Safa means tranquil, serene, calm…I try

My baby is graduating from kindergarten *sniff sniff*. His ceremony is this evening. Time goes by so fast. He is 6 and it really seems like the other day when he was toddling around! Anyway, I will get him some balloons and go out for pizza….I am even going to buy him a 2 liter pineapple soda!!! I don’t do soda at home but for the past week he’s been bugging me to turn into a gas station and buy him some pineapple soda! I’m sure my husband gave him some or maybe my sister! I figure this will last a month since I’ll dilute w/ water. Anyway, I”ll get him a card…no money since he has no regard for it LOL!!! He has hundreds of dollars in a giant crayon bank and will just fling it around or give it out to ANYONE who visits! We’ll probably give him a $5 line of credit at Target.

I am not one of those parents who will take my kindergarten graduate to Red Lobster in a limo or party bus while he carries 10 giant balloons with 2 dozen roses…Y’all know the type!

We had a terrible thunder storm yesterday. When I came home from work there were trees and power lines down in my neighborhood. When I walked in the house, I knew right away that our power was out. I wasn’t expecting the lights to be on but you know that white noise that we all get used to? Well, I didn’t hear it. I immediately sighed and thanked God that it would stay light out for a while through the evening. My next thought was YAAAAY, I don’t have to cook tonight, we can eat out!!!! Until my oh-so thoughtful husband reminded me that we have a gas stove. He also reminded me that I should cook some of our frozen food so it wouldn’t go bad.

So, I cooked. He went out to buy ice for the cooler. After we’d eaten and cleaned up the kitchen, we started moving all of our meats and other stuff to the cooler. As the sun started to go down, I began gathering and strategically positioning all of the candles throughout the house. My 6 year-old, who at first was excited because we’d eaten in a shadowy kitchen, started getting anxious as he relaized that no power = no night light. He begged us to sleep with him. I agreed since my bedroom would be a sauna without the air or fan (my room is on top floor).

I must admit, we settled into a nice quiet and calm evening. We all helped light the candles, my son helped carry our pillows down to his room, we were content. The children enjoyed having stories read to them via candle-light. It wasn’t even too hot in the house. Because we had no lights, everyone kinda got tired earlier than usual. We all had our pjs on early so we wouldn’t have to get ready in the dark. I set my alarm on my cell phone to wake up this morning. One of the last thoughts I had was how it must have been pretty nice back in the “olden” days to live by nature’s clock. No sooner than I had this thought than I heard the intrusive hum of the dishwasher. We could hear our neighbors cheer outside, my husband exclaimed “masha’Allah”!!! I smiled when the air conditioner kicked back on. My 6 year-old and 2 year-old all took delight as we walked through the house blowing out the candles.

Then all of a sudden, everyone “woke” up. No one was tired anymore. Hubby went down to the basement to go on the internet to check out ESP.N Zone, the kids started playing with their toys all over the floor, I was able to check the voice mail and return some phone calls. We did this for about 40 minutes. When it was bedtime, my son said, “mommy I guess you’re gonna take your pillows back upstairs now right?”. Before I could say, “yes”, I said, “no of course not”. He smiled. We all climbed into the bottom bunk of my son’s full size bed. I can’t say I slept like a baby. I was kicked, my neck and back ache still, and my feet were peed on. However, I can say it was the nicest crappy nights sleep I’ve had in memory.

I wish the power never came back on last night.

Last night my family ordered chinese for dinner…a lot of it! I decided to order something extra for my lunch today at work. I got a small order of chicken w/ cashew nuts (recently started liking this). Dinner was fine…great even. I didn’t open my lunch but put it straight into a separate bag and in the fridge for today.

This dish I ordered contains sliced or diced chicken, roasted cashews, broccoli, and some water chestnuts in a nice plum sauce. That’s all. So you know I was heated when I sit down to lunch…STARVING and the dish has no cashews, no broccoli, and what MAY be considered chicken in some parts of the world. What I was looking at was a bowl of chopped celery, waterchestnuts and some kind of meat. That’s not the worst of it…

I immediately call the resturaunt to complain. I told the lady that I ordered cashew chicken but the meal didn’t contain cashews or broccoli (I didn’t mention the suspect chicken). This lady had the nerrrrrrrrrve to say that the next time I ordered, they will give me some cashews and broccoli. ‘Scuse me? Yes, they will put some cashews and broccoli pieces in a bag for me! Needless to say I got it straightened out!

Now I excuse me while I continue my savory lunch of Rol.d Gold Honey Wheat Braided Twists and Diet Dr. Pepp.er.

We are approaching that time of year when I wish I still lived in my hometown of New York City so I could be close to my family. My son is finishing up kindergarten and the hunt for summer camps/activities has begun. There are MANY camps and programs available but they are sooooo expensive! Right now I think we are going to piece-meal his summer camps among various programs. One week will be our family vacation, 2 weeks a nature camp and several weeks a tae kwon do camp. The school system has a summer program and we are currently #68 on that waiting list. UUUGGHHHH. Aside from the high cost of the camp itself, we have to pay someone who will take and pick him up from those programs that start late and end early . There is a summer religious camp that he did last summer but we are trying to mix it up a bit.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would send me down south to Georgia for the whole summer with family. Times are so diiferent now. I don’t feel comfortable sending my son that far away without us…especially since I can’t be 100% sure my family would adhere to some of the rules we live by. My son is funny acting he probably wouldn’t even want to go anywhere but up under me all day anyway.

If you have children, what will they be doing this summer?

For weeks I have been locked out of my blog!!!! The weirdest thing. I have soooo much to catch you guys up on. Well not that as much as so much to say that I’ve wanted to get out of my system LOL! Anyway, I will be updating soon. I realized how important my blog and blog friends are when I could not get in for weeks!