Romanian Goodness

Having my mom with us for the past 5 months has been such a blast. Not only did we get some great help with C and sometimes a much need it break from stress, but she has been willing to re-create some of my childhood goodies.
We made some plum and walnuts jam, apricot jam as well as "zacusca", this Romanian veggie spread that is delicious on freshly baked bread or crackers. And while I was tasting all the goodies, I realized that eating them is not what I am looking forward to the most (though they certainly are delicious), it's the way the house smells when you cook and make all this, it's the memories of easier and simpler times of childhood!

CVS escape

For the past few months I have been struggling with the fact that I never have a moment alone anymore. With a 16 months old at home, a regular part time job that's never really a part time job, a mother who while is very very very helpful lives with us and speaks very little English, a house and a husband, I never have any time alone (unless you want to count the commute to Boston where I share the train with gazillion people on a good day!)
So I am sad to announce that my 10 minutes of sanity today were spent in CVS while I was looking for some better solution for C's diaper rash. I realize how pathetic that might sound, but sometimes those couple of minutes alone when I can just think without having to make funny faces or sing humpy dumpty, or translate whatever is all I can look forward to!

So no wonder that the idea of having another child is pretty much closed at this point...
See ya!

Hannibal rising

The latest book that I am reading is "Hannibal rising" by Thomas Harris and it's pre Red Dragon, Hannibal and Silence of the Lambs.

I have always been fascinated by characters that even though they are the evident villain make you feel sorry for them and understand why they are the way they are! While I still remember how spooked and horrified I was when I read Hannibal, now reading what happened to him makes me understand why he ended up doing all those terrible things later on. (and yes, I do understand that this is just a book and it's fiction, but I am trying to make a point here). I guess (and this is a spoiler) if you would have seen people eat your sister in front of you when you were 8 years old, you might have had some issues too! Reading the book I feel so terrible for him and the things he had to witness as a child and in the same time I am completely mortified by what he does later on in life...

I always wondered how much of who we are as adults is influenced by what we have been thru until that point in life! And while there are people out there who can grow and develop without being influenced by the "bad" stuff that happened to them, many of us are not! I always wondered what kind of person I would have been if my parents would have not gotten a divorce, if I would have never met Alan, if I would have never came here for an internship all those years ago...

Do you think of what your life would have been if...

Don't have the stomach for it...

For having to rip apart knitted items... I had been working on this baby blanket for one of C's cousins (for Christmas) for ever. It takes so long, maybe also because when I knit I have the attention span of a 2 year old kid. I still want the instant gratification, so I have been knitting smaller projects such as leg warmers, hats, cowls, scarves... The baby blanket was making me really unhappy! I just did not like the pattern, the yarn, the way it came out... so I ripped it apart! It hurt me to no extent to do so, but as my friend K says: it's all part of the process.
So now, K gave me this other easier, faster pattern for the blanket and so far so good! It's moving along and I like it.
I will try to take some pics this weekend with the finished projects and then post them...
Cheers!

Harder than it looks

I have been asking A for the past 2 summers to get Rollerblades with me. I guess this past weekend he got tired of me mentioning it, and we went to the store and got them! I am so excited about it!
You know, how sometimes you have a completely unrealistic, idealized vision of something? Yeah, I had this twisted image of us being able to just "wosh" thru the park while we push C in her little pink stroller. Reality? Not so much!
Let's say that though we had a lot of fun and are planning on doing again soon, it was a lot harder than what I though! A managed to fall twice, but he was able to skate several times around the park! I, on the other hand did not fall, but was not as brave as he was... I went back and forth on one of the alleys close to our car!
I am certainly not giving up my day job to become a professional Rollerblade (is that even a profession?)

Re-creating childhood

Growing up in a communist country, where "luxuries" such as fruit jams, tomato sauce and "zacusca" (a Romanian vegetable spread) were hard to come by in the store (not could the regular Romanian afford spending money on such a thing), my mom and grandma always made all those at home. And I have to admit they were sooo much better than anything you could find at the store. And I am pretty sure that was the truth and not some sort of idealized childhood memory of mine.
So this fall (I know I can't believe I am already talking about the fall as we had no real summer, but none the less fall is fast approaching!), I decided to just go back to the simpler things and make some goodies myself.
For the following few weeks I will be on the hunt for some great farmer's market fruits and veggies along with some receptacles to store the creations. I figured that not only will I get to remember some great times from my childhood when the house was filled with the sweet aroma of peaches and plums and sugary syrup, but also create some memories for Chloe!
I have all the good intentions of taking pictures and blogging about it, but don't hold your breath about it. Life really does get insane when you try to juggle so many things at once (anyone there can understand what I am talking about? :) And who knows what Santa might bring into your gift basket this year?

Seriously?

The other day I decided to go to the mall and get some new sandals. I really need a pair since somehow I managed to completely ruin the ones I bought 2 months ago! (don't ask, I have no idea how I did that).
And I have to say I was both annoyed and aggravated to notice that you can't really find summer things anymore. Ok that might not be completely true, but I could not find any normal looking black sandals since every single store had a huge stock of winter boots!
Seriously, I think this is the biggest problem this culture has! We are rushing into the next thing before we even had the chance to enjoy the one we are in right now. I understand that this year the summer has been all wacky, but it is just August, our family has not even been in vacation yet (at the end of this week), I have not worn my bathing suit yet, and I have no tan (not for lack of trying mind you!), do we really need to worry about winter?
Argh...