What a Joke :-)

The Feds are apparently recommending that the Islamic Saudi Academy be closed down.  They’re obviously being treated like they are guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Ridiculous? Pathetic? Down right hilarious? Am I surprised? Not in the least.

“A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends.

…

The commission does not offer specific criticism of the academy’s teachings beyond its concerns that it too closely mimics a typical Saudi education

…

“There is nothing in our curriculum against any religion,” Al-Shabnan said.

He also said he is willing to show the school’s curriculum and textbooks to anybody who wants to see them, and he expressed disappointment that the commission did not request materials directly from the school.

“We have an open policy,” he said.

He also pointed out that many of the school’s teachers are Christian and Jewish.”

Frogs

Here’s something I did w/ my son today.  He seemed like he needed something to do 

 Frog pics
http://www.leslietaylor.net/gallery/animals/frogs.htm

Matching-Frogs Game:
http://gergana1.dir.bg/animals/frogmania.htm

Frog cartoons:
1) http://youtube.com/watch?v=NP7TDxP0_Zw&mode=related&search=

2) http://youtube.com/watch?v=H6EBjsZtICM&mode=related&search=

A Frog story
http://www.kizclub.com/frogstory/frog1.html

Additional Suggestions :bnmfbddnm
-A frog craft
-Books on frogs
-Color a frog page

Home vs Preschool

This perhaps is a good reason for me to not stress over sending him to preschool eh.  Instead, just make sure I do everything in my power to that get few hours of outing w/ him so he can get his energy out, and then we come home read, eat and play and shower and nap and all that good stuff.

Why can’t educators and experts ever agree? Why is ‘research’ always showing something completely different.  Although in the case of preschool, preschool itself is a pretty recent creation and not common in all cultures in fact.  So the argument this article is making seems pretty dead-on and Allah knows best.

When I told my son about school, he understand from my mention of it that it would not include me being with him all day and he has since told me multiple times, whenever we talk of school, that he would rather stay with me.  That makes me feel rather special and tingly inside.  And I don’t fear having a clingy child either, because just as it is they don’t want to be held at 3(at least mine) as much as they did when they were younger.  And I sometimes shake my head over that and think back to all the people who tell you that you are going to “spoil” your infant when you pick him/her up whenever he/she cries. WHAT were they thinking??? 

And so it continues…another day of home vs preschool and for today the home has won.

New Ground

1- I got my first comment (audience?) thanks to my friend UmmRahmah

2- I’ve been contemplating sending my 3 year old to school. So far, I’ve been so pro-homeschooling that partly the thought of sending him feels like cheating.  However, him being a boy and a very active one at that, hedges the guilt for me a bit.  I’m simply not the ‘let’s do crafts all day and play lego’ kinda gal.  Although I can be with enough ’stuff’ that makes ME feel like I’ve fulfilled myself.  Which is precisely where the challenge is I need LOADS of stuff to fulfill me.  Before I ever was a stay-at-home mom, I was the kinda sister who attended 3 halaqas on average a week in addition to family and friends and homework and other extracirriculur MSA activities.  I doubt cooking and cleaning is ever going to rival w/ all that and fulfill me in quite the same way

Most of the times these ’school thoughts’ appear when I’ve been IN the home for days due to sickness or something and haven’t gone out…  So that gives me hope.  I’ve been at home for what seems like forever, having only gone out here for maybe half an hour and there for another half.  But no serious ‘outing’ according to me    So perhaps once we get back in the swing of things, the thoughts of school will once again go rest at the back of the class…for now they’re kinda hanging out right in the front.

3- Another thing that makes going out a bit challenging sometimes is that my little one doesn’t quite get out as soon as he used to.  Since he’s turned 3, he’s very opinionated about what he wants to wear, and sometimes that means beachwear in the middle of fall.  Ofcourse, at that point, it occured to me, uhhh why do i still have his shorts and t-shirts out in the first place.  My reason of ‘well we can use the tshirts for the purpose of layers’  wasn’t such a great reason after all

I hate to rant on MY OWN BLOG but I think thats what I’ve done. *gasp*

On to brighter topics…I’ve made yet another schedule for me to follow starting monday and I plan on going to the toddler gym tomorrow(insh’allah).  

