{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 

Peace.

Later Gators

I am taking a little break, check back next Monday.

Tuesday Tunes:

I leave you with Khalil Gibran's: "the flute." Performed and made famous by the very talented Fayrouz of Lebanon.


Click on the link for the poem with the English translation.

Peace.

Monday link loving

This is my view from our living room couch, where I usually sit and blog.  This is Mei's room, and tonight for the very first time Grabby's crib has been moved downstairs to join her sister's room. Mei is especially ecstatic about not being alone anymore.

She's been creeping into our upstairs bedroom at the wee hours of morning (around 3am) every night, declaring that she's all alone. She broke my heart.

I hope this new arrangement settles things down a little.

On with the links:

I think it's safe to say that I am drawn to female vocalists more than male ones. I linked to them before but they are just lovely.

If you were my friend in school you probably know that I am a hat lover. I was probably the only Egyptian girl (at the time) with boy-cut orange hair (trust me I turned many heads in my time, not happy turns though. I got spat at once). So to cut down the attention I often times wore head coverings (ah the irony) including hats, bandannas, turbans (it's true! ah youth.) Here's what I would be rocking right now except I think hats and hijab are two ingredients that should NEVER mix. (if you are amongst those who mix the two, apologies in advance. Can't blame a woman for her opinion.)

I Heart this woman's photography skills. She makes me want to be a better photographer.

So purty.

Five dollar sale at Urban right now. gotta love summer sales.

Happy Monday.

Peace.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 Happy weekending,


Peace.

Hot day alert!

Our reliable weather peeps informed us that tomorrow is expected to be the hottest day of the year *insert dramatic music*.
It was pretty hot and muggy today too, but I have to say the kiddie pool is our friend this summer.

( Attention Readers: this post will resume after a short advertisement, please stay tuned and don't browse away from this page)

Too hot to lug about two little ones to the park, or walk down the street in the soaring sun to the beach.
No worries friends. The kiddie pool, make it your friend this summer. Just dip your hot, sticky, sweaty, feet in, and you'll feel a breeze working it's way to you from no where. And remember don't let the good folks soften your heart against child labor--those little hands can work wonders-- lugging bucket after bucket from our friend the kiddie pool and pouring it right at your feet.

This Summer The Kiddie Pool... Make it your friend!

This advertisement comes with this limited special offer:  On every kiddie pool, get two little elven bucket fillers for free. This offer ends soon. Hurry!

 Inspired by this angry chicken, we made our own Popsicle puppets. And I would like to report the skyrocketing success of this project. Friends, for the first time in history, this mama and her two little munchkins were completely warped out of time for at least a good two hours (if not more). We started by cutting circles for the puppets (amusing for all) Mei is not that articulate with scissors-use yet. But she LOVES her (child safe) scissors and cuts page after the next in tiny little slivers (not that exciting comes time to clean up) Grabby used her crayons for scribbling and then later she used our window markers on the windows.

Mei and I drew several faces, glued them on popsicle sticks and Mei drew a forest themed back drop.
We then continued to make a show after another, and a couple of them made it on video too. It was grand.

(Apologies on the poor lighting, I just took these now {11:00 pm} and couldn't be bothered to touch them up)

Happy hottest day of the year Chicagoans! and everybody remember: This Summer, The kiddie pool... make it your friend!

Peace.

(I just noticed how wrinkly the puppets look in the photos. Grabby played with them too, and when I wasn't looking I'd hear "lollipop yum"  A lot of them got saved from the lollipop monster *smile*)

spacey splashy links

 Today, I went shopping... it's true. I sat down with a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote down my shopping list-- which entailed asking the other decision maker in our household if he needed anything. I even proceeded into checking the fridge and under the kitchen sink to make sure I got EVERYTHING... then off we (Mei, Grabby and I {someone will be pleased with this sentence *wink* I hope}) went.

We came back from the grocers with three big re-usable (I wasn't spacey in this department, thank you very much!) bags. Logical. Right?...

... think again.

I somehow managed to forget the items that no one needs a list for. Like what you ask? Like milk for cereal, eggs for everything, bread for sandwiches,  you know, those kindda things. Plus I purchased the wrong kind of toothpaste that I always (ALWAYS!) get for Grabby. True story.

What happened after that?... I proceeded the day in the same fashion that I started. But let's just leave it at that. Also never speak of it again. Deal?

***

Links:

I want to try hooping with Mei this summer. (I am trying to find any decent youtube hooping videos, but to no avail) I used to hoop in my youth. I wonder if it's like riding a bicycle?

Speaking of hoops. NO WAY!

My new camera takes movie quality videos (I kid you not!) I am currently trying to figure out how to setup a private page where I can add video's to share with family. Any tips (I tried wordpress but to download movies I have to pay. me-no-like-y!) any help would be appreciated.

Apparently I am into oud music these days.

***

And finally SPLASH!

Peace.

Tuesday Tunes :: Pilot

 Me and my first born have this neat habit that I mentioned before, which entails drawing side by side the same exact thing. So the other day I placed Grabby on her high chair gave her some crayons and a note book, then I sat next to my first born and started drawing a girl.

Is that me mama?
 It could be, here's a big smile on your face.
No mommy, draw a sad face mommy.
 Okay. There.
Also draw me crying, I want purple hair, black skies, and rain.
 Hmn, are you that sad?
I want to wear a rainbow dress too, draw me in a rainbow dress mommy.

