Little Blessings That We Take for Granted

Assalam alykom:

There are two incidents that have happened to my family that have really made me think about the little blessings we take for granted. Many of these bounties we do not even recognize in our lives.

When asked about the importance of your senses, most will respond that they are grateful to God for their ability to see or hear. We may even thank Allah everyday for these two bounties. But, have you ever thought about your sense of smell or your sense of taste. Many of us may never once thanked God for these bounties. Last month, my Uncle took an over the counter natural medicine for a cold. It is called Zicam, and it is a nasal spray to help clear your sinuses. He sprayed the medicine one time and has never smelled or tasted again. If he drinks a glass of water or a glass of perfume, there is no difference. If he eats a steak or a piece of bark on a tree, there is no difference. Allah has definitely made tasting and smelling a joy in this life. Just to be able to wake up and smell and taste a delicious cup of coffee in the morning is a great bounty from Allah. For my uncle, it is just hot brown water with no taste or smell. For my uncle, the doctors say that this is permanent. Therefore, thank Allah today for your ability to smell, taste, and enjoy the bounty of food and drink.

Another incident that happened was with my grandmother. She suffered a small stroke. With this stroke, she lost her ability to transmit information and some of her ability to process it. In other wards she can think what she wants to say, but she has an extremely difficult time telling it to me. She cannot write it either because it takes the same memory ability to transmit it. She no longer can drive, and she cannot dial a phone or even use the remote for the T.V., without a struggle. She no longer can remember how to crochet or knit, do crossword puzzles or even read the newspaper. I understand that she is 78 and that she is elderly, but only a few days ago she was driving, crocheting, knitting, and reading. Therefore, we should thank Allah tremendously for His bounties upon us. Maybe tomorrow one of them or all of them could be gone.

Did she really hear the complete Message?

I do not know if I mentioned it before, but I am an American convert to Islam. I think my journey to Islam began with my immigrant Irish grandmother. My great- grandmother was a VERY devout Protestant Christian. The rest of my family had no religion. That includes my parents, my grand parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Through my 38 years of life, I never saw them enter a church, except for a wedding or funeral. I had no brothers or sisters. I was an only child.

I lived my life in Rural Central Indiana. My parents were city folk from Chicago who wanted a more simple life. They were middle class working people. When the summer time appeared each year, they needed someone to look over me while they went to work each day. That ended up being my great grandmother. She lived in Chicago, and they would drive me there every June and pick me up in August. My grandmother was thrilled to have a helper and a companion each summer.

She was a meticulously neat individual, who would have me cleaning everything in sight. She was also an individual who had a wonderful green thumb. Everything she seemed to touch grew lush and beautiful. Outside she had roses that smelled of the most expensive perfume, she also had snap dragons that I could not wait to pinch. She had a small garden where she grew fresh herbs. She would have me clip the chives each night for the salad at dinner. On the inside of her house she had many African violets. I remember always wanting to touch their leaves because they felt like velvet. To this day, I keep several of them in my house. Another notable quality of my grandmother was she was extremely devout in her religion.

Every summer, it would be memorize verses from the Bible, go to church, go to Sunday school. She was always after me to be a strong believer. I really followed her advice and tried to be as devout as she was. At the end of the summer, it was back to my parents who never went to church. My grandmother called and wrote my all the time to find someone to take me to church. I always did, but the variety of churches would be many. It was Baptist, Methodist, Pilgrim Holiness, Wesleyan, and non-denominational, to name a few. With all of this variety, I would eventually be confused.

When I reached college and was able to expand my horizons outside the small town churches of rural Indiana, I found Islam. It was 15 years ago and still seems like yesterday. Islam was introduced to me in college and it made so much sense to me. Shortly after my conversion, I married my husband. Shortly after this, my grandmother died. I was living in Florida and it was very far from my grandmother. I never told her that I converted, but I always felt she was the one to inspire me to become a Muslim because she always encouraged me to believe in God.

