The time when three words changed my perspective

{photo by me}

        I have the feeling that my life turns into a whirlwind of moments, problems to be solved, food to be cooked, phones to be made and friends and family who wonder if you're actually ok because you fell off the face of the Earth. I'm not complaining, I'm just looking around for the lessons to be learned and for strength from God. Last week, my car broke. In the middle of the street. Downtown. At rush hour (7am). Smoke coming out of it and the whole drama. I'm not complaining, I just wanted to share with you what I have learned. In those two hours I spent waiting for my hubby to come with a tow truck to get the car, I realized people are not as selfish as I thought they are. Four people stopped to ask if they can help in any way, one lady offered me her umbrella (never seen her before) and a lady from my job, which I've never spoken to, stayed with me so I wouldn't be alone. It was refreshing to see how God uses all kind of people to take care of you. And then, my sister (from England) sent me a text "count your blessings". I cried. In Reading downtown, middle of the street. Since then, when I feel tears coming  in my eyes, I start counting my blessings. It puts everything in another perspective. It makes me realize how helpless I am on my own, and how awesome it is with God on my side. Funny story is that last fall, I made this little card for Thanksgiving. I wholeheartedly agreed with it, but only now I came to understand better the meaning of these three words.

What keeps you smiling when life's not easy?

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Happy Father's Day!

                  We are shaped by people around us, either we realize it or not. One of the people who have a great influence in our lives are our dads. Now, to be honest, I've never had a close relationship with my father untill I got married and I started to understand some of my parents' decisions. Not that he's a terrible dad, but when I was a kid he was always working and when I was 13 they came to USA, hoping that in 6 months my sister and I will be reunited with them (because we were minors). Well, those 6 months became 6 years... But that's not what I want to talk about, I mentioned it to understand why I say my dad and I never had a close relationship. However, in the last 3 years, I've come to recognize his love, in the way he shows it. His hugs are protective, the way his voice fills with affection every time he says "I love you, Vio!", the happiness in his eyes when he looks at his children.  It's a process and I'm still learning to be closer to him, but that doesn't mean I love him less or admire him less. I secretly hope to be as patient as he is, strong and courageous and understanding.  I thank God because I have the chance to bond with my father and to get to know him.

   Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!! I love you!!

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10 things about me..

       This weekend, an old friend from Romania came to visit my sister, and of course I didn't mind an almost 2 hours drive to meet her and her husband. It was a sweet reunion, and the time spent together brought back so many memories. I realized how much I've changed in the past 5 years. In the same time, I thought that noting some things about me here will not only help me in couple of years to see the changes, but also you will get to know a little bit about me.

So, here we go... 10 things about me you didn't know:

- The only time I had long hair was for my wedding. Now I'm trying to let it grow again, but a glimpse of a great short haircut and makes me think twice;

- I make tons of To Do lists and plans, but I suck at keeping schedules (I planned this post for mid- May.  Enough said!)

- my first memory is being in the hospital with meningitis; 

- as a teenager, I said I would never wear skirts/dresses and any shoes with heels (including my wedding. Well, I wore the heels but once the church was over, I switched them with a pair of Chucks - much better!). Now, I'm learning that being feminine is actually a great skill to have it on your life's resume *wink*;

copyright Sandor Balint

- I'm a very shy person, even when I find a great blog it takes courage for me to leave a comment or get in touch with that person (weird, I know!)

- English is my second language. Yes, my dears, I have an accent that I am proud of. However, if you tell me I have an accent, the most likely reply you'll get is "what accent?";

- I love to read, it's just a challenge to find the time to. I'm curently reading Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Connan Doyle and the Bible(of course..);

- when I got married, I knew how to make only mashed potatoes... Now I'm pretty confident if I have someone for dinner;

- I would choose to watch Fast and Furious or Die Hard over a romantic movie;

- wearing make-up and getting my hair done are not my best skills, but I'm working on them.

Hope you are happy I shared some of me with you. I hope I didn't scare you away.

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Five star life

photo via

        Lately, I’ve bought more stuff online than usually. At every purchase I was kindly asked to review my experience with the company. It’s not my favorite part of a transaction. And of course they asked. Everybody likes feedback (especially if it’s constructive). When you host a party, you can’t wait to hear the comments next day, can't you? That’s how you’ll know if it was a success or not.

