NOT what our home looks like … haha…

The rowdy ruffians have been buckling down to more book learning these days and alhamdulillah, we’ve covered quite a bit of ground. I’ve told them to work on their weak areas especially – Math for Marz and reading for Bear. I’d thought that they would rail against the stricter schedule, given that we’d slowed down a bit in the last couple of months, but ma shaa Allah, they’ve been tremendously good sports about it.

We’ve had many disruptions to our days – there are always so many frustrations when you live in an older home long in need of repairs. There was a time when our walls and ceilings had to be sanded and everything – I kid you not, EVERYTHING – was covered in a fine powder that took weeks to clean. Then, there were the leaks from pipes in mysterious locations – plumbers came in and out breaking through walls only to find their diagnosis in error. Meanwhile, the glass extension which we had had such hopes for continued to disappoint by letting in rain.

Our small living area was cluttered beyond belief. It seemed that we just could not get a handle on things and there were days when we felt like screaming our lungs out and throwing the towel in. We were anxious to get back to our home schooling. What we didn’t realise though was that our home was schooling us :)

When things settled down and we had to begin the slow process of cleaning and putting everything back in, we became reacquainted with our possessions. We learnt that we had inherited, purchased and clung on to many things that were simply not enhancing our lives. Alhamdulillah, the experience had taught us not to buy anything heedlessly and to give freely what others could use, rather than hang on to them for sentimental reasons. Truly, we don’t need as much as we think we do!

We’ve learnt as well that things don’t always go to plan – in fact, they often go wrong! – and that, really, is alright. We have to learn to just grit our teeth and be patient.

We’ve learnt that we do need others and it isn’t a bad thing. Most of all, we need Allah and we need to trust in Him. It’s funny, but our numerous botched plans have actually taught us to be at peace. We would do well to remember the hadeeth in which Rasulullah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam said, “How amazing is the affair of the Muslim! His affairs are all good. If he experiences ease, he is grateful, and that is good for him. If he experiences hardship, he faces it with patience and perseverance, and that is also good for him.” (Muslim)

Qadr Allah wa ma shaa fa`al. Alhamdulillah `alaa kulli haal.

There is a saying, “All good things come to those who wait.” I think we can and will hold out a little longer, in shaa Allah.

The learning? Well, it continues alhamdulillah… :)

Image from Pexels.Com

Mother’s Prayer

Oh give me patience when wee hands
Tug at me with their small demands.
And give me gentle and smiling eyes
Keep my lips from hasty replies.
And let not weariness, confusion, or noise
Obscure my vision of life’s fleeting joys.
So when, in years to come my house is still,
No bitter memories its room may fill.

~ Margaret H. Schwab (1968)

Narrated `Aisha radhiallahu `anha: In the lifetime of Allah’s Messenger sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam, the sun eclipsed, so he led the people in prayer, and stood up and performed a long Qiyam, then bowed for a long while. He stood up again and performed a long Qiyam but this time the period of standing was shorter than the first. He bowed again for a long time but shorter than the first one, then he prostrated and prolonged the prostration. He did the same in the second rak`a as he did in the first and then finished the prayer; by then the sun (eclipse) had cleared. He delivered the Khutba (sermon) and after praising and glorifying Allah he said, “The sun and the moon are two signs against the signs of Allah; they do not eclipse on the death or life of anyone. So when you see the eclipse, remember Allah and say Takbir, pray and give Sadaqa.” The Prophet then said, “O followers of Muhammad! By Allah! There is none who has more ghaira (self- respect) than Allah as He has forbidden that His slaves, male or female commit adultery (illegal sexual intercourse). O followers of Muhammad! By Allah! If you knew that which I know you would laugh little and weep much. [Bukhari]

