Mommy's guide to happy mornings

Have people ever doubted your parenting capabilities? I get it all the time and honestly I don’t mind it at all. I usually get tons of advice on how to raise my child, while I do listen to them, I do not guarantee to follow them. While I cannot claim to be best at the task, but I do try to give my best shot at it.

Just recently my interaction with another newbie parents got me some eye rolling and this made me wonder if I was really being tough on Smera. I mostly get in trouble for being a bit too strict with my daughter. But I believe toddlerhood is just the best time to learn all about discipline.

The newbie parents were appalled to hear that Smera’s sleep time on school days is 7pm. They felt it was an absolute injustice to the little one. I was asked questions like then when does she get time to play? My response to them was – “She perfectly manages to do everything a child needs to do before 7pm”. I might have sounded a little rude but this was the truth!

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Smera is a morning person, loves to get up at 6am (even on holidays). Her biological clock is tuned to it waking up early in the morning. Nothing is more special than seeing her get up with a smile every morning. The reason being she had a good night’s sleep – just a  simple logic. Morning’s are never a struggle with Smera and on most days she is extremely happy to be going to school. I never have to scold her to get out of bed.

As an infant too Smera had this habit of waking up real early, though I did have to put her into an early sleeping habit but that too wasn't a big task with her. And this good habit has helped her to settle into school routine. 

Smera leaves for school at 7am and unfortunately her school finishes at 3pm – a real long day. After school the little one loves to come back and unwind at home, colour a bit, play with her friends, dawdle around the kitchen to find her snack, have a bath, eat dinner and listen to stories just like any 4 year old child. The only difference might be that she skips her afternoon nap.

There is another reason why I chose early to bed routine for her that is because I have never been a morning person for most part of my life. My dad has had some real tough days to get me out of bed. Most days I have spent my time in classroom dreaming of sleep. And that is the reason why I want to put in good habits right from the beginning for her.

I have learnt from confirmed sources the ultimate mommy fact – most children are the happiest when they have slept well and their tummies are full.  As they grow up with they would need to focus more on studies and that’s when sleep will become even more crucial. Then why not practice good sleeping habits from the beginning itself.

Changing a habit a bit !!

It’s very difficult to change a habit overnight, especially when a habit makes you the person you are. For the past 2 weeks I have been on the line of fire with my family and when I start to reason it out with them, I end up sounding silly!

I haven’t been keeping well for the past few months and even after good 5 doses of antibiotics the problem would refuse to go away! I could have long come back home to either Delhi or Kochi for a second opinion instead of suffering for so long. However being the self-reliant person I am I didn’t want to bother anyone else. Now I know just as I wrote that line it sounded really Foolish!

Nonetheless there are blocks that we tend build these in our heads. We shouldn’t trouble anyone, try to manage everything ourselves as we stay so far away from family. I have always preferred to do things on my own particularly with an extremely busy husband who has just jumped into a new line of work. Who wouldn’t like an self-reliant wifey and daughter? Right!

Wrong! I over did it! This self-sufficiency habit has landed me into trouble when I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was given a choice to decide over my preferred home. So Delhi it was, I decided came down to my parents place. After a little procedure and day at the hospital, I am finally feeling better and have finally got a fit certificate too. Yay!

My habit made my mother and husband most angry. This thought process of not troubling anyone, solving my own problems is somewhere is influenced by them over the years. These two people never stop! Especially my mum she can be unwell but not a soul would know in the house. Somewhere secretly I imbibed that from my mum. My husband has always lived out of home and is the most independent person and so even somewhere even I become just like them.

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But what I tend to forgot is, we need to shout out for help when in need. It is only in times like these that you can fall back on your family and friends for help. I love to be there for everyone, but I must ask them for help too. That’s why it’s called a support system.

I have understood that, while I must also admit it is not easy for me to change. I am still struggling to get over the guilt of troubling others. I will try my best to speak to mind more often, stop feeling guilty about opening up to them.

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In all of mind over matter conflict I got to celebrate at home after 8 years, didn’t get to meet any of my besties but I tried to calling most of them, pouring out my woes whilst taking a dig at myself. I am feeling loved thanks to my support system and I promise to work on overcoming my weakness. 

Excuse my excuses!