         Which made me think of how would I rate my life? I started by asking myself: what are your priorities? Do you make things happen? (thanks, Lara Casey!!!) What are your values? Do you stay true to them? I realize I’m at an age when I want to do tons of things, thus I need to focus on what’s important. So, I made a list of priorities for myself to remind me what helps me having a 5 stars life. I stopped myself at 10 priorities. However, the first 3 are the most important. They will change over time, I’m sure. But for now, for the next 6 months, I know what brings value to my life. I’ll make decisions with that list in mind, and this way I’ll avoid spreading myself too thin trying to help everyone. Because being busy does not necessarily imply you actually have a life full of meaning.

What are the things that help you keep focused and motivated?

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NYC through my sunglasses

{Wall St}

                  Back in February, I promised my friend Erika I will gather some pictures from all of my trips to NYC and write some impressions. I kept postponing, until recently when I read my first impression about NYC. So, here I am. Whenever I go to NYC, I have the same feelings as when I was the first time. So, today enjoy NYC through my sunglasses.

{random building}

{panoramic - right; Statue of Liberty - left}

{Ground Zero (this cute couple is my hubby and I - we were amazed) }

{view from Empire State Building}

{view from Empire State Building}

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Rear view mirror

I was speeding way too fast on the highway of life, looking only 2 feet in front of me, and more often looking in my rear view mirror to see if my past is still chasing me. It was a cold, foggy morning... when suddenly, a river of rays of sun shone right in front of me. Suddenly, it’s warm and fuzzy, and cozy and I can't stop a smile. That was the moment I realized the rear view mirror is stopping me from seeing the great things that are ahead of me.

This happened to me way too many mornings while driving to work. I get so caught up to look in the rear view mirror, that sometimes I don't even realize what gorgeous views I miss.

You know what? We do that in our everyday lives, too. We don't see the happiness of our kids because we're too worried about job related issues. We can’t see the happiness of a great relationship because we keep looking back scared of our past. We can't reach for hope when looking in rear view mirror.

God had taught me this year through my morning drives more than I could've imagined.


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Decorations on a budget

Not all the time you have the time, the money, the energy to do things as you imagined. This is my story, how I made everything work out with what I had in hand at the moment. Note: this article is pretty long, so grab a coffee and make yourself comfortable.

When our friend Cosmin came back from Romania with his brand new wife, Dana, our church wanted to throw a warm party to celebrate their new life together and introduce Dana in our community. We rented a ballroom at one of the local restaurants, and I volunteered to decorate it. Everything happened on such a short notice, I didn’t even have time to go see the place. So, with that in mind, I decided to go simple, warm and use as many things I had around the house. It was the beginning of October, so I went to dollar store and bought 20 scented candles (the ones that come in a jar). That was all the money I spent!!! (I was so proud of me!!!) 

I gathered everything else that I had around the house and could’ve been used for fall theme décor: brown packaging paper for candles (you’ll see in the pictures below how they looked after the makeover), olive satin ribbon, brown basket, a white luminary, tea battery candles, brown jute and a piece of ivory card stock (leftovers from Cosmin & Dana’s wedding invitations), leaf stamps, chocolate brown ink, two old vases turned into candles supports, and another vase with some cones and white Christmas lights in it.

So we (my hubby and I) get to the restaurant 30 minutes before everybody arrives. Eddie starts working on the sound system, I start decorating. There were 2 very long tables, one round table for Cosmin and Dana and another table right at the entrance. I placed the scented candles along those two long tables. (Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to take a picture before everyone arrived).

On the round table, I placed the white luminary with a tea battery candle in it, the old vases turned into candles supports, and some candles. It looked kind of empty, but I was lucky someone brought some flowers and they fit perfectly! 

I used the table at the entrance as “welcome table” and the “cards & gifts table”. I knew before there will be people who will give cards, so I used the ivory card stock to make a CARDS sign. I hanged it on the brown basket with the brown jute. Also, I scattered the left battery candles and one of the scented candle.

Then, I took a deep breath!!.. Phew!!! I was done! It was cute! (even though the lighting was terrible). We made new friends, had fun and most important thing, we celebrated them. their love. and new beginning.

What do you do to stay on the budget when decorating?

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