15 Marbles

Moments.Musings.Memories. ❤️Gathering little marbles from ordinary days and keeping them for our memory jar. ❤️

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  • My american Maid!

    My Home looks beautiful.Its spic and span and I challenge you to find even a speck of dirt! And the Credit goes to – NOT me , but my American maid.
    Since I left my beautiful country , crossed the 7 seas and started a new life, I had forgotten the luxury of having a maid. The wonderful person who came every morning like clockwork and did the dishes, the laundry, the dusting and cleaning. OH, that beautiful peal of the door bell, announcing her arrival that should have been music to my ears, but I took for granted. Then we moved here. And I remembered and appreciated her so much every day- When I was doing the dishes, When I was sweeping the floor, when I was lugging piles of dirty laundry to the common laundry two floors down.
    This continued for the last 2 years.Then,I went home for a vacation and got thoroughly pampered by Soni.Soni is a girl of 20-22, who worked full-time at my dad’s place. She would come in at 8.00 every morning and make breakfast and tea for everyone. Then she would pack lunches for my dad and sister and then get on with her daily chores . Since I was visiting, she took it upon herself to pamper me. And everyday she had a new mid-morning snack for me, which I devoured shamelessly. She would clean the house from top to bottom,my dad’s house being a duplex with two terraces. And she would also do the laundry! And not to forget, the fabulous meals that she cooked for us. 2 months of this is enough to make a normal person insanely lazy. Well, anyway,I came back to reality as soon as my flight landed and I came home. Then it was back to cooking, cleaning, laundry and the works. There was no Soni here.
    Fast forward to about 10 months later and you’ll see a heavily pregnant me and DH struggling to cope up with all the chores that I cannot do anymore- cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming the carpets, and the likes. Anyway, we gave up trying to do everything ourselves and called the cleaning service.We tried two different ones and if I was happy with the first one, I am exhilarated with the second one.They were in today and did a fabulous job.Though I must admit,it was awkward to sit and watch someone else work in my home. And I don’t even feel a tad bit guilty to say that my home has never been cleaner.And the tulips that I bought 2 days back have bloomed and are adding to the beauty of this beautiful home!

  • Baby SS- Your Crib is waiting for you

    2 weeks back, as it dawned on me that I would be completing 36 weeks soon , I knew it was time to set up a crib for baby SS. Everyone was telling me that its going to be anytime after that and apparently, I took it literally. That could be one of the reasons for my disappointment and impatience.Anyway, back to the crib- so, we had start from the very beginning and that was choosing the crib. Now we had been looking at cribs for months and had also picked out a favorite. But the trouble was getting the crib home. The crib that we liked was beautiful. But,it was also Big and heavy. And DH didn’t have lifting buddies to carry it home from the parking lot. And the stores were charging exorbitant delivery charges. So, our search for the perfect crib was still on.
    That’s when my friend Pooja came to the rescue. I came to know Pooja through a pregnancy website.She is also due in April .What is so great about our friendship is we met as strangers, exchanged emails and as our pregnancies progressed we have come to be good friends. I wish our friendship continues to grow. So, Pooja suggested that I look at the crib that she picked up for her baby from Babies’R’us and we went and checked it out and we loved it. So, there it was.. Our perfect crib. We had probably seen that crib during our previous trips to BRU , but just never saw it in the color and finish that we liked. And that day, there it was. Just waiting for us. We even picked up the perfect bedding set to go with it and set it up when we came home.

    So, the crib is ready, waiting for Baby SS to arrive and grace it.
    But looking at the empty crib makes me yearn for Baby SS even more. Every time I enter our bedroom,yes , I plan to room her in for the first few months( or forever), and see the crib , I wonder if I left SS somewhere unattended and then I look at my belly and remember that she is fine, safely snuggled inside.

  • Ashtami

    Ashtami always brings back fond memories to me.
    My mom used to fast for 9 days during navratri and on the 8th day that is Ashtami, she would do the Kanya pooja or Kanjakein. She would invite 9 girls or more depending on the number of little girls, who were our friends or neighbours. Little boys were also invited so as to not make them feel left out. But the chief guests were the Little girls. These girls were invited home with love, their feet were washed and decorated with haldi-kumkum and aalta. The holy thread was tied to their tiny wrists and then they were all made to sit in a line and a group aarti was performed for all of them. And then came the best part. Then they were all served the traditional bhog of Halwa-Poori- Chane! And there were also gifts – money or bangles, toys or something appealing .
    And this scene was repeated so many times that day and the next day because in our colony and also at most other places that we stayed at there were so many women fasting for navratri and performing this pooja on either Ashtami or Navmi( the 9th day). I remember feeling so important on those two days .Mom would wake us up early, give us a nice oil massage and bath, and then dress us up in new clothes.And then we would be ready to visit all the different aunties in the colony,armed with an empty lunch box!She always said -She was so lucky two have to Devis at home! And we would giggle at that.
    Now that I am having a little girl,I know what she meant.My mom would do this ritual only during the Badi navratri- the one preceeding Dushera.But I know a lot of other women who did it even during the Choti navratri, the one preceeding Ram Navmi. And year I decided to start a new tradition and make halwa-poori-chole Prasad even for the choti Ashtami.

