11 Goals for 2011

A friend of mine did this and sparked me to make my own. Better late than never, right?

So, here are my goals for 2011... not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Improve prayer
2. One full month of homeschooling using the eclectic approach
3. Work out regularly and get back to pre-preggo weight, inshaAllah (maybe even get below that weight... we shall see)
4. Learn to knit and complete a successful project
5. Read more books
6. Buy house, inshaAllah
7. Be better at following up on things
8. Be timely
9. Keep the home cleaner than last year (should be easy since last year I was preggo and had the baby!)
10. Forgive
11. Be consistent!!! (My biggest downfall)

So, inshaAllah I will come back to this from time to time to remember what I should focus on.

What are your goals?

Life is getting back to normal... sort of

*sigh* I had wishes to keep up on my blogs and keep the wheels turning in my brain for insightful things, reading, etc. Well, pregnancy and now taking care of a newborn really threw that out the window! :)

I'm finally to the point that I'm making dinner again most nights of the week, and some days I actually get some cleaning done! *gasp* I'm just now getting to old emails and things on my computer that I have been putting because of this beautiful baby that has sucked the life out of me that last few months, mashaAllah. I love her for it.

Alhamdulilah, I love the new dynamics of our family. I love watching my husband be a father to a beautiful baby girl, and my older daughter be right at my side all the time asking if she can dress her, change her diaper, hold her, etc. Hehehe... and I thought she was going to be annoyed with a little baby around.

InshaAllah I can get back to writing about Islam and important topics. One thing that slowed me down is when I stopped taking classes... it removed the triggers for many of my posts! Well, in due time, I may get back to writing, but no promises as this new normal is quite busy.

Lazy?

I'm fighting with the feeling of being incredibly lazy and the excuse of being 39 weeks pregnant. I stay home, so therefore the home should be in top shape... you would think. DD is 10 and she can help with a lot of stuff, but I don't want her doing anything and everything that I'm not able (or willing) to get done in a day.

I signed up for grocery delivery today. The selling point was the fact that I can use Internet and manufacturer coupons, plus the grocer's coupons and weekly specials, 90 days of free delivery, and I just so happened to come across a $20 Promo code for new customers! Grocery shopping takes me at least 4 hours to complete between going to the supermarket for the normal items, the natural food coop for dh's gluten free stuff, and the zabihah meat market. Now, I will just need to run to the meat market and I should be good to go, inshaAllah.

My eco-conscious is reminding me that I probably use more gas to make the 3 (sometimes more) trips to each store than the gas used by the delivery guy to make one trip to our apartment building (for multiple customers, I assume). Plus, I can take advantage of organic store brands to save money and buy more stuff organic, inshaAllah.

We looked at the cost of a maid even yesterday... but I don't think I could let myself get a maid when I stay home... it just feels wrong. I really shouldn't be that behind, but the belly is getting in the way!! InshaAllah this baby will come any day now and I can get some back and hip relief! Seriously, I swear the baby is so low that I'm going to look down and have a hand waving back at me. *sigh* Any time now... in the next 3 weeks. Oy... 3 weeks... that would be dreadful.

Last Trimester

Ack! My mind has been everywhere with finishing the classes for my diploma in Islamic studies, getting ready for baby, getting DD ready for school, and trying to keep up with the home. InshaAllah, it all comes together. DD is getting a great head start in school, mashaAllah. This last trimester is hitting me pretty hard as I found out I have gestational diabetes, but alhamdulilah, everything else is very healthy. Just the typical aches and pains of late pregnancy to whine about. I'm getting together the to-do list of things I need to get done or buy in the coming weeks. It gives me something to do and helps pass the time, alhamdulilah. Unfortunately, I can't fast this Ramadan because of the diabetes, but I'm trying to support those around me fasting and increase in my ibadah. InshaAllah the fasts and ibadah are accepted from all of our Ummah during this blessed time.

My Newest Obsession

I have recently become quite fixated on being more "green." I have focused on this in the last year especially (not working gives you time to look into what is important :) ) but in the last month or so, I've come across so many more ways we can live a more sustainable life! I'm bothered by how much compostable stuff we throw away inside a non-compostable garbage bag. We live in an apartment though so a worm box, instead of a compost pile outside, would be the answer... but it feels a bit too weird to implement right now, and the hubby likes it even less than I do.

Family cloth is another item that has come across my mind. Now, I don't feel that using it for #2 is where we are heading, but considering that we rinse after even doing #1, it doesn't seem that gross to use cloth instead of paper. I have bought a ton of fleece that I plan on sewing together in order to start doing family cloth for DD and I when we go #1. We even put a date on the toilet paper pack we just bought to see how long it lasts. After this pack is gone, I plan to get the exact same pack and again put the date on it, and see how much longer it lasts.

