waiting for the cold

Today I am missing living in a four season zone. Even though, the cool breeze has finally made it's way through this part of the globe. No sweaters, or scarves yet, but hey, we'll take it.

I actually miss the cold, if this is at all possible. When we first moved to Chicago/IL several years back, I remember asking a family member who did his school years there, what he missed the most about Chicago. He said the cold. At the time it didn't register. How can someone in his right mind (no offense!) miss the cold. And Chicago cold is like no other cold my friends. Yet here I am craving it. The grass is always greener, no? (Also it's always a plus to see men in fur coats-- an exclusive Chicago fashion statement)

So, we are still here, still in t-shirt land (and sometimes for the little ones only underwear land) and we wait... wait for that cool night breeze that sets in. And hope for some yellow leaves, some trickles of rain, or for any sign really.

Meanwhile we do this::

which results in this::

 

 (Mei working on perfecting the burnt cookie effect)

And this::

Which results in this::

And we also throw in some silliness::

 (After reading a book about a three eyed boy, she transformed into the three eyed monster)

 (Reading like her old man. yes her old man also reads upside down! they are both very skilled)

 (Reading for her dolly)

(Counting the beads)

What's happening with you this season?

Peace.

Fall Colors

Last year:; Red

This year :: Red

Last year :: Orange

 This year :: Orange

 Last year :: Brown

This year :: Brown

Last year :: Yellow

This year :: Yellow

 Now, how can I capture fall smell, hmn?

Peace.

fall cravings

 Egypt has it's head set strong on summer mode. Even though it almost swayed from it's position a couple of days back and we saw people in hoodies and blankets at night in the streets (we were still in t-shirts, but mind you these are Egyptians we're talking about here).

Alas, it's much too hot for fall I say, and not much trees to show off any fall colors anyway (At least up here on mount rock-more aka mokattam) So if fall will hide from us, well shall cook it out....

.... today, in experiment number one, I made Moroccan style butternut squash stew. From the fantabulous Deb of smitten kitchen. Only I didn't have couscous on hand so I served it on Egyptian style short grain white rice, and tweaked the spices to taste and added carrots and fresh tomatoes instead of the canned ones. It was deeeelicious! If you're looking for something to make this fall-- be it a cold fall or a boiling one. I suggest the above dish. I said it before and I'll say it again. The woman never fails me, she's genius!

My next experiment will be this one. I almost made it last night but ran short of butter for the galette dough. And I say never get stingy with butter, I mean people, we're talking serious business here! (to answer your question *I am a mind reader * our car was at shop getting fixed, hence the no "quick run get zee butter from zee store before zee kitchen explodes and zee flour evaporates" that sort of hubby rushing prep talk thingy)


If all else fails, and Egypt refuses to budge, I am going to have to resolve to extreme measure. and don't ask what, I am still concocting an evil plan in this demented little head of mine *insert evil laugh*

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*)

Streets 2010

Chicago peeps, where you there?

Streets artists make it on the CNN belief blog. You guys, I was peace signing at the very last row with the girls:)

He was my favorite.

Alpha Yaya Diallo and Sabri Brothers were Mei's favorites (OK, mine too), she danced with a hippie for a good half an hour, twirling, jumping, swaying and all. I used to think that Mei couldn't dance... She can dance alright-- like a white girl that she is. SubhanAllah!

Here's my perspective y'all *wink*(mind you, I was lugging two little ones all by myself. I was rushed):

  Graffiti artists taking it on the walls

Husband and wife--The Reminders 

they were even better live.

Bouncy castles, Carousel, Ferris wheel.

Happy summer everyone, for it is official now!

Peace.

Hello Summer!

Today's post is to merely to advertise an awesome tent-like-thing, the girls received as a summer gift from their Grammy (thank you Grammy!)

It's called the Fortamajig, (actually only Fortamajig minus 'the'. It just sounded strange introducing it without signifying it with 'the' you know?)

