Am on a baking spreeeeeeeeeeee.......yipee.....

Yeah, that’s right. I have always loved baking goodies when compared to conventional cooking… I guess, a lot of appreciation should go to my online food blogger friends who does a wonderful job with food… Infact, most of the recipes are so easy & hassle free…
So, coming back to my new found passion, I have just baked a carrot cake & am posting a few pics of it… and btw, it did taste yummy…
Sorry, but you will notice that the picture was taken after having a bite of the cake… It was too irresistible for me, hehe!
So then, until next time, see you all with probably my next baked item?!?!!!

PS: I don’t intend to turn this into a food blog…

Rejoice, Rejoice, Our Savior is Born!!!!

The above song gives me goosebumps… infact, moves me to tears… it’s not just a song for me… it’s the celebration of the Savior’s birth… giving victory over Satan. Honestly, I can’t stop singing this…

Luke Chapter 2, verses 1-20 illustrates the birth of Christ, our Lord. What moves deep within me is the entry or the creation of the man that the whole world adores & worships, had no fancy approach, no festivity. His birth was in the most humble & simple manner anyone could imagine; Joseph & Mary couldn’t find a guest room & so Mary had to wrap baby Jesus in simple cloths & was place him in a manger.

His way in, symbolizes gentleness, meekness & humility… He always proved himself to be a humble servant, with no prejudice, no selfishness. He came into this world from above to live a lowly life… despite the fact that HE was the chosen one by God…

What does the birth of Jesus teach us? Does this remind us of any of the virtues of the Lord? Yes-Humbleness, Meekness & Patience.

Christmas, for me (& am sure for many), symbolizes the Christ’s virtues… mentioned above.

So dear ones, let us all try our best to follow his example by being humble, meek & patient in our ways/dealings… I normally don’t take resolutions for the New Year, but this time, this is going to be my resolution… to practice the lord’s way & to please him in all my deeds…

I’d like to end by wishing you all a very bright & cheerful Christmas. May this Christmas be really very special, that you never ever feel lonely & be bounded by the Lord’s love & grace…

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom’s birthday. I just wanted to send out a huge shout of praise to my lord for adding a year to her life…
Can’t really imagine what life would have been without her… she is one person I can count on 24/7… As a child, when I would go through some complex phase or a challenge, I would ask her to pray for me. It was like, I was so certain that God would answer & my dilemma would disappear if she’d prayed. To be honest, I still hold on to that notion till day…
Being a mom today, I can now very well relate to how she felt for us all through her life… the sacrifices that went unnoticed or overlooked… even during times, when I told her she was wrong, when in fact she was right…
You are a blessing in my life Mom… we couldn’t have got better parents than you & Dad…

I love you, Mom. Next to my husband, you are my closest friend in this world. God keep you happy, blessed & at peace always!!!

Am back as a mommy!!!

Well, what do I say! It just feels great to start blogging again… looks like it’s been over a year since I’d taken a break from it… frankly, many times the thought of starting to write again had hit my mind over the last few months. Last year this time, I was busy with a lot of personal stuff & had a lot of issues on my mind. This day, a year later, RJ & I have a cute little man, god has gifted us….I now can’t imagine our lives without our beautiful baby Matthew. It wasn’t an easy road, but it was all so worth it to get this boy. He has made our lives richer and fuller than I ever could have imagined… Amazing, at times when I actually sit with him & see him playing, cooing & of course displaying that million dollar smile of his, I can’t help but thank my lord! A perfect display of sheer innocence is what babies are all about, after all …
I have come across people who don’t consider conceiving & carrying a baby in your womb for 9 months, a great thing.. they feel ‘what’s the big deal’… that’s what anyway human reproduction is all about… but honestly, it’s not that easy as it seems to have a baby grow in you for such a long period… it’s a perfect working of the lord… & his grace & mercy that needs to be in control from day 1 of your pregnancy… Again, it’s from my experience and from the point of holding a perfectly healthy baby in my arms that I can now look back over it all and say: “I’m so glad I went through all that pain”. I'm so thankful that I was able to have such a beautiful delivery, and such a beautiful baby boy.
Every day, RJ and I find ourselves looking at our baby, and then at each other, and saying things like: “Our baby…”, “the lord’s promised child” or “there’s truly something special about him”…
For us, Matthew will always be “the baby.” And because he’s our 1st, I am holding on to every moment. And, I can hardly wait to know the man that he’s going to become. All glory & honor to my lord!!!

FIREPROOF...

I feel it’s been ages since I got to actually sit down & write a blog… had been caught up with a few things & hence couldn’t.

