seems to happen…
We really wanted to dress her up as something she’d be really excited about – I’m not usually a huge fan of Halloween — I don’t like being scared — not even if it’s for fun —- seriously – but seeing an opportunity to send my daughter over the moon I got excited.

So I spent a day last week throwing together a little outfit (and used the excuse to get her a cute dress from Zara that I loooove!). It didn’t turn out fantastic (more…)