Mountain traffic

I thought you might all enjoy a picture of the traffic we encountered on a trip to visit a famous waterfall here. Now, to be confused. This is a rather unusual sight which is why I took the picture though we did encounter a herd blocking the road both going and coming back. (This is coming back.) We were way up on mountain roads seemingly in the middle of no where but saw these sheep as well as other herds grazing on distant hills, farmers plowing fields with yolks of oxen, and lots of boxes of bee hives set up along hills and valleys.

I'm sorry the picture's not better. It's a bit difficult to get a good picture from inside the car with a sleeping baby in your arms. (Carseats are a rarity here.) I don't know if you can tell but there are about half a dozen babies in the back of the herd. The shepard on the donkey was an older man and apparently a bit annoyed with us that we wouldn't just go around like everyone else, but hey, I had to get the shot! :) I'm grateful for:
the abundance we've been blessed with
cool mornings with the windows and front door open
getting my morning started with a fun walk accompanied by music from Sting 

Comments on comments

Recently, Patty posted a blog about comments to what she writes. I know exactly how she feels. Even though, in theory, this blog is just for my musings and to keep friends and family updated with what's going on in our lives, I just love it when I get a comment to something I've written. It's a bit like getting a little surprise note in your mailbox. I have to admit that I'm not always good about leaving comments myself. A big part of it is how I use the internet here. We use cards that are much like phone cards with only about 10 hours or so of access time for about $3. The dial up is often slow so I tend to open multiple pages at once then open other pages after those on the same browser page without reading the first ones. A lot of times I will go 7 or 8 links on 3 or 4 browser pages then log off so that I can read them without it costing anymore time. This method, though useful for saving money, isn't very conducive for leaving comments. I do read a lot of blogs every day (probably way more than I should) and I rarely comment on more than a few every once in a while. I promise I'll try to be better. On a different note, they just showed an old episode of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Does anyone else remember him? He was this super serene man who does all these landscape paintings with lots of Prussian Blue. It used to be on PBS all the time. You never know what will turn up on tv here. There was a really great Japanese movie on the other night. I think it's called "Afterlife." The premise is that when you die you have to chose just one memory for your entire life and you will forget everything else except that one memory. If you can't or won't chose then you're stuck being a kind of civil servant helping other people chose. I thought it was a very interesting premise.

The picture is of a tree growing about 15 feet to the left of the picture of the orchard I showed before. It's quite an unusual looking tree with no extending branches any where; just this tight little spiral of leaves going up, up and away. 

Green finish

Yippy! I finished a green mini for May's Project Spectrum. I'm glad I decided to do this project. I know I never would have chosen to do an all green quilt in any size on my own, but I like the way this turned out. The picture makes the hsts look off a bit but I think that may just be the way the colors are showing up. The lighting's not great since it's 2 a.m. but I just finished it so I wanted to share. ;) I've decided to do my best to continue with the Project Spectrum challenge only I'll be doing minis instead of full sized quilts since for me that's much more managable right now. It looks like I may be adding another 2 classes soon. Charging less than originally expected but hopefully it will create some word of mouth for future classes. There's a verse in the Quran that says "He plans and you plan and He is the best of planners." Basically it means that God knows what is best for us and doesn't always give us what we want or "plan on" or as I tell my kids "Just cuz you want it doesn't mean you're gonna get it." I've been trying to keep this verse in mind whenever things don't go quite as expected. A great example is the rental house with the pool. Well, a realtor convinced us to go check it out anyway and we're really not missing out on anything. The house was fairly nice but very low on privacy as there was only a half wall separating it from the house next door which looked as though both houses had once been a single unit that got separated over time. The pool obviously had not been used in quite some time and the only water in it was overgrown, brackish rain water that had collected over the winter. My guess is that it hadn't been used since the people across the street decided to build a two story house that looks right into the yard with a pretty good line of sight to the pool. This would eliminate the ability to use it without putting up some type of privacy screening. And the available yard space for the kids was not much more than what we have now, which was one of the main reasons we were looking to move. So, we're staying put for the time being. 

A back door

I figured out yet another way to get around and into a blog when Blogger is refusing to play nice. I just type a keyword into the search bar and hope that a recent post has one of the words I choose. For Patty's I managed to see as recently as the 20th by using fabric. :) I haven't found anything usuable for Sandra's blog yet. I can still only seen till the 15th. So, if anyone has any wonderful ideas of keywords I can use please let me know.

I'm grateful for:
a nice cup of hot chocolate and a brownie or two for breakfast
4 healthy, active kids
a nice cool morning
the smell of fresh baked zucchini bread
time to explore back issues of BHG and Coutry Living magazines that I had given to my SILs and that they were kind enough to share back with me

Ack!

Ok, it's time to fess up. I looked in the mirror today and got a very unsettling look at my stomach. I knew it wasn't what I wanted it to be but today it looks very scary! I don't enjoy the sensation of feeling either my belly or my butt jiggle when I walk but I've felt both move seemingly of their own volition lately. It's time to get moving! I don't have a scale right now but that is definately on my list of things to buy. In the mean time I'll guess that I'm pushing 20 lbs. over what I consider my highest acceptable weight and I'm nearly 20 in. over ideal measurements. (I do have a measuring tape.) Dieting isn't always the best choice while nursing and hey, I've never exactly been good at cutting out sweets. So that leaves me with getting more exercise. I know from past experience that the more I exercise the more energy I have which is always good to have with a house full of active kids. My plan is to start with 15-20 minutes twice a day of walking, aerobics, conditioning or some combination of the three. As I get more accustomed to exercizing again, I'll increase the time.

I started on my goal with a plan to walk 15 min. which turned into 20, more than half of that time carrying a 20+ lb. Reza.

Getting Started

Ok, once again please ignore the hyper links. Picasa hates to import from Word I guess.

Many others around the quilt blog/block have written about how they got started quilting so I thought I’d share too. When I was about 5 years old my maternal great- grandmother died, and my mom and grandmother brought my sister and I each a quilt from her collection. I’m not even sure you could call mine a quilt as it had no batting and only a single piece of fabric each for the front and back, but it was tied. It was probably a lap quilt with a lovely pink flower print on the front with a plain pink back and I loved it dearly. I kept it on my bed until I went to college than passed it on to my niece who lived with us so she would have something special to remember me by. (We were very close. She used to come a sit on my head in the mornings to wake me up. :D ) Neither my mom nor my grandmother quilted (except for one class my mom took where she made a single log cabin block) but my mom would occasionally make us some clothes. One year I got a sewing box and started sewing Barbie clothes and accessories. No instruction, I just did what worked and kept it simple. After that I didn’t do much more than make the prerequisite pillow for home ec in 7th grade.

