Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
As I am writing this , it is snowing out here. Yesterday the snow started melting and due to new snow storm we are getting another round of snow. Portland might set a new snowfall record.
(Edited to Add: This post was written on Nov 15th 2008 and I forgot to publish it)
Last sunday, I took break from cooking and we ordered food from the restaurant . I had so much energy left after the usual routine chores and decided to spend some time in our garden. After lunch ,I headed out to the garden and CB was in charge of NR .
It took me almost an hour to weed and prepare the flower bed in the front yard to plant bulbs. It took another 3- 3.5 hrs to plant 150 bulbs of Crocus Remembrance (I love these deep purple flowers), Crocus Pickwick , Tulipa Casa Grande and Tulipa Bastogne which meant digging 150 holes each 4 inch in depth . I also planted Hyrbrid Hosta and colacasia esculenta in the west side of the garden. My garden soil is clay in nature few inches below ground level but thanks to bulb planter, I didn't feel the stress on my wrist. The forecast for the upcoming week had shower almost every single day so I decided to rake the bed of leaves from the lawn and front yard. By the time I finished everything , it was dark and almost 6.30pm. I was only soul on our street working on the yard in the cold winter night. My warm clothes and the hard manual labour kept my body warm.
Hope my hard work pays ; ). I couldn't wait to see the full bloom during next spring.
I took a warm bath and my whole body ached. My recovery after the 5 months of bed rest during pregnancy and delivery is really slow and I still suffer from bad back aches if I walk a little bit or do streneous work at home. This day was no better it was worse. I walked like a hunch back woman till CB applied some special oil on my back and gave a good massage. Thanks CB for being my personal masseur : ). CB, I Love you for taking care of me like a mother, father, good friend and husband.
Thanks to continuous snow since Dec 13th , seeseebeehomestead has become seeseebeeHOMESTAY. It's been snowing non stop from last Thursday . Getting struck in your own home with no way to go out even to get basic provision - SUCKS BIG TIME. Thank god we have stocked up on NR's feeding needs and basic groceries . Thanks to natural gas we are staying warm and getting hot water at the turn of the faucet. Magical snow flakes are creating nightmare for shoppers and shop keepers.
Nature is adding its own depression to already depressed economy. Hoping and praying for the weather to clear enabling us to carry on with our travel to India coming weekend.
It's been snowing everyday since last Saturday. I have lived in Portland for a decade and I have never seen snow like this. Portland winters are mild with few snow days but heavy rains. I heard that we had snow storm in Jan 2004 . We were vacationing in India at that time . It's magical to watch the snow fall . Thanks to the sun-breaks in between the snow did not accumulate on the ground else we would have at least 3 feet of snow . The unexpected snow has dwindled the shopping plans for last week and this week for our upcoming trip. We had to cancel doctor appts due to the slick road condition.
We got a little break from snowfall last Thursday for few hours. We got last minute appt for NR . He got his third shot of HIB vaccine and travel medication list from his pediatrician. NR's pediatrician is the director of west side clinic and he was kind enough to accommodate us in the last minute. While waiting for him, we saw him carry a tiny baby in his hands and later on we came to know he has just completed circumcision for the two week old boy baby. Here in US they recommend circumcision for the boys just after birth and it is usually done in the hospital where you deliver. I learnt that it can be done in clinic within two weeks of birth .The baby cried non stop and I got uneasy hearing him cry. I think I haven't yet got out of my baby blues. God bless his parents who were very young and they are dealing with this along with postpartum recovery .
We decided to opt out this procedure for NR after his birth . We were even scared to change diapers for NR after his birth knowing how fragile their organs are just after birth . We definitely don't want add fear of infection to the diaper change.Moreover majority of the Indian males never have this surgery so CB and my dad never wanted this to be done for NR. My kudos to new parents who handle delivery all by themselves and take care of baby with surgery.
When we came home, I had to clear the snow from our driveway and we did not have the snow shovel. It took more than 15 minutes to clear few inches of snow using my gardening shovel. But a helpful neighbour who was clearing her driveway and walkways in our street came and helped me out. I gave her hug and thanked her. I felt the spirit of christmas .
I made use of the few hours of sunshine and did little shopping leaving sleeping NR with CB who worked from home .It started snowing again when I reached the shop but road in the city did not accumulate snow due tp the heavy traffic. So few items on "gift list" is crossed. I took care of our dinner by ordering take out from P F changs.
I have not started packing yet and we are travelling next week. We have planned to start the packing this weekend. I usually make 100 trips to the store to buy gifts for relatives and friends back in India. We usally carry only two set of dress of ourselves and rest of the space is reserved for gifts to take home. We have become a unofficial Mr and Mrs Santa in our family. This year it is completely different. Not having time even to do everyday chores and CB's work schedule has hampered our shopping trips. I have been ordering things online for NR and electronic gift so that part is taken care thanks to the online shopping sites and prompt delivery inspite of snow. Due to this unexpected weather we might end up buying gifts in India.
