I'm Blessed with 3 daughters

The girls with Baba and Kareem

Phone post with pictures

I was playing with my iPhone and found that I can make a blog post :) so here I am testing it. Since I take most if not all of my pictures using my phone I will attach few of them here. They are old (Ramadan, eid, and beginning of school).
Salam

new family members

Ramadan -- at the dentist

Eid El-Fitter -- Zuzu and Kareem with friends

First day of school :)

At the fair -- with baba and the birds ;)

Art work

Before leaving to Eid prayers

I got this from my boss as appreciation token. I was fasting :-(

Now that I can do this, I will make most of my posts from my phone. No more excuses!!  

Ramadan in our house

I was planning to put this post earlier in Ramadan. What stopped me was the sad news that happened with Naysan made everything seems worthless to talk about.  May Allah be on your side Naysan. My heart and prayers are with you dear!!

I found these lights in a store here in Fayetteville a long with the lantern. I used to do a lot more when we first came to the states and my oldest girls were young. I went above and beyond to create that special atmosphere about Ramadan. Now that they are old enough to have had some background about the holy month and are able to fast for few years now, I stopped paying attention.

This year and since Zayna and Kareem still need to pick up that habit, I decided to bring back the old traditions to our household. So here I am sharing with you what I did :)

What do you guys think!!

Things to remember with my kids

1. Be more patient with our children.  Don’t yell.  Listen more.  You have no idea how impressed you might be when you just give them a chance.
2. Help them explore the world.  Children are curious by nature, do not squash it.
3. Accept that they might stray from the more accepted paths and let them follow their dreams.
4. Give them the freedom to do what they love.
5. Teach them honesty by example.  Do not lie to them or tells lies.  Children see, children do.
6. Help them be creative.  Who cares if they make a mess?  If you are really worried that they make a mess, teach them to clean after themselves, lay out old newspapers so they keep the place clean.  The amount of creativity that exploded during a time of stress and difficulty during the protests has me totally blown away.
7. Give them chores.  Even toddlers can learn how to pick up their toys.  Good habits are a gift for life.
8. Teach them responsibility.  A responsible generation is a successful one.
9. Teach them to give.  Twice a year ask them to give away toys and clothes.  Children are naturally compassionate, help them learn how to express it in a more useful way.
10. Teach them good manners.  Saying please and thank you, opening doors, being polite and the rest of those good manners really can take you very far in life.
11. Have faith in them.  They already have faith in you, it should be mutual. 

My Pride and Joy <3

Happy Mother's Day

To my mom, your mom, to you -- if you are a mom,
all the moms every where, and to me :)
We didn't celebrate it because in the US we celebrate mother's day is in June, but I had a hug and a kiss from my oldest daughter since all her friends from Lebanon were talking about it ;)
I hope you enjoyed it with your loved ones.



I miss Home!!

Despite all the issues, drawbacks, and negatives……I really miss Jordan.

I cried when I heard this song. I wish I can be there now :( If you read these lines and you live in your country, ENJOY every minute of it. Enjoy being able to find family whenever you need them. Enjoy being able to be close to them whenever they need you.  And for those of you who live far from home, you probably know what I mean!!

I miss my mom and dad. You guys who live in Amman, please Salmoli 3alyhom!!

Our Eid....

was not complete with out Baba. However, I tried to make it fun for the kids even though my tears were about to fall every second :(
Anyway, we went to the Masjid for Eid prayers. I stayed there for as long as I could with my friends since it was so early and there is no where to go and nothing to do. After that, I took the kids for a ride around Fayetteville until 10 am when everything was open. I took them to Chucky Cheese where they played some games. After that we went home, relaxed for a little bet, made and received some phone calls and off we went for lunch. The kids chose to go to a Chinese restaurant where we usually go to with Baba on special occasions. They wanted to go there because it's what he would choose if he was here :)
Here is the virtual tour.

Today, life went back to normal...school and work.

Hope your Eid has more fun!!

Love ~



The past few days...