Flash way forward to 1996. My soon to be dh and I moved to MD where he got a summer internship. We were close to PA and I was inspired by the proximity to Amish quilters to try my hand at a quilt for my 2nd niece’s 1st birthday. I knew nothing about making a quilt and never actually went and saw any quilts so, true to my nature I hit the library for a book that would help me along. I found a simple hst star pattern, hit the local JoAnn’s a picked fabrics I thought would work and got busy. I finished the top, sandwiched and bound it and felt quite proud of my accomplishment. So I started in on a quilt for niece #1 for Christmas, this time a mix of hst stars and 4 patches. (I think the pattern is called Milky Way.) I finished the binding the morning I gave it to her. Now here is the important point that you might have missed. I didn’t actually quilt or tie either one of these quilts! Being completely self taught, I didn’t really “get” the need for quilting or binding them. I thought making a pretty top was more than enough. Duh! Well about a year later I went to visit my sister and saw the condition of both quilts. One of the fabrics in quilt #1 was not suitable to little kid wear and tear and had given way at many of it’s seams and the batting in both quilts was all bunched up. Lesson learned! I started quilt #3 while pregnant with ds #1-more stars with 6x6 1” finished postage stamp centers. A lot of the fabrics in this quilt were clothes that were in the give-away pile at dh’s uncle’s house where we were staying until dh found a job. With no job and me expecting buying tons of fabric for a baby quilt was not an option. (Hey, if it was good enough for our fore-mothers, it would work for me too.) What was purchased was sale or clearance stuff. (Being a newbie I did end up buying WAY too much yardage for the backing/background fabric.) The squares were cut using a 3x5 card cut to size and a pair of scissors used for everything. I learned my lesson and actual did some quilting on this one. After washing a few times, I decided to add more just to be safe but probably by most quilters’ standards it’s not much. Now nearly 7 years and many washings later, only one of the clothing fabrics has proven weak and come apart at a few seams and one of the cheap purchased fabrics has faded a lot but it’s still in pretty good shape.

I’ve only ever taken 1 2-day quilting class and until finding quilting blogs I never talked to other quilters, read about their experiences or saw many quilts. This has allowed me to see what I like and do it how I want without a lot of shoulds or have tos. I’ve learned from my own experiences which fabrics will likely be too thin. I rarely prewash or iron anything unless it’s been clothes. I’m awful at guessing or eye balling a ¼” seam so I use a ball point or gel pen to mark nearly all of my seams since I hand piece everything. I don’t wash or dry my quilts any differently than the rest of our clothes. Remember, women were quilting a LONG time before all of the special soaps for quilts were introduced using fabric with presumably less stable dye and much rougher washing methods. (Think about lye soap and wash boards.) Now that I’ve started reading about quilters like Tonya, I’m more confident to do what works for me and not sweat it when things don’t look quite right. My seams may not line up just right but I haven’t gotten a single complaint yet, so why worry. ;)
Here’s a pic of ds #1’s quilt. Despite the few places where the fabric has given way, I still use it at night sometimes. (The extra background fabric for this quilt was enough to work as a sheet for my current 75"x79" bed. The white with big black polka dots is the weak fabric. DS decided he’s much rather have a new and bigger quilt which I have to agree is necessary since he’s now nearly 4 ½’ tall.

Sewing machine

I've decided that there are just too many projects that I want to get done for me to do them all by hand so I'm going to break down and by a sewing machine. Janome seems to be the main top brand here so that's what I'll probably get. The trick will be shopping for one with all of the kids since school is done. :) Does anyone have experience with Janome? I'm just looking for a simple model. I generally don't use any fancy stitches even the time or two when I've made clothes.

I'd also like to say that Blogger has not been too nice lately about letting me read current posts. I often have to click on May to get the latest updates and sometimes that doesn't even work, like for Patty's Morning Ramble. The latest I can see of her's is the Tie Dye quilt update but I know she's done more than that. I did catch one quick glance of the beautiful fabric that was choosen for the bride's maids dresses but couldn't comment. :( Oh, well. Hopefully Blogger will work out the kinks. 

Berry season

One of the cool things about living here is that there are fruit trees all over. There are persimmons, pomegranates and grapes growing in my in-laws yard. My yard has limes and grapes and on the other side of our privacy wall is a large, lovely berry tree. One friend said that these are mulberries but I thought mulberries grow on bushes. This tree is at least 15 feet tall. It's a favorite climbing tree for my kids and their neighborhood friends during the year but for the last 3 weeks or so it's become a favorite tree for alot of people. Why?
Because it's FULL of plump, juicy berries that are fairly sweet. Mornings and afternoons it has been filled with boys on their way to or from school just down the street, who eat their fill every chance they get. My students beg their moms to get them some after every class and my kids have filled their bellies more than a few times on these sweet treats. They make tasty additions to muffins or quick bread but sadly they don't freeze well, otherwise I'd stock up for the rest of the year. You would think with all the picking this tree has seen that the berries would be completely gone after the last 3 weeks, but No. It's still bursts with freshly ripened berries every day. I guess we'll just enjoy them while they last and look forward to more next year. Sadly, our next door neighbor has asked us to request that the tree be taken down because of its popularity. DH refuses to ask the landlord but she might succeed in getting him to do it anyway. The only downfall of the tree is that the kids had been using the berries to graffiti our wall. Most of it was just names or pictures (some quite creative) but someone decided to add a curse word to the mix so out came the bleach and garden hose and 20 minutes later we have a plain white wall again.
Here are some pics of a very happy boy enjoying a batch of berries a couple of weeks ago.
 

Proof

Remember a while back when I talked about Reza's "high fiber" diet? Well here is proof. There are some of his latest victims.
This is just one part of his crib. Every reachable part of the railing has teeth marks all over but here it's the worst. You can't really tell from the picture but there are chunks taken out of the wood here. He managed this damage in 2-3 sessions of less then 10 minutes in the crib. And here is proof that I have a baby beaver. He's taking out another chunk as he continues to work on this escape from "baby jail."
 

