Natural Yarn Dyeing
October 28, 2009 at 4:26 pm | In Art, Community, Family, Homeschooling, New Mexico | Leave a CommentI think every homeschooling mother agrees that when you’re homeschooling, you tend to take opportunities of free programs. That was what we did when hubby forwarded me some information on free programs offered by the NMSU museum on campus on a Saturday afternoon. 
So we went, and as we entered the open compound of Kent Hall, we saw some tables set with the materials needed for dyeing yarn with natural colors. Apparently, it was going to take about half an hour, so they told the kids to pick a bunch of off white yarn, choose a natural dye color, submerge their uncolored yarn in that color solution and go inside the museum to have a look see while the yarn absorbed the dye.
N chose the blackberry, S chose the grass and so did H. The visit inside the museum was pretty informational. I never did like museums as a child, and even now, I don’t really love them either, but at least I have that curiosity now, as compared to before. There was a lot to learn about the Navajo in the museum, and gorillas, and old coins. By the time we went back out, their yarn was pretty much done.
Turmeric
H's green - from grass
N's pink - from blackberry
S mixing her colors
They had brown from juniper, but none of the kids chose that color, and they had turmeric for yellow. S later dipped her yarn in the turmeric and made her yarn a mixed color. I love N’s blackberry which tunred the yarn a nice deep pink, and the grass green, oh, just perfect! Inside the museum we also saw other natural dyes used to color yarn. Pretty interesting stuff, but I don’t think the kids took to it that much. Oh well.
Yay! We're done! Back to the van!
Eid Gift-ing
September 16, 2009 at 1:48 pm | In Art, Community, Eid, Family, Kids, Projects, Ramadan | Leave a Comment
Wrapped in one of the scarfs
This year, somehow, we’re caught in the whirlwind of buying children’s eid gift for the masjid. I didn’t plan for this, and I had hoped to avoid shopping in Ramadan especially the last 10 days, but I got sucked into it. But I’m done with it as of yesterday alhamdulillah. I consider it part of our general ibadah inshaallah, so may Allah accept it from us. Ameen.
Our closet under the staircase is filled with toys and gifts for the kids at the masjid. Our next challenge now is to figure out how to present these gifts. There are about 50 kids. Yesterday, after coming home from the doctor’s (s and N are sick) I went to Dollar Tree to look for an economical solution to this. Hubby is against it completely. He said,
“Just write their names on their toys like they did last year.”
But I’m thinking ‘ihsaan’. When you want to present a gift to someone, you don’t just give it ‘raw’, do you? So I came home with no solution unfortunately yesterday.
But after voicing out my empty idea bank, S came up with some ideas. Use fabric. Our scraps of fabric that have been stashed forever. I also googled alternative gift wrapping, and came up with a wealth of information and ideas!
I particularly am taken by Furoshiki. Reminds me Oshin and Kaoru during my childhood. Malaysian may know what I’m talking about if you’re reading this. *smile*
10 Ideas for Pretty Alternative Wrapping by Mighty Girl, I just came across today, but she has a lot of great cute ideas too!
This cereal boxes idea is great too, though for our purpose and scope (which is 50 gifts to wrap!) this won’t do.
And I just LOVE this. Thanks EnviroMOM! This is what we started doing yesterday, and the girls LOVE it! S wraps the gifts, cuts fabric strips into ribbons, and N makes the name cards,
N making the name cards
tied with a yarn to the wrapped gifts. When hubs came back, we told him, and he told us to come up with color coding for the different age groups.
So by Isha, S came up with the color coding by the ribbons. Rainbow is for ages 1, 2, 3. Checkered is for ages 4, 5, 6. Green is for ages 7,8,9. Yellow stripes is for ages 10,11, 12 and above. Pretty good mashaallah. We decided to wrap the girls’ gifts with cloth and the boys, just with ribbons, since, (quoting S)
“They don’t really care anyway.”
Ay (our friend from Columbus who recently moved here) gave us a bag of beautiful scarfs and hijabs, and we actually utilized this yesterday in our gift wrapping activity. Especially for the bigger girls. Two-in-one kind of thing! Alhamdulillah!
