Karthigai Deepam is always special and close to my heart
Our ista dheivam is Lord Murugan
I am named Aarthy because I'm born in Karthigai Natchathram
I told my parents about Vijay and our love on a Karthigai Deepam day
So, this festive is always on top of my list
Hope all of you are enjoying this day with beautiful diyas and delicious snacks with family
Happy Kathigai Deepam everyone
A glimpse of our diyas at home
Day 1 - Pumpkin carrot soup
Butter, Saute 1/4 cup onion, 2 garlic, 1 cup yellow pumpkin, 1/2 cup carrot, salt - 3 whistles...blend with water add pepper powder...
Day 2 - Plantain stem soup
Oil, Saute plantain stem 1 , garlic 2, ginger 1 inch, salt..3 whistles...grind and filter. Add pepper powder
Day 3 - Corn spring onion soup
Butter, Saute 1/2 cup spring onion, 3 baby corn, 1cup sweet corn, salt, grinded paste(handful sweetcorn and water), add enough water. 3 whistles..sprinkle pepper powder
Day 4 - Palak soup
Butter - saute 1/4 cup onion, 2 garlic pods, 1 bunch palak, 1 bay leaf, 1 clove 1/2 inch cinnamon stick, 4-5 peppercorn. After cooked remove bay leaf and grind it. Add salt and 2 tbsp milk
Day 5 - Mixed Veg soup
Butter - saute onion, vegetables ( I used carrot, beans, cauliflower, peas, mushroom), minced garlic, salt. Add 4 cups water. Cook for 3 whistles. Add pepper powder
Have propagated tangled heart/pillow plant/ Swedish ivy, anyone wants it? It's for free. I have three saplings..pick up KK Nagar, chennai
We don't have much space for gardening in our home, will limited pots in terrace and with a small tub in balcony, we are happy to teach and connect kids with nature
Cleaning the dried leaves, watering, feeding fish have become fun activities at home
now that Almind is able to understand few concepts of germination, he is enjoying gardening and caring them
Happy that he is connecting with nature well and in turn nature is giving him back the happiness, quality time, mindfulness and much more
** Just wanted to know how much he understood about this pond. I am happy that he explained well. This video is not a rehearsed or planned video. I told Almind that my friend asked me an explanation video of the pond and this was taken just like that...
When I created an email id and a youtube channel for Albrain when he was 6 months old(04-08-2008), I thought of sharing the password when he turns 18. I used to send his fee details, his certificates and achievements pics to his mail id hoping to give him a sweet digital memory
Off late , when it comes to digital learning, I'm learning a lot from him, he teaches me the latest updates, makes me improvise my digital appearance...and so on....
Now..during the intense lockdown(April 2020) he started coding a game for Android, May 2020 he completed it. To motivate him further, we asked him to upload it in playstore. But he hesitated and was not ready for the same, so we left it as such...a month ago he asked us whether he can upload his game app in playstore
.. That's the day we were waiting for
...BOOM... Albrain's Google developers account was created and now his app is up in Google Playstore. Being an engineering and technological background parents it's our proudest moment
Happy that he is one young app developer (12 years old) in Google playstore
Congrats my baby boy, wishing you for more and more
His app link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details...
Gifting my hair to make wig for cancer survivors
I was completely unaware of hair donation until I saw a FB post of my friend @Aparna , I was like how can she do that, I am a big fan of her beautiful long hair
Its been 2 years I saw her post, now I wanted to donate mine too
I pinged her and asked details, she herself called Adyar Cancer institute and collected all info on behalf of me
Such a sweet person you are Appu, beautiful in and out
I'm so happy to be a small part of their happiness
If you want to donate your hair but have lots of doubts please feel free to ping me, I'm happy to guide
PS : Never feel shy to share what you do, it might be small or big. Not all posts are to flaunt, I feel each and every thing you share are benefited by someone in many way - some may not know or some may get inspired. Sharing is always caring and informative
If electrical items are clean, appreciate Vijay
If ceiling and walls are clean, appreciate Albrain
If cupboards and furnitures are clean, appreciate Almind
If showpiece items, bathrooms are clean, appreciate Aarthy
If whole house is spick and span, credits to all of us
One day one room - deep cleaning
Half of the Quarterly break done right
Conversation between me and my younger one few days back
Incident 1
Almind : amma, yaaravadhu competition pona enna sollanum
Me : Best wishes, all the best, good luck sollanum
Almind : better luck next time sollalama
Incident 2
(In FB I was choosing
instead of
for my comments) He peeped my mobile and asked
Almind : Heart na love thaana
Amma : yes ma
Almind : yaaru idhellam
Amma : idhellam enoda friends enoda post ku comments poturukanga
(Vijay called me from other room)
Almind : Appa, wait pannunga amma elarayum love pannitu irukanga
Ivan kudumbathula gummi adikama vida maatan pola
Corn on the cob
tawa version
Smear butter on the tawa, roast the corn on all sides - sprinkle salt, lemon juice, chaat masala/chiili powder/ pepper powder
Friday's are always left-over cooking at home
It's a constant menu of Sambhar with all left over vegetables and a simple poriyal so is our simple snack
Patty - onion, beetroot, potato, salt, chilli powder, gg paste, corn flour. Cooked, smashed and shallow fried
Slice the burger bun, smear butter and cheese. Microwave for a minute.
