call me juvenile if you like

..but I couldn't resist making up this poster

after seeing who's who on the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson.
Has not the time come for people to acknowledge the obvious?

Into the Mind of a Mum (2)

Why I won't let you fool around with your hair / face.

Cross posted on the Sisters-in-Faith blog .

Daal-chawal with a capital K

So yesterday we tried Koshary from a restaurant called Koshary an-Neel.

The name conjured some really exotic images for me...I imagined a harmonious commingling of sun-kissed rice and tomatoes with fragrant spices from the Mother of All-Civilisation (Umm Dunya) and some sort of meat (it's an Egyptian dish after all :P).

Imagine my feelings when we unpacked our 'safari' order to encounter daal-chawal with shatta with layers of salty macaroni and spaghetti strings on top, with a few boiled chickpeas strewed on for good measure.

Good, hearty meal all right, but definitely not what I was expecting. Perhaps I get my hopes up too soon?
Anyway here's the recipe (with pictures and a story to go with them) for days when you want to make daal-chaawal by another name. :)

If we were inanimate objects...

If I were an inanimate object I'd be:

for obvious reasons: it's a multi-tasker and handy to have around the house

Abu-RR:
b/z it always points to the right direction, no matter where it is!

Rasha:
b/z everything is rosy-hued to her and her head's 'most always in the clouds :P

Rida:
b/z she's a realist, but that doesn't stop her from looking outward.

consolation in a cat

ever seen a bald cat?
no?

Then there's hope for mums who are in their post-partum 'shedding' phase...or so the good doctors say.

"The most common cause of hair loss in women is a shift in the growth cycle," says Rebecca Caserio, M.D., clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh. In other words, at any given time, some of your hair is growing and some of it is done growing. Most hairs have a life expectancy of three to six years, even if you get a haircut--or several--in the meantime. These hairs go into a resting stage for three months and fall out, and then new hairs are produced from the same roots.
NO BALD CATS
In other words, a certain amount of hair loss is normal. Think about it: Your cat probably sheds hundreds of hairs a day without going bald.
"We normally shed somewhere between 50 and 100 hairs every day," says Dr. Caserio. "But there are a whole host of life events--namely, hormone shifts from birth control pills, pregnancy and menopause--that affect growing conditions, so that we can sometimes lose hundreds of hairs a day." Rapid weight loss, severe dandruff, iron deficiency and a low protein intake can also speed up the normal rate of hair loss by forcing hairs into a rooting stage. A serious illness or a physical stress, such as childbirth, can trigger dramatic (but temporary) hair loss of up to 50 percent, but this only occurs in extreme circumstances, says Dr. Caserio."

The treatment?

"If your doctor has ruled out medical causes for accelerated hair loss, women doctors say that there's plenty you can do to hang on to what hair you have and encourage healthy regrowth. Their advice will be of special help to women who experience hair loss after childbirth.

Be gentle. Treat your hair like a baby's, says Dr. Bihova. Use baby shampoo and shampoo no more than once a day. Lather up only once when you do and rub your scalp gently. Then spritz your hair with a detangling conditioner.
Air-dry your hair. Avoid drying vigorously with a towel, says Dr. Bihova. Also, if you must use a blow-dryer, keep it on a low setting.
Style when dry. Grooming wet hair can cause it to stretch and break, says Dr. Bihova. So don't comb or brush your hair until it's dry.
Switch shampoos with the season. Change your brand of shampoo at the beginning of every new season--summer, winter, spring and fall, suggests Dr. Bihova. In her experience, it seems to prevent some shedding.
Don't tease. Even women who aren't losing their hair should avoid teasing or back-combing, says Yohini Appa, Ph.D., director of product efficacy at the Neutrogena Corporation in Los Angeles. "It is one of the worst things that you can do to your hair." Teasing breaks the hair and contributes to the appearance of hair loss.
Perm and color carefully. When perming and coloring your hair, follow product instructions carefully, says Elizabeth Whitmore, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Neither perms nor color causes hair to fall out, she adds. But both, when done incorrectly, do cause hair to break. And when the break is very close to the scalp, it can make you look as though hair has fallen out.
NUTRITIONAL HELP
So much for treating hair loss externally. To address possible internal causes, try these strategies.
Get adequate protein. Eat a couple of three- to four-ounce servings of fish, chicken or other lean sources of protein every day, even if you're dieting, says Dr. Whitmore. Protein is needed by every cell in your body, including the cells that make the hair. Without adequate protein, the cells in your body don't work efficiently and can't make new hair to replace old hair that's been shed.