I love this going green thing! So do the kids, apparently, as they started resuming the wrapping activity right after they are done with our Ramadan lesson for today.
Some gifts bagged in cut and sewed bolster cases - courtesy of S
Welcome to 4-H Project Activities
September 8, 2009 at 2:55 pm | In 4-H, Art, Homeschooling, New Mexico, Projects, Sewing | Leave a CommentThere are so many terms in 4-H and even to this day, after asking questions so many times, again and again, I am still not ‘down with it’. This year, we’re somewhat ‘forced’ to pay attention to the state fair because in order for the kids to complete a 4-H project, they have to exhibit it in the fair. So here we are right now, scrambling to finish up their projects before Eid.
H chose to do the banner. S and N chose to do the frame. I was kind of expecting the girls to do the banner, but as I asked them again and again if, they keep shaking their heads. So, we went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Jo Ann to get their materials. Before that of course I had to do a lot of ‘researching’ about the state fair to see the requirements etc. Either way, now were’ at the stage of completing the project items, alhamdulillah.
I asked them to design how their embellished frames would look like, and banner too, so they don’t waste the materials and make undoable mistakes.
For H, we ended up googling for images of banners, and can you believe how difficult it is to come across any? I mean, we did come across some, but not the ones we had in mind. But we finally came across some nice ones on flickr and got some ideas for H’s. We also got some ideas if we want to make an Eid banner this year. Quite pretty too. Now it’s up to the girls to make them though. S didn’t seem to enthusiastic about it though.
We didn’t want to buy fabric, so I told H to choose one from the everlasting stash we’ve hoarded over the years. We had to buy some felt though, for his circles. For the clover, H used the heart stencils and made a cardboard template and then cut one out from a green fabric that used to be S’ flat bedsheet. Recycle, recycle.
H had to undo his stitches couple of time, and it quite frustrated him I think, but we got over that stage alhamdulillah.
Then we also had to look up how to do blanket stitches. In the beginning I tried to recall how to do it, but I forgot even how to start! So we went to S and asked her. She fumbled too, because when she did it, it was to sew the seams, not as a finishing edge. So, we googled it and found a video on Youtube. I showed H how to do it and then the took over. He intently connected all his circles and by Zuhr, he was done. Next step is to sew them on the banner.
As for S, she was experimenting on a mosaic design for her box frame top (upon my suggestion). 
S wanted to make a mosaic of the New Mexico state flag, but it turned out to be too tedious I suppose
So heart it is
N still hadn’t yet started, except for a design. It took quite a lot of work on my part too to oversee their projects! But it was quite fun. I think I derive energy from doing creative-based things. All the time, I reminded them that they still have to demonstrate something to the club, something related to the projects.
N's design
For now, H is going to demonstrate, possibly, how to do blanket stitches. S is going to demonstrate how to create a mosaic design, or how to stencil. And N is going to demonstrate how to create a four leafed clover from heart stencils.
As for me, I just want this to be over with because deep down I know they kids dno’t really like this Welcome to 4-H project, but the club leader had told me it was kind of a requirement if we want to be in the club (we had no choice because we enrolled late). I know the kids would have preferred to pick other projects they’re really interested in doing. So I kept telling them,
“That’s ok. Just let’s get this over with so next year you can choose projects that you really want to do.”
H was ready to quit, but I urged him on.
I think, getting them involved in 4-H would be good for their ‘homeschooling resume’ inshaallah, especially for colege applications, hopefully. Plus, it would hopefully also give them the experiences they wouldn’t normally get at home. For now, things are looking up in terms of their 4-H projects alhamdulillah. I hope next year will be better.
After this, I will probably be busy overlooking the completion of their individual record books. Alhamdulillah for that record book workshop on Oct 10. I hope we don’t miss that inshaallah.
Ceramics It Is!
August 5, 2009 at 6:49 pm | In Art, Kids, New Mexico | Leave a Comment
The girls have always been enamored with ceramics ever since they enrolled in ceramics classes in C-Bus. They’ve always loved working with play dough and I have to admit that they really have a knack for it too, which I guess then explains their continued interest in ceramics.
