Bengali comfort food!

What is yellow, lumpy and oh so yummy?

Here's a clue

It's fish curry with lentils and served with rice it's do warm and satisfying! Can't wait to eat it all up!

Reflections

As soon as I walked in this morning I received an email from a senior individual at my workplace which contained some positive feedback. This has put me in a reflective mood. I felt the need to write how I feel.

Things I am grateful for today:
1. My family (children, husband, siblings, parents, cousins, in-laws, aunts and uncles) I have a lovely family.
2. My home - since the moment I first stepped through the door, it has never been a house, it's always been my home, my nest, my sanctuary.It is restful and clean and beautiful and there are places where my kids and I can play and places where I can curl up with my husband or with a good book.
3. My connection to God - I am not an overly religious person, but I do believe in god and am immensely grateful for all the gifts I have received. I am happy that I have found a way to connect and that I feel I can find myself in god's grace when I am in need of it.
4. My job - this particular position that I am currently in is challenging - extremely so - but what I've learnt is that you get out what you put in and so far I've been giving it my all and feeling that is it recognised.


Things that I have learnt today:
1.You never stop being a parent - something I am learning from watching a co-worker who has grown up children.
2. Friends come and go and you'll never know when or where a new one will pop-up from or how or why an old one will fall out of your life.
3. You should let go of thoughts that aren't useful in the moment that you are living in now - worrying is not even minutely productive.

Happy Mother's Day

You may be wondering why I have posted a picture of a dead fly in my blog this morning.

 Well this it is a "present" from my son. He was so excited about it that he carried it from the window sill where he found it all the way to my bed to show me. Ewwwww! It's not really his mother's day present for me. He gave me these flowers from school.

He gave them to me on Friday as he was to eager to wait until Sunday.
My daughter also gave me flowers. I received these on Thursday.

 Aren't they pretty. The other thing I got for mother's days is a bike! I used to cycle a lot when I was a kid and have wanted one forever. I saw one at a garage sale yesterday that my husband wouldn't let me purchase.....because he wanted to get me one for mother's day! He's so thoughtful!

Update Tues. May 15th: I just found my son's mother's day card. Awwww I feel special even though it's not mother's day any more!

True love

I don't know what animals feel for each other, if they know what it means to love another creature- but then I come across something like this and there is no doubt in my mind that they are capable of deep feeling. The girl duck was limping, so she ended up sitting down in a puddle on the side walk in a strip mall. The male duck valiantly sat down beside her and kept guard, wary of all the people around, but yet not leaving the side of his mate. Coincidentally they are resting in front of a Chinese restaurant advertising Peking duck as their special for the day. Oh dear!

New girlfriends

So my son and I befriended a little boy and his mom at mommy class three years ago. The boys were three months at the time and over the years they have developed a wonderful friendship.

I was beyond happy when I found out that my friend was pregnant when I was carrying my daughter. We both were having girls! We thought it was perfect - they would be good friends too! But alas life is much busier with two kids and although my friend and I try to get together for play dates as often as we can, it was no where near as often as when the boys were little. Nevertheless the girls have managed to make a connection in spite of this disadvantage. Today we took the kiddies to the park, and for the first time our little girls really got to enjoy each other's company.
Peek a Boo!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

Here are the four of them squished together on a small bench.

The kids saw these dandelions (I can't seem to get away from these weeds) on the way home. They stopped and made a wish. Ohhhhhh the simple pleasures of childhood!

Stop and Smell the.............dandelions

I admit I have been writing a lot about dandelions lately, but in my defence, we haven't planted a garden yet and they are the only flowers that blossom in our yard. I noticed them this morning whilst I was holding a garage sale:


Since we've decided we didn't want any more children (unless they are unplanned of course) I've been trying to get rid of my baby stuff with a vengeance. I decided to participate in a neighbourhood garage sale with this purpose in mind. It was slow going. I had  lot of time to sit around an appreciate the beauty of the dewy Saturday morning. The first thing I noticed were the dandelions of course. Their days are numbered - my husband has hired a lawn care company to come and get rid of them.I decided to document them in their glory before they met their fate:


I also spent some time admiring our Japanese Maple. This is the only tree we have planted so far and I love how vivid the leaves are. Note the yellow dandelions peppering the grass in the background - there are more weeds than grass in our yard this year!

The only other thing in our front yard is a sad little planter shaped like a bench. It used to hold my orchid plants when we lived in an apartment. Last year our children used to sit on it as it was the right size for their little bottoms. This year it sits sadly warped near our front porch. The winter had ravaged the wood and the seat is now misshapen. Even so I thought it looked so sweet this morning with the little blooms of dandelions peeping out from underneath.

Wandering around Wonderland

It's been so busy at work and at home that I haven't had a chance to post about our yearly visit to Canada's Wonderland. I've been going to the Scotia Friends and family event at Wonderland for many years now. When I was young and unmarried it meant a day spent riding nausea inducing roller coasters, walking around the park until dusk and then gorging  on Chinese buffet at Mandarin. It was an exhausting day. Strangely enough, it is  ten times more exhausting to go with the young children.

The Slow Boat Ride

There was the Snoopy Space Race:

The Snoopy Vs Red Baron

Taxi Jam which is a mini roller coaster. My daughter was terrified! Another ride that scared her was Lucy's Tugboat, which surprised me since I thought my bossy girl was afraid of nothing!

Here they are on the ferris wheel with my husband and my cousin. I am the blob standing next to the double stroller, as viewed from the ferris wheel - not a flattering angle for me.

They kiddies really enjoyed the bumper cars, although neither of them could figure out how to keep them moving for very long.

The last ride of the day was a treat for my son. Last year his cousins were able to ride the Ghoster Coaster but my little picky eater was too short! He was heart broken last year so I explained to him that if he ate his food properly and slept well that he would grow. The promise of being able to ride the Ghoster Coaster has motivated him to finish his dinner consistently throughout the last year and so when the park attendant measured him this time around, he was thrilled to discover that he could go on the ride! Here he is moments before getting on the Ghoster Coaster and having the time of his life!

We ended the day with funnel cake - a pastry made out of a nest of fried dough batter topped with strawberries and a mountain of ice cream. I only ate a small portion as it literally consists of 3000 calories, but my husband ate quite a bit. For him a trip to Wonderland is incomplete without a funnel cake consumption.