Chaos

*Warning: This is a long post completely unrelated to quilting, so feel free to skip it if you like.

Note: I had originally decided not to post this but info contained here explains other things I’d like to post about, so what the hay! I hope you don’t mind the reading.

Sometimes life hands you things and you just don't know how you feel about them.

This whole trip to Iran has been meet with denied expectations and lots of life's little surprises. We are in the process of having apartments built on the lot that used to hold my in-law's house. They have been in a smaller house that we bought with his sister a few years ago while we are in a rental. The apartments were supposed to be finished a few months after we arrived, however, they are still basically a three-story shell with exposed pipes, sil didn't get any receipts for money given to the contractor for the job, he walked off the job and now there is a lawyer involved. So this has definately NOT met expectations.

The kids are doing well in school academically but some of the lessons their learning I would just as soon not have them learn, especially Mustafa. He's been in lots of fights and been picked on in large because he is bigger than anyone else in his class, believes in following the rules and has stepped in to stop a few fights so other kids try to prove themselves against him or retaliate for things he's done. During the course of the year his teacher has hit him at least once and his vice principle has twisted his ear at least a few times but we don't know exactly how many because he's a very reluctant talker. After the incident with his teacher early on, dh and I talked about pulling him out and homeschooling him like we did in the US but he felt we should wait a bit longer. Over the course of the year, he's seen that yes, we really can teach our kids as much or more and better than what they learn at school so that option is on the table for next year. I've also been frustrated with the amount and pointlessness of the busy work that his teacher assigns. For the first half of the year, ds had to draw and color a picture at the end of each night's homework. It did not have to be anything related to what they had learn but it had to be colored. Mustafa hated coloring and his teacher tried to suggest there was something wrong with him since he wouldn't color his pictures. Now she has them doing math workbook pages but then exactly copying the pages they've done into their homework notebooks and rewriting them without any kind of correction. How pointless is that! Dd has faired a bit better in kindergarten but she's had her share of annoying behavior from other kids such as pinching, hair pulling and knocking her snacks on the floor. Also, the tend to pop movies in for the kids to watch while they are playing with playdough and on more than one occasion she's told me they watched movies I would never let them watch like "Spiderman". When dh asked his teacher about the movies, she showed him a room were they have the movies and said that was all the showed but dd told me that kids also bring in movies. Grrr! Now don't get me wrong, I let my kids watch movies and they've even seen most of "The Lord of the Rings" but I don't think 5 years should be watching whatever happens to be on hand in the 4 hours they're at school.

I was told that I'd have no problem finding students to teach English to but except for 1 woman I tutored for 2 weeks, I've only had a class of three students this year, all of whom are Safiya's classmates. So, I've only made about $500 in the last 7 months. Definately NOT what I expected.
On the upside, the kids only have a week and half of school left and both have done very well considering they barely spoke any Farsi when we arrived one month before school started. And as far as teaching goes, at least I’m getting experience for handling future classes.

Pool dreams

Please ignore the fact that this is all hyperlinked. I cut and pasted this from Word into Picasa and don't know how to unlink it at the moment.

First, Thank you to everyone that gave me feedback on my book question. Everyone I’ve spoken with seems to have the same view that this should be my take on life here with exploration of the domestic sphere, so that’s the direction I’m headed in. Now I just have to find time to write.

Ok, so why did I need to post that last long one. Well because of the half finished apartments, we are renting and the lease is up soon. I don’t particularly want to stay in this house because it has various flaws that are starting to get on my nerves like impossible to vacuum carpet and plaster and paint that keeps coming off the walls in different places. As long as the apartment situation remains unresolved, we will be in Iran, and in particular, Shiraz. In-laws just aren’t up to dealing with the crooked contractor and all of the court issues, so Mohsen has made that his #1 job. So we’ve been looking around the last couple of weeks for another place to rent. A few days ago, SIL mentions that a realtor told her about a 1000 sq. meter house with a POOL! Problem is is that it rents for about 3 times what we are paying here. *sigh* The rent alone would almost equal our current monthly expenses. It was, however, nice to fantasize about swimming again and getting the kids started back on swimming lessons only with me as their teacher this time. With the approach of summer, the opening lines of Dr. Suess’ “Horton Hears a Who” keep running through my mind. “In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool” Ah, well. As much as I think we’d enjoy it, I really can’t see a justification for spending that much money when neither of us is really bring much in. There’s just not a whole lot of other single family rentals available so keep your fingers crossed for us that we find something good at a reasonable price. We have to let our current landlord know by the end of the week if we are going to renew the lease!

On a quilty note, I’ve been slowly working on Reza’s quilt, haven’t gotten anything done on the challenge quilts and am contemplating making a green mini for Project Spectrum. In the mean time, here is a picture of Mustafa’s little quilt. He’s sewn the binding on but he says he wants to do diagonal quilting on it as well. It’s a morphed bowtie quilt.

 

Questions

I'd like to answer Jeanne's question about the orchard as well as ask everyone who read this a couple of questions.

First, Jeanne's question was wether the orchard was privately owned or a public space. The orchard in the pictures is privately owned by one brother and all of the improvements were made by another brother over the last 10 years or so. It's such a beautiful place that their mother choose to spend the last few months of her life there.

It just so happens that the day Jeanne posed her question we made a trip to a public orchard that is about 700 years old. Unfortunately, this was an unplanned stop on a trip home from the airport so we did not have our camera with us but I'm sure we will be back since this is a beautiful spot. A three story "summer" house of sorts stands at the center of the orchard. The house is in disrepair now but it is at least 200 years old, probably more. The view is amazing. I can't wait to get some pictures to share. Iranians LOVE to picnic, so any green space is often filled with families at all hours of the day and frequently at night. We visited in the orchard in the early afternoon on Thursday and there were 3 separate groups of women out picnicing with at least 10 women per group.

Now for my questions-My husband suggested tonight that I try my hand at writing a book since I am in the somewhat unique position of being an American woman in Iran. I can understand his point and thinking about current events and rhetoric gives me the idea that it might even be timely but I want to know if others would really be interested in reading it. He just suggested it about an hour or so ago and I've only had a little time to let the ideas simmer but I was thinking about either writing about my impressions or about Iranian women or perhaps even a mix of the two. What do you all think? Anyone think there would be interest in such a book? I found one book on Amazon similar to the idea of writing strickly about Iranian women but it was published 4 years ago and much has changed in Iran during that time.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone and everyone that has any ideas or opinions on this.

