Picture of the Week: Something Interesting in the Hallway

"Our neighbor, Anshula is doing something very interesting in the hallway." -Brian's text to me after he left for a meeting.



And what do you do when you receive a text like that? You open the door of course! I had to make it look like I wasn't just opening the door to sneak a peek at my neighbor and her "interesting thing"...so, I acted like I was showing Bella our fall door decor. Because you do that. You open your apartment door to show your 5 month old the outside of the door. Don't you?



"Oh, hey Anshula [fancy seeing you here] what on earth are you doing?"




Brian was right. It was interesting.

My neighbor was preparing for Diwali, the biggest festival here. Around her were bowls of brightly colored powder. She was scattering them on the floor. After a few minutes, it became clear what she was making. Here is her peacock.











 All the Stock gals came out to see. Kinda put our door decorations (paper pumpkins and leaves the girls colored on) to shame.

Just wait until Christmas Anshula! It's gonna be epic.

Picture of the Week: Golu

Golu.

It's an innocent enough word. In a text, my neighbor invited me to celebrate "Golu" with her. I thought her autocorrect must have changed something. Golu? What is that? The following day she came up to our flat, along with her son. They dabbed a little dyed powder on my forehead as a formal invitation. Turns out there was no typo. Golu was indeed the festivity I was to attend. According to my neighbor, it was a time to show off some dolls that had been in her family for generations. She encouraged my girls to come along with me. Maybe like showing off your collection beanie babies or coffee cups or spoons.


So, we went to Golu. Lydia, Molly and I stepped into my neighbors house where we were greeted with sweets (very very customary here) and small gifts. Then we saw the "dolls". There sitting on display were twenty-something idols.

Not dolls. Idols. Ganesha, Krishna, Sri Sai Baba, Visnu, all the regular crowd. Incense was burning. Candles were lit. This was a display of what my neighbor worships.




And so Golu was not an event I will soon forget. It was not that I was asked to worship or even condone the presence of these idols. But in that moment in her living room, holding my chai and little girls' hands, I saw the reality (once again) of my friend's empty faith.

Dolls. That's all they are. But they are so much more. 

Missing Molly

A year ago we met another Molly. "Big Molly", "Other Molly", or "Molly Jo" moved here with her parents and little brother John (in his mommy's belly at the time of arrival!). For one year, her dad worked as a chiropractor. We got our backs adjusted, brought them a meal when baby John was born and became friends.

Molly and Lydia are just a few months apart. They spent this past year having "secret clubs", going to ballet together, making incredible messes (and having fun doing it!), and becoming the best of friends like little girls do. Our "little Molly" was usually included, happy to be counted a big kid.






Two weeks ago Molly (and her family) moved back to America. Lydia misses her. We all miss her and her sweet family. Things are just not the same with one less Molly around.

When Life Gives You Summer

When you live in the tropics, when the trees hold their leaves, when there are no rakes (only stick brooms) or piles your mom would ever think of letting you jump in (they may be a rat in there!)...how ever can you enjoy autumn? 

Here's how. 
Now every time we look out we see falling leaves. 


Happy Fall everyone!

Teach Your Child to Read: In One Million Easy Steps

I don't feel quite experienced enough in this whole parenting thing to be spouting out child-rearing advice, unless of course it's just plain obvious. Read to your kids. Read to them a lot.

This is a picture of our coffee table after a day of play and books and reading and "library". I recently complained that I am constantly cleaning up books, everyday restocking the bookshelf. My friend rightly said, "What a lovely problem to have!". Hmmm, yes. What a good problem indeed.

Yes, my girls play dress-up, have pretend restaurants and zoos; they even watch an occasional cartoon on You Tube, but I really see so much of their creativity, the questions they ask, the humor they "get" in watching TV coming from reading books.  I try to steer them to the "good books", not the "twaddle" that Charlotte Mason grieved over. And honestly, it's mostly because I enjoy reading some books ("Make Way for Ducklings", "Horton Hatches the Egg", etc) rather than others ("Ariel: A Tale of Forgiveness"). But some "twaddle" makes its way in and we make it through to find out just "what a princess should do" at the end. I suppose you cannot develop a literary critique without literature to criticize.

And of course, I don't mind the snuggle time.