Oct/31: it was Halloween. Kareem’s school had a Halloween party for the kids so I took two hours off of work and went to be with him, since dad is not here and I didn’t want him to feel alone seeing all the kids with their parents.
Nov/2: Kareem’s Birthday. I took him after work to pick up a gift and he chose Iron Man. We successfully made the transfer form spider man to iron man :D
Nov/3: left work early went to wal-mart and bought Kareem cup-cakes to celebrate with his classmates. It was nice and he was SO happy.
Nov/5: my best girl friend Reham came for a visit in the evening with her kids which are the same age as mine. I bought cookie cake – YUM—and we celebrated Kareem’s birthday one more time. He felt so special :)
Nov/7: I was invited for breakfast at one of my girl friends’ house. It was lovely feminine get-together and food was out of this world.
In between these days all I had was work, gym, kids, arguments with my two-teenage daughters, trying to keep my life organized and keep up with due times and dates…isn’t that fun!! How was your past few days…!

I’ll leave you with some pictures :)

Kareem sleeping with his new toys :)

Zuzu at the Halloween party

in the kitchen while I was backing cookies

My big Guy

The 2ns B-day party at home with our friends

The cookies cake (I don't know why it wouldn't rotate)

The cookies I baked

Love ~

My Family in the Newspaper

We were interviewed for a local newspaper :)
Today, I read this poem about being thankful to Allah S.W.T.

حمداً سأحيا خالقي... حمداً وأرجوك الثبات 

سأظل أدمن قولتي... ماخاب يوماً من رجاك

Yesterday, I decided to change my blog's back ground. Hope y'all like it. I love this color, it gives me fally feeling :)

Take Care

Life after Ramadan

Ramadan is over :(
I am really sad for that. I honestly have hard time with it at the beginning. You know; new job, 4 kids and husband, coming home late, and worship that needs to be fulfilled In order to feel that I have done something good for myself and paid the respect to Allah S.W.T during this holy month. However, it turned out that I accomplished everything I wanted in a complete manner, ALHAMDULELLAH. I even was able to make Tahajod for that last 10 days at the Masjed….YAY

EID :)
It was awesome. We went to Eid prayers where I met a lot of my friends that I missed for couple of years when I was in Lebanon. Next, we went for breakfast at IHOP and it was YUMMY!! The kids have enjoyed every minute of that morning. After that, went for Eid visits at couple of our friends.

Dallas :D
Is where we headed afterwards!! We came home after the visits, packed and hit the road for a family trip. Hubby booked the hotel and off we went. It was very nice and relaxing. We met our friends, the E’s. They have moved from Huston to Dallas so we explored the city together. While driving on the road I received a very nice phone call from work to tell that I’ve been granted a promotion in my job. So now I became an “Instructional Designer” … YAY YAY YAY. I love this job because it’s all about the degrees that I earned in my M.ed and Ph.d, so I will be utilizing what I have learned to do. Al7amdulellah Da2eman wa Abadan.

Pictures!!
Here are some of the shots that I took during the Eid weekend :)

shopping in Dallas with Baba

Eid P.Js

Kareem and Zuzu on the way to the Masjid :)

The kids with Baba after Eid prayers

      Hope you all had a joyous time with your loved ones

                                                                                  Love ~

I miss blogging

Salam
I have been in a stage of moving from one country to another, that's why I wasn't blogging. I will post more as soon as I get settled in my house.
Love

Phone Post

Good morning
I have been away for quite some time now and would like to apologize
upfront for any miss-spellings because I'm making this
post using my iPhone and I'll tell why latter in the post.
Let's begin where I last left.....Dubai. I LOVED this city
and Husam did as well. We had so much fun and went too many places,
Dubai mall, Dubai marina walk, Atlantis, al-ain city,
emartis mall, and wondering around the city either walking or
with the driver. It was a short trip but sure was relaxing, alhamdulellah.
After we came back I get busy again with my parents. Going out sightseeing,
shopping, and hanging out with them. I have pictures for all this but I need
to check if I can post through the iPhone.
Life went back to normal after mom and dad left. Kids, school, exercise,
and friends.
My oldest daughter Farah turned 16 on the 19th of this month.
Alhamdulellah she had a nice one :). Her friends came home
and we all sang her happy birthday, gave her the presents, and then
I drove all of them to the resturant where I made reservation
for them to have dinner (it's so hard to type with this
tiny keyboard ;))
my friend called me while I was making this post, so I need
to go get ready to leave. I'll continue latter.
Bye

