mother's day Archives - My Inner Shakti

Weekend Rehash – Date Night In, Play Date, Mother’s Day

Ok, so after much back and forth (in my own head), I’ve decided to bring back the weekend rehash/recap type posts. I REALLY enjoy reading random posts about our weekends from 2013 (or whenever), and I think I’d be sad to not have any documented with K.

With that being said, I’m not going to share every little detail, but I thought it would be fun to talk about what we did, what we ate, etc. Nothing too crazy, but I know my little mama heart will love reading about this season years from now. So humor me!

FRIDAY

My Friday started with a Soul Cycle class. Man do I love this workout! Sadly, I only have two classes left in the package Vishnu got me back in September. As much as I love it, I won’t be signing up for more right now. For one, it’s EXPENSIVE! And two, my gym offers cycling classes that are a decent substitute.

I also ran my usual errands (Taget and TJs) and did a little bit of meal prep. I made Ministry of Curry’s Instant Pot Batata Bhaji (Potatoes with onions and spices) and the Lean Green Bean’s White Bean Muffins. I give both recipes 5 stars!

After picking Kaiden up from school, we headed to the park for some time in the sun! While it’s not quite summer here in Chicago, I’m trying to enjoy whatever warm weather we get because who knows what’s going to happen next!

And finally, to wrap up Friday, Vishnu and I had a little La Croix and cheese date night. This is one of our favorite ways to do date night in because we both LOVE cheese, and it gives us a nice opportunity to talk over a shared plate of food! I picked a few goat cheese varieties because I’m still on that ‘I think cheese makes me breakout’ train. But because I love sharing this experience with my husband, I indulged a little! We need to do this more often…so fun!

We moved our coffee table to storage when K started crawling, so we had a picnic in our living room while watching Netflix!

SATURDAY

The highlight of our Saturday was a playdate with our friends Pankti and her cutie patootie Arjun! Pankti and I caught up and talked all things career, motherhood, and life while the boys kinda sorta played together.

To be honest, the rest of our day was just ok. Kaiden ended up napping in the car on our way home (even though I tried to time our trip home before his usual nap time), which threw him off for the rest of day. He was super cranky and ended up getting frustrated with himself and us every other minute.

Oh well, these are the days of our lives… 😊

SUNDAY

Mother’s Day! Sunday was a good day filled with a special gift from my guys along with a very heartfelt card, a delicious brunch, and lots of Kaiden snuggles, hugs, and kisses!

Again, we didn’t time our walk home from brunch as well as we should have because Kaiden fell asleep in his stroller for about 20 minutes. We tried to transition him as carefully as possible to his crib, but that was a huge fail. So again, he was thrown off for the rest of the day, but my little bubs did better than I expected.

And that was our weekend in a nutshell! I can’t wait to read back on Mother’s Days in the future to see what we did in 2019. 😊 Hope you had a wonderful weekend, mother or not.

Mother’s Day 2018 + A Trip Down Memory Lane

written by Parita 12 Comments

Mother’s Day 2018 was as amazing as I imagined it would be!

First of all, Kaiden gave us the gift of a little extra sleep by sleeping in until 6 am on Sunday morning. He’s usually up between 5-5:30. We then spent the morning in our PJs hanging out with my sister and BIL – lots of great conversation and Kaiden time! I then squeezed in a quick workout before getting ready for Mother’s Day brunch with my two boys. Vishnu made reservations at Carnivale, and we enjoyed quite the buffet. My favorite part was obviously the wide array of dessert options. Peanut butter brownies and chocolate mousse? Umm yes please! V and K also gave me the most beautiful card with the most heartfelt note. I may or may not have ugly cried for 2 minutes! But don’t worry we were back home at this point! We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at home running around after K because he literally crawled around every square inch of our apartment.

A simple, fun Mother’s Day! Perfection. 🙂

My parents also made this a fun/funny weekend by sending us very old pictures (of pictures). I took a little trip down memory lane and thought I’d share some of the highlights…

My sister!

Also my sister!

Here’s to the Woman…

written by Parita 8 Comments

Here’s to the woman who puts her family before anything and everything, especially herself.

Here’s to the woman who feels our happiness and our pain as if it’s her own.

Here’s to the woman who feeds us some of the world’s best food.

Black bean and spinach enchiladas…so unbelievably delicious

Here’s to the woman who prays and dreams about her children’s strength and happiness every single day.

Here’s to the woman who actually called my principal to ask why I was chosen as the substitute crossing guard as opposed to a full time one.

