family love

We all love this chinese new year. If we can have four (three for me) full days of public holiday, i really wish for a chinese new year every month! It was so nice to finally be resting after a gruelling january. A deserved break for most of us aye.

I am really grateful for this break. And the weather had been just nice, rainy cool days. But what i loved most was that i got to spend a bit of time with my family three days straight. Got a massage with my mother and sister at the comfort of home at hougang ave 8. I miss my family, the chitter chatter of my siblings and my parents.

I got to go shopping with my parents, for their prep to umrah end of this month. That…i really am happy for. Its just, we will always feel happy seeing our parents happy. Although honestly, i am quite worried for them. I mean, my parents havent really travelled so far, and like letting them go to a far away foreign land, no doubt in a group, i still feel worried for them. My parents are such honest kind innocent people and i know they will be quite out of place not knowing what to do. Not that i know what to do when i have never gone there before myself, but i feel i can take better care of them when i am there. But anyway, my father surprised us all when he already bought the umrah package. I wasnt prepared for it myself but i would have loved to go. And i worry for my mother because she couldnt read the quran as well and no one to accompany her down there if she needs to go anywhere muslimah based. Oh Lord, i leave them to You, please guide them, accept their umrah, forgive them and take care of them.

Looking at another angle, i am quite relieved also i am here so that i can take care of my siblings. Although they can take care of themselves, still, an adult somewhere near them is important too.

Maybe the next time, we can all go together. Amiin.

I got to do things i love and not a second i thought about work.

I wish it is still holiday tomorrow. If only i am not working…;)

scream aim fire

no. please do not be shock by the title of my post. as you might have read somewhere in my older posts, my titles can be random at times. i was just playing Bullet for My Valentine’s album of the same name. i forgot how much i used to love those kinds of genre songs. oh the band wasnt the best of the lot. there were avenged sevenfold, breaking benjamin, atreyu, what else? havent been keeping up anyway. where are all these bands??  i dont know whether i influenced my siblings or they influenced me haha. i cant say i have been a good elder sister influencing them there but im quite surprised and a little weeny bit of pride at the choices of songs they listen to. quite a variety actually but not the mainstream. Anyway, yes, not a good elder sister influence there. i know i have many other goals which i want my siblings to do. well, this year is all about picking up the pieces.

seriously. my heart screams for all these aims i never got to do. but my babies are all grown up now and busy with their own things. i hope my proposal for a different work schedule this year is approved and i get to recover the mess i left. i like my fridays but they are schooling and my saturdays are spent on other people’s children. my sundays? well i returned to work every sunday last year and i do have my chores to complete.

anyway 2013. please be kind. i dont usually have resolutions but i guess the feeling for 2013 is a bit different. it’s like i am determined to be kind to myself. and what i meant is, my job is not everything. the job is difficult and cruel at times. even as of now, i have pending works and my brain is kinda reeling around those list of things to do. but i want to stop, pause, breathe and take comfort that tomorrow is another day, i can finish that task tomorrow AT WORK. and 4 years on the job, i am better prepared and confident to do what is expected. students and parents, bring it on! haha. ok be careful what i wish for. students and parents, please be kind. because this year is not for me to be a plain manager, it’s the year to lead. i had set some foundation. its a work in progress i understand that now. nothing can be perfect. but at the back of my mind, everyone is scrambling for a point of reference, even the parents. i need to take things more seriously, not that i havent, but in the few years we are starting, i was so into getting the teachers, arranging lesson plans, teaching and all them reports and paperworks. these things will be part of the job, but i feel there is more to the job than just this.

i am not perfect. no. i may not be the best person to be here. but while i am here, i should make the best of it. Allah, please guide me.  like a strike of inspiration, i guess You have given me the answer to my prayers. yes. i know that now. You have always guided my decisions. for now, i know You want me to be here. for now.

still, as i have mentioned. work is not everything. i have my husband. my family. my self. they are more important than everything else and me is important. my husband needs my care. and i mean it. i realise he has been doing all the caring and love. i havent do much. apart from the simple chores i did…i simply havent do much. and i want to do more. and my priorities have changed. and work is somewhere down the list. if this work requires me to be fisabilillah. than it will. it will not be forced on me.

it is scream aim fire. in other words, start, aim and do it right.

its like i find myself all over again.

beautiful post ramadhan

indeed a beautiful reformed ramadhan and syawal which i hoped i get to maintain till the next ramadhan.

a night of touched heart and soul. a day of gratitude and prostration. a habit revived.

and visits to my elderly uncles and aunts in which i found the need to visit. for they remind me of my grandparents despite their flaws and past mistakes. who am i, as their niece to judge?