A year or so after her death, I become sad at the notion of my grandmother dying and not a Muslim. I was so convinced that she was the one who ultimately led me to Islam. This is when my husband told me that you do not know if she ever really received the message. You do not know how Allah will deal with her devotion. You really do not know what she believed in her heart. That night I went to sleep feeling much better about my grandmother. In my dream that night, I saw my grandmother. In the summers, when I stayed with her, she would get her square vinyl cushion and put it on her retro metal chair. She did this just before maghreb each day. She would sit in that chair and read from the newspaper or her Bible, or a book she liked. In my dream, she was sitting on that retro metal chair, but she was reading from the Glorious Quran. She was even reciting it in Arabic. I could not wait to share my dream the next day with my husband. I really felt better about her not being a Muslim, and Allah is the only One who knows her Final Abode.

Crocheted Monkeys

Assalm alykom:

My 5 year old daughter loves monkeys. I am not sure why. She said that she likes to collect them. When I saw a pattern online for one, I had to make her one. Of course my 3 year old daughter wanted one too. So, here is the pair. I got the pattern here. After you reach the page, on the side you can click on the pattern. She had very strict copy right rules on her pattern. Therefore, I wanted to meet her link issues that she requested. Her monkeys are alot cuter than mine, but my two daughters love them. I personally love to crochet with thread, therefore, I am trying the pattern with it. It is looking so tiny as I am making it. The girls are very excited to see it. I will probably have to make a pair again.

I do beading too. So, I made their earrings and I crocheted their scarves too!

Homeschooling vs Islamic schools vs Public schools

Assalm alykom:

I am back to homeschooling after a year of teaching in an Islamic school. I think this year has really let me evaluate and change my mission for why I homeschool. My mission used to be that I did it for religious reasons. Now, I truly believe that it is for educational reasons mixed with a little bit of religious reasons. I discovered that the quality of my children's education was very high when it was me teaching them. After a year in an actual school setting, their level of education declined. I can control my children's accountability much better. If I find they are lacking, I have the time to reteach it to them. I can take more time to make sure they do their best.

Islamic schools, in general, are at their infancy stages in America. Most of them in my area, have been around for less than ten years and many less than five. They are going through the process of always getting better, but not quite there yet. Many of the schools have low funding and low pay for the staff. Therefore, the more qualified teachers tend to go elsewhere. While I am sure there are great Islamic schools in the States, as I stated, many of them are just starting up and going through the learning curve. During this curve, the level of education may not be very high.

Public schools are tied to the No Child Left Behind Act. I really hate this Act because it leaves behind all creativity and learning in the classroom and teaches the child only to take the State Standardized tests. This is my opinion and I know it is a big controversy. Some of you may have great public schools that try to go around this act and maintain actual learning and teaching.

My blog will began to fill with homeschooling posts once again. I am not going to do the K12 this year because it has to be completed in the 9 month school year. This is if I go through the state program. If I buy the program as a regular homeschooler, it is soooo expensive. With four kids, it is too much. I am looking into the Oak Meadow cirriculum. It is affordable and seems good. I will let you know once I purchase it and get into how it really is. That is the only way to know of a cirriculum really works for your family.

Hijab pins I made

Assalm alykom:

I have decided to take my hijab pins and began selling them. I like to use a variety of materials. I use vintage items such as old pins, or buttons. I also use mostly glass beads. Some of them I make especially to appeal to younger ladies. These are made from polymer clay in the shape of mini-food. Here are the current ones that I am selling this week. They are all listed on eBay.

Beaded pins

Vintage Pins

Girls Pins

The Iguana

Assalm alykom:

When I moved to South Florida, I did not expect to see iguanas as part of the habitat. When my husband first told me that he saw a bunch of them near the masjid, I wanted to go and see them. There is a walking trail that has a canal. This trail is right next to the masjid. The kids and I decided to take a look one day. Since that day, we started to research about these amazing creatures that Allah created. For one, they are definitely not native to South Florida. They are escaped or neglected pets that thrive in the tropical climate. However, it is interesting to mention, that since they are not native to Florida, they do not have any natural predators. Therefore, they just keep multiplying.

With a little research we discovered that they are not an aggressive animal. They like the warm weather and you will find them sunning on the hottest of days. Than can grow very large and look quite frightening. They look almost as big as a small alligator. They are herbivores, and will only dine on your flowers and your mango trees. If they are cornered, they may scratch or bite, if they feel threatened. We read that many residents do not like them and will have a trapper come and remove them. All the pictures that you see her are from my 11 year old son Nour. After snapping these picture, he thought he might like to become a wildlife photographer.