Here’s to the woman who followed up the crossing guard conversation with one about why I wasn’t in the same classroom as my best friends.

Here’s to the woman who singlehandedly was able to change my B+ in gym [because I couldn’t do a cartwheel] to an A-.

Here’s to the woman who sat and cried with me when I experienced heartbreak for the first time.

Here’s to the woman who laughs at all of my stories and jokes no matter how “out there” they are.

Here’s to the woman who makes me a better person just by being my momma.

I love you!

And Happy Mother’s Day to all of the beautiful moms out there!

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. – Washington Irving

Celebrations All Around!

written by Parita Leave a Comment

Hi y’all! I feel like I haven’t blogged in forever! I guess it’s just the irregular schedule from this past weekend that has me feeling off.

As you know, I went home to Atlanta this weekend to see my family and Vishnu, but the real reason why I chose this weekend was because one of my friends (we’ll call her P and her fiancé B) was getting engaged on Saturday. Smile I have actually known PB (I love it!) since high school but only became closer to both when P and I lived together my last year of grad school. In that one year, we bonded over both silly and serious things and are now friends for life! I love PB and am SO excited and happy for them!

Here are some highlights from their engagement ceremony/party…

All dressed up and ready to go!

The beautiful couple!

Before I go on, I just want to stress that this explanation of the ceremony is from my understanding and observations. Something to realize is that every family has their own traditions for things like this, but the true essence of it all remains the same.

So the basic concept is this… The grooms family hosts the engagement ceremony (the bride’s family hosts the wedding). The first part consists of the groom’s mother and aunts giving the bride new goodies (jewelry, saris, etc.). Then the bride’s mom gives the groom something (B got a gold chain). Next, the women of both families come up one by one to bless the couple. They put kanku (red turmeric powder) on the bride and groom’s foreheads and feed them sweets. Even I got in on some of the fun!

P’s new goodies!

As you can see from B’s face, it got a little out of control!

YAY!

And although B actually proposed a few days earlier, he did it again for all to experience. Smile

So that was the ceremony part. Like I said, every family (or set of families) does things differently. Some opt for a longer pooja (prayer service) while others keep it more simple.

P’s sister also created a couples game for everyone to play. She had about 10 couples (Vishnu and I included) sit in chairs back to back. We had to answer a series of 10 questions about one another, and the couple with the most matching answers won. Vishnu and I only matched on 4 questions – 40%!!! LOL! Oh well, most of the couples there had about 20 years on us anyways. Winking smile

There was also lots of dancing, great food, and a delicious cake! What a fun night! Here’s to a beautiful couple!!! I can’t wait until next May!

Love you, P!!!

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For a Mother’s Day lunch, my mom and I stopped at a place called Lotta Frutta on our way to the airport. If you’re ever in Atlanta, I highly recommend you visit this place. My mom is a very picky eater when it comes to eating out, and even she loved it! From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but the food is amazing! The menu is very simple – salads, sandwiches, smoothies, fruit cups, and a few other specialty items. We ordered a couple of Just Veggin sandwiches made with sweet Latin bread, avocado, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, and Havarti cheese. We also ordered a Lotta Mora smoothie made with Andean blackberries, bananas, and strawberries – so freakin’ good!

Love you, momma!!!

Well, that was my weekend in a post! I hope you too had a great weekend filled with friends and family!

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Oh and I’m glad so many of you like The Alchemist! I’m about a third of the way through and have to agree with Shanna – it really is one of those books that you can’t read all at once. You want to absorb every single word before moving on. Love it so far! I’ll share more of my thoughts when I finish.

Have a great night! Smile

A-Town!

written by Parita Leave a Comment

Hello! It feels so good to be home!

My flight was ok – nothing too exciting. I read and slept. Vishnu picked me up at the airport. Smile Even though we saw each other at the end of March, it felt like a year since I had last seen him. That’s what a long distance relationship will do to you. LOL!

I woke up this morning and made something I like to call a pancake biscuit (a super thick pancake). It doesn’t look like much, but it tasted quite yummy. I “frosted” it with a melted peanut butter and honey mixture.

After eating, I drove into the city to see my friend Ruchi. Ruch got married and moved to India back in November. She started a blog to share her experiences as an American living in India – American Sugar Indian Chai. Even though I’ve traveled to India multiple times, I love reading about her new life there. This is her first visit home, and since I’m in town, I wanted to make sure we had a chance to hang out and catch up! Smile

My parents and I also made a trip to the outlets near our house. I didn’t really find much – it’s always so hit or miss for me. My mom, on the other hand, found her dream purse at the Coach outlet. Smile