Last FO of 2010

Asalam Alaikum,
This is my last FO of 2010, a hat to match the crochet baby jacket I finished a while back. The jacket and hat are going to one of our neighbors who is a close friend of Tariq's, for his one year old son.





Here is Saad modeling, he kept saying "this for chota(small) baby, nahi(not) Saad. Saad want blue hat." Apparently he does not like the color of the stripes.


Pattern:none, just made it up.
Yarn:Acrylic
Hook:US F

There are a couple more FO's from 2010 I just haven't gotten around to getting pictures yet.

Friday Feature- Body Image Mix-up

Asalam Alaikum,

When I was a young child I was not very heavy, not too skinny either, just about average.Me as a little one

Around eight or nine years old I started to gain weight, and through High School I was pretty chunky. Towards the end of school I started to slim down a bit because I was walking more, to and from school, and to get to work. After High school I got down to a pretty good weight, and I was pretty happy with how I looked.

My weight yo-yo'd going from healthy to unhealthy, working in fast food definitely didn't help. Just before I met Tariq I had slimmed down again, then after we got married and were pregnant I ballooned back up to almost 200 pounds(just over 90 kilos). I was really unhappy with the way I looked.

Me in Boston a couple months after Saad was born and before we went to Abu Dhabi

When we moved to Abu Dhabi, I was still pretty heavy, I out weighed all of Tariq's sisters, by a lot. I always felt heavy and unattractive. I did start to loose weight though, but it was very slowly. When we came to Pakistan I dropped a lot of weight very very quickly. Everyone else was drinking the local water(boiled) and not getting sick, so without thinking I drank it also. I did not think about the fact that the family had been drinking the water here since birth and so they were used to it, I was not. I was horribly, horribly ill(lasted about a week or 10 days), on at least four separate occasions. It was not pretty. I was so weak after each illness, but also a lot slimmer. Tariq switched us to bottled water only for all cooking and drinking, because of how sick I was.

Me now.

I am now slimmer than I have been in a long long time. But even though I am happier when I look in the mirror, I still have the image in my head of myself as fat. I still think that I am heavier than I actually am, and I don't know when(or if) that will ever change. I do work harder to stay slim, proper portions and less fast food, so it will probably get easier as I go along to stay this way, because it has become a habit.

Sometimes I wonder though, when will my mental image of myself match the one I see in the mirror? My New Years Resolution- to stop having a negative view of myself, to be happy with who I am(no matter if I stay slim or gain a bit of weight).

I hope everyone has a fun, safe New Years Eve, see you all next year! ;-)

Cheese Spread for yummy snacking

 New years eve is a big snacking time for us. We get together with a bunch of friends, play games and eat!

  This year one of the things I am planning on making (and we enjoyed last week too, on Christmas Eve) is Cheese spread on homemade flat bread. It is easy to make, tastes yummy and is a much cheaper alternative to a cheese ball or something like that.

This is how you make it....

Cheese Spread

• 2-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• 3-4 tablespoons chopped black olives.
• one small jar of chopped pimentos.
• enough Mayonnaise to moisten
• a dash of spike seasoning salt (or your favorite seasoning salt)
• a sprinkle of paprika

Mix everything together. Either serve right away or store in the fridge. It is very yummy on crackers and we like it on my homemade flat bread a lot too.

This is just another frugal alternative for all the expensive snack foods!
Check out all the other frugal ideas at Frugal Friday.

Cheese Spread for yummy snacking

 New years eve is a big snacking time for us. We get together with a bunch of friends, play games and eat!

  This year one of the things I am planning on making (and we enjoyed last week too, on Christmas Eve) is Cheese spread on homemade flat bread. It is easy to make, tastes yummy and is a much cheaper alternative to a cheese ball or something like that.

This is how you make it....

Cheese Spread

• 2-3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
• 3-4 tablespoons chopped black olives.
• one small jar of chopped pimentos.
• enough Mayonnaise to moisten
• a dash of spike seasoning salt (or your favorite seasoning salt)
• a sprinkle of paprika

Mix everything together. Either serve right away or store in the fridge. It is very yummy on crackers and we like it on my homemade flat bread a lot too.

This is just another frugal alternative for all the expensive snack foods!
Check out all the other frugal ideas at Frugal Friday.

Fun times at Christmas

  We had a fun and relaxing Christmas time. Ken took the day off on Christmas Eve. We had a lot of fun spending the day playing games. Ken and Jonathan wanted to play Risk and Mara and I decided to join them. Aaron and Megan opted for their own faster (Risk can be a very long game!) "Risk" game on a puzzle map.

I actually won the game of Risk for the first time ever. Ken always wins so that was quite a surprise.