Thanks to all the love that my virtual friends have been sending me. I am feeling much better, however as I promised, I am here to present all suggestions and recommendations received from all corners. Now let’s go over them one by one while I have fun taking a dig at some in the meanwhile.

1. Drink water: Of course, I didn't know of this one, drinking water way is best flush out any antioxidants. When it comes to UTI, one must drink more 4-8 liters of water.  Then eventually you would find me at the following place.

2. Considering that I am on high medicinal dosage the BP is quite low and I get to hear that, you must take more salt, it isn't like eating sugar. You can’t eat a spoonful of salt. I know you would you say ORS, but the question how much ???

3. Then it’s said to drink more water (refer1).  Avoid alcohol – I don’t drink unless I am with only certain reliable drunkards. Drink caffeinated drinks, like coffee so that I keep awake like an owl the entire and the BP dips again, thanks to lack of sleep.

4. Then Barley water is highly recommended in for UTI patients. The perfect solutions to that is Beer! Yes you heard me right, beer is made of barley, water and among other things. But then refer no. 3!

5. Drink orange and cranberry juice. I drink 2 glasses of fresh orange juice thank to my hubby’s exorbitant citrus press. But cranberry juice in excess gives severe acidic problem. While I am good girl, in taking cranberry tablets :D 

6. Eat healthy and balanced food! Of course I will if someone can come to cook up for me. Taking heavy doses of antibiotics leaves no taste in mouth and no energy either, and at this stage my cooking certainly is not helping my situation.

7. Try ayurveda medicines – If I don’t enjoy drinking alcohol for the reason it being slightly bitter, then how does yucky tasting kashayam go down my throat? 

Having said all that I know it’s out of love and affection everyone recommends different remedies. But sometimes saying nothing and just a cuddle helps a long way.

Staying positive amid a persistent bacteria

Continuing from where I left last time, I finally decided to make some me time for myself and yes it made a huge difference to me and to my habibi. Felt great as I sat down at the coffee shop and had de rigueur break from routine. While for the habibi turned out to be a rather expensive affair! As a dutiful wife I also indulged in shopping to give myself extra dose of contentment to please my humble soul.

The coming back home a friend of mine sent me an email, a usual chit chat after many months on the emails. We did our usual gossiping and then I am mentioned about my recurrent infection situation. To which she mentioned something that she read long back “life challenges us with the fact that everything can be done better.”

In our entire conversation this line left me with a  great impact, of course the shopping too had made me feel real good.

Just as was planned the UTI report came and confirmed it was yet again klebsiella pneumoniae. Now here’s the problem even after three courses of antibiotics this naughty bacteria has resisting, and these notorious Klebsiella organisms are often resistant to most antibiotics available.

So I thought to myself whining is not going to solve this Klebsiella problem. With a little pain and with lots of love I have been spot around the building grinning and sporting of my cannula. It’s day three now and still have a good possibility it might continue for another four more days but we’ll take it as it comes.

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Now good thing about being A+ blood group person is, that we naturally are a very positive set of people. And going around the hospital smiling and sweet talking to the administration staff has definitely gotten me some good discount :D

But there is another problem when you fall sick one gets advice from all corners, some might be good or bad but that has definitely given inspiration for my next post.

Cheers! 

Crazy May or Mee

I have been feeling de-motivated for the last few months. Blame on the weather, missing family, being unwell or having troublesome three year old toddler at home or even the fact this new place is yet to feel like home.  Every from 6am till 8pm feels like being on the the 9 o'clock newshour with Arnab Gosawmi adding a little diva twist getting bombarded with questions.  

Finally I have reached a stage, I feel desperate need for a break where there no sun, no extreme winters, beach, rain n NO FAMILY... does such place exist? Somebody suggested to go off to Utopia. Wonder where this place is?

Sometimes it feels, I am not good enough as a mum, wife and the career has gone for a complete toss. Laziness is slowly gripping me like a warm blanket. And the lets not forget about our peculiar gender problems PMSing. Apart from the normal womanly abnormalities, I also came down with UTI. The problem is not a big issue apart from the pain. But what is most irritating is everyone asking me to drink water and cranberry juice. If I seriously took everyone’s advice we might run short of drinking water in Muscat.

