Swimming Upstream

Holiday Slacking

sagira — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:31:53 +0000

For the holidays, I cut myself some slack and bought a medium sized package of paper towels. All year I use regular towels with good results, but for some reason it’s highly inconvenient during the holidays with increased and yuckier messes, guests and whatnot. So I buy paper towels. What else do you do during the holidays to cut yourself some slack? I would like to hear. Please comment.

Holiday Spirit

sagira — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:28:45 +0000

Here I’m getting ready to be immersed in the Holiday Spirit. Scratch that. I will dive into the Holiday Spirit. I kick off my Holiday Season with a mouth-watering spinach, red and green pepper, onion and feta cheese frittata. This morning I woke up early to prepare this lavish yet simple dish. Holiday Spirit conjures up for me warm dishes and fragrant desserts, festive decorations, and melodious music. It’s a cooling down of temperatures and a softening of tough moods. It’s increased giving and goodwill. It’s also a feeling of anticipation and excitement. It’s remembering why we celebrate Christmas, and sharing stories and making memories with family.

What does Holiday Spirit mean to you? How did you kick off your Holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, strictly Santa Claus or Kwanzaa? Share your comments or a link to your blog, I would really like to know.

Tired of Being Sick and Sick of Being Tired

sagira — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:56:41 +0000

I’ve heard of people with more than one child sometimes being sick for weeks, but you know, I chucked it to bad hygiene, an unhealthy diet, children who go to daycare or school, you name it. Not us (hand to head in melodrama)!

Well, we have been around a lot of kids prior to this because of Halloween. We have been sick for weeks. First it was a harmless (ha!) cold. I was cooped up into the house for two weeks with two children 5 and under — aargh! Any parent knows what I mean.

Then son got a stomach virus that keeps returning, and daughter’s molars are coming out — four molars at the same time. Sigh. I’ve been looking forward to volunteering for a weekend Green Festival. Unfortunately I can’t make it, as I’m tired, have a sore throat, a stuffed up feeling in my ears, and a headache.

However, instead of feeling sorry for myself, which I think is not a bad thing in itself, I could hang out and update my blog a bit. I always try to see the silver lining in everything. If life is telling me to slow down a bit and enjoy the children, so be it. Even if the children have stuffy noses, fussy temperaments and wake up in the middle of the night.

A poem for my mother

sagira — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:34:41 +0000

One early morning I woke up thinking about my mother. She lives in another country and I think about her every day. We write to each other and talk to each other at least a few times a week, and I worry about her too. I woke up with the beginning of this poem in my head, and decided to write it down. Here’s my poem to my mother, Lydia.

MY FIRST HOME — poem for my Mamsi

It’s not always easy for me

To say the things I want to say

Don’t ask why this is in English

It’s just a part of me

I need to share.

You are my first home.

My shelter, my abode.

You are the walking representation

of my humble beginnings.

And I want to thank you

for being

my first home.

Thank you for cradling me

Thank you for rocking me

Thank you for holding me

safe, warm and lovingly.

Thank you for kissing me,

hugging me, loving me.

I know it’s not always easy

And I don’t take it for granted.

I’m so glad you had me.

I live because you dreamed about me.

The first arms that ever held me

like I was a treasure beyond compare.

Thank you for celebrating me,

caring about me

worrying about me.

I don’t know what I would do without you.

There’s nobody quite like you.

For you are my first home.

My shelter, my abode.

No Dryer

sagira — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:05:31 +0000

Our dryer is not working, and for a little over a week now I’ve been hanging our clothes outside. I’m fortunate enough that I live in a part of the country where it’s sunny and warm year-round. I’ve been thinking a lot about women around the world who do this as a matter of course. I feel so spoiled here in middle-class America.

Yet I don’t miss the dryer as much as I thought I would. There’s something aesthetically pleasing about clothes fluttering in the wind. The colors, textures all out in the open, bathed in natural light. However, there are still a few downsides to letting the sun and air do the work for you:

It takes longer
Running outside when it suddenly starts to rain and trying to rescue your wooden rack and clothes
“Crunchy” clothes if you leave them out in the sun

The first one: well, you’re going to have to wait, sister. Planning is key. Fortunately there are ways around the last two. I can leave my wooden rack just inside my terrace area and thus out of the way of an average downpour.

As for crunchy clothes, if I leave them overnight, the night breezes rustle the clothes and in the morning I have softer clothes. Not as soft as clothes from the dryer and using fabric softener, but at leasta sock that can lie down as opposed to stand by itself

I have a wooden rack that only holds so much. When I wash husband’s clothes, I feel like the wooden rack fills up way too quickly. As a result, I would like for him to install one of those clothes lines. Much more space, and I can do two loads at once. Oh, I would need clothespins too I’m assuming.

