Friendship and Gifts

Yesterday I met friends for breakfast at Ayyame.  

Years ago, we were a group of 10-12 but many have left the country.

We hadn't seen each other since travelling for the summer. Susana went to Venezuela; Zainab went to Dubai and London; Elena went to Romania and Italy; I went to Sri Lanka and Germany; and Melissa went to Dubai.

   So there was lots of gift giving and catching up to do.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Koosa, Crochet and a Cat Award

Yesterday, on her last day here, my SIL made meshi and taboulleh for lunch.  Meshi is koosa (zucchini) that is normally stuffed with rice and meat, but she made it vegetarian just for me and boy oh boy was it good.  

While she was busy packing, I started a granny square baby afghan but am not really liking the olive green color.  In direct sunlight, it seems to match the variegated yarn perfectly, but in dim light, it looks totally different.  I think I may need to unravel and find a different green so have stopped working on it for now.

With early morning temperatures cooling off, the flowers are starting to bloom more and more. 

I just wish our afternoon temperatures would cooperate. It's still well above 100 degrees every single day.

The birdies and kitties are wishing for cooler weather, too.

Jingles would like to thank Sudden, the Cape and Miss Truls for the cat award she received yesterday 

and would like to pass it on to:

Honey Cat at Writing Straight from the Heart

Leo, Cyrus and Talullah at A Little Fur in the Paint

Maxwell and Nina at Rostrose

and her many feline friends at Mariette's Back to Basics.

Happy weekend wishes.

The Weekend

One of the new teachers at school asked me what I was most looking forward to this weekend.  I said  putting my pajamas on and staying home.

 All schools started back this past Sunday and traffic that day was pure hell. The kids and I have had to get up earlier so we can head out by 6:40 a.m. just to avoid all the craziness.

Early, lazy mornings are nice.  Extra early mornings of rushing around I could do without.

Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely?

(Karen Brademeyer)

My husband and his sister returned on Tuesday from a week long trip to Jordan and Jerusalem where they visited family.

She'll be heading back to Toronto at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, so until then, I'll be a bit busy.

I hope you all are having a great week.
Best wishes,

The Dilemma

Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.

(The Land Before Time)

On the way to school one morning a couple of weeks ago, I saw a sight that I will never forget.  A kitty was crossing the street dragging her backside on the ground, her hind legs totally paralyzed.

 I looked for her every day, but didn't see her again until one night last week.  I walked around the block to take her food and water and to talk to her.  She has the sweetest little meow.  I did this several times and I pondered the humane thing to do.  Leave her to live the only life she knows?  Try to catch her and take her to the vet to be euthanized?   I even asked for input from friends.

As it turns out, I got my answer last night.  As I took her food and water again, I was stopped by a man who saw what I was doing.  He said that his brother feeds the cat cat every day.  That she is a fighter.  She doesn't let any other cat take her food.  And she can move ... fast, no one can catch her.  He told me not to worry.  She's doing okay.

While so many turn a blind eye, it is nice to know that kindness does prevail.

How beautiful a day can be
When kindness touches it!
~George Elliston~

Best wishes and blessings, 

Peaceful and Happy

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Yesterday was the United Nations International Day of Peace.

And today marks the first day of Autumn in the US and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.

After a crazy, busy work week, I was quite content and happy to spend a very peaceful weekend at home.

My one and only mission:

to complete the baby blanket.

And that's exactly what I did.

The moss roses I bought last weekend have started to bloom.  A sure sign that the weather is slowly changing.

Even though our day time temperatures are still so very hot, early mornings and evenings are starting to cool off bit by bit with each passing day.  And that's a very good thing for a kitty who likes to be outdoors.

I hope your weekend is peaceful and happy.

A Little Update

Progress on the baby blanket has been slow.  I managed just a little work on it over the weekend but most of my time was spent preparing for a visitor.

My sister-in-law arrived late Sunday night from Toronto and she came bearing gifts. 

 An old photo album that was found in my in-law's house after they both had passed away.  It's the first time I've seen a baby picture of my husband -- he's the one in the middle.  So cute!

 It was so fun to see all these pictures from 50+ years ago and eye opening to see a side of my in-laws that I never knew.

 She also brought this pencil drawing of their dad done years ago by a family friend.

Hubby and his sister have now gone off on a trip together.

And I'm still trying to keep up with the business of every day life.

But, of course, taking just a little bit of time for some sweet stuff, too.

 Coconut cookies.

1 cup flour; 1 cup flaked coconut; 1 cup sugar (I put less); 1 egg; 1 stick of melted butter.

Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday!

