A Little Background!

This is my first blog. I am still learning how to manage it and I am not so sure whether I will update it frequently or totally forget about it. I am Sherine, Egyptian, married for more than 3 years now to my best friend and soul mate, Ahmed. We had our first daughter, Sarah in April 2009 and our second, Farida in August 2011. My husband and I are now in different countries; he's in Egypt and I am currently staying with my dad in NY. It's hard being away from my love and rest of family but we're managing. I had my two daughters here in the US and since then, we have been back and forth between Egypt and the US.

Back when I was in Egypt, I was a teacher. Well, let me tell you, learning in Egypt is not such a pleasant experience for learners (kids), teachers are tough, curriculum is loaded with tons of nonsense which the kid is required to memorize by heart. I had many bright ideas but neither the system nor the parents of the kids would let me apply them so I learnt just to be like the rest. I had to quit my job to travel back to the US and deliver my second baby girl. My older daughter turned two and started going to a daycare and I saw all these bright activities and crafts they're doing in her daycare. I was fascinated but didn't think about doing them with her since the daycare is already doing all the work and she's happily enjoying and learning until I failed my driving road test!!!! It simply meant that she won't be able to go there anymore in November since the weather will be too cold for us to take buses to and from her daycare.

Now, let me tell you more about Sarah. She is a very brilliant smart little girl. She is also a very spirited kid, if you're not so familiar with this term, it simply means she is "more", more of everything, more energetic, more enthusiastic, just more and she has to be busy around the clock or else, we'll get ourselves into trouble:) When I realized that we'll be staying at home in winter 24/7, I panicked (I'm dealing with some anxiety issues). What we are going to do all day long? She is going to get bored. She is going to drive me crazy while I am still adjusting to being a mommy of two. She will miss her opportunity in good learning (at her daycare). She will lose all her socialization opportunities. I am not going to be able to control her wild part, all those thoughts hit me and then my husband said one random sentence that brought me back to my sanity and to myself, he said, "I know you can do it if you want to. You were a teacher, a very good one and you were able to control classes of 40+ students (number of students in classes in Egypt) of all kinds of temper." This sentence struck me and made me realize it won't be so bad, it won't be bad at all. I just had to have some materials and imagination and it would be a unique experience, a trial & error process but so worth of it. Why? Because I love love love seeing my daughters happy and having fun, I have very high hopes for them and I believe in them. So, I started searching like crazy online for activities to do and i found the gold mine of blogs, one lead to another. The first one I found is called "Counting Coconuts" and it brought my passion back. later, I will upload the list of blogs I am in love with. so I made a plan and started gathering my materials and we'll be set to start our journey after 6 days from now. I have to tell you one thing first, I don't have much money or resources so most of my materials are from the dollar store. The books we'll be reading will be borrowed from the public library. This might make it feasible for a lot of people. Also, I am a bad cook and I can't take professional perfect pictures which means the food recipes I'll be trying will be my first and the photos I'll take might not be so impressive, lol! Don't get discouraged, it might work! That's all for now so see you some time soon!