 It's brilliance is-- it's just a big piece of fabric, with lots of elastic Velcro. So you can pretty much attach it to anything. And form it into whatever shape or form you want. Do click the link they have neat displays for the thing... coolness!

So this is pretty much what we spent our afternoon doing (right after we opened the cardboard package)

Summer related:

An awesome person sent me this link for safe sunscreens. (Thank you!)

 A life saving post for any tall person caring for a short person or many short people this summer.

Food related question:

I can totally live on watermelon with feta cheese (you never tried it? heaven!) this season, and frankly I don't like my kitchen very much with soaring temperatures. Any ideas for simple, non-stove, yet nutritious, summer meals? I can do minimal stove use I guess. 

 We had this with seedless watermelons tonight.

Peace. 

oh speaking of summer, this looks cool. (yes I can totally sneak one extra thing, you see that's the cool thing about this blog. IT'S MINE! I can do whatever I want with it *insert evil laugh*)

I fell in love again...

 ... with the city. Garrison Keillor warned in one of his articles, about visiting a new place in spring-- you might find your self moving there permanently.  And oh how wise and true his words are. I am not going over seas this summer, and so far our plans are to stay put. But frankly I don't really mind. (except that I miss Egypt.)

 Chicago my friends is not a city to lament living in (except maybe in winters, {but that's another story} and frankly if we didn't have 'them' rough winters, everyone would come and stay--and that would be problematic)

 It's also a bonus when we get visitors, there's always stuff to do and places to go. So yesterday was millennium park day. (If you've never been to Chicago before, I absolutely recommend a mandatory visit. Come in spring if you can. Who knows you might decide to stay, and then we'll be real life friends, how about that?)

 If you're decision comes later in season, no worries, we have the best feet coolers in town. Just come, all things go...

Peace.

eventful

Mei demanded to go to school today, so much for my homeschooling advocacy! here's how it happened:

We passed by this super cool Waldorf school around lunch time-- their Kindergarten class was out in their playground--which was equipped with massive chopped tree logs, climbing steel bars and a massive wooden skeleton of a farm. The active kids were picking at dirt with long sticks and plastic shovels and some girls were trying to climb the fence-- the only teacher present at the time, managed to divert them calmly. A boy was sitting quietly at one of the corners, noticing some sort of a bug, and their teenagers were sitting by the footsteps of the entry way to the school.
  A random car blasted loud tunes, and everyone started-- as if subconsciously-- to sway with the light midday breeze and grin at the sun. And this is when Mei single-handedly managed to sabotage the euphoric scene, I just described.

"LET ME IN" yelled Mei. "I NEED TO GO IN HERE AND PLAY WITH THE KIDS"

"Mei, this is not a public park sweetie, it's a fenced school, you can't go in." I tried to reason with her.

"NOOOOOOOOO" she screamed "BABYSITTERS ARE FOR BABIES, I AM A BIG GIRL, I CAN GO TO SCHOOL" she cried and screamed.

Mei, your school starts in a couple more months sweet pea, lets find a park to play at"

"NOOOOOOO, I NEED TO GO TO SCHOOL"

I think she's ready, don't you think?

So Mei starts a part time preschool this September inshaAllah, and I do think she's ready and that she will blossom with more structure and around regular friends. Grabby will probably miss her, they've been playing together so beautifully recently, it make my heart all mushy, ack!

 iPhone capture (not the best quality)

So after this eventful midday spectacle, we made a couple more stops and then finally went to the park. I couldn't help but notice all the roadside violets, we even had some lining the side of our outdoor parking spot. I was so pleased to have read this blog post right before I stepped out. I already have a pretty vivid picture in my mind that entails two little people alongside one bigger person, a basket and violet blossoms.

again iPhone capture, my apologies.

This is what greeted us on our doorstep. The little fella was so scared, he forgot his early flying lessons. We were so lucky we got to see mama robin and papa robin feed  "young-spotty-belly" before they all flew off.


