The Pinata Factory

I always intend to be organized for the end of the year months in advance. And every year I find myself racing around trying to get everything done before school finishes. I really must find a way to get ahead, but so many things crop up that sometimes that is very difficult to do. This year was no exception. I've had three days in which to make 11 pinatas. That includes two layers of paper mache and one layer of paint. The kids have been super helpful and have had a brilliant time helping blow up balloons with a mini pump and doing a bit of the paper mache. But mostly it's been left to me, so like a crazed person I've been up late making newspaper strips and batches of paste. The first layers dried pretty quickly (at least this warm weather is useful for something) and from there they've been ensconced in fishing line, hung up and papermached again. I'm hoping this will add a bit more strength overall and also help me with the hanging from the tree part. I'm currently at the painting stage (I opted not to tissue paper them all in an effort to save time and my sanity) and have just gone with a basic green, but that is OK, because they are either peras (pears) or limas (limes) and the kids only care about bashing them to bits to get at what is inside anyway. Here's hoping they're all dry by tomorrow morning.

Gracing the table

I still vomit from time to time and I still have raging nausea, (though not as much as before) but - believe it or not- I have begun to enjoy cooking again. So, over the last few weeks I have been photographing some of our dinners. Do keep in mind that sometimes I simply do what is easy (and perhaps not the healthiest option. Mom you may want to shield your eyes. Or better yet, just skip this post.) or what I am craving at the time or, if we have an abundance of broccoli or corn for instance, whatever just needs to get used up. But before we get to the main courses lets talk dessert shall we? Yes. Lets.

Here we have Bayan enjoying a bowl of homemade mango and coconut ice cream. This is literally fresh mango and coconut milk blended together and then poured into the ice cream machine until it reaches soft serve consistency. Bayan and Ruhi both love this. Anisa prefers blueberry ice cream. Considering how hot it has been I figured why not make both? This is just frozen blueberries, a bit of sugar and frozen organic milk cubes blended together in the thermomix until it reaches ice cream consistency. Very nice if I do say so myself.Martha made some completely scrumptious raspberry muffins for Persian classes last week. They were amazing. I think I ate half of them and even after shamelessly gorging myself I couldn't stop thinking about them so I tweaked my blueberry muffin recipe just slightly and made a double batch (of raspberry muffins) together with a fresh strawberry and raspberry jam and with a little pat of butter - wow. Soheila and the kids have helped me polish off the first dozen already. For a special treat I made a chocolate custard using only eggs, milk, (a little) sugar, cocoa and cornflour. I wasn't overly impressed but the kids quite enjoyed it. I might try it with rice flour and rice milk next time.

Deep dish apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Need I say more?And last, but certainly not least, the famous New-York style cheesecake. Don't worry we had lots of visitors to help us eat this.Dinner 1: Slow cooked pork chops, mashed potato, broccoli and cauliflower bake, corn on the cob and two salads. Dinner 2: Craving the cheese. We have a vegetarian pasta bake, a Quiche Lorraine and salad.

Dinner 3: After a long day I cheated and made a very easy, but kid friendly meal: sloppy-joes, potato wedges, steamed corn and salad.

This does not count as a meal but I have been craving this as well and we have had these pretty frequently. Well, Ruhi and I have. I started making these around Halloween and tried to pass them off as a Vampire favourite. Ruhi didn't mind it, Anisa and Bayan tried it but were not impressed and I can't get enough. It's simply fresh carrot, apple and beet juice. Yum. Dinner 4: This is one of Ruhi's favorites Chicken and vegetable curry with rice. I wasn't fast enough to get a better photo - oh and look a forgotten dessert: homemade custard with fresh apple crumble.

Dinner 5: Again with the potato wedges (I think we must go through phases of eating a lot of these and then none for quite some time) a tex-mex vegetarian bake and salad.

Dinner 6: This is one of Anisa's favorites. A very mild, slow cooked vegetarian chili, served with corn chips and sour cream.

Lunch: I must have been on a Mexican kick. Corn quesadillas with fresh guacamole, a kidney bean dip, salsa and sour cream. Dinner 7: Bayan's favorite: Spinach and cheese cannelloni, corn, cauliflower and broccoli bake and salad. This is one meal that I don't have to remind or encourage Bayan to eat. Dinner 8: Grandma's chicken soup, potato wedges (sheesh) and salad. At least we eat a lot of salad.

