No worries..

At every stage of our life, we worry about something. As a kid we worry about  small things. As we grow, there comes more responsibilities, you have to get a job , get married, have kids. After we come parents we worry right from the first day of our kids. I just feel like the worry is never ending.Even today my parents are worried about their grand kids :).

Life is a roller coaster ride, we worry about ups when we are down and worry about downs when we are up. We all know worrying doesn't help anything, still it is very hard to control our mind.What if I told you I have a solution to all your worries. I am sure you will laugh at me. I dont have a solution, but there is a simple flowchart . If you follow it, you can become more logical about the things you worry about than act emotionally.I found this flowchart online a few months back. I am trying to follow this for small worries that bother me.

For example, most of us (mostly moms) worry about getting back to work after a baby,  worry about kids not eating, worry about work related issue, worry about future. I always analyze those worries through this flow chart. Most of my worries  usually  take this path " Do you have a problem -> Yes -> Can you do something about it -> No ->Then dont worry".

The more we train our minds to let us be happy the better it is for us.Please share your thoughts on this. See you soon with another post.

What makes you and me happy ?

I watched a TED talk video shared by one of my friend on Face Book about a Havard study on what makes human happy.

In the talk he explains that all of us think our main goal in life is to be
1) Rich or
2)Famous or
3) Really work very hard to achieve one of the above.

But what really makes someone  happy is good relationship. They have studied the brain development and also the physical health of around 700 people over their entire life to understand what really makes someone happy.People in a good relationship have always been very happy physically and emotionally than people in conflict. Being in a conflicted relationship can lead more harm to your health than you can imagine.Also people with a big social network have also been really happy. Watch the video below to see more

 Loneliness is something that can kill you.It is so true that people can feel lonely even in a crowded place. It is just a state of mind. Also holding a grudge against someone deteriorates your mental health. Man is a social animal.The talk ends saying , it is surprising how having a good relationship is never a life goal , when that is what really matters at the end of our life when we are at our 70's or 80's.

After I listened to the talk , I realized how true it is. Having a good relationship is not very difficult but needs a lot of understanding and patience. Social network is another thing. In this fast paced life it is very difficult to maintain a social network,  not just Face Book or Twitter.Meeting new people and making new friends is something we have to try to do at every stage of our life.One thing to remember is after the kids grow up, it is only our friends with whom we can connect.

Listen to the TED talk and share your thoughts. My first thought was , I was surprised as to why it took so long to find this little secret. Good night and see you soon with another post.

Joys of having a daughter !!!

Daughters are always special. They are compassionate and loving.After I read the book , Men are from MARS and women are from VENUS, I understood some basic differences between men and women. But only after I see my son and daughter, I really understand the depth of how each gender is so different.

My life got more colorful after my daughter. My daughter looks a lot like me , but her characteristics resembles my husband. As soon as she wakes up she would come and hug me and give me her morning smiles. If not for her I would have not known about fairy tales or peppa pig. If not for her I would have known how to pretend and play. When my kids figure out I am not in best of my mood, my daughter will first try to comfort me. She would just say "You are my baby and I am your mommy you can come and sleep on me". My son on the other hand will be more curious on what happened and how to solve it. Even at this very young age I see a vast difference between them.

My daughter always hugs me, give me kisses , admires whatever I wear. She will tell me "I like the dress you are wearing and the ear ring too". She loves a lot of art work. She likes to comb my hair , dress me up., give me  a massage. I know she is so little that I always let her not to , but still she will at least pretend to do all this.

Also she would pretend to cook for me, help me with laundry and so on. She would always be next to me asking if I need help. I hope all this continues as she grows older too. Fingers crossed :).When she gets  a quiet time, she knows what to say so that her dad will let her go. "She would hug him and say you are the best daddy". That mostly will get her out of trouble.I know that our son also cares for us and he loves us, but daughters are very very expressive. Every day evening just 5-10 minutes with her would make me feel refreshed.Everyday evening no matter what she would come running and give me a hug when I pick her up.