Thanks.

Orchard

I thought you might like to see an example of an orchard in Iran. This is a different one than the one we had our No Ruz picnic at but we've been here several times. Each side of the path is lined with rose bushes; some up to about 15 ft. high. The paved area extends about 20 or so meters on either side of the picture. At the end of the path, to the right, they've built a little one room house for relaxing in or as a place to go in case of rain, complete with a mini kitchen, fireplace, bathroom and shower. Here is one of the many rose bushes along the path. There are a few others this color but most are white, yellow or red. The red ones are the ones that are about 15 (or more) ft. tall.
 

Orange done...

kinda. The top is done for the April project spectrum wallhanging. I had read someone's blog that said there are 3 finishes to a quilt. Well, this is finish number 1-the top. I know 2 of the borders a bit crooked. I guess that will teach me to sew by the light of the computer screen. :) The little white spot about a third of the way down was dust on the camera lens. For now it will be moved to UFO status probably until June. I'd finish this now but if I'm going to participate in the Middle East Quilters' Challenge, I need to get moving on those projects. 

Top 20

Ok, Jeanne listed this probably at least a month ago but what can I say, I'm slow!

Here is a list of the Top quilts I'm either working on or want to do (except for 1st four, not in any particular order):
1. Belated orange April Project Spectrum wall hanging. Almost finished with the top.
2. Reza's 1st birthday quilt-Road to Jericho. Making sure and steady progress. Will post a pic when I get to a point that is photo worthy.
3 & 4. Middle East Quilters' 2006 challenge- Mini quilt ~12" sq. and ~48"x36". Theme "The 4 elements" I've got ideas for both down on paper, most fabrics pulled but haven't cut or sewn anything. We'll see if I can get anything done by the deadline sometime around the beginning of next month.
5. Strippy Twist quilt ala Bonnie's Quiltville site
6. Mini Amish Churndash
7. Wonky Animal House growth chart for kiddies
8. Chicklet quilt with sashing similar to Forest Jane
9. Bargello
10. Mini Trip around the World
11. Log cabin
12. Bear paw
13. Something with Flying Geese
14. Irish chain
15. Drunkard's Path
16. "Shape of My Heart"- applique in planning stages, inspired by a Sting song on "Ten Sumner's Tales"
17. Depression block
18. quilt for Mustafa-his choice
19. stars and ribbons
20. a couple of non-wonky house wallhangings

Ok, that's all I can think of for now. At the rate I make quilts, the kids will all be grown by the time I finish this list. ;D

Project Spectrum

Ok, I'm in the thinking/planning stages of turning an orange block into a 12" mini wall hanging but I may not finish by the end of the month so instead here is a picture of an orange from my neighbor's yard. This and one other tree peek up over the wall the seperates the two yards so I get to look at them all the time while I'm hanging laundry. I took the pic a couple of days too late since the flowers were much more abundant two days before, but I think it still looks pretty.
The roses were a "reward" for being company last week. We visited one of Mohsen's friends and he had over two dozen profusely blooming roses bushes lined up in two rows off his porch. When Mohsen complimented him on them, he promptly got out his pruning shears and a bunch for us. From top to bottom they are deep red, redish orange and a deep pink. He also had white ones but most of those blooms were past their prime, as well as some little light peachy pink climbing roses.

Now to answer so of the asked questions:
Jeanne-I became a Muslim when I was around 21 so I didn't have a set cultural dress style to follow. In the US, I pretty much wear what I do around the house if there are men here, i.e. jeans, t-shirt, scarf and a big, loose button-down shirt with the bottom few buttons fastened. If I'm going to the masjid/mosque, I'll either wear a monto or my regular outside clothes. It just depends on the occasion.

The kids only have one cousin to play with who will turn 2 this week. She's Mohsen's youngest sister's daughter.) She's very shy and quiet but my kids are doing their best to break her out of her shell and she now loves the attention she gets from them. Mohsen's two older sisters are not married, so no kids there and his younger brother has just this week gotten engaged so we'll have to wait a bit for cousins from them. ;)

Patty- Girls have to start covering when they reach puberty or around 9 years old. I've seen some people put scarves on babies as well but it's not very common. Most boys and all girls wear school uniforms depending on the school they attend. For all of the girls, the uniform is some style of pants, monto and scarf regardless of age although in the younger grades the girls don't have to keep the scarves on all of the time. It's basically just to get them accustomed to wearing them, similarly to what you said about the Amish covering the baby girls' heads.

It really is truly amazing how many similarities there are. Thanks to the internet, I've also found other groups of Christian women who cover and know from a friend that the Russian orthodox Christians cover as well.

Don't worry about the questions you ask, this is how we learn about each other. If there's ever a question that I might not feel comfortable answering on the blog, I'll either email you the answer or accidently, on purpose, forget to answer it. ;P But I doubt that that will happen. 

Clothes

Patty asked a few questions about how I dress and, since I've heard these questions before off-line, I thought I'd answer them in a new post in case anyone else is curious. And, Patty,
I don't think you're a bit nosy. I think it helps us all if we learn more about each other and their lives.

What I wear outside-jeans, overalls or cotton pants, t-shirt, knee-hi stockings, scarf, monto-this is the long, loose coat. My montos are anywhere from mid-calf to ankle length, however, the style among teens right now is mid-thigh to just above the knee and much more form-fitting.

What I wear inside-At home with just us I'm almost always in loose cotton pants, sometimes overalls or jeans, and a t-shirt with barefeet. If males other than my dh or father in law are present then I add a scarf, long, loose men's shirt and socks or knee-hi's.