Layering : bun(flat side) - mayoniee - patty - tomato slice - bun(top)
Veggies : carrot, beetroot, potato, peas
Oil, onion, tomato, gg paste, vegetables, salt, chilli powder, garam masala. Mixed butter and cheese
Toasted Pav on side sides using butter
Being at home all the time, these oils soothes our mind
very mild aroma when used in potpourri and also in Reed
Those who are looking for aroma oils can give it a try
Thank you Herbal Crush for the wonderful oils
PS : Not paid or asked to write, just sharing my experience
I'm writing this for people who are not aware of online library (upto 14 years)
Albrain is using an online library for past 4 years and they are very good in service. You can browse the books from their website and place order and they deliver the books at your doorstep. If you already have their books(lend) you can handover to them when getting the new set of books. I'll mention the website link below this post, you can refer their site for subscription details.
**They have resumed back their delivery services from july 27th
Pumpkin Paratha
In a bowl add wheat flour, grated yellow pumpkin and ginger, chopped green chilli and corriander leaves, salt, chilli powder, carrom seeds, turmeric powder, cumin powder. No need to add water while kneading as pumpkin oozes out lot of juice. Rest the dough for 30 minutes. Roll into thin disc and cook on both sides
Planned snack
Boiled Channa
Soak channa for atleast 8 hours.
Boil channa along with salt, sprinkle chaat masala and lemon juice. Serve
Unplanned snack
Chawal ke pakora(Rice pakora)
Rice flour + curd + chopped onion, g chili, curry leaves, corriander leaves + chilli powder + cumin powder + salt
Deep fry and serve hot
One fine day Almind came running to me complaining of tooth ache. I observed his teeth and found more space inbetween them than usual. Yes, a tooth was loose. I thought of following few things which i did for my elder son, Albrain. I started playing "Tooth fairy" stories in youtube and asked him to read a PDF story book which i downloaded (for Albrain i was able to lend a book from a library but for Almind since it's pandemic, i took online materials). He was so excited about the fairy visit.
Yesterday (18-07-2020) during our lunch time, he felt uncomfortable and asked me to check his teeth. To my surprise the tooth had already fallen off. First I thought he swallowed it along with his food. Then we all searched his plate and finally found the tooth next to him. I took him to wash room cleaned his tooth and wiped off his mouth. He was in complete joy about tooth fairy's visit again. I wrapped the tooth in a paper and kept it in my wardrobe. At night before going to sleep, he wrote a letter to tooth fairy. I gave the tooth to him. He kept the letter and the tooth together under his pillow and happily went to sleep.
Need not to explain his happiness in the morning, when he found a gift replacing his tooth. He jumped up in joy and thanked the tooth fairy.
Happy that we were able to help him overcome his fear of losing a tooth and comfort his pain.
Tried miniature fairy garden with available items at home 😍
Sudden craving for momos
Stuffing : Paneer, cabbage, carrot, chilli powder, salt, garam masala
Stuffed inside dough(used all purpose flour) and steamed for 15 minutes
#rtvj #antovijay #aarthyvijay #albrain #almind #familyblog #youtubeblog
Seeing the news feed on Mandala, zentangle and doodle arts, thought of trying something in my style mixed everything and created my own style
This is not a lockdown scene
The man in the video never knew where the kitchen is until two years back
(couldn't even ask him a simple kitchen help to count cooker whistles, turn off the stove, simmer the stove as everytime it ended up me doubling up my job). Things changed two years back, he started sharing all household chores, our boys started learning from us. They started seeing everything as a survival skill and not gender based job. Personally I'm not exhausted doing all works at home as I always get some help from all three boys
Let's share our positive stories
Stay and Spread positivity
#simplechange make huge difference
