Menu Plan Monday

Hello lovelies,

hope you all had a great weekend. mine almost had everything I wanted: fun, relaxing, great food and great company. 

This week I am not planning to cook anything, but I still eat ;) just there won't be any specific plans. I am planning to bake something that I absolutely love but never tried and it is "Blubbery and almond tart". hopefully it will turn out to be good. I think this is one of the most rambling post I ever posted ;) but thought it would be good to just catch up with you. my hubby is out of town this week so I will be all by myself and trying to catch up on some of my chick-flick tv shows or programs :) I will "try" to rearrange and clean my closet which has been screaming my name for a  couple of weeks now but I tried to ignore it as much as possible. 

So that is for me this week, hope you all have great week :)

Mania

30 days sugar challenge

Hello lovelies,

well as I told you, Monday was my last day of 30 days sugar free challenge. and I am very proud to say that I finished it successfully. I personally know that I had sugar addiction and never denied it, I ate at least one piece of cake everyday because first I love cakes and 2nd I love baking. I also have very soft spot for ice-creams in hot summer nights. and that's it, not a chocolate fan or anything. 

We all know that sugar is bad for the health and it causes a slow and unnoticeable damage through out the years, so I will not go into that subject.

But it is not easy to quite sugar because we all know everything with sugar taste good and makes us happy. I did not think I could do it, specially the first week was the hardest, It affected me both physically and emotionally. the first days I was literally shaking ( which started around 3 pm) and no matter how many fruits I took it was not enough. 

After a while craving was almost gone, there were still times that I really wanted something, the crazy situations were when I wanted something that I barely eat on normal days (like chocolate). but eventually you kinda forget the taste of sweet stuff and it would get easier. 

One of the hard parts was with being with friends and they were all trying not have anything sugar related in front of me, and which made me uncomfortable because I hate to be the cause of suffering in other people and I was really ok with not having sugar myself.

Now it is finished, the fist sip of sugar I had was a huge shock to me and I said " I can't have this it is too much sugary for me!!". but I am not gonna lie sugar will always will be the part of my life, however this challenge definitely affected my habit in a good way.

Now I don't crave sugar like a crazy addict, I had a small piece of blueberry muffin yesterday ( which I baked myself) and that was it as far as my cake addiction. I had Nutella  for breakfast though and a slice of Kit-Kat and that was it since Monday. 

I pay more attention to labels now, try to avoid the unnecessary sugar as much as possible. take things like pistachio, almonds, walnuts ( all those healthy stuff) as snack which are quite satisfying. 

For me this challenge was turned out to be very positive, and as I see it the less you eat the less you crave.

So break a habit and start a new step to a better health all you out there :) I am sure you will like what you see at the end.

Hope you all have a great day, and by the way here is almost 45C which is crazy for Montreal but me loving every second of it :)

Mania

Bye Bye Sugar

*

If you know me by now you know that I have a sweet tooth. my most favorite thing to eat in the world is cake and  I can say I have at least one piece every day ( and sometimes even more). I know it's not good and I am not talking about gaining weight or stuff like that because of my workout routine I don't gain weight but this level of sugar is not healthy at all. 

So when I heard about this I thought it might be a good opportunity for me and I signed up for One Month Sugar Free Challenge organized by Fuck cancer. I love a good challenge, making new habits and breaking old ones ..., maybe after a month I would have control over my sugar addiction. A lot of people complain that sugar makes them sick, tired... but it does not do any of those to me. so I will see after this month if I feel any better without sugar or not.   

The challenge is to eliminate sugar for 1 month starting from June 20 and by any chance if anyone had a slip up, it is ok just they recommend to donate 1$ to Fuck cancer. fruits and handy natural sweeteners (like Stevia and Agave) are ok and honey is definitely a NO. I read al the labels now and I am really suprised by the amount of  sugar in everything. 

Today is the 2rd day of the challenge and yesterday afternoon I really could feel the lack of sugar in my body.it was really hard and I barely could do anything.  I did take lots of snacks with me today like pistachio, almonds, fruits so maybe today will be easier. I just hope I don't develop another addiction by the end of the month ;)


So what about you, do you have a sweet tooth ?!
Hope you all have a great Tuesday
Mania
*  source: http://dessertsplease.tumblr.com/

Menu Plan Monday

Hello lovelies :)

Hope you all had a great weekend, recharged and ready for another week.Here weekend was amazing weather wise and we enjoyed it to the max :) yesterday I was talking with my hubby about our weekly menu and he suggested that this week we should not cook anything !! apparently he got tired of me cooking every night :) we will still eat of course, but  not cooked stuff. sometimes it is good to take a break from the kitchen and since we don't have kids, that would be very easy for us.

