The Story Of Us

I don't know.. well I do know how but I accidentally ended up changing my blog layout again. My original banner is gone. I will have to make a new one. I got a Google alert saying my blog was not mobile friendly and while I was trouble shooting I changed the layout. This was not not my first time doing it this year.. so just face slap! Anyway..  Today is the 3rd day of Ramadan. While some of you may be familiar with Ramadan I know many may not be. So I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about it. And if you have any additional questions.. ask away.  We start the roza (fasting) just before dawn, there is an actual time when the roza starts so all eating must be done before then. We wake up and have sehri (breakfast) which can be as simple as a bowl of cereal to an elaborate multi dished meal. M and I try to open our eyes as little as possible so we stick with simple. We mix it up a bit with eggs and toast, cereal with fruit, I am going to try some overnight oats this

Last week we celebrated Eid. M took the day off.. the kids skipped school.. it was all well and good but it got me thinking about how we would have been celebrating if we were in Pakistan and of course pre covid. Something my kids will most likely never experience.  A couple of nights before Eid the markets would be open past midnight.. a hustle and bustle.. most people buy new clothes to wear for the day of. Matching glass bangles.. oh I used to have so many glass bangles. Not a fan personally but most apply henna to their hands. The night before Eid is especially festive.  The morning of Eid we wake up at the crack of dawn to pray and then the celebrating begins, which mainly includes a lot of eating. We generally celebrate for 3 days. It involves visiting the homes of all of our uncles and aunts, other close family members as well as friends. Usually it's a 20 minute stop at each home where they ply you with food and the elders gift the kids money known as an Eidi. Most create

There we have it, Ramadan has come and gone and it almost flew right by with the exception of a few days when we though it would never end. (Most of us have been fasting even before we hit puberty.. our first fast being around the age of 6 or 7, some even younger) The first day was difficult.. as in I think I might die of starvation. After those first two days things got much better and I was in the mood to cook. M felt that after a long day of fasting dinner should be something special, like a reward. So we feasted. We added a glass of juice and finished the night with fruit or ice cream. But as days went on my enthusiasm started to falter. It wasn't the hunger that was my problem is was mainly the lack of caffeine.. so I cooked some days and then days came were I went back to simpler meals and even leftovers camouflaged as new. By the time we were into week three and especially week four, the finish line was within reach but the lack of sleep was catching up with us and we