Now is this hot? Patty, as you said, you get used to it. Also, I grew up in the south and baked on the beach each summer. I'm probably no hotter covered up than I was exposed because let's face it when it's 90+ degrees outside everyone's hot. :) Plus I have the added benefit of automatic sunscreen so no more sunburns except maybe on my cheeks and hands and I can slide my scarf forward a bit to shade my eyes if I forget my sunglasses. I try not to forget them too often since the sun is stronger here and I have very light eyes so it's very uncomfortable to go without shades. Montos and scarves also come in different weights of fabric for the different seasons. My sils often wear very light weight sleeveless tops underneath during the summer. Since having babies and when I'm pregnant my tolerance for heat goes way down. I'm usually the first to turn on the ac and I went the whole winter here without a coat only wishing I had worn it one time. I guess it helps that I spent two winters in Indiana and the last few winters in Virginia were nearly arctic, especially since I was often out at night because of college classes. There were plenty of days/nights with negative windchills, snow and ice so I know not to complain when the temps aren't even near freezing. :)

Ok, I hope that answers the questions. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask. I never mind answering.

Picnic-Iran style

On the 13th day of the New Year, Iranians head out to their favorite nature spots to have a picnic. In our case, we went to the orchard of my sil's in-laws. The funny thing about orchards here, in part because of urban sprawl, is that the orchards are often located side by side with houses, shops or resturants. And, because all property with any kind of yard is walled and almost all houses have some kind of trees growing inside the walled yard, it is difficult to tell from the outside which property is an orchard and which is someone's house.

Anyway, back to the picnic. As you can probably tell from the pics, an Iranian picnic is basically just a regular meal eaten al fresco. This includes rice, stew and tea as well as real plates, glasses and silverware. Paper or plastic dishes or utensils are a no-no. Here we had three kinds of rice, boiled chicken and a simple summer salad made on the spot. It's not unusual to see people bring along the equivalent of a camp stove to keep the food and tea hot.
I'm the one in the blue scarf down at the end between Mustafa and Reza. We had our own more American-style picnic fare of kebab (spiced hamburger) sandwiches, juice and cookies. 

Weird me

Hey, I got tagged by Jeanne for a meme about 6 weird things about me. I do, in fact, consider myself a bit odd so I guess this is perfect for my first meme. :)

1. I love making chocolate chip cookies, but would much rather eat the dough raw than the baked cookies. And I love brownies both raw and cooked, but only if they're fudgy.

2. I have been pregnant with or breastfeeding a baby for all but 7 months of the last 8 1/2 years, but who's counting?

3. I love being surrounded by books. I keep lists everywhere of books that I've read about that sound interesting and that I might someday like to try. I read an account of one pioneering couple that sold their furniture when they moved out west but shipped over 1000 books to their new home. I can so relate. Besides the books and a few magazines that made their way into our luggage, 6 boxes of books were shipped (still waiting on 3 of them) and I want more. (I've got a 3 page wish list at Amazon!) I would have to live to be at least 100 to get all of the books I want to read read and all of the quilts I want to do done.

4. I'm a vivid dreamer and pretty good at lucid dreams. In case you don't know what lucid dreams are, they are the kind where you know you're dreaming and can control the events in your dreams. Many of my dreams are of either the fantasy/sci fi variety or action/adventure where I get to beat up really big guys. It's quite fun!

5. I tend to have a running dialogue in my head where I'm thinking about what I'd like to write or what I'd REALLY like to tell some people but I rarely ever do either. I'd love to write stories but never manage to get much done on paper.

6. I'm a very physical mom. In other words, I am a human jungle gym. ;) I toss my kids over my shoulder like their superman, help them do all kinds of flips and swing them around upside down, at least until they get to tall or too heavy. (I have big kids.) I remember my dad doing similar stuff with us when we were kids, so I guess I'm just carrying on the legacy. And in case anyone is wondering, from about 9 or 10 months on, kids LOVE hanging upside down and swinging.

Now, I'm supposed to tag 6 more people but I don't know how many of those that read my blog have blogs of their own, so I'll tag Patty, Tonya and Sandy and whoever else what's to join in and has their own blog, feel free to join in the fun. Just leave me a comment so I can go peek at your meme's.

Cyberfriendships

Patty posted about how important having girlfriends is to women. She suggested that the internet has provided a way for women to make similar connections that they would make off-line. I think this is especially true of blogs. We take about our days or what we're working on or wish we had time to do. We also share our special moments. Before we moved, at least once a week, two of my girlfriends and one's children got together for playtime for the kids and talk time for us. We could spend hours just sitting around chatting while the kids all had their fun. I may not remember the topics of most of the conversations we had during the last 3 years but I'll never forget the feeling of connection I have with Monica and Asma. (And my kids will likely never forget their friendships with Ali, Maryam and Zahra.)

Since moving, I haven't found anyone to fill in the space that leaving my friends has made but being able to read about other women's lives through their blogs has given me a feeling of connection all it's own. We all come from different backgrounds and live in different places but we still have so much in common.

So, greetings to all of my friends in cyberspace and know that, although, I don't always have time to comment, I try to find time to read about how you all are doing everyday.

Oh, and Patty, thank you for all of the beautiful pictures you share with us each day and the gift of your wisdom and insight that you so generously express through your blogs.

Paint splatter?

In honor of Project Spectrum, here are some of the yellow pansies in my yard. They're so cute. The look like someone accidently dripped purple paint on their petals.  

Fabric from Dubai

Here are the pics of the fabric I gotten in Dubai. Sorry it's taken awile to get them up. Since we got back we've hosted lunch once, been lunch guests twice, had a birthday party and greeted my brother-in-law at the airport late one night when he came home for a visit. The Moda I mentioned before is the red one on the far right. I also found quite a few marbles which I wish I had gotten more of, especially the cream and purple ones at the bottom. The print under the monsters is of trains in similar colors which I plan to use on Reza's birthday quilt. Alas, I haven't even finished cutting out the fabrics for his quilt much less finish sewing the blocks. He's the only one to not at least have a finished top as a first birthday present. It's a good thing he's still little and doesn't know the difference. ;)
 

Tea and cake

Patty had asked how tea is served here as well as what type of sweets are served. Usually when company comes, it is expected that tea, sweets and fruit will be served. Fruit, which is offered first, can either be already placed on small plates with knives on small tables next to seats or offered to each guest from a bowl after plates and knives have been distributed. The typical fruits are apples, oranges, tangerines, bananas and/or small cucumbers as well as other seasonal fruits such as apricots or plums. The tea is just a basic black tea (I'm not a tea drinker so I'm not really familiar with the different kinds.) served in small cups or glasses and always with sugar cubes. Often, a sugar cube is held between the teeth while the tea is sipped. The order of offering tea is also important. You start with the oldest male guest then the oldest female guest and work your way around the room from there. This is followed closely by fresh plates and some type of sweets. The picture is of rice flour cookies with a jelly-like candy flavored with saffron called kolucheh maskati. These are a company tea-time staple which are available from pretty much every bakery. Occasionally, muffins or small slices of sponge cake layered with whipped cream will be offered instead. During our Eid company hosting, I had baked banana muffins as well as brownies.