The relationship between daughters and parents are always special. Happy Friday to all of you and have a wonderful long weekend.

Is eyebrow threading good or bad ??

Recently I read an article shared by my friend in a group about how important the area around our eye is. The main nerves and the acupuncture  points are here. Also the skin is very soft and sensitive We are never supposed to do threading or use  tweezers and pluck the hair around this area.

This made me thinking,  in my mom's generation , only people in show business used to wear make up and also trim their eyebrows. I am not sure when it became very common that everybody can do it. I  have never seen my grandmother or my great grandmother correcting their brow line, but they looked more beautiful and happy. I remember in that generation people used to apply castor oil to their eyebrows so it will grow well.

Compared to waxing eyebrows, threading is a lot better. I believe anything in moderation is fine. But we should not  be so obsessed with it . I know few people who feel bad to be in a gathering if they have not trimmed their eyebrows and also some who do threading more often than required.This applies to any form of hair  in our body.Too much of shaving and make up is also bad for your skin.Remember that most  people dont notice all this ,try to be with people who notice your  inner beauty. It is good to look fit, beautiful and feel more confident, but have to be careful of our choices to get there.

I think at-least next generation should be more confident in whatever way they look and more importance should be given to everyone's inner beauty than the outward appearance. Please share your thoughts on this.

Summer Camps in Austin !!!

Summer is fast approaching . Many families where both parents work it is always quiet challenging. Many of you will be searching for summer camps around Austin. This is my first time and I did a small research and found some interesting links that I would like to share with you all.

1) City of Austin offers a variety of summer camps. You can check this link fro more info  http://www.austintexas.gov/summercamp. Summer Camp registration opens Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 10:00 AM

2) Austin Chronicle offers an extensive list of summer camps . Check this link fro more information http://www.austinchronicle.com/calendar/summer-camps/ . Submissions due Monday, March 16.

3) Austin 360 also provides some ideas about summer camps in  Austin
 http://campguide.austin360.com/

4) YMCA offers summer camps for which registration starts from February 15th 2016.
http://www.austinymca.org/programs/summer-day-camp

5) You can also check Yelp to look for best summer camps in Austin
http://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=summer_camps&find_loc=Austin%2C+TX

6) There is an Austin summer camp fair conducted by Nurture my child. Check this link
https://www.nurturemychild.com/news-events.asp on February 28th 2016.

I have a question to all of you , who have gone through this process before. With so many camps to choose from, how do we know which ones are the best for our kids ?? . Also if any of you can guide the  new ones like me on how you  chose a summer camp for your kid  the process , it is much appreciated. Please post your comments.Based on the inputs I will update my post. Thank you very much and have a good night.

Feeling Lucky :)

Happy new year !!!!. Hope all of you had a wonderful break. I think most of you might have checked this post Water water everywhere, we have fixed it and it works really well.During our break we played Jenga block game with our friends. Even my 5 year old showed some interest in playing this game. It was a lot of fun. There is a deal in amazon and it costs $8.68 now. Get it and try the game and see, you will surely love it.

The Texas Power Ball lottery has reached its record number $1.5 billion.We all think that the person who wins the lottery is the most luckiest person. According to me everyone with a job , family , house ,food etc are lucky.In life we always have a lot of aspirations but at the end of it, I feel we are missing the most important things.

 At many instances I have considered myself very unlucky like  when I failed my drivers license or had a high risk pregnancy or when life doesn't go as I think it should. Then I read these lines that said

When you have a lot of dishes in sink to wash feel lucky that you cooked and  had food 

When you  have too much laundry to do feel lucky that you have a family

When your car brakes down feel lucky that you have a car 

When things dont go so well at work feel lucky that you have a job

When you have a horrible day feel lucky that there is night and you can just sleep and end the day

When you wake up very late , fell lucky you are alive for another day

Positive thinking is my resolution for this year. It is just January,  but already this trick is making me react better to life situations, hope this would inspire some of you as well. Have a wonderful night and meet you soon with another post.Do share your thoughts on this.

