مدينة الناهلة

The author is a friend of mine. She used to be my next door neighbor before we left to Lebanon. She left to her country- SA - while I was away, they were students.

 I didn't know that my friend was a writer until after she went back to her country and we became FB friends.
She wrote this article yesterday. I found very relevant to me. Here you go, I hope you like it...

داخلي مدينة تعجُّ بالكثير من الهرج والخصام..والمحبَّة والوئام..مدينة لا تهدأ ولا تنام  

فيها بشرٌ كُثر..وناطحات همٌ ووهم..وحدائق فرحٍ وأنهار ابتسام

بداخلي مدينة قديمة لها تأريخ مجيد ..وسيّاح دائمون يزرونها بصيف كل عام ..وآخرون يحبونها وقت الشتاء..ربيعها لاتخطئه العيون ..تتهادى إليه كل طيرٍ من روح..ويهطل من غمامها أوراق آخر الآمال بخريف إصفرَّ من عطاء الحياة..

مدينتي بالليل جدُّ صاخبة..وبالنهار هادئة..وعند المغيب منكسرة ..ومع الشروق متفائلة تساعد على الاستيطان...فكل غريبٍ فيها مألوف وكل عجيب معروف.

يعاني سكّان مدينتي من صعوبات تَفَهُّم فيما بينهم البين...فالكل مخطئ بنظر أحدهم ..وأحدهم عدو الكل إن لم يقنعهم ...

مناخها جاف يهبّ من صحراء القلب شمالاً... فيضمحل مستوى ماء الأنهار و تتشقق من أثرها كل رئةعاقلة مؤمنة بالتنفس والصعداء...

تعقد الجوارح بمدينتي احتفالات عدّة بكل مناسبة لفشلٍ أو نجاح..فهي تجيد الرقص على كل الأنغام ..فالطرب بعرفها يكون لشدة فرح أو من شدة الأحزان...

مدينتي لا تكفُّ عن الصمت والهذيان...وكأنّها غضبُ بركان..أو عنفوان شباب..

مدينتي مستعمرة مغرورة ..مهزومة مفتونة..مجنونةٌ مكسورة..مكابرة طاغية..

الحبُّ فيها هو السلطان..والكره مبحرٌ بلا ربّان..والعشق خطيئة كل زمان..والعفَّةُ تصارع الفتنة..والهدى يبارز الهوى..والحسنة تبكي من السيئة..والعين يصدِّقُها اللسان..

مدينتي مدينةٌ من كل إنسان..ترابها,ماؤها,سماؤها,جدارها,وكل كائن بها....

مدينتي هي صدرٌ مغلق الأبواب لتراها لابد وأن تنزل ستار الأجفان بدون أن تنام..فقط اهدأ وشاهد مسرح الإنسان ومن يسكنه رغبة ورهبة وقضاءاً وقدراً ورفضاً وانتماء وكل عجيب تشيب منه الأقلام.

نهلاء البنيان

Happy Mother's Day

To my mom, your mom, to you -- if you are a mom,
all the moms every where, and to me :)
We didn't celebrate it because in the US we celebrate mother's day is in June, but I had a hug and a kiss from my oldest daughter since all her friends from Lebanon were talking about it ;)
I hope you enjoyed it with your loved ones.



ينعاد عليكم

To all of you guys back home, in Jordan...easy on the meat and ka3ek....7aram 3alykom :(
Remember me with every bite you take, and then enjoy it.
Love you all ...



Happy anniversary

I just realized that I have been blogging for a year now. I started on October 26, 2009. I was in Lebanon. Blogging for me at that time was like talking to a friend, a close friend, a best friend that I didn’t have and couldn't find. But I found all of you my cyber friends :D
Those days where hard at the beginning, just like everything else in life. But things started to clear up afterwards. You all were part of the relief.



A very BIG THANK YOU goes to all of you guys who read what I wrote, gave me feedback, and made me feel that there is someone out there who cares about me even without knowing who I am and how I look like. You became part of my life and I wish I can meet each one of you in person, one day......nchallah!!


I love you, All.

The past few days...

Oct/31: it was Halloween. Kareem’s school had a Halloween party for the kids so I took two hours off of work and went to be with him, since dad is not here and I didn’t want him to feel alone seeing all the kids with their parents.
Nov/2: Kareem’s Birthday. I took him after work to pick up a gift and he chose Iron Man. We successfully made the transfer form spider man to iron man :D
Nov/3: left work early went to wal-mart and bought Kareem cup-cakes to celebrate with his classmates. It was nice and he was SO happy.
Nov/5: my best girl friend Reham came for a visit in the evening with her kids which are the same age as mine. I bought cookie cake – YUM—and we celebrated Kareem’s birthday one more time. He felt so special :)
Nov/7: I was invited for breakfast at one of my girl friends’ house. It was lovely feminine get-together and food was out of this world.
In between these days all I had was work, gym, kids, arguments with my two-teenage daughters, trying to keep my life organized and keep up with due times and dates…isn’t that fun!! How was your past few days…!

