Friday, October 30, 2009

Skantily Dressed

Now muslims can be skantily dressed, not to be confused with scantily dressed or skankily dressed! If a skirt crossed with shorts is a skort then a skirt crossed with pants is a skant right? If you love the look of a skirt but want the ease of pants then check out shukr's new jeans and pants here. Yes I love shukr!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Vegan face and body products

Since we want to avoid pork in our products and non-zabihah meat, its nice to find vegan products. Lush has a lot but be sure to check which ones. This Ontario company with 3 locations and online ordering has a nice selection as well. With Eid coming up these would make for lovely gifts too.

Would you convert for a toaster?

You just have to see this video lol. Just goes to prove its not that easy to get people to convert, lol. And by the way I am still waiting for my toaster!

American Muslim Mom

Just found this site today and it looks awesome with so many topics. I was especially surprised to see my daughter's website mentioned here. Just scroll down to the ramadan info and you will see them recommending her site for the ramadan advent calendar. They are also advertising a conference about marketing to the huge muslim community in the US. Some of the posts are a little old and the book section has no mention of adult books so you'll just have to keep coming here to find out about new and exciting titles! :) Now if someone would just start a Canadian Muslim Mom website!

Note: for some reason the link isn't working...here it is http://americanmuslimmom.com/category/islamic-studies-kids

Cold Weather Picks

With fall now here you may be thinking of some warmer choices for clothing. Shukr has some nice baby friendly choices like this poncho and this long sweater and this jilbab. The sweater is almost running out though. Insha Allah they will get more and hopefully in all the colours that the US is offering. Al-Hannah also has a long sweater, but it doesn't look as warm. What have you been wearing with this chill in the air? I still have a jean hooded jilbab I ordered from Shukr 6 yrs ago. Still love it! Masha Allah.

Monday, October 26, 2009

They're blinding me with SCIENCE!


My son is studying cells and the use of microscopes. Today I got him to draw and label all the parts of the cell; animal and plant. I also found this for him. My other son rushed along and finished both biodiversity and flight and started his electricity unit today. He used his electricity kit to turn on a light switch, buzzer and twirl a windmill. My daughter was learning about joints and my son in grade 3 was continuing his learning of plants. Pollination was the topic for today and this website was a great help. A good project for this can be found here. Now I have been inspired to take a trip here. I wish I had learned more about science when I was young. I always shunned it but becoming muslim really piqued my interest and homeschooling reinforces that.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Letting go of stuff.

Since my house is small and I can't maximize the space any more I've decided to pare down. Oh it is hard. I have to let go of kids clothes that I've kept over the years because there is too much of them. Some of them are now out of style, some of them are not to the liking of the new owner and some are older than the newer ones that have been given to us. No kid can wear this much clothes after all so I will find them a better home. I have gone through one daughter's clothes but I need to go through more. I've gone through my clothes as well. Today I went through my cookbooks. Oh yes I have those even though I detest cooking. Did you ever have something because you think that one day you will morph into that kind of person? Don't do it! I kept all the baking ones of course or most of them but the cooking stuff just had to go. I can't keep telling myself that one day I will make those recipes but if I really need a recipe I am sure I can find it on the net and just print it out. I'm going to have to look through my kitchen stuff too and see what can go but that's for another day. Its not that its physically hard but its emotionally hard to let go of the past and all those memories and hard to let go of the possible future that never seems to materialize.

Helium

When I hear the word helium I think baloon. How about you? But recently I found out from my second daughter that Helium is a site kind of like youtube where instead of uploading videos you write articles and get paid for them. There are actually writing assignments for you to choose from. If you want to debate that's available too. If contests are your thing, you can enter those as well. Many topics are available including religion. Here is the link to Islam. So what colour is your balloon?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Storage solutions?

When you live in a shoe with so many kids you don't know what to do,things can get a little cramped! So off I went to a free organizing seminar. We got some coupons and a handout with tips first of all,then we watched a slide show with more tips and some before and after photos. I didn't feel like I had learned very much since I noticed that I was already implementing her advice. At the end there was a draw and lo and behold I was the winner of this. I decided to talk to her personally and she said I could either get another shed,rent storage ($100 a month..so not happening) or build an addition. So I'm no further ahead except for my lovely parting gift masha Allah.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Grandma

In the fall an old woman's fancy turns to....baking. I woke up this morning with a craving for molasses cookies. My favourite brand is Grandma molasses and its all good because yes I am a grandma. Its also what I grew up with. I was going to just buy store bought cookies but when I read the ingredients,well forget it..they had fake sugar; sorbitol. I don't do fake. Butter never margarine, sugar never aspartame etc..just real ingredients for this old woman. I also have oatmeal on the mind. Not the kind you eat for breakfast all hot and mushy, no sirree but the type you eat cold and use for baking. So I think I'll round myself up some molasses oatmeal cookies and call it a day. A nice, clear, crisp fall day.