On a seperate but somewhat related note, Reza celebrated this 1st birthday on the 14th. We ended up having about 20 people here including us and various relatives of Mohsen's. I made three single layer 9" cakes. Carrot and chocolate from scratch and a lemon cake from a mix that I wanted to try. When all was said and done we only had 2 pieces of carrot and half a piece of chocolate left. Reza thoroughly enjoyed his carrot and lemon cupcakes. And as with any Iranian gathering, tea and fruit were also served.

The birthday boy. 

Dubai mall

Here are some pocs from on of the malls in Dubai taken by a family friend. It has 7 sections, each decorated to reflect a country along the Silk Road. Even the bathrooms match the decor of each country.
 

Here is the fabulous Dubai airport Terminal 1. What we got in Terminal 2 was the ugly, poor, unloved step-sister. ;P
 

Dubai Pt.1

Well, we finally made it to Dubai and back. :) 4 1/2 days of shopping fun (or at least as much fun as one can have with 4 children and hubby in tow.) I did pretty well getting things both wanted and needed. I found GREAT prices on fabric. Instead the expected of just over $2/yd, I bought most of my fabric for $1.38/yd. Woohoo! I even got a very nice Moda fabric for $2.18/yd! The best prices and selection were of course at the first fabric store we stopped in and because Mohsen kept reminding me that we had at least 3 more stores to go and I should try and get everything at one shop, I ended up not buying as much as I had planned. If you're ever in Dubai and looking for quilting fabric, go to Najran's first and then Tahir's (right next door) on Al Satwa Rd. They didn't bargin but at those prices, who needs to bargin. ;) I'm downloading Picasa right now so I hope to have lots of pics up soon. I didn't have nearly as much luck with kids clothes but did manage to get shoes for all of them for just under $25.

Getting there and getting back were absolutely crazy. As usual, we ran late getting to the airport only to find out that there was no flight at the time listed on our tickets. After much inquiry, we found out there has never been a flight for our airline at that time....until the following day when they would be starting a flight at that time. (All thanks to an older travel agent {and owner of the agency} that didn't know what he was doing appearantly.)Grrr! However, the airline reps recognized us from our last attempt, took pity on us since we had four kids in tow and wanted to make a good impression on the American (me) so they put us on standby for the next flight which left 2 hours later. They even kept a whole row free for us while they were checking in the other passengers. We had a late flight back (10 p.m.) and knew the kids would be a challenge at that time since bedtime is usually 8:30-9 but we figured what could we do. We also had to go to the airport at 7 because that was the only time the hotel's shuttle would take us and we decided it would be too much of a pain to get our big bags into a taxi. Since we were going SOOO early, we figured we could get some dinner at the airport since we had heard good things about Dubai's airport. Unfortunately, all of the good stuff is in Terminal 1, we were in Terminal 2 where they seem to really not like the passengers. The only things there besides some smoky seating, were a small snack bar and a small duty free shop, which left us without many dinner options and once you go through passport control, you're stuck until your flight leaves. To make matters worse, our flight ended up getting delayed for a total of 3 1/2 hours. We didn't make it home until 5 a.m. with 4 VERY cranky kids, especially Zahra. Not that I can blame them. We're finally just about recovered 3 days later but we let Safiya stay home again. It's not like she's missing that much in kindergarten. ;)

Oh, yeah. I was also greeted with a (unwelcome) rearranged courtyard thanks to my sister-in-law. It seems she just can't resist moving things around while we're on vacations. This is the second time she's done this. The first time was my kitchen and we were only gone for less than 2 days! Boy, was I annoyed! Fortunately, Mohsen returned things back to their normal state before I went back outside again. After I expressed my irritation, of course. I hate to see what she rearranges if we go on another trip. I guess that's one of the downfalls of living close to family or at least close to Mohsen's older sister.

Well, that's it for now. I'll answer Patty's questions about serving tea and include some Iranian style picnic pictures in the next few posts.

Company

I used to envision myself happily entertaining company with style and grace and a completely relaxed air, however, as I've grown older, I've come to realize that I am not a people person. In general, I really don't like having people come to my home and I don't enjoy going to others' homes. I am very much an introvert and having company or being company is very stressful for me.

Why am I posting this little insight now? Before coming to Iran, with the exception of my two best friends, I only occasionally had people over or went to other people's houses. Generally no more than 3 or 4 times per year. Well, part of the Iranian New Year's celebrations is the requirement to visit and be visited by friends and family. This usually means multiple visits both directions over just a 13 day time span. I've been fortunate this time around and only had to visit 3 house one of which was my in-laws so that doesn't really count but today we had 3 back-to-back visits over the course of 3 1/2 hours which means 3 presentations of tea, sweets and fruits to 13 people with barely any time to squeeze in a potty break or give the kids dinner. (DH and my dinner happened around 10:30 after the kids were finally in bed.) Why the mad rush? It was either everyone in one day or having to repeatedly make the house company ready over several days and probably have the company here longer each time. That and I would have had at least 3 days worth of tension in my neck and shoulders rather than one and a half. :P

Now, it's not just company that stresses me out. It's being around people in general. No, I'm not anti-social. It's just that, while a people person gets a major energy boost from being around others, my energy is drained. If I don't get at least an hour or two completely to myself at least every few days, I tend to get a bit cranky. That time is usually gotten after everyone's gone to bed or, occasionally, before they get up. So, on any given day, you're bound to find me on the computer, watching a movie or reading a book until the wee hours of the morning. Does this lack of sleep cause problems keeping up with the kids? Oddly, no. My energy is usually restored after a nice long session on my own as long as I don't push too far (staying up until 4 or 5) or do it too often (passed 2 three days in a row). ;)

I guess this is one of the benefits of getting older. You learn more about who you are, what your strengths and weaknesses are and how to work with them.

ACK...I've just been informed we have to go visit more people in the next day or two.

Kids and Bowties 2

Here is the promised photo.

If all goes well, we leave for Dubai next week.