So for lunch today we are having cheese & cucumber sandwich. yesss very high gourmet meal ;)

This Friday is La Fête nationale du Québec which is celebrated annually on June 24, St. John the Baptist Day. we will go camping this weekend for 4 days with our friends and I am so exciting for that.It is a very beautiful place which I never been and we have hiking, kayaking, swimming ... on our activity list. 

So that's for today post, wish you a great week.

Mania

Let's talk TV-1

I wanted to write about this subject for long time and it seems I never had a chance to sit long enough without interruption and write this. well I've been sick for the past few days and by sick means I got a really awful cold that made me completely nonfunctional. in the past few days 98% of my times had been passed in bed and still no signs of getting better which is terrible. so now I am sitting on my bed and try to focus and write about my current favorite TV shows. 

I don't consider myself as a big TV watcher and I honestly not a big fan of reality shows. there are some out there that I used to watch and liked ( The Amazing Race, Biggest Loser )  but kinda stopped watching due to lack of time.  there are a few shows that I follow and love:

Dexter should be my favorite. it is drama series that centers on Dexter Morgan, a bloodstain pattern analyst of the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer. It started in 2006 and everyone was talking about this show I did not start watching it yet and could not understand why everyone was loving this serial killer ( are people out of their mind these days?!?!) and I finally find time and started watching from 1st season and after a few first episodes I was hooked. this is a brilliant series, unlike anything I've seen on TV,  pulse-pounding storyline in each episode that keep you on the edge of the seat. 

My other favorite would be Gossip Girl which is my guilty pleasure. the show is basically an empty, mindless show with no real features ( at least I hope so). the show follows an unbelievably rich teenagers and their parents around Manhattan. although some people on the show has an IQ as high as a hamster, I can't get enough of their styles. specially big fan of Serena, Lily (her mom) and Blair styles. each episodes some new terrible things happen by an evil person ( who would turn good on the next episodes !) with ludicrous and laugh-out-loud dialogues with fabulous dresses, shoes and accessories. 
The anonymous Gossip Girl is a blogger, who posts "the scandalous lives" of residents of the Upper East side.  and she always has the best and most hilarious quotes in every occasion and all end with "you know you love me,Gossip Girl, xoxo" in each episodes. I can go on and on about this show, but I just stop myself here :) non of my friends watch this show so thank God for twitter and endless and hilarious discussions about #GG on Monday nights. 
I have still some other shows I wanted to talk about but this post is already getting long, so I will stop here and continue next week. 
So have you watched any of these 2 shows before, what is your favorite show on TV these days. 
Love,
Mania

ABC's of me :)

I have been a little lazy in my blog posts lately, for no particular reason. I have so many posts that I should sit down and write. but the I think the main reason for that was I did not use my computer that much ( other than work related stuff) for the past few weeks so that's why I am late. 

I decided to post something fast, this is a tag Amber did few weeks ago which was fun to read so I did it myself and as the title says it is ABC of me :)

Age: 29

Bed size: Queen

Chore you dislike: Generally most house works! no, no I am not lazy or something but I dislike vacuuming, ironing more but I LOVE ( actually enjoy ) washing dishes !!

Dogs: No! having animals is not my thing.

Essential start to your day: TEA ( not alone, always with something else) 

Favorite color: Red and blue ( almost all shades)

Gold or silver: White gold for sure! but recently ( about a year) I am into yellow gold, it looks great with tan skin but it should be a right yellow. 

Height: 162 cm ( 5″4 ) 

Instruments you play(ed): None. I had piano and keyboard courses when I was a kind as my mother attempt to discover my talents ;) but I have not a single talent on that department. 

Job title: Right now I am a full time Phd student in Chemical Engineering, and I do consulting projects on the side from time to time as an chemical engineer. 

Kids: Nope! love kids but not sure when I'll be a mommy ?!?

Live: Montreal,Quebec, Canada. 

Mom’s name: Ezat

Nicknames: I don't have any Nickname, as long as I remember everyone called me by my first name. 

Overnight hospital stays: because of my family background I never had to stay in hospital more than a few hours even when I had small surgeries ( which I did ) when I was back home. but here I stayed one night in hospital because I passed out in emergency room when I was with someone else who was actually sick, so I had to stay the night there to make sure I was fine.

Pet peeve: People who lie like there is no tomorrow and think everyone else around them are fools and don't know the truth!

