Flavour of the Day with Noora

What's Cooking? A great Opportunity!

There is so much going on and there are so many great places. However, as busy mamas and babas, it is not always easy to stay updated. That's why Family Flavours and I decided to provide you with a shortcut: a monthly guide of what's going on in Jordan.

Each month, we will issue an events page that will contain great ideas for mamas, babas, kids, teens and the family.

If you are part of a business that offers dance classes, great gift ideas, teen entertainment, children play areas, beauty products, delicious snacks, or any other concept that you would like to advertise, please email me on marketing@familyflavours.com and I will contact you with the information you'll need to get started.

Remember, there is always room for advertising!

Flavour of the Day with Noora

How Becoming a Mama Changed Me

The other day, my husband was telling me that I have become a lot more tolerant since I had Yousef. That got me thinking of all the things I too have noticed about myself.

- I have become a morning person. I got so used to waking up early that I became a lot more productive.

- I scare a lot easier now. I feel I was braver when it was just me. However, now that I have Yousef, I am more cautious and more alert about what is dangerous.

- I turned into a neat freak! Everything has to be in its exact place looking just perfect.

- I love to, no, I need to plan everything. Plan my days, weekends, appointments, even the days I cook and do the laundry are carefully chosen.

- I have become more determined to continue my professional career. I guess I saw the other side of not working, and to me, it feels like a waste.

- What I like to do with my free time is so different now. While I always loved to go to busy places, go to the movies, or do something outside the house, now, I love to stay in, watch TV or just read a book in a quiet atmosphere.

All this and Yousef is still 1 year-old. Now, I can totally understand what my mom means when she says she was exactly like me when she was younger but changed after having 6 kids.

I always tell her that she is crazy for having so many in the first place :)

Flavour of the Day with Noora

A Good Book?

Can anyone recommend a good book?

I am not into science fiction or mystery novels and I am definitely not looking for something complex that requires a lot of thinking.

I just want a simple, preferably funny, book that I can read a few pages of before I go to bed. Something that can help me unwind and get my mind off a busy and hectic day.

Any suggestions?

Flavour of the Day with Noora

Not A Single One

On December 31st, 2011, I vowed the following:

- Make a kind gesture to at least two people every day.

- Learn and become good at one sport: I'm thinking tennis, kick boxing or fencing.

- Become a more positive person: I tend to over-worry and I am turning into a party-pooper.

- Get in touch with my distant relatives. I come from a huge family and they are all very kind and caring, I would love to be around them more often.

- Work with a personal trainer on becoming extremely fit and healthy (no more chips, junk food, energy drinks, and a lot more water and exercise).

- Make a difference in one underprivileged person's life: whether he is ill, poor, uneducated, an orphan or simply an unlucky person.

I am very disappointed to admit that I have forgotten that I even made this list. I know that it has only been one month and my son and I have been sick all throughout, yet I find it terrible that in one whole month, I haven't intentionally done something nice to anyone!

Day to day life really does take over sometimes! I have to change this...

Flavour of the Day with Noora

Home Sweet Home

I can't wait to go back home. My trip to Riyadh, which was supposed to last a maximum of 10 days, turned into a three-week long vacation.

First, Yousef got a chest infection that needed monitoring and then I got a sinus infection that forced me into bed for 4 days. It was not a pretty sight; I had to delay my flight three times.

I miss my husband and my step daughter, I miss my house, my office, my room and my car!

Although Riyadh has always been and will always be my home and the dearest place to my heart, things have changed after I got married and had kids. People that matter most, do not live in Riyadh and the life that I have chosen and created with my husband was not in Riyadh. Suddenly, it was no longer my only home.

So, it is Amman sweet Amman tonight (hopefully). I guess I am lucky to have so many places that I can call home.

Flavour of the Day with Noora

Irrational Fears

When parents tell their children not to watch scary movies, they know what they are talking about.

As an adult, I still get spooked from the thought of one single clip I watched when I was 9 years old. In it, there was a blonde woman in a white dress who would run on the beach in the middle of the night in search of her dead husband's ghost. Even writing about it is spooking me out!

I am mentioning this now because this image is always triggered when I am sleeping at my father's house in Saudi Arabia (where I initially watched the show). And since I have been visiting him for about two weeks now, I have thought of it more than 5 times.

It is totally ridiculous for a 27 year old mama to be thinking this way yet, I cannot help it!

I also know people who are scared of a lot more stranger things :)

Care to share some of your irrational fears?

Flavour of the Day with Noora

A Paediatrician's Great Tip

Yousef has had the flu for a while now. Since he barely agrees to drink liquids on normal days, he refused to drink or eat anything now that he was sick.

An ER doctor made a great suggestion: give him a popsicle. It worked!

I put a sugary juice in the freezer and waited until it turned into slush. He finally ate/drank something after two entire days of fasting. Although alone it was not enough, it was better than nothing.

The Dr. also instructed me to force him to drink water through a sirenge, 40ml of water/hour according to his weight (10 kilos).

Although he kicked and screamed (I had to repeat it every 30 minutes), three hours later he was devouring a plate of fries.

Dehydration is very serious in children, try these tips to avoid desperate measures like an IV drip.