Lunch Box Idea

It is a rare occasion when the kids (both of them) remember to tell me in the evening that I packed a great lunch or that they absolutely loved it. Yesterday was one such miraculous day.

I bought garlic bread from Sprouts and gently toasted it. I packed it with pasta sauce for a dip, milk and some fruits for snack. It was a huge hit and all it took was a few minutes to pack it. The one thing missing on the lunch menu was veggies. Dinner was spinach dal and scrambled tofu.

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Balance 101

How do you bring about a balance in life? It is bountiful and my interests are diverse to be focused on a few aspects at a point of time. Balance to me means; focus on priorities that need my attention the most at a particular time. Most often I try to do this on a proactive basis instead of reacting to adverse events.

There have been weeks where work has been my #1 priority and I may have neglected others to an extent. At times it’s something as basic as keeping the kids’ active and eating healthy.

I spent the last ten years towards building a strong marital bond, saw two beautiful kids grow right under my eyes, traveled a bit, built a rewarding career, made new friends and kept in touch with the old ones. Now it’s my mom’s turn to get some of my undivided attention. I am visiting India for a couple of weeks just to be with her. Of course I will meet as many friends and family as I can.

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San Antonio ... Revisited

Who visits the same place twice in a row and that too with in a month’s time? This was an official trip and was for most part a PR one. I wish there were more of these and less of those with 6 to 8 hour marathon meetings.

It was fruitful for a variety of reasons. One, my two week vacation to India is approved. Of course my boss knew it was coming sometime soon. Two, he seemed convinced that I am executive material and approved my training for executive education at McCombs School of Business @ Austin.

The place where I stayed was fabulous and was right by the river walk. The building was at least 100 years old, in its original Spanish colonial charm.

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Effective Feedback

I absolutely love Ro’s Montessori school. The teachers know my son personally, his likes, dislikes, what he needs to work on, his strengths, his play dates and his preferences. Yes, he’s hardly five and has preferences. Like if there’s a snack or a birthday celebration, he prefers two servings rather than one. He prefers to sit in the corner most location for mat/work-time as he likes to slide and literally fall into his spot.

Working moms need meticulous scheduling to meet the demands of kids and work. I am sure it’s the same with moms who do not work outside. At any point of time, I maintain a social calendar, Ri’s school calendar and my work planner. What drove me up the wall was an email from his school informing me that pre-k’s graduation was scheduled for a day three weeks from now. The event is a big day for pre-k’ers and why would I miss my son’s event for lack of planning on the part of the school

I tried not to be rude but I had to give the school a piece of my head. Most schools provide a calendar at the beginning of the year while his school plans events like pulling tricks out a hat. It’s not the first; they schedule PTO meetings at a day’s notice. So on and so forth.

Well that was that and today morning when I went to the school to drop Ro, and I saw an events calendar for July and August. That’s a good start.

I will miss Ro’s pre-school graduation as I made prior travel plans for the same date. The rest of the family will attend though. I am sure my loss or rather my constructive feedback will help another parent down the road some other day.

Message to Ro: Congratulations buddy with your pre-school graduation!!! I understand it was a lot of hard work waking up, brushing your teeth, missing TV shows just to be at school. You did it and I am proud of you!!! I will be around for many more of these events in the future. I am sure when you are ready to read this blog, you probably will be hysterically laughing about how mad Amma was for something like your 4 year old pre-school graduation. Well, that’s your Amma.

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Friday Live

The 4th and 5th graders in Ri’s school, interested in filming sign up to be a part of the Friday Live Crew. Today, the show Ri helped record premiered during the school’s spirit assembly. The show starts off with the pledges (national, Texas and her schools’) followed by a moment of silence.

The set up comprised of a news reader stand with Texas and US flags right behind it. Ri talks about a few teachers who were presented with a certain award. Then her co-host shares his insight about the spirit assembly. Ri's "expressive" reading and her sense of humor shone throughout the show.

There was an interview of a teacher and a special on jump rope, that Ri recorded. Her co-host help record the recipe section and a weather report. They talk some more and take off wishing everybody a happy weekend.

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Roles Reversed

I knew this was coming, not this early though …. Ri and I went shopping this weekend for my clothes. She is working on keeping me away from the color black and gave me a few guidelines to stick by while choosing colors. Her rules were –
Choose complimentary colors, like yellows and purples in pastel shades. She asked me if I noticed

Bharatnatyam outfits, where complimentary colors were used. I jumped with joy. “That’s my desi girl!!!”

The darker shade goes in the bottom and the lighter one on top.

You could add one neutral to the outfit

She helped me pick the perfect summer sandals as well.

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My Little Banker

Ri’s school in collaboration with a local credit union operate a bank. The fourth graders perform various duties to run it. In the beginning of the year, the kids fill out a form for various jobs like security, customer service, book keeping, cashier, marketing etc. Ri wanted to be the book-keeper.

The kids work once a month. They have a uniform (a tee basically) to distinguish the bankers from the clients. The security streamlines the crowd/customers and sends them to the cashiers in order. The cashier accepts the money and does a quick count. The book-keeper counts it one more time and logs it. There are kids in marketing, who entice other kids who are not customers by dressing up in costumes and by other means.

As the school year is coming to a close, her last day at work was this past Friday. This is a great way to provide the kids a preview of the larger working-world that is out there. More than anything, I am content with Ri’s attitude towards working. She thoroughly likes her job and is enthusiastic about it. Well, If she can jump out of bed when she thinks of her job first thing in the morning, she is more than half way there.

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