Summer Blessings

Yesterday some friends came by to swim. It was rainy and cool, so we sat around the table eating snacks, and G asked us each to answer- "What is your favorite thing so far this summer?"
The kids said things like- "Six Flags," or "Our Trip to San Antonio." Ali chose- "Chiheb"- our friend who was visiting for a month. I thought a lot of those things sounded good.
I've been thinking about this still today. We've had a really blessed summer. I thought June was going to be stay at home and do nothing month, after a busy semester of soccer shuttling, girl scouts, and work. But my brother-in-law had asked us to invite a friend's son to visit, so early June, just before school got out, we greeted a teenager from Algeria at the airport. Right away it was clear he was polite. We soon found out he was also a really great guy. Ali took to him as soon as he found out Chiheb knew about Pokemon. They watched some videos online and hung out. By the end of his 5 week stay, which he had extended by two weeks, he was part of the family. He took the kids out to ride bikes almost every day, and willingly watched them in the pool so I could work. He also joined in with the chore jar, prompting A and L to participate uncomplainingly. He was interested in everything, and learned to make cookies with Leila.
I taught an online class in May and then 2 in June. Usually H is home to help out with Sami, but this year he started working in May when I got out of school. So I got P, a college student from Iran, to come and hang out with Sami in the mornings so I could work. She's been another blessing this summer. Even though I'm home much of the time, she takes Sami for walks and plays with him, and I've been able to get away a couple of times to run errands.
We drove down to San Antonio one weekend to see the Alamo and go to Sea World. Other than traffic that extended the 4.5 hour drive to 7, we had a great trip. The kids went to Six Flags one day with Joy and T, and I hung out with my sister who had flown in for a day. We also went to the mall more times than I've been in the last 10 years- it's one of the things Chiheb really wanted to do. We had friends over for dinner, and went to friends' houses, too, and in between I graded papers like mad.
Sami learned to kiss for real- I got a couple nice ones last night. He's also fallen down or bumped his head frequently enough that his face hasn't been unmarred in weeks.
Ali learned to ride a bike in the Spring with Grandpa's help and using a bike he and Grandma gave him for his birthday. Leila finally learned to at the end of June. It turns out there's a really easy way to do it, which I found on the internet. Go to a grassy hill. Coast down. Repeat. Then start pedaling at some point. Practice, practice, practice. Now the two of them ride up and down our street- which is my biggest blessing this summer.
Before we moved we lived on a busy, busy street with the garages all in front. This in turn means the driveways were in front. Now we live on a very long street with no feed ins, and most of the driveways are in the back. The few in the front are just little curved ones. Although there are busy streets on both ends of our street, people don't really cut through. This means that I feel pretty good about the kids riding around and even walking over to the neighbors across the street to play. As well as being a great biking street, it's been wonderful for Sami to learn to walk. When my parents were here, and now with P, he takes numerous walks down the sidewalk, with no danger from someone backing out of their garage.
Part of the street blessing is our great neighbors. There are lots of little boys Sami's age on the street, and there is a family halfway down the block with 4 kids. One boy matches Ali, the girl matches Leila, and the oldest one enjoys playing with them all. They spend their days together in that magical summer endlessness, riding bikes, hanging out, spying, exploring, and sometimes swimming. The other day the two girls had a lemonade stand- a first for both, and well supervised by the moms because of their dad's protectiveness.
All in all it's been a great summer so far. Now that I've wrapped up my June classes, I'm feeling like my summer has finally started. I'm working on so many things, of course, but I finally feel like I've got some times. Today I spent cooking for tomorrow night's Iftar dinner which we are holding here. Ramadan started last week, and dinner is late- just before 9. Last week we were at a friend's, and this week here. Next week the kids and I will be traveling, so I don't know what goodies they'll enjoy.
I do expect more blessings, though, because the summer is only half way through.

July 4th

 Patriotic toast a la Leila.

 Goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa

 Pool fun

Fireworks.
Sleep.

