The Story Of Us

The other day I was reminded by my kids that I never did a back to school post.. So to remedy that.. But today as I post this it is November.. two months of school already flown by. Two months away from the end of the year.  Those last few days of August and early days of September we spent on the Jersey Shore. We have a marvelous stretch of beach in our state and we have hardly ever really enjoyed it. So we lounged and ate and read and did what one does on the beach. The waves were very active.. and it made for some fun times. Lifeguards were always on duty so we felt relatively safe. We even spotted dolphins right off the coast.  View from the balcony. We had gotten a place with a little kitchenette.. so we cooked some meals I had pre prepped at home.. and watched movies and played games..  Labor Day weekend M was playing a cricket tournament in Chicago. We both have a lot of family in the windy city so D decided to tag along..  He spent time with his great aunts a...

Where do I even begin? Hope you all had a wonderful summer. And while we had a very rocky start to ours we were able to end it on a high note. Let's start with D. Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers. They have helped immensely. While D had shown improvement compared to the early weeks of his diagnosis the doctor was still concerned with the speed of progress. There are three areas of concern, health of cornea, murdering of parasite and lastly vision. The murdering of the parasite has been going well.. not dead yet. But the doctor was especially concerned with the health of his cornea. So, we had cut our trip a little short so he could have an outpatient procedure done (applying amniotic membrane to his cornea) to boost it's health before school started. Well, (and this is where all your thoughts and prayers come in) when we arrived for the appointment the doctor was shocked at the recovery he had made in the past 10 days. So much so that he said the proced...

How are we all doing? Where has time flown by? Farewell summer (I am happy to say mainly because it has been just so so hot), hope you all had a good one. And hello September, which of course means back to school. They are three days in at this point and D has homework every single day. Even the weekend. I am not a big fan of enormous amounts of homework especially on the weekend. H on the other hand had no homework and I wished his teacher had at least given him something. Never satisfied are we?  Both boys will do there regular sports this year, D wants to join the chess club as well (he has developed a sudden and intense interest in it this past year) There is also a podcasting club (new) and I am pushing him into trying it out.    This has been quite the summer.. we started it off with our trip to Switzerland and wrapped it up with a trip to California.. but more on that soon. When we weren't traveling  The boys were playing tennis with their favorite coach. This...

The last few weeks of summer have slipped away.. and school has started.. we were hoping to cram in a bunch of fun in August but things don't always go according to plan. We had a trip to Florida planned (it seemed like a good idea in May and we were all newly vaccinated) and Florida refused to get with the program.. so bye bye trip to the Keys. :( We heard of this new Airbnb-esque website where you can rent peoples pools by the hour. We don't have a pool so we thought why not. This time the weather decided to be uncooperative. We rescheduled twice but we had days of rain and clouds.. plus lets not forget about Hurricane Ida. Thankfully we were unaffected but our thoughts go out to all those who were. M got the boys a jungle gym obstacle course.. this was the highlight really. It was a pain to put up but the boys are really loving it. We also managed to make a trip to the zoo. We usually go to the Bronx Zoo but it ends up being a whole day event.. so we decided to try another z...

Ah where do I start? We are back from our little vacation and it was perfect.. a post on that will be coming soon.. The kids started school.. they had two virtual days.. it was smooth sailing for the 5th grader.. not so much for the 1st grader.. I wanted to send that teacher a big virtual hug.. juggling twenty something 6 year olds in school and online at the same time can't be easy. Currently their school day ends at 12pm which I guess is great for the teacher.. less great for me. Waking up early has been a real struggle.  They went to school in person for two days as well.. it's been pretty uneventful so far.. thankfully. I got them lanyards (that is such a weird word) for their masks so they don't accidentally drop them on the floor. In fact M and I attached them to our masks as well and found them very useful.  On inquiring I was not quite surprised when the boys said they prefer virtual learning to in person. They are introverts and don't crave the need to be aroun...

Things have been busy around here.. About two weeks ago we celebrated the Islamic New Year. Afterwards we observed 10 days of mourning for the atrocities committed against Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet in Karbala, Iraq during the month of Moharram.  It's practically September now.. meaning school will be starting soon. For now our school district has proposed a hybrid system. You have the choice of opting for 100% virtual learning, the rest of the students have been divided into two groups. Half of them will attend school on Mondays and Tuesdays while the other half will attend school on Thursdays and Fridays.. Wednesday everyone will stay home. September will also be a month of half days just to see how things go.. We have opted to send the kids to school for two days a week. We're not sure what to expect exactly, wouldn't be surprised in the school decides to go virtual even before it starts.. or if everything shuts down again within a few weeks. And we do all...