Narrated `Aisha radhiallahu `anha: In the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam the sun eclipsed and he went to the Mosque and the people aligned behind him. He said the Takbir (starting the prayer) and prolonged the recitation (from the Qur’an) and then said Takbir and performed a prolonged bowing; then he (lifted his head and) said, “Sami allahu liman hamidah” (Allah heard him who sent his praises to Him). He then did not prostrate but stood up and recited a prolonged recitation which was shorter than the first recitation. He again said Takbir and then bowed a prolonged bowing but shorter than the first one and then said, “Sami`a l-lahu Lyman hamidah Rabbana walak-lhamd, (Allah heard him who sent his praises to Him. O our Sustainer! All the praises are for You)” and then prostrated and did the same in the second rak`a; thus he completed four bowing and four prostrations. The sun (eclipse) had cleared before he finished the prayer. (After the prayer) he stood up, glorified and praised Allah as He deserved and then said, “The sun and the moon are two of the signs of Allah. They do not eclipse because of the death or the life (i.e. birth) of someone. When you see them make haste for the prayer.” Narrated Az-Zuhri: I said to ‘Ursa, “When the sun eclipsed at Medina your brother (`Abdullah bin Az-Zubair) offered only a two-rak`at prayer like that of the morning (Fajr) prayer.” ‘Ursa replied, “Yes, for he missed the Prophet’s tradition (concerning this matter).” [Bukhari]

Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr radhiallahu `anhu: When the sun eclipsed in the lifetime of Allah’s Apostle and an announcement was made that the prayer was to be held in congregation. The Prophet performed two bowing in one rak`a. Then he stood up and performed two bowing in one rak`a. Then he sat down and finished the prayer; and by then the (eclipse) had cleared `Aisha said, “I had never performed such a long prostration.” [Bukhari]

Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr radhiallahu `anhu : “When the sun eclipsed in the lifetime of Allah’s Apostle an announcement was made that a prayer was to be offered in congregation.” [Bukhari]

Narrated Abu Bakr radhiallahu `anhu: We were with Allah’s Apostle when the sun eclipsed. Allah’s Apostle stood up dragging his cloak til he entered the Mosque. He led us in a two-rak`at prayer till the sun (eclipse) had cleared. Then the Prophet (p.b.u.h) said, “The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of someone’s death. So whenever you see these eclipses pray and invoke (Allah) till the eclipse is over.” [Bukhari]

Narrated Al-Mughira bin Shu`ba: The sun eclipsed in the lifetime of Allah’s Apostle on the day when (his son) Ibrahim died. So the people said that the sun had eclipsed because of the death of Ibrahim. Allah’s Apostle said, “The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone. When you see the eclipse pray and invoke Allah.” [Bukhari, 2.153]

We are witnessing a lunar eclipse here in Pakistan tonight. Allahu Akbar! For those experiencing this here or in other parts of the world, don’t forget to perform Salaat ul Khusoof!

We are slowly getting back into the rhythm of home-edding alhamdulillah. (I miss my stitching!) I’m honestly not an unschooler (don’t hang me!), so while I do enjoy down times and vacations, I do get a litttle anxious and start stressing about how much more we need to do. I’m not the kind who expects the kids to do a lot of written work, but I do want their days to be productive. It doesn’t help that I always want to do more with the kids – we always have a million projects we want to delve into, homeschooling and otherwise.

Marz has been working on her writing. She has been doing reports on Science and History and although she needs to work a little harder on her spelling (it’s more carelessness than anything!), I think she has done well in this area, alhamdulillah. She likes doing research and enjoys ploughing through different books, compiling information and writing it all out. Alhamdulillah our local homeschooling co-op run by my friend Umm Aymun has helped a great deal in this respect. The bi-weekly meetings have given her a sense of purpose and urgency in writing things out well and on time.

I’ve been encouraging her to do creative writing for a change – fiction is something I know she longs to do, but is hesitant about. She likes learning about other people’s experiences, how they do things and what motivates them, so I got this book for her when we were last in Singapore – Writing Magic – Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine. (She is the author of Ella Enchanted, which won her a Newbery Honor in 1998.)

Levine encourages budding writers to read voraciously and to surround themselves with inspiring words. It isn’t a dry how-to book – it has writing tips and prompts in the book peppered with the author’s personal thoughts and experiences. Marz loved reading not only about the creative process, but about the significant incidents in Levine’s that shaped her as writer. She especially identified with the part where she says that there is always a niggling voice of doubt in her that tells her that her writing is not good enough. (I tell you, this girl is really her mama’s daughter!)