Eid Mubarak

 

My parents

My parents just left my place about an hour ago.  And my mouth is just hanging open with shock and awe.  So I had to dedicate this post to the two most wonderful, inspiring and patient people who raised me: my parents.

 Ok i’m kind of speechless here…uh leme think. where should i start?  (that brings to mind this little kid from this library video who says ‘how about at the beginning?’ and yur like yeh ok FUNNY!) 

Anyway, my parents were just talking about how in their day and age, people were just a lot more content, and it all sort of started w/ me and my mom talking about how she was super organized in terms of sticking to time/schedule while raising my siblings and I.  She was particularly describing a few years that we lived in Saudi Arabia. At that time, I used to go to school and my brother and sister would be home with her.  And obviously she was home in the morning as well.  She had a neighbor she would socialize with sometimes but other than that, nothing, zilch.  She was home. She’d get up, send me off to school, my dad to work, clean up the kitchen, give the kids a bath, see what to cook for lunch, have one of the younger kids watch sesame street or something, make lunch, have lunch, clean up, take a nap with the kids, and then my dad and I would come home and rest, and then like around 4/5pm we’d go out to a park or something of that nature. 

All this from my mom who had a Masters in math and who stayed at home for us kids! Ofcourse life wasn’t always like this. When my youngest sibling started going to school, my mom started going to school with him!(she was a teacher and then subsequently became a principal).  While she was home with us, she went through a whole correspondence Montessori course, and an interior decoration course. And years later, she went from being into desktop publishing to Computer programming, to being a team lead to being part of Management.  All from this woman who is so super content always w/ what she has!!??  And who I NEVER remember putting others/her studies or anything above us! Never! Unimaginable right??  But that’s what I remember for my whole life.  (Ofcourse ironically now its different in her later years, cuz often times I will call her(from HOME) and she whispers to me that she’s in a meeting ).   Ok i’m going off track here but I guess you can see I really look up to my mom.  She’s now super practicing, and has been for years since Allah send hidaya to our family.  She’s super dedicated to always improving her Arabic, reading Quran, etc. Always praying on time. I’m getting teary eyed just writing this.

Ok back to those Saudi days, I just get mindboggled about that kind of schedule.  Ok I know there’s plenty of saint moms out there, but soon as I get up and am done with breakfast, I start thinking about going outside somewhere   Cuz I can’t imagine spending a whole day at home just talking to the walls or even just talking on the phone and doing things at home by myself(ok ok there are days like this but everyday cannot be like this). I need to go outside, smell the fresh air, talk to people, have some fun? Early in the morning!!!

My parents had no college fund for us kids when we were born. Even though years later, Allah made them financially able to put all three of us through college, without us earning anything remotely significant while we were in school.  I guess their life contained more of a focus on now, than a complete focus on TOMORROW to the point that you don’t appreciate what you HAVE TODAY( in anticipation of what you could have tomorrow).

I don’t know about you guys, but this type of simplicity in life just makes me drool. I mean I’m so attracted to it and internally I’m setting a goal in my mind that I want to be more like that. I want to do more crocheting/sewing/crosstitching than INTERNETING for one(where if a page doesn’t load up in 2 seconds flat, we think the website is TOO SLOW!!!). 

And then it just started hitting me, my generation(me?) is so CENTERED on having FUN & wanting more of evverything. Evvverything has to be fun, and FULFILLING and this and that.  We have this need to be constantly feeding ourselves somehow. Why?  Why was my parents generation so happy and content just to serve and do their due and have little at the end of the day?

Perhaps because now we have so much in every category we can think of, unlimited options, we’re so restless .. we could always have more, better, bigger, brighter, ahhh u get what i’m saying? There’s no end to it.

And I see the charm in the life they lived and I wish I could live it too, being soo super contented.  In my generation, alot of moms (myself included often) are focused on somehow getting in that little fun away from our toddler/infant/etc.  In my mom’s generation, they didn’t seem to have that big of a need for that. Why?

