Hospitality

It’s been a while since we had friends staying with us. It’s a big deal for us to invite people to actually stay with us while they visit. I’ll be straight forward and honest in that sense: It’s hard! I find it incredibly hard to have people staying with us.

We love to have friends over for dinner or lunch or catch ups. But that’s different. You get together, you enjoy the conversation, the meal, the chats, the spending time together and then your guests leave and you clean up what needs to be cleaned up and everything goes back to normal.

I know that it’s similar with house guests. And yet it’s so very different.

Between Perfection And Reality

We all know those picture of the beautiful and perfectly styled house, of the living room that looks to die for, the bedroom presented in the most perfect manner, the children perfectly dressed and perfect hairstyles. We know the pictures of the perfect dishes, making drool when just only look at them. A perfect world presented in a perfect magazine, in its perfect world where even a stew or porridge looks amazing.

Tell Me Something Good #15

Tell me, how was your week? I hope it was a positive one. It’s time for focusing on something good again. I can’t tell you enough how much these Tell Me Something Good comments of yours make me smile. They actually give me lots of energy for the new week. So please keep it coming!

It would make me super happy if you would share the link to this on your blogs or write a post about something that made you feel especially good this week and link it back to this post. I think a lot of people need something positive to start off the week, especially after what was going on over the last week.

So why not make them come over and read lots of positive things or make them think about that one positive moment? Sometimes it truly only takes one thing to make you feel better. It’s something I learned a long time ago: When you go to bed, no matter how bad your day was, try to come up with one thing that makes your day a good day or even the best day ever. And then think about this one thing. You will immediately feel a very different kind of energy.

Before we start let’s be a excited for a moment. Being excited is a great feeling, don’t you think so too? So come on, be excited. I’m sure you can find something to be excited about… Don’t be shy! Put your hands up in the air… Again! I know you can do it! Yes! That’s the way!

Okay, well done. Feels good, right?

Here is what I’d like to share with you today:

“A project I’m working on at the moment is starting to take shape. It seemed overwhelming at first and although it turned into something much bigger than I thought it would be, I don’t feel frightened by it any longer. The hesitation has turned into motivation, which is an amazing feeling. So I’m looking forward on continuing working on it over the next days and weeks and once it’s all done, I will for sure be able to look at it and be proud.”

It’s okay, you can continue putting your hands up in the air… Put them up in the air like you just do not care 😉

My Children

Oh I so wish my kids will do that one day… That they always know they are home when they are with us. That they always feel the love…

SL-Week 35: Cook

Another great task for this amazing photo challenge by Silvain Landry. I love to cook, to create something people like to eat. A meal is more than simply making sure you have fed your body. It’s time to sit down and be with people. It’s time to chat and laugh. I have to admit that my husband is the better chef of the two of us. Nothing beats a home cooked meal that is prepared with love.

This below is one of the dishes I like to make: A meatloaf with a soft egg in the middle, wrapped in bacon. On the side whatever you like. I like mine with a garden salad.

What’s your favorite meal you like to prepare?

Now, please excuse me, it’s time to start cooking…

A Happy Home

  

DIY Home Gym With Items Around the House

Workout is something that is important to me but I’m no gym goer. I prefer working out at home or outside. for years now I do HIIT (bodyweight) workouts at home which keep me happy and for sure sweaty. When Kelsey approached me about writing a guest post about working out for my blog it made me really excited. Not only to read a post written by someone I’m not yet that familiar with but also reading about a take on working out at home. When Kelsey sent me Katherine’s post I was not disappointed. I’m actually looking forward to incorporate some of the things listed in the post.

As an excuse for not working out I often hear the “no time”, “no money” or “I don’t like going to the gym” answer. Well, here is your solution.

Enjoy reading…

What Makes A Home?

What makes a home a real home? And why do we tend to talk about home when we talk about the place we originally come from although we might have not been back for ages?

Home: The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. 

Decent Home

There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent. – Mahatma Gandhi

Voices In My Head

If you follow me for a little while you know how much I like animated movies, especially kids movies. The other day we went to go see ‘Home’ and one of the trailers before that movie was the one for ‘Inside Out’. I’ve watched trailers for this movie before and it makes me think.

It’s the story of a girl named Riley, whose life got thrown out of wack due to a move and basically her inside, the little personified emotions Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. Of course Riley’s move leads to quite a bit of stress in the Emotions Headquarter in her head and then Sadness and Joy get lost inside the rest of Riley’s mind. Joy, who so far is Riley’s most important Emotion tries to keep everything under control while trying to find back.

That’s what I got from the trailer.

Now I wonder… I wonder what happens if we lose one emotion?is this what happens to some of us? Do those emotions ‘wander off’? And what if they don’t find back or if we don’t find them anymore?

See, I like the idea of giving those emotions a face and their own little story. Like Sadness, who apparently through the journey discovers the bright side to life.

I picture Joy and Sadness lost in this huge part of Riley’s mind. I imagine how it would feel if my Joy and my Sadness would be gone. If only Fear, Anger and Disgust would be left. How confused would you be if you would suddenly not feel the one emotion anymore that was so typically you? I guess you would only have Fear, Anger and maybe Disgust left.

They’ve done an amazing job with this plot and again managed to hide or not hide such a deep message in a movie for kids (well at least it seems like it).

They say that Sadness will eventually discover the bright side to life. Now I wonder how this would work? ImagineSadness would indeed discover the bright side to life. Would Sadness still be around at all? Wouldn’t Sadness simply disappear? And would that be a good thing? And what would Sadness turn into? Happiness?

Could it be that easy? When we hit the point where we only feel fear or anger or disgust or all of them together, is it because the other two just went on a little stroll? Can we be hopeful that they will find back to the ‘Headquarter’ and provide us with an even better feeling that before? To what point can we influence it then, if at all?

If it is up to us, maybe we should let go of the control. Maybe we should let Joy and Sadness wander off and discover the rest of our mind. Our dreams and memories. And maybe in doing so we would get a stronger Joy and turn Sadness into Happiness.

The trick is to not lose those two in the process, otherwise we might be stuck with Fear, Anger and Disgust forever…