At The Dinner Table

At the dinner table tonight I held my youngest close to my heart and felt the back of her chest rattle. The two puffs cleared some of the rattling but some still lingered, in four hours she’ll get another dose to clear the remaining blockage. At that dinner table I sat across from my eldest and prompted her to please eat her dinner for probably the thirtieth time this evening, and she continued to tell me about what one needs to do in life is follow his path and when he faces a cross road he should just choose one and keep going because that’s what you do in life. When I asked her where she had heard this, she told me that she heard it inside her head with her own voice and then went on and clarified that it is her own thought. I told her that she is a wise girl and I asked her to try and remember to listen to her small voice inside her head even when she grows old and her voice is no longer small. She said she will, we both smiled and then I told her for one more time to please eat her dinner…

At the dinner table tonight my man was feeling a little under the weather, He had leftover lentil soup with homemade bread (It was leftovers night). He thanked me, cleared the table and then helped the girls get in their pjs.

At the dinner table we usually turn off any music lingering from dinner prep. but tonight Grabby requested that we keep the music on during dinner. And so we did.

Here’s our playlist from the table.

The Lumineers — Ho Hey

Regina Spektor — Please Don’t Leave

Fun. — Tonight We Are Young

Joanna Newsom — Sprout And The Bean

Elizabeth Mitchell — Froggie Went a Courtin’

And although a lot of people have moved on, my baby girl still requests the coming song with heightened enthusiasm…

Psy — Gangam Style

Sending you blessings from one dinner table to another…

Peace.

Al Mawlid Al Nabawi

Starting from sundown tonight (In the islamic lunar calendar the day starts at sundown) is the Mawlid Al Nabawi Al Sharif which is the Day Prophet Mohammad was born. Prophet Mohammad is possibly the most misqouted man in our day and age be it from Muslims or non Muslims alike. I wanted to share a few of his sayings that haven’t been altered or abused or misquoted and that are straight forward for every one to understand.

Allahuma Salli Wa Sallem Wa Barek ‘aleih.

Treatment Of Others:

Anas (May God be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “No one of you becomes a true believer until he likes for his brother what he likes for himself”.

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Jihad:

Abu Sa’id Al Khudri (may God be pleased with him) reported: The prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The best type of Jihad (striving in the way of God) is speaking a true word in the presence of a tyrant ruler.”

[Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidhi].

Signs Of A Hypocrite:

Abu Hurairah (May God be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “There are three signs of a hypocrite: When he speaks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he breaks it; and when he is trusted, he betrays his trust.”

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Charity:

Abu Hurairah (May God be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “On every joint of man, there is charity, on every day when the sun rises: doing justice between two men is charity, and assisting a man to ride an animal or to load his luggage on it is charity; and a good word is charity, every step which one takes towards (the mosque for) Salat(prayer) is charity, and removing harmful things from the way is charity”.[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Marriage:

Abu Hurairah (May God be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “The believers who show the most perfect Faith are those who have the best behaviour, and the best of you are those who are the best to their wives”.[At-Tirmidhi].Neighborly Manners:

Ibn `Umar and `Aishah (May God be pleased with them) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “Jibril (Gabriel) kept recommending treating neighbors with kindness until I thought he would assign a share of inheritance”.

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

Abu Dharr (May God be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of God (PBUH) commanded me thus, “O Abu Dharr! Whenever you prepare a broth, put plenty of water in it, and give some of it to your neighbors”.[Muslim].

 Treatment Of Young And Old:

`Amr bin Shu`aib (May God be pleased with him)on the authority of his father who heard it from his father reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: “He is not one of us who shows no mercy to younger ones and does not acknowledge the honor due to our elders”.[At-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud].

Anas bin Malik (May God be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “If a young man honors an older person on account of his age, God appoints someone to show reverence to him in his old age”[At-Tirmidhi].

Tolerance:

Ibn `Abbas (May God be pleased with them) reported: Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said to Ashaj Abdul-Qais (May God be pleased with him), “You possess two qualities that God loves. These are clemency and tolerance.” [Muslim]. 

Knowledge:

Abu Hurairah (May God be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said, “God makes the way to Jannah (Paradise) easy for him who treads the path in search of knowledge.” [Muslim].

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

“It is obligatory for every Muslim, male or female, to acquire knowledge”.

(Al-Bayhaqi).

Peace.

 

 

What does -8 degrees mean?

Every time I enter my password for this new blog I wait for the box to go blank and give me it’s oh-so-familiar disapproving nod to announce that I have entered the wrong password. Every time this doesn’t happen I release a sigh of relief.

***

We have been experiencing for the past two days now curse-inducing weather. I open the door in the early morning and hold my breath, ’cause otherwise my daughters ears may be damaged for life. Mei asked what it meant for the temperature to be -8 degree Fahrenheit (-22 Celsius). Her father took her by the hand, opened the door and had her step out for a moment. “Now do you get it?”

If you take a drive a long side the lake you’ll see massive amounts of steam rising from the water. From the warmth of my car, I recognized the beauty.

