Monday, May 16, 2011

Mexican Food, Food, FOOD!!! ;) (3 dishes you are sure to enjoy)

BismiAllah

so here are three recipess. I'm a bit backed up on blogging. I will catch up InshaAllah.

In the meantime enjoy these recipees.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How 0.79 cents reminded me of my child's worth

BismiAllah

Asalaamu alaikum waramatulahi wabarakatu

welcome to this post.

I know, I know..... 79 cents?!?! Really? Some may say incredulously.

It's not that she is worth 79 cents but what it represents to me, to her.

She has a bag of change. She is very proud of her ability to count and start adding up and subtracting money. There is very few coins in this bag and we were at the Dollar store getting paint for her, hair pieces, bubbles, and Drano for the bathroom sink.

She was very enthusiastic and wanting to pay at check out. I , unfortunately; had NO CASH on me to slip into her bag to give her the satisfaction of doing so. Therefore, I hemmed and hawed trying to distract her and explain to her that I would pay. A lady stood next to us at check out.

Mind you yesterday was a gorgeous day 68 degrees, well today...it was 90! I was standing there in a black Caftan (it's VERY light and flowey) and hijab. The lady next to me gave me a look, the once over so to speak. I smiled. Evelyn persisted on talking about her love of her coins and the fact that she wanted to pay, the lady smiled at her.

I started pulling out my debit card to pay. Meanwhilee the lady next to me as well seeked a means of payment; and dropped some money (coins) in the process. Neither she, nor I, realized it; but my little Miss did. She scurried over there to pick up the coins.

She then proceeded to look at the lady and said "excuse me, here", and tried to put it in her purse (lol bad habit, she needs to stay out my purse shoot!)

The lady was taken aback and smiled and said oh no honey. My little monkey replied "it's your money, you dropped it, here" I turned to catch the back end of this, hot, annoyed, and ready for air conditioning, a bath or both. I realized what was going on and the lady looked at me, and smiled and said "good job mom" and she then looked at my monkey and said how much is it? Seventy nine cents, you can keep it.

"No, it's yours" (Tries to stick hand in nice ladies purse again!! LOL) "you dropped it, it's not my money I have mines"

The lady said you can have it honey. I just stood there...so proud.

The sweltering heat momentarily forgotten, as I thought of ways to praise her. She made me so proud on SO many levels, yes it was "only" 79 cents but it was her honesty, child innocence, and just ya' know it's Great dawah. Here is not only a child behaving, but one who obviously likes money, wants to have some more of it, returns it and belongs to "One of those Mozlems"

I continued to go get quarters, however I no longer intended to wash clothes that morning. Our plans had been changed. It was sunny, warm, we needed lunch and I had a baby who needed a lot of praise, recognition, and a reward. We ended up at the park having  a picnic, painting sun catchers


 and letting her be six.


In the car I reinforced it all by bringing it up and reminding her to be a good person and a great Muslim is to be trust worthy and honest. I stressed how very proud I was and how she made me smile.



Monday, May 9, 2011

wasting time driving or bonding, fun, learning time? You choose!

BismiAllah

Asalaamu alaikum waramatulahi wabarakatu.

Yesterday little Miss "I know" and myself went to visit a friend who was traveling as well as a newly married sister/friend who moved down to Illinois from Greenbay WI. This meant we were in the car.....and a LOT of it since Ummi has NO sense of direction what-so ever! I was a bit lost! lol

Okay more than a bit...AlhamduliAllah.

Anyhow, We decided to play the "Islamic Trivia" game. It might exist out there, but in my head I made it up ;)

Basically we are both babies in the Deen and since in homeschooling we are learning about the Prophets, I decided to do review while we drove.



I asked her questions like

"How many god's are there in Islam?"

 "Which prophet built an Arc?"

"How many times a day are Muslims supposed to pray?"

"Which Prophet and his Mother were not touched by Shaitan?"

"Who was the First Prophet?"

Than she quizzed me with a few questions ;)

It was actually passing the time quickly, great for review and she enjoyed "playing a game" and of course saying she knew the answer ;)

All in all, we had a beautiful day, great food and two wonderful visits in between our Islamic trivia 'car schooling' game ;)

What games, ideas, or things do you do to improvise with your child(ren)?