Then we played "Settler's of Catan" ( a new favorite of ours) and I won that one too. A good day for winning! :-)

 That evening we went over to the home of a family from church to play broom ball. We had fun getting some good exercise in the brisk fresh air. I also spent some time inside admiring the 2 brand new babies that were there (and visiting).

  On Christmas morning we opened presents. We just exchange gifts with our immediate family and everything has to fit in a stocking- so gift opening is not an incredibly long process but we do enjoy it. (And I am again this year very happy with the way we have chosen to do things- it works well for us.)

 We "Cheated" a bit on the Lego's to make them fit. We took them out of the boxes and collapsed the boxes. They waste so much space in packaging. I had found the Lego's on sale for by one set get the other one for 1/2 price. Legos are well loved at our place and the boys were very happy with that gift.

I had fun crocheting stuff for the girls and their dolls and they seemed to really like it.

 The kids had fun watching a "Volcano" which was one of Aaron's gifts.

 I made our traditional "Vanocka Braid" bread and then we had sausage, whipped cream fruit salad and hot chocolate (stirred with a candy cane!) for breakfast.

 For lunch we headed over to my parents house. All of us but one sister and her family (who we missed!)were home this year and we had a fun time being together.

An event of the day that I found a little humorous was a brother-in-law accidentally messed up the Wi-Fi in the house. My Brother and Sister-in-Law worked hard to get it fixed. In the picture below they had things propped up in a room and working away as I think the table was being used for other things- like eating.

 It did eventually get fixed. And life could go on again. :-)

 My adorable little niece got a bath in the sink.

We had leftover potatoes from lunch and no room for them in the fridge so we made up a big batch of lefse. It was yummy.

The next day we had everybody over to our house for lunch after church.The kids had fun trying to ice skate on the snowy swamp behind our house. They had to do a lot of shoveling first. I do enjoy being able to spend time with family!

 How was your Christmas?

Fun times at Christmas

  We had a fun and relaxing Christmas time. Ken took the day off on Christmas Eve. We had a lot of fun spending the day playing games. Ken and Jonathan wanted to play Risk and Mara and I decided to join them. Aaron and Megan opted for their own faster (Risk can be a very long game!) "Risk" game on a puzzle map.

I actually won the game of Risk for the first time ever. Ken always wins so that was quite a surprise.

Then we played "Settler's of Catan" ( a new favorite of ours) and I won that one too. A good day for winning! :-)

 That evening we went over to the home of a family from church to play broom ball. We had fun getting some good exercise in the brisk fresh air. I also spent some time inside admiring the 2 brand new babies that were there (and visiting).

  On Christmas morning we opened presents. We just exchange gifts with our immediate family and everything has to fit in a stocking- so gift opening is not an incredibly long process but we do enjoy it. (And I am again this year very happy with the way we have chosen to do things- it works well for us.)

 We "Cheated" a bit on the Lego's to make them fit. We took them out of the boxes and collapsed the boxes. They waste so much space in packaging. I had found the Lego's on sale for by one set get the other one for 1/2 price. Legos are well loved at our place and the boys were very happy with that gift.

I had fun crocheting stuff for the girls and their dolls and they seemed to really like it.

 The kids had fun watching a "Volcano" which was one of Aaron's gifts.

 I made our traditional "Vanocka Braid" bread and then we had sausage, whipped cream fruit salad and hot chocolate (stirred with a candy cane!) for breakfast.

 For lunch we headed over to my parents house. All of us but one sister and her family (who we missed!)were home this year and we had a fun time being together.

An event of the day that I found a little humorous was a brother-in-law accidentally messed up the Wi-Fi in the house. My Brother and Sister-in-Law worked hard to get it fixed. In the picture below they had things propped up in a room and working away as I think the table was being used for other things- like eating.

 It did eventually get fixed. And life could go on again. :-)

 My adorable little niece got a bath in the sink.

We had leftover potatoes from lunch and no room for them in the fridge so we made up a big batch of lefse. It was yummy.

The next day we had everybody over to our house for lunch after church.The kids had fun trying to ice skate on the snowy swamp behind our house. They had to do a lot of shoveling first. I do enjoy being able to spend time with family!

 How was your Christmas?

Mooli Paratha, Yum!

Asalam Alaikum,
Today I made mooli paratha(daikon radish paratha). This is the third or fourth time I have made them and I am really close to perfecting my own version. Normally in Tariq's family they don't eat mooli paratha, but it is quickly becoming one of our favorites.



We had them after maghrib time, with a nice cup of hot chai and a simple thick raita(yogurt sauce). It was so good, a bit more tweaking the recipe and I think it will be ready for posting on my food blog.

Christmas Day Recap

So, after our fun trip to Pennsylvania, it was time to get ready for Santa.

