Buon compleanno, Mom

Today we're celebrating my mother's 89th birthday. She lives at the New Jersey shore, and she (knock  on wood) is healthy as a horse. We're hoping we're still doing birthday celebrations for her when she turns 100.  Happy Birthday, Mom!!

This blog post is in response to Natalie Sisson's 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 4.  My challenge today is to identify 2-3 things I am good at, things Natalie calls my "Super Powers".  She says not to be humble about it.

I had to really struggle with this one. My first thought was to just chuck the whole thing. I don't have super powers. I don't even have any sort-of powers, let alone super ones.  I got the challenge email this morning, while I was at the beach, enjoying my last day of the season.  As I mulled over today's assignment, I was reminded of one of my Cabana-mates, Luca.  (Everyone rents a cabana for the season. I share one with about 18 other people). I promise this is all going somewhere. Just give me a minute.

 Luca is the 4 yr old son of one of the 18.  One morning as I was just arriving at our cabana, Luca and his family had already arrived. We said our hellos, and I went inside to change and gather up my stuff.  On my way out of the cabana, Luca stopped me. He opened his little mouth and started singing a song at the top of his lungs. His mother explained he was singing me a favorite song he had learned at his nursery school. She went on to further explain that he went to a Catholic school, thus all the references to God in the song, just in case I needed that information.  At the end of his song, he stood there with the biggest smile on his face.  Squeaky little 4 yr old voice and all, he stood and belted out that song for me, and then asked me to please wait one minute, he had something to show me. He ran into the cabana. One minute later he reappeared, dressed from head to toe in a Spiderman suit. It isn't Halloween. It's August. And Luca has transformed into "Speeder-Maan" (the correct pronunciation if you are speaking Italian).

These little huts are cabanas

Now back to my task for today's Blog Challenge.  Luca actually believed he was Spiderman. Once in that costume, he wasn't just little Luca anymore. He was a superhero.

I'm thinking I need a costume. If it works for Luca, maybe it will work for me.

I've tossed this around all day. Honestly, I don't possess any super powers. I have a couple of things I'm pretty good at, but I'm not setting the world on fire over here.

So here's what I'm good at. 1) I'm a good teacher, and 2) I'm not a quitter.

Now I better go make myself a costume.

                                     

A Perfect Day

Ciao, tutti!

This blog post is in response to Natalie Sisson's 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 3

Have you been keeping up with my Blog Challenge I've gotten myself into ? Each day I receive an email describing the challenge of the day.

Day 1 we had to write about our 2 or 3 biggest roadblocks that prevent us from living our ideal life.
Day 2's task was to figure out our why. Why did we want to live a free-er lifestyle.

I received today's assignment earlier this morning, and I've been pondering it all day. See- I did admit to being the Queen of Procrastination. This one should have been easy, and yet I've put it off until now.  It's 10:24 pm and I can't put it off anymore.

The challenge for Day 3 is to describe my perfect day- from waking up to going to bed.  What am I doing, what does it look, feel, smell. Really, I got this.

Ok, here goes.
My morning always starts with a cup of hot tea. Decaf, black tea. In a mug  handmade by a local potter. The mug is a blue color that reminds me of the sea.

I'm not a real early riser. 7:30 is my usual time to start the day. However, in my perfect day (yes, I'm tweaking a bit here), I'd be up and out of the house earlier. 6:30 maybe.

I take a walk on the beach, carrying the mug of tea with me.

I once owned a beach house that had a fantastic outdoor shower. I'd love to have that shower every morning.

Upon returning from my walk and shower, I make a nice late breakfast for Mike and myself. Fruit- my favorites are pineapple, melon or berries, and an omelet with cheese and fresh tomatoes or peppers, fresh squeezed orange juice and more tea. Coffee for him.

Most of the rest of the day is spent writing. In my perfect day I'd be working on that book I've started but haven't finished. And I'd be doing that writing in a spot I love to be in. Something that looks like the photo below. I'd be on that veranda, overlooking the sea.

I love the sounds of the sea. The water lapping, the fresh smell of the ocean water, the rustle of the sea breezes. It calms me, helps keep me grounded.

The evening meal would be some seafood, perhaps shrimp and clams.  And ice cream for dessert. There would be some Frank Sinatra music playing somewhere, and candles on the veranda.

That would be a perfect day for me.

Since you're reading along with my daily blog challenges, I'm thinking it would be fun for you to join right in with me. Go ahead. What would your perfect day look like?  Share it in the comments for me, please.


                                      

Can't wait to see what Day 4 will bring.


PS- While I did not make as much progress with the new blog as I had planned today, I did get some work done on it.  After several hours of researching and demo-ing, I narrowed a theme down to two choices. Tomorrow I need to make a decision, get the theme (whichever it is) installed, and get at least some of the pages created.

Living La Dolce Vita- that's why

It's Day 2 of the 10-day blog challenge, and today's task is to write about WHY.   Why is it we want to live our ideal lifestyle, whatever that may be.

This blog post is in response to Natalie Sisson's 10 Day Freedom Plan Blog Challenge Day 2 

This one is easy for me. I get asked that same question almost every day. Why did we want to give up our lives in the US to move to Italy? And I don't have to hesitate about my response. I remember having to do a great deal of soul-searching 10 years ago when we were planning our new life on the other side of the Atlantic.  Then, and now, the WHY is the same.

We'd made several month-long vacations in Italy, most of them here in Venice. Upon re-entry to our normal lives, we always found ourselves missing the slower lifestyle of the Italian culture. We felt trapped by our careers, by our American lifestyle of working practically non-stop.  We were slaves to the American way of living, which we began to see as a culture of greed. We strived for bigger and better, more stuff. And the more "stuff" you had, the more you had to work to support it.  It Italy, we saw people exist with much less, but seemed to be much happier in their smaller existence. We envied that happiness, that joyful spirit we witnessed in Italy.

Rather than be envious of that lifestyle, we chose to adopt it. What was previously important to us- advancing in our careers, earning more money, having more, just wasn't making us happy anymore. And why would we want to spend our days being unhappy? It didn't make sense to us anymore. What became much more important was living simpler, living healthier, living stress-free.

We had to make some tough decisions about getting rid of cars, houses, stuff and learn to live with much less. Doing away with all that stuff was a burden lifted off our shoulders. It was liberating. It gave us our life back.

And so the Why is something I have no trouble answering. To live "la dolce vita". The sweet life.