Missing Russian Nesting Dolls

Ok, I don't know if you can see the missing piece, the second to the smallest doll!!!!

First let me give you some history---I can remember playing with a set of these as a child around X-Mas time at my grandparents house, I would play with them in front of a blazing fire in the marble fireplace. The flames were so big and danced off of the 12 foot ceilings, I can close my eyes and smell the fire still. I loved them, made of wood and intricately painted and full of detail. Not anywhere near the plastic toys of that time, Fashion Plates, electron synthesizers--Yes it was the 80's. But something drew me to these simple, but not so simple antique dolls. I didn't have any of my own (I was mesmerised with history (the old)) and I knew they were special!!! How in the world were they made I would think, hand carved and so skillfully they would fit into one another.

Antique shopping about 2 months Ago!!!
I went into an antique shop I go in every so often. Not so much to buy because I don't have that kind of money or that kind of family (too many kids)!! As I was about to leave I realised I had forgotten an isle and I went down it and noticed the smallest set of Nesting Dolls I had ever seen!!!! I picked them up and opened them, inquired on the price and grabbed them up. I don't know if I paid too much, but the owner of the shop insisted she was quoting me a good price. I knew they were old and that I WANTED THEM!!!!!! They look like little Muslimahs, with hair covered, love em!!!

Well I proudly put them on my dresser away from little hands, but of course my 3 year old could see it and I allow her to hold and unnest them with my supervision. I don't let her touch the little darlings because I want to, but I do it because something tells me she knows they are special (maybe she even sees in them something I did) and I want my kids to be able to touch, feel, and hold things they are surrounded by. I don't have the DON'T TOUCH THAT MENTALITY in my house....I don't like the idea of living in a museum.

THE CATASTROPHE.......I cleaned all day Saturday, rearranged my dresser, took everything off of it and accidently left the dolls on my bed (too small to see)!!! My 2 middle children find it in my bed and put it on my dresser (I later find out). So I am walking thru the room and step on something small and pick them up. I realise I am holding 2 of the smallest peices of the dolls (see the picture, yes I am talking about those 2 dots!!!!
GET THIS.......... 30 minutes earlier my 3 year old is crying about having a stomach ache. I'm not talking about complaining, I am talking about crying and crying!!! So I fix her some herbed tea for her tummy and bring it to her (I have put her in my bed and snuggled her up in soft blankets). She looks at it and whispers "dipper", which means I want a cookie to dip in the hot tea. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, stomach ache, I think not. She then dips her finger in it, tastes it and is miraculously healed by a finger dip.............uh huh!!!!
To continue from stepping on peices....Someone had done something with the dolls and I start screaming at the kids, where are my dolls (Still hadn't hit me who the culprit was)? My 3 year old starts crying again louder.....yep, the stomach ache is starting to make sense now. I look at her in her eyes and ask her 20 times what she did with my dolls and all she could say was "I couldn't put them together (as she is crying her head off)"!!!! I keep asking her where they are and she keeps saying "Your gonna be mad at me"!!! You know what really makes me mad? Have to repeat myself over and over again and not getting a response, well she is 3 (so I keep my cool)!! Well as much as I could, lol!! Out of nowhere my brain says "look in garbage", so I ask her if she threw them away? The rest of my crew runs to the kitchen garbage can and looks in. Guess what?-----we can see a few pieces. My son, being the brave one he is, digs thru the trash and finds every piece but 1. Ewwwwwwww, but so nice of him to do. He does this twice because we couldn't find the piece that you see missing in the picture. Finally, he comes smiling to me with the piece in his hand. I am SOOOOOOOOOOO happy!!! Then I start thinking, Ya Allah, my 3 year old has the mind of a criminal (lets not leave the pieces, lets get rid of the evidence)!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Anyway, this is just part of that day, alhamdulillah for everything, Note to self......YOU ARE SO OUTNUMBERED!!!!

How I Love My Coffee.....Oh Let Me Count The Ways

COFFEE............ME LIKE COFFEE (said in a Cookie Monster voice)
OK, I admit it I am addicted!!!! I was talking to a very dear friend of mine yesterday, and she has had to pull the plug on coffee for health reasons!!!! As I was listening to her, panic raced through my brain. Coffee-how could I make it without my precious coffee, the thing I run to every morning. Drinking it is as natural as your morning trip to the bathroom every morning--wait maybe even BREATHING!!! My kids will go and make it for me if they see my attitude is not so wonderful, they know what I'm missing.

So, I got to thinking about how I got on this coffee thing. My Gram always drank black coffee and I can remember her getting me to fix it for her in the morning and she would take necta sweet or some form of false sugar in it---GAG!!! I never tried coffee with her, I guess it just didn't look appealing. But since I could remember, mind you I can remember things from as young as 3 years of age, she drunk that in the morning....but I think I can pinpoint the exact moment coffee started to interest me. I was up North for the Summer, my Gram and I always flew there for the Summer. We stayed in the family home with my Great Grandmother, how I loved the visits. The entire 9 months after spending my summers there was spent day dreaming about my next return. Ok, I think I was 11 or 12 years of age and my Minni (My great grandmother), said she wanted to take me to lunch and go for a drive. Well, it was a big deal for me because where I come from, lunch is a happy meal (which in itself when I was a kid was incredibly exciting). Not to mention the town we lived in was like 45 minutes away from this little place we stopped in on the side of the road. The waitress took our drink order and Minnie ordered Iced Coffee, I thought that a bit strange, I had never heard of "Iced Coffee". Well the waitress brings us our drinks and of course I had to try it. I thought it disgusting, but was very intrigued by the way Minnie easily drank it and seemed to enjoy it so. I thought "it's bitter and cold". Well, it was.