So it should have been no surprise when they chose to enroll in ceramics when I asked what art classes they were interested in taking this summer. I personally would have been interested in painting, and I found myself trying to steer them in this direction, like any other unknowing parent. But they insisted on ceramics and I relented. It wasn’t my right to impose it on them anyway.
For 5 days a week, the class costs 50 bucks per person. We have been trying to make it to the Saturday Studio program the Art Museum holds every week, but everytime we came, the classes were full. Most of the times it was our fault, as we were late, but there was once, when we went, we weren’t that late, but the classes were full anyway.
S even remarked,
“Is that sign always up there or they only put it there when it’s full?”
I laughed, as you can see why one would eventually come to the conclusion that the sign ‘Class is full’ is placed there perpetually regardless of the actual capacity of these classes.
It even came to the point where the girls gave up even trying to make it to the Saturday Studio sessions, despite my urging them with,
“Let’s try. We were always late, if we’re early, maybe we can make it!”
The lady manning that counter eventually recognized us and each time she would shake her head full of apology. Once, when we got there, out of breath from running through the Saturday’s Farmer’s Market, only to find out we didn’t make it, another family came in through the door just as we were leaving. It was father and daughter. They were turned away too, same fate as us. The father remarked to his daughter,
“See, I told you you were late.”
Even the lady at the counter laughed. I guess we weren’t the only ones who miss out on these Saturday Studios.
So when I learned of the summer art classes offered at the Museum, I made it a point to enroll the kids. One of the days, we went down to the Museum and I registered and paid for both N and S. The lady who took care of our registration said,
“You made sure you got them in this time.”
She sees our faces almost every Saturday, breathless and disappointed.
Alhamdulillah, talk about perfect timing, the week that they were to have their ceramics class was the week that I was on break fro my Taleem class. So every morning of that week, we all drove downtown, I dropped the girls off, then drove to my Quran students home (they usually come to my house in the mornings, but I told their mom that since I was already out, I might as well go to their house for that week) to give them their individual Quran lessons. I thought it would be nothing, but it did turn out to be more tiring than I expected. Funny how when I finally get a break from Taleem, I was caught up in something else. Never an idle moment, I guess.
Last week, the girls were supposed to pick up their ceramics pieces from the museum on Thursday, the very day that we were going to Houston. It was a very H.E.C.T.I.C. day. We were running around town doing this and that. All made worse by the horribly long wait at the doctor’s office. Yes, I am still bitter over that. I dread having to go there again.
It was only yesterday that I had the chance to look at their ceramics pieces with admiration, as I snapped pictures. I particularly love S’s blue cookie jar design. I love the waves, the whale’s tail, the clouds, the sun. And of course, the blue. I also love the cubic container, the multicolored small jar and the pink and yellow jar. And I so love how N designed her cookie jar lid.
It was during that week when they were having class that their instructor told me, a day before they were to work on the wheel,
“They should wear a shirt over what they’re wearing,” indicating that the girls’ hijabs would get in the way.
I nodded, but later, as I got in the van and drove home, I felt an increasing annoyance at her implication.
“You’ve worked with the wheel with these hijabs before, haven’t you?” I asked them. They nodded.
“Why is it that these people think the hijab is a hindrance to everything?! Like when you took the horseriding lesson, S, they thought it would be a hindrance. And now this! We wear the hijab and we can do lots of things. These people are just not used to it.”
I was enraged, and the next day, the girls didn’t really wore a shirt over, but they tucked their hijabs in, and the instructor didn’t say anything. I’m glad she didn’t. Because at the stress level at which I was functioning, I might have not uttered anything with wisdom.
As is such, I deem it a loss opportunity at making dawah on my part. Shame on me!
Pink & Green?
April 22, 2009 at 6:16 pm | In Art, Family, Home Depot, Kids, New Mexico, Projects | 1 Comment
When only the drawers were painted
Last week was my spring break from Taleem Quran, and I told the kids that we would paint their dresser then. Alhamdulillah, they did it bit by bit, drawer by drawer. After Fajr,
they went out to the backyard, and sanded down their drawers.
