Snack

The difference between an Italian snack and an American snack ?

Painfully evident.

You decide.

Magic

Early Summer, it's dusk, three little girls dance in the light of fireflies, and all of a sudden everything is ... magic.

Oh, to be able to have that spirit again ...

Almost Wordless Monday

Ci troviamo e ci contiamo e manchi sempre tu...

Summer is officialy over.

Some friends from Italy came to stay with us for a while. Actually, they moved back from Italy to the US, after living in Italy for a decade.

My kids and their kids have known each other since they can remember, and they always have fun when spending time together.

This year, they had one last swim day at the pool, just before end of summer. One final swim, one final day of careless fun and pure kids craziness, one last splash before school starts.

Aren't they fantastic ? ...

Saturday

It's Saturday, time to make lunch, and the kids want to help with the cooking. Well, some do, others would rather run and hide ... Angelina is our youngest child, she is three, and loves to help in the kitchen, and often does it with an effort and intensity that surprises us...

This time, she chose to grate parmigiano reggiano ( off course) while we were preparing the sauce and pasta...

She is the sweetest helper... :-)

Ah, the beauty of a photo ...

My daughter, Francesca is 16, and she just came back from a two weeks trip to China.
Off course, being the shutterbug she is, she went with a camera, and came back with oh, let's say about 1000 pictures. I haven't seen them, yet ( she is jealous of her shots ) but some "leaked out" and I was able to grab this one:

My guess is that we will never know what they were looking at and why the adorable little girl was covering her face ... maybe something she saw many times, and she was like : "Oh, no, grandmother, not here again...!" The sure thing is, her expression and body language are priceless.

The lady with the girl ( grandma, mom .. ? ) seems quite amused at the sight of .. whatever it is ..
I need to ask Francesca what they were looking at...

Frankie took a compact camera with her, it almost fit in her hands, and so she was able to take many "street candid" shots, some of them are quite interesting.

More soon.

Be well.

I am back ( again )

July 24th to September 29th .... how long is that ?

There is definitely a number that you can attach to those dates, and for those of you of mathematical personality, I will tell you, it is 68 days.

In Internet or blogging time, it is an eternity. I almost feel like I should start all over, but then again, I ask myself, why ? I think I got something here, it's good. Not perfect, but good.

And, as the movie quote goes, " everybody loses a couple, but you either pack up and go home, or you keep fighting" or my other favorite quote, from the same movie: " You don't throw away a whole life just 'cause it 's banged up a little."

Recovering from the wreck has been a *lot* harder than I ever expected.
Physically and mentally.

I was gone from blogging for a long time, simply because I didn't care, and it didn't make much sense to me, considering all that I was going through.

Until a friend ( a blogger, mind you) told me that blogging is better than therapy, 2nd only to gardening... Hmmm, there was an option for me that I didn't even consider. Central Texas has been in such a state of drought for a long time that gardening is a thing of the past, so blogging (again) could actually be something I should try. Now it started to rain, so gardening is an option as well, but blogging ... I really like it. I don't know the direction this blog will take in the next few weeks, but if you read me, leave a note.

Some friends came in yesterday from Italy, and they brought a *fresh* Corriere della Sera, still with that smell of Italian newsstand that you know only if you grew up in Italy...



















So, this morning, I enjoyed an ancient Italian ritual: early morning newspaper, and espresso.

Oh, yes, even in the mist of adversity, finding small joys in little rituals, helps.

See you tomorrow.
For real.