Never buckle your kids car seat their winter jacket on , check this post to know why !

Happy Holidays everyone!. With awesome weather in Austin a light jacket like this for $10 U.S. Polo Assn. Boys' Cut and Sewn Fleece Hooded Jacket would be good for kids now.

Car safety is a very serious thing, especially in  the United States, where the speed limits are high and accidents are very common. With the growing crowd in Austin and the traffic on freeway/highway, we see at least one to two accidents per day.

During winter we always make our kids wear their jackets before we get them on the car. Buckle their car seats thinking it is tight and safe. I have done that many times myself. After watching the below video, I am really surprised as to how wrong it is.

Even if the car crash happens at 30 mph speed, it would cause enough damage to the kid. Also I see that my kids are very uncomfortable to sit in the car seat with their jackets on. May be it is a good idea to remove their jackets and buckle them up. In Austin it might not be that difficult to do it compared to places with below 0 degree temperature.

Whatever might be the reason , keep this in mind when you take your kids, as shown on the video we can cover the jacket on the kid or even use a blanket.

Have a safe and happy holidays !. Please share your thoughts on this.

Water Water everywhere !!!

Happy Holidays !!. It feels so good to drive home seeing all the beautiful lights around the city. The holiday spirit is seen everywhere and I like this season. I am pretty sure all of  you are looking forward to the break.

As I was going through Groupon deals this morning, I thought about today's topic. It is not about the Chennai floods, but about something that every Indian who came to the US would have gone through. When I first came to the US, the restrooms and the bath tub in US was something totally new to me.I think many of us would have went wrong with using  the shower curtains for the first time and filled the restroom with water. I was not very happy using the toilet paper either  but eventually got used it it.

When my parents and in-laws visited us for the first time, the biggest thing that  they had to adjust to, apart from all the other things in a new country was the restrooms. This is a very common problem which many of us have gone through but we hardly discuss about it.

I asked some of my friends about what they did , and they said they gave their parents the flush able wipes from Costco. I did the same too. But still my I could see water everywhere in my restroom now and then. It is very clear that at that that age it is very  difficult for our parents to changes things that they have been doing all these years.

When we bought our house the first thing that my father in law mentioned after asking some of his friends, who apparently mentioned that their son/daughter provided a water pipe in the restroom for them in the US , he urged us to get it done. Our builder was not ready to do it. We wanted to fix one but eventually forgot.

Years passed by until I heard about this product Bio Bidet simple Bidet attachment. It is very simple to attach and very convenient to use.It has amazing reviews and also there is a great deal in Groupon for just $24.99. Biodet Groupon deal. Hurry this is a limited time offer . I think this is a great product and will help us to feel more clean.

Since some of you asked me on how to install this check this video :

The best part about this is, you can save so many trees and also the cost of toilet papers in your family's budget.After seeing this, I think my father in law who has not visited us for nearly two years might make a trip soon.

Please do share your experience about this product, good and bad. It will be very good to know.

Five interesting places in Austin to host a birthday party for kids!!

Trail of lights 2015 in Austin Zilker park is a spectacular show of lights. Make sure you take cash when you go, ferry's wheel ride is $6 per person and the horse ride for kids is $4 per rider.We took a Zip pass which is $15 /person and free for kids below 5 years. Check this out for information on tickets Special tickets. We parked near Stratford since it was not closed that day, it is better to get the $15 parking online so that you can park near the park and walk.In general for any information on Trail of lights check this website Trail of Lights FAQ.

