Moment

A mother’s moment of pride……

Alhamdulillah.

 

So Not Ready

I am so not ready to face Syawal.  I wish Ramadhan to be extended.

Seriously I have prepared nothing for the coming Raya.  I have no intention to bake any cookies or cakes this year.  No new clothes and  no new shoes for my whole family.

The only thing we bought was some cookies from JB.  We bought that in order to motivate our children to fast full day.  They will get to eat the colourful cookies at the end of Ramadhan.  Not sure if the cookies can last till the month of Raya though.  And I’m not sure of the taste and quality also.

I am beaming with pride as both Afiqah and Affandy now can fast full day.  The first week of Ramadhan was hard for them, but came to the second week, I can see that they enjoyed fasting.  Affandy no longer asked for food in the day.  He simply took a nap when he’s feeling hungry.  I am confident that both of them can fast full day till end of Ramadhan.

All my three children also can perform 8 raka’ats of terawih and 3 raka’ats of witir.  So far they have not complained of sleepy or tired.  Alhamdulillah for all that.

I also do not know where my family and relatives will gather on the first day of Syawal.  Presently I have lots of personal things to settle and I do not want to bother myself with all the  unnecessary  issues.

Now I only want to savour the last few days of Ramadhan.  Nothing else matters.

Peace

Love it when these two are in good terms.  My “should-have-been-twins” sharing the laptop.  No squabbles, no bickering.  Occasionally little giggles were heard.

And I have my peace……

Better And The Same

Since yesterday, I was having stomach pain.  The pain was like something sharp was poking and pinching my tummy.  It attacked every few hours and as I am typing this, the pain is still there.

When the pain came, being on prostate position brought so much relieve.  And rubbing some medicated oil on the tummy also helped.

I am happy to say that for the past five days of fasting, Afiqah has been fasting full day.  I guess being in the afternoon session somehow helps in her fasting.  Furthermore, most of her friends are fasting too and they read books in the library during recess.  By the time she reaches home, bath and pray, it’s almost time to break fast.  I really hope that she can continue to fast full day on weekends.

Affandy is still not ready to fast full day yet.  The most he could stand was till 4.30 pm.  I tried many ways by coaxing him to continue fasting, still unsuccessful.  He would break his fast by eating one or two biscuits and drank some water, that’s it.  Then he will continue to fast again till Maghrib.

Even though he’s been fasting on half-day, the loses some weight already.  He looks skinnier now with some of his bones protuding out.  He no longer has that “buncit” tummy.  But he’s still as active as before so I guess that’s nothing to worry about.

Besides fasting, I’m also training my two younger kids to perform Tarawih prayer.  So far, the most they could stand was eight raka’at of Tarawih.  By the time, they started their whining and wanted to sleep.

I am hoping to bring them to Masjid Penempatan Melayu Sembawang for our Tarawih during the weekends, just like the previous years.  We love the atmosphere there, so serene and peaceful.  Maybe I will bring them during the September school holidays.  InsyaAllah.

I Will Not Give Up

I believe that every children has different stage of capabilities and strength.  My children are no different.

Few years back, I had no problem in training Afrina to fast for full day.  She had been fasting for the whole month of Ramadhan since she was six years old.  Till now, once a while she joined me to fast on Mondays and Thursdays.

Since Afiqah and Affandy’s age gap are one year apart, I trained them to fast together since last year.  This year, I have to somehow re-train them to fast again.  My challenge with them is that, when one of them ask to break the fast, the other one also will follow.

Today is the first day of fasting.  All my three children woke up for Sahur this morning.  Affandy ate very little for his Sahur.  By 11 am, he was trying his luck to ask for food.  I ignored him and diverted his attention by allowing him to use the computer.

At 1.30 pm, his whining started.  He was pestering me for food and said he was very hungry.  He started to get agitated and would not listen to my coaxing.  At times, he begged and cried.  I bargained with him to break his fast at 2 pm.  And I also made him promised to try to fast longer tomorrow.

When Afiqah saw that her little brother was allowed to break his fast, she started her drama.  She cried and begged me to let her eat with Affandy.  She had once fasted full day during Sya’ban, so I thought she can do that again.  She weaken when Affandy was allowed to break his fast.

So, today I gave in to both of them.  I allowed them to break their fast at 2 pm.  I truly hope that tomorrow they will fast longer or at least till Asar prayer.  I am determined to train my two youngest children to fast full day.  I think I need to prepare a chart to motivate them to fast in Ramadhan.

I have to remind myself not to compare my children with others.  To each its own. May Allah helps me in training my children to fulfil the fast in Ramadhan.  InsyaAllah.

Out We Go

My children have been pestering to go for swimming for quite sometime.  Since Ramadhan is coming soon, we decided to bring them to swim today.  The weather was perfect and the swimming pool was almost empty.

As today is Hubby’s off day, we “sneaked out” of the house right after Hubby and Affandy came back from the Friday prayers.  ”Sneaked out” is the right and perfect term to use for my situation right now.  Only those who are close would understand.  Spending quality time to bond is very important to me as it is one of the things that keep me sane.

Watching and observing my children really awed me.  I love to watch them practice their swimming skills or just playing in the water.  They had their fun.  At the same time, I read and listened to some music.

Affandy said that today was his best day ever.  How could I not smile with that words from my little boy?

The best part about going out was that, I got the privilege to close my kitchen.  We had nasi bungkus for lunch.  Dinner was Mee Kuah Mama, Nasi Ayam and Roti Prata.  Simply heaven.

My Bookworm Girl

Afrina and I, share the same passion ~ reading.

We read books almost everyday.  The library is our favourite hang out place.  I love to go library with my bookworm girl.  We can read books at one corner of the library, without realizing that we have sat for hours, just do reading.  We were so engrossed in our reading, we were oblivious of what was going on around us.

His Day

Just a simple celebration on his birthday.

Presents from us and a cake.

I’ve made a wish, a long time ago, if I had any children of my own, I wanted to take care of them, myself.  As I knew how was it like, to be taken care by others.

And Allah grants me that wish.  Only HE knows how enormously thankful I am, to be blessed with this opportunity.

My Little Maulid Boy

….. turns SIX today.  Alhamdulillah.

 

All the greatest du’a in this universe, all goes to you, my son.

Two Movies In A Week

Oh dear! !

My children have been swimming for three days in a week, now their skins are getting dark.

Today went on very smoothly.  I, myself, was surprised when I asked them again if they were up for a movie after lunch.  Afrina and Afiqah spontaneously said yes, but not Affandy.  And again I offer my handphone for him to play with.

So the four of us watched Night At The Museum 2.  First part of the movie, Affandy played games on my handphone, while my girls and I laughed watching the movie.  Then, Affandy started to watch the movie and he enjoyed the show and had been laughing so hard.

While my kids engrossed watching the movie, I fell asleep!!

I found that the movie was so predictable and my eyes felt so heavy.

I woke up when my handphone vibrated and the movie almost ended.

I saw that the sky was getting dark and we had to rush home as I hang my laundry outside.  We reached home, I quickly brought in my laundry and the heavy rain started to fall.  Phewww…

We just relaxed and chilled at home.  After our Maghrib prayers, I brought my children out for dinner.  Since the eating place was only two bus-stop away, we walked home after our dinner.  It was fun actually to walk home at night.  We strolled slowly along the pavement and we talked about lots of things in life.  Ten minutes later, we’re home.

Afiqah had been complaining that her fringe always got into her eyes.  I trimmed her fringe and she looks much better now.

Seriously, I’m missing Hubby more.  He should be on the way to Mecca right now.  I want to dream about him tonight…..