Dubai

Salam friends
I am leaving to Dubai in 4 hours :). I am so excited and sad at the same time because I am leaving the kids. Mom and dad came the day before yesterday and I was spoiled, to say the least :)
Hope you all are doing well and inshallah I will talk to you all soon.
Fe Aman Allah

Finals….again :(

Finals for the second term have started at my girls’ school. It is hard and intense time for me but not for them :$ I usually don’t work with the two oldest unless they want me to help them memorize stuff, but my work with them is REMINDING which is a tough task. I have to keep following them; Are you done, do you need help, did you finish all the material, go to bed early, etc, etc, etc… yet, I have to study with Zayna. I usually do English, Arabic, SS, and H. does the math and science. Now the BIG challenge is to keep Kareem busy while we are doing work with Zayan. He will want to have and do whatever she is doing….lol

We got the visas for Dubai, YAY. However, we will not be leaving the first week of April; we will be leaving the second week. The reason is; my brother’s friend is getting engaged in Amman so he and his wife are flying from Kuwait to attend the party so I found it not fair to make my mom come to stay with the kids while her son (my brother) is coming to Amman and she won’t be able to see him. So I decided that we can go the week after and this way mom can attend the party and see Fadi, and also me and H. can spend the spring break with the kiddos and do some sightseeing in Lebanon. Inshallah this will be for everyone’s good, ameen.

I have been reading all your posts my dear readers but I do that on my iphone when I lay in my bed to sleep. I love reading all your posts. I will try to go over them again and leave a comment because there is a lot to be said in some of them.

I am back on the jogging schedule since the weather permits now. It de-stresses me and helps me focus.

I have a lot of work to finish today, but ZERO desire to start anything…..so help me god.

I hope your days are off to a good start.

Love,

Me, Mother's Day, and Spring

I know I am a bad blogger :( All of you my cyber friends have a wonderful way with words and that made me realize that I don’t know how to express myself in words, I am a chit-chat person. I LOVE TO TALK :)
Anyway, that past few days was kinda busy. I will follow the tag that my friend Texan started and let you all know a little about me so you know why I don’t post very often.
Although I am a stay-at-home mom, I have 3 young ladies; 16, 13, 7, and 3 years old hyper, unclean, talkative boy. Everything I do with the girls, their dad, and the house is in one hand and Kareem by himself is on the other hand….lol
I moved to Lebanon in November of 2008. I am originally from Jordan. I lived in Fayetteville, AR for almost 11 years and went to grad school over there with my hubby where he got his phd in physics and I got mine in education. It is so hard to work in Lebanon and that’s how I became a stay-at-home mom/wife. It’s been a nice experience but not for me. I LOVE to work and my life is more organized and functional when I have a job. I think after being in grad school teaching in the morning and going to classes at night for 6 years, I discovered that I work a lot better under stress because I am one of those people who you call procrastinator.

Yesterday was mother’s day, Happy Mother’s Day to all of you my readers. I called my mom first thing in the morning and sang her the song that she likes to hear and expresses what I always wants to tell her. I love my mom :)

Profiletweaks.com - Free Glitter Graphics
Zayna, my 7 years old daughter arranged with her daddy for a surprise party, so while I was napping in the afternoon they went and got donuts because she’s allergic to eggs and can’t eat cake, so she picked something she can eat ;) then she came and work me up, covered my eyes and..Voila. It was SO cute and I was still sleepy so I didn’t think of taking pictures until we started eating those delicious donuts :)
My little ones brought me gifts that they prepared at school, arent's they cute!!

Zayna's Mother's Day gift

Kareem's Mother's Day gift

Spring has officially started, I wish you all my friends out there a happy life full of green moments of happiness, blooms of love and prosperous, and the great smell and taste of Iman in your hearts, Ameen.

Love

B-day Girl..

