So, with all the cake ventures, the girls decided to enroll in Wilton’s Cake Decorating class Level I (although S had already taken this class in C-bus). It came about rather accidentally; this plunging into an activity. It all stemmed from our search for the container for my Pandan Chiffon that I was to submit to the Southern New Mexico State Fair. It took me a-googling and I stumbled upon a store in town called Create a Cake, that offers classes. I had emailed some moms in town, in case they are also interested for their girls, and that brought My, whose mom, Sy said that she is interested. So she called the store and asked about the time, price and all those details. Meanwhile, another mom replied to my email and told me that Hobby Lobby offers cake decorating classes too and she knew because her daughters took the Level I last summer. When I asked Hobby Lobby for more details, it turned out that it was way cheaper! $17.50 vs. $60.00(or was it $70.00) and since I was going to have two girls to pay for, I immediately went for Hobby Lobby.

And so it was that I registered the girls and My. for the class. Sy. and I arranged for pick up and drop off so the burden is shared between our two families. Since the class goes right through Maghrib, we told the girls to pray when Maghrib came in. Alhamdulillah they’ve had this experience again and again since we were in C-bus, when they were taking sewing and classes at the Whetstone Rec Center. Most of the times though, hubby would go to them at the salah time, take them out of class and pray with them at a hallway or somewhere secluded. Now that they’re bigger, they’re starting to do it themselves. H, recently, during his soccer practice, excused himself from it and went next to the NMSU swimming pool building to pray Maghrib by himself. It so happened that hubby was in St Louis at the time. Usually, he would be with H and they’d pray together, but this time around, I had TQ, and we had asked a brother to help with picking and dropping H off for his soccer practice, and before H left, I reminded him of Maghrib. He wore his watch, and when he came home, I asked him if he prayed. Apparently, he had asked the coach if he could go for about 5 minutes, and he prayed next to the building.

“Did anyone watch you?” I asked, curious.

“”Well, a man passed by.”

Alhamdulillah he feels comfortable doing that.

N on the other hand, during a 4-H council meeting, fidgeted and fidgeted when she was supposed to pray Maghrib in a corner of the office. I have to admit though that it was probably not easy for her, because at the time, she was the only one who could pray, hubby and H were not there, and the room was also filled with other kids. So, I had to ask the 4-H agent if we could use an empty office room for N to pray in. When she went in, she immediately prayed with no hesitation.

At the cake class, on the very first day, Sy. stayed, so for that day, the girls, (well, N rather) had an adult to pray with, in an aisle in Hobby Lobby. On the second week, they were by themselves, but alhamdulillah all three girls prayed by themselves at the same spot where My.s mom had prayed the week before. They just got up and went out to pray, alhamdulillah. My. however, stopped going to the class because she didn’t enjoy it, so the third week, which was twp days ago, S and N prayed by themselves.

We all had gone out to go to the Imaging Center for my X-ray before the girls’ class. On the way to the class, we reminded them of the time for Maghrib.

“6.30 you two can pray. Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” S answered.

“I can come to you if you want,” offered hubby, meaning that he could come around maghrib time to take them out of class so they could pray.

“They already did it themselves last week,” I said to hubby.

“So you guys can do it by yourselves?” asked hubby.

“Yeah,” they replied.

So, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.

place wax paper on top of the ruoghly iced cake and smooth it by running the spatula over the cake top and side over the wax paper and the lift...

All smooth!

It was during the second week that the girls had to bring an iced cake to class. S practically made her own cake, frosting, and iced it herself. She actually showed and taught me a new technique for smoothing the frosting on the cake; a technique I was not privy to before. N, ahh…N, I had to remind her to bake her cake and practically helped her and baked it for her, though she did most of the measuring. Then S helped her ice it because by then I was too exhausted and angry at N for not taking responsibility for her own deadlines.

When we picked them up that night though, they were not done decorating their cakes and I asked why.

“The teacher was talking and talking and only the last 20 minutes she let us decorate the cake.”

Aha…that is also part of the reason My. stopped going to class after that week.

So the girls finished decorating their cakes at home. They had also learned the technique for transfering pattern on the cake from wax/parchment paper using piping gel; another technique I have never used.

And voila! Their cakes look AWESOME! Mashaallah!

N's cake

S' cake

And what did we do with these two whole cakes? We gave them out to our neighbors and left a container of cake slices at the men’s kitchen in the masjid, with a note explaining its presence attached.