Quote from a movie: "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that - he's gone" this line makes a complete sense at the end.  Unusual suspect 

Righty or Lefty: Righty

Siblings:  one big brother and 2 little sisters!

Time you wake up: usually after 7, but if I have a meeting or something else early on the morning, I woke up before 7!

Underwear: not a clear question but if the brand is the case ,most of mine are from La Senza and Calvin Klein!

Vegetables you don’t like: beet which is actually my hubby's favorite.

What makes you run late: I rarely run late, I don't remember the last time I was late somewhere.

X-Rays you’ve had: my chest and  my teeth.

Yummy food you make: I am always into trying new foods and recipes but my specialty would be pizza and spaghetti!

Zoo animal favorite:  Dolphins which are sea animals, but in general I'm not a big zoo fan.

Feel free to do the tag on your blogs, or if you did it already leave me a link down blew and I'll definitely read it. have yourselves a great day :)

Love,

Mania

Happy Nowruz ( Persian New Year)

Norouz ( or new day) is the mark of new year in Persian calenders which has been celebrated over 3000 years. It marks  the first day of spring and the beginning of the year and is celebrated at the exact time when spring starts which is usually is on March 21 or the  previous/following day. It is not only celebrated in Iran but other parts of the world like Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China. one of the major traditions in this time of year is to set a table ( called 7 seen ) which includes seven specific items that all starts with letter "S" in Persian alphabet. items symbolically correspond to seven elements of life Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Plants, Animals, and Human. these items are : 

• sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth
• samanu - a sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing affluence ( which me and my friend made this year together) 
• senjed - the dried fruit of the oleaster tree - symbolizing love
• sir - garlic - symbolizing medicine
• sib - apples - symbolizing beauty and health
• somaq - sumac berries - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise
• serkeh - vinegar - symbolizing age and patience.

Other items on the table may include:

• Sonbol - Hyacinth (plant)
• Sekkeh - Coins - representative of wealth
• traditional Iranian pastries 
• Aajeel - dried nuts, berries and raisins
• lit candles (enlightenment and happiness)
• a mirror (symbolizing cleanness and honesty)
• decorated eggs, sometimes one for each member of the family (fertility)
• a bowl of water with goldfish (life within life, and the sign of Pisces which the sun is leaving). As an essential object of the Nowruz table, this goldfish is also "very ancient and meaningful" and with Zoroastrian connection.
• rosewater, believed to have  cleansing powers
• a holy book and/or a poetry book * 

It is traditional to gather around the  "7seen table" with members of family and count down to the start of new year. since the timing is not the same all the time; sometimes it is very late at night or very early in the morning which is the hardest times to stay up for new year. this year it is at Sunday at 7:20 pm EST time.  after new year it is typical to exchange gifts with close ones and visit family and friends. 

This is my last year 7seen :)

It is a major holiday in Iran, and we try to celebrate it every year here. however it does not feel like spring at all since the weather is still cold and there are bunch of snow on the floor. during these of times ,the distance from family hurts more than ever but what can we do. we celebrate the new year with our close friends and it became our tradition here. 

So..

Happy new year my lovely readers and friends; I wish you all and your family all the best 

let's try to smile more in next year ...

let's open our minds to understand ourselves and each other 

let's be more wise, be stronger 

let's be positive ... 

I wish you a new year full of love and happiness :)

Love,

Mania

A Good Listener Poem

When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving me advice,
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem,
you have failed me,
strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don't talk or do - just hear me.
Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and
inadequacy.
But when you accept as a simple fact
that I feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can stop trying to convince
you and get about this business
of understanding what's behind
this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear, the answers are
obvious and I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people - because God is mute,
and he doesn't give advice or try
to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
for your turn - and I will listen to you
Aurthur: Unknown

I read this poem when I was doing a workshop few years ago;and loved it.  I personally believe in that often it is very important for us to feel heard; we feel better when we feel listened to and even better when we feel understood. sometimes people aren't looking for solutions, they just want to get the problem out of their system by telling it to someone without the feeling of being judged. true listening is considered as a skill; it is very important to listen to people non-judgmentally, even in the body language and facial expressions. it is just listening but it is one of the most fascinating things. 

So what do you think, do you consider yourself as a good listener or do you know someone who is?!

Love,

Mania

In the Giving Tree story, are we the tree or the boy?!?