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and will forever be missed my beloved grandparents. never. never forget.

ten days

preparing myself mentally and emotionally for hubby will be away to China next week for ten days. i know its not the first time he went for a work trip. he went to US last year, but still. i will be missing him loads!! ten whole days! and i feel like just curling myself at home for that ten days wrapped in his shirt and sleep at his side of the bed, listen to his fave songs and putting on his cologne and just stare at his pictures…ok ok im exaggerating…heheh i pray for his safety there but i worry of what kind of meal he will get because he has a rather sensitive digestive system, its either a stomachaches or coughs. pray for his wellbeing and i just want him back safe. otherwise work will occupy me, but im starting to think now, that a rest at home and do some serious housechores would be good for my system. but depends…its the school holidays but i am nowhere near free. i definitely need a massage sometime. i think i deserve that at least! and i cant wait for langkawi trip with Ipah and cik bandi’s family. im already thinking of food actually!! ok, by right, i have nothing else interesting to say except that i will miss my husband a lot tahap giban while he’s away for his trip. but i find this sweet, he downloaded the whole 8 seasons of charmed and a new series called once upon a time so that i will have something to accompany me should i cant sleep at night. but abang, its not like i can watch all of them in ten days! but its the thought that counts. 😉 ps: looking around my four walls, i really should consider taking leave for serious clean up of this room!

fine MAYbe

Love the past few days. Me and the teachers got to go to the Sultans of Science exhibition and the Science Centre and my goodness, a whole lot of information which our scholars had all those years. i am extremely awed by the mechanisms, the knowledge, research and inventions. truly awed. of course an hour’s visit is not enough, as i had to rush to finish a research and a meeting. but im definitely going back there! with the kids probably. and im thinking of bringing my sibs there too. im sure they will love it!

the astrolabe is my favourite, as i had always wondered how it was used. it really is complicated but truly truly a work of art and mathematics, and awesome knowledge of the stars and universe. really. they are truly sultans of science. so it seemed i got a three day off without taking leave and i really am grateful and so happy with this break. i got to do some sewing and scrapbooking, play games, badminton with hubby and reading. bliss. and i know some of the teachers were happy too to have this rare three day off. if only i can travel. but looking forward to june for a short trip to langkawi! can i just forget the fact that i have to work tomorrow?

an april end

a pretty good end for april.
its also nice to have a week without a working saturday and without having to think much on lessons and trying to expect the unexpected. it is very exhausting every week to always be on your toes and anxious of what might happened next. and indeed it had been a very tumultuous month. same old same old.

I am just truly relieved that the maulid event went well although quite a humble celebration but i think we did well and surprisingly more organized especially with the meal together after the event and the free ice creams we get to give away. and i am proud of the teens students who did a qasidah and ever so ready to help out with giving away ice creams and assisting our volunteers to serve the food. really proud.

and of course, the soft launching of the reading room. all the tasks to be done seem stuck in the head just screaming to be materialised throughout the month managed to be completed and the books purchased and the room decorated a bit more. i have to say i wouldnt have done it without the help of my project officer who did a lot. he did the mini exhibits and doing whatever it is i asked him to do diligently. but now that it’s 90% person done, more importantly is to ensure people utilize the room, but that’s another day to think about.

i particularly love how april ends. with my husband’s birthday, and brother’s birthday. yes they are two days apart. and sumptuous delicious meals for dinner at bedok on saturday with my family and lunch on sunday at sakura, a sweaty but nice walk at fort canning with the family and an impromptu visit to the battlebox.

a selfmade card for him, blue roses and nice shirts for him. what im happy most is i managed to get the right size shirts for him! and he loved them. knowing him, it can be quite difficult to get something he will really like when size and material is concerned. we get to have late lunch at east coast for his favourite satay and an hour of cycling before catching the sunset. it was a lovely friday.

and yes, a minor milestone for me is, i managed to open up an Islamic bank account! i had been wanting to open up a savings account separate from my everyday use and i hope with this effort, i will be more disciplined in saving up and be more prudent with my spendings. and maybe in the next five years, able to perform zakat some day, and even hajj or umrah, and oh well, just the nice feeling of getting to save up.

grateful and happy with what i had and did. hopefully more better days coming soon.
a decision still awaits.

dynamic view of my life

oh well.. blogger has a new look. and i’m trying this dynamic view templates. i like the fact that it has different styles of columns and arrangements of the blogposts but i cant seem to change the background colour. let’s stick to this until i figured it out.

i am at home on time off since my sunday was burnt out with work back at the mosque. but coming back home, i wanted to settle some research work whose dateline is really, deadline. and i think i need to focus on this once and for all because otherwise it will be like this cloud behind my mind screaming at me to complete it. so at home, had lunch, on the tv but i couldnt concentrate on it, and my mind already reeling with this research work.

but taking a break from all this thinking and blogger has taken my interest for the past hour. haha.

so what else can i tell you besides work? on which i have a battle within myself in trying to figure out the purpose of why i do the things i do and whether i am being fair to my family, myself, to the community even? but as always, i need to be the strong entity? when things felt like falling apart and going wrong at work? there is really too many things needed to be done.