I’ve been craving for cakes for some time, so when I expressed the desire to make one, the kids took to it like kids to candies. No occasion, just felt like cake. I had intended to decorate a layered cake myself, but after the cake was done cooling, the girls asked if they could decorate a cake too. Feeling too lazy to bake more cakes, I just told them to decorate the cakes I baked.

So there it was, two cake layers, one for each girl. A blank canvas, ready to be splotched with frosting colored as they wished.

And these were what they came up with, mashaallah!

S’s looked like a round table gently draped with a tablecloth. I love how she made her design. She claimed that she saw that kind of design in some books.

S' Tablecloth Cake

N's Thank You Cake

N, focused her decorating more on a thoughtful  level. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her finished cake. Each of the flowers was for each of us, and she had practically dedicated the cake as a thank you to hubby and me. Mashaallah. I suppose that is her strength; thoughtfulness. Subhanallah, may I never forget that. Ameen.

I 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!

Our Great Depression study went on for weeks. I had dreaded the New Deal because it involves a lot of explanation. We have been doing our learning in the living room lately, and that particular morning that I started going over the New Deal, I was also rushing because I had a doctor’s appointment at 9 a.m.

Two of the kids were not paying full attention, and I just snapped. I had planned on doing the lesson with them because the New Deal, as I said, requires some explanation. But as it went, I ended up telling them to write a report on it from their own research and understanding. All the information was there, they just had to learn it themselves. And I left for my doctor’s appointment.

Suffice it to say, they did do that impromptu assignment, alhamdulillah, with no complaints. H was done first, as always, this boy likes to finish his work ASAP just so he could get it over with. His report was pretty good. Then came S’ report. Much better. Well, I can’t really compare the two because they are at different levels. With N though, it came much later.  It required her to write, rewrite, and I had to show her again and again. I have always been struggling teaching her because as it is, I don’t really know how to teach her effectively. I have a different learning style and this affects my teaching. She is more hands on and even though she loves creative writing, she doesn’t really like rules, so when it comes to writing reports or the like, it’s really something to deal with.

But alhamdulillah she finally did finish her report, past the deadline, but at least she finished it alhamdulillah. They didn’t want me putting their reports on the blog, so even though I really want to, for memory and easy, referable documenting purposes, I guess I’ll respect their wishes.

Overall, the writing report steps I had prepared before helped them in writing their reports as they referred to it throughout the process. Though, I did realize that those needed some major corrections on my part.

A white ribbon! It was pure white! I’ve never seen a white fair ribbon before. And it came with what? H’s 4H cloth banner, which we had deemed ‘did not win anything’, though I would have given him a blue ribbon for effort!

There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the fair grounds. Everyone was waiting to pick up their exhibits in that one hour window.

“We’re not moving,” said hubby.

So I got down, with the girls and walked towards the entrance, bypassing the cars. Apparently, that’s what some people did too, and as we walked towards the Veteran’s building, some people were walking towards the entrance with their exhibits. It was quite an interesting sensation, because as we passed by some people, I happened to notice a familiar exhibit we saw during the fair, held by its owner, a boy. It was as if we have become familiar with the exhibits such that it was quite exciting to see who the owners were.

when we got inside the Veteran’s building, people were standing in line waiting to get their exhibits back. I patted my jilbab pocket and slipped my hand in  to make sure I had the tag no. for the exhibits. As we were standing in line, I caught sight of a lady holding a clear plastic plate, lined with white paper doily, on which was her baked good, and all of that inside a small ziploc.

Baked goods?! They still have it? I thought, and a surge of excitement ran through me.

I was pretty devastated, well, maybe that was a little dramatic, but I was quite sad to have had miss the Bakesale that Wednesday evening, the day we submitted our baked goods at the fair. I had wanted to snap photos of our baked goods with the ribbons and all. I thought I was never going to see those cakes and cookies with the blue ribbons attached.

So, as soon as we got the kids’ exhibits, I asked the lady in charge of baked goods where the baked goods were, and she pointed me to another section of the building. Lo and behold, on the table were laid all the baked goods, the samples plated on those little clear plastic plate lined with white doily and enclosed in small ziplocs. We looked for ours and found them.

Finally, we saw our baked goods with blue and red ribbons attached to them! Well, more like stapled, but yippee! To top it off, on myBanana cake was also attached a bigger blue ribbon, one of those ‘fancy ones’ S had coveted during the fair day and also an envelope wielding a check! I had won Best of Lot. Alhamdulillah!