It’s simply interesting to know how Satan sneakily intrudes in our daily lives & delays the surge of god’s blessings into our life... and the worst part is that he uses, we ourselves, in making this happen...

I’d like to pen on the movie FIREPROOF, which was gifted to us by my sister in law all the way from Canada. From the day we received it, we wanted to watch the movie, but it just kept holding off for some reason or the other... but finally after about a month or so, we decided to watch the movie, come what may!

The movie is an inspirational one on marriage and the simple, yet amazing message in the movie is to love your partner unconditionally... I simply love the theme which goes like, ‘Never leave your partner behind’... it also includes a number of god’s promises mentioned in the word. It’s a story of a firefighter, who puts out the fire at homes around his neighborhood, but fails to put out the fire in his own home. I mean the strife between him & his wife... I guess most couples could relate to this story… & how the love dare changes the husband’s love for his wife & how he begins to accept the lord to work in his life, is simply a must see… how God put a new & fresh love in his heart for his wife & day by day, how he learns to love her unconditionally…

I strongly believe in this… the secret behind a vigorous & blissful marriage, is for the spouses to simply love each other unconditionally… well, I was so moved by the movie, that by the end I had tears rolling off my cheeks… beautiful… I wish more & more production houses come out with movies like the FIREPROOF & the like & help spread God’s love through their messages…

May God richly bless each & everyone of you!

PS: try & get to see this movie… please…

Am grateful...

Yes, am grateful, exceedingly grateful! You may wonder the reason & the one behind this emotion... well, here goes...

I still distinctly remember the day we were at the doctors’, fretfully waiting to know Ma’s biopsy result. When called in, I asked Da & Ma to go and RJ & I waited out. 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins, half an hour.... & still they weren’t out.... I couldn’t take it anymore & I abruptly went in the doctors’. Once in, my eyes fell on ma... she was evidently blue...& her eyes drenched... the doc had a concerned look on his face... I asked him on how her report looked like & he very casually told me that she had some abnormal cells that needed to be detached & treated... for some reason, that didn’t sound or look convincing to me. I then asked to see the report & there, it was acknowledged as a “Malignant Case”... I couldn’t believe my eyes... I didn’t know how to react... neither did I cry, nor did I feel like blaming anyone... I simply didn’t react... the doc then pointed out that a surgery to remove the lump & a few sessions of chemotherapy & possibly radiation would be needed at the earliest to rule out any possibility of the cancer spreading... once out from the doctors’, I was profusely hugging mum & was reassuring her that everything is going to be all right but ma was crying & she continued to do so & be in deep thoughts for the next 2 or 3 days... the next day we decided to get ma’s surgery & the rest of the treatment done at the RCC (Regional Cancer Centre). We didn’t want to spare time since the chances were high that it would spread & make things appear even worse. So Da & Ma got to see the doctor at the RCC the same day they reached tvm. The surgery was successfully made the 3rd day of their arrival & the lump was sent for biopsy. Meantime, ma was recovering fine from the aftermath of the surgery. They came home after spending a week at the hospital. Ma’s case was once again confirmed as malignant in the biopsy result; but this time, it went on to the next stage of cancer. The doctor at the RCC confirmed that she would need 6 sessions of chemotherapy at first, & then the rest of the treatment would depend on her health check & test reports after these 6 sessions. The chemos progressed, one session after the other, each session getting her all the more tired & nauseous for a few days post chemo.

For most of us Cancer is the most deadly form of sicknesses. I’ve often come across sermons & books on healing that state as ‘from a common cold to the fatal cancer, our most gracious & merciful lord is capable of healing us wholly from the roots.....by his stripes we are healed....Praise be to the lord!

I used to sympathize with other victims of cancer & pray for them... but never in my wildest dreams, did I expect this to strike my ma! Yeah, I know I sound a bit selfish, but am sure this would be every single person’s reaction! Obviously, sickness in no way befalls with a prior notice! But he has indeed fulfilled his promise & through out the entire ordeal, remained faithful to us. For us, this has been a session, a training on how to merely trust God no matter how vague, difficult & uncertain the future seems!

Dear ones, today after 6 whole months, my ma is back, completely healed & touched by the lord... All the test reports after the chemo sessions had come out perfect and hence, by his grace, she wouldn't require any medicines or radiation going forward. Isn’t that simply amazing? How every situation was so brilliantly controlled by the almighty... is a life experience to be testified... as for me & family, we would remain grateful to the lord almighty, for he has shown us his favor & fulfilled all the promises that he had for us.... praise be to the lord!

Earthly Paradise, at the brink...