This one is quite large here. The big ones appeared to be orange and the smaller ones were green













I did not know they could swim, but this one was swimming away down the canal.














Can you spot the one here? I will give you a hint: He is green.














Do your own research on this interesting reptile. For school, it would make a nice research report.

Recycle Your Crayons

Assalm alykom:

This is an easy project, and I am sure many of you have tried it yourself, or have at least seen it done. We had so many broke crayons. All of my kids and I just sat and peeled them all. Next, we put them in paper muffin cups. If you have a nice metal cookie cutter that is a unique shape, this will look better. I put my oven on about 375 degrees. I placed the muffin cups on a cookie sheet. It only takes a couple of minutes to melt. Take them out when they are all melted and let them cool. You just peel the paper off after that. We made so many that we gave them away as gifts. They are really great for the little ones because they are easy to hold. Enjoy!

Children do what they are told

Assalm alykom:

Are you a little baffled by the title? I was confused by this statement when I was listening to a motivational tape and the speaker said this. Children do what they are told to do. The example he gave is that you tell your child to go and wash the dishes. You go in the kitchen some time later, and there are all these pots and pans in the sink, and the counters are still full of food. You are upset and mad and go to your child and say to him: "Why didn't you finish the pots and pans and clean off the counter?" He says, "But, you told me to do the dishes." He is right. I did not say anything about the pots and pans or the counters. Therefore, he did not do it. As a parent, I run in to this all the time. Then, I get frustrated that they did not complete the job. I really learned from this that I have to give specific instructions. From those instructions, I should only expect what are in the details and nothing more. If I want the entire kitchen cleaned, I need to tell my child to clean the dishes, wipe the counters, and clean the pots and pans. I really find this advice great, and it will help me as a parent to have less conflict and get the jobs done efficiently in the house.

The Sweetness of Faith

Assalm alykom:

The Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) said: There are three qualities that if a person has them, they will taste the sweetness of faith. These three qualities are:

1. A person must love Allah and His messenger more than he loves anything else.

2. A person hates to go back to disbelief as much as he hates to be thrown into the Hell Fire.

3. A person loves another for the sake of Allah.

I used this hadeeth to create a really great writing assignment for my students. I told them that if they could taste the sweetness of faith, what would it taste like. They needed to write me one paragraph describing what the sweetness of faith would taste like. To give you an idea of what to expect from the writing, most of my students wrote that it would taste like a sweet they liked. Most of them put some type of cake, ice cream or candy. However, some where very creative and descriptive about it. These students stood out from the rest with creativity. This assignment would probably be good for grades starting out at 6th and up. It takes a little more maturity to relate food with something that we cannot touch. Therefore, it may be difficult for a student below that grade. I thought that this assignment really caused them to reflect on how wonderful faith really is for a person. Faith is compared to the taste of something sweet, and I think that most all children love anything sweet! Let me know how some of your kids do with this prompt!

Here is another shot of the owls

Assalm alykom:

Isn't he just beautiful!

Baby Gifts

Assalm alykom:

I had a couple of friends having babies, and I made these for them. They are so easy, and they look so personalized. To make these, you just need to get onesies and bibs that have no decoration on them. For the onesies that are painted, I just used fabric paint in squeeze bottles. The paint is air dry and very easy to use. It is also washable. For the items with crochet, I used bedspread weight thread. For the lace, I crocheted a single crochet right onto the t-shirt and bib. Then the second time around, I used different stitches to make the lace. For the flowers and the balloons, I crocheted them first and then I sewed them on.

In Arabic, this one says: "I love my mother"

This one says in Arabic: "I am the beloved of my mother"

This one says in Arabic :"I love my father"

This one says in Arabic: "I love my mother"

Burrowing Owls

Assalm alykom:

Next to our masjid, I found these adorable little owls. They are federally protected birds. The area where they are at have federal signs around it indicating that it is a crime to bother them. Here is more specific information about them.

Finding these owls was such a treat because I had just read with my sixth grade class the book Hoot. I will give you my impression of the book. First of all, it would be appropriate for grade 5-8. The story was great! It was about environmental protection of the owls and really anything in nature. It was funny and very entertaining. However, the book did use some inappropriate language. This really surprised me because it had won so many literary awards for children. I suppose if you white out the words or just explain to your child that this is bad it would be better. One thing I did like about it, that I found was lacking in most novels for that age was "love scenes". Even in the curriculum reading books at school, there were too many stories with that. This book was absent from the male- female attraction scenario. I purchased along with the book a teacher's guide. It was really informative and had great lessons. It had fun ways to teach vocabulary, it contained tests, integrated science and social studies, it also had writing assignments.