My gram whom by the way was Minnie's daughter loved Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, but when it wasn't available at the local corner store in town, would be happy with Coffee Ice Cream. Ok, there was that taste again, only this time it was creamy and sweet. Ok, I was hooked, then when visiting the elderly in town I would hunt out those hard coffee candies in their candy dishes that probably had been sitting for years. Yeah, you know the ones, they have been there so long that when you bite into them they are soft and gooey until you get half way thru where they are hard. But hey, it was coffee flavored and it would do!!!!! As the years passed I wasn't much on a hot cup of coffee, but anything that was coffee flavored I would gobble up.

O.k, my abuse of coffee would have to have happened a few kids in, LOL!!!! I Homeschool and am the "Jack of All Trades master of NONE" kind of mom. So I need alot of caffeine to keep up with my "rowdy, never get tired, busy, energetic, "Momma so and so hit me" bunch!

ALLAH---I am truly grateful for coffee!!!

MashaAllah

I know that this may be "just" a rose to you, but to me I am truly in awe of, the genius that Allah truly is, SubhanAllah....................if you could only see it in person with its hot pink and yellow speckles. I use to wonder where crayons got their colors from because you don't always see such vibrant colors in nature. As a kid I thought somebody just made them up, by mixing colors together. But, as I look at this--it is a reminder that Allah is the maker of everything!!!!!

Butterflies

Assalamu alaykum
The butterflies finally hatched!!!! MashaAllah Alhamdulillah, to watch them transform from caterpillars to Butterflies. The kids have been so excited about getting to watch them emerge!!! They started yesterday late afternoon, I was coming in from being outside and rush of emotions came running towards me, "Mama, mama the butterflies are hatching!!!" Well my eldest didn't bother to put the Butterfly tent up (where they are to make their last day hanging onto the inside of the tent until they emerged), after telling him since last Friday to please do so. So it was a rush to get it up and a frenzy to say the least. But I finally did with all my screaming kids telling me to hurry, when they first emerge is very sensitive. They are not supposed to be bothered because the coloring is rushing through their bodies and their wings have to harden. It takes up to 2 hours. Needless to say, a few of ours didn't make it. This morning we caught 3 of them emerging. SubhanAllah is all I have to say!!!! They want to get in the tent and let them fly around them, which is the purpose of the tent. So, I am getting an update on them ummm......... let's say every 10 minutes or less. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! As a matter of fact in Isha prayer last night I heard two of them saying, "I'm gonna make dua to Allah to let the butterflies not die (the ones that didn't look so good)" and they slept in the living room with them. Innocence,,,I love it, May Allah preserve that in them always..

Hmmmmmmmmm...............American Food Vs. Others

I made samoosas today, got me thinking as I was making these delicacies.... Being American I grew up on Spaghetti, Welsh Rabbit (frozen) yuk yuk, Pizza at least once a week, corned beef (frozen), and whatever else my hard working momma had the energy to make. I had no idea about "other" foods, I think of the extent that MiddleEastern and Asian countries go thru to prepare their foods. Not to mention the French and other countries. Seems Americans food is prepared on "the fly", while there is nothing wrong with that, but not all the time. Then people wonder why we are so overweight with our prepackeged, frozen, non nutritious meals. Lots of carbs. Since being married and finding out there are other cuisines out there I now wondered how I ever lived without "good food". The thing that bothers me the most about preparing these dishes is the time spent preparing them. I'm sure that if my mom had 3 hours to give to preparing a meal she would have. I say 3 hours because I have a big family, MashaAllah, and then there is cleanup!!!! So neat looking are the samoosa, I use to spend hours making with their cute triangle shapes. Going to the effort of cutting the eggroll wrappers in half and putting just enuf filling inside so that they aren't overflowing or too skimpy. Well, I finally gave up on them and had to find a way to cut the time, so instead of cute triangles, I just wrap them up in eggroll shapes and let them "have at it". The kids love them all the same!!! The only time my mom spent 3 hours cooking was On Thanksgiving or Christmas. For me this is the norm. Needless to say, when first married and whole chicken bagged was put in front of my face and I had to clean it---I cried and cried. I thought it was disgusting, you see, the only chicken I had ever seen for the first 17 years of my life was cleaned, prepackaged (no gutts), boneless breast fillets. Now I cut whole chickens up like it's nobodies business, lol. Even to this day when mom pops in for a visit I offer her some "foreign food" and she is grossed out by the looks of it. However, my dad loves anything I send, his palate is a bit more adventurous, and I think his stomach does a little dance when something is sent to him. Needless to say, my kids get burnt out on the food that I spend hours on, just like I use to get burnt out on my moms. Sometimes my eldest refuses to eat, Well we have a saying around here----Go to bed hungry and you wake up hungry, Go to bed full and wake up hungry------It's sooooooooooo true.

Thank you Allah for any and all food.....Amen