An introduction

Dear daughter,

Perhaps you know by now that you have not been born into the world’s best parents, but I hope you also know by now that your dad and I are always giving our very best for you. You have been born into two people whose biggest dream is to become great parents. For one I hope you’ll find it grand that even before you were born, a blog was made just for you.

This blog is a compendium of everything I love and find beautiful and true—tips that I hope you will find useful at some point in your life. Most of them you may think are but little things, but I have always thought that it is the little things that make every moment of life meaningful. Feel free to sift through them as you wish and take only those, which you find valuable. You are your own person after all.

And so there are some things, which you may not care for—how to make pretty flower arrangements, for instance, or how to make rose petal ice cubes. In the case that you take more after your father who puts up shrines to the now NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki instead, feel free to skip through these topics. There are topics, however, which I feel are important for you to know, like how to say please and thank you and when to say them, how to be kind to your colleagues, or how to be the best sister ever. Please take the time to read them. And then there are things, which I hope we can explore together, like throwing the perfect backyard movie party or putting together a picnic basket. I cannot wait until you are old enough so that we can do these things together.

In this blog you will encounter a mélange of topics. Among other things, we will cover:

1.     How to speak basic French. Just in case you grow up to be a Francophile like your mother.

2.     How to make coq au vin. Your dad attempted to make this for me on my birthday.

3.     How to properly make a bed. And what to put on your bedside table so that you will never want to get up.

4.     How to make a beautiful flower arrangement. The trick, I find, is to use clear vases.

5.     How to put together a lovely spread for afternoon tea. It all begins with exquisite china.

6.     How to put together a reading list for every occasion. Fortunately, the world’s great writers have written about just about everything under the sun.

7.     How to be the perfect dinner guest. This includes getting the perfect hostess gift and having impeccable table manners.

8.     How to conduct yourself around people of other cultures. Taking the time to know their mores, I find, is the highest form of respect.

Now I do not claim to be an expert at these things, but don’t you think it would be wonderful if we can learn them together? And, if you happen to be a son who would love to know these things, too, then this blog is yours, too.

Welcome to your blog, dearest.

Love,

Mom