With our arms full, we walked back to the entrance, but saw hubby driving the van towards us. It was during our drive back home that we discovered that H had placed third for his 4-H cloth banner. A white ribbon.

Apparently, the string to which the ribbon was tied to was long enough that when it hung off the yarn that hung the banner, the ribbon was hidden behind the banner. I remember even looking at the photos I took of the banner at the fair and couldn’t remember seeing a ribbon. Well, we looked and scrutinized the photos again and finally we did notice the vertical string. Subhanallah…so the kids won ribbons for everything they entered in the fair. Alhamdulillah…

Blue, Red and White ribbons. Flying colors…

Our schooling got put on hold (well, depends on what you define schooling as though) the past few days because we were busy whipping up baked goods for the state fair. As we had decided weeks ago, the kids were to do their practice baking individually before Eid, and then the actual baking for the fair days before the fair. Though S decided to make Dixie Pixies for the fair instead, because making the Meringue Bubbles turned out to be more work than she had bargained for.

On Monday, we went to the fairgrounds and submitted the kids’ 4-H projects for the non-livestock exhibits. I had hubby drive us there because I wasn’t familiar with the road and it involved going on the interstate (and I hate highways) so that come Wednesday, I could drive by myself. We saw a lot of great youth entries, mashaallah!

That same Monday, S made her Dixie Pixie dough and refrigerated it, while N made her butterscotch brownies. We had gone out that Monday morning though, so there was only like a few hours for both girls to bake their stuff. When I came down from my much needed nap, N was pouring her brownie batter into the pan lined with waxed paper hanging over the sides. I told her to scrape all the batter off and replace the waxed paper with aluminum foil, which H claimed to be ‘finished’. This boy searches with his mouth rather than his eyes.  But by the time she was done doing that, there was no time left for her to bake it in the oven before we had to go to the fairgrounds to submit the 4H project items, so I told her to refrigerate it and bake it when we come home. That she did, and alhamdulillah that turned out ok. Otherwise, she’d have to bake it again the next day.

Tuesday, H started making his cookies after Fajr, and so did I, with my Pandan Chiffon and Cordon Rose Banana Cake. S also baked her Dixie Pixies. I was completely exhausted that day, as I not only baked one of each type of cake, but two; one for us and one for the fair. At first i decided not to bake the second banana cake becuase I was too tired, but if I didn’t I’d have to bake it the next day, right after Fajr. I thought of the hassle that would produce, as we had planned to leave for the fair around 8:30 a.m. So I ended up baking both banana cakes that day. Alhamdulillah I did.

We had spent Monday morning shopping around for a container for my Chiffon. That brought us to a cake store I came upon on google; Create a Cake. It offers cake decorating classes too. I emailed some moms in town about this in case they are interested for their girls, and a fellow homeschooling family expressed interest. Sv. called the store and told me that the class is a 4 week series, for $35 but the decorating tools are $25 and the book is $5. That would mean about $60 per child. Just yesterday, I called Hobby Lobby and found out that their cake decorating classes, by Wilton are cheaper, so I signed the girls up along with their friend My. As for S, she also attended the Off the Wall two part quilting session, pretty last minute yesterday, along with her friend My.

I was fasting that Monday and I just decided to use a foil pizza pan and wrap the chiffon in plastic wrap instead of driving around town to continue looking for cake containers that are tall enough to accomodate a Chiffon. So on Tuesday, that’s what I did, and oh boy, how ugly it looked. But since the fair will not return the containers we put our baked goods in, it makes good sense (at least to me) to send in such an economical solution.

While I was folding the egg whites into my egg yolk batter for the Chiffon, S stood by and asked questions. So I showed her the folding technique that is meant to minimize air loss in the batter, for Chiffons depend on the air whipped into the egg whites to rise, and if you mess that up, you will not get a Chiffon. It is also important to have the egg whites pure from any yolks, for if there are, it won’t beat up to stiff or soft peaks. Chemistry lesson right there. I wish some chemistry experiments in high school involved baking. That would have been scrumptious!

By evening, we were all done. Then N had to exercise some clumsiness. While trying to move the containers in which they had nicely arranged their cookies, she managed, yes, she managed to drop both hers and H’s. Result: H’s Pecan Shortbread Melts broke in unsalvageable crumbs! H at the time was at soccer practice. I was not too happy either, because I knew how hard H had worked on that, which included chopping the pecans very finely. Let’s just say I was very very very frustrated at N’s lack of care (not just in this, but almost any other time) in doing things (anything except her drawing).

