Dust ... *cough* ... *cough* ...

Spider webs!

Its been really long since I've posted anything on my blog ... Its been a hectic year really ...

Let me start by wishing you all "Ramadan Kareem" (better late than never, right?)

Secondly, work has sucked the life out of me ... plus 3 children to take care of can be quite a handful too! But its worth it to see them happy & healthy!!!

So what's the latest on the Bahraini blogosphere? Any major happenings I might have missed other than the genius decisions of blocking Google Translator?

I hope all's well and that all my dear readers are happy and healthy.

Love

Soul

Israel - A Nation of Thiefs

What do you do when you are surrounded by a nation of thiefs who's only objective in life is to steal as much land as possible by any means (be it massacaring a million and a half people for example).

That is the essence of the country that calls itself Israel. It is nothing but a country founded on a bunch of lies, and is now doing everything in its power (as supplied by the US of A of course) to defend those lies and to destroy anyone that claims (rightly) any right to live.

It disgusts me to hear that the "emergency" meeting of the Arabs (mashalla 3laihoum) will only be held on friday, after a few more hundred innocent Palestinians inlcuding children of course will be massacred by America's spoilt little baby.

The Israeli killing machine will not stop until it takes over the entire region and muffles out the voices of the rightful owners of the land that they have stolen.

SAVE GAZA

Search your Soul

Remember the Gazans today...

We are all Gazans during this difficult times.

Peace to Palestine

SoulSearch

Seif's 4th Birthday

A few updates from my time off...

We celebrated Seif's 4th bithday with a CARS cake! He was thrilled.

I discovered he's such a shy boy! I love him.

Happy Birthday Sufyano.

I love you sweetheart.

Love,

Mama

We took a roadtrip to Kuwait, the kids loved it. Its great when you can convert your carseats to a bed for them. They loved the makeshift feeling! Shopping is amazing in Kuwait and the weather was not as bad as Bahrain. We were able to breathe for two minutes with no ACs, unlike Bahrain!!! Humidity is what is killing us here!!!

We did alot of shopping from IKEA, we actually spent the entire day there!!! The Avenues are huge!!! But you've got to have a huge budget because the Bahraini Dinar drops drastically before the might Kuwaiti Dinar!!!

Peace to you all...

Soul

Back Online...

Hello World,

I'm back online, back at my desk, back to the corporate world after 3 weeks of bliss. Its true that it flew by too fast, but its been amazing. Great bonding time with the kids, and great changes on the home front.

The construction of the house is almost done. Here's a quick summary:

1. All carpentry work has been finished (finally)
2. All plumbing has been fixed.
3. All wiring has been done,

As for pending jobs, these are:
1. Some painting touches still need to be finalized,
* the oustide fence,
* Amina's room
2. We need to buy and install the Air conditioning (We're thinking of Carrier, any suggestions?)
3. Entire cleaning process of the house needds to be done.
4. Finally the parquet...


But most importantly, we are now waiting for the power to come. We must wait for the electricity inspector who then gives us the green light! so to speak...

I'm hoping we could move in before Ramadan which is a week away, but I doubt if that can be done. I'm 50% packed but it would take more than one week to pack and upack 8 years of my life. And its not just me, its the kids as well.
I want to be careful during this transition as they need to adjust more than we do.

Its a huge house, and they have been used to living in a cramped apartment that was their whole world!!! They will be starting school on the 3rd of Septmeber too!!! Aaaaarrrggghhhh
A moment of panic there, but life goes on...

So that's where we are now...

Hope all's well on your front ;)

Love,
SoulSearch

Soul Time

The best part of my career is ...
My annual leave...


Have a Soulful time everyone...

The Whole Wheat Battle

Every morning,I wage a mini battle with my kids. They run to the kitchen, hoping to get there before me, to enjoy white bread or their favorite bleached cereal. But as soon as I am in there, I try to feed them what's good for them. I try!

For Lunch, its the same thing. They come home and expect white pasta or the more traditional white rice and can't imagine themselves eating anything with a tinge of brown.



