The Story Of Us

I've been a little off these past couple of weeks.. the days seem to be speeding by. I haven't been sleeping well.. and the days just seems to be blurring together. I feel uninspired and unmotivated. Not to say nothing has been happening.. life still goes on.  We have of course been reading.. D is reading The Mysterious Benedict Society and H is attempting to read The One and Only Bob, he still needs help with some of the words. We finished the first Harry Potter book and have now started the second one. Over the last few weeks we also watched a lot of movies based on books. We watched the first Harry Potter movie, The One and Only Ivan and Wonder. When asked, the answer was unanimous, the books were better than the movie. Hands down. The boys preferred the way they had imagined things, the movies skipped so many parts..  The weather has been all over the place.. and we are making the most of all the warm days that are popping up. In fact we even had an impromptu photo session

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

Where do we start.. the world, common sense, basic kindness, humanity.. everything is just falling apart, we are seeing a lot of peoples true colors and they are not pretty. The news, social media everything is veering to push one over the edge and into a downward spiral. I wonder which dystopian fictional world will be our reality? Too much negativity.. I know.. gotta try to keep things a little positive..  Our quarantine world has opened up a little. We hit the tennis courts a couple of times a week.. sometimes M and I.. sometimes M and D. We have been biking around the neighborhood.. we started to venture out onto a semi main road. The kids and I have taken up jogging in the mornings before breakfast.. we don't get much far.. turns out none of us have much stamina.. something we are working on. Hopefully we'll all come of this quarantine a little bit healthier.  We have also taken up golf.. well at least attempting to. M occasionally plays golf, the rest of us have only ever

Thank you so much for all your kind words on my last post..  We are in June.. can you believe it? 19 more days of school left.. phew. Our summer vacation is going to have to be cancelled.. I am putting off cancelling our flights till we get closer to July.. we were supposed to be visiting family and friends in Pakistan.. M hasn't seen his sister in over four years.  The kids take a crash course swim class every summer and we were just informed that they will take place as scheduled.. so that's something to look forward to. D is also turning 10 at the end of the month.. we are hoping things will open up a bit more till then and maybe we can have a little picnic with some friends and family to celebrate.  It has finally warmed up and we had our first barbecue of the season..  We live in a semi wooded area so we are no strangers to deer roaming our streets and yards.. but it was our first time spotting a fawn as small as this one laying down as such. We usually se

So after a week of social distancing I am happy to report to say we are all good. The kids had a week of remote learning. Thank God for the internet, WIFI and Google Classroom. It made the whole process so much easier for the 4th grader and while school work is easier for the Kindergartner.. with so many apps and games but it is much harder to keep him focused and on task. But by the end of the week we had gotten a better hang of the whole situation.. phew. M has been working from home as well.. we have turned off all alarms.. we have always been morning people so we're up between 8am - 9am.. have breakfast as a family. Before he used to leave just when we were starting to wake up.. with just enough time for a quick good bye.  Before M used to get home after 7pm.. followed by a quick dinner and bed time.. now he wraps up before 6pm. With the weather warming up M and the boys play outside.. (I sprained my knee so no playing for me)  With no alarms

Things have been busy.. I can't believe we're already half way into February. We have been skiing.. we are getting a little better each year.. haven't completely left the bunny hill behind but we're working on it. We attended a Knicks Game.. our first one.. it was fun.. but I still think I enjoy watching hockey games the most. The kids participated in their school science fair.. My parents, who were in town in December are back in town again and before they left the country they wanted to do one more little getaway with the boys.. so we made a quick trip to DC over the weekend..  M and I also had our birthdays last week.. the celebration has been postponed but it's something I'm really really looking forward to.  We recently picked up Ben Clanton's Narwhal books for H and these are the cutest books.. even D has been joining us for story time each night. If you have a little reader in the house.. or know a little reader, the

Ah! Summer vacations have finally begun. I.. we have been counting down to this day for weeks now. Finally no alarms. The kids don't go to camp.. and save for a swim crash course later in July we are free. A few years ago I read somewhere.. and it's the most obvious thing but it hadn't occurred to me before then; 18 summers is all we get with our children.. maybe more if we're lucky so we need to try to make each one count. Which means I may disappear here and there.. The weeks leading up to today were crazy busy with the end of Ramadan and Eid celebrations.. I had friends visiting. One I hadn't seen in 5 years and another in 3.. I met some of their kids for the first time.. and while we only had a few hours together we had a wonderful time catching up and it was a joy to watch all our babies playing together. We celebrated D's 9th birthday over the weekend.. more details on the birthday to follow soon. And H graduated Pre K.. He's off to public