X - Xenophile

Before I went to bed last night, I asked family and friends on my FB page for ideas regarding X-words.  I was delighted to wake up in the morning and see the comments of my long standing favourite blogging friends supplying me with not only great suggestions but their words sparked another idea for a blog series: the X blog series!  More on that later, when the A to Z Blogging Challenge comes to it's final day, and May commences.

Now, to the chosen word for tonight: X- xenophile.  I chose this because I love learning new words, foreign sounding words to be precise!  It is fascinating that I have never known of this word until this morning when I have known of  xenophobia the opposite word of xenophily.

for details about this collage see notes below, and please click on this image for better view

My fascination and eventual love for foreign countries, culture and people started, as I have mentioned from a previous post, through my father's tourist guide profession, my godmother's world travels and my readings as a child of Brother Grimm's & Hans Christian Andersen's Fairytales.

Even when I hardly understood what I read, it excited me to read words that were foreign to me.  I guess, in hindsight, that was the early beginnings of my love affair with foreign languages.

Admittedly, I have not thought much about this love for everything foreign, I did wonder why I never fear living in different countries, no hesitation to make huge transitions such as speaking a new language, adapting to a new culture or adjusting to new food (this I have observed is not very easy for Filipinoes, who does welcome new delicasies and are known for their excellent way to adapting to any thing foreign but tend to want Filipino staple food on a daily basis to be completely satisfied and happy!)  but when it comes to daily routine of life, I am more challenged!

Today's post is an introduction to how I will dig deeper over this passion for everything foreign!  Perhaps another series?! ☺

Do you see yourself as a xenophile?  Is this the first time you come across this word?  What are your thoughts about xenophily?

Blognote 

First of all thank you all ICLW April 2011 friends for the comment you left on my blog and for subscribing to this page! Even though today marks the end of the week long commenting, I have noted those new blogging friends, and will definitely spend time paying you all a visit to get to know each one of you better.  

This same sentiment goes to all my fellow A to Z Blogging Challenge Apri 2011 bloggers!  You have motivated me in days that I simply wanted to give up!  It may have been random but I felt the sincerity of each cheer that the comment left behind.

A special thank you to my long standing blogger friend, who is residing in Japan for giving me the word of the day!  He has always provided me with creative inspiration through our years of friendship with the images he passionately takes, his admirable writing and his unique sense of humour. I miss your blogs, dear friend! But I am grateful to FB because I still get to experience snippets of your wit.  Also you feed my xenophily profusely with tales of life in Japan!

親愛なる友人、本当にありがとうございます！

 

Details on the images on the collage:

Upper-left corner : Reichstag, during a visit to Berlin 2009

Upper-left: Brandenburger Gate, Berlin 2009

Lower left corner: De Mole, Windmill Restaurant, Easter 2011

Upper-right corner: London Yuletide Holiday, 1997
Lower-right corner: Trinity College Library Dublin, Yuletide Holiday 2009
Middle: 365~ self-portrait 28. April, 2011 

W - Winning an Award & WordCount Blogathon 2011 !

Today was one of those days, I was seriously questioning my sanity for starting this project of 365 days of continuous blogging, not to mention adding on top of it blog challenges after  blog challenges, and participation in blogging events  to help keep me motivated each day.

Then I open my email, and discover the comments left for different posts, and the new readers, who took time to click on the "follow blog", and I felt completely (((hugged))) with this wonderful feeling of doing the right thing because I know somewhere in the future the random frustration behind this daily writing will be filled with wonderful stories of friendships formed, wisdom learned, a deeper appreciation of simple actions leading to great changes.

I graciously thank Maria, who writes at MISSION: Fertile Soul, for The Versatile Award, which she bestowed on me today!  Her comment on my previous post, "Veni, Vidi, Vici:" literally saved my day by inspiring my post for today, and lifting my sagging blogging spirit. ☺

Here is the fun part of receiving/bestowing the award - the how to's of spreading the love:

     1. Winners grab the image above and put it on your blog.
     2. Link back to the person who gave it to you.
     3. Tell 10 things about yourself.
     4. Award 15 recently-discovered bloggers.
     5. Contact the bloggers you have awarded to let them know they have won.

I will be writing another separate post about this on Sunday since I would like to dedicate more time and focus on numbers 4 & 5, which I sadly do not have today.

The girls will be in Germany for the May vacation; preparation for our trip over the weekend to bring them there, and attend to last minute school events are keeping me busy.

At this point, I have to sadly admit that  I am totally behind with my commenting for ICLW. My plan of alloting time in the early morning and some more in the evening before I turn in for bed did not work out completely.  In the midst of potty training the littlest and all other daily chores/activities I have to attend to, I spread myself thin, I think.  There is yet another lesson learned towards simplifying life: admit when things get overwhelming because the instant you do, the overwhelming feeling disappears!

Here is hoping the next time I will be jubilant with my personal ICLW goal.  Definitely the event introduced me to wonderful new bloggers, who graciously visited my humble blogging corner, and all generously left wonderful comments,  and that I see as a success in itself!

