I stand before you...

So I have completed 8 years in my company. We have a great training program and a department dedicated towards tracking the trainings that you attend. I am not a great fan of trainings, mainly because I prefer doing my work in whatever time I am in office. And since we’re not a technical team, the trainings that we have to attend are mainly soft skill trainings.

To cut a long blog short, let me just say that I have been successful in dodging one training in particular for all these years. Presentation skills. Now you might think, “What’s the big deal about a Presentation skills training?” Those who know me well, also know that I am not comfortable addressing a crowd. And when I say ‘not comfortable’, I mean that my fingers go numb, my voice starts shivering and all I want is for the world to swallow me when it comes to having to stand up and do something as simple as introducing myself in a crowd (I know, when I say crowd you must be thinking 100’s of people – well sadly that’s not the case; a crowd for me is as much as 2 people that are not my best friends).

Fortunately or unfortunately, the “training gap” finally caught up with me and I was forced to attend this training earlier this week. I even woke up and told Lindo that I was going to call in sick. But he made a very compelling argument (If you don’t go this time, you’ll have to go the next time. Might as well get over with it.)….now that made sense.

So I reached the training room, met the co-participants and needless to say as you might have already guessed (or otherwise what’s the big deal blogging about it?) I managed to talk in front of people I didn’t know. In the beginning I was shivering and worried but by the end of the 2^nd day, I was pretty confident.

Well, it might not be the same as when I will have to make a formal presentation and I am still in awe of people who seem to be able to do this effortlessly, but it was a huge leap for me. Yesterday I had to conduct a training for a few people from my team and I have to give credit to the training (the trainer and the other participants) for playing a big role in making this happen.

Coming around to what made me think so much about this and wanting to write about it is the fact that I hope that my boys will not face this kind of aversion towards performing / speaking in public. Children nowadays have the opportunity to do these things at a very tender age and this will definitely take away that huge monster that’s hiding in my closet – Stage fright. I hope they all make use of these facilities and implement them well in their lives.

The card maker in me....

I have been making cards in my free time. It's a hobby and one that I really enjoy.

For my birthday Lindo and a few friends from office gifted me a printer to help me digital stamps thereby taking the card making to the next level.

Just sharing a few cards I made recently.









This one was for my colleague's birthday.












This one was for a friend's wedding.


















My friend's birthday.

















And one last one:
I made this one for my cousin's wedding.





All the digital stamp used in these cards are Sliekje and MelonHeadz freebies.

And the circus has begun....

If we thought that our carefree days were over when we had our boys ...we were wrong. We never realised that carefree days actually continued till children started formal education. And formal education they both started earlier this month.

One good thing that has come from this is that we actually have a timetable now. They get up early and sleep early as well. The boys who used to sleep at 10 PM every day have now started going to bed at 8:30 PM.....and that too because they are tired. They supposedly “rest” in the bus on their way back from school and therefore stopped having their previously customary afternoon nap.

Changes so far:

Nathan has started colouring inside the lines. He likes school. I haven’t figured out what else he has learned / done there yet, but I am glad he enjoys going to school.
Tim never mentions what he did there. Yesterday he told me “There are things going on in school”. I wonder what....

Another wonderful thing that has come together with school is this wonderful concept of “uniforms”. I know all the mommies out there are nodding their heads. It is such a relief to dress them in uniforms. No more “I want jeeeeeeans” or “I don’t want this t-shirt”.....just plain uniforms!
For the time being they’re even happy polishing their shoes when they’re back....

As long as it lasts.......























Love,
Mel

Updates and thoughts on the new year

I know it’s been a while and I thought it was time for an update.

• I can finally do two things I like at the same time; I can draft my blog entry AND stay in bed now. Yes, I finally got my laptop after a long wait that was surely worth it.
• We got a TV. Not too great a news considering that we were very happy without one.
• The boys are growing up (that’s not new) and they are getting diplomatic too. (“Is mama pretty or ugly?” “You’re my mother!”).
• My mom had broken her arm and I left my men behind and stayed with Mom in Kerala for a week. That was definitely a milestone for all of us.
• I completed 7 years at work and I asked the management not to promote me this year because I wanted more time to spend at home since the boys are starting school this year and it is important that we can get them set in a routine. More responsibilities would not help me do that.