Leaving all that aside my parents we here for 10 days. Felt like a bliss! I have been away from home for little over 10 years now and I crave for them to stay with us. Credit really goes to my mother for making me fat, thanks to all moong dal halwa, namak paare, not to forget the other scrumptious food that I had been gobbling down. 

But then I thought to myself - we all have are fat days ... and  days like these I think about eating only salads.... There's another perspective on salad..

Eventually the moral of the story as my husband would conclude – “There are no solutions to my problems.” Actually there is Ice-cream but it goes straight to the BUM and then fat days will be back all over again.  

Mary and Martha made me feel really helpless tonight

Just finished watching a movie called Mary and Martha - watching the movie has made me feel really small in my own eyes.  Sometimes just surviving life is enough for some people and we are lucky to have good education, jobs, kids, happy families, bank balance, annual vacations and much more! There are some movies that are just meant to shake you up, get you out of this dream and that is what this movie has exactly aimed at doing.

The movie plot if you may ask is - The two women turn their grief into action, hoping to thwart the disease, which the World Health Organization estimates killed 660,000 people in 2010, most of them African children. The movie builds to a scene in which the women testify before a Congressional subcommittee. In the process, Mary and Martha come to realize that the losses experienced by two comfortable white Western households are atypical, and that the real impact of malaria is on parts of the world that few people in their circles know or care about. 

 

Image: Telegraph.co.uk

But what it meant to me is that, sitting and cribbing about the government would not help. We need to make little steps, in our lives to make our environment a better place. Each one can teach one, or you could sponsor somebody’s medical cost, fund a child’s education. Imagine if we all did just one good thing what a better place it would be.

As a ritual, we don’t celebrate in family my birthdays or other big occasion with grandeur, have lavish parties or expensive gifts. We give that money back to the community where it could be used more wisely. Even then I felt so small after watching this movie, leaving me with the feeling that I am not doing enough.  And so I urge you watch this movie, with your kids, spend sometime doing a little for your community. If nothing else it will surely give you peace in life, which is what we all are craving for in our lives.

 

Image: Mirror.co.uk

Don’t go looking to far, you can start from home – give lady who comes to clean a little extra money, give the watchman who guards your building some groceries, buying books the ironing lady’s children or just spend time at an orphanage or an old age home.

We can play a little part, let us not wait for the change to happen, let us make it happen!

Credits:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_and_Martha_(film)

Silly Saturdays: Toddler’s food for thought

Smera usually gets lecture from me when she says no to eating vegetables but last evening was a little different. The scenario was - Smera’s baby-sitter was giving her dinner when I overhear this conversation.

Smera: Aka you must eat lots of vegetables then you will become big and strong like me.

Aka: Ok Smera!

Mamma: (hearing her lecture) Smera would you like some more vegetables?

Smera: No mamma, you can give it to Aka, she needs to become big like me. I am already tall.

It’s not just Aka’s food she is concerned about. She also loves to talk to toys every now and then, telling about eating healthy, just as a mother would tell her kids.

That brings me to man-eating crocodiles, Smera has a crocodile and she love to feed him and this morning she brings the crocodile to her daddy and says, “Daddy, look what my crocodile ate?” and here’s a picture of that for you guys to see it for real.

Silly Saturdays: Turns out even good is not so good

For the last three years I have been on medication for hypothyroidism. One of the side effects of hypothyroidism is weight-gain among others.  And so from the day I was diagnosed with it, I have been religiously taking my medication just as the doctor ordered. Not only that, I even started regular workouts scared of putting on weight.

Once every three months I am due for a routine check up. The fact is that I have always had problems maintaining good habits and routines. I was really looking to hear good response on my recent visit to the doctor, the doctor reads the reports he asks me the following questions.

Doctor: Ms Sangeeta what is the dosage you are taking?

Me: Doc thyroxin 50.

Doctor: You seem to be really regular with your meds?

Me: (Grinning in my head) Yes doc, I don’t even miss a day.

Doctor: Then I would recommend you to skip any one day of the week, since your report is slight bordering towards hyperthyroidism.

I was thinking that he is going to commend me on the great job that I have been upto, while it turned out that I got into trouble for a being so consistent. Feeling silly ! 

Perspirer turns Inspirer !

I think every person is blessed to do something great, it’s upon us find what our goal would be. I love to find inspiration in everyday life. That’s the time when I look around myself, for people who are central in my life to seek inspiration. That’s what keeps me going! It can be rather difficult to search for optimism especially when the chips are down.