The kids got everything ready for his arrival.... Cookies and milk for Santa, Cheerios for the reindeer, carrot for Rudolf, and Charlotte added a bonus candy cane and note for Santa.

I think he must have liked the cookies since he left behind a couch full of presents!

I love how excited Charlotte was to watch Evan open his presents.

Charlotte's favorite gift from Santa was a unicorn Pillow Pet. She knows that infomercial by heart. She told me, "It's machine washable, Mama." I'm not sure she knows what that means but it was darn cute.

She's slept with it every night since.

Evan got lots and lots and lots of trucks, cars, and tractors. There's hardly a non-blurry picture of him from that day because he had lots of driving to do.

Nana and Grandpa came over around 11:00 and there were more presents to open!

After presents it was time for brunch? lunch? Mom brought eggs from their wonderful flock of chickens. Look at this egg! That yolk at the top of the bowl came from an egg so large that we were sure it was going to be a double yolk egg. When I cracked it open, we were surprised to see it only had one yolk... one VERY large yolk! That poor hen!

I made pumpkin cinnamon rolls, baked bacon, and scrambled eggs. Then the day of relaxing and game playing began.

Mia wondered if the train needed to be "dealt with".

Grandpa is so patient about teaching Charlotte the rules of games. He taught her how to play one of the games Santa brought... Guess Who? I love that game. Katie and I played SO many times as kids.

We set up Mall Madness and Jon got to play for the first time. I'm sure he's wondering how he's lived all these years without having played this most awesome game.

Nana helped Charlotte figure out some of the games on the Discovery laptop that Grammy and Grandpa gave her.

Twister.... Wow, Can I just tell you how much harder this game is as a 32 year old then it was as a kid? Jon, Charlotte, and I played a game or two and my leg muscles were burning!

Charlotte wanted to play a solo game. I bet her legs aren't burning.

I wish I had taken a picture of our dinner. I was too excited to eat it to think of getting the camera. I roasted 2 of the chickens that my sister raised for me. I made gravy, mashed potatoes (with Jon's mad mashing skills), corn, and pumpkin dinner rolls. It was delicious and didn't take much effort since I made the rolls the day before.

I have to say that it was, by far, the best Christmas day Jon and I can remember in long time. It was the perfect balance of good food, relaxing, playing games, and visiting. Can we rewind and do it all over again? Is it Christmas again yet??

Christmas was THE BEST....

The VERY best present that was opened was the gift to Jackson from Charlotte...a REAL hockey puck...he kept saying "is this mine? my own?"...Charlotte and Christopher enjoyed this emotional reaction so much....we all enjoyed it.
Charlotte bought each of us a present with her very own money....thank you Charlotte.
Thanks to my family for one of the best Christmases ever.

My family gave me a 40" Toshiba t.v. for Christmas...OMG...I was so excited. I have it sitting on a small bookcase until I figure out where to mount it on the wall...AFTER giving away the big old t.v. stand and big huge OLD t.v....they also gave me a smaller t.v. cabinet for the stereo and to hold the CD's etc. It's going to make such a difference to my living room.

Notice the peace lily blooming on the front right of this picture (Henri's birthday present to me!)

A new lily every two weeks...it's amazing.

Fixing up a skirt for Megan

As the year comes to an end (less then one week left!!) I have been thinking about things that I wanted to get done this year- my goals. There are some things that I wanted to accomplish that are still needing quite a bit of work. One of them that I have been working on some the whole year put it still needs a lot of work is my office/craft room. I had wanted to get it all organized, free of clutter and all the old projects done. Some of that has happened but it still needs a lot of work. So I decided I would devote this week to working on my office as much as possible.

 Part of working on my office is getting projects done that I had laying around in there. One of those things that was laying around in my office was this skirt that I wanted to fix up for Megan.

 It was a cute little denim skirt that someone had given us. I liked the style of it except for the length- we don't wear mini skirts around here. So I decided to fix it up.

   Megan and I looked through a bunch of our fabric last night and we finally decided on adding some pink and white check fabric to the skirt. I had thought I would add lace too but there ended up not being enough of the one I liked- so the skirt is without lace, at least for now. I do think eyelet lace would be a cute addition so I might add some later.

 

 I simply cut a strip of the fabric (I did have to sew two sections together as I was using up fabric scraps) the length that I wanted to add to the skirt. Then I  sewed it so it was in a loop. Then I hemmed the bottom and gathered the top. I pinned the gathered side onto the denim skirt and sewed it in place.

TA-DA! All done. It was so fast and simple and I have a little girl that is delighted with her new skirt.

 Now I am off to patch jeans. It isn't quite as exciting but I find it pretty rewarding too. I love seeing all the pants ready without holes anymore.

I am linking this up to Tea Rose Home and