Phew, a rainbow dress might just give some balance to that dark picture my girl had me draw.

 These are our similar drawings side by side. She wanted hers all in black.

***

I am introducing a new tuesday series if you will, called "Tuesday Tunes" where I will share, or introduce different music genres that I enjoy/listen to.

This week's tunes are very close to my heart. The Oud artist performing, is a famous Iraqi oud player. He is one of my brother's favorites (my brother is a self taught amazing oud player himself). Nassir Shamma is not only an amazing musician, who introduced a modern way of strumming the oud like a Guitar. But he also invented a new technique for playing the instrument (after a dear friend of his lost one of his arms at the war, and hence thought his dreams of learning the instrument were lost with his arm.) I atteneded one of Nassir's concert's where he performed his technique of playing the chords and strumming with the same hand. His friend (and many with the same situation) now plays the Oud. 

So without furthur ado:

Peace

Btw, he's the one on your right hand side (screen right)

Scenes from the weekend

Ah Summer:)
Peace.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 peace.

I can never forget my father's birthday...

or my sister's... we share the same birthday. So july fourteenth was a pretty festive day in our family. I guess for France too. But who cares about France, right?

Happy birthday Baba, it's always been weird sharing a birthday with you, 'cause you had the wit to answer my question with a question.

So what did you get me for my birthday this year, dad?

What did YOU get me?

... right!

(He always got me nice things, he was just a tease... still is)

And happy birthday twin wonderful sister. How will I ever top your gift to me this year. Can I make you your favorite Banana bread for a gift (in a couple of months until our paths cross on the same continent that is... I know, I totally suck!)

It's been a while since we celebrated our birthday's together.


 I do enjoy turning into my new age nine hours later than my twin sister, even though technically I am nine minutes older (my mom fell asleep in between). Ah the irony.  i make it a point to shove it in my sister's face every year. Neat, huh?

***

Because we have awesome family in town (who babysat for us tonight,) we got to watch this movie tonight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkVM3nCnAs, ( I liked it a lot.and the link button is not working today, sorry about that) and dine out, and and go to a quick browse in a book store. It was a lovely evening, I think I married the right guy. one less thing to worry about, phew!

I don't have any related photos, but I figured it's always a plus to see a certain little someone play with her pull toy or stick her self in a box. Happy Bastille Day everyone... ooops, I mean all you French people out there. 

Peace.

Breathtaking

What was that?!!


Peace.

eye candy and links

Why hello there,

Shall we...

This my friends is what my normal yard leaves look like with a D90, I jazzed it with a warm filter and... TADA... Leaves!

 Strawberry rhubarb crisp from here.

I know we still have rhubarb!

hands

Toes

wall

bottle

 curls

 I know I am stating the obvious, but I am just so excited... can you tell?

Links:

She's possibly my new favorite. Sooooooo feminine. you gotta love that British accent of hers!

Ah Egyptians!

A favorite Aunt introduced this song to our dance routine. The girls ask for it almost every night.

This one is dedicated to my mellow babe:)

A new summer favorite show. Seriously so much fun.

Did I ever tell you that I have a chair fetish? No? well I do. Here are two that I am loving right now.

Peace.

New Camera!

My twin sister: You know you're birthday is coming up.

Me: Wow it's amazing that you remembered, it's like we share a birthday or something.

Twin sister: For real now, what do you want?

Before I could answer, she continues: Hey I know, you take all these really good pictures, you need a good Camera. Done!

Me: You know how much a good camera costs?

Twin sister: Done I said! Buy your dream Camera and I'll pay for it.

Me:... (insert massive screams from my behalf)

Please make du'a for my sister and her family. May Allah Grant her the highest ranks in jannah amin.

Also you know what this means? Yup, some massive eye candy coming up your way!

Peace.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

 Peace.

hot and sticky

Tomorrow is the day where I bid farewell to all four wisdom teeth of mine. No more wisdom from this hippie, so enjoy the last day of it... wait, huh? alright moving on. (please remember me in your du'a)

The weather is reaching mid nineties and humid... breezy though, so I am not complaining, only I don't want to do anything near a stove... ice cream for dinner anyone?

Here are some shots from our weekend and early week days:

 Happy belated fourth, I must say Chicagoan's know how to celebrate... a' la Shobra style (an inside Egyptian joke{any Egyptian readers out there? sorry!)

Park fun

cloud spotting, anyone see a flying mouse? no? you're saying they're called bats? oh well!

hello beautiful!

Awesome!

Peace.

The best cake ever VS the worst raft in boat history

 I just realized that me and the girls haven't been to the library forever, meaning over two weeks (that's a lot for us!) Please understand that by all means, I am not complaining... not at all. I am so grateful for good company, good weather (that makes us stay outdoors most of sunlit hours), and awesome foodie bloggers like her.

 I mean the woman knows what she's talking about, so when she tells you that a cake is worth making, (even after all mishaps that she faced in the process) you listen... and that's exactly what I did...

***

... after making this (failed) raft boat with the girls. It looked nice, oh for about half an hour, then the pillar collapsed (next time, I'll follow the instructions as opposed to just looking at photos and making it up along the way) and when placed in water it out sank the famous titanic. It took one flip to the wrong side and down down it went. So glad no one was aboard, or does Mr. roboto here counts? hmmn?

  The girls had fun nonetheless, that's what counts, eh?

It was another great day Alhamdulilah, filled with local CSA goodness, good company, crafts, yard play and I quote "the best cake ever".

Peace.