I have been feeling extremely lazy for the last few weeks. Blame it on the weather turning it’s course or just me. I have been shying from the gym, blogging or anything social for that matter. All I want is to sleep! With this on my mind, today I am going to write about a dear friend who is my current inspiration.

We go back really long. Childhood buddies, studied together from 2^nd grade in the same class. Though I moved to different, school, cities and countries but none of that changed our friendship. Anika or meri wala Mickey as I love to call her has really inspired me this week. She currently lives in Hyderabad, miles away from Dubai and we have not even spoken for good 5-6 months. Even then she has inspired my lethargic soul this week.

Instructor @ Zumba Fitness with Anika 

My bestie used work in the journalism field but now she has chosen to move away that and follow her passion Zumba.  With some rigorous training and driven by her enthusiasm, she is now a certified Zumba fitness instructor. She takes Zumba classes along with some freelance editing work. 

What makes the story really special is that Anika and I have struggled with our weight since childhood days. While the problem for her was a little heavier than mine. I have always seen her wanting to look slimmer in life, forgetting the fact she was prettier than all of us. As life got busy she found no time to take care of herself and she became a bit chubbier for her liking.

Everyone including her parents, siblings, and friends would ask her to lose weight, but none of them understood one thing that it was not as easy as saying. To be frank no one can understand how difficult it is getting started until they are themselves in that situation. Once you get the start, it’s more challenging to keep the momentum going on.

And then came time when all girls want to be in love and get married, the weight and long working hours would become a big issue. That’s when even with a super-hectic schedule she decided to push herself for walks and gym. Her dedication to challenge herself and her working schedule, made her achieve in goal. She got married to a wonderful man, who accepts her just as she is and encourages her to choose the healthier life.

Basking in her found love with her hubby Nikhil, she is dancing her way into a fitter and happier life and inspiring lazy souls like me sitting miles away in a coffee shop. 

Do show some love and visit Anika's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ZumbaFitnessWithAnika

For those reading in Hyderabad please do try a free demo class! 

Piping HOat !!

It’s no secret that feeding toddlers and infants is the biggest task ever. Yet I feel, mine is a little ahead of other’s in her age group. If she decides not to eat a thing, then there is no way that you can convince her to open her mouth. She won’t even cry, knowing for a fact that food will be shoved into her mouth.

Look, no one told us parenthood would be easy. I know that. But then I didn't know, that making your child eat would be such a colossal task. There is no infant handbook that could give you solution to how make your child open her mouth. And then to top it up every child is different.

So when Smera out-grew her fruity and vegetable purée stage and Oats came to my rescue. I think, Oats are the best food invented ever in the short history of mankind and in my motherhood expedition. When I introduced Smera to this super easy and magical food, she was instantly hooked on to it. She likes her's with milk and a dash of sugar or even the soupy style.

Image courtesy:  eatwellnz.co.nz 

My motherly dilemma is that, I am trying to encourage to Smera to try different things but then she just cannot have enough of Oats. She might soon reach a stage, where she would get fed up of it and then life won’t as easy as it is now. For now I am thrilled that I don’t have think really hard on what to make the next morning. Not to mention they also double-up as absolute life-saver when we are travelling.

It’s also, in surprising ways a healthy comfort food (now that’s an oxymoron) – try a bowl with a pinch of salt when you’re down with flu or cold. And lastly I have mastered the art of cooking them in the microwave, isn’t that the best part to cook and serve all in the same bowl.

To feed my curiosity I searched the net for the origin of oats, and it seems it has been around for eternity. But what was surprising to read, it was only at the fag end of 90’s Oats started gaining its popularity after FDA in US published a report confirming - Oats help in reducing heart-related problems. That’s the problem, what starts in US soon rolls over the rest of the world-wide.

What is amazing is that even in smaller towns back in India have been adopted as Oats as a healthier breakfast option. I occasionally allow myself to get into the conspiracy theory mode. What if the health benefits of Oats is all propaganda? Would the next generation know what it is to have our own local breakfast dishes? Will oats and corn flakes annihilate Dosa and Idli from the breakfast table?