Valentine's Day

On the way to work on Monday morning, running late, I realized it was too late to stop for doughnuts, and I hadn't even made heart shaped sandwiches. Instead, the kids would be buying their lunches. "Can we go out for dinner tonight?" Leila asked, eager to celebrate.
"No, we're having leftover beans and rice," I told her.
She wasn't disappointed much, however, and quickly began making plans to make dinner special. "You cook the food and I'll do everything else," she told me. I wasn't sure what she meant, but she explained she would set the table and make a menu and the like.
On the way home from piano lessons we stopped at Whole Foods and got a sweet treat to make our meal special. Leila put a candle on the table and wrote out a menu with our choices:
DinnerRice and beans
Desertchoclate cupcakes
Drink
cupwater
She decorated it with smiley face hearts and a "happy V Day!" across the bottom.
I really appreciate Leila's cheerfulness and her ability to roll with the punches. When it's something she considers fun, she really gets into helping, as well. On Saturday I told her to practice the piano and do some homework before calling a friend, and later she would have to clean up her things. She opted to do the cleaning first, and set to work energetically tidying up. Ali, who hates cleaning up usually, complained that Leila had done the clean up that he was supposed to do!
On Tuesday morning I asked Leila to make sandwiches for her and Ali's lunch. I was going to have leftover rice and beans, but when I came out of the bedroom ready to go, my lunch was waiting for me: (turkey) bologna sandwich, Sun Chips (my favorite- as Leila reminded me), and a chocolate cupcake. While the sandwich was rather dry, the liberal spreading of love Leila had given it made it the best lunch of my week.

Eating in the New Year

Sated

I took no pictures, but it was a feast. Two turkeys roasted all day. Pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce made with orange zest and a bit of juice waited around, having been made the night before. I invented a recipe using the 8 sweet potatoes I roasted and left to cool in the oven overnight. I combined them in the mixer, with the dregs of the whipped cream just mixed, 4 eggs, some orange juice, a bit of milk and a splash of cream, plus a dash of nutmeg. I didn't even forget the salt. I whipped them in the mixer for several minutes, till all the lumps were gone, then put them into a 370 degree oven for about half an hour. They were quite a hit with my skeptical guests and even H, who doesn't really like sweet potatoes. I couldn't win the kids over, though.
We also had mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, and green beans.
One Morrocan guest brought meat pastries because I loved them when she served them at her house, and little pecan tartlets. Our Tunisian friends brought pudding and red tea. (Tunisians boil red tea for a long time, and add a lot of sugar. It's surprisingly good, even without the geranium leaf we add when we're there.) We ate and ate. Then some more Moroccan friends showed up with a cake.
We had coffee with our pumpkin pie, and then green mint tea and red tea. Fruit was there for those who were still hungry, and whole nuts to crack.
The oud was brought out, and the Darbuka- (drum) and the house rang with music. No one over the age of ten was eligible to be president in the U.S., unlike two years before when one guy- from Libya- had actually been born here.  The kids played hide and seek and other fun things- and got along super well.
Now we're all snug in our beds, the temperature continuing to drop outside after yesterday being park weather. I'm thankful for it all- as one friend put it today- it's not about the food, it's about being with friends. So, I hope you have much to be thankful for this year, too. Blessings.

Parade!

The kids did a "parade" in the living room. I think the original plan was to have costumes, but this was the final product. The finale includes fireworks!

Easter

We colored Easter eggs, made and ate cream cheese pound cake with strawberry coulis, hid and hunted eggs, did "peep jousting" (Leila won one round, I didn't), and enjoyed spring.