What is a career mom to do? I need to rush to the office in the morning and don't have much time to argue, so I am sad to say that they win more often than I would like. HELP




I'm supposed to raise my children on whole wheat in a white bread world!

I hate white bread, who invented it & why? who thought of bleaching nature's beautiful bounties, nature's warm colors & goodness to deliver to our tables the un-nutritional white products? They must be evil....

Seriously... white bread is bad for you

The problem in Bahrain is not all nearby grocery stores (what we call cold stores) have brown bread on their shelves. I have to go all the way to a bakery to buy brown bread which is 5 times the price of white bread and then I come home to wage the Wheat Battle with my kids! & Brown Rice is out of the question. When you go into a shop to ask for it, they don't even know what you're talking about! Even whole wheat pasta doesn't seem to be readily available...

What's a caring mama gotta do to get her little kiddies to be whole wheat kids...

Peace,
SoulSearch

Summer Fun

I've been trying to get my kids into a routine since school has been out. They've been kind of bored, loitering around all morning, waiting for 2 really beat parents to join in games, crayons, and craft projects!!!

With kids around, you always need to be a Soul Mama, they need your undivided attention, love and care. And I can only give them just that.

Here is a list of what I plan to do for them in the coming few weeks...

1. Buy a few books; they love it when we read to them, Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss is one of them.
2. Craft Central, I've been thinking of putting together some projects for them to get busy with during the day, including painting, puzzles, math worksheets, etc.
3. I've signed them up for some Quran classes in the morning, a little bit of spirituality to open up their minds.
4. They love swimming and the beach, so maybe once or twice a week, a trip to AlBandar


Can't wait for my annual leave in August, I seriously need some quality family time!

Love,
SoulSearch

Birthday Girl...The Fairy

She had 4 birthday parties, she was soooo excited.

I had to do one at school, one in my in-laws, one in my parents, and one at my grandma's!

She wore her cutie pie fairy costume, and she had a blast!!!

Birthdays have always been special to me, so I wanted her to feel very special on hers!

I love to see her smile, to jump around with happiness, innocence and beauty twirling, I love to feel her hug me and wait for my approving nod. She is my whole world. Both of my kids are, they are the air that I breathe, the light of my life.

Your loving mama,

Soul

Happy 6th Birthday Sweetheart

To my beautiful daughter. May you have a happy happy birthday, today & everyday.

I love you baby...

Love

Mama

The Devil is in the details

Why do people indulge in the nitty gritty of things and try to dive into the gory details of things and forget the bigger picture?

Wake up people...There are children who sleep on empty stomachs day in and day out. There are mothers who can't provide, fathers who are imprisoned, people killed for their thoughts!

It doesn't matter if your blue file is on the red file shelf, or if your invoice was not processed sooner than later!

It doesn't matter if your stationary doesn't match your corporate colors, don't worry too much.

My goodness, the corporate world is driving me nutssssssssss

Peace,
Soulful Soul

Soul Favorites

Soul Searching today, just a few things I have been excited about (& inspired by) and wanted to share...

1. Orange flowers in bloom: Come across this gorgeous tree very morning when I drop the kids to school. They love to watch the bold colors of the flowers, and I love the way they appreciate nature.

2. Really cool prayer rug: designed by Soner Ozenc, it gives you the direction of the Qiblah (Mecca) and it lights up the patterns on it in a florescent iry light. Its called Sajjadah 1426. Love it:

3. I love Weekends. Although I would very much prefer a 5-day weekend, I like spending my 2 days of freedom with the kids walking in the afternoon warmth, just around the block with the kids on their scooties, they love that!

4. Finalizing our kitchen layout: here is the model...

Honey cherry color for the cabinets and a white countertop, they've promised to fix it by 15th June... so fingers crossed!

5. The Kite Runner: By Khalid Hosseini, an amazing read, the journey of an Afghan boy through the tirbulations of childhood, adolecense and adulthood amidst the guilt he felt towards his best friend, Hassan, and the turmoil of the Afghan war and consequent downfall of the country.

