DISGUST

I really am disgusted at the way some bloggers have been voicing their frustrations and inability to cope with their individual situations and blaming it on either the Libyans as a whole or the country or everything and everybody except the actual cause. To say that the streets are littered with garbage shouldn't really be a problem because it is something that we all have to deal with and can see, not to like libyan food or any other food is also not a problem because it is a personal taste, like who can eat monkey brain ? raw fish ? barely hatched eggs with the chick inside ? frogs ? horse meat ? dogs/cats ? snakes ? the list goes on and on but like I said everyone is free to eat what they want and what they are accustomed to , but does that give us the right to say that because they eat something we don't like they are dirty ? they are smelly ? of course not.
The site name should be changed from all libyan blogs to all libyan haters blog. Once that is done then us LIBYANS WHO LOVE LIBYA (with its smelly food and people and garbage ) would gladly continue to blog on the all libyan blogs site and not have to worry about reading a new insult !
Blogging does not mean you can always be positive, but it does mean that you should respect others. To discuss negative aspects is not wrong but it should be done to find solutions and ways to deal with issues, I personally would love to see that people are made aware of these problems and how they can solve them, but by being sarcastic and insulting I don't see it happening. We can all start by changing ourselves and our immediate circle and then like a puddle it will enlarge itself to include everybody.
Now having said all the above , it really is time for us to be constructive and not destructive.

MONEY WORRIES

Just talking about money gives me a headache. It is amazing how living in what is known as an industrialised country is stressful. Even if you make enough money by working you end up with less than 25% of it at the end of the month. Let us start with the taxes before your money even hits your bank account, then it is time for rent, car and insurance payments, power, utilities, credit card, gas, and last but not least groceries. Now you barely have a couple of hundreds in your account and you think okay now I can maybe have a break and go out somewhere or invite some friends over, but reality soon sets in that you better not because of the economic situation and what is going on and how businesses are doing really bad, and the downsizing of the employees and that you might be out of a job ! Every body is gloomy, and I thank god that at least it is summer and the weather and sunshine is free to be enjoyed by all, but imagine if all this gloom carries on into winter what it would be like !
Like I said it is summer and the weather is amazing, so some positive thinking will go a long way.

TIME FLIES

It's amazing how time flies sometimes and how slow it is some other times, but I guess it is all relative to what a person is going through. I appreciate the advice I was given by the fellow bloggers about boys and how they should be handled, and I have actually come to an understanding with my son that I was only concerned about his future meaning his academic and professional development being my main concern and that I wasn't against him enjoying being a teenager , so I hope INSHALLAH that he will sort himself out.
My mother has finally arrived and we have decided that the best way to enjoy her visit was to do what the tourists do, so we set up a program with all the interesting places to see and go to. We are doing okay so far, the weather is improving, we are enjoying some nice spring sunshine and temperatures ranging between 1 and 10 degrees allow us to do lots of outdoor activities ( we had some snow ) but it was only for a couple of days so there was no build up and it melted away. I did not take time off from work even though I wanted to but I am saving it for my trip back to Libya in summer and my mother said that it was okay with her to stay home in the morning and catch up on some sleep. The boys get home before I do and they like it that lunch is always ready and the house smells of delicious food and it is a chance for them to act responsible and sometime take grandma shopping downtown until I join them on my way from work. So all in all we all needed this . My mother's first impression of Canada was WOW this country is really huge, and according to her even if the population of the whole world comes to settle in Canada it won't be enough, there will still be lots of space. It is not just the wide open spaces, but the monster trucks, the cars, the malls and the food portions as well. One person's serving equals a serving for 2 or more in Europe , as well as the giant burgers ( she just can't get over it ) .
I am enjoying this time very much and thank god for this beautiful time and may Allah bless all mothers !

BOYS

I would like some advice/feedback from the male bloggers with regards to my dilemma. My son who is or should I say was doing really well at school seems to have decided that being in senior high means that he is done with studying and it is time for him to enjoy himself.
I am and try to be a mother and a friend at the same time, because I found out really early that parenting wasn't an easy thing. I try to discuss most topics with my boys and keep an open mind, and I make sure that I am not judgemental so imagine my surprise when the first thing I see this morning in my inbox is an email from my son's teacher/advisor informing me that my son is being late for classes, his marks are slipping, and that something is not quite right and of course it is her duty to let the parents know. I of course freaked out and called her on the spot even though I know that we are not supposed to do that and call only during lunch time or arrange for a meeting by email, but of course I just couldn't stop myself, so I called her and apologised for disturbing her but of course she told me she couldnt talk as she had class but will call me back when possible. I sat around for the next couple of hours trying to concentrate and complete my work but it sure wasn't easy, but anyway she did finally call me .
Apparently my son who is 17 , is just not paying attention in class anymore, texting and receiving messages on his phone when he is supposed to have it on silent and not use it in class, (but they are allowed to bring it to school with them for safety reasons), and of course giggling when reading the messages and just not giving a hoot about what is going on around him, so of course in cases like this the parents are notified. She thinks all this has to do with a girl he started hanging out with !
After thanking her for letting me know , I sat in my office trying to figure out a way to approach this problem, but I finally gave up . I usually pride myself on finding solutions for most problems but in this case I really dont know what the best approach would be, that is why I would really appreciate receiving feedback. I know this is a phase he has to go through and that it is not a big deal but for him to let it affect his studies right from the beginning this is what is bugging me. I am ready to choke him , but of course I can't, I have been going through different scenarios in my head but they are all just too not realistic, and I feel that I am just too emotionally involved in all this and not thinking straight. Of course saying this doesn't solve the problem , I try to think how I would react if it happened to someone else but I couldn't come up with a solution because I am too worked up. I am thinking that maybe I will think of something in a day or two but I can't imagine myself sitting around and not saying or doing something for a day or two, so if you bloggers out there care to help me out , I sure would appreciate it.

