From Apple's journal #18

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess whose father wanted to marry off to the highest bidder.
Her father was a grumpy man that never knew love and would not understand the princess protests.
She drove any potential husband away with clever (and sometimes cruel) tactics.
She would chew on garlic all day long, would not take baths for weeks, put bugs in her hair and fill her shoes with pig poop.
One day her father had enough and angrily sent her away to be locked in a castle with a terrible witch.
He then took a mute servant and put her in the princess place. He promised her a large sum of money for her family if she never "said a word".
The girl was married in less than two moons and fell deeply in love with her husband. They had 7 children and no one ever knew she was not the real princess. Her husband, tired of all the snotty noble ladies he knew was completely devoted to that simple, caring woman and thanked the stars for bringing her to him.
The real princess was left in a scary looking castle with 5 other girls.
She was very surprised to find that they were all very happy and there was no terrible witch. There was however a very smart older woman who came up with the idea of turning an abandoned castle into a fake-terrifying-dungeon and live a very comfortable life with payments from all the people that wanted to send some girl to be locked away and never found.
The "prisoners" where free to do as they wished and they all got a share of the money. Some of them went of to live far away, those 5 stayed... and the princess soon found out why as she fell in love with each and every one of the women and lived a happy life coming up with new ways to pretend the castle was haunted.
And she was washed everyday by 10 loving hands and smelled nicely ever after.

From Apple's journal #17

Get in a kitchen with a helpful 5 year old.
Do not replace him with 5 helpful 1 year olds or you'll be in trouble.
Follow this recipe over here .
Run out of the kitchen at least every 8 minutes with your hands covered in whatever ingredient you're using at the time to see if the little girl who is screaming like she's being murdered actually need any assistance.
Go back after confirming she was just reacting to her sister drooling on her teddy.
Explain to the helpful 5 year old that not all the girls are crying babies and that someday he will probably enjoy their company very much. Blush when he asks " like you mommy?".
Put your pie in the oven and prepare dinner while your son is entertaining your daughters by wrestling with the dog while they cheer him on.
Rescue your son when he had enough rolling around in the floor with a dog bigger than him but the dog is still in the mood for more.
Take the pie out of the oven

From Apple's journal #16

I guess it's not that original that my favourite colour is red.
My mother used to dress me up in red dresses and put red ribbons in my hair and she would kiss my cheeks and call me her Rubbinete .
My dad would laugh and tell me one day I'd be a Granny Smith . My mother would always add "even then you'll be a Red Delicious ".
As I was tying a ribbon on my own daughters hair I realised I haven't visit them in a while.

The bright side of life with Hope #4

What we can have

Ever got that feeling that things get so much better after they are gone?
Ever noticed how people seem to appreciate you more when you step out of their lives?
Ever felt really confused because something you really didn't want that much suddenly gets tremendously  appealing just because you can't have it anymore?
Why do you do it? Why can't we enjoy what we have now? Why do we need to play difficult just so we can get the attention we deserve?
Oh my, the energy we spend in tiresome little games.
Put a stop to it!
Look around you... are you sure you're not losing precious moments and important people in your life just because you're too busy complaining about what you don't have? Just imagine your life without something that you take for granted, imagine that someone else has it... see that envy you feel, that need to take it back? Why wait until it's gone to understand how important it was?
Tell the people you love that you love them right now, make them feel special, treat them right and enjoy them while they are beside you. Take the time to remind them that you always remember how lucky you are to have them in your life.
Don't stop dreaming, but don't waste reality.

With love, 

Hope

Revenge and Hope

In between

Revenge: So let me get this straight... she's with someone who forgets about her all the time...
Hope: It's not like that. She gets a lot of sweet little notes and "I love you"s.
Revenge: So we are not talking about the person who spent two years forgetting anniversaries, leaving her alone on her birthday because she was sad, who would pay more attention to the TV then to the women standing right there?
Hope: What about the red roses?
Revenge: If people bring you flowers because they fucked up, it's not that impressive. Come on! This is the person that told her that it was perfectly normal to be unsure of the fellings for her because she was already in love when they got together and so there was never a need to win her over!
Hope: You are only looking at the bad stuff. We are also talking about the person that melts her heart with a smile, the person she loves to cuddle, the one who makes her laugh with crazy stories.
Revenge: Wow... laugh at crazy stories... falling asleep crying most of the days because the person who supposedly loves her thinks a good way to show her she's loved is by making her wait hours because she was forgotten again. I can see the balance in this.
Hope: Don't be like that! Some people have bad memory! It happens! Sometimes people get distracted.
Revenge: Yeah... this person in particular gets distracted by every other thing, anything as long as its not her.
Hope: You are being forgetful too. This person has changed! This person tries to be more loving. This person trusts her now like never before.
Revenge: You have to be kidding me! This has to be the slowest change ever. Changing from completely shut down someone from your life to allow that person in when you need her does not count as a positive change. That is not the kind of relationship two adults should have.. that is the kind of relationship toddlers have with their mother. 
Hope: People deserve second chances! 
Revenge: Fine! But this is like.. what.. the twentieth? How many times is she going to believe all that crap about " being better" and "I won't treat you like that any more"?
Hope: Until it's true! That's what not giving up means!
Revenge: No... that just means she is stupid. 
Hope: It means she wants to fight for this relationship. It means she still believes there is hope.
Revenge: Hope? Oh my god... when she said that if things didn't change and if they could not talk things trough she would end it for good the response she got was " ok, but not right now because it's my bedtime".
Hope: You are missing the point.
Revenge: What is the point???
Hope: She's in love. She listens to me.
Revenge: Damn

From Apple's journal #15

Today there was no wake up call from the hotel.
Today I woke up with Ruby jumping on me telling me she was hungry.
The sun was already up in the sky... it was well past nine.
Owen and Scarlet were still sleeping.
I picked Ruby up and polka-dotted her face with good morning kisses while she giggled.
I sat her down in her chair and talked to her while I was making breakfast.
She told me she had a dream about baby bears and birds that could not fly.
The pancakes were ready in less than ten minutes and I put a bottle of milk in the microwave.
I sent Ruby to wake up Owen while I got Scarlet and we all had breakfast together in the kitchen.
It felt so good... not having to rush around, putting sleepy kids in the backseat, feeding them in a hurry in the middle of nowhere.
They all grew up so much in the last year.
I feel like everything just flew me by.
Not this year. This year I'm going to enjoy every new word, every new letter learned, every little step.