Maintain iron levels. Since iron-deficiency anemia can also cause hair loss, make sure that you eat a well-balanced diet that includes a daily serving or two of iron-rich foods, says Dr. Whitmore. Good sources of iron include lean red meat, steamed clams, cream of wheat, dried fruit, soybeans, tofu and broccoli.
Take vitamin B6. "I have no idea why it works, but 100 milligrams a day of vitamin B6 seems to decrease hair-shedding in some people," says Dr. Caserio. Just don't take any more than that without consulting a doctor, she cautions. Larger amounts can be toxic, especially over a prolonged time."

from: The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Women

Our first (and possibly last) cable car adventure!

(pic: saudiembassy.net)

On the first, chilly day of Eid, (this is to give a picturesque beginning to the post) Rida and I actually ventured to sit in a cable car -- a REAL one! Really, I'm not exaggerating... ask Ed if you want to confirm this amazing fact:)
Not that I enjoyed it much when we started... the thing zoomed forward -- and I screamed so loud that the passengers of the cable car were almost deafened. Rida backed me up with a louder roar of terror... you really should've seen us...screaming our heads off!!
I could hear my brothers RSenior-RJunior screaming too... junior R was crying and saying that he wasn't a scaredycat, but we were all going to DIE!! And senior R was on the floor of the car with his face in his lap!!!...hahaha...
OOOppss.... not good of me to laugh now, huh?
I must admit there was a terrible uproar in the cable car... and most of the screams were mine...
When I looked behind or should I say beneath me, I could see the valley of Rijal-al-Ma' ... it was so terribly steep that I was ready to faint. Rida's eyes were clamped shut... junior R was screaming as the car rocked to-and-fro, senior R was now crouching on the seat with his and ears shut... so were mine...
...and each time it went lower and lower, the thing went slower and slower... and when it felt as if it had decided to stop, over the steep, moss covered valley, I screamed loudly: 'IS IT GOING TO STOP?!' and junior R would collapse into a wild fit of loud sobs and cries:)!
Senior R would crouch upon his seat uncomfortably in a quiet fear. Rida had stopped yelling; I had decided that the scene was really beautiful, and I was sort of feeling ashamed of my loud screams:P No use screaming, you know. When we at last arrived at the cable car station, I couldn't believe I had actually sat in that DEATH car that was hanging on a 'rope' as junior R calls it... we had just had a ride in a 'little box stuck on a long rope tied to poles between the two stations'.
Still... Rida and I are always cribbing there're no adventures around for us...
... and guess what Ed remarked when we got back? -- 'Never again-- once is ENOUGH!'
after all... that's why cable cars were made, right?

only in America!

Outsourcing parenthood
from: Evening Standard via GulfNews

The new trend in American parenting is to outsource the job. This takes nannying to the highest possible art form: all the stuff that bores you rigid can now be subcontracted out to someone else.

It started when American working mothers realised they were spending an average of 18 more hours a week at work than they did in 1965, leaving less time for housework. Some genius hit on the fact that they could corner the market in getting some sap to do boring household chores.

So now, someone else can make your child's lunchbox. A firm based in Virginia, Health-e-Lunch Kids, has found a niche supplying brownbag lunches to children on their way to school. Other firms have sprouted up across the country.
You can also pay someone to take your child not only to school, giving you a few extra minutes in bed every day, but also to football practice and to the dentist.

