Random Research Girl

I am sick of being sick! I croaked to my kids yesterday that I am about to loose my voice – something that did happen to me once already – and guess what? no compassion at all! They both got all excited and were checking on me every 5min if I already lost it. Thanks, thanks a whole lot kids! Talking about the support…! Looks like I’ll have to wait for that some 10yrs or so from now…
As it turns out, strepsil can do miracles and my throat feels a bit better…

My latest hero: Josh McDowell. First time in my life I saw something more than the printed name on the cover of the book – a person behind the actual letters. I was captured instantly by how wise this man is. His words have this “living” thing about them… Meaningful, not empty words. Usually words are empty. Dry. Dead. Not alive. People say them, forget them, don’t care about them. And the strange thing is, they say something and you can sense they don’t really believe themselves in what they’re saying. So you doubt it too. There’s so much fake around… Seeing someone who is truly true is unique – inspiring. I can’t get his words out my head… They’ve sunk somewhere deep in my heart…
I know.
I love the guy.
Can’t help it.

Yeah, I should make the list of people who did inspire me in the past… Maybe for my next post. That would be fun.

I REALLY need to get that “The unshakable truth” book…
Since I got the iPad I’m such a fan of e-books that my first question always is if I can download it… Yeah… I am wondering if I can download it…

And here’s the link to the interview I’ve watched.
Watch. Have fun. Be inspired.

Whoa there! I haven’t been on my blog for a while! And I’m not feeling guilty even a little bit. There are some other things in my life… Important things! ;P

Well, I was working a little bit… Drawing mostly… It actually made me thinking lately how funny it is how the life goes. I remember when I was 10-15 yrs old and I was crazy about Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci – I wanted to be an artist desperately -I asked quite known artist in our city where I was growing up to teach me to draw – for… some cleaning. Yup, I was trying to get my way even when our home budget was tight. He agreed and gave me a few priceless lessons, that I remember till today. He was an older man. My language teachers from school connected me with him as they noticed I had some talent in that area. Didn’t work out for too long as “the grown ups” in my family said that I won’t make money painting pictures. Teacher, doctor, lawyer… Make your pick… Turned out I was clueless for the rest of my teenager years about what to do. I had it figured out at some point, but it turned out to be a dumb sort of idea, so… I just became clueless… I guess. Years went by… And all ways and paths I took, without thinking, lead me to… drawing again.
That’s why I think it’s kind of funny. Hmmm… How did I get here? I don’t know. It just happened.
This experience shaped up my thinking about the career my kids will want to pursuit in their lives. I’m just an observer of what they like the best… What they DO the best… So my son loves to sing. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to have Justin Bieber nr 2… It just the matter of fact that he likes it. He was humming the tunes before he started to speak, and now wherever we go, well you should see that, my son is singing, my daughter is dancing… Quite a show! Yup, she loves to dance… But really what I’ve noticed, she has a very good taste if it comes to clothes. Sooo… I’m open to whatever they’ll decide. I’m actually very curious about that. But whatever they do, I hope, that they will serve the Lord. That what matters to me the most.

I don’t know where my life will go next, what other things I will do, or see, but I’m pretty sure it will be an exciting journey, especially because of Him. ♥

I wonder if there are more people who found themselves back where they once started without really conciously planning it…? ?
Eva

Three names I go by:

Mama

Eva

Ewcik

Three jobs I have had:

Barman in a restaurant

Waitress in a Sheraton and Marriott hotels in Vancouver

Online marketer/graphic designer

Three places I have lived:

Vancouver, BC

Toronto, Ontario

Poland

Three favorite drinks:

Loco hot coco (or however you say it)

water

green tea

Three tv shows I watch:

I love Jonas

Super Nanny

all bunch of tree house  movies like dora, diego and so on

Three places I have been:

Germany

Italy

U.S.

Three places I would like to visit:

Australia

Africa

Israel

Three favorite dishes:

Captain Crunch

just  cheese (all sort of cheese )

olives. yum.

Three things I am looking forward to:

My next big push (hahaha I just heard that somewhere and adopted it!)

Whenever I am alone driving in my  car,  with music to the max, tires touching the road… COMPLETE FREEDOM! I only wish they remove these max speed  signs…

Spending the summer under a lot of sun.

If you want to play along, let me know! Becca, it’s a great idea! Thanks!!

Truly inspiring story. For all the worrying “ifs” out there… Meet the 16 year old girl who seemed not to think much about “ifs” in her life when she set for her record braking journey.  Jessica Watson.

Sometimes I think I would love to set for such a sailing vayage, to get away from daily chores, kids fighting, kitchen gymnastics, scratched knees, runny noses and all that stuff. Being alone surrounded by waters only seems like an unachievable luxury in a mom’s busy life.
The only journey I can get right now is to put kids to beds, and then after they fall asleep, set for the kitchen in a super comfy robe, grab a cup of hot chocolate, and sail away on an adventure with some great book, and then, in the morning be back again.  Sleepy and Tired.

It's a drawing I am currently working on... talking about subconsciousness!

And the above drawing is exactly what I have in my life right now. Overcrowded. Do you see poor Noah squeezed into the corner of the boat and all these big and noisy animals happy as they can be? You get the picture I’m sure. Being a mom can be such an overwhelming thing.
And then you get to worry about all the “ifs” in your and your kids life. Mostly your kids. What if they don’t do well at school? What if they get bullied? What if … and so on.
As for the perks… well, you get to love so big as you never ever imagined you could.

Wish you happy and safe homecoming, Jess!

