A Word About the Somalis

Before we ever met our Somali friends, we wondered what they would be like.  What sort of food would they eat?  How clean would their house be? What would they wear? We've officially known them for several months now so I thought I'd write a brief post about what they are like.  This isn't meant to be critical or even a generalization of their entire culture.  This is just things that we've noticed since meeting them.  We are currently friends with three different groups of Somali refugees.  The first is an educated family that speaks decent English.  We still get stuck on certain words when talking but you can communicate with them on a fairly basic level.  From the little we know, both parents were educated and even taught their 5 children some English before coming here.
The second family has 8 children and came from the worst refugee camp in the whole world.  From the little we've gathered, they only had enough money to send their firstborn son to school so he is the only one that speaks any English besides basic greetings. They do not know the birthdays for any family members except for the last few children born.
The last person is a single young man who is probably 18-22 years of age.  His English is the best.  He currently works in a factory and is working on his GED.  We just met him so we know the least about him.

Both families are extremely hospitable.  Whenever you go over to their apartments, they immediately hand the kids glasses of juice or chocolate milk as well as biscuits, cookies or cups of pudding.  They give Aaron and myself tea, juice, bottles of water as well as whatever they happen to be cooking for dinner.  It can get kind of tricky because we usually try to visit both families in go since they live in the same apartment building.  This means that we go to the first house and get plied with all sorts of sugary treats (which are impossible to refuse because they don't ask if you want any before giving it to you) and then we visit the next family where this same kind of treatment is repeated.

As far as clothing goes, the women of both families always wear dresses and head covering.  They do not cover their face and their clothes are often colorful but they still adhere to a Muslim dress code.

Both families have served us what seemed to be the same sort of dish.  We've seen them eating it at other times so I guess it is traditional.  It starts with spaghetti noodles covered in a tomato sauce that might also have tiny bits of potatoes in it.  The sauce isn't thick like an Italian spaghetti sauce and it doesn't seem to have a ton of flavor.  They did serve us lamb ribs with it once and they were deliciously seasoned.  I could have eaten a whole plate of just the ribs.  They top the spaghetti with chopped bits of iceberg lettuce, chunks of banana and bits fresh of tomato.  I don't really understand the banana to be honest.

We know that both families are Muslim.  We are not sure of all the details of their faith.   A lot of the books and websites that we've read suggested that a lot of Somali Muslims are more of folk Muslims and combine traditional African spiritualism with Muslim beliefs.  I can't really speak to this as we have trouble communicating more philosophical concepts.

 One of the first things both families purchased once they found a job was a new tv.  The tvs always seem to be on though they are not necessarily always watching it.  We just about dying laughing the other day when we went to visit them because they started off watching soccer but by the time we left, they had switched over to professional wrestling.   Our kids were mesmerized and wouldn't stop staring at the screen.

They always seem to be cleaning their houses and in general things are quite tidy.  However, they seem to not understand how germs work.  The one time we used the bathroom, there was no soap in it at all but there were a lot of cleaning supplies for mopping the floor and such.

That is all I can think of off the top of my head.  If you do not have any ethnically diverse friends, please try and make some.  It is kind of hard where we live to find ethnic diversity but it is so worth it.  I want my children to know that not all people think, act or look just like us and that is ok.  While I really want these Somali friends to be saved, I also want to appreciate their culture and respect their heritage.

Going Green (Literally)

Lately, I've been trying to clean up my diet.  I usually eat pretty healthy anyways but I'm tired of not being able to find comfortable underwear for my pregnant body.  That was probably TMI, but sometimes you take the little things for granted.  Last night I tried something new for dinner and it worked surprising well so I thought I'd share.

As you probably know if you've been reading my blog, my husband luvs muffins.  Some days when I crave something sweet, I'll ask him if he would like some cake or cookies and he responds that he would prefer muffins.  Muffins are his love language.  Since we have them relatively often, I usually try to make a "healthier" versions.  I love the rich, sugary, bakery style muffins as much as the next person but I figure that I might as well be eating a donut.  Last night I got the crazy idea to throw some pureed spinach into the banana muffins and they turned out surprisingly well.  The kids chowed down on them and Aaron and I couldn't really taste the spinach.  Since they do have a fair amount of sugar and I'm trying to be healthy, I only had one.  Here is the recipe that I adapted from this blog.  

Banana-Spinach Muffins (If you're feeding them to a bunch of boys, just come up with a clever name like Alien Muffins or something)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of frozen, chopped spinach, at least somewhat thawed
• 3 medium-large bananas
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 egg 
• 1 t vanilla
• 1//3 c butter, melted or very soft
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• Optional mix-ins such as nuts, chocolate chips, craisins 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and either spray muffin tins or use liners

2. Put the spinach into a food processor or good quality blender and puree. 

3. Add banana and repeat. 

4. Add all of the wet ingredients and pulse until combined. 

5. Add the dry ingredients but try to mix until just combined. 

6. Fill muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

7. Watch your kids chow down and laugh because you know that they are stuffing their faces with spinach. 

In other news, I'm not a huge fan of graphic tees but I seriously want this t-shirt.  I do feel a little vain getting it for myself though.  

Two Free Things That I'm Digging

I thought I'd share with you 2 free internet finds that I'm currently enjoying.  I'm not getting paid or anything to write a review, I just happen to like them.

1. Regularly App.  When it comes to phone apps, I have....um, just one: Instagram.  I've thought about getting other apps but they all want too much info.  For instance, I want to get the Kroger app so I can check on my digital coupons when I'm shopping, but they want to know my location.  Seriously?  Why is it a necessity that they need to know my whereabouts at all times?  I guess I value my privacy too much.  However, I really suck at cleaning.  I can tidy up ok or even do the dishes at least once a day, but things like mopping, vacuuming, dusting, etc are lost arts in my house.  I decided to try and become more regular in my cleaning approach.  I've printed off paper copies of chore charts and made lists but they never seem to last long in my house.  They'll help me for a week at most and then I loose track of them.  I decided that it was time to upgrade and get a fancy schmancy phone app.  After looking at a couple, I chose the Regularly App.
Pros: I can set it to remind me to do whatever task I want at whatever intervals I choose.
I love to mark things off my list so I've actually been sticking to it for several weeks now.
I set tasks to do in the very distant future such as deep clean my closet only a few times a year.

Cons: For whatever reason, it doesn't organize my tasks based on the time that they need to be done.  For instance, the first item on the list might be wipe the glass due in 3 days and the third item on the list may be vacuum due yesterday.

If you stink at regularly cleaning but love to check things off of lists, this could be the app for you.

2.  Greetingsisland.com  Aaron's birthday is next week and to celebrate him turning really old, I decided to throw him a party.  I never, ever do invitations but I decided that I wanted to this year.  I searched the internet for free customizable invitations.  I looked at several different sites and this was the best one by far.  I ended up choosing these bicycle invitations since I felt that they fit my husband's personality best.

Get them here

You can change all the text, font, font color, and font placement except for the top part that says, "Birthday Party invitation."  You can either print them off for free at home or buy them from the company.  If you do choose to print them off for free, they will attach their logo to the invitation.  Fortunately, it is super tiny.  Here is the one I did and you can see how small it is.  

Here are some other super cute invitations and cards you can print for free.  

I love finding little handy things that make life easier, don't you?  Any good freebies you know about that I'm missing?