You can also hire someone to come and comb the lice out of your child's hair. A couple in Houston spent months washing their child's head with olive oil and finally, in desperation, hired a woman called Penny Warner, who owns a firm called the Texas Lice Squad.
Penny's job is to go from house to house in her minivan with a bottle of Nix and a comb. She charges $55 (Dh202) per hour. She has done so well with frustrated parents that in the autumn she is swapping her minivan for a real office, with a shopfront and staff.
What does this all mean to the future of parenting? Last year, an American journalist based in London wrote about how bored she was with her children.

The article caused a furore in America, where people wanted to lynch her. But the truth was that, on some levels, she was right -- it is not fun to read Thomas the Tank Engine 500 times, or to smear sunblock on a wriggling toddler, or to make small talk with people you ordinarily would not be caught dead with on children's playdates. But when it comes to children, these tasks should be done out of duty, obligation, and yes, love.

The farming-out of parenthood is all in the interest of helping exhausted mothers and fathers achieve that perfect state of lifework balance. The truth is: there is no balance.
Whenever I try to complain to my mother about how tired I am, she - a mother of seven - snaps: "You're a mother. You're supposed to be tired."

But not in America, where everything can be perfected.

There is so much I miss about my home country. The energy and that corny Hollywood-themed inspiration that everyone can achieve their dream if they want to. But not the notion that anything can be bought: youth with an injection of Botox; status with a membership to the right club - and parenthood by merely finding the right staff.

Students sans Spellcheck: where the "son" never sets :P

UK Students shamed for poor spelling
source: Agence France Presse

A British university lecturer is to publicly shame his students' lack of orthographical ability after becoming increasingly unimpressed at their poor spelling.

Bernard Lamb, a reader in genetics at Imperial College, London, hopes that by publishing the errors he has noted during years of marking papers, it will put pressure on education ministers into raising teaching standards.

"Errors in the English of highly selected undergraduates" to appear in the next issue of the Queen's English Society's journal 'Quest' will outline howlers such as [...] "rouge genetic elements","plants sewn together" and the frequent misuse of "compliment" for "complement", "effect" instead of "affect" and "sun" for "son".

the sweetest links

just sharing the love...some links I've been sent and looked up recently...

My *absolute* personal favourite: The Official Large Families FAQ (with suggested replies)
...includes the all-time FAQest FAQs of all:
"Are they all yours?"
"I can't believe how you do it, I cannot even handle my two!"
"How can you afford having so many?"
"Are you planning to have any more?"
"I hope you aren't planning to have anymore?!?"

I also liked: Mikvah: Jewish perspectives on childbirth...very interesting and well produced site...I'm hoping to organise something like this for Muslims, in shaa Allaah, b/z most Muslim childbirth resources on the net are rather scattered and sketchy.

And a site that has all the nitty gritty about lactation: KellyMom : for the seriously scientifically inclined...has details on anatomy and physiology and hormones and graphs...all the stuff that I *really* enjoy...look it up!

this won't hurt a bit...

By Dave Barry

I will frankly admit that I’m afraid of medical care.
I trace this fear to my childhood, when, as far as I could tell, the medical profession’s reaction to every physical problem I developed, including nearsightedness, was to give me a tetanus shot. Not only that, but the medical professionals would always lie about it.
“You’ll hardly feel it!” they’d say, coming at me with a needle the size of a harpoon. As a child, I was more afraid of tetanus shots than, for example, Dracula. Granted, Dracula would come into your room at night and bite into your neck and suck out all your blood, but there was a positive side to this; namely, you could turn into a bat and stay out all night. Whereas I could see no pluses with the tetanus shot.
Of course, today I no longer have this childish phobia, because, as a mature adult, I can lie.
“I just had a tetanus shot this morning!” I can say, if the issue ever arises. “Eight of them, in fact!”
But I’m still afraid of medical care. And I’m not encouraged by TV medical dramas such as “E.R.” If you watch these shows, you’ve probably noticed that whenever some pathetic civilian gets wheeled into the hospital emergency room on a stretcher, he or she is immediately pounced upon by enough medical personnel to form a hospital softball league, all competing to see who can do the scariest thing to the victim.

e-v-e-r-ything you wanted to know about R

with pix down the ages, courtesy wikipedia