PS. I brought some over to a neighbour I'd never met before.

Old Woman in the Shoe activities

You knew it was coming right? Here is a craft for a magnet. And here is a cake design. And here is a colouring page. Be sure to give the mother a hijab ok? ;)

Six degrees of separation?

Is it just me or does anyone else notice that in Canada every muslim is connected in some way to every other muslim? I guess its because there are so few of us but it seems like instead of 6 degrees its more like 2 or 3. I cannot believe how many of my friends have mutual friends even though we don't live anywhere near each other. This happens so often I just feel like bursting out laughing. I guess when the muslim community grows much larger, people will never feel this connected again. We are living in a unique period in history, in the growth of ummah here in North America. Generations from now they will never know the sweetness of this type of real social networking. And then of course there is the whole idea of being conscripted soldiers (kindred spirits) as per the hadith. Quadr Allah. Subhanallah.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Flag Bearers

We are always hearing about how muslim women are the flag bearers of the religion considering that we wear hijab. But did you ever consider how the hijab also attracts other muslims and identifies us? Take this example. One day we went to the gas station and dh and another guy saw one another but nothing really happened. Then I got out of the car and the guy got that aha look on his face and gave dh salaam. Without me there neither one knew the other was muslim. Then there are the women who don't wear hijab and you never know they are muslim either but they see you wearing it and a conversation ensues and maybe you have a new friend. Funny that there are unknown benefits to Islamic requirements that we didn't forsee when we converted. Think of all the salaams we would have missed had we not covered and all the muslims we wouldn't have met.

Etsy sisters

Have you ever checked out Etsy? Its a place to buy handmade goods. I wanted to see what our sisters were selling and came across this. Pretty cool eh? And you can also find hijabs, eid cards, jewelery, paintings, buttons, t-shirts etc. Its nice to find something a little unique in this day and age. What's your favourite shop? Have you found anything amazing there or on similar sites? Share your gems with us today! And not to leave out our non-muslim sisters, take a gander at some of these awesome finds here, here, here and here.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Book Club

Currenlty I belong to the book club at my library but I thought it would be fun to start a book club here on my blog. I wanted to start off with Islamic books but right now I have exhausted my collection. The book I have just started is called The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (a Malaysian). I saw this book on a friend's facebook account (before I left) and decided to give it a try. So please read along with me and we will discuss it insha Allah together in a few weeks. Happy reading!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Bonnets and Buggies


Last weekend we went to St. Jacob's. We planned it even before we realized it was part of the grade 3 curriculum social studies unit about settlements in upper Canada (the previous name of Ontario). St. Jacob's is a mennonite village. Arrriving late we missed a lot of attractions unfortunately but we had previously paid someone a condolence visit so that was the priority. We were able to see the museum to learn the history of the mennonites here and we did get to see them on the streets in their horse and buggies. At the bakery we saw mennonite women working. Although there are also mennonite women in our little town too, I've never seen them working at a store before. One of my friends has just had a baby so I thought I'd get her a handmade gift. I checked out the baby quilts but yikes for $100 I just couldn't afford that. Not to say that they weren't worth every penny considering all the work that went into them but I think we are so used to Walmart sweatshop prices that realistic prices floor us. There were also baby bonnets and those were for $20. I was thinking that if I gave it to her she would assume that it was a $3 bonnet from Walmart and wonder at my lack of generosity so I passed up on it. But they were so cute. Insha Allah we will go back in the spring so we can do the trip justice this time. At least though we did pretty much cover the mennonite settlement in upper Canada requirement.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Hey I want that 'Jilbab' !

The other day I saw a commercial that caught my eye because the cartoon character was wearing an awesome 'jilbab'. Of course my kids had to point out to me that it was not a jilbab and that it was a male character on a nintendo game who was wearing it. But I don't care; I want it! Tell me what you think. Here it is.