I like the fact that we are saving money as well as being environmentally conscious. Now if my washing machine goes kaput, you’ll see me running to get a new system in no time!

What do you do if you live in a place where there are hardly any sunny days, lots of rain and no dryer? I would like to know. Feel free to share your comments!

Double Take of the Month

sagira — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:32:30 +0000

I was Internet surfing and decided to check out the excellent National Geographic website when I stumbled upon a Lion Riding a Horse! Well, I just had to put it up as the Double Take of the Month. A new category, by the way. I figured it would be fun. The poor horse looks like it’s either scared or in pain. I wonder how the horse was trained. I hope it was all done in a humane manner, not always likely to happen in countries like China and Russia and unfortunately not always in the U.S. either.

Mom-Approved children’s shirts at Steechee.com

sagira — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:12:18 +0000

As the mother of a young son, I found it hard to find unique, quality and interesting shirts for my son. I had to choose between either sports, vehicles or animals — and everyone seemed to be wearing the same clothes! We chose animals because our son loves animals, but I kept thinking there had to be something better out there. Something fresh. Unique. A wide variety. Perhaps even something meaningful.

Enter my husband the artist. He listened to my complaints, and designed the coolest shirts! Steechee is an awesome site started by a need for a diversity of kids shirts.

As a result, there are shirts for the child who loves books which includes literary characters on them such as Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz, there are figures in history and science, shirts for the kid who enjoys gardening, and rock enthusiasts. There’s even a section on the imaginative The traditional sports, transportation and animals are there but with a fresh take.

I’m really excited about Steechee and the shirts as I looked at all of them. Get your child excited about your favorite author Jules Verne with the shirt of the author or his book, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Or if you’re a Charlotte Mason fan like me, have your child wear her on a shirt! They could even be used as homeschool uniforms!

I’m so proud of our venture and wanted to share how excited we are about these. Check them out and let me know if you like them and especially if you have bought some!

PS: We called it Steechee because our son at three had a favorite pet monkey he called Steechee.

Spared from Ike

sagira — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:47:02 +0000

Yet again, our area has been spared from devastation from a hurricane. I live in South Florida and this time escaped again. Even though there was a mandatory evacuation, our family didn’t as we were waiting and watching first. Husband is good at calculating these risks, having lived in this area for most of his life. It turned out to be a good decision, as Ike turned down south and left us with a few weak feeder bands of tropical storm winds.

I pray for the families of the people in Haiti and Cuba. It’s very sad to see a country such as Haiti, with so few resources and government aid, so helpless against such a big storm. I’ve heard Cuba has a good evacuation plan and system for follow-up. The poor have lost so many, an excess of 300 people have died that could have been saved were they in an industrialized country such as ours.

I hear the storm outside, grateful that it’s only a fraction of the power of the hurricane so many miles south. For any accurate hurricane information, refer to the National Hurricane Center. There you can see graphs, 3-day and 5-day forecasts. News reports sometimes are inaccurate or downright sensationalist. Keep safe, readers. Let’s hope Ike doesn’t do any damage in Houston.

Treehouse

sagira — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:14:40 +0000

Son’s been clamoring for a treehouse, but we can’t see any trees sturdy enough for one, and dh is not much of a builder — yet. If I would have a treehouse, it would have to be really cool, like this one. Now here’s a treehouse!

I love how the Dad says that he had to draw a line at plumbing. Great dedication, Dad!

Obama vs. Palin

sagira — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:51:42 +0000

I usually don’t get into politics, but I think this situation goes beyond politics. I feel fortunate to live in a time when in the United States there’s either going to be a black President or a female Vice President. Go back and read that one more time. Even writing it is making history.

Germany and India already have female leaders for their countries. I hope to see a female president in my lifetime. I’m only 31, so it’s quite possible.

Even if Sarah Palin doesn’t get to be Vice President, she has already made an impact on the United States. All the search engines are zipping with Sarah Palin as search terms and Americans are asking themselves: Who is she? And more importantly, what could she mean to me?

To me, Sarah Palin represents progress, “girl power” if you will, a breastfeeding mother, a mother balancing her career and family, a strong woman who’s not afraid to compete, and a breath of fresh air. Whether she will live up to the claims of her policies remain to be seen. Will she be trusted, having not as much experience as others? I don’t even think McCain is too much of an issue anymore. It’s almost — almost, Obama vs. Palin.

Racists and sexists combined have nowhere to go in this election — I’m grateful for that. The last thing this country needs is bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

We are living in interesting times once more. These times will be remembered as a historic presidential race where a woman and a man of color will be standing face to face in the most influential country in the world. Whomever wins, anything but the past eight years is good for me.

Happy Labor Day!