Stayed up many many nights reading this book. Loved it!

6. Last but not least: Lebanon, has finally elected a president.

Michelle Sleiman has been elected as the 12th president of the Lebanese Republic. The country was on the brink of another civil war, but people have had enough bloodshed to last them many lifetimes. We already have a bloody warzone in Iraq & Palestine. We dont need one in Lebanon.

Love to everyone...

SoulSearch.

The essence of my life...

Seriously. I think its around 3 or 4 pm that this sort of depression washes over me and I start thinking about my life and how I waste it on the mundane. These are the thoughts that roll inside my head,
what the hell am I doing in this job?
why do I leave my home, my children, my life, and sit here working my a** off?
how will my kids feel about me leaving them for so long every day?
how do I expect them to grow up and be successful and happy when I haven't been around to make sure they do the right things, think the right thoughts?
I miss their homework every day.
I miss discussing with them what they did in school every day.
I miss their playtime,
I miss their lunchtime

The only event I am there for every day is their bedtime.
They go to sleep and I sit up all night wishing they were awake so I could share their lives with them?

I wish it were that easy to quit and stay at home. I am caught between a rock and a hard place.
There's no escape.

No escape.

I feel seriously depressed. These long work hours don't work for me.
I am unproductive because I feel so emotional. I need a break.
I want to be with my kids.
I want to be around for my daughter when she cries, when she wants to brush her hair, when she experiments with my make up every day.
I want to be around when my son breaks his brand new toy and looks around for someone to fix it, with tears in his eyes.
I want to be there to tie their shoes,
to talk to them,
to walk with them,

I love my job, its challenging, its interesting, its thought-provoking, but my life... passes by

The distance between us. is both physical and emotional.


Soul

A Tribute Blog

Taking a look at the Bahraini Blogs Agregator this morning, I stumbled upon a noteworthy blog, done by a loving and dedicated mother in memory of her daughter.

http://samaralansari.blogspot.com

I did not know Samar. But I was very touched by her mother's dedication in loving memory of a child who has so quickly passed away.

Its heartbreaking to read and watch the youtube tributes for a daughter who no doubtedly had left beautiful memories for a family that have loved her and probably always will.

Dreaming of home...

The last stages of construction can be very frustrating. When we first started building our dream home, the structure of the house was completed in under 6 months... I was thrilled...I thought we could easily move in in the next 2 to 3 months, and that I was being realistic! But boy was I wrong... Its now been a year and a half and we're still no where near ready.

I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but everytime I go to our new house, I just wish I could live here already. I just want space for my children to grow, I want to be comfortable and happy, and I want to be as creative as I can get with its decor. I want to have my family and friends over, I want to sleep within the walls of that house and know that I am in my own home. I want to wake up and hve breakfast in the kitchen and laze around a cool afternoon with my kids and husband. I want to see those bloody movers come inand move all our stuff already...

We're going to start painting the exterior this week, so I'm excited that a major change will happen soon.

The windows are now fixed, so we will be able to fix the gypsum on the ceilings, as there are a few cracks here and there, due to the circulation of air inside the house.

The compound has been laid with the reddish stone that we loved... However, because we started from the other side of the house, it doesn't align with the walls in the front of the house... Its kind of odd looking but there's nothing to do about it now... Its already been fixed, and we can't remove all of the pieces that hav already been fixed.

I love the house sooooo much and love how it looks now... can't stop dreaming about it...

More updates soon

Peace,

SoulSearch

Children in Gaza

used as Target practise

Scared and scarred for life...

Palestine and the dead Arab Conscience ...

On having children in the Corporate World...

The word "motherhood" is an undefied term in the corporate world. Its been an agony for me to survive in the corporate world, not on a professional level, but on a more personal level. I am torn by my feelings as a mother, as my need to be resposible for my children's well-being, for their everyday lives, and between my career.
Alot of you would say, if someone felt that way, they should just quit and be a lady of leisure, but that is not even an option for us as a middle-income family.
Our working hours are going to be hiked up soon and will probably be till 5.30 pm, which is crazy for someone with 5 & 3 year old children.