Life and Blooms

Yesterday morning at 6:30 a.m. my husband witnessed a horrific accident.  A pedestrian crossing the highway was hit by a car going at very, very high speed.  I couldn't even bear to hear the details.  It just doesn't make sense to me that on an empty highway so early in the morning something like that could happen.

While visiting Piece O' Cake today, I came across this inspiring video called Before I Die.  It's amazing how one simple idea can have such an impact and then ripple around the world.  Lovely, wonderful things do happen; we just don't often get to hear about them.

At the beginning of this year, when we were still in the "winter months", our balconies were filled with beautiful plants.  This picture of Jingles watching the world go by is one of my favorites.

Unfortunately, all that beautiful greenery perished in the summer heat.  So in an effort to green things up again, we made a trip to the plant souk yesterday afternoon.

Even though our temperatures are still at least 110 every day, mornings and evenings are a little more bearable.  I spent several hours yesterday and some time today repotting everything we brought home.  Imagine my surprise when one of the old plants that I thought was a goner actually bloomed today.

Yesterday Suzanne at Privet and Holly wrote a beautiful post entitled Autumn Bloomers where she compared life and blooms.  Her posts are always so thought provoking.

Have a blessed day!

Flying By

I find it so hard to believe that it's already mid-September.  Time is really flying and there's been little time for blogging or crafting lately.

I'm so busy at work that by the time I get home, I don't want to do much of anything, yet there's always so much to do to prepare for the next day.  Since I like to keep tins of baked goods on my desk at school, I do try to make time for baking at least a couple of times a week. 

Bite-sized oatmeal cookies:  1/2 cup butter softened; 1/4 cup brown sugar; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 3/4 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/8 tsp ground allspice; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla; 3/4 cup flour, 1 cup quick cooking oats; 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips; 1/3 cup dried cranberries.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake til golden.

All the baking makes my boss and co-workers very happy!

 

Blueberry muffins:  1/4 cup canola oil; 1/2 cup honey; 1/2 cup skimmed milk; 1 egg; 1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour; 2 tsps baking powder; 1/4 tsp salt; 1 TBS lemon juice, lemon zest, 1/2 cup blueberries.

Haven't made much progress on the baby blanket.  The good news is that little Emma Rachel was able to go home a few days ago, so I really need to get this blanket done soon.

The other good news is that I received an email today from Helen Phillips informing me that I won a prize in her recent giveaway.  Her work is so lovely and she always has such pretty things to share on her blog.

I hope you've all had a good week!

Happy weekend wishes,

My Favorite Kinda Day

I'm not a morning person, but I do love early Saturday mornings when Jingles and I are the only ones awake.  

And everything is nice and quiet.

While she did some birdwatching.

I made pancakes and froze the leftovers for breakfasts this week.

Baked banana muffins.

1-1/2 mashed bananas; 1/4 cup canola oil; 1/2 cup honey; 1/2 cup skim milk; 1 egg; 1-1/2 cups wheat flour; 2 tsps baking powder; 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix, spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 til done.

And used the dates from my co-worker to make oatmeal date squares. 

Boil 1/2 cup water with 1 cup of pitted chopped dates then lower heat and simmer until thickened.  Mix together 1-1/2 cup quick oats; 1 cup whole wheat flour; 1/2 cup brown sugar; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/3 cup canola oil and 1 egg.  Spread half the oat mixture into a greased baking dish, spread the date mixture evenly over the top, then pat the remaining oat mixture over the dates.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool completely before cutting.

And since the oven was already on, I sliced up an eggplant for roasting to make eggplant parmigiana.

While the roasting was going on, I decided to make a quick trip to the hardware store to pick out paint for our offices at school.  Turned out to be not so quick a trip after all ... I was there for an hour and a half.  Had to call Yusef and have him turn off the oven.  Picking out paint to please several people with different tastes is no easy task.

The parmigiana recipe I sort of followed is by Mario Batali and was recommended by Sam at Farmgirlsam.  I basically used the recipe as a guide, didn't really follow it to a tee.  The good news is,  even my picky 13 year old loved it.

Even better news is that after painting 8 samples on the wall today at school, we decided on colors.  I just hope we actually like the look once it is done.  Picking colors for any project is never easy for me.

 On Friday night, I actually did get my yarn rolled into balls and made a start on the baby blanket.  Not sure how I will work in the other granny squares I made since all the yarn is different sizes.  They aren't really fitting together but I'll figure something out.

Today it was back to school.  Another week of trying to keep up -- it seems like all I do is wash clothes and dishes.

Hope you are having a fabulous day!