I’ll leave you with some pictures :)

Kareem sleeping with his new toys :)

Zuzu at the Halloween party

in the kitchen while I was backing cookies

My big Guy

The 2ns B-day party at home with our friends

The cookies cake (I don't know why it wouldn't rotate)

The cookies I baked

Love ~

Phone Post

Good morning
I have been away for quite some time now and would like to apologize
upfront for any miss-spellings because I'm making this
post using my iPhone and I'll tell why latter in the post.
Let's begin where I last left.....Dubai. I LOVED this city
and Husam did as well. We had so much fun and went too many places,
Dubai mall, Dubai marina walk, Atlantis, al-ain city,
emartis mall, and wondering around the city either walking or
with the driver. It was a short trip but sure was relaxing, alhamdulellah.
After we came back I get busy again with my parents. Going out sightseeing,
shopping, and hanging out with them. I have pictures for all this but I need
to check if I can post through the iPhone.
Life went back to normal after mom and dad left. Kids, school, exercise,
and friends.
My oldest daughter Farah turned 16 on the 19th of this month.
Alhamdulellah she had a nice one :). Her friends came home
and we all sang her happy birthday, gave her the presents, and then
I drove all of them to the resturant where I made reservation
for them to have dinner (it's so hard to type with this
tiny keyboard ;))
my friend called me while I was making this post, so I need
to go get ready to leave. I'll continue latter.
Bye

Last week..

After I wrote last time I got hit so badly with flu. This is my second time this year. The worst part is that it was combined with sinus infection. But Alhamdulillah, I’m all better now. Last week I met with my girl friends and went out for lunch and argileh. The food was so delicious, and the argileh too. I love it in lemon and mint flavor. I had a great time with them.
Wednesday I cooked lasagna, everybody loved it. I love the lasagna sheets that you don’t need pre-cook or boil. It makes making lasagna a blast.
Husam and I will be leaving to Dubai on the beginning of April. My brother is taking care of preparing the visas and the paper work. Mom and dad will come to stay with the kids while we’re away. I love my mom and dad they are awesome.
I went with the kids for a walk around the house and I took some pictures. It was refreshing and a great way to bond with them.
That’s it for me, it turned out that I didn’t have as much as I thought….lol :)

Koshari

Today I cooked an Egyptian dish called Koshari. I got the recipe from my good friend Suzan. It turned out very delicious; Husam and the kids loved it. Thanks Suzan and looking forward to more recipes. Since I now can upload pictures here is how my dish turned out.

My brother Fadi who lives in Kuwait called this evening and he told me that he reserved two tickets and hotel reservation for me and Husam as a gift to go visit Dubai :) We will go in April during the Easter break. I am SO excited, can’t wait for April to come. Thanks Fadi, I love you.
I have a busy schedule tomorrow. First, I have to drop Husam and the kids and then a meeting with the girls’ school Principal Mr. Vessle, to tell him about the girls’ early leave. After that I am going to visit my good friend Loodi. This will be the best part of my day. She is a very nice lady from Syria married to Jordanian guy who is a professor with Husam. She is very cheerful and take-it-easy kind of person. I like to be around such people because they keep reminding me that life is easy.

I did an extra ordinary job today posting twice ;) I loved it especially that now I can upload pictures so I will go back to all my previous posts where I promised to post pics and I’ll have them there, how about that!!

Good night

Winter Break

Salam,

The winter break started on 12/23/09 and lasted until 1/4/10. Of course we went on a road trip to Amman. It was a great vacation, lots of fun and visits and of course arguments :( but we survived, alhamdulellah.
The weather was awesome at that time, warm and sunny. The best thing that I liked about this particular visit is that I got to meet one of Husam’s friends wife. She is a very sweet lady, originally from Sudan (she has a light skin color, a little darker than mine). We met once at our favorite coffee shop “tche tche”. But then I met her and got to know her better when I went by my self. I’ll talk about that trip in separate post.
We came home on 1/2, that was a Sat. life after that went back to normal. Kids are back to school, and I am back to my routine at home and my morning coffee with my neighbor, Jackline. Although I like vacations and un-ordinary day(s) but I also LOVE routine, what about you?
Take care..