Many many months ago, I visited the small town/city(super clean) where my mom grew up.  And I think I caught a glimpse of how she grew up.  Small town life, everyone knows everyone from like 4 generations back(i’m exxagerating obvously). Like the guy you go to for milk or other little basic groceries or the guy you go to buy your clothes from, they all know whose kid you are, and what your father did, and everything.  There is little to no room in this type of society for things like post-partum depression.  I think perhaps that only exists in the west where suddenly this woman is shut indoors all day with an infant with no outside contact, the kind that fundamentally exists in the lifestyle of the east.

I’m sort of rambling as you can see.  Alot of it is still unsaid in my mind, food for thought that I’ll be feeding on and sharing with my freinds for days.  But most of all, I’m just in awe.

And the thought of losing my parents is unimaginable at best, and chilling at worst.

The difference Between “An-Naseehah” & “At-Ta’eer”

Here’s a beneficial article posted on this sister’s blog( which by the way I quite enjoy reading):

The Difference Between “an-Naseehah” & “at-Ta’eer”

Written by Imaam ibn Rajab al-Hanbalee
Alhamdulillahi rabil aalameen amma bad, These are some concise, comprehensive words about the difference between naseehah {advice} and ta’yeer {rebuking, chastising}, for both of them share a common attribute which is to speak about a persons’ {characteristic/s} which they may dislike, and indeed for many people they tend to have a difficult time differentiating between the two, and Allah is the one who guides to that which is correct.

Eid

Our Eid was unfortunately one of the drabbest Eids I’ve ever lived through.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not down about it or complaining.  I’m just stating a fact.  I was in bed, with a starting-to-heal tooth-place?(I mean the tooth was taken out .. so I can’t exactly call it a tooth).  And my family did not feel like going to Eid prayer alone.  So there we were, all nice and cozy in our home, on Eid

Ofcourse there was the usual two camps of Eid celebrations.  It’s happened for so long that you’d think us Muslims would be used to it by now, but nope, every year it is almost like a little electric shock: oh no! tWO?? Eids. 

 Alhamdulillah, I called some my cousins to wish them Eid. That made me happy since I felt like I did my little part in keeping my ties of kinship. 

Now here’s a little something which was quite pleasant.  Starting several years ago, almost every night before Eid, I’d be found on islam-qa.com reading about various things we were prescribed to do or not to do on Eid.  But this presentation by Ustaadh Muhammad AlShareef was nice and sweet and to the point, summing everything up in two minutes!

My blog

I’ve always been sort of attracted to the idea of having a blog, yet actually having a real blog where I talk about MY REAL life(which is what I’d ideally want to do to express myself and my views and rants and all that good stuff) is intimidating.  What if people don’t like me? What if I have a barage of criticism and nothing else?  But then I think to myself, who cares ?  And that’s such a freeing though:-) A thought that fills me up with confidence.  So I guess that’s why I’m here.  Perhaps slowly I’ll decide to express all those things that travel in the crevices of my mind.  Perhaps I won’t.  But I know I definitely would like a place where I can just go and say what I need to say for the moment…to reach out to the world..maybe benefit someone through my experience or perspective..maybe learn something from the comments people leave on my blog.

 There’s definitely some blogs out there, whose authors I’ve come to respect so much. Some blogs that I check almost every other day.  I admit it..I’m addicted to blogs. 

There was a time where you could say I was slightly addicted to reading news. But NOW? Nope. Gone are those days!

Liquid Food

The past few days were filled with some happenings and news.  For one, I found out there’s something interesting/pleasing/shocking?  For now, I’m choosing not to reveal what it is Insh’allah in time.  And two, I had my wisdom tooth pulled out.  Now, because it was half impacted from what I understand, it is taking some days to heal.  Which means, I am largely on liquid food(yay! *not*).  Yesterday…while I was feeding my son…I literally started drooling….and had to try some of my mom’s spinach which he was so absolutely refusing.  And which I was oh so glad to gobble down from the LEFT side of my mouth!