My new earrings organizer

One of the things I can never satisfactorily have organized is my collection of earrings. They always seem to end up in a miserable heap no matter if I keep them in a purse, in a box, or in a drawer. And like many others, I seem to wear the same earrings and occasionally will chance upon a pair I had long forgotten I have had. Additionally, sometimes I'd find some of them with a stone missing, a pearl gone or a delicate part broken. In the last week I decided to search online for earring organizers. Nothing I found was impressive. I also found several DIY videos on youtube. Many were creative and economical - I saw a kitchen curtain hung on a clothes hanger, a plastic canvas (with holes for cross stitches), etc - on which the earrings could be set up. But though they looked neat and nifty, retrieving earrings from them on a day to day basis looked inconvenient.
   Yesterday, while browsing through the office supplies section of an electronics store, I found a possible storage for my earrings in the most improbable of things. A document holder! It's of the same wire mesh kind that most office supplies - pencil holders, file trays etc are. Absolutely no effort needed. Just plug and play!

Basic document holder with magnets to secure the document to the frame

Hang the earrings into the holes - view of side A

close up view

  

side B

profile view

This can sit on the vanity, a dresser or chest. It doesn't occupy a whole lot of room. The base is stable enough and won't topple easily. The space in between the 2 arms makes it easy to remove earrings with clasps or backings. I found that if you hang such earrings( with clasps) lower and hang the ones with just the bent metal insert higher up, it makes for easy putting on and taking off.  And yeah, it cost me $5.99! and took me 5 minutes to put them up!

Golu galatta - part 3

Finally, here are the promised pictures from Navarathri golu 2010. Once again a big big thanks to Uma and her MIL, Lalitha aunty - this was possible only because of your boundless kindness and help. To view them bigger, please click on the respective picture.



The stringers are supported by vertical strips of wood on the outside and inside



steps are secured on the stringers

handyman does a neat job and signs off

A dream of many years attains fruition

Gajalakshmi idol broke en route from India, hence an odd 8th Lakshmi sits with the 7 from the set




The pink elephant on the lowest step- an addition from my daughter; I suggested she could keep them along with the elephant set on the right. She countered' but the elephant wants to see the pooja happenning on the left'. She won, I couldn't have topped that!

 


 For 9 days DD was itching to touch, play with and wreak a mini havoc on my labor of love. I brought the china shop to the bull and glad to report 'All izz well'.

 

How far will you go?

Watched this appalling ad for a Toyota Highlander on TV yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzuK85t2jlE

In this video, a child is embarrassed to get into his dad's old, beat up car; When he is being picked up at school, he actually hides behind a bush and then pole vaults into the car to avoid being seen in that car by his friends; while another child proudly sits in his parent's gleaming Highlander and goes " Just because you're a parent , you don't have to be lame".
Even for advertising that is meant to undermine, impress, insinuate and trick the mind , this is disgusting.
  As grown-ups we often compare ourselves to others - be it physical attributes, be it possessions, the vacations we take, the classes we send our kids to and so on. With all our maturity and rationale, we ourselves get overwhelmed sometimes. Think about the tender years leading up to and during teenage - this period is fraught with superiority, inferiority and a bunch of other -ity complexes. We've all walked down that street. It's a period we're insecure about so many things , including our parents - their appearance, their accents, their sense of humor and so on.  But from time to time we've had eye opening moments even at that age when we regarded our parents as our heroes; when it was reaffirmed to us that no matter what, as long as we do the right thing, there's no need to be ashamed of who we are, what we look like, what our lifestyle is like, what we possess. When I was in high school ( and now) , it was most certainly uncommon for school going children to be working outside the house trying to earn money to support the family. Our teachers used to tell us that they knew girls in our class who worked as domestic help - cleaning and scrubbing before showing up in school at 9 am.  They asked us not to be vain and realize what was truly important and of value to us. Till date I do not know who those girls were. But I was certainly in awe of them for what they were.
  Parenting is not easy. As we teach our kids to have self identity and self worth that does not involve conforming to fads and belonging in cliques, it was repulsive to see a message that had stooped so low , even for advertising. You are enticing little children to buy toys, video games, sugary treats and Disney vacations. Do you have to resort to calling a parent lame for driving a non-glamorous car ? And this is the same company that came up with the Prius, a bellwether of earth friendly vehicles? Sigh!

DeeDee moments

Whether my daughter thinks of me as a wonderful mom or not, when she grows up, right now I am amazed by her ideas and behaviours. It is true that motherhood is synonymous with sacrifice and struggle, but I am also on the receiving end of some interesting, insightful experiences for which I am grateful to my little one.
 I took her for her appointment with her pediatrician. On the drive I told her she will receive injections and it'll only be a tiny prick, won't hurt much ; I told her, "You're now a big girl and you should co-opearte". She nodded in agreement. But I was blown away by how still she sat and took 2 shots, one on each arm, unflinched. No tears, no scuffle, absolutely no resistance. She also took a vision test - Without the slightest intervention from me, the nurse and my daughter communicated and worked with each other to complete the test. I watched as the nurse explained to my daughter and asked her to tell whether the 3 lines of letter E were pointing toward a boy/girl/rabbit/bird , looking through a big binocular, while the nurse stepped through different slides. It was the first time I saw her have a somewhat long interaction with a stranger, understanding and replying correctly without any help from parents.
 After Halloween and trick-or-treating, my daughter is in possession of  twenty-some candies and is feeling on top-of the-world! She is displaying remarkable restraint. She has been told she can have only one candy a day. I deliberately didn't put away the stash and have kept it in plain sight to see if she can hold up. I wouldn't be too upset if she couldn't adhere to my ruling and ended up eating 2-3 candies in a row. But she isn't. She carries her little orange bucket of goodies everywhere she goes, up n down the stairs. She takes them out and observes them, the colorful wrapping, the names spelled out in bright reds, oranges and greens and then puts them all back in. She even came and told me ' Ma , If I eat more than one, I'll go to garage'. But she hasn't violated. For all of 3 years of age, I am quite surprised at this level of maturity.
   In as much as she makes me proud, such instances immediately make me feel a twinge of pain at how fast she's growing up, how soon she's acting all mature and grown-up. Sometimes, I tell her, "you're my baby!" and her quick retort is "amma, I am big-girl-ing!". And I go "Nooooooo!".

