Part deux of my Ramadan Resolution

Remember my resolution to do some charity work at the end of Ramadan? Now here is a way everyone can join me, whether you are or aren't from this flood affected country.

Pakistan's rural areas are currently in crisis with millions of people homeless and waiting for help, or living in crowded situations in relief camps. Helping them is very easy: Just prepare a box of supplies as directed by this video, and contact Pakistan's national airline PIA, on instructions on depositing the box. The airline has promised free shipping to all boxes prepared for flood victims.

Upon landing in Pakistan, the relief supplies will be handed to the Pakistan Army, the most trust worthy organization and the one with the best logistical means to reach all victims.



My only addition to the box would be a pack of sanitary napkins. It would be nice if you can wrap it in a plain paper with a picture of a woman on it, so they know what to do with it without embaressing the women as they open the care packages. (Rural women are extremely shy about this business.)

Contact me if you have any question regarding sending the packages and I'll try to start collecting all information.

EDITED TO ADD INFO:
Procedure of dropping care package at PIA Cargo building can be found at this page.

Oh just leave me alone!

I had an inkling that this would happen, me falling off my own bandwagon (or horse). It all started with that darn (good) pasta. I didn't fall totally off though, I just stopped eating.

It's just muesli, Joe's-O's and yogurt these days. I'm too sick to cook with my heart. Wizard needs food, so I whip something up for him now and then in large quantities, but I rarely touch it myself.

I tore intercostal muscles on my left rib during Karma Kids Yoga teacher training...on the second day. It sucked! I missed all these great games that the teachers kept helpfully reminding us to enjoy because we wouldn't be able to play games like the human conveyor belt, and human knot and group chair with kids.

Thank you so much for those words while I sat on the sidelines holding my poor ribs.

But, they were nice enough to invite me back to a refresher course a few weeks later and so when I heal, I can experiences the games training again.

While I'm trying to heal, one night Monster decides she needs to stay up all night...no literally! ALL NIGHT! All night as in slept from 9.30 to 12 am and then up till sahoor and went to bed with us at 6.30am.

And of course, she HAS to jump on Anne's poor ribs...sev.er.al.times.

Turns out, SHE'S GETTING SICK TOO! After a night of high fever, and thinking she's just teething, we took her to the doc anyway just to make sure (maybe parent's intuition?). She has the coxsackie virus (that I mentally pronounce to the tune of a much worse two-word adverb curse). Her poor mouth is full of lesions (that are now healing, Alhumdulillah) and blisters on her hands and feet.

PLUS, it's the last week of Ramadan, when I was planning on having my few friends over for iftaar in between the odd-nights of prayers.

As of now, Wizard is the only one unaffected. I'm considering giving him a big blue pinch just to make sure he suffers and doesn't get any sicker than that....Or else, who's going to take care of US?

My Silly Man

Wizard and I routinely sit down after sahoor and have random chats from dhikr to childhood memories etc.

Yesterday we realized that Monster's new bike will be delivered soon and we wondered how lucky she is that she's not even three and she got her first bike. He asked me when I had my first one. "I probably had a tricycle when I was around 4 I guess because I have clear first memories of riding around the driveway of the house I grew up in," I told him. "But my first real bike, a BMX, I got when I was 10...ish."

"Hmm, I got my first bike when..." Wizard pretended to think. "Wait, I never had a first bike! Cetin [Youngest BIL] got his when he was 4, and all of us three older brothers took turns riding it. Bedri [Older BIL] was 17 and he was forcing his body to fit the bike and managed to still ride it around while Cetin watched. I wonder why it didn't break right away!"

I was laughing so hard, I had stitches in my jaw and tears running down my eyes.

Then this morning, he managed to almost get me crying with laughter again.

We were talking about Julia Roberts getting older and I told him how she reportedly feels better about her age when she thinks that if she's getting older, Richard Gere is also getting even older! My sister shared this with me this piece of gem and yeah we decided (she and I) that we should look at more ancient people to feel better about ourselves getting older.

Wizard looks at me, amused and asks "So are you thinking that when you get old, I must be getting older?"

Uhh.....not really but...

"I'm like wine baby, I'll get better with age. You can't compare youself to me."

Oh man...

On the 9th Day She Cheated

August 19, 2010

On her vegetarian diet, that is.

But tell me this, what living being can say no to this?

Topsy Turvy Thursday

*I think Topsy Turvy Tuesday sounds better. Next week!


I'm curious to see any comments from sisters fasting this year: If you had to pull off a non-breakfast Sahoor, and a non-dinner Iftaar (not including the traditional Ramadan snacks), how would you do it?

My first attempt would be to have some kind of protein and carbs in the morning, Goulash for instance with pasta, potatoes and meat and normal breakfast fare for iftaar--maybe some stuffed parathas (fried flat bread), omlettes etc.

Editted: There ARE pictures, man!

Wizard's bunch of left overs
My breakfast-for-dinner!

Ramadan day 7

August 17, 2010: Stuffed Eggplant, patlican dolmasi.














I don't want to talk about it.

What day is it?

No really, what day IS it?



I'm totally out of it. Just before iftaar, after preparing the food I laid down for a little rest. Before getting up, I sat up for a few seconds so the blood doesn't rush to my head when I stand up. I -stand up thinking I should be fine now and crash-bang into the dresser...blacked out.



Thankfully it only lasted a few seconds like all my black outs do...maybe it's not really a black out. Anywhooo...



Day 5 of Ramadan marked my birthday =) and I was lucky to have a great friend who offered to watch Monster while Wizard and I got dinner out at TJ Sushi (something he'd been craving for a long time.) So we kissed Monster bye and in the spirit of prancing out into the night sans toddler, forgot my camera at home.



I know!!! I kicked myself on your behalf.



Here is the extremely bad picture of an extremely delicious platter of TJ rolls... it's not often I pinch myself mid-bite to check to see if I've died and gone to heaven:



And me, after I took a long time to clean up to "appear" non-mom-like. Check out my huge earings.

Luckily, they're crochet and weightless. I haunted Etsy endlessly for something like these, and ended up finding them in a small shop in Newport, Rhode Island.

So, back to today and we're working on left overs from the last 5 days of Ramadan. Maybe I need to make this routine.