Yup, it’s me. I didn’t get married lately, if anyone wonders…
I, for once in my life, was a model.
Naaah, it’s not the truth either. I wish!
I was just helping my friend to build his wedding pics portfolio. It was all fun! And cold! If you see me blushing, it’s because the weather was freezing and I got beautiful red color all around my cheeks, nose and lips, but of course luckily Photoshop can fix that…
The pic in my sweater is from in between sessions when I was trying to desperately warm myself up.

Being a model is a VERY hard job..!

My son just turned 8.
We had a birthday party, presents, balloons and lot of fun.
Josh was so happy to host his birthday party.
He had to have a birthday hat – even when I was thinking he’s too old.
And for the first time ever he ate his birthday cake. That really surprised me. He NEVER even tried his own cake before!
Go figure!
He didn’t even take out his toys throughout the day when I was cleaning and preparing everything for the party.
I was surprised. Again.
The party went PERFECT! At least this is what he said. I think it’s because everyone brought Lego sets…

If mom has an ambition to make her 8 year old an engineer and buys him a TECHNIC  Lego designated from 9 up…

Then she has to build it herself! It took me 2 days! My back and neck still hurts..!

Some more Lego up there…

I was cleaning 2 days after that party. I would step on Lego everywhere like zillion times. And we ate cake leftovers for three days. Yummm!
It was all worth it.

And to think that not so long ago he was just a little cutest boy I’ve ever seen… He seems so grown up now!

Happy Birthday sweetie!

It’s been a while…
As you maybe guessed I was busy decorating our new place.
It gets exhausting.
Really, especially if you want to get everything perfect.
Now I am going to slow down.
Take a break and enjoy some free time.

During the time of my blogosphere absence:

I won (first time ever) a toy giveaway! I never win anything so that was kind of spectacular for me. I was like “what?? I won????” My kids will enjoy their new Handy Manny motorcycle when it gets here! I’ll post some photos. They still don’t know about the prize so they will be very much surprised!

I was saddened by the big earthquake in Indonesia…

I’ve read a great post at Becca’s blog about how she’s managing her kids addictiveness to games and I found the solution she came up with very useful, so I though I’ll post a link to her article. My kids are computer games addicts too (are there any kids today that aren’t???? I’d really like to know. Then I probably would feel terrible about my parenting skills… so share with me or… not! ), something that I secretly and openly hate, secretly, because I show it less on the outside than I really feel about it on the inside. I found really great tips in Becca’s post and it encouraged me to be more strict about gaming habits of my kids. Thanks Becca!

Eva

Today was a very first day when I got a real break, seriously. Josh was doing the dishes, and as it turned out, he can do the dishes and leave them sparkly clean! He got himself a job! Misha did a playroom/office clean up like a pro, and while they were still working, I got a “ME TIME”. Oh, happy day!!
Ok, now I am gonna tell you what’s the catch.
Yup, they made me to promise them something.
Nothing’s free these days!
They made me to promise them that we’re going to bake cookies. Little bit of explanation here, I am not a cook, not even a baker, but because of Josh anaphylaxis, he doesn’t have a much choice if it comes to sweets. Everything he likes has peanuts or WAS in contact with peanuts, nobody knows for sure. That’s why I have to bake ocasionaly. And I promised them we’re going to do that today, after they clean up. Pretty good deal, ha? I made my kids work! But I don’t know, if you ever experienced this kind of sens of relief. It’s like somone took a load off of you. Not a big one, but you no longer carry it. Of course I don’t expect them to do that everyday. That would be tottaly awesome… insane, but this few minutes, when the things were getting done, and I was sitting on the computer writing this post, was the most relaxing minutes in my entire life. After kids of course.

Since my son have started reading and writing, he’s been bombarding Lego with his emails. This is one of them. Good for them they ask for the age on their website, because I guess it would be very frustrating getting such correspondence. And I guess they get that often from their precious 8 and up (or less) little fans. I wonder myself what their going to write back! I can’t wait!
So here it goes:

“WHY DID YOU SALE ALL THE LEGO CITY GARBAGE TRUCKS, RELLY I LOVE THOSE TRUCKS, ONE DAY, I SAW THAT THOSE TRUCKS WERE SOLD OUT AND I YELLD “NO,NO, NO, NO,NO,NO, NO,NO,NO,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY,WHY, YOU,YOU,YOU,YOU,YOU,YOU,YOU,YOU,”AND ….”crazy banana”. so WHY DID YOU DO THAT???????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????”

Do your kids write funny emails too?
And by the way, I can’t wait till mine will write Jonas Brothers, because as I see it THEY are on the “NEXT” list, especially with that song!

It’s almost 7am. Our house is still quiet. Behind the window I hear birds chirping. It’s a kind of spring chirping and it’s the middle of February! Do the birds chirp their little joyful chirping sounds in the middle of February? I am not sure. I am so much caught up with the civilization, living in the city of bricks and stones that I am not sure. There’s lot of trees all around our new house though. Why do the birds chirp anyway? Is it because the spring is really coming? It sure feels like that.
I do love listening to birds. They are like little heralds of joy.
Today is the second morning I hear birds chirping.
Maybe it’s a sign? Maybe spring will come sooner this year?
Oh, I do hope so!
Somehow spring always brings new hope, hope for the better, hope for the warm sunny weather, hope for new great adventures, new things.
I imagine new places we’re going to visit with our kids, new people we’re going to meet, new laughs, new joys…

And it started snowing… Yup, big fat snowflakes are falling from the sky behind my window… They’re coming down fast, hurrying to cover any signs of the coming spring… The bird is singing no longer. Suddenly I feel chilly.
But the spring IS coming. Nothing will stop that.

I am glad that for a moment I was there already.