They found out that it was a lot of work, but it was worth it, because the reward was: painting! When we went to Home Depot, we had our first experience purchasing paint. I have never purchased paint before, and so we asked one of the Home Depot guys lingering around the aisles.
We knew enough to look for paint that is to be used on wood, and when directed to the the particular aisle, we hunted the color the girls wanted; lime green and pink. There were none. So we asked again, and apparently, we had to choose paint color that was available on the card swatch, and they would mix it for us.
Choosing the exact tone and shade of green and pink took quite some time, as N had trouble deciding, much to S’s exasperation.
“What kind of finish do you want?” the man asked me, before he mixed the paint for us.
“Do we have to have one?”
You could tell how ignorant I was about the whole thing.
Sometimes, when you want to learn something, you just have to make a fool of yourself, and that was what I did.
“Flat or glossy?” he asked.
Alhamdulillah he was pretty patient with me.
“What’s the price difference?”
Of course, that was what mattered the most, because one can of paint costs about 10 bucks.
“Oh, not much, just about a dollar.”
I chose the flat, even if it was just about dollar. It was our first painting project and I didn’t want to spend too much on it.
So we went home and stored the paint can in the sunroom closet. They sat in there for weeks. So when my spring break came, it was high time we took the paint cans out and delved into our first ever painting/furniture refurbishing project. I was probably more excited about the project than they were, and I anticipated taking over the painting, as I used to do with every creative project they do.
Sanding the dresser
However, I know enough to leave them alone. Plus, I was busy with other things in the house, while they worked with their project in the backyard. The huge plastic our old neighbor in Columbus gave us proved useful as it became the ‘catch-all’ for the paint drips so that the bricked backyard was not marred by any paint splotches.
It took about a week, roughly, for the girls to finish painting their dresser. Since the sun is hot, the paint dried pretty quickly too. I had also checked out some books from the library on painting and projects. There was one technique called combing that looked very appealing. S didn’t want to do it though.
On the side of the dresser, she decided to paint stripes, and in the beginning she freehandedly painted the stripes. That led to my nag:
“Everything has difficulty. You choose which difficulty you want. Now you have to fix tha and repaint over it. The other difficulty is that you plan it beforehand, but afterwards, it becomes easy.”
Whenever a spill occurs, I tell them the same nag.
I think even hubby has absorbed the nag, when I told H,
“Wearing the gloves is kind of a hassle, but do you want to choose that difficulty, or do you want to deal with the difficulty of having very dry and cracked hands?”
It really is just a matter of choosing which difficulty to undertake. Though I’m sure they’re sick of that nag now.
We found that our hands and skins are very very dry here. A sister at the masjid said it’s because there is a lot of chlorine in the water and add the dryness to that. The kids’ skin look like old people’s skin!
So, when we brainstormed how to fix the unlevel stripe mistake onthe side of the dresser, S came up with the solution.
“Tape!”
So I helped them put tapes in even intervals, and after that, their stripe-painting was a breeze.
For the polka dots on top of the dresser, they had initally planned to use a carboard tube and make pink circles instead. But the day before, Baby Z had chewed on it and so the circle wasn’t quite circly. The girls had made a ‘blueprint’ of the dresser design, upon my instruction, way before we even bought the paint. But they had to change some things last minute, on the spot, due to several factors, including the chewed up cardboard tube. They had wanted to paint flowers on the drawers, but for now, maybe not yet.
All in all, it was a good project and learning experience for us all. H even helped them with the sanding. As for me, as I looked on at their beautiful refurbished dresser, I thought to myself,
I wish I had a dresser like that when I was a child.
All done!
Mashaallah! May we get something better in Jannah. Ameen!
Native Child Care Bags
April 1, 2009 at 2:35 pm | In Art, Community, Projects, Sewing | Leave a Comment
Check out Farhana’s blog: Sketched Soul, for the latest community/charity project!
It has been a while since we did anything in this arena what with the move and all, but I think inshaalllah we’re ready to get back in business in terms of charity work.