Only time will tell and maybe our palettes will get used to the tastes of Oats chappati, Oats cutlet, Oats dosa, Oats idli, Oats upma, Oats uttapam or even Oats dhokla. Maybe be soon you will see it being served at the desi food joints – HOat Idlis from Saravana Bhawan, I can’t wait J

Silly Saturdays: A secret recipe

Kuku, my little cousin sister is a kindly, helpful child. Even after all the pressures of being a full-time engineering student, she still finds time to help her mom, who in turn, skillfully juggles her day job and bringing up two kids on her own.

Okay, back to Kuku now. On my recent trip home, she told me about her newly invented recipe, Arabic Tea. I was not surprised. I knew she always had the scientific inclination and with her spending time in the kitchen helping mom, the invention could have only been a pleasant side-effect.  

On a shivering wintery morning, Kukku was busy studying for her exams at home. That’s when Rani didi, the part-time-help, came home to help out with the chores.  Seeing Rani-di doing the dishes with a splitting head-ache, Kuku offered to make her a cup of hot tea.

As you would expect from a person with a big heart, Kuku decided to make the concoction, a little special. She took out some ginger from the fridge and started to peel of the skin but was unsure of how much of it to be used to make the tea, special. Now, Kuku may be an engineer-in-the-making and a bit weak in the tea-making department – she isn’t however ashamed of asking for some advice and sought Rani-di’s help.

What happened next is straight out of a Tamil movie. Rani-di stormed out of the kitchen calling “Aiyo Kadavale!” (Oh my god). The next line was even more melodramatic “Are you trying to kill me!!”

It did not take long for Kuku to figure out something was wrong. She took another look at the irregular-shaped rootstock – Aiyo Kadavale indeed; it was not ginger but a piece of Arbi (Colocasia in English) though with a striking resemblance to the former. The trouble with Colocasia is that it can cause severe itch (just like a Yam) when it is uncooked and exposed to skin. Far from the tangy taste that was meant to be infused from the freshly shaved pieces of ginger root.

With the timely intervention and a bit of Kadavul grace, Rani escaped the itchy throat on top of a splitting headache. With a good laugh and a strong tea (no ginger this time), she was cured of that nasty headache. 

For the curious, here is the recipe (world-wide patent pending: Kuku )

2 cup                          water

2 tablespoons            Indian black tea

1 cup                          milk

2 tablespoons           sugar

1 inch                        Arbi or Colocasia , freshly shaved

Warning: Try this at your own risk – neither author nor the inventor takes any responsibility for the severe itching in the throat that it is bound to last for a couple of hours. Text book remedies for the itching induced by this special recipe include coconut oil or butter milk……or simply avoid it in the first place! 

Yogathon 2012 - My update !!

I am ecstatic as I write this post updating about my big day – Yogathon 2012. This is officially my first attempt at anything that involves a long-drawn-out training.

The task was 108 surya namaskar or sun salutations in an event organized by Fitness First Middle East to raise funds for Dubai Autism Centre. My guess was that I could comfortably do 50 sun salutations, but I was determined to give it my all.

As it turns out I managed 95.5 of those successfully and 0.5% of the routine I skipped in tying up my hair. Just 5 months of irregular yoga training have helped me supersede my expectations and that too for a good cause! 

 Even more pleasing was how little my inflexible husband managed to do and that towards the end he resorted to something that he always does when I am winning – running away! I meant literally around the park.

I am signing out with some pictures from today’s event.

The venue - Burj Park behind Dubai mall fountains

The team leading the Yogathon

The organiser and founder of Yogathon - Peewee Sanchez and my instructor too!! 

The very-kind and my favourite - Marcellene!

And toughest my toughest instructor - Bhama 

Yoga anyone ?

It’s done and now there is no looking. In a moment of enthusiasm I went ahead and registered myself for the Yogathon happening next week here in Dubai. For the last three months I have been thoroughly enjoying the yoga classes at the gym. So when I learned about the yogathon I was extremely excited to put my months of hard work to test.

Now here is the catch – 108 sun salutations are what I have registered for and any money raised from this would be donated to the Dubai Autism Centre. Now my trouble is I am not even sure if I can even reach the half-way mark in the challenge.

However I landed myself with yet another brilliant idea. If I am going to pass away doing this, then I am going to take my husband down too. I wonder if my very athletic hubby and his non-existent flexibility might not even get him 10 rounds.