Writing Magic shows how one can get ideas for a story as well as how to develop and revise it. It guides writers on how to add details and dialogue and appropriate use of words. It even gives some advice on how one can sell one’s work. Levine is quick to show becoming a writer is not a bed of roses – she herself has had work rejected. However, these are setbacks that can help a writer grow further.

Levine writes in a personable way that really reaches out to her readers. She tells them not to throw any of their work away or to abandon ship when the going gets tough. She is encouraging and takes her readers’ dream seriously and helps them believe in themselves. I like that this book has fired Marz up – she looks forward to tackling the exercises and spends a great deal of time plotting out her stories.

This book is a gem for us. If you’ve read or used this book, I’d like to know how you and your children found it :)

One of the things that I would like my kids to do is to maintain a commonplace book. I used to do this during my schooling days and have revived the practice lately after discovering a few fragments that survived our many moves.

In this day and age, when people need to recall a quote, they can always refer to the library or good ol’ Google. However, in earlier centuries when libraries were smaller or not as accessible and books were far dearer, ardent readers and lovers of good words would copy out passages they wanted to remember in their own notebooks or what is known as the commonplace book. It is simply a journal in which people copy poems, sayings and passages that they encounter. This can be information that they find useful – such as recipes, remedies, scientific facts – or words that they find inspiring – speeches, exerpts of religious scriptures and the like. Writers like Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Mark Twain all kept such books.

There are many advantages to this practice. It makes one a better reader – rather than just passively skim over the words, one gives pause to think and to read more deeply and reflectively. The commonplace book can be one’s bank of useful knowledge and serve to inspire new ideas.

For me, it has also been a personal record of the ideas that have shaped me at different stages in my life. I found in my old notes, poems, exerpts from Shakespeare and also passages from novels I had studied as an English Literature student in junior college. Later, I wrote out speeches and inspiring words about revolution against oppression and racism – I was passionate about these topics when I studied History and Sociology in university. When I began to study the deen in greater depth, I began including verses from the Qur’an and ahadeeth. In a way, my commonplace book details a map of my growth and exhibits a portrait of me.

Not my book, but an image of a Flickr user’s (Chris Lott’s) commonplace book with Japanese folds

My commonplace book is pretty… well… commonplace. I do try to write in my best penmanship (and that’s not saying much!) but it is quite a plain book on the whole. However, after reading through Umm Tafari’s blog, Visual Journaling 4 Kids, I am considering jazzing up my journal and encouraging my kids to make theirs (when they start in shaa Allah) vibrant and lively as well. I have a huge fear of failure when it comes to art and I don’t want my kids to inherit this complex, so I hope to combine commonplacing with art journalling. I think that this will go down well with my girls – Mars already diligently writes in her diary and has begun writing essays, while Bear loves art and is beginning to test the waters of self-expression. They can add their own flavour and interpretations to their compilations.

I’ve looked through several sites (Pinterest has been most helpful!) and found lots of inspiration. Some are daily journals or diaries and not commonplace books per se, but think how lovely our personal anthologies of beautiful words can be with a little design. Some of these journals are like the arty scrapbooks that many hobbyists produce. However, the one thing I’ve noticed about them is that they need not be as expensive to produce – you don’t need a large stash of embellishments, stamps, adhesives, ribbons, stickers and what not. I think you can produce decent pages using good pens, colour pencils, paint or crayons and by recycling materials you find around the house.

I will probably refer to Visual Journalling 4 Kids, Art Projects for Kids and a book entitled The Creative Journal for Children by Lucia Capaccchione.

Here is a Flickr user (Virginia Blue) who keeps a daily doodle journal.

Another page by Virginia Blue – I like her catchy doodles. I wish I had the same flair, but I overthink things!

Chronicle of a month by Tracy U. Look at the details!

Home by Tee Thompson. She has a blog at Green Isles Crafts where she shares how she creates pages. (Some involve drawing people, just so you know.)

Some other random links for ideas (exercise caution… OK?)

• Journals by The Creative Place
• Paper Relics’ Gallery
• Phizzy Chick
• Traci Bunkers Creates a Visual Journal Page
• Alisa Burke

Do you keep a commonplace book or maintain an art journal? I’d love to hear your ideas if you do :)