When H came home, of course he wasn’t very happy either. But he got over it pretty quickly and decided to put some pieces that are broken (not whole, but missing some parts) to replace the completely destructed ones. He didn’t want to make another batch. To be honest, I wouldn’t have wanted to either. So, for sure, we though he was not going to win a blue or any ribbon for that one. What a shame…Qadr Allah.

Wednesday arrived, and we followed our planned schedule. We also brought along My, S’ homeschool friend. We had partly packed our backpack Tuesday night, so Wednesday morning was not that hectic alhamdulillah. The drive to the fair was alhamdulillah fine and dandy, despite my abhorrence for highways.

“Make sure you read your duas, kids!” was my reminder everytime we go out, but that day, it was especially emphasized.

Hubby had also recently bought S a cellphone, which is only to be used for calling him in cases of emergencies or urgent needs. So I felt a little better having that with us, because I don’t have one, and don’t really wish to have one.

H, N and I walked to the Special Events Building to submit our baked goods, and we left S, My and sleeping Baby Z in the van, parked on the Carnival grounds. It was not till later that I realized I had parked in the wrong area! I thought I was following the man’s instructions, and with puzzlement wondered why the heaven he’d tell me to park on the carnival grounds. Apparently, I was supposed to drive further up front and then turn right to a parking lot for the Special Events building. So H, N, and I had to walk quite some ways with baked goods in our arms to the Special Events building.

Subhanallah, there were a lot of entries! A table was loaded with decorated cakes by youth, by high schoolers actually, and they were just amazing! Mashaallah!

As I signed the kids’ baked goods up, the lady in charge asked,

“Your husband works for the extension?”

“Yes,” I said as I continued to fill in the forms. She probably recognized it from the kids’ last names.

“I’m G. I work with him, he’s our extension person.”

And it turned out that most of the people in charge of the Baked Goods section are the extension people working with hubby.

We spent the morning browsing the fairgrounds. Our first stop was the Super Scientific Circus show. I love it because tricks were performed but he also explained the scientific reasons behind it. He also showed us how to make a boomerang from a pizza box.

Our next stop was the petting zoo. Baby Z was kissed repeatedly by a very friendly Llama. He was not too happy about it.

Our plan was to roam the fairgrounds until the judges were finished judging the baked goods, at 1 pm. Since I had TQ class at 3:30 pm that afternoon, I had to leave the latest by 2 pm anyway. We ate our snacks, whom S had prepared the night before; amsll ziploc bags of banana cake and Chiffon, Baby Z’s pancakes and bananas, and of course our water canteens.

We went to the Veteran’s Building, where they had the exhibits. Lo and behold, subhanallah, S and N’s picture frame were awarded ribbons!

S got a blue ribbon and N got a red ribbon(second place). H didn’t get anything. I felt pretty bad about it because I know how hard he worked on that cloth banner.

We went to the 4H building too and saw some great items done under 4H projects by the 4Hers. More ideas for the kids. I love those exhibits as they also gave me and the kids ideas of what to enter in the next year’s state fair, as well as what to make for their science and history projects. In fact, I took N and walked with her along the exhibits, showing her some displays or projects to give her some ideas for her Science and History projects, which she was having some trouble with.

That day, I also learned a lot about wool spinning and weaving. RIght outside the 4H building was a booth and sheep pen. Two ladies were spinning yarn, and they beckoned us to come so we did. I ended up learning a whole lot about the whole process of weaving, spinning.

• First, the sheep is sheared
• Then she’d hand pick the dirt, grass from the freshly sheared wool
• She would wash them on a special screen submerged in a big tub of water, but has to be careful not to aggravate them too much or they will turn into felt
• Then she’d dry them on that screen
• It’s then carded so the fibers all run in the same direction (we stopped by a booth of the Farm and Heritage Museum and the kids actually tried carding some wool with the combs. It was NOT easy!)
• The dry wool would then be spun into yarn on the spinning wheel. It would take her about 1-2 hours to fill the bobbin
• The yarn can then be woven into a shawl

She told me about a competition called Sheep to Shawl where they would work as a team. The sheep would be sheared and they would skip the washing and drying stages and jump straight to the spinning stage and then weaving. According to these ladies, it takes 5 people to hand pick the dirt from the freshly sheared wool, and 5 spinners to keep up with one weaver. I can only imagine how the competition goes. It must be nerve wrecking but amazing to watch! Maybe something like Iron Chef.