Just as I was registering his name for the yogathon, I was reminded of our wedding vows, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, in bakasana and in surya namaskar.

In case if your in Dubai and have a little spare time for a good cause, do join us at on 12 October 2012. 

I am back !!

Just incase if you were wondering where Sangrywords has been for over a month, well then I have come back to the blogosphere unfortunately with nothing really exciting this time to tell. My family has been playing pass on parcel with viral flu. For over a month and boy it has been absolutely tiring. 

It’s different when you are sick and miss your mum, but what would you when you are the mum and your little one is sick. Little over a month back, Smera started pre-school and just like most kids, she too fell sick with this change in her routine. 

All was well when she recovered in a week, but then duhddudy aka daddy fell sick, the little girl who was well recovering from the flu fell ill again. And yes not to forget the mamma and then back baby again for another 2 weeks.

While this month had been plagued with the flu but it was just as bad as it sounds there were few highlights too:

• Smera started her play-school  and made her first painting in school
• My mum us visited twice this month and each time she cooked us a sumptuous meal and some more to last a week
• We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a wonderful weekend getaway to Hatta ( a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city)
• And we got the first complaint from Smera’s school for excessive use of the word daddy which reminded other kids of their dads and made them cry!

Image courtesy: Fotolia 

A dose of Mom's love as a flu medication?

Down with flu and trying to catch some sleep, I kept looking up at the ceiling all night, thinking about one person - My mother. Why is that we miss our mothers more when we are down and out? Isn't it just amazing how better you feel just by the very thought not to mention their physical presence. Last night I wished I could be in her company, running her fingers through my hair and comforting me with her magic words, she has this astonishing ability to make me feel good.  Not that yesterday was a particularly bad day - what is a wee bit of flu in life's overall scheme of things and yet I wanted to be at home with her.

I think Moms as mood-lifters are one of the life's greatest yet often undervalued pleasures.  She has made my worst days into joyful moments by sitting beside me listening to my rants without letting me ever feel silly. There is nothing to beat 'mom-made' when it comes to comfort foods - the taste of her Aloo-ka-paratha with generous helping of butter and Rajma-Chawal still lingers on my taste buds. And yes, the Hot Rasam with Pappadom used to be just the perfect cure for the cold wintery evenings in Delhi. See, you can't really blame me for craving her company.

From a willing listener to the word's greatest cook, my mummy thoughts then drifted on to an uncharted territory - spirituality. My mother’s life has always been infused with an element of spirituality which she tried her best to instill in a care-free daughter. Like any other teenage-rebel, I never paid much attention to this during that time but have since come around acknowledging the importance of it. The power to forget things and forgive people, that most problems could only be solved with a clear head, to be god-fearing and that karma is knowing that every action of mine will have an impact on my life.

I know I have not been the best daughter she could have asked for, letting her down every now and then. But I also know, now that I am mother to Smera, the role she played in my life. True it took me an occasional flu and a bout of home-sickness to reflect on some of these things. But hey, maybe that's the point.

Sunny side up

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. And if you ask my Mom, she would say Sunlight is the best detergent, referring to the world’s first branded laundry soap. But this post is about the real thing, not the detergent variety.

Sun has a special place in Asian culture. Some of us see it as God, Sun is at the core of feng shui and vasthu techniques, we have a land of rising sun in here and even have an yoga exercise routine named after the Sun – Surya Namaskar.

Yet we as Asians, yours truly included, has overtime developed a pathological aversion to sunlight. We give all kind of excuses to get away from the sun – tanning, sun-burns, allergy, headaches and the list goes on.

It turns out that even in the sunny Dubai, ‘photophobia’ is prevalent. I was recently at the Doctors for routine check up and it so happens that my Vitamin D levels were less than adequate.  The only consolation was that I am not the only one, she reckons half of Dubai needs to go out in the sun more often – the only natural source of Vitamin D.

Deficiency of the Sunshine Vitamin at the very least could give you occasional moods swings or depression and at its worst can cause horrible things like diabetes and cancer. And for most part this can be cured by being in the sun for a reasonable amount of time.

In today’s ‘car to carpet’ culture it is so easy to skip the sun.  But we are missing more than outdoor fun when we choose the call of the mall over the time in the sun. As Sheryl Crow once sang, I'm gonna soak up the sun while it's still free……