F**K IT MILES, GIVE ME SOME PRIVACY

I did a similar writing challenge in February. Back then I had to write down my top three pet peeves, which were 1) People who feel the need to fall into the role of a victim, 2) Chewing with mouth open and 3) Narrating what I'm doing when I'm already doing something. Now it's time to write about five more pet peeves, which is turning up to be a challenge, since even for those three I really had to dig deep, but here goes: 1) Complaining for the joy of complaining. If you complain, I'll try to figure out how I could be helping you out, or what might be a solution to your problem. It's just an idea and means nothing else than "please, it's not the end of the world". Although complaining can be fun, mostly it's exhausting for both the listener AND the one who's doing the complaining. I fall for this occasionally too, so it's only understandable sometimes, as long as it's not a way of life. Funnily enough, pet peeves are all more o

Today's writing challenge is made for someone other than me, but I'll write a little about it nonetheless. The subject is "things I want to say to an ex". I've always been a rather easy about my exes. So here goes: - There were reasons why I chose to be with you. I still appreciate these attributes in you and I'm sure there are plenty of others who do too. - Thank you for making me grow. - Thank you for all those times you believed in me. - Thank you for all those good times. - I hope you remain to have good memories too. - I hope you are happy. / I hope you find your happiness. I don't feel the need to dwell in the past. The people I have known have unknowingly prepared me for future whether those are ex-boyfriends or otherwise ex-friends that no longer are an active part of my life. All of those people needed to be in my life at those times for me to find myself where I am today. Above all, thank you for existing. Image: pixabay.com

Wake up at 7:05. Two out of three kids are in our bed. The 4-year-old is wearing stripy pants and tells me first thing in the morning "Look, I'm a zebra!" By 8 o'clock I've showered, the kids are ready to go to school, their school bags are packed, my bags are ready. 8:20-8:30 sitting in my son's classroom. We are reading a book about bees, which he chose. Reading to kids before the school day starts is an essential part of school day. Most days my husband brings the kids to school, but I have to be in the center shortly anyway, so today I'm there as well. 8:40-9:00 breakfast in the center of Delft at Cortado's. 9:15-10:30 interviewing a fellow mom at Kek. 10:45-11:40 sitting in the library answering emails, writing this, updating my calendar etc. Delft central library. 11:40-11:55 grocery shopping. 12:00 picking up kids for lunch. 12:00-13:15 lunch at home. It's a hot day. Freshening up and bringing the kids back to school.

I've been an advocate for positive reinforcement for a while now. It all started when I realized I think a lot of good things about the people around me and I don't say many of those things out loud. Paying a compliment or taking time to notice someone's efforts also makes me feel good, so there's the underlying selfish factor involved as well. When someone pays you a sincere compliment, it'll help you to build further on your strengths. However, this is a slow process, because you might need to try a lot of things before finding the right path to set your foot onto. We generally like to think we don't need other people's approval to do things, but humans naturally mirror off of each other in good and bad throughout our lives, so you might as well use it for your advantage. Image: pixabay.com Sincere negative feedback makes all the difference In the recent times I've come to understand that we should not only say the positive things about ea

1. Be bold with your sense of humor. Say the weirdest things out loud. Generally being funny works very well. (Although I should mention, if our values are very far apart, these methods will never work.) 2. Give me something yummy, such as a really good pizza. 3. Know something about my kids or my life that I'd possibly expect you to not have paid attention to. 4. Tell me something I don't know. Something interesting or mind-boggling. Show me how frigging intelligent you are. Tell me you heard something and thought of me. (Hopefully something nice though. I mean if you heard a fact about cows and then proceed to tell me you thought of me, I might not warm up so easily.) 5. Be authentic and treat people around you well. Image: pixabay.com Extra:   Pronounce my name correctly. Maybe even toss in a few words of Finnish in a conversation that you've obviously learned just for me. My first language is not one of those that everyone knows a little bit, so

First things first. The May Gratitude Challenge has been a really interesting monthly challenge. I got stuck at one point, but I also got it resolved and have written a blogpost about each and every one of the questions. Some of them have been better than others, but all of them I've thought and wrote about. I'm almost there. Just. One. More. The last question of the challenge is "What talent or skill do you have that you are grateful for?" I used to think talent was something one was born with. I've spent years waiting to discover some hidden talents. I've expected to try something and realize I'm a natural phenomenon in it, and I've let myself down so many times after beginner's luck ran out. On top of that, the things I found myself somewhat "talented" in, I somehow thought don't need practicing, because I already got them in the bag. That's exactly where I went wrong time after time. Skill, on the other hand, had alway

"You have no idea what your legacy will be. Your legacy is every life that you've touched. -- We like to think that these great philanthropic moments are the ones that leave the impact or will make the huge difference in the world, but it's really what you do every day. It's how you use your life to be a light to somebody else," Oprah paraphrases Maya Angelo in this clip . Your life and actions matter so much more than you will probably ever come to know.  Image: pixabay.com Today's gratitude challenge is asking who family member or a friend I'm grateful for. I did something very similar on Facebook the other day, tagging a couple of family members and friends to tell them how in particular they've affected my life. I chose the kind of things that people might not have realized they've been my role models in. However, I only chose a few people for that and I possibly could've come up a thing or two out of almost all the people on my

I cycled to bring my son back to school after lunch. It was 13:15 when I arrived in front of the store with my shopping list. Only when I was parking the bike, I realized I had completely forgotten to take a coin with me to get a shopping cart. Luckily I had a note in my wallet, so I went to the cash register of a small café that is under the same organization of the store. I told them I'd like to break the note to get a coin for the shopping cart. The man behind the counter took a key hanger with a coin that fits the cart and said to me "I'll give you this instead, but just remember to take it with you next time you shop!" I was obviously not the first one asking this and they had come up with a system instead of constantly having to run out of coins in their own registry, because people asked to break notes into coins. Nonetheless, this action made me really happy. I attached the key hanger immediately onto my keys, so I'd have one with me every time when goin

The question today is what small thing I use daily that I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for my house key, for it opens the door to my home. I'm grateful for my phone, for it connects me with the rest of the world. I'm grateful for my bike, which is smaller than a car at least, for it takes us places. I'm grateful for my my headphones, for they seclude me when I need it. I'm grateful for my contact lenses and my glasses, for they make my life so much easier. I'm grateful for zippers that work, buttons that close, strings that tie shoes. Life would be a mess if clothes didn't stay on the way they were intended to. There are so many things, big and small that I'm grateful for, but the smallest things I'm grateful for are the cells in the bodies of me and my loved ones. The atoms that make up our whole Universe. Image: pixabay.com