What kind of dog are you?

In my (seemingly) unending struggle with weight loss, many times, I do wonder what I am made up of. I can't help but compare myself with my coworker who's a chinese mom of 3 but looks like a teenager herself, the friend who is a size 4 and claims she's never set foot in a gym, my sisters whom my skinny dad decided to give his best genes to ! And what is with those fortunate few who embark on a weight loss journey, steadily drop 1-2 lbs a week by doing the 'right diet, right exercise' routine. Not to disparage their acheivements, but what is keeping me and my sorority sisters all over the world from making any significant progress in this battle? Some of my friends and I exercise most days of the week. I have always been sort of dieting, since a time I can't remember. What makes some people slide down on the weight incline the instant they start to walk 45 minutes a day or give up sodas or dessert? 
 I am on my toes from the instant I get home until late in the night. It infuriates me when someone tells me  "just be active don't go overboard with working out at the gym, you'll surely lose weight' or ' just walk more, your generation needs to get off the couch more often'. Wow! something so incredibly simple and potent, why hadn't I thought of this before?
  I chanced upon a segment on weight loss from a book called 'Small change', a book I picked up spontaneously as a gift for myself on my birthday, 2 minutes before the store closed, while my husband was driving around the block to pacify my cranky daughter. I am glad I bought it, I actually like it for the most part. In this section on weight loss, the authors explain this with a clever dog analogy. Dogs come in different sizes, energy levels and life spans. While some dogs need only a little playtime others needs to be exercised vigorously, not just a walk-around-the-block. A cockapoo can complete its quota of physical activity by just running around the dining table and sprinting up and down the stairs, a Border collie - a high energy and highly intelligent animal - needs to run miles and miles everyday. Failing which, it may not just get overweight and sluggish like a cocker spaniel would, it's going to act dysfunctional and can tear your house apart! Identify the dog within you, then eat and exercise accordingly. Most importantly, stop feeling guilty or bad about the dog you are not!

Mother and Mother Earth approved!

Am trying hard to do away with paper in the kitchen. In its place I am trying to use cloth kitchen towels -different sets for wiping counters, for drying utensils and one for drying hands. I am trying to use reusable shopping bags. Am making a concious effort to stay away from plastic cutlery and paper cups, plates.
       In the beginning of this decade when I first came to this country the copious supply of paper from the kitchen to the bathroom to wet wipes to kleenex in cars and lobbies of offices impressed me. I found the no-mess, no-fuss cleaning that paper affords so easy. Who wouldn't? Why would someone deal with a dirty dish rag ?
Paper plates and plastic cutlery weren't new to me, but they are used much more here than what I was used to in India. Aaah, just use-n-throw, so clean, I used to think! Especially when it comes to eating at little joints and eateries, the cleanliness of the utensils used by us guests was never something to worry about.
Each and every thing that we thought made life easy, convenient and simply better is now coming back to bite us in a big way.
      When my parents ever used a cloth bag, I used to cringe. If my parents ever suggested using sheets of paper whose back sides were plain, we thought they were being too thrifty. When they did not want to throw away any piece of furniture or a household item that could find an alternate use, we let out an incredulous sigh!  But now I am trying hard to get lean, mean and green!
    I particularly remember when , one time, just before a train journey, my mother wanted to take drinking water in a stainless steel vessel ( called a gooja, it's a special vessel with its own lid , used exclusively to carry water, buttermilk or hot beverages) and I adamantly put my foot down and vetoed it. I would be too embarassed, I told her ; we could just get 2 bottles of water. I am still not so cool with the idea of a gooja, but I 've sufficiently distanced myself from plastic bottles.
It's funny how the many things we upheld, the many ideas we had and our internal code of right and wrong have meandered and morphed over the years to something very different. This is not limited to environment -friendliness, but as I age I find many things about my parents' ideas and thoughts, their advice start to have more meaning, relevance and making more sense to me
  When I discuss these things with my mother, her response is - ' You children never find what we say to be of any value. If the same thing is said in fancy english and if it's said on websites and on TV, that is when it becomes saturated with meaning!'. Once again, I roll my eyes!

Nothing in particular-isms

As a spouse and a parent, every woman practises sacrifice, patience and forgiveness everyday. We are all just nuns in plain clothes. Without wearing a  habit, we've made these virtues a habit.

If there is hell, one of its torture chambers would consist of  'ab exercises' exclusively, I am sure. After an exhillarating zumba class that was equal parts dance club and concentration camp, the last 10 mins of abs was pure, unadulterated pain. There was one set where we had to sit leaning back at a 30-40 deg angle, pressing down on a ball placed between the lower back and the floor, legs bent at the knees, feet resting on the floor. Maintaining this stance, we had to do a bow and arrow pose, only thing that imaginary arrow was making a U turn and impaling me !!!!  In that pose, we were asked to turn and look to the far right, I saw my neighbor's face shaking in pain.