We did quite a lot of groundwork on planning our Oman holidays last October, as we wanted to make the most out of the trip, both, in terms of getting to spend some time alone with each other, plus to travel & discover the new place, since we both love travelling... we started our homework about 1-2 months before we took off to Oman... we did our hotel bookings online, managed to reserve 2 bus seats to travel to Salalah (btw, Salalah is about 1200kms from Muscat on road; that’s 12 hours journey one way), arranged for a rent a car (because we considered driving in Muscat) etc...

Since our flight was booked for 8pm, we had coordinated the hotel & car rental bookings accordingly. We reached the airport at about 6 pm. Obviously excited, I rushed to the flight info screen, just to see that our flight had been cancelled! OMG, at that point, my mind was oscillating to n fro... I was overcome by so much anger & frustration that I didn’t know who to blame... thank god for RJ who usually maintains his tranquil in such situations... he asked me to stay calm & we both proceeded to the flight info desk counter. We were told that the flight was cancelled due to technical faults... they promised to put us on the next flight to Oman. Well, thank God! And so we were put in the 9pm flight to Oman. We landed at about 10:15pm Oman local time. After clearing our immigration formalities, we reached the car rental airport branch office, only to wait for an hour for their staff to return to the office. During this time RJ bought a map of Oman, with the minutest detail/route of every avenue/street in Oman. We finally got our car keys & headed straight off to the hotel in Muscat. The drive was lovely since there were barely any cars on the roads (it was 12:30am at that point) & also the route to the hotel being a straight one from the airport. We reached the hotel safe at about 1am, only to discover that our booking got cancelled since we didn’t check in on time! Oh God... I thought again, this isn’t fair!!! We explained to them about our flight getting cancelled & the delay at the airport counter etc... The receptionist asked us to wait for a while until he tried & got us a room. We had booked a double room; but the hotel officials managed to get us a suite...! Well, yet another display of God’s grace... in the morning, we drove through the boulevards of Muscat...visited a few beaches, parks etc; by next day evening we were ready to leave for Salalah by bus; when we reached the station, we were told that there were no bookings in our names & that all bookings were closed to Salalah! It was practically impossible to get seats during the Eid hols because most people rush off to Salalah for hols... Isn’t this just a bit too much...! I thought to myself... however, RJ managed to get us 2 tickets from a private outlet nearby... yeeeeehhh, we are going to Salalah! (this place looks just like Kerala in terms of it’s lush green vicinity). The journey began at 6pm from Muscat & we reached Salalah 6am the next day. We were awake at 5.00 am on dot to see the descend down the hills. It is almost like the Kodai /Ooty trip. We could see small streams from the mountains too... it was indeed a beautiful sight! At the station, we were received by the car rental officials there since we hired a car with a driver to take us around Salalah; as we were scheduled to travel back to Muscat the same day by the 7pm bus. In Salalah, we visited a number of exquisite places, quickly to cite a few like the beaches there-Mughsayl, Mirbat etc. Fantastic! We could see fountains from the openings of rocks above the sea. It was indeed a unique scene. There was also an anti gravity place, Job's tomb and foot prints at the hill top, Mother Mary's father's tomb (all of which are with the Muslims now) etc... well, to sum it all, we drove 400 kms in hardly 8 hours... we were dead tired by the time we boarded the bus in the evening; the bus had some technical faults, so after all the repair and stuff, we took off 2 hours late...! About half way through the journey, our bus broke down & that too in the middle of nowhere, I mean it was a complete desert area! So much for a holiday!!! We somehow got the faults corrected & continued with our journey. Meantime, all the way thru I was wondering on how we could reach our hotel on time to check out & board the flight ack to Bahrain... well, we reached the hotel a little after the scheduled check out time, but the officials were so warm & courteous that they asked us to rest in our rooms for an extra 3 hours without charging us the extra! So we could rest enough & packed our bags to check out & clear our bills at the reception; & guess what, we were charged only the room rent for the double room in spite of being given a suite! Having checked out of the hotel, we still had some time before we had to report to the airport. So, we drove thru the suq, the traditional omani market... & bought a few pieces of items... we then headed straight to the airport & thank god our flight was ON time J...

During our flight back, I just couldn’t stop thanking our lord much, I did a mental rewind of how our holiday turned out to be, one episode after the other... & how we got the best of everything we had arranged for… all glory & honor to the lord! & yes, looking forward to our next eventful holiday…!

24/7 in a tick!

