{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.

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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)