Holiday Weekend

July 4th was another terrific holiday this year. We helped out at church for the annual Fourth of July Bridgewater arts and music festival. We had the concession stand and Shara worked running orders to the grill, personing the baked goods table and also as an order taker. She always impresses me that she can work just as good and sometimes even better than the adults.

Again we came together and put on a fine fundraiser for First Parish. We talked with so many lovely members of the...
Posted by First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Bridgewater, MA on Saturday, July 4, 2015

It was too bad that not many family members could come to Shara's dance recital but we did have Aunt Jill all to ourselves, which was quite a treat! We'll get the DVD at the beginning of next dance year. She's planning on continuing with Hip Hop and adding Ballet back into the mix.

There were several photos I posted about our Spring happenings. Among the highlights was Shara's birthday. Another activity I didn't have much input into. She planned what she wanted to have and all I did was send out the invitations (very late mind you) and order the pizza. I also made the cake, but Shara designed it and would have done most of the work had it not been for an unexpected homework assignment.

The other big news was the awards she won at school. First she was voted as one of the two Citizens of the Year by her classmates and the other was The President's Award for Educational Excellence — Students are to earn a grade point average of 90 on a 100 point scale and High achievement in reading or math on state tests or nationally-normed tests. Obviously we're very proud of all her hard work and she takes all the credit. Other than asking if she finished her homework, she handles almost all of it on her own.

Shara's also been adapting very well to her parents "divorce". She seems rather unfazed by it all and happy that we're dating others and are happy as well. We all get along great, maybe better and have our weekly family night - usually playing Apples to Apples while having dinner or possibly dinner and a movie. Alan comes by almost daily and it's all very comfortable and low-key.

Almost Spring - Almost Spring?

Seems like it takes a sick day for me to catch up on posting. It's also because blogger takes so long to post to - have to switch to Wordpress. Anyway, Shara's home sick today and yesterday. Fever, stomach ache, etc. She's on the mend and should be able to get to the dress rehearsal tonight.
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Here in NE it hasn't been very spring-like. Luckily we get the beautiful daffodils and I know the warmer weather is coming soon. Shara seems to be having a pretty easy time of Alan not living here and she enjoys her Friday night sleepovers but doesn't feel the need to stay over more nights just yet. I don't think she has a sense of too much of a difference in our basic lifestyle. Alan still picks her up from Tina's after school almost every day, takes her to dance, we act the same as always at church and church & family functions, we try to have family night each week...  Other than what Alan does when he's not here, it's pretty much the same. She never saw him in the morning, other than a quick goodbye. Dinnertime is the biggest change. We used to sit down to family dinner almost every night, which is pretty unusual these days. Our eating habits have gotten pretty bad. I hardly cook anymore - in fact, I don't even know what we eat normally. I don't think we've settled into any normal. Maybe this summer we'll figure that out.

Here's what we've been up to:
Shara & Kat making a fleece blanket together, during Winter vacation.

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Our first family night - dinner from Lawdessa, the new Middle Eastern restaurant. Alan & Shara dressing up for dinner.

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Valentine's Day at Bubbe's

Shara frosting the best ever chocolate cake!

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Wielding scissors of unusual size - for the Hive grand opening

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Voodoo Donuts from my trip to Portland for a work conference. Alan stayed home with Shara for the few days. I didn't come back with donuts looking as fresh as these, but what I did bring back make it for the trip in my suitcase. I was surprised they melted. I thought they'd be crushed, but weren't. The three of us stood over the smaller box and gobbled them all up rather quickly.

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Went to visit Bubbe for Passover

lunch at the Troy farmer's market w/ Aunt Jill:

Easter at Oma & Jidor's - never too old for a good egg hunt. Auntie Chrissy did a good job hiding this year! Took Shara quite a while to find them all. I got cold and left the hunt a little early. It was a nice family day.


We hosted a Circle Dinner on 4/18. It was a lovely time and nice to get to know church members who we see and chat with all the time but never have a chance to have a real conversation. Shara had fun entertaining the kids. They're really energetic and smart and we appreciated that Shara enjoyed the responsibility of playing with them.

Patriot's Day - A day at the MOS - Shara studied the Maya this year and we got a membership and had a great day going back in history but the highlight was the Planetarium. Can't wait to go again.

Winter 2015

A lot has been happening around here, much of it giving me a good excuse for slacking in updates. This whole year has been pretty bad about updating, but I don't think I've ever gone two months before. So here's what's been going on. The biggest change is Alan moved into an apartment. It's fairly close and he sees Shara almost daily and has her for an overnight weekly. We try to have a family event each week, though he's only been gone just over 2 weeks. We also see each other at church on Sundays. Shara seems to be doing well and knows her parents love her very much. The biggest change is not having Alan at dinner and him not saying good night in person.

Shara's still doing hip hop at dance and started rehearsals for The Wizard of Oz, which she auditioned for and was thrilled to join the cast. Here's a photo:

Shara's the one with the orange flower, standing in front of the wizard?

Tuesday (2/24) we tried the new Lebanese restaurant that opened very close to us. Shara had what was supposed to be a lamb shawarama salad w/ hummus & tabouleh. There was just some shredded lamb on a nice salad but no hummus or tabouleh. I got the falafel salad plate, and that was very good. So good that Shara ate that instead. Alan got the mixed grill shish kabob.

Sunday, 2/22 we had a special event at church. Don't Forget Us, Pet Us came to show us some of their rescue animals. It was a very nice time and some of the kids commented it was the best church day ever.

Saturday 2/21 a group of us went to Taza Chocolate for a tour and way too much chocolate! The tour was so interesting, especially because I've been playing with the food mill and hearing about the stone ground chocolate process was made me wonder what it would be like to grind chocolate at home.