My blog friend sheela paid a surprise visit to our home on 5th of this month with her family. I was delighted to see little oggie and Ana and we had nice time getting to know each other and our kids. Little oggie got attached to me immediately and Ana was curious and happy . Ana is a proud sister and loves her brother immensely. It was nice to see such loving bond between the Ana and oggie .
Sheela & family attended christmas party near our home and decided to visit NR. This is the first time she is seeing NR in person though I have been sending NR photos thru mail. She brought Christmas gifts for NR and for our family. She was the first person to give a sweater set to NR even before he was born. Even we haven't bought anything for NR at that time. Now , she is the first person to give Christmas gift to NR. NR plays with the toy all the time. NR loves the toy since it has all his fav rhymes. He randomly turns the pages and he is delighted to hear different rhymes every time.
Thanks sheela for taking time to visit us inspite of your busy schedule .
We had snow fall throughout this morning till dusk. The entire neighbourhood is filled with snow. The arrival of snow adds another layer of joy to the festive season. I am hoping to have a white christmas like last year and years before.
We have huge picture windows throughout our house. The picture window in our family room faces our garden. Our home is in the lower elevation than our neighbours and we have natural rocks/boulders as retaining wall in our garden. We have a maple tree in the corner of garden and weeping cherry tree in the corner near our picture window. I love watching the maple tree change its color by the season. Fall gardening is hard due to back breaking chores like pruning , weeding and collecting bags and bags of fallen leaves. It's especially hard after a delivery , not so easy postpartum and managing a 8 month throughout the day. But I do it with love knowing that we will have a beautiful display of colors during spring and fall next year. I love having my cup of tea in the morning watching our garden. We have stayed in many beautiful places but sipping a cup of tea with view of my garden gives me immense satisfaction.
I leave NR in his high chair or in his stroller near the picture window facing our garden . I can watch him from our kitchen and he checks me out constantly just to make sure that his mom is there next to him. He loves watching trees for hours together. NR goes into nishtai (dissolution of the self into Oneness of Brahmam or Sivam or god) by watching trees. At times he talks , he giggles and gaze at them thinking so deeply. He has been watching two portraits depicting tree lined Italian countryside from his birth and he loves those two pictures. He started observing trees during our summer walks in the stroller . My 13 year niece used to joke that those two pictures are NR lovers and he is going to marry them : ).
NR was mesmirized by the powdery snow fall. He had such joy in his face and was very happy seeing the snow fall for more than an hour. We kept ourselves warm by staying indoors. I had marathan cooking day today and managed to cook for next three days within two hours.
I am extremely thankful this weekend for able to watch this snow fall as a family . We had bit of mishap on friday. NR fell of on the carpet from his baby carrier due my one sec stupidity. Last week , we bought a new baby carrier for our upcoming trip to India. I was carrying NR in front position for last couple of days. Though he loves to be with me while doing the chores, he felt little tight at times. So I tried to check the new back position. I was able to put him on the back position all by myself and while trying to take NR from the carrier , I took my shoulder strap off while sitting on the bed. I dunno what made me to think that my husband sitting inches away in sofa might be able to safely take NR from the carrier. I just turned and right at that time NR decided to arch his body back and I lost the grip and within flashing sec he just fell off on the carpeted floor. I have never seen my husband so distraught like this in the past 17 years not even at this dad's funeral. I called his pediatrician and he asked us to watch for some symptoms. NR was okay but even after an hour we were really scared so we took him to the ER . The dr came and just checked his head and said he is doing fine. He spent hardly 10 minutes with us and we waited 2 hrs for this 10 minutes check up. The wait was gruelling but NR made the full use of it. It was well past his bed time but he was so active and enjoyed all the bright lights in the lobby. I thanked his guardian angel for watching over him. I am a paranoid mom who watches her son throughout day but one split sec decision to turn my back from the bed caused us so much grief. I did not sleep that night and I kissed NR thousand times and asked him to forgive me for taking a stupid decision that scared him.
I am a VegSeatarian. Yes, I eat vegetables and love sea foods specially crab. Though I like fish very much I eat only particular varieties like anchovies, seer fish ,pom fret and sankara (red snapper). My hometown is not a port town so we don't get fresh fish . We rarely get pom fret. We can get "almost fresh crab" since they had good shelf life unlike fish. My paternal grandmother made crab dishes and she taught my elder sister to clean and cook crab . So , my sister became the official crab chef in my house . My mother never knew to clean or cook crab. Now during my visits to India she makes crab and I am not sure when she learnt it.
During my college /working days I used to travel from chennai to my hometown almost every weekend. I learnt the art of travel conversation during those days. I never liked bus travel till KPN buses came into business. I met lot of interesting people during my train journeys. People wanted to know everything about you during those short 8 hours journey.
I always had atleast one brahmin co passenger travelling with me to my hometown from chennai. Just after 10 minutes of conversation with me , their usual question would be " Are from this Sri.........? which implicitly means Are you Iyer or Iyengar ? Thanks to the famous temple, the residents of Sri......... locality are predominantly Iyengars and Iyers.