My children are my first priority hands down, and I'm sorry if tha is my number one objective, because in the corporate world they want to work you to the bone, so you can help in generating the highest possible revenues for the company you work for, and at the end of the day come back to a grumpy family, who gives you dirty looks for being out of the house all day, to children who have no interest but to watch TV, watch TV, and watch more TV. Children who need to ask you if "you still love them" ...

Ohh the agony.

I'm at a crossroads, I need to put my priorities straight, but then again, I know what my priorities are, I love the line of work at at the moment but hiking the working hours like this without prior notice is really a disgusting thing to do.

The only thing I'm dpending on is that someone would consider Flexi-Hours, whereby we could show up at the office earlier in the day so that we could leave earlier than 5.30pm, and I would even ditch the lunch break...

I want to have a life,,,,



Peace,
SoulSearch

The Rain...

Love the wet and cool weather in Bahrain today...

Rain,

Cool winds,

Traffic Jams,

Blankets,

Hot chocolate,

the kids like snowmen...

I love it...

Cold...Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd

Woke up to a very cold morning, the dusty mistaken for misty ones didn't help my allergies!

But its lovely to feel the cold finally come to Bahrain! We seriously need a break from the heat and the airconditiong...

Check out the temp:

9 DEGREES, celcius that is!! My kids were so jumbled up with shawls and jackets my son coul hardly walk!!! hehehe ... and the comments I get, are "Mom, relax, its not snowing!"

Cheeky monkeys!!!

You can also see that my car has run past the 40,000 km mark! which means it needs maintenance!!!

Peace,

Soul

2.0.0.7 - The year that was

With the New Year just around the corner, I need to look back at what 2007 gave me and the world...
I love lists, so I composed one:

In 2007:

1. I turned 29, the last year in my twenties.
2. My kids turned 5 & 3, I need serious parenting tips.
3. I set my mind on getting a new job, and I did.
4. Didn't get a new phone yet, I wanted a Nokia N95, (I heard prices went down to BD 170???)(What happened???)
5. Iraq is still a burning war zone.
6. Gun-totting disturbed teenagers continue to massacre people in schools colleges.
7. Dubai continues to build taller buildings - aka Burj Dubai.

8. Tripoli, Lebanon sees clashes led by the brainfarts, so-called Ansar AlIslam
9. Discovered I have mild reumatism.
10. My best friend Nishani has a new baby boy - Ameer. Wish you both best of health.
11. My brother Hamood gets a new job after waiting for 4 years. Good Luck Aeuturnus!
12. Attended congress in Dubai. Jumeirah.
13. Israel continues to use Palestinians as target practice.
14.No solution for the Darfur problem yet.
15. Clashes in Bahrain during the National day holidays. 1 person killed.
16. No fireworks lit Bahrain's skies this year either.
17. Construction work continues on our house. First stage completed. Finishing in progress.
18. We still use loads of plastic bags. We need to be more environmentally aware.
19. Lost 3 kgs this year.
20. Just heard Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in Pakistan.

Wishing everyone a peaceful and prosperous year ahead.

May 2008 be better year for the world.

Peace and Love,
SoulSearch

Cooking 101

Ther's something very therapuetic about cooking... It just lifts your soul and helps you give a feel good factor that I always need as soon as I step home from work. That's exactly what I do, everyday, I get home at around 4.30pm (on good days) and speed into my kitchen to prepare a good hearty meal for my kids lunch the next day! Its hard being a working mother. I end up cooking the following meals:

1. dinner of that evening

2. Breakfast of the next day (inlcudes packin my kids snack for school and my own for work)

3. Lunch for the next day (kids come home way before I do)-(and they need a proper meal)

So I'm always on the lookout for healthy, quick meals to prepare in an hour or two.

Love to cook...I guess I take after my dad who is a chef!!! But surprisingly, never tried anything before I had my own kitchen...

Can't wait to move in to my new house where I will have so much more space to cook up good meal for the kids everyday!!!

Love,

SoulSearch