As A to Z Blogging Challenge April 2011 nears it's end, I await the onset of May with a new blogging challenge and look forward to participating in WordCount Blogathon 2011.  More about it on Sunday as well! I am hoping the challenge will help me improve my writing, move the focus once more to communicating better, rather than obsessing over unimportant details.

Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday, may you let go of overwhelming feelings if you have them, by simply acknowledging the feeling!

I believe if you cannot celebrate the simple joys of being acknowledged for your efforts, no matter how simple they are, you will never truly know joy in it's pure form once you have reached your ultimate goal. ~ paper

V - Veni, vidi, vici

I am feeling triumphant today, and when I do, I often chant: 

Veni, vidi, vici  as if they were magical words in a fairy tale...

When I was a little girl fairytales helped me dream the life I lead today...

I am re-posting one of the image in the collage from yesterday's  post Unforgettable Day.  While I edited it in picasa/picnik, I thought of it, as marking and preserving the pure happiness I feel.

 I love fairytales, and when I read the fairytale books I did when I was a little girl, it helped me dream. Wishful dreams that all (almost all, and then some) came to reality.

Although there were more than enough dark moments in life, I never gave up hope even if there were many times I said out loud, in the midst of almost crying my insides out: I am tired, I had enough, this needs to end! Life continued, as it should.

I am grateful and say a prayer of thanks when I feel this peace, this pure joy, and I feel it even more deeper when I write and share it...

You can write your own life's fairytales, it can come true, and the important magic words that you have to whisper to the pages, when you are finished writing are: believe, patience, unendless hope & love.

Then take a nap because sleep is essential to making fairytales come true. ☺As I will do when I finished writing this line. The end.


 Oh, a question before I do go, what is your favourite fairytale?  I will write mine tomorrow!

Blognote: Usually, I am extremely OCD about projects I do, and it calms me to follow guidelines, which most of the time I set myself.  

For the last quarter of the year I have been continuously taking pictures for two projects: 365~ self-portraits and 365 day of blogging, and I am happy to share that so far I have not missed a day!  But that has the price of me often times staying way past mid-night to create a post with an image I am comfortable to share.

There are days, that I postpone taking a picture until the last minute when I put myself under time pressure, that I simply will have to take a spontaneous image at the last minute to not miss a day.  There is then no time to obsess about the picture shared.

If you have been following this blog a while now, you will know that my posts, all single one of them are all mini-efforts to help me simplify how I lead life, that I may have more quality time, simple cherished moments to experience with my family.

Thus, today, I am breaking a way a bit from my OCD nature, and posting a picture from yesterday to accompany the blog of today (for 365 day of blogging, and IComLeavWe April 2011), later on in the day I will be adding/editing in this blog, the day's (365) self-portrait, which is also participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge April 2011.

This may all sound confusing for readers! My apologies! But yes, you find yourself in the midst of a person making babysteps towards little personal improvements and changes, and many times the efforts may seem 
too silly to comprehend. ☺

image edited in 7 hours after this blog was posted

U ~ Unforgettable Day!

Please click on collage for better view!

The family and I spent Easter Monday in Efteling!

This was the family's first visit together (P was there previously before we met, once or twice), and after the day of fun we all agreed we will come back for a long weekend the next time around and stay at the theme park's hotel or the holiday appartments in the theme village!

School is back tomorrow and I have to get up very early, this will be another short and sweet post.  I will definitely write in detail next time over our long weekend.  Also a contest and a give away this week, so watch out for that. ☺

Wishing you all a lovely start in the new week!

T - Thoughts of Travel

The weather was once again great today as has been the last few days!

This kind of climate usually send me to thougts of travel! 



The months of May until October are the time that the family does a lot of travelling,.


P and I will be using the girls May break to talk about the details about our travels.


I am pretty happy to share, I have never ever felt balance, as I do this year.

There is simply no time for questions like: why can't it be like this continuously, please?! Or painfully groaning: I am tired of these cycles!!!

I have learned to celebrate the good days and find ways to cope with the bad.  The dread over the days I feel like sinking in the pit of desolation and madness are slowly dissipating.

I had to write those thoughts in this blog because I do not want to forget. I want to read this when I revisit blogs.

There is much to write about how the day was, and why I have been feeling uplifted. 

But I will have to leave you for now with a picture of the sunset the family enjoyed in a wonderful warm Spring evening during our spontaneous picnic by the lake Spiegelplas in Nederhorst den Berg;

I need to catch up with my commenting for IComLeavWe!!!

please click on the image (unedited)  for better view

Have you seen the sunset lately? Please do take time, it truly feeds the soul!

S - Smile!

I missed a day of IComLeavWe, which means I will have to double my comments for tomorrow (15 minutes to midnight is not enough quality time for commenting!)!  But I am trying to smile (thanks to today's A to Z challenge prompt!), not fret over it and and simply moved on.  This sounds simple in a general sense but for me it is still an effort not to obsess with accepting I can only do what I can, be happy over the accomplished and not give myself a hard time over the things I am not able to attend to.