Holiday Weekend

Today started with breakfast in bed. Well, it started with Leila telling me I was getting breakfast in bed, but I had to get up and make my own coffee, of course, and wash the blueberries. But still, breakfast in bed brought by someone else is never to be sneezed at.
Now I've given Leila the task of collecting and emptying the cups from last night's party. She's pouring all the liquid into one cup an then emptying that into the plants in the garden. She deosn't want to just pour it down the sink- that's wasteful.
And speaking of the party last night- it was lots of fun. Every once in a while I get the urge to just invite a huge number of people over and see how they fit- both in the house and with each other. I think everyone had a good time. The kids played well together- someone stepped on Leila's face at one point, but I told them they shouldn't be walking on the bed anyway. The grownups talked well together- I think everyone connected with someone else, and I enjoyed getting to see and socialize with people that I don't often get to sit down and talk with. About 26 people came, including an 8-month-old baby with the cutest stick-straight-up pigtails.
(Leila is having recycle/waste crisis as she cleans up. She found a napkin that didn't look very used and wanted us to reuse it. I didn't think we should, so she wants to recycle it. And now she came in to tell me that when we pick someone up from somewhere in the car, if it's more than 20 minutes we need to turn the car off.)
I made two huge pots of soup- one chicken, veggie and rice, and the other black bean for the vegetarians. There should be enough for lunch today- and maybe at work tomorrow- but that's all that's left. I also made a loaf of whole wheat bread in the machine and some Kesra- Morroccan bread, which our Morroccan friend approved. Luckily I bought some too because we demolished most of it. Guests rounded out the meal with brownies, pie, veggies, and some delicious appetizers from my neighbor. All in all it was quite a success.
This whole weekend has been lots of social fun. Saturday night a friend came by for dinner and then I went to some art gallery opening with another friend. The first show was my prof from last summer and the gallery-Barry Whistler- was choc full of professors, students, and others. We spent a lot of time talking. Then we went down to a group show at 500X where we met up with some friends. The best part of the evening was them announcing she's pregnant. Upstairs we ran into some other friends who announced they had gotten married last weekend.
We then were supposed to go off to Samar, but the table wait was 2 hours so we headed over to Stephan Pyles for snacks and desert. All in all, a fun night.
(Should I feel guilty that I'm still in bed and my little daughter is cleaning up? Nah. She's enjoying herself.)

Heigh ho, heigh ho

It's back to work I go- actually, I'm already back in my office. Oh the joy of rising early and slogging back to work. Whoever decided we should have a week's buffer between vacation and actually seeing students was a genius. I get to attend meetings, prep for classes, and acclimate back to the work world. Then there's a long weekend before I meet my new group of students.
The kids have been back at school for a week, and H has, mostly, been the one to deliver them there. Christmas was fun, if busy, with my family in California. New Years was pretty quiet- we celebrated by dancing around with glowsticks. And I need to download pictures. Maybe a few of them will make it up here.
Happy New Years to you all!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas

(By Leila, age 6)

Thankful

"What are you thankful for?" I ask the kids on our way to the grocery store to buy a turkey.
"I'm thankful for you Leila," Ali says.
She gives a more general answer, "I'm thankful for everything God made, my friends and my family. And education. If we didn't have an education we wouldn't know about education," she announces.
I plan to make turkey for dinner tomorrow to join Thanksgiving and Eid el Kebir. It's not traditional for the latter, but I want to make one. Leila wants turkey today. We compromise with turkey pepperoni pizza. The kids make their own pizzas. Ali, of course, doesn't really eat his. They are kind of overdone, because the oven didn't bake them properly.
Yesterday both kids were home and so Ali watched t.v. all day and Leila was on the computer. Today I limited them to one hour. Ali spent the morning playing with a string and then pretending to be a mailman and delivering a box to me over and over. Leila opened a restaurant called "dancing" where she, as chef, waiter, and owner, danced around. ALi got to be water boy. When I got up to dance she said I was a strange customer.
Ali has 3 dollars he's been carrying around. "What are you going to buy me for Christmas?" I ask him. "Nothing," he tells me. Then he decides on something and whispers in my ear- "An eyeball that flashes. And it makes food for your students. It has a hole in it, and you order the food and it comes out the hole. And it only costs 3 dollars!"
He pretends Santa's on the phone and hands it to me. "Santa says little boys who watch t.v. all the time don't get presents," I tell him. He calls Santa himself to verify. I tell him he's talking to the naughty elf. "No, you are," he tells me. This game has gone on for two days now. Lets see how long it lasts.
Leila is counting down the days to Christmas,too.

Thankful

Ali does not want to participate in giving thanks or saying what he's thankful for, at first. Later, after Leila and I have started eating, he decides he wants to pray, too. But first he has to finish chewing on the green bean he's stuffed into his mouth. Then he says his prayer.
He doesn't eat much, but gnaws for a minute on a turkey leg. Leila has one, too. Then he wants to get a stuffed animal from his room. I go with him because it is dark. Once back at the table he announces he is ready to say what he's thankful for. "My puppy and my backpack."
Leila has already said she is thankful for everything.
I'm thankful for my healthy children, my mother and father and brother and sister and their families, and my H, who is a good man who carves the turkey and washes up the pots and pans, that we have a house to live in and cars that still work.
Ali keeps wandering into the kitchen looking for the "chicken." That's all he wants to eat. The rest of us will dig into homemade pumpkin pie and home whipped cream. (My new Kitchenaid got away from me, and it's practically butter, but still delicious.)