When the little gift from the jewelry store excites you more than the purchase itself!

They live among us!!

It was a good 30 minutes of horror. We live in a townhouse community and I was outside my door talking to a few neighbours. Kids are playing with their scooters and bikes, In all , a very pleasant evening. One lady whom I am not acquainted with ,comes and asks me why I am allowing the kids to play outside where people trying to park their cars might hit them(This part of the community is at the dead end and there is infact no danger from passing cars). I did want to answer that in a whole different way, but since I didn't want any hassles, I politely told her that they weren't my kids, to which she questions my conscience about seeing kids playing in such a situation. I repeated, I wasn't their Mom. Either she was deaf or on drugs, she started her volley of lovely words, including a threat to complain to the management and to the cops. I asked her to please go ahead. What is it with such people, they just don't get the point. She continued her little show that she was having and my bad luck I was her target today. In that short time before she went in, she had yelled and scared all the kids to tears and their moms had come out wondering what went wrong. All of them seemed quite upset about her behaviour , but very surprised and amused at her targeting me who had absolutely no connection with any kids there. Particularly baffled was one lady just  2 days into this country all the way from India.
By this time, my kids who were in a friends house also came back and were quite shocked with this lady's very unlady like behaviour. They went on and on about how That lady used the "B" word, the "F" word etc etc. It took some effort to calm them down. Eventually since the Apt Office had already closed, we thought it wise to keep the Police informed. Police did give her a visit and I am hoping, got her out of her drugs hangover.
Eventually we learnt that she indeed has had problems with the police in the past as well. It was a wake up call for us parents in that neighbourhood that such people do exist and live among us. Especially in a townhouse or apt complex like ours, its much more of a risk. Most of us parents keep the window open and watch as the kids play outside. But after this incident, may be I will stalk my kids when they walk out of the door.
Phew!! There, I let it all out. I Feel better!! Hopefully all this should remain in my kids memory as an incident which Mamma handled well and took control of . Also, that no matter what, don't take bullshit from anybody!!!

Mushroom and Peas Curry

Somehow I seem to get tempted to try simple recipes which can be cooked on a regular basis rather than those meant for parties . "Mushroom and Pea Curry" is one such recipe from the book "Entice with Spice" by Shubra Ramineni. Although the dish didn't end up with as much sauce as I expected, it was still very tasty and extremely easy to prepare. I  think it would be great with rotis or rice, but I served them with Uthapam and they were awesome.So, yet another simple recipe to my collection before I forget. With very few changes to the original, here goes...

Recipe for Mushroom and Pea Curry(Adapted from "Entice with Spice" by Shubra Ramineni)

Ingredients:

8 oz(250 g) whole mushroom - washed and sliced lengthwise

3 tblspns cooking oil

1 medium onion- grated

1 ripe tomato, cut into 4 pieces

1/4 tspn ground turmeric

1 tspn red chili powder

1/4 tspn ground black pepper

1/2 cup frozen or fresh parboiled green peas

2 tblspns yogurt stirred well

1/2 cup water

salt to taste

Procedure:

1.Heat the oil in a saucepan . Add the onion and saute until golden brown.

2.Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato.Cover the saucepan and cook until the tomato gets soft .Lightly mash the tomato.

3. Add the turmeric, red chili and black pepper powders along with the salt and mix well. Continue to cook on low heat for few minutes till you get a nice aroma (or until the little one in the living room gets curious and enters the kitchen to enquire about the dinner :) )

4. Add the mushroom and peas and stir well.Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

5. Add the yogurt and water and bring to a boil over high heat.

6. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for a few minutes. Serve with rice or rotis or like me with Uthapam :)

Do I have teenager in my house?!!