Unrelated: I've been experimenting with some free apps, and I'm glad to report that the whole foods cooking app is superb. You can search a recipe according to your dietary preference (gluten free, low fat, high fiber, diary free, vegan/vegetarian... etc) I  tried these for dinner tonight from their recipe search and I'm glad to report that they were welcomed by the grown ups, not so much by the little ones, eh.

Peace.

go outside!

The month of April has been declared the Children and Nature Awareness Month by the chairman of the children and nature network  This came late to my attention, we're all sick over here. So believe me I do appreciate the outdoors now more than ever.




hurry take your kiddos and go outside, quick!

peace.

Photo of the day :: first day of spring

Right now, it's thirty three degrees and snowing. Surprisingly enough I love it!

Happy (freaky) spring everyone!

Peace.

Right here, right now

It feels like spring over here, complete with random passing thunder storms n all. Was it yesterday? no the day before that: sixty degree weather and sunshine, we made it back inside with a struggle, which is what has been happening lately every time we try to go back inside. Mei throws a fit. I would too, except that someone has to prepare dinner--otherwise...

Don't expect much sense from me today. It's not likely--  you see I recently discovered a free kindle app. on my beloved iphone, older books can be free of charge or for a dollar max. You know what this means? (other than major squeals and dorky dances from my behalf) Alice in wonderland read out loud to both girls during bath time, and then a little bit more. The possibilities are limitless.

***

I used to think that I minded the rain, apparently I don't. (except when it's below freezing and raining) We ventured out today in the rain, no car, no stroller, no umbrella, or rain boots. ( I know I need to work on the latter two) The L was our friend for the day. I took the girls to not one but two different places with two different train stops, lots of up and down stairs, puddles, splashes, pigeons (?) stop lights, you get the idea (God bless the Ergo carrier.) I used to think I didn't like going out in the rain. I have no idea why i thought that, when all of my rain memories are good ones. Anyhoo this is my conclusion for today.

Also I haven't been taking pictures (well that's not entirely true of course, I do take "right now" photos still and share them with family, this doesn't count though, or at least to me it doesn't... alright?) I haven't been rushing to capture moments these days, because I don't feel the urge to find something inspiring or beautiful, the weather is doing this for me these days. I just want to sit and enjoy the transformation of our white grounds to brown, the little bulbs pushing through the earth, the birds songs, the sunshine and the rain, my babies running in our yard with just their t-shirts on. I don't want camera captures for these... I just want to be right here, right now.

Happy spring everyone (I know we're still some time short... just don't tell anyone)

Peace.

Grabby is officially one!

'Cause you can't be officially something without a celebration to mark it (yes I made this one up) which means I'm twenty or something years old. Sweet!

I can't believe a year past by so quickly! I was just waddling about, with my big fat pregnant belly. Begging for her to come out. Then she came, with a very smooth and fast entry into a tub filled with water. A calm birth and a calm baby. It's amazing how both girls carry something from their journey into this world with them.

Grabby at one is definitely spending more vertical time. It seems that she realized that upright is the way to go. She was never a speedy crawler. She took her time into mastering the horizontal world. But the vertical world called and she Answered!

We celebrated her birthday this morning. She was adorable with her snot bubbles (she has the sniffles) and her felted purple birthday crown. Happy birthday sweetheart!

And just so you know the embroidery in the middle is NOT an upside down number 2, it's actually Grabby's first letter from her "real" name in Arabic. I decorated with vintage buttons too. (yea, it only took me three weeks to finish. In my defense, my machine broke. I did everything by hand)

Speaking of buttons, and in the spirit of Halloween-- I just watched Coraline. It was everything I had imagined it to be-- wonderfully animated, twisted, dark and spectacular. A perfect Halloween Movie Indeed.

Here are some more fall photos in celebration of my sweet fall baby girl.

What was/were your or your kiddos Halloween costume(s)? and what was a favorite that you saw tonight?

My favorite was of a newborn baby we saw at the mall dressed like a Lobster. Brilliant!

Peace.