    Here, I am sharing with you the recipe for Halwa –
    Ingredients-
    • 1 cup Semolina
    • 1/4 cup ghee
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 2 cups water +1 cup milk- boiled
    • 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
    • Raisins
    • almonds, soaked and slivered
    • Saffaron strands for Garnish.

    Take 1/4 cup ghee in a pan and heat it to melt it.When it melts , reduce the heat and add semolina. Roast on a medium flame till it gets a nice brown color.Take care to keep stirring it,so that it doesnt stick to the pan and get burned. When the Semolina is done and starts giving the wonderful roasted aroma,add the raisins and roast for 1-2 mins.As the raisins swell up, add the boiling milk-water mixture, after turning the heat to low. Take care as the steam that arises will be very hot and some of the semolina- water mix might splatter.Keep stirring it,so as to avoid any lump formation. When this starts to thicken, add sugar and stir intermittently, again to avoid lump formation. Add cardamom powder. and let it thicken again, stirring constantly.When it becomes almost dry, turn off the stove and remove from heat.Let it stand for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with Saffaron strands and Slivered almonds.
    Note: Traditional Halwa for Prasad requires equal quantities of semolina, ghee and sugar but this is a healthy version of the same.You can vary the amount of sugar as you like.

  • PMS & DH Dilemma

    Last couple of days , I have been so emotional and hormonal. 9 months back I would have passed it on as PMS, and it would have lasted for just a week. During the last 9 months,i could have passed it on as ” Hormones”.But now,I don’t think its any of those. Or may be its the new PMS- Pre motherhood syndrome!
    I feel so lost and over-the edge all the time. I feel that time is rushing by and there is so much I want to do. For starters, I want to spend a lot of quality time with DH! Lately, we both seem to be doing our own things, each one preoccupied with his/her thoughts.I keep nesting..Nesting and More nesting. I have rearranged the kitchen cupboards at least 3 times and redone the clothes closets- God knows how many times and still find it messy! I am wondering how it will be once the baby is here..will I be able to do a good job with her? Will I be able to manage everything as I planned? OR will there be some hitches ?Or is there something that I havent thought of?
    DH is preoccupied with changing his career path, trying to make some major decisions. I know with the baby coming anytime now, he feels rushed too.And he is trying to help me at home, trying to finish off his work so that he can spend more time at home later when we become a threesome.But I want to spend some more time together as a twosome. I feel guilty for feeling this way and God knows, We have both been looking forward to having this baby. But at the same time, I cant help but feel that these are the last few days that we will ever be alone .And what are we doing..? going grocery? or shopping for other essentials? or just lazing on the couch watching TV! Yeah, yeah.. according to DH , we are spending all the time together except when he is at work . But I feel spending time together is not just this. We should be talking more. I know making plans can be overwhelming, but just fun talks..I remember our dating days , when we would spend an entire evening together and then still spend hours on the phone, talking till almost sunrise. Sure, we were just beginning to know each other then and we weren’t living together then, but we were talking.. Nothing in particular most of the times.
    This weekend when DH was working again and I was sitting on the couch, feeling low, he came and hugged me and asked me what the matter was. I told him I was just feeling low, and he tells me- why don’t you call up your sister and talk to her. I said- No i don’t want to. then he says, call up Tina.Now,Tina is my best friend and we share almost everything.But at that moment the only person I wanted to talk to was DH! Is it so hard to understand?Why has he changed so much?
    Same story yesterday. Yesterday, I decided not to say anything. I mean he is the one who claimed that just one look at my face and he could tell something was bothering me. He just had to hear my voice and he could tell I was upset or happy. So, I didn’t say anything and just went to bed and snuggled up with my book. He came a little while later and tried talking.
    I didn’t say much.He tried again,I answered in one liners.The charade continued for some time and then he broke down. He told me what was bothering him and why he was quiet and preoccupied. What both hurt and pleased me at the same time was that he didn’t want to share his worries with me because I was as it as overwhelmed with the changes in my body, hormones and not to mention the pain because of baby pushing down.
    He just needed to take some time-out to figure out how to best deal with his problems at work and look for options. While I was hurt that he didn’t share his worries with me as he used to..I was also happy that he was thinking of me all the time.
    HE was still the same! He was still thinking of me and trying to make me comfortable! OH! he is such a sweetheart! And I fell in love with him all over again.This time even more deeply.