Not sure if my fair skin or my knowledge in carnatic music made them to think I should be from this particular caste . Whenever I was asked this question I resist giving this answer " If crab eating people are Iyers then I am an Iyer too : ) ". Being young and naive and brought up in a family where we don't make fun of elders I bite my tongue and say " I am not from "sri..." and I am not a Brahmin.
Later on when the same question was asked by my colleagues of my age , I would tell them my famous answer" If crab eating people are brahmins , hee hee I am a brahmin too". After an initial shock, they would get the joke and burst into laughter.
I no longer get this question when I travel alone. Thanks to my screwed up hormones my skin has become brown.
I no longer get this question when I travel with my family . Thanks to tall , broad and almost dark skinned husband . His accent and belly speaks for us ; ).
NR plays with my piano for fun. He has been doing this since he was able to sit on my lap around 5 months old. Initially he used to watch me play. When he was able to use his hand he started hitting the keyboard and loved it thoroughly. I change the voice to different instuments and found he loved the drums and pipes especially drums.
My morning ritual is to have him in my lap and check my emails in our office room. So my sweet baby started noticing the keyboard. He will watch me type something and look at the monitor immediately. I have no clue how a six month can learn this basics of computers. To add more fun to our morning ritual I download this program designed for babies from babysmash.com and allowed him to play with the computer keyboard . Oh boy he goes wild and he absolutely loves this program.
After two weeks gap, today I made him to use the piano .My precious little NR kuttan did something which made dull ,hazy morning so bright. After hitting the piano keyboard he kept looking at the empty wall in front of him expecting a visual to appear. So sweet to watch an almost 8 month old NR constantly looking up after hitting the keys expecting a animated visual to appear just like the babysmash program. Afterwards, he started looking up on the roof. How cool it is to have computer which will beam an image anywhere in room even in the roof.
Cool gadget idea from a 7 month old guy. Any takers?
I come from a non vegetarian family. My mom was a working woman so we had a big non-vegetarian feast on Sundays. Sunday's lunch usually consists of chicken or mutton varieties, very rarely sea food.
I had developed an aversion for meat early on in my life. I used to accompany my servant maid to buy chicken or mutton from the butcher shop. The butcher shop in India is a tiny shack barely having roof. Huge trunk of a tree served as a butcher block. The meat is cut in front of the customer in normal humid temperature. The body of the goat hung on a hook with flies flying around the meat. As a kid it was very traumatizing experience to see the whole de-skinned goat hanging on a single hook. The sight of red flesh scared the hell out of me. I always used to hide behind my servant maid "Deivanai . I happily called her "Theva-yanai aka god's elephant.
The aroma of chicken or mutton cooking on the cooker filled the kitchen .I avoided going to the kitchen on days when my mom cooked meat. My mom in her best effort to make me eat non-veg korma would add lot of potatoes in Korma. My Sunday lunch menu used to be curd rice with potatoes from mutton or chicken korma. She often made chicken/mutton biryani. My mom's logic was that biryani absorbs the fats from meat so I'll get the animal protein : ). I ate the biryani rice but never ate the meat pieces. My love for Non-Veg biryani with thalicha blossomed thanks to my mother's efforts and persuasion to make me eat meat.
When we used to go for marriage parties in India, my husband used to sit in between me and my MIL. I pass the chicken/mutton pieces from biryani onto his plate and my MIL passes his favorite sweets. Thus we made him "BHIM BOY". BHIM Boy's belly is still holding fat from all those food he gobbled at the marriage feasts. When he left for US, oh boy! MIL and his dear wife missed him terribly during the marriage feast.
The red meat in the deli/meat section still makes me uncomfortable. Last time when my mother in law visited us, we went to get mutton from an ethnic food store. The store is run by a Pakistani and he sells halal meat. He tried to get a fresh cut and invited us to the freezer room. I went along with my MIL and completely shocked by what I saw. I saw the whole goat with skin removed. I was holding my MIL's hand at that time and my hands started shaking the moment he opened the freezer room. Even my MIL who has handled meat all her life felt little uneasy. It took me 10 minutes to come out of the shocked state. I was angry with myself for going to the freezer room. I think the "grown up in me" wanted to check my fear of seeing a de-skinned animal. Apparently, I haven't got ridden of my fear.
When we lived in India after our marriage for a year, I always cooked sea food on Sundays. In US, I am fine handling chicken. Chicken meat is packed clean with no traces of blood and they don't have strong smell like fresh cut chicken meat. I have now inherited the tradition of making chicken biryani often at my house. Now I am an expert in making chicken dishes. My chicken dishes are great hit in our office parties. I've started eating little pieces of breaded chicken and the chicken 65. BTW, I make all the chicken dishes without tasting the meat. CB is the official chicken dish taster at our house.
I used to love spinach to the extent that I had to have a spinach dish once in a week atleast. The more the merrier. I made simple dishes like spinach masiyal, moongdal with spinach, palak paneer (palak tofu - I substitute tofu with paneer).
Thanks to NR, My love for spinach started fading slowly and now I have come to a point even the sight of spinach dish gives me goose bumps.
Readers who have a baby will know the reason for this. Readers with no kids, come back and read this after having a baby.