What do you do when you encounter a "glitch" in your homeschooling time or lack of creativity?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Loosing "water weight" and water pills review

I have officialy aged! AlhamduliAllah, I am at a peaceful place in life, but I am also aging which means my metabolism has officially slowed down, which = extra weight. Add that to a sedentary lifestyle, eating, somewaht newly married, and being Muslim, which we all know = events which in turn = food!! ;)

I have officially put on 18 pounds! I am 140 pounds *Gasp* 0_o

 That doesn't sound like much, but that in addition to the already 15 pounds from my twenties it's something I need to snap to attention with. From ages 17- 23 I was skinny, too skinny, way too skinny, toppling in on a "fat day" at 103 pounds, so the 15 pounds of weight gain was cool, hello curves ;)

Than I got married (July 11th,  2010) and after Ramadan Winter began, more eating, baking, frying, snacking. Fast forward to April 15th and I had put on 18 pounds in 9 months!! Our bodies are a trust to us so I began parking further, doing squats, and realized that overeating is haraam.Therefore I tried, key word is tried hard not too, and managed to fluctuate between 138-140. Not much progress there o_0

AlhamduliAllah.

I bought these water pills (Diurex Ultra) that actually work. Now by work I mean they do suck up some of the water weight. The problem is our bodies are made up of, and need water.  I am down 7 days later, 4 pounds. I am 136

Let's look at this though, I did see some weight loss, but I also saw the bathroom, and a LOT of it! Being a water pill, it sucks excess water up out of you so you have to drink more water as to not dehydrate, which = more restroom breaks. Not only that but in the process of "sucking up" the excess water, it has to come out, so to the bladder it goes. The cons aren't too bad though. The restroom is a place we all have to see ;) However, it's not a quick fix pill but if you need motivation it helps to see some results which in turn may influence you to walk/suat, run more. All in all, if you have to loose 2-4 pounds quick, use the pills, but you WILL gain it back since it is ONLY a water pill. The trick is to eat less, walk more, do some squats, push ups maybe and if you must use the pills.

We won!!

I meant to post this last night, but frankly, I was way too tired.

A while back the Mosque in Rockford started planning a get together/event for women and their daughters and the lovely sisters let me know know about it, I promised I would try my best to go. They are on a commitee of Dawah, DOOR, is what their Dawah is called. Anyhow, they try and do something each weekend with community work, shahadah stories, rummage sales, and so on and so forth. They picked the date but unfortunatly couldn't get that date but were able to find a day where they could use the gym for May 7th, 2011.

They started promoting, I would definetly be there since my husband and I were going =)

The event was beautiful MashaAllah.

It was a formal, dress up, Mother & Daughter Only; dinner event. All the women, from tiniest to most full of wisdom from the passage of years, was dressed up MashaAllah. No cameras were allowed, and even if they were I'm not exactly posting pictures ;)

They had a little "Fashion show", a play, a wonderful multicultural meal, games, and prizes.
The dinner was Italian, Puerto Rican, Arab and American food. YUMMY! There was many different things to eat I "tasted" ;) most of them. They had water, coffee, and soda (pop)

There was a wonderful mostacholli, Puerto Rican rice and habichuelas, Salad, some Arab dish I forgot the name of? It consisted of almonds or something, rice, and I believe meat? Either way, it was good. There was some "Crab salad" I didn't touch it....I'm sure it was good to those who ate it. Holly don't likey sea food ;) There were eggs and they went with the theme of all things girly, they were pink! ;) (Food coloring does wonders)

There were fruits, cucumbers, veggie trays, and CUPCAKES.

They started the mother and daughter trivia. The game consisted of mothers and daughters facing in opposite directions with a dry erase board. The young lady in charge of the questions would ask one question about mom, and then one about daughter. We each had to write our answer down on our board and show the audience. It was funny, and fun!!