Thanks to Patty and Jeanne for their concern about the earthquake. We're all fine. The quake happened in the neighboring provence. According to the news here, they've already managed to restore water and electricity to the affected areas but are still searching for victims.

I reread my previous shopping post and it sounds like I'm a major shopping nut and quite extravegant. The fact is, I do like shopping but only if I can get a good deal. I'm very frugal which is how I managed to keep our family's clothing budget to under $300/year which included clothes, coats and shoes for everyone. My stash is mostly from fabric bought from the scrap bins, on sale, with a gift card which I earned from using my Jo-Ann's card and paying off the balance every month. (This is also how I bought my sewing machine.) I no longer have a sewing machine or a Jo-Ann's to shop from and found out a couple weeks ago that there really isn't any (or much) 100% cottons to be had in Shiraz. The stores just don't carry it. :( I've also spent the last 7 months needing a variety of things for the house, especially kitchen, which I just haven't been able to find here. I like to bake but Iranians just don't do that much baking. (There are tons of fabulous bakeries everywhere here.) We didn't ship anything so everything we brought had to fit into 10 suitcases. (2 per person not including Reza) Lots of stuff got left behind including most of my baking dishes (I did bring my muffin pan and pizza pans; snuck in at the last moment after everything else was madly packed, finishing just under an hour before leaving for the airport.) Also, the water here seems to be much harder on clothes because it seems like alot of the kids clothes are starting to get holes, especially their socks. (The socks here are often polyester and crazy color combinations like bright orange and green.) So, I have a decent size list of "needs". I also want to get a few small things for decorating from Ikea. I always felt guilty before for spending money for such things because the money could always go to better uses but now, I've made some money teaching (about $500) and I don't feel bad about spending it to make this house feel more like me. Nothing extravegant though and I know the prices and products at Ikea are good so that's where I intend to go. If I find bargins elsewhere, great, but I'm not about to go overboard. Later, after I make more, I want to get a nice cushy armchair for sitting in to read or quilt and another sewing machine.

Anyway, I just wanted to clear that up. To me, at least, the last shopping post made me seem like a hyper-consuming shop-aholic. :P

Oh, and I haven't been posting because my ISP is on the fritz again. I have been able to read blogger (only blogger pages, in fact) but I couldn't see pictures or post. :(

High fiber diet

I mentioned before that Reza was trying to eat the scrap pieces that fell on the floor while the kids were quilting but for him this is nothing new. For months now, since he's been able to pick things up with his hands and especially now that he's mobile, he's constantly putting all things fiber into his mouth. It started with him sucking on any blanket or spare piece of clothing that was lying within arm's reach. Now, he's figured out how to pull the end threads off of one of our carpets and is continually caught putting those in his mouth as well as any bit of string, thread, tissue or paper left on the floor. Plastics will get a passing inspection but his real passion is for anything natural, including at the moment, a cardboard game box! He's, also, fond of munching on whole carrots and the heart of romaine lettuce but with four powerful little teeth he's started taking off too big of chunks so we've axed the carrots for now at least. A few weeks ago, he would often be seen crawling around with a carrot stuck in his mouth, occasionally stopping to take a nibble. It's quite funny to see. He learned early on in his crawling that he could still carry things around with him if he just stuck them in his mouth instead of trying to hold them with his hands. LOL.

Grumble

Our trip to Dubai has been postponed. :( Everything was going alright until we got to the final passport check at the airport to leave Iran only to find out that dh forgot to get exit visa renewed. The last one was good for 6 months and we've been here 7. Grrr. It seems to me fairly crazy that Iranians have to get an exit visa just to leave their own country, but what are you going to do. In case you're wondering about our passports, passports here are family passports, so his covers all of us. I, also, have my own with the kids on it as well but that visa was expired too, of course. DH spent 2 hours in traffic yesterday trying to get to the passport office only to find out once there that a) he had the wrong passport (mine) b) he didn't have the forms he needed and c)I think he said it wasn't the right office. Talk about frustrating!

Once all of this gets straigtened out, we are hoping to be able to find a flight and hotel for Friday thru Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed for us. This is a super busy travel time in Iran because of the New Year's break. New Year's here starts the first day of spring and lasts for 13 days. On the last day, everyone heads out for picnics at their favorite nature spots. Travel is so heavy that the police estimate more than 4 million people have come to Shiraz in the past week, thus the heavy traffic dh experienced yesterday.

I've tried posting pics of the kids working on their quilts but blogger won't let me right now. Will try again another time.

Kids and Bowties

My little project inspired Mustafa, who decided he wanted to try his hand at quilting again. (He made a small quilt about 1 1/2 yrs. ago.) His insistance led to the other two wanting to make their own as well. I tried putting them off for awhile but that didn't last long. If you have kids, you know how insistant they can be when they want something. Mustafa and Safiya are on New Year's break so he was starting to get bored yesterday and drove everyone nuts with his extra energy. I finally relented yesterday afternoon when I thought I had a few minutes to help out. That few minutes turned into over an hour of kids playing with fabric and mommy undoing several mistakes with a sinkload of dirty dishes calling my name and a fabric hungry 11 month old trying to eat whatever scraps made their way to the floor. For anyone else out there, I would not suggest you try teaching/assisting 3 small children to quilt unless you have at least an hour with absolutely nothing else to do and a boatload of patience. :o By the end of the hour, I was rather stressed, had the dishes still calling to me and dinner not even started. But the kids had fun and they worked on their masterpieces again today.
Note: Bowties is not a good pattern for a 4 1/2 year old. I know plain old squares are better but she's quite a stubborn little girl. Safiya (6) decided for herself today that she'd much rather do just plain squares. She's done faster and she really likes the results. Mustafa miss sewed one of his blocks yesterday... twice. After the second time, he "decided" that he liked his design better. ;) Well, his second set of blocks got sew a new different way. He then sewed those two sets together and after holding onto/playing with it for about half an hour realized that if he turns it vertical rather than horizontal it makes a cool looking chain! Ya gotta love the mistakes! I forgot to take a picture of it but I'll try to remember soon. For now, we have New Year celebrations and our trip to Dubai. I have a feeling that Reza will be the only baby not to get at least a completed quilt top for his first birthday since I haven't even started cutting yet.