These ladies also told us about wool’s itch factor. it depends on the wool itself, but sometimes, if the wool was processed commercially, where acid is used to clean and dissolve the dirt as opposed to the dirt being handpicked, the resulting sweater then becomes itchy. That was a precious information that was very interesting to me. I love that visit to that booth!

We stopped by some NMSU’s Science exhibit buildings too where the kids got themselves some astronomy posters and brochures. Then we went back to the exhibit building to wait for the baked goods to be done judged and put on display. When 1 pm arrived and no one from the Special Events building seem to be entering the Veteran’s building, I sent H to peek inside the Special Events building to see if they were done judging. He came back and told me there were only a few people there and they seemed to be done judging. I couldn’t afford to wait any longer since we had to leave soon, so I went with H to the building. We appraoched the adult baked goods table first, and to my surprise, I saw a blue sticker on my Chiffon. I then looked for my banana cake and subhanallah, another blue sticker!

As we approached the youth baked goods area, a lady hailed me,

“Hello!”

It was another of hubby’s colleague whom I had met and been introeduced to when we first moved here. I had actually talked to her over the phone before we moved. Hubs had referred me to her to ask questons about housing in this town. She was very helpful mashaallah. She apparently has been to Jordan a lot of times and is quite familiar with Muslims and Islam. May Allah guide her. Ameen.

Well, it turned out that she and another of hubby’s colleague, whom H said we had run across in Albertson’s a few days ago (and said to hub that she thought he has 6 children – me included as one of his kids. Don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or insult, but I think I’ll take it as the former) were just done judging the baked goods for the youth. So we looked for the kids’ baked goods. Again, subhanallah, it seemed to be blue ribbon days for all of us! Alhamdulillah! H’s broken Pecan Shortbread Melts got a blue sticker! N’s brownies got a blue (well, they had put yellow because they had run outof blue stickers) sticker! And so did S’ Dixie Pixies! H’s Double Chunk Choc Chip cookies got a red sticker! It was a multiple win!

And to think the kids had been reluctant to enter any baked goods in the fair when I suggested it. I had to coax them.

“Just enter. You guys bake a lot anyway. Why don’t you just enter. You never know, you might win.”

Alhamdulillah they did!

And to also think that I was quite iffy about entering anything either! Alhamdulillah I did end up making the Chiffon and Banana Cake. It was a Blur Ribbon day.

The only downside to all of this was that they were only going to put the baked goods on display later on that day, which meant that we were not going to see them displayed because we had to leave early. So I snapped pictures before we left. No blue ribbons. I guess blue and yellow stickers would just have to do!

We also didn’t get to hop on any rides in the Carnival because they won’t open till 5 pm that day. I emailed hubby, suggesting that he might want to go with the kids later on that day, and take pictures of the baked goods on display and so the kids could attend the carnival too, but at the mention that he’d have to pay for the tickets again, he said no. I figured as much, so unfortunately, the kids didn’t get to ride on any of the carnival rides. Alhamdulilllah either way.

Well, alhamdulillah for everything. I guess, we will continue to ‘dabble’ with the state fairs from now on. 12 years in the US and I never once bothered about state fairs. Interesting how 4H led us to it, and for our first involvement, it was a pretty good turn out! Walhamdulilah, wallahu akbar!

It’s been 3 days now that we have been studying about Khalid Ibn Waleed. The very first day, we learned about how great of a warrior he is, and his participation in the Battle of Mut’ah. Yesterday we learned about his conversion to Islam. Today, we learned about his role in the conquest of Makkah.

So far the kids have written poems, map representations about what we learned. I don’t want to tell them to make more in case they lose interest in the subject or stop looking forward to learning about it.

Maybe at the end of it all, they can create a companion card to add to the Companion Card collection they love to play with. I found them engrossed in this game during the nights of Ramadan, mashaallah, alhamdulillah.

My only slight worry is getting them to know the fine details of each sahaba, since we’re not learning about one sahaba in 1/2 days. So, more information, finer details should be absorbed. Maybe I need to prepare a visual representation as we learn. Hmm…

Yesterday we learned about the Dust Bowl. Each child had chosen an aspect of the Great Depression to research, and each child is to present their findings to the rest of us.

