Two days back…

 I woke up with a heavy head with numerous thoughts running in my head, all making me very restless. The pending task at work didn’t leave me at any time of the day. I went on with all the regular activities at home, but this thing was running at the back of my mind, about how and when I would be completing it. I got A ready to school, sent her, then got myself ready and then started off to work with V. I was talking to V but all the while, I was preoccupied with my own thoughts.

And then I saw this thing. I saw a blind man crossing the road, with the help of another man, who in all probability could be a stranger to the blind man. That person must have not known how he would manage once he stepped out of his home. He must not have been aware of anything that would have to be tackled by him. Yet, nothing held him back from moving ahead. Nothing stopped him from stepping out and facing the world.
I went to office, didn’t even check the mailbox, a task which I do regularly, started up on my task straight away. Things fell in place and I completed what I wanted to by the end of the day.

I learnt my lesson for the day from that unknown person. Just face it !

Picture Post : A day that’s all about food !

  

A wanted to know if we could make her the Paneer curry, that’s served at her school, and so we gave it a try !

  

Blueberry waffle at WOFL and should I say, that was just perfect !

  

Caramel banana pancakes at WOFL again, which just melted in the mouth  !

  

Cheese Omlette that was really really cheesy and a coffee !

p.s. We wanted to have a dinner outside, but had no clue of where to go, which  was when V suggested this place. We have been there for the first time and I would recommend it for a scrumptious meal at any time of the day. Before I end, the pricing was also quite reasonable.

Money Manager

The other day, when we ( read A and me ) were turning across the pages of the weekly Sunday magazine of the local newspaper, we stopped at a page displaying photos of all big stone jewellery. I just asked A whether we should be buying those. She immediately answered positive stating the reason that we would become rich by doing so. I corrected her saying that, we will have to use the money we have got and our money would reduce.

To this, A’s response was :

“That’s ok Amma, Haven’t we read* recently that people buy valuables and use/sell them to get money in times of need ?

So we can actually buy these. And when we want money, something like Rs.35, and assuming that the Rs.35 we have got is to be used somewhere else, we can sell this jewellery, and from the money we get, we can use Rs.35 to get “Kinder Joy”** for me”

Looks like our little money manager has started a lot of planning already 🙂

* we have recently read a Pratham book ‘The World of Money ‘, which talks about assets 

** for the uninformed, Kinder Joy is a chocolate that comes along with a toy, which A is totally crazy about and it’s priced at Rs.35 !

Innocence or what ?

Yesterday’s conservation between A and me :

A : I lost my ruler at school 

Me : Ayyo, you should be careful, you must not lose things 

After some time….

A : Amma, can I take the globe sharpener (sharpener in the shape of a globe) to school ?

Me : You might lose it, why do you want to take it to school ?

A : Amma, please 

Me : See, you have lost a ruler at school today , so it would be better to not take it and use it at home

After some time, and after fiddling with what ruler  to take to replace the lost one….

A : Amma, am checking all the things needed for the pouch, you don’t have to check them again 

Me : ok

A : Really Amma, am not even talking the globe sharpener, so you don’t have to check 

Me : ok 

A : You don’t have to check if the pencils are sharpened also, we do that at school every morning, so don’t check my pouch after I go to sleep 

Me : ok 

Now , who on earth can resist the urge to not check that much talked about pouch, definitely not me ! So, I put her to sleep, then went ahead and checked what was so mysterious with the pouch. I found an extra stencil-cum-ruler, in addition to the normal ruler she was supposed to be taking. 

All I did was, smile to myself and then ignore 🙂

Summer Baking !

Some activities become exciting  when you have a partner and they get more exciting when the partner in question is a little one that keeps us entertained  all the while. One such activity is baking for me and with no hard guesses, the little one is A.

A loves to be part of cooking and the easiest way to accommodate this is to bake with her.

Couple of weeks back, we spotted these cookie cutters at a shop unexpectedly and we picked them up immediately.

  
 We could finally try our hand at making some cookies and A thoroughly enjoyed the process 🙂 She especially loved using the cutters and separating them out gingerly.

This is how we made and what we got…

  
  
Inspired by the above success, we then tried our hands at some carrot muffins.

Here are they :

  
For the recipes, we followed this and  this to the bit and haven’t changed even a little, except that we skipped vanilla essence for the lack of it. I love her recipes for the perfect output you get with the list of ingredients being so simple !

With some memories to cherish, here I bid farewell to the summer vacation and step in along with A to explore what this new year has in store for us !

What have I been doing ?

Reading Zoya Factor between the gaps I get when helping A with her holiday homework 

Reading it before getting ready to go to work 

Reading it when A goes off to a birthday party 

Reading it after putting A to sleep and before I fall asleep 

Reading it before going out to have ice cream with V

Reading it at every chance that I could lay my hands on them

For the last couple of days, I haven’t touched anything that could be put aside for the moment and was completely hooked to Zoya Factor. It was a light read, completely Bollywood style, and chick-lit or romantic or whatever you call. Zoya Solanki and Nikhil Khoda were on my mind 24 / 7. The only minus was that I felt the story got dragged off a little too much in the middle. I was skeptical about how it would be ending, but it ended in a smooth, satisfying way.

And thanks to Maya, because of whom I discovered this !