Friday, October 9, 2009

New Magazine On the Block

Some of you may know that Muslim Girl magazine disappeared last year. I wasn't entirely thrilled with that magazine anyway but there were some good things about it. It was also the only muslim magazine I have ever seen sold at corner stores right here in Canada. I remember when the fall issue was about to come and I expected it to be called the Ramadan issue but instead they said it would be the election issue. Are you kidding me? After that they had some kind of publishing problem. But now there is a new magazine out. I'm not sure who's putting it out but its called Muslimette. Check it out! I haven't read it but it looks promising. If you get it let me know what you think.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Socialization factor

Everybody knows that the first thing people point out when you say you are homeschooling is how are your kids going to learn to socialize. But I am taking care of that; I've signed them up for gymnastics and oh joy, oh bliss Tae Kwon Do right here in this little town! Also I've joined two homeschooling groups in the area so we can participate in field trips and activities. The kids had their first Tae Kwon Do lesson last night. Next week they will get their uniforms which will be white instead of black like their former Kung Fu uniforms. The belts are different too as some levels have stripes. Tonight will be gymnastics and lucky for us this is the first year they will be having kindergym and they have brand new equipment too. On top of this the kids will continue to take arabic and Islamic history classes at a school in which they get to play in the gym during the break.
Masha Allah, alhumdullilah for everything.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Saturated

Seems the world has gone so far the other way and things have become so extreme that people are waking up and saying enough! On Oct 11th catch the documentary or watch it later online.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Mommy friendly clothes

Here is another company (but sadly in UK) that provides maternity and nursing abayas; something really hard to find. If you know of any North American links please share.

1000 visits

Masha Allah my blog has had 1000 visits. Sure I know some of them were from me (why do they count me anyway?, lol) So its that time of the year again. Time to pack up the summer clothes and take out the winter ones. Got that done yesterday. Hubby told me to stop having 4 seasons which of course means hey if you just would have stayed in Malaysia then you wouldn't have to be doing this. What else is on my mind? Well I'm worried about that whole socialization and physical activity thing for my kids. Yesterday I got Wii Fit Plus which has kung-fu on it since there are no martial arts classes here. But hey my kids need friends and real exercise. I'm on the hunt for a solution. This town has very limited choices. My daughter did go skating yesterday though which is good. Insha Allah I will be able to solve this problem as well.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Net full of homeschool supplies.

Well to tell you the truth as of yesterday I really felt like giving up. Today though alhumdullilah I netted some good finds. From an educational toy store I got an electricity kit for my sixth grader and a magnet set for my third grader. At a teacher's store I got 4 books, two from S & S, one from Nelson and one from Geowat Innovative Teacher Publishing. Finally I went to Toys'r'us and found the Complete Canadian Curriculum series (they don't have grade 8 though). I also got magnetic letters and numbers there for my kindergartener and a microscope for my eighth grader. Best of all Nelson and CCC both have answer keys. I think now I can finally make it through those rough seas insha Allah.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Sea legs.

I guess when we make a sea change we have to find our sea legs. I am really wobbling through this deja vu experience called homeschooling. Yes I did it 10 yrs ago but with only 3 kids and two toddlers playing around. This time there are 5 kids (those two toddlers are now in grade 8 and grade 6) to teach and a toddler and a newborn. I decided to buy an easel to keep the SK and preschooler occupied while I teach the others. Otherwise I've been teaching the SK one how to write letters and her name by writing with markers on a wipe off book I got from Avon. I highly recommend it. It also comes with books for numbers, colours and shapes and cd with songs about these topics. Haven't played it yet and wonder what sorts of instruments might be used. As for the bigger kids its been tough as I realize I have missing parts of the curriculum and have had to order all sorts of books from the library but they are not textbooks or workbooks but more like the types of books you borrow to do a project. So I am not really satisfied with this cookie cutter option. Also I must hunt down a microscope for grade 8 science. He has to learn about cells. I checked Walmart's kids section but nothing there. I intend to check The Source. On top of all this I have the added problem of having no answer keys for the textbooks and workbooks I have. I guess I could order them but that would cost a pretty penny. The sea is very rough now but I hope I can get over this patch and experience some smooth sailing. Any advice from homeschoolers out there? I'm all ears. Oh and if you are wondering what happened to all my old homeschooling stuff, well most of it I sold and the rest is stuck in Malaysia.