Yesterday, S presented her findings about the Dust Bowl. Whatever was not covered, I topped. I had read all the books we checked out from the library pertaining to the Great Depression. Let’s just say it was an incredible learning experience for me personally. One of the reasons I love homeschooling.

So yesterday, the assignment post learning is for each of them to pretend they are someone living during the Dust Bowl years and write a diary/journal entry about a day or an incident/event.

Today, it’s H’s turn to present his findings on Hoboes. Their assignment today is to put themselves in the shoes of the hoboes/tramps/bums/yeags and write a diary/journal entry.

We learned about the different classes of itinerants during the Great Depression years today, namely hoboes, tramps, bums and yeags, and also punks. We had watched (all of us except H) the American Girl movie starring American Girl Kit, which was set during the years of the Great Depression. It really help made things more visual for them, though since H was quite lost when we recalled scenes from the movie, I think we’re going to have to check out that DVD again from the library.

And now that hubs and I have our New Mexico driver’s license (my photo was horrible, wish I can still use my Ohio one) we can start patronizing the El Paso public libraries too inshaallah. This weekend, we’re inshaallah going to Incredible Pizza in El Paso, reserved by the Muslim community for the Muslims as part of our Eid celebration. it costs $100 to get in and get unlimited food and play, but as hubs wrote in response to my email (when I told him he wouldn’t want to do that anyway because it’s too expensive),

“It’s Ciid!”

And Saturday morning inshaallah we will resume our Tennis Sundays which has been put on hibernation in Ramadan.

So far the books we have been using for our study of the Great Depression are:

Dust to Eat by Michael L. Cooper
The Story of the Great Depression by R. Conrad Stein
Growing up in the Great Depression by Richard Wormser
Life During the Great Depression by Dennis Nishi
Welcome to Kit’s World 1934 by The American Girls Collection
Timelines 1920s & 1930s by Gail B Stewart

I found more in the LC public library collection, so the kids should have more first account narrations (even if fictionalized) to read inshaallah. I’m just happy they are taking to this studying of American History with at least some apparent interest. What a difference compared to how they took to studying history with OHVA. Alhamdulillah.

I took 1-2 days to recover from the exhaustion of cooking for Eid and having people over, but now we’re ready to get back into gear for this quarter. I was working on lesson plans for studying the Great Depression and had gotten some books from the library during Ramadan. Surprisingly I saw the kids taking to the books too. It is surprising becuase they used (especially S) to abhor history when we were with OHVA.

I had planned to start the unit next week, but on a whim, I started it yesterday. An idea came to me,

“Can you guys create a board game? What do you guys think about making a board game of the Great Depression?”

It’s always about making what we learn interesting and fun. Teaching them things in a direct way would be much easier, but I’m not sure if it will be effective.

So yesterday, I took a huge paper and wrote Great Depression in the middle, in a circle. They all sat around the paper which we placed on our coffee table, each with a pen/marker.

“Ok, go ahead and write down what you know about the Great Depression.”

I left them and went to check on Baby Z who was working with his developmental therapist in the sunroom.

When I came back, they had created a web, which was what I was after. next step: learning about the 1920s. The Roaring Twenties.

I had stumbled upon this website when I was googling the Roaring Twenties, and with supervision, I told them to play the game. They were also to read the book 1920s by Gail B Stewart. They took turns reading the book and playing the game and hopefully they learned some things about life in the 1920s in North America.

Then H signed up for BrainPop free trial and they watched the movies on Great Depression. I printed out the quizzes and graphic organizers and had them do them. We talked about supply and demand. I was about to explain to them about buying on credit but thought it’d be better for hubs to explain it to them since that is his area. But as of today, he hasn’t yet explained it. Let me just say that a person holding a doctorate doesn’t necessarily know how to teach children. College students yes, but not elementary aged children.

We also started learning about Khalid Ibn Waleed. I had asked them in Ramadan who they want to learn about, Zayd Ibn Thabit or Khalid Ibn Waleed and the votes was two to one. So I read to them and put in my own words also, from Commanders of the Muslim Army and Heroes of Islam. I have to say that I feel strongly inclined to offer editing help though. if only we can have easy access to shuyukh so elaborate biographies can be written about the sahaba, and written in a language children can enjoy as well as understand. Definitely we need more professionals in the writing field. Ahh…inshaallah, inshaallah later. Right now, I have two very important things to focus on. Oh Allah, help me.

