Summer 2013 activities to do in Portland

Iris flower festival - may 10th to june9th

http://www.schreinersgardens.com/bloom-season-may-10-june-9-2013

Picking season details 

http://www.tricountyfarm.org/files/2012guide.pdf

http://www.tricountyfarm.org/

http://www.sauvieislandfarms.com/

Strawberry picking may end

http://whiz.to/~ungerwp/

Berry picking - late june

http://www.westuniongardens.com/

Rose festival - june 1st week

http://www.rosefestival.org/

Sand Castle - Cannon beach fest - June 14 to 16th

http://www.seasideor.com/item.asp?iid=19&eid=175

Balloon Festival and carnival - June 21st to 23rd

http://www.tigardballoon.org/

Kite Festival - Lincoln city June 22nd- 23rd

http://www.oregoncoast.org/summer-kite-festival/

1st week of  july - fruit loop

cherry picking

blue berry picking

lavendar festival

Sand in the city - July 19 to 21st

http://sandinthecitypdx.org/

August - 

Dhalia Festival

Sept - Sept

Grape stompping

http://wvv.com/

Host : Soumya Reddy

Members Attended :  Soumya Prakash, Shaifali, Nisha, Prajakta, Bakul  

Guest :Ruchi

First of all, thank you folks for making it on time early in the morning.

I would also like to thank Ruchi for joining us this time.

The topic of the day was  "How to manage stress".

With my son going from full time to half day school, his activities,

getting back to my volunteering and gym activity; things looked very chaotic to me.

I felt wondering what is keeping me so busy that I am not able to feel good about myself

and/or keep my house organised. The more I thought about it, the more I was stressed.

This was the time after Hema and Trupti  moved out of here and I didn't start play-dates

with other friends. Not having a play-date can be very hard on us, let alone the kids.

They were much more than a play-date for us. But I am sure all of us move on somehow.

All of you gave that kind of support to deal with that kind of stress. Each one of you had

your own approach to the issues I was dealing with. Doing one thing at a time, informing

the spouse that you are stressed out, taking things a little easy when you don't feel like it,

not comparing myself with other friends. The assurance that you are all available when I

need someone is very valuable. I didn't get a chance to inform all of you that my husband

was pleasantly surprised/very happy when he got back because the house was perfectly clean.

Yes I gave up my TV time for that day to do that. 

I would like to add my tips to reduce stress:

Selfcare. Now this can mean a lot of things.

I wanted to start a game day every month where we can play some board games

or card games. I would like to solicit all your inputs on this.

March PS Meeting

March meeting was held at Shaifali's place.
People who attended were-
Ashwini, Sowmya P, Soumya R, Prajakta and Nisha.
Missing:
Supraja and Bakul

The topic of discussion was how strong should a woman be in stressful situations?
I invite all PS members who attended the meeting to pen down their reflections from the meeting in the blog to give this topic justice.
The next topic of "Stress" which will be taken at Soumya's house today is generated by this meeting.
We also had our PS members dinner at Wasabi. I hope it was a nice evening out for everyone.:) Prajakta did mention the issue of PS members getting late at PS meetings, which I hope will be taken into consideration for all future meetings. The general duration of any PS meeting is-
half an hour- warming up, people coming
next half an hour -discussion starts
next half an hour- snacks start along with discussion or activity.
Usually, the duration is of 1 n a half hours or maximum 2 hours.:)

Ashwini has taken a break and will be joining soon with little Ashwini:) Supraja gave birth to her second child in February too!

Possible topics for future meetings-
Family get together
Outside outings in Summer
New members
Saadi styling

Hope you all have a great Spring period!
Shaifali

Feburary 2013 : Get together

Shaheli's who attended : Ashwini , Bakul ,  Nisha, Soumya R, Shaifali 

Venue : Nisha's House

Date   : February 2th 2013

Agenda : Preparing for summer gardening 

Shaheli's started the new year with a new agenda to include some new activities apart from regular shaheli meetings. 

Activities  Suggested : Movie nights , trying new restaurants, bowling , summer nursery visits. 

As the spring was almost here gardening was the topic of choice. 

Tips Shared :

  Best Crops to plant in container gardens

  Veggie : Lettuce,Spinach , Tomato , Blueberry , Cucumbers,Coriander , Fenugreek

    Soil to use : Miracle grow

It was decided that we  will inform each other when to start gardening for the coming season.Shaifali is who is hosting the next meeting.Thank you all shahelis for coming and i thoroughly enjoyed having you all over at my place .