Dinner 9: Salad Olivieh and fresh sabzi with what appears to be left over lemon-garlic chicken and, wouldn't you know it, potato wedges.Looking back, these are just some of the meals I have remembered to photograph, but they seem distorted somehow. I mean what's with all the potato and where is the rice? That is another favorite of Bayan's and we normally have that with some sort of khorest at least twice a week. I also forgot to photograph the putanesca ( a fabulous Italian spaghetti sauce that is even better than anything you can get in a restaurant). I have had major cravings for that one and will post a recipe (and maybe even a photo) sometime soon.

Meanwhile breakfast is normally a simple affair, but we did make waffles with syrup and freshly made orange juice one morning.Lunches are often quite simple: soups and sandwiches. And Bayan often requires more than a little persuasion to eat them.

Never to be outdone, we have a very creative sandwich maker in the house. Ruhi turned her lunch from an ordinary tuna salad sandwich into something a little more imaginative. We present: Cecil the cyclops monster. He is tuna and salad on the inside, with a pickle tongue and a bulging olive eyeball on top. I have it on good authority that these cyclops monsters can be very delicious. Last, but certainly not least, something inedible to grace the table. Ever since I had made the tablecloth last year, I had been wanting to make some matching napkins to go with it. Well I finally got around to that and found that I had enough material to make a set of six. Yet somehow it was still incomplete. Something was missing. Then it hit me: napkin rings. We have some beautiful china dishes that my grandmother spent half a lifetime collecting. She gave us her set as a wedding present and I adore them, mostly because they remind me of her. She also loved pearls and used to wear them frequently. So here is what I did:

I took a loop of bracelet sized memory wire, curved one end added a silver bead (the go with the trim on the plates), I then added 18 4mm Japanese pearls, 1 6mm pearl, 1 silver and diamond style rondelle, 1 8 mm pearl, another rondelle, another 6 mm pearl, another 18 4 mm pearls and another silver bead before curving the end and hooking the loops together.I think it works really nice with the plates and napkins and I think that my grandmother would certainly approve.

So,

have you met any good exorcists lately? 'Cause I need a professional. Someone who really knows what they're doing. We're talking holy water, mystical chanting, rhythmic dancing with chicken bones, whatever it takes. I've gone way beyond grouchy here, I have no patience for nagging or repeatedly ignored instructions and I hate being snappish with the kids.

I have heaps of work and marking to do for school which certain individuals are not letting me get to, it's hotter than Hades outside, we're having an issue with the air conditioner and I'm currently wrapped up tighter than an Egyptian mummy plus I have to wear clothes over top of the pressure stockings, the back belt, the abdominal brace and the stomach support which stretches almost from hip to arm pit. So, while I should be calm, patient and understanding while I settle the bickering about who said what to whom and who did something that they shouldn't have done for the hundred and thirteenth time, suddenly I find myself enraged, with the raspy voice of angry demons screeching out of my face. This is not good. Nor is it the kind of mother that I want to be. So, if you know of any exorcists, therapists or anger management specialists please feel free to send them my way. My children will be ever so grateful.

Chores

Over the last few months I have been trying to get the kids more involved in helping out around the house. Goodness knows I will need it in a couple of months. Ruhi is really quite wonderful already. She does an excellent job vacuuming (though she hates the task) and is always ready to lend a hand. Anisa is slowly making progress and Bayan is quite accomplished at sabotaging everyones efforts while doing little to really help out.

We still use the chore can from time to time and occasionally play a "robot game" where I, the commander in chief, issue orders or tasks and robots 1, 2, and 3 do their best to complete them. I thought that would work best with Bayan, but he is the one who likes it the least.

I haven't done a chore chart yet, though I am planning. At the moment we are all just focusing on a single task. Ruhi unloads the dishwasher (at least once a day), Anisa sets and helps clear the table (sometimes she even puts individual name tags at each place setting) and Bayan takes out the trash. With Ruhi's assistance he is learning which things go in the rubbish and which go in the recycling bin. They are doing the jobs pretty much independently and are learning that even though they may not always feel like doing the task it still needs to get done. Hopefully that trend continues.

Good News with an Asian flair

We had Anisa's 6 monthly pace-maker clinic at the hospital today. I always feel so nervous before heading to these appointments. I am particularly aware that we are approaching the time that we will need to be getting her pace-maker replaced and was dreading hearing that we would have to do it sooner rather than later. Fortunately her battery level is measuring the same as it did at her last check. Which means that we should still have at least a year. They have adjusted her battery level a little which means that it will be using slightly more juice but hopefully we will still get at least another year before the pace maker (or batteries) needs to be replaced.