Have you read the story of "Giving Tree"?! it is one of the most simple and touching stories I ever read. It is a children book but reading it you realize how deep it is and how different one can look at the story.The tree character shows someone that is always a giver and he is happy when there is something he can offer. on the other side there is the boy which is always a taker ( although we don't know how he is with others but for sure with the tree he is a taker). Throughout our life we met people that belonged to one of these 2 groups or somewhere in between. The boy can be seen as selfish or very reasonable and the tree can be seen as someone who sacrifice himself for the sake of others or someone that is selfless. 

I was reading the story ( probably for the 100th times) few days ago and I was thinking that the happiness of the tree and the boy was very dependence of someone or something else; tree was happy when the boy was around and needed something ( actually the only time the tree was sad was when he didn't have anything to give to the boy) or the boy was happy when he had money, house, boat. ....

When our happiness depends on someone or something else, there is a huge possibility that it is won't be stable.It is just much better to be happy without any reason and I found  that few months ago, simple reason like being healthy, be able to spend time with your loved ones and just enjoying their company, just by relaxing on the couch beside your significant other or the most simplest things; basically being happy because there is no reason not to be. and that's how I want to be :)
If you had not read the book, here is a short and old video with the voice of Shel Silverstein himself.

The story makes me sad and I hate the boy ( kind of ) but honestly how many of us behave or seen like the boy in real life?!
Love,
Mania

Happy Groundhog day ( yesterday !!!)

Ok yesterday was groundhog day. it is the 2nd of Feb. each year and is celebrated here in Canada and US. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

The Quebec's groundhog is named Fred and lives in the eastern Quebec town of Val-d'Espoir; unfortunately yesterday he saw his shadow, so what is that for us: 6 more weeks of winter and by winter I means loads and loads of snow and cold weather . it is very interesting to know that in other places of Canada their groundhog promised an early spring for them :) 

Yesterday a very major snow storm hit the US Midwest, Ontario and Quebec. The storm was one of the biggest I saw here. I don't know exactly how much it snowed but this morning when we were heading to work some cars were completely buried under the snow. It took us almost 2 hours to get to work ( usually takes 20 min top); so we are officially covered with snow and so desperate for a groundhog to predicts an early spring, but that's not gonna happen this year (in Quebec alt least).  yesterday evening nearly 70 cars hit each other and the accident stretched about 3 km long in one of the highways here in Montreal. so by a good approximation we could say the weather here is crazy now!! Having car accident is bad by it self but in those weather conditions :(

But today it is sunny and every where is white and beautiful. but don't let the sun fool you cause it is freaking cold outside. 

In the subject of groundhog day, there is a movie with this name which is fun and special. it is not those ordinary movies! If you didn't see it yet, maybe you should ;)

Wish all of you a happy and safe winter, till next time.

Love,

Mania

30 Day Yoga Challenge

Today is Monday, and working is really hard after you worked most of the weekend.Saturday we went to help one of our friends with their movings. they were moving to another city about 2 hour drive from ours. so we had kind of a mini trip too. so by the time we got home and went to bed it was after midnight so technically Saturday was gone without me noticing. Sunday was more fun though we went to our friends house for lunch ( big fun) and for afternoon we went somewhere else for birthday party. so basically we were not home that much this past weekend. and now I am so tired I couldn't go out of the house, so will be working from home and hit the gym afternoon. talking of gym, there is something that I want to talk about. This clip is really describe  my mood on Friday afternoon and Monday morning, funny!

A few weeks ago I decided to start a "30 Yoga challenge". the inspiration came from a dear blogger that I  am following for more than a year now. she started hers in mid January and I think she is at her last 10 days now. 

The challenge is to take 30 yoga sessions in 30 days. Since I am not going to a yoga studio, based on my gym's program ,I probably have to do 2 ( even 3) sessions in some days so I could finish my challenge in time. I already kind of set my schedule and high-lighted the classes that I should take and some others for backups. I try to keep my own workout routine and add the yoga classes; we'll see how I could manage that with my time and energy. I don't know if you tried yoga before or not but it could be very challenging. I know it won't be easy since I follow Amber's challenge and read about her experiences but my goal is to finish this challenge ( I am sure 100% I won't quite since I am no quitter). I am very looking forward to start at Feb.12th and finish successfully my challenge in 30 days.