Yes, he is yet to turn nine. Yes, he still does what boys of that age do......sometimes to the extreme. But why is it that at times I feel I am seeing what many parents of teenagers cry about. Oh boy!!
Dev and Jaanu share a bunk bed switching their places sometimes. Since Dev doesn't like to sleep alone, more often than not, he ends up next to me in my bed by midnight. Although I love hugging him and sleeping, I feel I have to get him to the habit of sleeping alone. Isn't it about time? People here in America I believe have the child's separate bed from infancy. Besides after about 9 years of parenting, I feel R and me need some time together . Ahem!
After R tucked them in , and both of us were downstairs, we could hear the kids arguing . When I questioned them the next morning, Jaanu said that Dev wanted her to sleep beside him .But since I had told her not to, she didn't  and so, had to listen to some "great stuff" from her brother for "disobeying" him.
Well, obviously I ended up scolding him and the scene was not so pleasant in our living room.
But what was totally shocking was Dev's behaviour in spite of all this. He seemed soooo mad that Jaanu had "disobeyed" him and also had the "audacity" to tell me the truth. There was not one bit of guilt in all this. In fact he behaved like a victim. Can you believe that?!!!!!
For some reason , I had just enough patience left in me to explain that the whole thing was actually HIS fault. He eventually agreed(or seemed to) to my point and I thought I managed the issue well. But guess how my dear boy apologises. A grumpy "Sorry" followed by rolling of his eyes!!

Logcabin quilt and a memory built.

I am a very emotionally expressive mom(or for that matter person) and no matter what people think, thats how I will remain. My brother does everything he can , to get me to be "practical" but clearly its not working. Jaanu has taken on me I guess but not Dev. Jaanu doesn't need an excuse to smother you with kisses or hug you till you choke. She doesn't care where she is nor who is watching. But Dev would rather wait for everybody to be out of sight to cuddle upto me. When he does say something sweet, its never meant to be sweet or such, Its just what it is.But I make sure that I take it ,how I want to take it :).
I have made this big blue logcabin quilt for Dev and whilst giving it the finishing touches., it was so heart warming to think that some day when I am away from him and he gets under this quilt , a part of me will be with him and may be he will think of me. I passed this thought to him and he says in a very matter of fact way... Mamma, you are what I always think of when going to sleep. Well..its either you or Super Mario bros .  It was definitely not meant to be senti but hey..... he made my day so special. I could go without food today :D .
p.s : R's face spoke a million words of jealousy on hearing this. I love it!!

I hope my kids have selective memory in my favour !!

Do you think my kids will remember that I got them to behave right sometimes by blackmailing? Dev told Jaan , that she stinks like Rishon(becoz she ate cereals stuck to an apple piece which had fallen into the bowl).

Instead of telling him to think how he would feel in such a situation, I said that I would EMAIL his teacher that he used to pick his nose :D .... In my defense, Dev was unusually grumpy that morning and my patience had worn out and I am not like this everyday.

P.S., I can use this tactic only until he grows old enough to realise that I can't possibly email his teacher such stuff.

Mamma gives me bread and jam!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Saturday was wonderful . I looked forward to meet Pratima and Kalyan for lunch at one of my favorite chinese restaurants here. Since thats located not so far from our house, I hoped that the couple would stop by and chill out for a while . Well...I got busy cleaning up and getting the mess out of direct sight which happens mostly just before we expect any guests here ( I sure hope my mom-in-law or my dad never read this blog post. They have enough reasons to complain about me already :D ). A few looks in my kids direction gave them the signal that they should also help. Dev is not always happy about helping me and today was no exception and he had to make this memorable for me in some way, didn't he??!! With this totally indifferent attitude he says " At least we get to eat outside today. The last time we had guests over, you gave us bread and Jam" . This was followed by rolling of his eyes. It didn't take too long for me to get his point. What happened last time was ,we had some guest over for dinner and the menu was not very simple. As such , I didn't want to cook anything for lunch. Dev along with ALL of us had bread and jam that noon . Of course they were constantly snacking too . What amazes me was that  ,the only thing that he remembered about that day was that he had BREAD and JAM and how conveniently he forgot the elaborate dinner. He sure has talent for that . and what a poor thing is he that he gets BREAD and JAM to eat. I can't believe I did that to my child!! Look how deprived my boy in red is . ಆಯೋ ಪಾಪ  . :D You think I let him go JLT. No way, not without taunting him for the rest of the weekend :D. After all I am his MOM!!