Bowties

Ok, I FINALLY finished my micro/mini bowties quilt ala Sandra . Mine is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. Ya know, silly me, I thought I could finish it in a day since it's so tiny. I forgot to factor in having kids though. :) Doing a little bit here and there, I finished it in a week. That's ok though cuz I had fun with the challenge and I love the way it looks. The picture just doesn't do the colors justice, especially the border, which is a deep marbled magenta.

Spring in Shiraz

I just thought I'd decorate my blog a bit and include a picture of one of the two little "gardens" in my yard. Mohsen planted all of the pansies a couple of weeks ago and they are doing very well below the lime tree. The grape vine hasn't come to life yet but all of the other green in there are things that just pop up with a little water every now and then (Easy to accomplish with 3 kids who love playing with the hose).

Mohsen's off picking up the tickets for Dubai so it seems like our trip is a go. Knock on wood. Just a little over a week away. I can't wait. :)

Shopping plans

Now, most of the posts I've read from quilting blogs lately have been about reducing stash, but me, I'm looking to increase my stash BIG time! We've been planning a trip to Dubai for some months and are hoping to go in about a week and a half. The problem is that they only take reservations up to a month before and we put our names in but have yet to receive any kind of confirmation, so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed. I could use a major shopping trip after all the stress of last month with the kids. And it will be a major shopping trip. According to some internet friends that live in/around Dubai, great cotton fabric is between $2-$3/meter compared to $5-$8/yd in the US. They, also, have a big IKEA there where I plan to spend a lot of time (and money) as well as a few good bookstores including one used bookstore. I've already told DH that I plan on spending all the money I've made teaching while we're there. :) Now, I wonder what the luggage restrictions are?

Zahra's Quilt

Well, here it is. I've finally finished Zahra's quilt. It's not the greatest quilt. There are plenty of mistakes but as my husband so kindly pointed out "That's how you know a human made it and not a machine." Anyway, she loves it and that's all that really matters, isn't it?

For those quilters out there, this is not a standard size. It's about 50x60, I think. (I can't remember for sure right now.) I try to make my quilts big enough to snuggle under but small enough to drag around so it's bigger than a crib quilt but smaller than a twin. The pattern is Pinwheels and Paddles. I don't remember where I found it but I changed the pinwheels to black instead of white to make the bright colors pop.

Busy, busy, busy: attempt #1,000,000

I know it's been nearly a month since my last post but things here have been stressful. We went on a mini beach vacation to an island off the southern coast of Iran, which was great except that the last day of vacation Mustafa came down with chicken pox (thanks to 4 kids in his class which we found out about the night we left on the trip) and Safiya came down with the flu. The flu ended up getting passed to everyone except chicken pox boy, who was kind enough to share his chicken pox with his baby brother and two sisters. So, basically, I've spent a little more than 3 weeks tending multiple sick children at various stages of illness. Oddly enough, the two youngest got it the worst. My poor baby boy got hit with major chicken pox all over his bottom (well over a hundred at the peak) and his head and face. The worst one hit, though, was Zahra. The poor girl was absolutely covered from head to foot with spots that hurt every time you tried to touch her or change here clothes and all of this was accompanied by a feaver for about 2 days. (She was the only one to get a fever.) At her peak, she easily had well over 1000 spots. This may sound like an exaggeration but she had 13 on her left ear alone and that was one of the least hit areas of her head. She even managed to get some on the palms of her hands and between her fingers. We made 3 trips to the pediatrician and 2 trips to eye doctors in two weeks. The eye doctors were for Reza and Zahra. Apparently, it's dangerous to get chicken pox around the eyes and both of them managed to get them right along their eyelashes. My guess is that Zahra was on antibiotics for a mild ear infection because of the flu which reduced her normal bacterial flora and gave the varicella plenty of space to reproduce and really dig in. Safiya got hit a day or so later than Zahra but she's further along in her recovery and she didn't get nearly as many spots, although to hear her you'd never know it. Safiya has this awful habit of crying out "momma" multiple times in less than a minute and in a pitch that suggests that she is in mortal peril anytime she wants to tell you something when she's sick. Since the flu also hit Mohsen and me (thankfully it was really only tough for me for about a day), I've been pretty stressed out.

To compensate for the stress and since I normally need a good bit of time to myself to maintain my sanity, over the last 4 days, I've spent a good bit of time cruising around reading quilters' blogs. There are some amazing women out there and the amount of work they get done is phenomenal. I've just now finished the quilting on Zahra's 1st birthday quilt and she's 4 1/2. Granted, I've finished 2 other quilts, had a baby and finished by B.A. during that time but still. I started quilting about 8 years ago and finished maybe one quilt a year. There are women out there that do 4 in a month! I'm also a bit envious of the space they have to work in. Right now, my stash lives in the back of a closet in the suitcase I brought it here in.

Where there's envy, there's also inspiration. Tonight while searching through my stash for the fabric to bind Zahra's quilt, I pulled out fabrics for three mini quilts I want to do. Thanks to Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting, I'm dying to try a wonky house or two which, after I finish projects that MUST get done, I want to expand into a wonky house growth chart for the kids. I managed to forget to pack the growth chart that I had for them since Mustafa was two years old. The kids loved being able to see how much they'd grown so I guess we'll have to start all over again. Besides that one, I want to try two mini/micro quilts like the bow ties and churn dash examples on Sandra's Snippets. I can't wait to get started but I promised Zahra that I'd finish her quilt first. She was so excited when I finished the quilting tonight that she asked me to put it on her bed tonight. She was a bit disappointed when I explained that I still have to cover up all of the edges. She's so optimistic that she thinks I'll have it done tomorrow which is easier said than done since I'm doing it all by hand.

I guess that's my cue to get off-line and get busy on that binding.

quilt update

I'm almost finished binding my dd 1st birthday quilt which will be finished only about 3 1/2 years late. LOL. I'll try to post a pic as soon as I'm done.

Don't ya just hate it when...

a baby sneezes right after you put a spoonful of food in his mouth?

Baby breakfast all over. Yippy!

Blogger hates me

Every time I try to post Blogger refuses to connect and allow me. That's one reason I haven't posted any updates in the last week. 6 tries at posting a long update post with no luck. I'll keep trying though.

Testing

Blogger has been really picky the last couple of days and not letting me post a new message so here's a test message to see if it is the message it doesn't like or just me. ;P