Lately, I have been having thoughts on the nature of the “what’s on your mind” (courtesy face book) and “set your status here” (courtesy orkut) posts/feeds on both the sites & the likes... I kinda go through an enigma when reflecting on the benefits that these posts have on the people reading them... For instance, a post reads – “xxx is bored”; another one reads as “xxx is waiting for the weekend”; and so on and so forth... What does this honestly indicate? Well frank enough, I don’t care if anyone is bored or is waiting for the weekend or to practically know what he/she is doing every second of the hour of a day... to me the time spent on such manias, sums up to the time actually lost on more productive things like the time spent with your family, in an outdoor sport, cooking something for your loved ones & of course, in prayer & quietness. Our mind seems to be occupied & caught up in such useless information... the other day, I came across another post that read “xxx is busy”! Well, then why logged on in the first place? is what I thought to myself! Sigh...!

It makes me to ponder on what exactly is the need to be so connected with one another across the globe 24/7? Looks like we have become an ‘instant’ society...where information is passed in a tick! People have become so self centered that their minds are caught up in such trivial facts... in reality, when our minds are engaged in such concerns, we stop to think creatively... maybe, if we tie up all the time spent on such feeds/posts, on something positive for ourselves & for others, the world would have been a better place to live in...

What matters most...

During my short break to Kerala few weeks back, I had a chance to visit the RCC (Regional Cancer Centre). Throughout my presence there, I witnessed a number of patients, ranging from old aged people to little children, as small as 2-3 years old… due to the treatment, their heads without hair, little children being carried by their parents, with their nose/mouth covered with a surgical mask… the scene was very upsetting… at that moment I tried to empathize & think from the parents’ perspective; how would they be feeling to see their child go through the ordeal, as a result of the treatment? It was indeed a depressing sight…

It made me to comprehend on the pace at which we are in a hurry to make money, build luxurious homes for ourselves, busy constructing our careers, seeking fame etc, when in reality these things are insignificant…what would you do with all the money, fame, prosperity you had, if you didn’t have the strength & health to enjoy it? Feelings of resentment, anger, hatred, jealousy etc doesn’t make sense…it is just not worth it, my friends...

May the lord grant each one of us perfect healthiness & bless us to greater loftiness all the days of our lives…

Don’t believe everything you think!

What would it feel like when we come to know that our loved ones are in pain…? For instance, when a dreadful sickness has befallen them… never ever had we imagined in our wildest dreams that this would happen to him/her… the person you love & care for loads… well, my very first reaction would be, “Lord, why him/her, from all those people out there?”… (am quite certain that this would be the egocentric reaction from most)

What makes us skeptical then, in such circumstances? When in such unpleasant conditions of life, we need to connect with our spirit/our inner soul rather than on our “thinking” minds… I’d come across a saying sometime back which goes like, “Don’t believe everything you think!”… I like this saying because of its simplicity & I do try to live by this everyday instead of trying to stop the unwanted thoughts… let god do the thinking/talking for me… Many a times, I have experienced this episode, where, when I let my mind do the analysis of the situation in hand, no matter what, I feel disheartened..! I don’t seem to feel good at all… but when I leave it blindly for God to decide & lead, I suddenly feel a surge of peace/joy rushing through my mind & soul… & confidence (from no where) emerges… I then realize that maybe this is “my” testing period…where the lord wants to put to test my faith in him… believe me, there is nothing like putting you complete trust, faith & hope in the lord… I’d consider these as the most valuable periods in my walk with the lord… things that seemed practically impossible, suddenly is made possible… wow! So, what better reason to expect miracles, eh! You know, God lets events take place in our lives, so that we are made to realize his worth & his ability to work things for our good…!!!

A new beginning…

I’m baffled & at the same time excited, as I start this new phase of my being…
When this whole idea of the blog began, the first thought that hit my mind was “what would be the theme that I would like to start off with?” well, at the start of this new year, thought I would share my perceptions on resolutions, expectations, fresh outlook etc that I have in life…

I was contemplating on what would it be this year, that I would like to stick on to or rather “achieve”… yes, its not any different from the previous years… at the top of the list goes…need to shed on those extra kilos… shirk the procrastination tendency away… to forgive & forget easily… to stop wanting more of everything… to maintain a positive attitude consistently, come what may & last but not the least, to strengthen the relationship with my lord… over the past year, there were days which made me to ponder “what is it that really makes one happy & content?” health/body, career, relationships, spirituality, friends or money? We often tend to rely on our beliefs/judgments more rather than on God’s will to be done… well, this year on, I have decided to expect miracles…! & to welcome trials & temptations in life, in order to make me a stronger person, both mentally & emotionally… & keep the hope & faith strong no matter what! After all, it’s God who is in control of my life, not me… in any case, I know that whatever I am faced with, I am not alone & that someone else is also faced with too…

I wish that you have a year filled with peace, harmony & love… & many more blessings that life has in store for each of us, which you so very well deserve…

God bless…