Being parents of 2 young kids, we attend birthday parties almost every weekend. We hosted our kids 1st birthday party in a community hall. As they turn 2 or 3 it is better to host it in a more fun place. If it is summer, we can host it in a  park, but during these cold months we are forced to have in indoors. Usually the most famous ones are Chuck E cheese, check this post I wrote sometime back Chuck E Cheese , Pump it up , Little Gym. Check out this deal with Austin Aquarium , we have been thinking to take our kids here for a while now Austin Aquarium, they also have a special deal for hosting birthday parties there. I would like to write about 5 places that we went last year :

1) Hoppin House : This is in South Austin. We had our kids birthday party this year at Hoppin House. Their service was extremely  good and they made sure everything went on smoothly. The best part I liked was that they gave us a fridge magnet with the picture of the kids who attended the party. It is a nice thing to look back when all the kids are grown ups. Check here for more information Hoppin house.

2) Thinkery: I think most of you know about this place if you are in Austin. My kids love going to this place, just that we dont have time to take them more often. Best thing about attending birthday party here is that the rest of the day after the party is free. Check one of my post about this place  about it Thinkery also for more information about this place check here .

3) Foodie-Kids: This place is in Far West Blvd. My son was invited to a birthday party here and he enjoyed making pizza and cup cake . It is like a 1 hr cooking class for kids and it is a lot of fun. To know more about this place check here Foodie Kids

4) Book People: This is a good place to host younger age birthday party.They read a book to all kids and let them color personalized sheets and also do a craft with the kids. My kids had fun here. To know more about this place check here Book People.

5)Champions West Lake : This is a GYM kind of place, kids had a blast along with an instructor. I liked that they also let kids to learn balance and showed them some new tricks. Check out here to know more Champions.

As I went through the Evite list, I realized that we have been to many parties and enjoyed everyone of them.  Thanks to all our friends for having us. I know the amount of time and money we spend on making sure everyone has fun. Also if there are other locations that are not well known to everyone leave them as a comment here. I am planning list them under the Cities  tab in my homepage so it will benefit others. Have a nice rest of the week.

Chennai floods relief fund

Hope all of you are doing good. If any of you are looking to get Sam's club member ship there is a good deal on Groupon for first time or for people who are not Sam's club member in past 6 months. Sam's club membership for  $25.

Most of us know about the Chennai floods. It is heart breaking to see the videos on NEWS ,Face Book and Twitter. A lot of mixed emotions ran through my mind seeing all this.I have lived in that city for 22 years and has never seen such a disaster. How did all this happen ? These are some of the reasons that I think could have contributed:

1)People from different parts of Tamil Nadu come to Chennai due to IT expansion and hence its population drastically increased in the past few years
2) That lead to land scarcity for people to live so more lake and low level areas being converted to multi story apartments.
3) Concrete everywhere and no open space  for water to be absorbed by soil.
4) No proper drainage system to channelize water from reservoir during rainy season
5) People who dont follow any rules and corrupted government.
6)Every time when people violated rules they never realized it would come back to bite them.

This video is thought provoking :

I dont think we can fix all the damage already done. We have to just hope that the city gets back to the state where it was before. There are so many NGO's and other go fund me links https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=search&page=3&term=chennai+flood set up to donate money.

I have done my part please do contribute some money to help them if possible. Also there are many initiatives started but the various Tamil Sangam across US . Below are some of the initiatives to collect money for Tamil relief fund:
Austin : http://www.suvaiindiankitchen.com/ - Their website says "Dine with us and we Send 100% Proceeds For Chennai Food Relief Dec 6 Sunday, All day. & 25% discount on entire order".

Houston:  You can donate through Greater Houston Tamil school at their website http://houstontamilschools.org/ and donate through paypal

Bay Area Tamil Mandram : Bay area Tamil Manram is collecting funds through this paypal link  http://tinyurl.com/huxwkgz

Sacramanto Tamil Mandram : They are collecting money through this paypal link http://www.sactamil.org/jmain/index.php/tamil-nadu-flood

Las Vegas Tamil Mandram: You can donate through this link http://www.vegastamils.org/Home.aspx

Arizona Tamil Sangam : You can donate here http://www.azindia.com/donatefor.aspx?id=21610&donate=donate

It is so heartening to see so many Tamil organisations collecting money for this cause.Please check your local Tamil Organisation and help the people in need. Also if you know of more organisations please add it to the list.