Nourish-n-Cherish

I love shopping, and it is not one of my husband’s favourite activities.

When I say I love shopping, I am not an obsessive shopper, who shops 8 hours at a stretch, or demagnetizes the credit card with use. Every once in a while I love to stroll through the aisles, just looking at the interesting things out there, browsing if you may – but not necessarily online.

When something attracts my attention I alert the better half to take note. All I have to do is say is:
“Isn’t this nice”

I can reel the reminder of the conversation in my sleep:
“Yes, it is….Why don’t you buy it?” he quips.
“I only said it was nice, I never said I wanted to buy it!”
“Well, if you don’t want to buy it, why bother telling me?”
“Because I thought of sharing my obs.”

Oh well….I never learn, and he never learns. I may be generalising here, but when women shop and say something is nice, it is not always with the desire to acquire the article. There are times when the intention is to buy, but THAT, you can sense in the tone and eyes. (In such situations, regardless of what you say, we buy the article.)

Here is my theory with shopping: you have to browse around to see what you like enough to buy.
Here is my better half’s theory: you have to browse around only when you know you like something well enough to buy.

My question is: how do you know you like something enough to buy, unless you spend some time aimlessly looking around?

Dear all,

Ref: Year 3: Birthday #1 Account

Kee’s first 3rd birthday party was celebrated with great pomp and splendor on her father’s birthday yesterday. She did not exactly steal his thunder, but yeah….she cut the cake, wore a lovely dress, a crown and beamed as she cut the cake with her 22 3 ft friends watching with a look that combines all of the above emotions:

Anticipation, joy, enthusiasm and a weeny bit of jostling to get a good view of the cake!

Yesterday, I went along to her school, and just observed her class for a few minutes. I had taken leave yesterday because

(a) It was my dear husband’s birthday
(b) I had leave that was overflowing
(c) I was sick of all the tamasha at work and just wanted a day off
(d) I really wanted to meet Kee’s friends at school.

Her teacher casually mentioned that if I wanted, I could celebrate Kee’s birthday at school. So, we had a birthday party with 22 avatars in her classroom yesterday evening at 3:00 p.m. Her father could have attended the function, but he had an important customer call. So, the guy whose birthday it really was, did not get a chance at the cake. But Kee performed admirably and glowed in all attention and finery.

The children were all standing around the table, each one trying to poke a finger into the cake (Luckily I had not yet opened it) Their teacher (bless them both) came and told them

” Children … Please don’t touch the cake. Can everyone stand with their hands tied behind? Thank you!”

Lo and behold: All eager 3 year olds stood with their hands tied behind themselves!

The cake was served and all the little ones sat and ate them while I chatted with them all. A number of them said they were Kee’s friends.

Towards the end of the party, a Barney song was sung (lead by me and sung by all the pre-schoolers)

A word of thanks to Monsier Thaatha who assisted in buying the party items at short notice and Madame Paati who quickly put the goodie bags together.

If you need any further details, please get in touch with me.

PS: You may call her and wish her a happy birthday starting from 25th Sept through Nov 16th for the Financial Year 2007.
Reference blog: http://nourish-n-cherish.blogspot.com/2005/10/here-cake-there-cake.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20827350/

Senator sues God. The news item states it is an attempt to show how frivolous the lawsuit culture is.

So, God is summoned to the witness stand, and you just feel a cool breeze. The judge is leaning towards declaring contempt of court for filaure to appear, and a huge voice thunders from above

“GOD IS OMNIPRESENT. YOU MAY PROCEED”

Well….okay. Please take an oath in the name of God

ON WHAT?

The Bible

If it is on one of the books written on me, shouldn’t you bring all the titles: Geeta, Koran and anything remotely religious?

You have to swear on God

I am God…..what use would an oath on myself do?

You would die if you lie

I don’t live and I don’t die. I am God

Well… are you refusing to take the oath ??

At this point thunder strikes the courtroom, and God is held to task.

Did you make thunder?

Yes that was me spattering in exasperation.

And so it goes ..

Did you know that
(a) The gas-station 76 was named after the fact the Brits got kicked out of the US in 1776?
(b) Route 66 used to run from Chicago to LA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_66)

Dec 6th, Sep 11th, Aug 6th have all become dark days in our lives thanks to the thoughtless actions harming thousands of people. Yet, the wars we wag that have daily death tolls nearing Dec 6th and Sep 11th are unheeded.

History…please enlighten us to learn from you!

Another milestone in the life of her first-born.

She started school. She seems to be enjoying it. The mother was having difficulty leaving her daughter to cope in the unfamiliar classroom.

As she took the 3 mile drive home, she was disoriented. She stopped at green lights, got honked at by peevish office-goers heading grumpily to work after the long week-end. In her defense, visibility was poor. (The visibility factor was later clarified by her husband as being clouded by tears, not fog as she wanted to believe.)

Here is wishing her daughter the best for the exciting life that lies ahead – school stories, new friends, a lifetime of learning.

