Kumon, I bid thee adieu...

I'm really fed up of being the bad guy!
From the kids' point of view.
I want to have fun with the girls, not spend a good part of the 180 minutes that I get with them every evening asking them to "do this and that", or "NOT do this or that"!

The bad act from me starts soon after we get home and sit on the table to have their milk and snack. They longingly look at my neighbor's yard, which is a direct view from our dining room. My neighbor's daughter, M, and a couple of other new kids in the block are having fun playing in their swing or simply running around...while two little girls of this working mom are scurrying their snack down, and getting ready to start homework.

To ease my guilt, I can't help but wonder, "Didn't I just pick up T1 from her after-school care, where she spent close to 2 hours playing, even had some gymnastics lessons-which she LOVES!
Didn't I pick up T2 from the huge play-ground in her pre-school"?

Here's the problem - we have the whole thing reversed! Fun first, get home tired, THEN complete HW.

OK!! Here's our schedule -

5.00 - pick up kids and reach home
5.00-5.30 - quick wash-up, feed em a snack (start cooking dinner).
5.30-6.45 - Kumon and homework and music/keyboard practice.
6.45-7.30 - Dinner
7.30-8.00 - Brush, wash-up, read and get ready for bed.

As you can see, there is really no minute to spare. And most days, with the two of them goofing around and having fun (???) in between this schedule, bedtime ends up getting pushed to almost 8.30pm.
What difference will 30 minutes do, you ask?? It shows the next morning!! That's what. If they are in bed by 8.00, they are both well-rested and wake up by themselves or with little help. Else, it's a tough chore, esply with T2.

We're basically over-worked every single day and try as we may, there are hardly any real fun-family-moments! And did I add the cooking, cleaning, and a broken dishwasher that we haven't had the time to replace?

So What's gonna give?

Plan A: Kumon Reading!
Plan B: Kumon Math AND Reading!

As far as I know, NO Plan A has ever worked. So I'm not even going to try.

So, as of 15 minutes ago, Pup and I have agreed to stick to Plan B.
It's happening next week.
After tomorrow's Kumon Ceremony!
After she gets a Trophy each for Math and Reading.
For being ahead of her Grade Level.
For working SO DARN hard every single day, with complaints or without.
For putting on a bright happy face to make it less of a deal.
For talking to her mind (or brain as she says) and making it come around and cheer up when she's not willing to do Kumon.
For doing all of this because she blindly trusts us.

Freedom from Kumon!! Just saying it makes me feel de-stressed.
I think she deserves this freedom! We can do more fun things and still learn some math along the way.

And maybe she can even step out on a weekday to play with her our neighbor M.

And the Moral of the Story is...?

Moral of the story is...Well I can't decide really. It can be one of the following -

1. Routines are for a reason - don't disrupt mine. I need amma in the mornings and appa in the evenings.
   Mommy drops me off, daddy picks me up. Could I be any more clear?


2. I think I may be making a switch to becoming mama's girl (dreaming on).

So which one is it?

Here's the "Story"...
Story within quotes because I'm quoting T2.
When I ask her about her day, she tells me something like this -
"In the first story, I ate pancakes for lunch".
"In the other story, Megan pushed Emma." (making up names).

Or, when I ask her if she slept well, She says -
"In the first story, I saw dinosaurs and it was so bloodishy..."
(Esply if we happened to read the Dinosaurs book at bedtime).

This girl here has taken the famous Shakespearen wisdom from "As you like it" that All the World's a Stage, a bit too literally.
But, she never ceases to crack me up everytime she does that!

Ok, back to the Story...It's a short one...

Our regular weekday routine is for daddy to leave in the wee hours of morning while the rest of the house is still sleeping.
Mommy then wakes up reluctantly, gets ready and then gets the girls ready for school by 7.20
After throwing some anti-jinx charms here, I boldly say that T2's morning tantrums are getting SO much better.
I am able to reason with her and prevent her from crying out loud almost all the time...
Other than my constant reminders to the girls to "GET MOVING", mornings are not much of a deal anymore.
After I manage to wake up, that is.

Unless, mommy and daddy switch roles. Then it's a completely different morning for all of us.
Daddy can't enjoy his quiet mornings,
mommy loves the extra hands and the extra sleep,
T1 loves it that Daddy is dropping her off,
but T2?
T2 behaves differently. She is thrilled to see daddy in the morning, but she gives daddy a hard time with everything!
The clothes, the bath, the brushing, the breakfast...(not in that order, of course)!!
And she wants daddy to do all of that, but not really!?