We stopped at the store on the way home because Anisa really wanted spring rolls for dinner and after hospital appointments I can never say no. She developed a hankering for coconuts while we were in the produce section, so we came home with one of those as well. She decided to dress for dinner as soon as we walked in the door and chose an outfit to go with the food. I love how she loves to accessorize and am so grateful that the appointment went well at least in terms of when we'll have to change the pacemaker.

And thus dawns the age of the pressure stocking

I'll spare you any photos of nasty varicose veins and torturous swollen limbs. I shall not describe the latest affliction that has caused hospital staff to urgently recommend the daily use of full length pressure stockings. And I thought that putting on socks in late pregnancy posed a challenge. Ha. I will simply say that at least now I can stand up more comfortably and am able to continue working, whereas a week ago I had serious doubts about being able to do either one for very much longer.

I also have a greater appreciation of what my dad has had to go through. He has worn pressure stockings every day for at least the last fifteen years. It sucks. But it sucks more without them. For a little while I tried pretending that they were tights, but that resulted in cankles by about 6 pm. No, they are not tights and there is no use pretending otherwise. To make matters worse they are a blinding white color with a tell tale blue patch at ankle level (what is with that?) Isn't it bad enough that they are hot and uncomfortable, highly unfashionable, (they don't go with anything) and that you must constantly keep hiking them up throughout the day?

Today my legs actually swelled up while wearing the darn things. Now Mom, I know you're probably thinking toxemia or some such thing, well it's nothing like that, just heat related. Meanwhile I'm thinking that, had I not been wearing the stockings today, I could probably pass as a body double for Jabba the Hut. Isn't that a pretty picture? Almost as pretty as the pressure stockings.

Works of art

Anisa and Ruhi both came home with some artwork they had done in oil pastels. Anisa's is a vibrant representation of a little girl on a water slide with a rainbow background, while Ruhi's depicts a woodland setting complete with forest creatures and towering trees. I absolutely love both of them and am simply waiting for inspiration as to where to display them. For now they adorn the craft hutch in the dining room.

In other news Anisa has spent the weekend illustrating a story that she wrote. I absolutely adore it. Each time I read it, or have it read to me, it brings a smile to my face. I am reproducing it here, with the artists consent of course, so that you might enjoy it too.

Once upon a time there was a girl. She wanted a pet but her mum said "You have to wait until you are older."

She grew and she grew and she grew until she was 7. Her mum said, "You still have to wait until you are almost an adult."

So she went to go find some different animals. She went to find a koala....So she went home for a bandaid. (I love that part. You may think that something is missing, but that is the genius of the thing, Koalas can be brutal creatures and some injuries are simply implied.)

So she went home with her mum to get some ice cream.

She is currently working on some more stories. Her one about a poor family at Christmas time almost had me in tears. I'm sure that had nothing to do with pregnancy hormones. It was simply eloquent and beautiful. Here she is reading her latest publication to an enraptured Bayan.

Crafting with Baba

We have fruit trees in the back garden: apricot, fig, peach, plum, plumcot and nectarine. Mehran adores fruit trees. He has been known to spot fresh fruit from the corner of his eye while driving a speeding vehicle down a twisting highway and he finds it perfectly tragic when good fruit falls to the ground or the birds get there first. In the last few years Mehran has waged a war with the magpies and rainbow laurikeets who appear to love our fruit just as much as he does. Over the years he has tried netting and tin foil and CDs, but nothing, despite the fact that there is still plenty of fruit for us, has worked to his satisfaction. So this year the gloves are off. We have... drum roll please... the cat. And just in case that is not enough Mehran has commissioned the children to help him with his first (child assisted) craft project: The scarecrow.I'd love to tell you that photo was the end product, but sadly it is not. It can, however, be found on page 26 of Google's scarecrow images. I really wish that I had taken a photo of the kids racing around plucking weeds and long grass to stuff into one of Mehran's old shirts. (He did take my advice and get rid of the newspaper stuffing after I convinced him that it wouldn't do well in the rain.) The head, as you can see from the photo below, has not fared well. Anisa agreed to let Baba use her pinata, but despite my old yard duty hat, the rain has taken it's toll (refer to the blue / grey mass on the ground). For the lower body Mehran 'borrowed' the mailbox post from the cubbyhouse and tethered the shirt to it. It is currently looking more like a pitiful version of the headless horseman than a scarecrow, yet despite its decrepitness it has scared the dickens out of me more than once as I caught a glimpse from of the corner of my eye while hanging washing at dusk. It's just a shame it doesn't have the same affect on the birds.

Soccer with Bayan

A beautiful day in the back yard with a beautiful boy and a ball.