1277 day of war

Hello, friends!

This was a hard week, but I’m glad I managed to get many important things done.
At the end of summer there are very few orders, and after paying rent we were left with no money, so I tried to find some extra ways to earn.

Right now it’s the season for cheap vegetables, potatoes, corn, and also watermelons. At this time of year we can save as much as possible, and I can come up with many meals from seasonal produce. In a way, I even enjoy it. Before the war I cooked much less, but now I’m not afraid to try even complicated dishes, and I like the results.

I try not to worry too much about all this and instead think that the world cares for me, and that this is just a stage of life I have to pass through to become stronger. I don’t know how, but it works and gives me hope. If we managed to survive Mariupol and are still holding on, then maybe it is for a reason. Sometimes I think it’s a kind of protective reaction, because I know our future is unclear — both for us, who lost our homes, and for the country itself, whose near future is also uncertain. But in any case these thoughts help me keep going and continue doing something.

This time, unexpectedly, a few orders came in for the first time this month, and I also managed to finish a website project I had been working on. There are always difficult moments when it seems that everything is going badly, but better times always follow. In recent years this has repeated so often that I feel I’m beginning to understand it more deeply.

In the country we were watching the meeting between Zelensky and Trump, and I was afraid it could mean the end for us, but it went surprisingly well. I was very glad that so many European leaders traveled together with Zelensky. It was moving to see people drop their own affairs to come and support us — it really means a lot.

I don’t really believe in a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, who has been avoiding him since the moment he became president. I just hope this leads to some real actions, and not just another couple of weeks of talk. So far the only actions we’ve seen have been from Russia, which continues to attack with missiles and drones, and right after this meeting there was another massive strike. I still hope for the best, even though objectively I don’t see any clear path to ending the war.

Right now I’m trying to prepare for Nastya’s birthday next week. I’m dyeing a T-shirt as a gift and also looking for a place to find the cake she’s wanted for a long time. At the start of summer Nastya said it would be interesting to grow a tomato, and I grew one on the balcony. Not many have ripened yet, but I think we’ll at least be able to taste them.

Thank you all for your support! And thank you as well for helping through BuyMeACoffee, it really helps us survive right now.