For the Sunday school, inshaallah, the sister teaching Islamic studies will have the girls participating in a homeless children project as part of a unit study on charity. They will also inshaallah do some gardening on masjid ground (hubby got some brothers to prepare the garden spot for them because the sister had trouble getting brothers to do it), and there was talk about them making over one room in the masjid via painting the walls. This is what S loves about the Sunday school. And mashaallah, the sisters are really working hard to make Sunday school interesting for them, mashaallah. That’s another reason I’m actually pumped up about teaching Sunday school too, though my problem is on how to help each child who cannot read the Quran fluently do so in a limited time, only once per week.
I was chatting with a friend a few days ago, and she was telling me how this problem (Muslim kids not knowing how to read Quran at all, or read it fluently) is a common problem for Muslims living in the west. Her husband is the principal for their Sunday school, and she said that since he took up the position (usually a voluntary one, especially for small towns, I think) they have been racking their brains trying to figure out a syllabus or something of the like to address that particular problem. And to this day, they still have not figured out a solution. No wonder I was bogged down with this the past few weeks. I was trying to figure out a way I can help each child individually in the allotted time while not wasting the time of those who already know how to read (fluently or not). There are about 7 girls, minus my daughters and there is only 1 hour. I debated whether to continue working with the current surah they are in or bring them back to the shorter suwaar since their pronunciations are not even correct. As for tafseer, I don’t think I will be doing it because I have been asking around for advice on that, and a knowledgeable and wise sister said to me,
“It’s always very tricky to start teaching just from any book without having first learnt from a teacher. I think you should verify whatever you read in ibn kathir also if it is authentic. Sometimes some things may not be.
InshaAllah once you are done with the evening course – in 3 years time you will be ready to share what you have learnt.”
I have yet to make istikharah as I was handicapped before and just got my praying privileges back, and on top of that there are other istikharahs I have had to make.
But for now it seems that I will not be doingthe tafseer I had originally intended to do, and upon a suggestion of another sister, I might (if I still want to give the girls a taste of tafseer) either have them listen to Touched By An Angel by Muhamad AlShareef, which is a brief elaboration on Juz ‘Amma, or I relay it to them. I only have about 15 minutes to do it anyway, so the issue of them being bored inshaallah will not come up. I even did an informal shura with S, and asked her,
“You think I should have them listen to that CD?”
She began to shake her head.
I made sure to tell her that it won’t be for an hour.
She paused and then nodded.
“Of all the speakers who do you like best?”
“Muhammad AlShareef,” she said.
“Why?”
“He makes jokes sometimes.”
“And he speaks properly.”
Ouch! That’s what happens when you have a child raised in the West. Even though they do not go to school, I notice that they have this tendency to want to listen to unaccented English. (Even though their own parents speak accented English). Or maybe that is the reason they want to listen to unaccented English. Sigh.
Anyway, back to the Native Child Care Bags. A fun way to attain some share of sadaqah jariyah.
Again, check out Farhana’s Sketched Soul, my favorite artsy blog.
Never a Dull Moment
March 31, 2009 at 9:30 pm | In Amusing, Art, Family, Kids, Siblings | 2 Comments
What have they done to my baby?
With three older kids and one really young one, I actually get a lot of ‘free’ time. I used to have three babies hanging onto my skirt everyday, but those days are long gone, and I am now surrounded by three older kids who can tease me, make fun of me, help me, ignore me, and bring life into my already chaotic but contented life. Yesterday, as I changed Baby Z’s diaper, I noticed this on his leg. A slightly curved line with short lines across it down its length.
“Who did this to Z?” I exclaimed.
H came and immediately he ran away again, apparently stifling a giggle. Since I had asked the question in a manner that was onthe verge of scolding, he didn’t dare laugh directly as a reply. I have to admit it was pretty funny, and after he left, I burst out laughing too. Later that night, I thought that I had better capture it on my camera’s memory chip before it fades off. As I sat Baby Z on the loveseat in the sunroom, he accomodated me and even smiled, pointing to the ’stitches’ H had ‘given’ him during his ’surgery’, which further drove me to uncontrollable laughter. However, I made sure that H didn’t know what I was doing. I wouldn’t want him to give Baby Z more surgeries.