If I snap some more pictures of the owls, I will upload them, Inshallah. They are very close and easy to snap, but they blend in with the ground so they are hard to see.

Quran

Assalm alykom:

I have just added an audio on the side bar of my blog of my son Nour reciting Quran, when he was 6 years old. I hope this CD is an inspirational tool for children in reciting Quran. The recording is slow and easy to follow. Each ayat is repeated three times to help the child perfect his or her recitation. Nour recorded the entire Part 30 of the Quran. It is really a great CD for young children who are just beginning to learn their surahs. Here are a few other surahs that are available for your listening enjoyment

Quran Recitation
by: Nour Kouatli (6yrs old)You can buy the entire part 30 on two CD's
1. At-teen 2. Al-'laq 3. Al-qadr
4. Al-byynah5. Az-zalzalah6. Al-'adiyaat

A Garnet Bird

Assalm Alykom:



I am adding a new label for my blog and it is nature. I have continually loved nature in my life. I have lived in many places. Where ever I have lived, I have always been in tune with the nature around me. I can usually name every animal, bird, and insect that lives with in 100 feet of my home.

I grew up in rural Indiana and now live in suburban South Florida. My rural home was filled with many types of birds, field mice, deer, fox, and wild geese flying over for migration. I even witnessed the monarch butterflies landing by the millions on the mulberry trees of my neighbor.

Florida has different nature that I needed to learn. I found many water fowl that I had never seen before. I also have found many animals that are not native to Florida, but are able to survive and thrive here. I have captured with my camera many animals that live around me and, I hope to share them on my blog soon.


This picture of a beautiful ruby red bird is that of the male cardinal. Here you will find more statistical information about this wonderful bird. The female looks the same but she is a grayish brown. I took this picture in my backyard. These birds are very common all over the United States. You can attract them to your backyard with a bird feeder and common bird seed.

It is okay to laugh sometimes

Assalm Alykom

Clean and Thoughtful Jokes

Card Purses

Assalam alykom:

My grandmother sent my children some money a while back. She wanted them each to buy something that they really liked. I wanted them to send my grandmother a nice thankyou card. I found this purse card on the internet and my three girls made one each. Here are their creations. See what you think!

We used card stock paper to make the purse. The girls used markers, beads and glitter to decorate the purse. The handle was a gold string of beads that was already together. We just cut it to the size of handle that we wanted. Let me know how your purses come out!

The Color of Hunger

Assalm alykom:

I teach 6th and 7th grade Lanuage Arts at an Islamic school. I have created many writing prompts this year, and I thought I would post them on my blog. All of these prompts are mostly for Middle School aged students.

The Color of Hunger was a prompt that I did during the month of Ramadan. I told the students to think of hunger as if it were a color and not a feeling. If hunger were a color, what color would it be? I made them write me a paragraph describing what color they thought hunger would represent, and why did they pick that particular color.

Many of the responses from the students were black because they felt dark when they were hungry. Some of them said white because it made them feel empty. Try this out with your kids and see what they think. I think this writing prompt works best when the student is fasting. You might try it in Ramadan with your students.

Create Your Own Cereal

Assalm alykom:
My daughter is in 3rd grade. The teachers in the lower grades held "The Great Cereal Box Contest" All of the students did a great job creating their own cereal. This is what my daughter did. This makes a wonderful art project for homeschooling. It could be appropriate for a wide variety of ages too.

Mutual Mercy

Assalam alykom:

Imagining yourself standing before Allah and He says to you, "I was sick but you did not visit Me."

Is that possible? What would you say?

To find out, listen to this about mutual mercy.

Mutual Mercy

This Khutbah was taken from www.loveallah.net. I hope it is as uplifting to you as it was for me.

Matchbook Notebooks

Assalm alykom:

I found these on another blog awhile back. I just had to try them with my kids. Here is the directions for them. My kids put them in the goody bags for Eid that they made for their cousins. I made the book for them and they decorated them. It was soooo easy. Have fun making them!