Here is my current workout schedule so the rest of the yoga sessions would be added to these: 

Monday: 1h of step class

Tuesday: 1 h of cycling and 1h20 min of Yoga class

Wednesday: 1 h of Aero-latin class

Friday: 1h of Aero-latin and 1h20 min of Yoga class

Saturday: 1h30 min Yoga and 1h of meditation class

Sunday: 1h20 min Yoga

This has been my program for a couple of months now; before, there were days that I did some cardio and weight exercise at the gym by myself but personally I enjoy the group workouts more. I decided to add some weight exercises to my routine cause the point is not only to get rid of the body fat but also to build stronger muscles (since I want to keep my routine I will talk to a trainer to give me a quick 30 minutes routine that I could do everyday).
So who else wants to hit yoga mats with me for 30 days!?!

Love,

Mania

God bless who invented spaghetti...

We arrived at home around 8 last night, tired and exhausted. we had to make dinner and something for our lunch today. by looking at time it was clear that we didn't have that much of time and I preferred to sit on the couch and relax little bit before we go to bed. so we went for our fastest cooking routine which is very simple spaghetti with meat and tomato sauce. 

My hubby were mostly in charge of cooking last night, sliced the onion, garlic, and green bell pepper. cooked the onion and garlic for a few minutes then add the beef and spices. after a few minutes added the tomato sauce and pepper. in the mean time the spaghetti was cooking in the boiling water. after the ready spaghetti was mixed with sauce and voilà. we had our dinner ready and the whole thing took about 30 minutes. 

Oh God bless who invented spaghetti because  it is my delicious fast food. after we sat and enjoyed our meal with a few episodes of "Big Bang Theory" which I love. 

So what is your fast meal?!
Love,
Mania

Ooh weekend , I miss you already...

Weekend is gone and it is Monday morning, not my favorite day of the week, but what  you can do !

This week is crazy cold here, most of the days are -30 C and even colder. the crazy cold started from Saturday, but we managed to go out that day. it was very sunny and we went to do a few hours of cross country ski outside, which was great and we enjoyed it a lot.

So by going outside I kind of missed my Saturday yoga and meditation classes. however Sunday I went to my yoga class and decided to go downtown and do little bit of shopping ( or at least window shopping). I think I haven't been to stores ine ages ( honestly more than 2 months). but it was freezing and I couldn't walk more than few minutes outside, so I headed back home. at least I learned there is something that could keep me from shopping ;)

Currently I am reading "American wife" but it is a big book written in small prints, so it took me longer than I was expecting, I did not read any of it in the weekend. Sunday evening we went out for sushi in downtown, oh and we had green tea and red bean ice-cream for dessert which I never tried before and surprisingly they were delicious. 

oh and this song went to my head all yesterday which was making me crazy! funny thing is that, I have no idea what they are singing, but it is a really fun song and its tune is catchy. I emailed one of my friends this morning ( she was the one introduced the song to me in a first place and she is Spanish ) and asked her about the name of the song, which I did not remember :)

I made a quick crispy vegetable ( recipe here) for our lunch today last night and went to bed early. I always do little bit of breathing exercise before I go to sleep and at that moment it hit me  "wow weekend went so fast", at least I 'm glad we enjoyed it!  

So how did you spend your weekend?
Love and wish you all a nice week,
Mania

New year is here....

Hi my lovely readers,

Happy new year to all of you, may this year bring  more and new prosperity, love and happiness in your life.

I was  on vacation from Dec. 22 and just came back today. we went to a cottage close by to our city for a couple of days which was very very relaxing.

Here is me walking in the snow, enjoying the white and cold outdoors :)

Then we came back home and the next day we went to Toronto and stayed with our friends for couple of days. we also visited Niagara falls and Toronto city itself.

View of the Fall from top ( just half of it)

just a beautiful tree in Falls' Casino area

It turned out to be a great vacation, which I needed so bad. I read some good books, finished about 4 magazines;which I am subscribed and did not have time to read since November; did some shopping which is always fun.

Our friend had a party for new year where I met amazing new people. she made her signature cheeses cake, which I got her recipe and made my first cheese cake last year ( here is the link to her recipe)

I wish you all the best in 2011 and till the next post bye :)
Mania

What is going on in my life in the last weeks of 2010 ....

Hello dears,
I kind of missed a lot of positing and I have several reasons for that. one of them ,  is that here, it is the end of fall semester and I worked as a TA for one bachelor course this semester. since now is the end, I have to correct all reports and prepare the final notes before holidays.
I live in Canada; however I study in French university so all the reports  are in French. reading those  is really time consuming for me compared to read them in English :(.
so most of the week I was stuck behind my computer and was reading reports make notes. I did not cooked baked or did anything special this week which makes me feel horrible; but I hoped by tomorrow I would be done with everything course related and could relax for bit.
I also did read 5 books in "pretty little liars" series which I will talk about them soon.
Oh and BTW it is been snowing here for almost a week now, I will post some pictures of it on my next post :)
so till next time, bye.
Mania

The view from our balcony, it was snowing :)

some people only talk to you when they need something...

