Rest & Recovery

On Friday, August 7th, I had surgery to remove part of my thyroid. There were some nodules in there that the doctors thought were better out than in. So here I am, day 3 after the surgery, trying hard to stay in bed, give my body some rest and allow it to recover. In the crazy routine that is my regular life, I, like all busy working parents, crave for this - uninterrupted rest time. But now that it's here - thrust upon me, its so hard to just lay in bed and relax. I'm seeing a million chores around me that need to be done, I'm thinking of tasks I can accomplish without walking around too much. But for once, I'm trying to banish those thoughts as soon as they spring up in my head. Its not fair to me or to my family, I realize, for me not to rest and recover so I can be back a 100% when it is time to swing back into things. I'm going to take the time I need to feel better - things will wait, all the paperwork, all the cleaning, all the phone calls - everything will be there when I am back up. So for now, I'm putting away the computer, the notebook and the pen. I'm drinking plenty of water, taking my medicine and just relaxing - its hard work, after all!

Motivation

Here, in America, we all work so hard - well, most of us, anyway. So what is it that keeps us going? I've thought about this for various professional exercises where they made me think about the great days I've had at work. What were the most stimulating & challenging times I had. Again and again, I come back to this - I am happy when I am working hard and achieving something. For the past 2-3 weeks, work has been a complete grind. I've been up well past midnight on most nights and then constantly busy in the office from 9-5. Had a great presentation yesterday and even though I got home only around 8, it felt good. It actually felt great - I had been working hard on this presentation and it went off great and that made it all worth it.

7 year old's probably have a different perspective on work & enjoyment. Arjun, my 7 year old, can whip through his math problems pretty easily. But the writing part has him stuck like glue. He dawdles and sits there - yesterday, he went an hour and wrote 2 words - seriously, 2 words on the page. We've bullied and threatened him and of course, that doesn't work. When does it ever? As I was losing my patience with him again last night - as he drank his 4th glass of water in 10 minutes - while I was supervising his writing, it struck me. Maybe its just too big of a body of work for him to grasp. I had asked him to write 2 pages on a wedding we just went to. I changed that and asked him to do 2 sentences instead.
"2 sentences?" he was incredulous.
"Yes, just 2."
"I can do more - I can do 3, no 4. Actually, I'll keep writing till I run out of sentences." He literally transformed before my eyes and attacked his work. He ended up writing a half page but I'm happy with that. We're going to do that more regularly till he masters the half page and then move on to more.
So, of course, it's all about knowing your audience and positioning accordingly.

Awwww!

For all you diehard romantics out there, check this propoposal out - at the World Record Appreciation Soceity event in New York, Jake Bronstein set a world record by starting a whisper chain that went through 59 people before it reached his girlfriend and she heard the words "Kristina, will you marry me?"



Check out the full story from Swiss Miss here
http://www.swiss-miss.com/2009/07/most-unusual-proposal-ever.html

What was your proposal story? As my friends all know - my dear husband proposed within a week of meeting me. We ended up hooking up only a year later but as he says, "When you know, you know!"

Wishing you lots of love & appreciation in your day!

Structure - how much is enough?

As Indian parents raising American kids in suburban Seattle, there are numerous issues we grapple with. Chief among those is the issue of a schedule and structure for the kids days. Growing up in India, I do not remember a strict bedtime - my parents lugged me and my sister along to parties and gatherings. Often times, we would fall asleep at the hosts house with all the other children there - a forced sleepover. We had a great time! It was my favorite thing to do.

Here of course, things are different. When I first had kids and started to surf some parenting sites and boards, I was baffled by sleep times of 5:30 PM, 6:00 PM and so on. The kids were in bed at the middle of the day. Suffice it to say, my co-sleeping kids never went to bed at 6PM, unless it was a late nap.

7 years later, I still have angst around schedules. We have a rough one and we stick to it more closely during school days but on summer vacation, we've let things slide. Arjun loves to read and sometimes he is up at 10:30PM, still reading. I've gone in and switched off his nightlight even though I hate that being done to me. I know he needs his sleep and I know kids in his class are asleep at 8PM. Today, we stuck to the 9PM bedtime - OK, 9:15 PM but it has been a nice and quiet house with the kids in bed. I hope we can keep this up! Now I need to see if they hop out of bed by themselves tomorrow morning - that would make the schedule so worth it.
Wish me luck in keeping this up - a little structure is good for all of us. Even I can see that now - all my crazy sleeping arrangements as a kids, not withstanding.
In turn, can I ask that my friends not drive me out of the house as soon as the clock strikes 6:30PM so that the kids can get in the bath? Please??

Memoirs and various books

My biggest panic attack onset starts when I realize I have nothing to read...or let me put it this way, nothing I want to read. With a full wall of books in my study, I can always find something to read, but that's not the point. That something has to be perfect - something that matches my mood and desire at that particular moment. These days, I am on the search for a good memoir. As a few of my friends know, I am working on a memoir of my own. Progress is slow - mainly because I spend most of my time reading "for inspiration" rather than writing. Anyhow, here are a few that seem intriguing. The first one is a memoir, the second is not - but it is a book-documentary. Being a "reality-based" book, it seems close enough and I might be picking up one of these soon. Do you have suggestions for a really, good, well written book?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/17/AR2009071701096.html?wprss=rss_print/bookworld


http://www.amazon.com/Random-Family-Drugs-Trouble-Coming/dp/0684863871
Here also, is an NPR interview about the book.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1254225

Keep reading - it can change the world!

Things to teach your kids

Calling all parents - check out this list from My Super-Charged Life, print it, stick it on your fridge and return to it often to find things your kids really need to learn. No really, they will use grocery shopping tips more often than the martial arts lessons you're shuttling them to twice a week. A list after my own heart - so mnay mornings, I've scrambled to heat up the iron because I could NOT send the kids out in a wrinkled T-Shirt; never mind that half the school shows up that way.
When I worked in New York, taking the bus or train into the city was one of the favorite activities of my two year old son. I miss public transportation!
So read on - Enjoy & Apply!

http://mysuperchargedlife.com/blog/guest-posts/

All things bright & beautiful

Cute Lunch Bags, Backpacks and more - As I pack lunch for my two young 'uns, I was thinking that Arjun needs a new lunchbox. Actually, he needs a lunch bag, period, since he's left the last two we've bought at school on different occasions. With that thought in miond, I jumped for joy when I saw this post from Cool Mom Picks
http://www.coolmompicks.com/2009/07/rolling_with_dante_beatrix.php
I followed it through to the Dante Beatrix website looking for lunch bags and more. Once there, I realized though that my little one, at 7, is probably a little too old for bunny and ladybug themed lunchbags. I'm still getting one for Saanya too - we picked out the pink Bunny bag. Have a look and get the cute stuff while you still can.

Mall Architecture - Never thought the two words belong together? Well, read on. If you're a Mom in the burbs like me, trips to the Mall are probably a fixture on your shopping and social calendar. Wouldn't it be cool if our malls could look a little bit more like this one in South Korea? It's a "Theme Park & Shop" area called Dalki and its so amazingly gorgeous. Check out the full post on Design-Milk.
http://design-milk.com/dalki-theme-park-and-shop-korea-by-slade-architecture/