We have a laundry closet, or what I call a laundry closet, which houses one washer and one dryer (which we don’t use anymore now because we dry our washed clothes outside on the the clothesline hubby had put up rather ingeniously). Today, I realized that there was soemthing residing on top of the dryer. I had recently bought a ‘basket’ to put clean rolled/folded towels in and I had put it on top of the dryer. When I washed some items today, I noticed the thing residing on top of the dryer.
A miserable expression painted on his face.
Remember the Bot Craze? Well, I had seen this particular bot, and I remember it because I said to them,
“Why does he look so miserable?”
And of course, since children hate chores, they reflected their sentiments about cleaning onto CleanBot.
Another giggle eruptor. My life is never boring, alhamdulillah.
Bot Craze!
March 25, 2009 at 2:02 am | In Amusing, Art, Kids, Projects | 5 CommentsWith an abundace of empty boxes, the kids were spurred into creative action. Using what they have, in our sunroom, which is now the official ‘project’ room, they created a line of BOt creations. N, the Bot designer, made a catalog of the many kinds of bots available for order, and together, S and N constructed these bots, all while I was busy cathing up my missed TQ classes. With no TV in the house, and no internet (at the time), they managed to utilize their time with something pretty much beneficial (it’s beneficial that they’re not moping around complaining that there was nothing to do).
When they showed me their catalog, I was very impressed. I couldn’t help smiling and laughing at some of the bots they designed, and even suggested more bots. However, this creative strike lasted only for a few days, as they tired of it, and moved on to other things, namely computer games, after we got internet.
Nevertheless, I will treasure their bots, as I always do their other creations. Even though I intend to put up pictures of our new place, this will take priority because it’s a record of their creativity. I’m still not too happy that it’s something animate (kind of), but I have yet to offer or suggest other halal alternatives.
So here we go, in reminiscence of the Uglies:
The craft area. What a blessing that we have this extra room where they can work on their projects and leave them overnight without messing up their rooms or the rest of the house. Alhamdulillah!
Ruboot and Heartbot standing on a stack of books that were still on the living room floor because we had yet to get bookcases. (Now we have, alhamdulillah)
Ruboot with his 'secret' compartment.
Rubix. He can roll.
The Bots having a party in the backyard, while I was attending my TQ class.
In the backyard
GirlBot in a tree
Heartbot in a tree
Candybot in a tree
Bakebot in a tree
Bots hanging out in the tree, apparently.
And then literally hanging out on the clothesline!
What a party!
On a Roll
March 25, 2009 at 1:23 am | In 4-H, Al Huda Institute, Art, Community, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, Mothering, Thoughts | 4 CommentsCarlsbad Caverns. Unfortunately, hubby can’t get a day off tomorow, so the kids can’t go, but, the brothers who invited us to go offered to take H on the trip in the case that hubby can’t go. So inshaallah, H is going tomorrow without us. I wasn’t going to go because I can’t afford to miss anymore TQ classes, so if hubby were to get the day off, they would have all gone without Baby Z and me. Alas, qadr Allah, only H will go inshaallah. Inshaallah at a better time, all of us can go.
We all went to the county extension office this afternoon. Hubby had a meeting with the county agent, and I wanted to sign the kids up for the 4-H program. We returned with a thick folder of information about the program, which I have yet to divulge in.
This morning, S and I continued the assembly of her new bed frame, a platform bed. Hubby had started on it last night, but since we were invited over to a Singaporean family’s house for dinner, he didn’t get to finish assembling it. I couldn’t just sit around. So I decided to take a go at it and assemble it myself, just so it’s over with. Not having pieces of wood all across the room helps gives me a sense of accomplishment too. Alhamdulillah with S and H’s (noisy) help, we managed to successfully assemble it. One down, three more to go. The other 3 kids are still on box springs with no frame. Alhamdulillah.
The kids have been back to creating things from scratch. Since we have an abundance of empty boxes lying around, they got into it, and created a row of Bots, which I will put up pictures of in another post inshaallah. While I was attending my TQ class, they tok their Bots out for a party in the backyard. The proof is in the pictures they took. Their Bots are actually adorable, mashaallah.