This is one of the things that bugs me most of the time and it really hurts. there are some types of people that are like that , they don't talk to you or don't ask you "how are you " and then boom they need something and all of the sudden they see you .
I had so many friends ! like that , some of them even does not answer you when I'm trying to be nice and ask how they're doing , but when I recieve email from them becasue they wanted to ask me something . how I should react; be cool and helpfull or ignore them like they always do .
I always did the first option because I'm that type of persons that can not ignore others  and also can not confront them about their bad behaviour.
but how you can fix that , or how you behave with these kinds of people !?!?

cable-less....

it's been more than 2 weeks that we cut off our cable, so we are officially TV-less. the cut back was necessary because we felt we are watching TV a lot even when there was nothing on. of course I miss some of it like HBO, food network but I'm ok now ;)
I'm still watching and following my shows but online and the new thing that we tried is that we started to rent dvd from our library ( we did that before but now is more often ) and we watch them whenever we want . so we now are at  the end of 30 Rock , season 1 ( which is  so funny by the way and  we loved it , I know a lot of people do ) and next week will be big love :). I watched 2-3 eposides of the last season when we had HBO and I really liked this show, it is one of the best. so I decided to watch them all.
I watched some of heroes but not from beginning, in the middle.   I don't know I'll start from the beginning maybe I just follow it from now on .though  I  have to find out what season is on now.
so here is the list of the shows that I choose to watch from now : Dexter, bored to death, hunk,  the adventures of old Christine ( I followed it before till season 2).and I am more tv person compared to my husband, I don't know he is gonna follow them with me hope he does.
 less TV ( or manageable TV ) means me-time which I used for reading, painting and things that I like.

I'm back

after a long absence I'm back ..
I was looking to my post and when I saw the last post was on 13 Dec . I shocked, I didn't realize that it's been so long , time passes very quickly
the reason for this absence was that I had a deadline to make and I was working and working even throughout the holidays and after that I took a week off ,going to vacation which was very fun
at the last day of our vacation I caught a cold and I'm still sick. I think my head is exploding .
I had so much plans for my off times: baking , cooking ,cleaning .. which I didn't do . I only baked a few cakes , I didn't cook ( just for one occasion :our Christmas gathering ). I didn't take photo form my cooking results but I'm going to post the recipes here. during our vacation I had the best cheesecake ever and I'm motivated to make one myself. I prepared everything and I'm going to bake my first cheesecake this weekend. hope it wont become a disaster !
tonight is my fist vist at a gym after a week of eating and sleeping. I know it'll be a little hard .
so till next time with a new cheesecake, bye

we change..

Monday ...I don't hate Mondays but rather dislike them. I should try to like them ;believe me I'm trying but no changes so far..
last night me and my husband went out for dinner some place called sacwich , which is basically a sandwich in a sac, but they taste very good . I think it's a sauce because it's a special sauce (they call it Italian sauce) with some herbs and it smells and tastes great ...
I did not bake last night but cooked our today lunch.
this morning I was reading something on the web when I came across this sentence "things don't change, we change " and I was thinking it's true. we all change but most of us try to explain these changes by looking around us not ourselves. I 'm looking at myself and could think of several examples which I said to myself that "things changed " but really I'm the one that changed. sometimes for the good and sometimes not that good actually. ..
I'm happy about the change that I'm starting to see in myself these day and I hope to get better every day ..
have a good week

new version of me and new cake

today I'm working. I don't like to work on weekend but sometimes we have to do something that we don't like. and something else that I 'm not very happy about is that I missed my Yoga class today which is a result of being little lazy. I came to school around 10:30 and my Yoga class was at 13:45 so I had to go to downtown ( by metro or car) and  then come back here to finish my work . so I decided to skip it instead.
I started this class about a month ago , 3 sessions a week and I'm so happy to say that I connected with it very fast and saw its results . in regular basis I'm a sensitive and nervous person . for sensitive part let me just say that people's behaviors towards me affect me very much . but now I feel more relaxed ..and refreshed
last night I baked a new cake which named " chai coffee cake" . I loved it and we took it to our friend's home where we were hanging out . because we don't have any cake at ours now I think I'm going to bake something else . I did not decide yet . tonight is also the cooking night . I hope I finish sooner so I could get to all that