We always used to have an open house on Eid, specially for the sisters and brothers who don’t have plans on Eid. This year seemed to be no different as hubs is always inclined towards the younger brothers, so when I asked him if we’re having people over on Eid this year, he said yes.

I started planning on Tuesday or Wednesday. I started cooking on Friday, continued on Saturday and by Eid day I was ready but quite tired. Sunday we had people over. Alhamdulillah it was great. We used to have people over in our 2 bedroom apartment in C-bus so this year, the amount of extra space available really made a difference. Alhamdulillah. I only wish my C-bus sistahs were here to enjoy that extra space.

Eid prayer this year was different than what we’ve had in C-bus. First of all, we didn’t have to bring our sejadah to the prayer place. Even before Eid I was somewhat lamenting on who would be the imam. I wanted the brother who led the taraweeh to lead because of his beautiful recitation, but hubs said that the imaamah and khaatib are two different departments. he’s only involved in the imaamah, not the khutbahs. They had asked him to give Friday khutbahs but he had responded,

“I’d rather be the janitor.”

Fitnah-inducing role that is, the khatib, in this community at least.

Also, we didn’t really have to rush to the prayer, as we’ve had to do every Eid in C-bus, as the masjid was just about 4-5 minutes away (if we get all green lights). We even let Baby Z sleep more (as he was wailing most of the night before because the kids wanted to sleep in their own beds so they would wake up in their own beds on Eid day, so the sleeping arrangements were abruptly changed for Baby Z, who doesn’t want to sleep with anyone other than S, so I couldn’t do anything much) before waking him up.

But, just like in C-bus, as soon as the imam gave salam and started the khutbah, the women got up and showered each other with Eid wishes, rendering the room too noisy for the rest of us to hear the khutbah. What bristled me was the fact that S got up too to find her friends. I told N to find her and get her back. In my mind I was thinking,

Did this girl forget all those years in C-bus when we would remain sitting after the salam to listen to the khutbah?

So she sat next to me and remained sitting until the khutbah was over, even though in the midst of it, she turned to me and said,

“I can’t hear anything.”

I couldn’t either, but that gave us no license to just get up and join in the noisemaking.

Alhamdulillah though some sisters shushed and for a while we were able to listen to the khutbah. After it was all over, it was eating time. I rushed out to the van to get the gifts for the older girls as hubs had instructed me to do right before we went into the masjid that morning. Baby Z was playing with my keys and as I went out the door, I heard a car’s alarm going off. When I got out there, I saw hubs by the van and it turned out it was our van. I guess when Baby Z was fiddling with the keys, he set off the alarm all the way from the women’s side!

As soon as hubs unloaded the van with the gifts and gathered them in a corner of the masjid on the men’s side, kids swarmed him. I laughed as I saw him attempt to fend the kids off all the time people were eating.

The kids all got their gifts and the mothers loved the eco gift wrapping, but by the time we were about to go home, we found out that baby Z didn’t get his gift. Somehow, somewhere the kids had probably just snatched baby Z’s gift bag and took off with it despite me writing on the card attached that it was for Baby Z. H looked for it but couldn’t find it. Hubs was also saying that the kids were just grabbing the gifts despite the guarding. Oh well, alhamdulillah ‘alaa kulli 7haal. It was not meant to be for Baby Z then, I guess. Alhamdulillah he is still to young to realize he had no gift.

The rest of the day was spent having company over all the way till Maghrib. Baby Z slept on the way home and slept all the way till Zuhr, alhamdulillah. The kids hung their pinata which they had stuffed with candies the night before, but they didn’t bat it. They only did so the next day, but instead of batting it, they threw it to each other to break it. And now we have a housefull of candies. We did give some out to the kids who came, but we still have a lot.

I’m still not used to eating much after Ramadan, and I sure hope this habit remains inshaallah. In all, we had a pretty nice Eid, alhamdulillah. The kids did complain about not having their friends over though. I really do think, that were my C-bus sisters here, they probably wouldn’t miss their friends on Eid. Ahh…different place, different crowd, different demography. Bit by bit I think I’m getting used and being more accepting of the changes here, though that doesn’t mean I no longer miss my sisters in C-bus or being in C-bus. I think about C-bus most of the time still, but time does something to you, it somewhat heals. Alhamdulillah.