VISIT

My mum has finally agreed to come over for a visit, she arrived last week but is staying over at my sister's place for some time and then will be flying out to stay with us. My kids and I are so excited we have made all sorts of plans already. I just hope that the weather improves or at least doesn't get worse for us to enjoy our outings. My youngest son thinks he should be the tour leader because I get in late from work , so he should take care of his grandma while I am at work. Well I guess I will just have to wait and see how he copes but I am sure he will do great , since like they say,
like MOTHER like son ! or at least my version of the saying.
Shahrazad, I am waiting for my Basboussa, (this is one of the sweets) I love , so please hurry up and show me the steps. Thanks in advance.

LOVE

I woke up this morning quite decided to be in love with the world !
This decision is for me to judge if by loving everybody and everything my day will be smooth sailing so to speak. So when waking up at 6:10 a.m, I got ready first, switched on my coffee machine ( which I fill the night before ) prepare breakfast, then wake up the kids, it is now around 6:30. The young one jumps out of bed and dashes into the bathroom, I let him have about 15 minutes then I start waking up the eldest one. He of courses only wakes up when my voice gets louder and I start trumpeting, after I pull off all his coverings he rolls out of bed and of course if he walks towards the bathroom and the door is closed then he knows his brother is in there and he starts questioning about the sense of me waking him when I knew that the washroom is actually occupied. So of course that is another reason for him to start moaning, but of course this morning I decided to ignore him and start to tidy up a bit . I completely ignored him and managed to be out of the door at 7:10 to take my young one to his school bus stop which is just down the road. I get there, stand around until 7:29 thinking that the bus is not going to show up so I decided to go back uphill to the house and just drive my son to school. When I am about half way up, huffing and puffing down comes the bus and of course we have to retrace our steps running so as not to keep the bus waiting ! Now I have to go back up the hill to the appartment to pick up my bag and drive myself to work, but what do I see as soon as I open the door, my eldest sitting or should I say reclining on the sofa, drinking a smoothie and watching TV. After standing there for I dont know how long (with my mouth hanging open of course ) I ask my son what is going on and he replied as cool as can be that he was waiting for me to drive him to school since he knew that I wasn't taking the bus because I have to do some grocery shopping on my way in from work. Since my decision was not to blow my cool I simply said no to him and walked away . I think he was more shocked than I was when I saw him, but of course that didn't stop him from moaning and complaining, but I just told him that why should he even think that I will drive him when I just took his younger brother to the bus stop, I give the same treatment, I don't differentiate and that was that ! If he wants to go to school he knows the way to his bus stop and that he has to go because there is no way I would let him stay home, so after much muttering under his breath , he finally opens the door and leaves . GOOD, now after all this and I am still deciding to keep loving the world.
I go down to the parkade, get in the car, leave the building and start on my way, of course it being around 8:10 the traffic is just horrendous, and there is a rollover and trafic is only allowed in one lane so what used to take me 20 minutes stretches into 45 minutes, but guess what I have the radio on , and still decide on being smiley. I am sure the other commuters were wondering about my big smile, or maybe they thought I was on my cell phone I don't know but I just kept smiling away. Got into the office, started the daily routine , kept smiling but I have to say that by noon I thought my jaws have locked and what started as a smile soon became a big grimace of pain. Well that decided it for me, NO MORE SMILING ! I will just revert to my old self , in comes one of my coworkers who is quite nice and asks me what is wrong ? I of course am puzzled and want to know what she means , so she said I saw you come in this morning with a big grin but now you seem to be in pain ? So this is the last straw , from now on no more smiling around for no reason, smile only when necessary or something funny is being told. Believe me trying to love the world apparently isn't easy, do you think it is because we just have too much going on , or is it because of our daily grind, or that smiling for no reason is just not done any more ! I guess Toba really explains it !!!

April 1st

Today at the office we were told to make sure that our PC's were off once we leave the office, and not to switch them on tomorrow until the IT guy tries to access our company's server on a separate laptop, and all this because of the threat of the new virus, and this made me remember when the Computer world lost it on the eve of the year 2000. Back then nothing happened, so lets hope that this is another hoax.
I have a great interest in food, and I appreciate it, but unfortunately it seems that everytime I like a place the first time, my second experience is never quite as pleasant as the first, I don't know if it means that I should diversify and not go to the same place more than once, but that will cut my choices and narrow down my options, or whether it is because I am a perfectionist and when I go out to eat I want it to be really exceptional, of course I am not talking about the regular Pizza, sandwich or burger, but rather the sit down restaurants where the meal is enjoyed over a couple of hours, with adults for company and a varied discussion but the other thing is that people in my age group have young children which need supervision so they can't actually go out in the evening unless they get a babysitter and then every half hour or so they have to call to check on the kids, so in the end I think why bother and just go with my husband and enjoy each other's company.
The good thing about being away from your home country is that you get to spend so much quality time with your spouse and children, and you focus on them only and your spare time is for them only. I think for a family to bond they should have this sort of sabbatical from our regular social hectic life. This does not mean that I don't miss it, but I am grateful as well for this chance to be really close to my kids who are young adults Mashallah !
I really liked one comment made by a blogger some time back where he said that he thinks that blogging has become female rantings ! This comment is really brilliant and I congratulate whoever is behind it ! I think it truly describes blogging and why not !
I personally don't like to go into politics, or news so maybe the female rantings is the thing, I dont know, let's just wait and see....