I think this is the rough schedule for the day:

8:30-9:00: settling in time. They can play with the puzzles and toys while settling in.
9:00 – 9:30: some songs I think
9:30-9:45: snack time.
9:45-11:45: rigorous work! They have S.M.A.R.T (simple math, art & reading time) I think they also sing songs and dance at this time.
11:45 – 12:05: lunch time. They have to eat on their own
12:05 – 1:30: nap time. they have to take out their sheets, sleep and clean up after themselves.
1:30 – 2:30: they play in the playground outside. There is a silly train, slides, bicycles, sand box and swings
2:30 – 3:30: another round of S.M.A.R.T before heading back home. BTW, each of these activities have a restroom break in between. So, you can imagine how much actually gets done during the day!

Any comments may be sent without inhibitions to her mail_id. I am hoping that with the amount of money we are dishing out, she will learn to read eventually!

Here is a pet peeve of mine. People make choices – what irks me is the justification for these choices. When there is a choice, a person takes what works for them better – period.

You could be a person who analyzes everything to death or be someone who makes a choice rather quickly, and lets life unfold. Whatever it maybe, I don’t like the approach of : “I take the high road because I am smarter”

Some choices turn out to be smart ones, some don’t. The important thing is to feel comfortable with the choice when the option to choose is given to you.

I was reading this morning about parenting, and again got me thinking. Guess what? I am not an ideal mother. I am irritable, I sometimes take shortcuts with my child’s food (soup is enough I declare – but that’s only because I don’t have the energy that day to get her to eat spinach and rice!). But overall, I am okay. My child and I enjoy each other’s company – well….let’s leave it there shall we? Did I make a highly intelligent choice when I initiated my daughter into reading? No! I just did what I enjoyed doing, and did it with her. Consequently, she started liking books. Instead of saying this, I could ramble on about the research that proves reading makes the brain more stimulating – guess what? I just alienated myself! Sometimes, we all make choices that may not prove to be ideal.

I hate the way parents obsess about the colds their children catch from other kids, the share and play mentality, the gentle approach – the swim class, the dance class. I may take my daughter to dance and swim classes in the future, and if she likes it, and sticks to it long enough, why not? But if at that point, you catch me talking about what a wise choice I made with the swim and dance classes – do me a favour and stop me will you? This sort of thing is infectious and the more I meet mothers, the better the chances are that I start talking like this!

I headed home from work with such a determined mind that day, that I was going out for dinner. This happens often, but what else I had made my mind about was the fact I was not going to set foot in the kitchen that lovely Friday evening! Dinner plans were made, and we set out amidst certain excitement that comes with getting your child to stop cycling outside, and wearing something nice.

We arrived at the haute restaurant and waited for an hour outside clutching out tickets in our hands, waiting for our turn with the menus. We finally went in and sat, and when the waiter busied himself with notepad and pen to take down our orders, we gave him the first order of the evening. A special order – nothing on the menu.

A boiled egg we asked with as much nonchalance as we could muster. The sure footed waiter faltered, he stammered for a response, and said – “a-a b-boiled egg?” Yes, we beamed. I stepped in and comforted him with the assurance that I would be ordering something from the menu. “We love your food“, we told him before he broke out sobbing. I could see the pride in his restaurant shattered in his eyes.

You can take my daughter to the fanciest restaurant with the most fantastic menus, but of late, what satisfies her immensely is a boiled egg. We all ate our favourite dishes, and handed a special tip to our waiter who had gone through considerable difficulty obtaining the boiled egg from the seasoned chef.

Everytime I step into Coldstone Creamery, and order a small plain vanilla icecream, I go through a similar experience. Don’t blame them – check this out!

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/icecream/original_creations.html

My husband and I talk minimally these days. No, we are not having a row. We are on perfectly good terms.

I finished the 7th Harry Potter book and he hasn’t.

Given my abyssmal track record of keeping secrets, we have mutually agreed to not talk (about it) till he finishes. But talk about it till he finishes became difficult because he is curious, and asks leading questions and before I know it…another oops moment!

So, dear hubby and I love each other, and don’t talk to each other! No one but J.K.Rowling could have done that!

BTW, hubby dear, you do realise we get insecure if we aren’t exercising the jabbering old mouth – so before we become really insecure, READ THE BOOK!

PS: This is also my 100th post.

Brainwaves (husband and co-blogger on our group blog came up with a comprehensive reading list based on KQED’s summer list) I thought I will include a link to his post on this blog, so that readers of this blog can get the list too.

Summer reading list. Bring on your suggestions:

Looking at KQED’s suggested list, some of the things stand out on first glance:
Blink
The Assault on Reason, Al Gore
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
Finding an Angel to Fund Your Business, Joseph Bell

For the comprehensive list given by Brainwaves, please visit:

http://am-kicking.blogspot.com/2007/07/summer-reading-list.html

In general, if you have any suggestions for good books, please suggest. I am bit stuck with books such as Nemo goes to School, Thomas & Friends Nursery Rhymes etc 🙂