***

Some of my friends that I haven’t gotten in touch with in years emailed right after reading this post. I re-read it to see why the concern. To clarify (in retrospect I really shouldn’t have put that last line in. It was sort of my demented way at hinting at the difficulty of people with no health insurance and means to receive proper or for that matter any special care to their needs) this was two years ago right after we left Egypt during the turbulent atmosphere. I was very emotional and was having recurring nightmares about the Egyptian revolution. Luckily it wasn’t a big deal. It just took it’s cyle and moved on without needing the help–although I couldn’t get it at the time. Thanks for the sweet letters and interest. Hope this puts your concerns at ease. Also apologies for making a big deal out of nothing. I do that sometimes!

***

In other less dramatic news, I’m digging this right now.

Peace.

On being a ‘hijabi’

Sometimes I pair a black scarf with a black dress just for fun. It’s my mini experiment to check if Americans care more if a ‘hijabi’ looks the part according to their stereotypes. It always works. I get more suspicious looks and a couple of extra inches for walking space. I usually do it only for a day though, then I go back to my usual solid, yet colorful scarves and jeans wearing self, which results in less looks and more of the “I-Really-Like-Your-Scarf” mode. You see I am a very self conscious person, not by choice but by placement.

If you’re new here you should know about my tendency to blog about mundane yet personal things when I am past my bedtime–my bedtime should have been twenty minutes ago– I also wear the Islamic head covering by choice, meaning no one forced me. True story. (How I do it? one day at a time. it’s been a decade)

A confession, I do not like covering my hair. It’s definitely more bearable in fall and winter seasons, and comes summer I sometimes feel like literally ripping it off my head (again my choice despite my complaint). Today I was about to hate my scarf again but then I put it on and it completely covered my respectable forehead pimple that has appeared to announce that I need to lay off the chocolate. And so being fair and all I say headscarf :1 to no-headscarf: 0

Victory.

Highlights from today :: Outside

high thirties and low forty degree weeklong weather, which lead to some confusion (see below)

They are going to die by tonight, we are plunging to 3 degrees tonight.

Inside ::

Peace.

On Guns

In 2008 my husband got accepted in a masters program in Chicago IL, so our little family moved to Chicago’s south side to be near friends and establish a support group without nearby extended family. I used to think the year spent there was one of my worst years in my life until we moved back to Cairo Egypt six months before the Egyptian Revolution.

The first impression of our Chicago neighborhood was an unsettling one. “Why do they have gates and barbed wires around the buildings here?” “Oh, it’s for safety. Don’t you feel really safe now?” “Actually I feel the opposite”…

After the Newtown incident my daughter’s preschool installed new locks and doorbells. I believe there is a necessity to more security in schools but although it’s an unlikely scare, it does not put my mind at ease. The wait between ringing that door bell and a teacher approaching to open my youngest’s preschool door is spent in prayers for the families and for protection for my own.

When I listen to some Americans (hello midwestern gun lovers) on a local radio show starting by condoling the families who have lost loved ones then arguing about their rights and identity, I feel lost, well more like outraged. Is it really worth it?

I lost my temper the other day while driving my car. The car next to me moved suddenly into my lane and almost crashed into my car. I was in the driver’s blind spot, and I’m assuming if I didn’t have my Egyptian fast driving reflex’s I would’ve been in a serious car crash, I too quickly swerved to the next lane while pressing the breaks. We were lucky the street was empty. When I looked at the driver angrily, she gave me the finger. In retrospect what I did next wasn’t the wisest decision to make, but as they say anger is blind. I drove next to the car, rolled down my windows and yelled “NEXT TIME CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOT” and then drove off.

After this the car changed lanes again and started following me for a good 10 minutes. How I know this, is I noticed the car in my rear view mirror for a while, so to make sure I started turning into right and left streets randomly. Finally I saw the car make an illegal U turn with a cinematic screeching of the wheels and drive off. I really thought that the driver probably had a gun and wanted to kill me. Note to self: don’t yell at random strangers and when in doubt call 911.

The law in WI allows people to carry concealed weapons, so on every business window in our city we have a no gun sticker. Lest you forget.

Did I tell you about the time I tried to see a psychologist and couldn’t because my insurance doesn’t cover it? No? Well that’s a different post.

America is still a great country, and all great countries need some more work.

Peace.

On blogging and being Omelbanat

I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. Mainly because in theory I like the idea of privacy but also I feel the need to share. Writing a blog post gives one the sense that someone out there cares and will spare you two minutes out of their precious life and will sit and read whatever insignificant mundane things you feel the need to share. But this someone is invisible, does not know you and by definition has something in common with you because he can tolerate your ramblings for a couple of minutes. Or maybe that someone really disagrees with you and will also give little ol’ insignificant you the recognition to oppose your theories. And so you sit and you write that blog post thinking that someone out there will eventually care.

The above paragraph was my introspective intro to starting yet another blog as the last one came to an unfortunate halt due to my discrepancies in retrieving a simple thing as a lost password, or even changing it to a new one. It’s a long story (not really) that I shan’t dwell upon.

Dear reader, thank you for your patience and your perseverance for still following me into yet another space. My new blog name means “mother of the girls” it’s a synonym used to emphasize the numerous daughters a mother has without the presence of sons. I’m pretty sure there is no equivalence to the other case (numerous sons) which I’m not quite sure why or what one should understand about a culture that emphasizes on the abundance of one gender in a family and not the other, yet i’m pretty sure it’s not used in a negative way.

As you readers know I am the proud mama of two young yet very strong minded young girls and I am insanely honored. So I’m using this Arabic synonym to emphasize on how being ‘Omelbanat’ really rocks!

A good Wednesday to you all,

Peace.