Today

My good friend Mookuthi, sent me a link for a free gardening workshop at Homedepot. I finished all my works and went there in time.  But nobody was there.  I started asking each and every employee, who pass by.  And at last, an elderly women came. She asked me, the type of garden I have.  Ooops.. I do not have a garden.  I just have a patio, where I grow some small plants. I told here about my plants.  She gave me a coupon and said there is going to be a draw on it. And she started explaining lots of things about plants and how to take care of them.. In no time, an hour passed. I was the only one attending the workshop. But when people saw us both talking about plants, they gathered around us and started to listen. When she was done with her explanations, there were some 10-15 people around us.  She handed a coupon to everyone.  She shuffled the counterpart of the coupons and took one out of it. Guess who the winner is??? It is me.  Hi hi hi hi.. I got a big hanging Pelargonium plant.. I was already happy and satisfied with the workshop.  In addition to it, I got a super duper gift too. Isn't it an excellent day, today?..

Eniya Tamil Putthandu Nalvazhthukkal (Tamil New Year wishes)

I used to think Why this much hype for Christmas, Easter or Halloween in this country.. And I also felt that they all target the kids.. I mean like Santa will come leave a gift for the kids and with Easter egg huntings and the Halloween Costumes for the kids etc..  
Last week, I met an Indian woman(North Indian while I am a South Indian) we were chatting.. She was asking how I am preparing for my festival next week. I was literally blinking( I don't know what it was).  Looking at my puzzled face, she told that she was talking about the Tamil new year. Ooops.. And our conversation went on.
Now coming to the point, how will I celebrate Tamil new year??? I used to get up early in the morning, go to temple and greet friends & relatives.. Everyone in Tamilnadu/Tamilian does that.. What is exciting about that? Will my Mowgli or Nemo ever appreciate or enjoy it? Or any other kid/younger generation enjoy it? No way. Will they ever think about it in future.. If they dont enjoy something, how can they pass on that to their younger generation? Now I understood why there is hype for Christmas, Easter or Halloween. They make the Kid to expect/wait for that day and the kids enjoy and appreciate them. And they remember the good time and the excitements they had forever. And they pass on the tradition to their younger generation. Makes sense isn't it?

p.s.: Our Deepavali has Cracker/holiday/snacks and Our Pongal has sugarcane/holiday/snacks, which will excite the kids. The Festivals which is not exciting for kids will definitely die soon. What can I do about that? Nothing much but I made lots of bakshanams(snacks) and drew some kolam and let the kids color them.. hi hi

Today

What will happen if I am left outside my home in the snow, all through this long winter.  I would have died.. Today while cleaning my Patio I saw this Mums plant. I bought it last September and used the flowers for my Kolu. It was still there in my Patio for the past six months in all the snow and freezing rough weather, it has taken all the pain to live..
Today as I was driving Mowgli to his school, I saw a Cop..  I was thinking what will he ask me, if he catches me.  license!!!.   As we were late, I was in my track pant. . And the license was safe in my Jeans hanging in the closet(obviously at home). Oooops... After going home, the first thing I did was keeping my wallet(license) along with my Van key.. Went to library today and selected few books & dvds and I was rubbing my pant for the wallets. But it was with the Van key, which I forgot to take. Oooops.  Run, run, run to home. And I ran driving home ;-) without the license again.

My everyday

5.00 A.M Alarm Buzz
5.15 to 6.00 Pranayama(Breathing exercise)
6.05 to 6.50 Gym
6.55 Water therapy
7.00  Morning chores starts Cooking, Feeding, Dressing up my Mowgli to school
8.25 MM takes Mowgli to school.
8.30-11.45 Feeding, Bathing, Playing with my Nemo, India Calls, Cleaning house, Washing clothes
Nemo used to sleep by 10.30 A.M now-a-days he does not sleep at all.. On Tuesdays he got his Mother Goose program in Library at this time. I go for shopping either on Mondays or Fridays at this time.
11.30 Tea time
11.45 Picking-up my Mowgli.
12.15 Feeding the kids again, Reading books, Playing, Chit chating blah blah...
1.00 Lunch time for me.
2.30-4.30 Kids goes for their nap..
While they sleep, Mail checking, Dhyanam, Farmville, Chatting with friends, Library routines, Blogging and again a Tea.. Now-a-days even Mowgli rarely sleeps.. If he doesn't, that is a real big problem for Nemo to sleep.. He will bang this or that and wake up Nemo. And  Mowgli has his Ice-skating classes on Wednesdays and Swimming classes on Thursdays. So those two days are busy days for me..
4.30-6.00 Kids wake up.. snacks for them, small walk or cycling..
6.30-7.00 Cooking, Dish washing, Grinding blah blah...
7.30 Dinner time.
8.30 Milk for the kids.
9.00 Story/book for the kids
9.30 kids goes to sleep.
This is the perfect routine, I always love.   But mostly my Nemo wont let me go to Gym, by being awake all through the night or exactly by 5 AM .. I think he has an alarm in his body... or Mowgli wakes up exactly by 5.30 AM for his pee-pee and bangs the bathroom door & wakes up Nemo..
I really really wonder, how women work along with their household chores. Some days I will have lots of time to chat with friends and relatives. Some days I will be running here and there with lots of work & that is exactly when I will get call from people saying I am not calling them:-(
I always feel bad about me not working. But the interesting part is that being at home gives me lot of time to spend with my little ones. Let me enjoy the innocence of my kids, as I may not get them as they grow older. At present, I really love being a mom..

Life

This is good/inspiring, isn't it? I am going to do all of them..

To do list 2011..

We are going back to India next year.. This may be the last full year here in US. Let me finish up some tasks, which I cannot do there.( I will have other important works to do there ;-))
1.Speech therapy  --  mm is having trouble pronouncing some letters/words.. So I have to straighten it up before we go back to India..
2.Learn Swimming - I started this long back while mm was 6 months old and due to some reasons I could not continue with it. Now my tiny nm is 19 months old. I am still a half swimmer.. I dont want to go to India as a half swimmer..
3. To learn photography  -- Whenever I see our new SLR I feel like exploring it.. But somehow, I could not..  The main reason is I dont find a reasonable time to spend with it (you are right I am a bad time organizer)..   And this auto option, which dilutes my inspiration by giving an excellent output..
4. Ice skating -- I have even bought my own shoes to try this..  let see..
5. Guitar -- This Guitar is with us for the last 6 years..  Whenever I see it, it is pleading me to use him. My target is at least a small rhyme with it.. ;-)
6.To learn about the stocks  - For a long long long time I am thinking about it.  Lets see how this works..

Spring is here!!!

Spring started yesterday! and it is snowing today... My Mowgli and Nemo are sad as they could not go for a walk, along with all the birds and squirrels who are also upset about the weather.. Last week the weather was soo nice. We even went out without our jackets. We also packed our winter items in a box and kept it in our storage. And now it is snowing & they have predicted more snow this week. I do not  know how this snow will affect my plants.. lets see.
I liked this crocus plants and planted lot of its bulbs in our patio. Two days before when I shot this pic, only one of the bloom was there. Today I shot the other pic with all the snow, all three of them (yellow,white and purple) were  ready to bloom. Look at their growth in just two days..
They open their petal only when they see sun otherwise they remain closed. But we can plant them under a tree as they bloom before a tree would get its fresh sprouts...
Interesting fact: Saffron (Kunguma poo) is also a crocus and is called Saffron crocus but it belongs to Iris family...