It's not easy for daddy either, who's completely spoilt with the peaceful mornings.

So what is it?
Do you think T2 is such a stickler to routine that as much as she loves having daddy in the mornings, she can't handle the change?
Or Is it true that my little shim-shim (one of my popular no-meaning endearments for the girls) is finally becoming a true mommy's girl?

I don't care what the truth is! I'm sticking with the second!

Milk, Cows and an Address

In an attempt to make the girls think laterally, T1 mostly, I've been throwing random questions at them...
Mostly math questions for T1. She can do addition and multiplication quite well, but I don't know if she knows why or when to use them...Hence this exercise.
My most common application involves apples - adding them and dividing them for a said number of people.

Yesterday, I was following a book to ask questions and I tried to see if they remember something they had seen about a year or two ago in an episode of Little Einsteins.

So I asked, "What's Milky way?"
T1 said, "It's part of an address!!"
T2 Promptly answered, "What comes from cows, amma!!!"

Need I say more??

The GM Diet Changed me!

A few weeks ago, I decided to do the GM diet after a two-liner request from cuz-P.
She said in the subject, "Do you want to do this?"
The Body of the email had a link explaining the diet, and she added, "I want company!"
That's it! The only question was when do we start this? I am at a point where I am desperate to lose more weight. But the "detoxifying effect" in the GM Diet intrigued me too.
A typical rule of the thumb for a healthy weight-loss is to get rid of a pound a week. Maybe 2. But the 10-17 pounds that the GM Diet claims you can lose sounded far-fetched. Don't they (God knows who "they" is) say that losing so much weight so fast can alter your personality? Well, I'll know in a week's time, I thought!

So, we eagerly tagged another friend, N along. Our journey started...
Day 1: Weighed in X pounds. Started it off enthusiastically with a glass of warm water and a splash of lemon. Ate an apple a little later. Couldn't let go of my morning coffee...so had a cuppa when I got to work - with creamer and Equal! What detox again?
Went to a grocery store near work to grab some cut fruits.
Whom did I run into at the store? None other than N, pushing her cart loaded with fruits. He, he. We whined about how tired we already were of this thing...Little did I know what's in store for me...
The store happened to run out of pre-boxed fruits. Disappointed, I packed a salad-bowl full of fruits from the open salad-bar. That's not the bad part. $12 (Ya, no kidding!) and 20 minutes later, I ended up trashing half my bowl, thanks to the rotten cantaloupe! I felt terrible. Just the fact that my ration halved, made me feel more hungry!!
Anyways, before I knew, the day was over with loads of watermelon and winter melon pieces...

Day 2: X-2 pounds. What a wonderful start with that baked Potato?? Mil usually gets done with cooking by 7.30, I had requested her to pop a whole potato in the cooker and she gladly did. What bliss!! Again, I cheated by eating it with some Benecol - yikes!!
I made some grilled veggies with hardly any oil, and no spices.
I took a salad with the grilled veggies to work, and a packet of microwavable veggies for a snack. I love the taste of grilled Eggplant. That smoked, burnt flavor with no extra spices to ruin the taste! Yum! I can do this all my life!
But the trio (me, cuz-P, and N) took turns whining, while the other two cheered and supported on (aka Whupped the whiner's A S S with strong words)...
This trend continued the rest of the week!
With uploads of Grilled veggies, 10 cups of water, and a few downloads (too much information??) later, we successfully ended our second day.

Day 3: X-3 Pounds. A little disappointed. Weighed myself again after a shower. Still the same! I often weigh myself 4-5 times in 10 minutes with the scale in different angles. What am I thinking? That my Mirror on the floor will tell me that I am the lightest of all? A girl can dream, can't she?

A mix of veggies and fruits today. More grilled veggies, wonder soup, and fruits (good, fresh ones, this time).

Beginning to feel different now. I mean right now, as I type this. I just did a bottoms up of Pup's drink...Don't know what it had, looked liked Mango Juice to me...
Wonder what it's spiked with!