The 4th of this month was Nour’s birthday. She turned 13. She requested to invite 6 if her friends over for a small party and for me, Husam, Zayna, and Kareem to leave the house and leave her, her sister and both of their friends to party, and off we went. The menu that she wanted was: Pizza (I made margarita and chicken), hotdogs, chicken nuggets, chips, and cake.

Since we were kicked out of the house, we took the little ones to a park in Jounieh. I also asked Husam to drive me to a shopping area called Kaslik so I can look for a black long cardigan. I bought a very cute shirt with lots and lots sequins from Zara but I need to wear something over it to cover up the arms. I went to Bershka since I saw something similar to what I was looking for but the fabric was so thin that you can see through it. I have to go for another look-up trip to find my request. I am thinking H&M might have what I am looking for which means a trip to Beirut …YAY.
Again for the 576 time, I will try to upload pics from Nour’s b-day and I really really hope that it’ll work this time.
Later….

IT WORKED :)))

Long Break

I have been away for a long while and I have excuses for that. First, Eid Al-Adha. This was by far, the best Eid I have had in the past 11 years. As I said in my last post my mom, dad, brother and my other brother along with his wife came and spent the Eid break with us. We had splendid time with them and was able to visit and do stuff that we won’t do on our own. The kids were happy with the company and with the gifts that they had. Farah and Nour got two very nice and stylish hoodies, Zuzu got very sweet and girly purple pants and shirt and my little guy received a spider man collection of umbrella, slippers, wallet, gloves and a hat. Husam had a very nice blazer. As for me-ehm ehm- I asked my SIL to get me the complete kit of PONDS face care. I like that product so far.
On the day they left I felt lonely and depressed so Husam suggested that we go to the amusement park. It was rainy but the kids had fun, Alhamdulillah.
Then my days got back on the routine track, school, house work, cooking and just being lazy :(
The kids will start finals next week then we are off on road for our road trip to Amman.
I was talking to my mom this evening and she told me great news about a cousin of mine. She lives in New York and she just received her Green Card and will be in Amman whilst I am there so we’ll be able to meet after 5 years, I am so excited.

I know that this post was unorganized but it summarizes the past two weeks….SORRY
Will be back soon …

Flu Season

Last week we all have been hit by the flu virus. It’s nasty and hard to deal with especially when you have everyone along with yourself with fever and body aches :( that’s why I couldn’t post anything. Alhamdulillah, things have started to get better slowly but gradually.

Eid Aladha is next week inshallah, I am so excited because my parents and my brother are coming from Amman along with my other brother who is coming with his wife from Kuwait. They all are coming to spend the Eid with us so it’s going to be like a family reunion, can’t wait. Consequently it means a lot of work on my side, cleaning, shopping for Eid clothes which I haven’t done it for any of the kids. I do have some few things for Zayna and Kareem but I know for sure that I need to shop for P.Js for all four and some more stuff. I also need to buy boots for myself but I will not be looking for long neck boots, I will try the short ones this year it’s the first time I am going to wear this design but I thought since I don’t wear short skirts nor dresses why to buy the long ones plus they have very cool and stylish designs for the short neck boots. I will let you know the result for that adventure and I will probably post some pictures as well. Also Eid dates cookies or as we call it “Ma3mool Betamer” and chocolate are still not ready so another reason to shop :)

I hope it’s going to be a happy Eid for our Muslim nation inshallah.

Take care,

Yesterday, today and next week..

I went with hubby to work yesterday so I can go to the down town Beirut for some shopping and I found great deals …YAY. Next week, I am going to visit my parents in Amman and I have so much stuff to do before leaving. I’m going with my little one, Kareem and leaving the girls with dad for 4-5 days.
I need to make sure that the house is clean, there is food in the fridge, school uniforms are clean and the laundry basket is almost empty!!
All this means that I will need to spend Friday and Saturday cleaning, cooking, laundry and grocery shopping…FUN. I am excited though that I’ll be seeing my family and get to spend a lot of time with them. When I visit Amman with hubby and the kids I stay at my mother-in-law house and get busy with my kids, visitors and lots of arguments, so there is so little time I can devote for mom and dad that’s why I want to go by myself this time. Insha’Allah I will have some relaxing, bonding and fun :)
I, most likely, will not be able to post until I’m back so until then take care.