The current green things we do:
Grocery shop about 70-80% organic, use cloth bags for groceries, only use plastic bags for produce when absolutely needed, turn off heated dry on the dish washer, make sure dish washer/clothes washer is full before using it, reuse the same glass throughout the day (sometimes), recycle, buy used items when we can, sell our items instead of throwing them away, use water filter pitchers instead of buying plastic bottles, use eco-friendly cleaners from Shaklee including personal care items, DH takes the bus to work, use vegetable leftovers (outer layer of onions and ends, etc.) to make our own veggie stock, get local seasonal veggies from a local farm/CSA, make our own jams using the veggies from the CSA... hmmmm, that's all I can think of right now.

Things to do:
Cloth diaper baby, use cloth wipes for baby, family cloth for #1, reduce overall waste, unpaper towels, compost/worm bin

It's amazing what ideas you come up with when you are simply trying to plan for an upcoming child. :)

Do We Look Outside of Ourselves?

We're faced again with a challenge of our faith. We ask that those around us who ask us to be Christian, at least understand what we believe. We aren't asking anyone to be Muslim... just to have a clue about what we believe. Frankly, I'm sick of seeing emails and literature that talks about how Islam is the black-man's religion and Christianity is the white-man's religion. Hello?!?!?! I'm white as paper, and while my husband tans nicely, he's white too. Do you think we'd get into a religion that taught us that white people are the devil? Ugh. Why is not logic and reason used. And why is what "makes you feel good" so dang important? It used to feel good to do bad things... but now, that doesn't feel good anymore. We instead need to stick with what is solid, what matters, and what is not going to change over time. The things that are important in this life, are not always going to make you "feel good." Heck, the baby just did a big flip in my belly, which didn't feel good. Labor isn't going to feel good either. That doesn't mean we run away from having kids.

I try to understand why we are faced with such opposition on something people know near nothing about. All I can come up with is fear - fear of what is outside of themselves. Do we all assume that we know everything, or that our pastor knows all? Any new idea is thrown out the window because it wasn't given to us on the silver platter of "what makes you feel good" or it wasn't presented in a way that matches what you believe already? Why are we always wrong when no one knows what we even believe? *sigh*

I just don't get it.

Daily Lessons

In an effort to make sure DD doesn't deteriorate over the summer, she will be working on some lessons. We went to our local Barnes and Noble to find some workbooks she likes. She picked out a Summer Links book that includes Math, Reading, and Test Prep and I was planning on that being the only thing she was going to work on, but she found an American History workbook that she wanted, so we purchased that as well. She absolutely loves History, so who am I to say no? In fact, we got a membership to our History Society so we can visit various museums and sites throughout the summer. She's so excited!

So each day she is assigned:
Math: 2 pages from her workbook
Reading: 20 minutes of any book she chooses and 2 pages from her workbook
Test Prep: 2 pages from her workbook
History: 6 pages from her workbook
Islamic Studies: 1-2 lessons from her ad-Duha curriculum (See a breakdown of this below)
Writing: Write a blog daily that includes a couple paragraphs or more on any topic of her choosing

So, before anyone thinks I'm being all harsh-like over her summer vacation, the first 4 items take her a half hour total (minus the 20 minutes of reading). Islamic Studies takes the longest, and she knew that we'd spend time on this over the summer because a) she doesn't have her weekend Islamic studies over the summer and b) the curriculum I just signed her up for this year is quite advanced, so she is a couple grades behind their expectation and we want to catch up.

With that said, here's the breakdown of ad-Duha. For anyone interested in an Islamic Studies curriculum for their kids, I highly recommend ad-Duha! Each one of these items is a lesson, and like I said, we will do 1-2 lessons each day, depending on time available.

Qur'an: Read 15 minutes of Qur'an every day. Qur'an lesson is reviewing memorized surahs and learning new ones.
Tafseer:  Learn the meaning of surahs, learn vocabulary words, and surrounding situation behind a surah
Names of Allah: Learn the 99 names of Allah and their meaning
Adi'yaa: Learn various supplications such as leaving the home, Ayat ul-Kursi, entering the masjid, etc.
Arabic: We are learning how to join letters currently

I'm expecting that we will work on these things roughly 4 days a week, but it being summer, we aren't super strict on it. I want to enjoy the summer and be outside (in the mornings, before it gets HOT) and enjoy time with friends before we get back into school and a stricter schedule. InshaAllah this summer will be highly enjoyable for both of us.