Last night, our Singaporean friend, gave Baby Z a bagful of toy cars and a huge stack of Winnie the Pooh books. This morning, I found H creating roads with the books for the cars.
“Don’t do that, H. Z is watching you. I don’t want him to treat books like that. If you want to make roads, use the cardboards. You can paint it or whatever.”
That set him off and before long, I had two kids out in the backyard with a few bottles of paint and ingenious creations as paintbrushes (since I had thrown away all the paintbrushes before the move). In a few hours, H brought in a cardboard based ‘highway’ for their toy cars. The sunshine here is so intense that it dried up in just a few hours. We utlized the heat to dry our clothes alhamdulillah. That saves our gas bill and energy that fits in with our attempt to go green. HUbby put up a temporary clothesline in the backyard, which is actually not enough for one load of laundry. But because the heat is so intense, I am able to hang out two batches of clothes to dry from one load. In a few hours, the first batch is dry and I am able to hang out the second batch. Inshaallah, when they’re back in stock, we’re going to buy the standing clothesline from Home Depot.
As for Baby Z and breastfeeding, he is wenaed, though not intentionally. AFter the move, my milk supply decreased especialy afterwe moved in the new house. Baby Z got sick, and after a while he just knew there wasn’t any milk left. He wouldn’t even suckle even though he keeps asking for it.
Let’s just say that it was emotional for me. I have been on a diet restrictions for almost 2 years, ever since we realized he was allergic to a lot of stuff. Now that I’m no longer breastfeeding, I can go back to eating the normal food, and I had thought that I would feel overjoyed by this, but fact is, I’m not. For one, it takes getting used to to remember that I can eat those food. I am so used to not being able to eat normal food that when I grocery shop, I still shop for me as well as for Baby Z. Now that I’m off the diet restriction, our grocery shopping bill should be less, alhamdulillah. But in truth, I feel like a traitor to Baby Z. I’m back to normal, and he’s still ’stuck’. As for the breastfeeding, I feel useless especially because he didn’t complete the two years. Short of one plus month. He is also now sleeping on his own bed. My baby is no longer a baby.
Though for the past few nights he has woken up in his bed crying such that we had to take him to our bed. But last night, he woke up, but didn’t cry. I have co-slept with him longer than I have with the other three. I had to separate the older three, and basically they stopped sleeping with me after the age one. But Baby Z, because of his allergies, has had ’special’ treatment. I didn’t know how I was going to separate him from our bed, but I didn’t worry too much about it. And subhanallah, it’s happening by itself. I stand 100% by the proponents of co-sleeping. I remember researching about infant sleeping for a SISTERS magazine article a while back, and at that time, I didn’t know how I’m going to fare with my co-sleeping baby, but from the literature I’ve read on co-sleeping, it is said that the child will eventually opt tp separate from the parents bed on his own. Subhanallah. It is true. Even though Baby Z woke up in the middle of the night crying, and we took him to bed with us, he seemed to be growing more independent on his own accord, with no ‘effort’ on my part. ALhamdulillah. Though I still yearn his babyness. Time goes by so quickly. Ahh…
As for the bigger kids, I have come to realize that I will be doing a lot more driving around in town after listening to the 4-H county agent tell me about the program. Club meeting once a month. Projects. ALhamdulillah this town is small. If it was in Columbus, I think I’d still be afraid to drive around unfamiliar places by myself with the kids. Alhamdulillah…I think I’ve entered a new stage in motherhood. Subhanallah. May Allah bless it with good and only good. Ameen.
The Uglies
January 29, 2009 at 8:39 pm | In Amusing, Art, Crochet, Kids, Mothering | 8 Comments“Ummi, can we take this box?”
Since October, I’ve had boxes lying around in the house, and since October, I have been packing, and since October, my life has been put on hold. Well, not completely on hold, but to a certain extent at least. I guess I can blame it on my extreme dislike for last minute work, that I started packing in October. I expected to move out sometime after December, but alhamdulillah, things turned around, and we stayed.