Sleep was the order of the day, resting, rejuvenating, and I spent it with indulgent time under the shower, and turning the bathroom to a spa for some self-pampering.

Today is Good Friday, and I grew up in the Philippines observing it solemnly.  Since I have lived in Europe though, observing the season of Lent has changed.  There were years I did not even feel the solemness I grew up with.  It seemed I only realise it was the Holy Week because of the Easter celebration, which I have observed is highly commercialised in Germany.  Here in the Netherlands, I have not had a keen observation due to being focused with adjusting to the basic needs we had to attend to.

Slowly, I am going back to my roots.  When I was a little girl, I would occasionally spend Holy Week at my aunt's with my cousins.  They had a lovely collection of children's bible, and because we had to be quiet during the observation of the Holy week, and were not allowed to play until Easer, there was not much to do to pass the time but read.  From reading illustrated books, I have come to read the bible.

I am not religious in the tradition of my grandmother, and mother.  Though, I am very grateful that they passed on their beliefs to me because it has helped me in times of great need to have faith to hold onto. I have made their religion my own and incorporated what I have learned in life in practising it.

I did not plan to write what I just wrote  because I never write about politics and religion as a rule.

Mostly, when I have literally a last minute blog, specially for this year where I am combining 365 days of blogging together with 365 of self-portraits, I tend to use "photo-blog", i.e. letting the picture speak for itself when there is no more time to compose text to go along with it.

There was this urge to mark with words my gratefulness for my faith, though.  It made me smile being where I am now in life, knowing with strong conviction, no matter what comes in one's way in different forms of challenges and hurdles to overcome, there is a promise of redemption, and unequivocal hope, no matter what faith we all believe in.

What made you smile today? 

Don't forget: inspire and be inspired!

R - Ready, Log-in, IComLeavWe(eeeeeeeeee)♡ !

Well, today is the day!  How time flew by, and as with other things in my life, I thought I had planned ahead, I thought I will be completely focused when the day commences for an event I have been looking forward to.

Here it is, and I am completely unprepared, feeling the strong tug of being a blog hermit, welcoming the company that comes my way but too scattered to feel confident and show "my face" around!

Yes, it is the blog commenting week fest for April!!!  I have to be, as I always end up with many endevours,  spontaneous as I go along with my first try at a week long active commenting in the blogosphere.

This wonderful idea was initiated by Melissa Ford, book author & blogger of Stirrup Queens.  You could read more about it by clicking the link IComLeavWe or on the blue badge with an illustration of the cute dog, at the right hand side of this page.  For the list of participants for this month, please click here: IComLeaWe April 2011.

This week, with the help of this event, I will practice to not over-think  and will just go with the flow. ☺

I would love to meet a lot of participants, hopefully make new blogger friends, spread some lurv because as Melissa beautifully put it, "Comments are the new hug!" and those who knows me longer, knows that I love giving (((((((((♡ huggies ♡)))))))))).

Writing this post before or right after lunch time is I hope a habit I can consistenly practice; the stress of leaving it until after the end of the day, I feel will lead to me abandoning the 365 project(s).  Eventually, I might  adopt the idea of Jen Daiker of unedited of having a fix time of publishing blogs.  I saw this feature of sharing the fixed schedule of blogging days at Karen Walker's page author Karen Walker...following the whispers.

I purposely put the links of the three wonderful female bloggers above not only to share my joy in reading them but because it is also my way of bookmarking them, since I would definitely love to comment on their blogs today.

Also, while writing this I am making a mental schedule of the visits to all the lovely bloggers, who have thus far commented on my blogs, whom I have promised to comment to but have not managed yet due to everyday life!  Many thanks to all of you; each one of you have given me the kick I need on days that I would rather skip!

Sending a huge thanks to Arlee Bird of   Tossing It Out, who spearheads the A to Z Blogging Challenge April 2011.  My initial motivation in participating in the blogging event he put to life, was to put a bit of dynamic to my 365 blogging and self-portraits projects (I need all the help I can get to make it through 365 days of blogging! ☺).

What I did not expect was the positive energy I will be getting from the random visitors, who are also participating in the event, or found this blog page through his page.  It was very heartwarming, and I hope this week, through the IComLeavWe, I could give back the simple joy I have thus received, and pay it forward.

Well, I'll be logging off for now, and when I log back in again, I am hopefully refreshed and have lots of positive thoughts and energy to spread around! :)

Inspire, and be inspired fellow bloggers!

If you are participating in IComLeavWe April 2011, please do say hello and share why you are participating! And if you just happen to know about it, what do you think of the idea?

Postscript to this blog:

I had to remove and put an re-edited version of today's 365~ self-portrait because I failed to acknowledge that littlest  took the photo I present today!!! How could I fail to mention that!?!

If you would like to see more pictures taken of our 3 year old bundle of energy and joy, please see the posts with the tag LittlestLens.