Day 4: X-4.5 Pounds: Hey! Every ounce counts! I'm THAT desperate!
Lovely, lovely day! Bananas and milk. More bananas and milk. And some more.
You think you like bananas and milk? Try the GM Diet. Then we'll talk!
But seriously, I stopped craving for my morning coffee. And Afternoon coffee. But I had them cos of habit. I actually dumped half my afternoon coffee cos I really did not enjoy it! Hmmm....Personality beginning to change here??? Interesting!

Day 5: X-5.5 Pounds. One more pound lighter today! I could eat rice! Yippety Yip YAY!
This is the opposite of a cuss word. I was enthralled!! What could be better than eating rice after 4 long days of none??
You think? I ate less than the stipulated cup!
Really! I made a pot of tomato rasam and ate it as soup and sometimes mixed with rice. I lost interest in the 4-day old GM wonder soup, and was too lazy to make more.

Day 6: X-5.5 Pounds. Again!! No loss of weight! Must be the rice! It happened to be a festival day - Aavani avittam - the sacred-thread-changing ceremony! The only real festival for men! So loads of goodies that MIL had cooked. Being a saturday, I did not have the luxury of my GM-weight-watchers (cuz-P and N). I was on my own for the weekend!
But I behaved. Better than I thought I would. I ate a spoonful of everything that MIL had cooked, more for sentimental reasons than for cravings.

Man! That mango drink I gulped a few minutes ago was DEFINITELY spiked!

Day 7: X-5.5 pounds, again!! I have to act fast. This weekend thing was not helping! Plus the less fiber in my diet was not helping either...I felt bloated, and did not lose any weight.
Have you ever heard of watermelon juice described as beautiful? You will, now!
I drank a beautiful cup of gingered watermelon juice. Yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM! And I ate less rice and more veggies hoping I'd lose some weight, and also hoping I'd get rid of the what I was eating - out, Kaput!
;)

Day 8: Wait a minute!! The GM Diet is a 7 day gig. What was I doing on day 8? Weighing myself, of course!!
X-6.5 pounds!

That's what I lost - a whole 6.5 pounds. And for a change, around the love handles, mid-tiers, whatever you call them flabby abs!
My 5 days a week of intense workouts did not do this to me. My running did not do this to me. But the GM Diet sure did! Added with a little yoga (15-20 minutes) everyday. I have a normal BMI for the 5 feet and 8 inches of me - After more than 7 years!! I'm Thrilled beyond words. Thanks cuz-P (who also lost 7 LBs, N lost 10 LBs).

You know what? It's been more than the weight loss for me! Like I pointed out earlier, "They" say that drastic weight losses can change your personality! It sure did! A month later, I have kept off most of what I lost. And better yet, my sweet cravings have drastically gotten better! I loathe myself everytime I have to eat out now, as opposed to finding excuses to eat out.
This past week, I did not really plan well, so haven't been packing lunches => eating out. The first time in years that I have felt SO horrible about eating out! (Well, could also be the bug I saw in my sambhar today at that place - I can't get myself to call it a restaurant - Dottie gave it the perfect name, "hole-in-the-wall". It's .3 mile from my work, Usually great food, but eating there builds your resistance, if you know what I mean...)

Anyways, usually the left-over mysore-paks that I bought on Sunday for some visitors, would have been trashed into my tummy within hours. But they've been sitting there the whole week, and I finally relented and ate one yesterday (and another one today after the Spiked Mango Juice)...

So, that's it! I'm glad the GM Diet has changed me for the better and am gladder that my Morning Yoga is still going steady - not everyday, but...it's going. There was one day that I worked out for a laughable 4 minutes. 1 minute of surya-namsakar, 1 minute each of kapal bhatis, anulom-viloms, and regular breathing...

After our success, sis-S tried it, sis-U tried to try it, and another cuz-R and his wife J tried it too.

I myself am willing to go for another bout of this - maybe my own condensed 5-day GND-Diet. All I need is another 2-liner email from cuz-P after she gets back from her 10th Anniversary-celebration in Paris and Switzerland.

Quick Quips...

A short and sweet note with a couple of laughs -

T1's first PJ - The poor girl has been trying hard for a while now to devise her own joke...and we, laugh along just to humor her...if not for the joke, surely for her question at the end - "Get it??"
But she finally made one up.

Why does a duck quack?


Because it can't Moo! That's why!!

I was doing a MathWizard worksheet with T2. The problem was to circle what's odd.
There was a cat, a dog, a bear, an elephant and an airplane.
T2 took a good look at it, thought for a second and confidently said, "The Animals!"
Who can argue with that?