And now, the packing has somewhat resumed, but not full throttle. Thus, I had empty boxes lying around, which the kids saw as opportunities for unleashing their creativity on.
Without much interest or care, I nodded, thinking that we would find more empty boxes later on.
So they did what they wanted with that empty box, and before I knew it, they had created something that I overlooked for days before curiosity and fascination overtook me.
This morning, as I labeled the photos, I asked them the names of each crocheted character. As S told me, she paused and said,
“Well, actually, they’re characters from a book, so maybe you shouldn’t put them on the blog.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because it might be plagiarism or something.”
To be honest, I don’t know the complete in and out of the plagiarism, but I don’t think kids creating something in imitation of a copyrighted character is plagiarism. Is it?
The Ugly Guide.
This was the book that drew sighs and groans and slaps on the foreheads from both hubby and me, especially when even Baby Z started to carry it with him everywhere. He even fell asleep with that book by his head. He seemed to particularly be drawn to that book, maybe because of its illustrations. So we had the kids return the book.
So this morning, when S interjected and said,
“Those characters are from a book.”
“What book?” I asked, as I continued to label each photo with Photoscape.
Suddenly it occurred to me, and I asked.
“Oh please don’t tell me…” I began, and S slowly uttered,
“The Ugly Guide.”
S giggled nervously. As for me, I was stopped in my tracks, and rendered a forehead-slapping mother with her head in her hands.
There we were, disapproving the book The Ugly Guide, and here they are, recreating the world inside the Ugly Guide, to my ignorant admiration. Subhanallah. But I have to admit. Those Uglies are kind of cute.
Making scraps of old clothes we had refrained from throwing away, (intending to use them as rag cloths especially when the move comes closer), the kids used what they could find around the house to make a home for their crocheted Uglies.
They cut the box in half horizontally, and combined it to make two open enclosed ‘rooms’. The first time I saw this, I told them,
“Hey, you can actually practice interior designing or architectural designs with this.”
I was so fascinated by this (after days of its creation) that without telling them, I whipped out the camera and started clicking.
For days they were playing with this, and for a while, they kept shooing Baby Z to me, so he wouldn’t mess up their ‘house’.
So this morning, we made these captions/labels together.
When they realized I was taking photos of their creations, they jumped up and cleaned it up, placing each character in his/her place. (Slaps forehead…can’t believe I’m actually doing this)
As a proof of my aging, I kept forgetting the names of these Uglies, and had to ask them several times.
I told them we would get rid of the Ugly House when we move. They consented, albeit not without woeful groans.
Of course though, I had fun with the photography session.
I think, after reading some reviews about The Ugly Guide, I might take a deeper look inside in between its covers. The rate at which the kids are reading leave me not up to date with what they are reading, which is one of my parenting problems right now.
Though they do roughly know the shouldn’ts. I dread these upcoming years. I really do. Oh Allah, please strengthen me with parenting wisdom and a lot of patience. Ameen.
Creativity, like all things, can be made bad and good. Proper channeling. That’s what I probably have to do a lot of.
I dig this scarf rack !
The commode. Ahh…kids at this age. I couldn’t help but smile at the ingenuity. Of all ‘furniture’ they had to make, it had to be one of necessity. Smart kids. (Is that really the case?)
And of course, I had to go along with the madness.
Uh oh! A little visitor!
Bamboo skewers I usually use for satay, aluminum foil, an empty toilet paper roll, and some yarn. How come I was never this creative when I was growing up?
When I wasn’t looking, they opened the windows, and set this up on the surface of the air conditioner that juts out from their bedroom window. I discovered this when I was uploading the photos from the camera. It rendered me a head-shaking mother, tinged with tickling amusement.
And the winnah…
This is what happens when you’re cooped up in the house by recurring snow days with plummeting temperatures that make their presence well known even inside the house. Add the hecticness of packing and anticipated move to that, and you have yourself a bunch of really creative kids, not to forget a half crazy mama.
On a more serious note:
Subhanallah. I have to tell them.
Allah created us in the best of molds. That’s it. Suck a lesson out of all this. Milk it. Milk it till it’s dry.
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