Here's a selfie of us with our hair nets - very attractive!

The rest of the week was pretty mundane. I spend much time getting ready for the stewardship gathering - cooking & freezing, straightening, etc. Shara spent both Friday & Saturday night with Alan. Auntie Chrissy went over and they made pizza and had a sleepover then on Sunday Shara went to Hannah's birthday party, which was a trip to the mall and build a bear. She had a great time, of course! Then Shara got sick with the same respiratory virus a lot of people seem to be getting. Alan took her to the doctors and she had an inhaler for 3 days and was already better that night. She went to the Oz rehearsal and back to school the next day, which was the Stewardship Gathering. Shara stole the show - an interpretation to a reading of "The Hungry Caterpillar". She was great. I was very impressed with her facial expressions showing the caterpillar eating and the use of construction paper to fashion the caterpillar legs was quite ingenious.
Friday evening Kat came over for dinner and an evening Shara-sitting. Shara made them both burgers and they watched "Once Upon a Time". Kat fell asleep on the couch and in general they had a lovely evening.

December in Photos

Alissa & Kelsey singing at the Solstice Service

Shara next to her family tree on Heritage Day

Shara & the 4-7th graders, practicing tone chimes for the Winter Solstice Service

Shara, Alan & Brutus sharing the bed after some scary Hunger Games chapters

Mrs. Santa and Shara @ the Holly Faire

sefie

Cousin Liz fixing Shara's hair at Thanksgiving

Cousins!

Thanksgiving w/ Bubbe & daddy

Thanksgiving with Uma, daddy & Jidor

Artisan Holy Faire

rock the casbah

Last night we had our goods and services auction party, rock the casbah. Our Moroccan feast went well. Good company, food and entertainment. A lot of work but it didn't go unappreciated. We get to do a mini-version for two couples who couldn't attend, and that will be nice too.
Shara provided the after dinner entertainment with her belly dancing. We got her costume, adult-size, and she did a remarkable job pinning it up so it looked perfect. Nice that this will last several years.

Menu:
Fresh Tomato & Caper Salad
Grated Cucumber (Feggous) Salad w/ Orange Flower Water
Roasted Beet Salad w/ Cinnamon
Sweet & Spicy Moroccan Eggplant
Sweet Potato Salad (Arabesque Cookbook)
Cooked "Wild Greens" Salad
Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad
Marrakech Tagine Bread
Potato Tagine w/ Olives & Harissa
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Tagine of Baby Calamari & Shrimp w/ Red Pepper & Tomato
Chicken & Fennel Tagine
Couscous
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Mint Tea
Passover Baklava Cake

Girls Weekend

Alan had church work this weekend so Shara and I had some great Shara & Mommy time. The weekend started with us going to the Muppets Most Wanted. Great movie! Better than the last one. Alan actually beat us home.

Saturday was Zumba and Shara was given the choice between staying home alone for a couple of hours or going to Zumba with me. She chose to stay home. She knows my phone number, had access to text if needed, and knew not to open the door for anyone. She did great. She finished her breakfast, watched some Internet TV and sewed the holes in her socks. When I got home it was almost lunch time. I made lunch while she got dressed. We then went to Target to do some shopping, then Staples to get free copy paper (rebates!).

Then we made our way to (this is hard to explain without a chart) the children of the long-time friends of Alan's parents. On the way we stopped for a little walk around CCRI. Not the best location for a walk, but we had a nice talk and got some fresh air (wind).

There are the three families who have been friends since the kids were young. Alan is the oldest of the child generation. Most are still local and two of the younger generation are married and they and their children are best friends. So very close families. Every year they have a birthday party for Eddie and Mr. Rao. Every year Alan, Shara and I go. So this year Shara and I went solo. It was a good thing that Uma and Jidor and Auntie Chris were there too or else it may have been a little awkward, though they left long before we did! We had a great time and Shara loved the spicy Indian food (always a treat!) and this was the first year she actually had more she was able to eat than not, heat-wise.

Sunday was church and we were thinking of going to the Family Contra Dance in Bridgewater led by a church member, but I was pretty tired and we needed some downtime. However we had to brave Market Basket, which was quite the zoo, and didn't eat lunch until close to 2:30. Alan came home about then so we were able to go for a family walk around the block and then Shara and I played some Frisbee before I went in to make dinner and Shara went next door to play with our neighbor. Then tonight we danced! Just boogied to Enrique Iglesias radio on Pandora, but that's always fun.

I needed to write this all down because at bedtime Shara wanted some Shara and Mommy time. She said all we did was rush and then I went through all the above, trying to remind her of the fun we had doing all of these things and she said she forgot. So I told her we have to blog it so we remember! So that's what I'm doing.

We're all connected - RE class

Everybody's Birthday party @ church - sit with those in your same birth month, eat good food, decorate your cake together!

Maple Kettle Corn! Pawtucket Farmer's Market

Kaleidoscope Night - Shara as a valley on the moon w/ Galileo

hmm, which basket do I want to try and win?

My Wonder Woman pose - empowering me to be strong and confident!

Photos!

Been busy but posting more to facebook. Here's a catch-up in photos.

Shara and her house

At yesterday's cookie party

cookie party

cookie party

Shara's selfie - showing her hair

Yesterday we had our annual cookie party. Pretty bad weekend to pick it but we had a very nice time with the couple of families who attended. Sometimes smaller is better as we had a chance talk and the kids played for most of the time all by themselves. Shara and Cadance are planning a sleepover since we didn't let them have one last night. Lots of fake crying.
















































We've been very busy with the Empty Bowls project at church. Read all about it here:
http://www.aroundthecommon.com/2014/01/local-businesses-schools-and-community.html

And see more photos of our painting parties -

You can see more things we do at church at: https://www.facebook.com/FPbwaterUU/photos_stream