This is the game at which we won! Some of the questions were too easy (what is your daughter's favorite color?) and others were a bit more challenging like, what is your daughter's favorite store? (I actually knew that one since my girl make no qualms about letting me know everytime she sees a TJ Max ;)

She managed to answer my favorite color, food, store etc. :)

It was pretty neat. One of the teens was laughing and said "I think she is a spy and spies on you". A few of the moms were amazed, I just smiled, it really was just simple since we had actually just talked about some of that in the audience and we homeschool. That means even when we are "Not schooling" she is 8 times out of ten with me at the store, the park, events, driving, at home. You learn a lot like this.

It made me smile, because next to Islamic trivia, which we JUST started a few days ago; now I have a new game we can play together.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

♥My husband♥

I generally don't thank him enough, definitely not online!


There are many, many reasons for this; and even more excuses. Basically we shouldn't over praise people, nor make others hurt by what they don't have. However, this is a gratitude type of post and not meant as either. In 9 months of being with him, he has cooked either side by side with me or for me a few times. I know not to brag....
However, I just must say how proud I am of him. He is very patient with me even when I get out of pocket, or just say crazy things from my "opinion". He works very hard, even when they don't give him enough hours at work, to ensure that we have groceries and the basics. He even makes sure the internet bill is paid. Now, lets not be trifiling, the internet is NOT a necessity *gasp!* say what?!? Yeah, I know, who would have know? Crazy huh? ;)


He is sweet, appreciative, and compliments me on what I do, even if I don't do much of anything sometimes.
However these are the little simple things that add up my appreciation for him. Religiously? Well I definitely "married UP" in THAT department AlhamduliAllah!! =)


He is definitely a practicing brother inside, outside, working, at home, online, and with family and friends. Always the same person, no fronting MashaAllah. He runs homeschooling tips, and ideas by me and encourages me when I'm down.


Reminds me of
The Prophet* said:
-Quran 31:20
Qur'an 30:21"O Mankind, be conscious of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate (of the same kind) and from them twain has spread a multitude of men and women."
"For Muslim men and women - for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in God's praise - for them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward."

They are your garments and Ye are their garments
.


The most perfect believers are the best in conduct and the best of you are those who are best to their wives.
"...then strive together (as in a race) towards all that is good."

Monday, May 2, 2011

I've been doing some self evaluation.....

I have to share this. All you "Real" mommies and sisters who don't fake perfection, will get it.

I havn't been too proud of myself lately. I have not been as organized, clean, and accomplished as I want to be. Islamic studies....slacking as well.

 Homeschooling...AlhamduliAllah we are doing good in that area.

Facebook, cell phone, great in that area as well :(

I knew I needed an improvement, but ignored that voice, you know which one...the voice of reason, yeah ignored her, just fed her more crap food and more facebooking.

The other day I couldn't remember one of the 2 duas that I actually know in Arabic. That was a cold slap to the face. One thing is not learn new stuff, another is to not focus on learning and even forget what little bit you do know, SubhanaAllah.

I decided to make salat and ask Allah to open up my brain to learn easier and practice what I learn. I also decided I needed to take a facebook, game, and myspace break. I than remembered something I had heard a few months ago.......

"It was once said to ‘Abdullah b. Al-Mubârak, “After you have prayed with us you don’t sit with us?”

He replied, “I go and sit with the Sahâbah and the Tâbi’în.”

We said,

“And how can you sit with the Sahâbah and Tâbi’în (when they have all passed away)?”

He replied, “I go and read the knowledge I have collected, I find their narrations and deeds. What would I do with you? You sit around backbiting people.”

That is so deep!! I actually like this a lot. I'm not generally a fan of "harshness" but sometimes you just gotta keep it real. Especially with ourselves. I've been doing a lot of self evaluation and determined I need to focus more on my Deen and myself.

Please makes Duas for me that I not only learn but practice what I learn.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Sooooo

Still trying to get Evelyn to love worksheets ;)

Not really, she, and I both prefer a more hands on approach. That said there are a lot of improvements going on in the homeschooling world. There are many new sites with free things to print, use, and many ideas to be had. I'm excitted!

On a more positive note I have recently been finding MANY homeschooling Muslimahs online! =)