That’s pretty much what has been going on. The new year has been pretty much the same as it was last year. It doesn’t even feel like a “new year”. It’s just another year that will get over before we know it. But I do hope that it proves me wrong and turns out to be a great one.

Birthday wishes

Today is my brother-in-law's 30th birthday.
But he's not here to celebrate it with us. In another 37 days we will have his 1st death anniversary. I am sure he's having the best birthday party ever in heaven right now.....

God bless you!

Factorials and Pahiyaa

Now with the boys having overcome their first hurdle in the big race called education, I have just had my first anxiety attack too....the first of probably many more to come.

Working in a department that mainly consists of women (many of them mothers) often gives me a preview of things to come. I am completely aware of what we will have to face with the boys going to school and I know my limitations. I just didn't know that I had so many!!!

Now, I have made a broad classification of subjects where I can help them and subjects where Lindo will have to pitch in.

My subjects: Anything that doesn't include any equations or laws....and of course, no Hindi and Kannada. I am willing to take up any subject that requires the child just to grasp the concept (biology, geography, history, English...).

Most of you know that I am linguistically challenged when it comes to our national language....yes, I hang my head in shame and confess....I don't speak Hindi. I am much better at understanding now, but that's the extent of it.

Discussing Mathematics taught in primary school really gives me the goosebumps. I hardly know my multiplication tables even now. I get stuck with any mathematic problem and I am convinced that I wasn't taught half the things in school (Sorry my dear Maths teacher). Suddenly during my recent conversation with my colleague conjured the picture of 'n!' in my mind. I tried to explain it to my colleague, but we seemed equally puzzled. I was sure it has something to do with maths....but to no avail.

After asking a few of our colleagues, we came to the conclusion that n! is read 'n factorial'. I know you're thinking "DUH!"...but that was a big news to me. Further probing of colleagues' brains taught me what factorials were all about. Armed with this new found knowledge, I confidantly marched over to Lindo to show off. I asked him, "How do you read n!?" and promptly came the answer.....the correct one, with examples. My decision was made at that moment. Lindo is the one to teach Maths.

The world still holds a few secrets that I have failed to understand. Balancing equations in Chemistry, the complete world of physics and of course, Mathematics....maybe I can learn along with the boys....I can only hope.

P.S. Pahiyaa means 'wheel' in Hindi :))

A for Apple, B for ....

I have been waiting to write this post for quite some time now, but was waiting for "it" to finally happen and when it did, I was just too busy to sit down and write the post.

Finally we have reached the time where we can say that "our boys are going to xyz school". Yes, we have joined the rat race and the boys got admission in a proper school. So far, Tim is attending classes at a Montessori and Nathan is going to a day care at church.

2 weeks back we were informed that the boys were selected to join school and paid the admission fee, thereby ensuring the seats.

The journey till then....

Last year we happened to be too late for admissions....who knew that admissions for the school year that starts in June, got over in Sept/Oct the previous year???? This year we were well prepared and started checking for dates at the school well in advance. But no matter how much on time we were, that itself didn't help them with the admission. 1 list came and their names were not on it.
We gave a letter from the parish because there is supposedly a slight preference for children from our church.....Then came the call for the interview.....I woke up with a bad tummy...i seriously think that I wasn't this tensed for my college admission or even while joining work.
The interviews went as expected. Nathan's standard response for everything was "no" while Tim stayed quiet. The only thing that Nathan did was tell Lindo what the pictures in the book were....but he flatly refused to sing one of those nursery rhymes that he sings all the time. Tim on the other hand, explained the pictures only when we pointed to an apple and asked "That's a banana, right?"....he did count the blocks from 1 to 10 though.

Sure enough, the next list was published and...guess what? They hadn't made it. Another trip to the school and we were asked to call back the next day for a final answer. Another 2 hours.....seriously, I was wary by that time. I started making a mental list of other plans by then because I was losing hope.

The next day, we called and were told "They have been selected, please pay INR X each for admission fee in 2 weeks time". (We supposedly got a 5,000 discount each because we are bringing two children).
Various friends with whom I discussed were of the opinion that we all studied for much, much less than this and did pretty well....but I guess that even our parents must have said the same when they paid our fee....

So here's to education and our children's future. May they make the best out of it.