Keeping extended family always present in our lives

We just had a class where we were discussing how people can keep extended families alive and real in kids lives...and one of the things that came up...which I really liked was telling stories. We all talk about our families in the house, but I wonder how may of us use stories as much as we could in our lives?

Since my inlaws were here last year, we introduced them to all our friends...and now they have become a part of our conversations so much. My inlaws tell us about all the family and stories about what is going on with them. And we tell them about all our friends and all the things that we do with them and things that are happening with them. And that not only gives us common things to talk about, it also tells us that each other is well and is being taken care of even if we are not there to do it ourselves. And when I have kids, it is all these stories that I will remember to tell them about their grandparents. And I have noticed that the more stories we tell about other people, the easier we find to tell them.

Think about our PS meetings, we tell so many stories about ourselves, about each other, etc during our meetings! I wonder if the sahelis have any suggestions on how we can do this more in our lives. In order to keep a little bit of home alive in this alien land.

Ashwini

Portland Saheli Second Anniversary Celebration

Date : Dec 17
Venue : Supraja's house
Members present : Ashwini, Amaravati, Bakul, Hema, Himani, Lekha, Meera, Nisha, Shaifali, Soumya R, Sowmya, Trupti

As December marked the end of year 2011..Portland Saheli celebrated its new milestone into the 3rd year. This indeed needed a celebration as every month a Saheli hosting a meeting in their sweet homes and bringing a new friend into the group every meeting brought fresh ideas like book discussion, exchange of views on various issues and current affairs,here and back home. At the end of every meeting every Saheli left home with a smile looking forward for the next meeting.

It was such a pleasure to host this annual event and I thank each and everyone of you Ashwini, Amaravati, Bakul, Hema, Himani, Lekha, Meera, Nisha, Shaifali, Soumya R, Sowmya, Trupti for gracing the occasion in your gorgeous sarees.

The meeting started with warm greeting to the new member Soumya and as we introduced the members, we rejoiced the moments of how we got into the PS and had fun playing games that brought out some amazing sketching skills and the sense of humor in everyone.

We cheered for the Portland Saheli as the newest members cut the cake and decided that we should have a family meet as well to share the fun with family and as well as to get acquainted.

I am sure it is going to be a spectacular year ahead for PS as it is taking up new dimensions with lots of new and enthusiastic members full of novel ideas and the commitment to implement them as well.

January 2012 : Get together

Shaheli's who attended :
 Amravati , Ashwini , Bakul , Hema , Himani , Lekha , Nisha, Supraja, Soumya R, Shefali , Trupti

Venue : Nisha's House

Date   : Januray 10th 2012
Agenda :  Learn a new healthy recipe 

Shaheli's started the new year with a new agenda to learn from each other. And all we took the first step in that direction by learning a  healthy and tasty soup recipe , which was perfect for the winter season. Supraja graciously accepted to share her very popular cream of broccoli soup with the group. She also showed us the step by step procedure and we all got to enjoy the soup .Thank You Supraja for a wonderful recipe.

Cream Of Broccoli Soup


Broccoli - 2 heads , florets separated and washed
Onion - 1/2 of big one , chopped
Green Chili - 1, slit
Ginger - 1 inch , sliced into half
Wheat Flour - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 1/2 tbsp

1. Melt the butter in a deep a sauce pan and add onion.
2. Mix well and let onion turns translucent and add broccoli .
3. Saute for few minutes and add the wheat flour.
4. Mix well and cook for another few minutes.
5. Add 1 cup of milk , chili and ginger .
6. Cook till the broccoli turns just fork tender.
7. Allow the mixture to  cool enough to handle .
8. Fish out chili and ginger pieces and then  puree.
9. Add the rest of milk and water to the puree .
10. Simmer the puree for another 2- 3 minutes   .
11. Add salt and pepper mix well and your soup is ready to serve.

Bakul who is hosting the next meeting will be teaching us yoga and pranayama. Ashwini will be sharing with us some information about the yoga and its effect on human psychology. Soumya is also interested in yoga and is willing to do some group sessions for interested shahelis.Many of us are interested in food and nutrition related topics so we all agreed to share any interesting read online or printed with each other .


Thank you all shahelis for coming and i thoroughly enjoyed having you all over at my place and specially hosting the cooking lessons.