i tried scheduling my cluster of work in a day, like an hour lesson planning, another hour on becoming a loanshark, another hour as a librarian, another hour as a planner, another hour as a newsletter editor another hour as sports project event, sometimes as a youth worker but thank LORD the new youth officer is much much more reliable with the help of a young project officer. tell me what else can i do within the span of 8 hours?! i tried that and well, it did help in compartmentalising my mind, but it doesnt help me finish my work well. Lord, just help me with all the energy it need to do my work.

my workspace…i got it arranged and cleared up one day, it goes up piling the very next day.

ok ok. enough.

on to MY LIFE…

Ella concert was great, Cranberries was awesome. Hunger games left me crying for most part and in fear, praying that the real world does not end up like the world in the story.  Battleship was engaging until they had to get a museum ship which was 70 years old to save the world after the high tech modern battleships was destroyed by humanlike aliens. haha.

but this is not just what is happening in my life.

and would you believe me if i tell you i am trying to diet? yes, believe it. it is about my weight and about my health hehe. but im loving it. was going to try something called BioSlim, but it takes so much work with all kinds of drinks i have to drink. i ended up not following it. so how is my diet routine? hehe, actually its the Xbox Kinect exercise and dance central game!! that’s the only thing that makes me sweat apart from the housework i do on fridays! but it means i really have to find time to do it. some Mila seeds every morning, vitamin C and supplementary tablets and plenty of clear pure water everyday.

so it comes to this, i realise, it really is about time and just do whatever i want to do (nothing related to work) with whatever time i have. it actually gives me the satisfaction and oh yea, some sense of sanity or otherwise i will become insane because of work. really, i cannot let work rule me, right. it gives me a mental block to everything else i enjoy doing.  i am grateful of this opportunity to serve and make myself useful. but i believe i am useful somewhere else too, like at home and being a wife.

although right now, i am feeling sad, because some sundays i am away at work, heck weekends away at work but my heart is screaming to be with my husband. i know he is being very patient and supportive in a sense that he insisted to send me everytime i go to work weekends, bought/made me breakfast, i know ultimately me at home is what he loves most.

so why is it hard to make a decision?

Eid Saeed

Eid Mubarak Kullu Am Wa Antum Bikhair

This year’s Eidul Fitri comes early and it feels fast. you’re fasting today and its eid already. I pray that my fasting and ibadah is accepted by the Lord. we are so consumed by our daily routine it feels like freedom when for once you detach a bit from worldly demands to rightfully ‘demands’ of your soul.

if i may say, it’s actually a bit more relaxing environment at work compared to last year. i only stayed for iftar whenever i can and no one pressured me if i dont come, every wednesday the majority stayed over to help a little, when by right, the volunteers are doing everything which is good, hehe. and our zakat duties are lesser now with most of the staffs are ‘certified’ zakat amils so our schedule are more stretched out. i remember last year, my night duties will be like once every three nights!

and im most happy when both me and hubby got to go to the mosque for terawih and he loved to listen to the imam hafizin reciting the qur’an, heh that one no doubt everyone loves the hafizin. i heard they had a whole bag of gifts from our volunteers and even random jemaah. and i think it helps attract the crowd in, this ramadhan was beautiful because our terawih safs stayed full till the end and our qiyam had more congregation than last year. to the extend that meal for sahur was not enough for all and our volunteers had to rush to buy packed food from 24 hours coffeeshops. masya Allah.

pray that it will be the same next year, if not, better.

anyway. EId was beautiful but different.

im celebrating this eid as a wife. and without a mother in law. mixed feelings la.
oh husband and me managed to visit the graves of the faithful departed and with as much strength as he can possibly muster, clear his late father’s grave. with all the growing leaves and i dont know he had to pull out roots and all. but it feels good to be able to do that. and prayers yes. also i get to visit my own grandparents’ and i cant help but broke down at grandma’s. the tears just flows i cant help it. always, when visiting her. i miss her terribly.

i managed to bake one simplest honey cornflakes on the eve of Eid, a brief shopping for carpets and preparing/cooking for the morning after. it was fulfilling coz we are on our own, the 3 of us: hubby, sis-in-law and myself. definitely tiring ok!
our fast-game soto ayam was delicious!

except, it was quiet. say after everything is done, i was still doing my last rounds of honey cornflakes while watching the shows on tv specially for eve of eid and its so profoundly quiet. back home, it could be still quite noisy with last minute cleaning up at home, dad and mom probably screaming at us telling us to do this and that, the kitchen will be ‘action packed’ and we’ll be joking around.

visited my family first thing after solat eid, a teary hour and mom’s sambal goreng! 🙂
we had yati family and her mother in law (from switzerland) and i guess it adds on to the serenity of eid having her. you know it’s always nice having a mother figure in times like this…

a pic or two..eidul fitri from us all..

psstt…Lombok here we come!!

a change

i’m thinking
of this change that i’m facing
no longer one and only
but at long last
having my one and only

i used to think that i’ll be alone
for the longest time
just me alone
work and family
fulfilling days with friends perhaps
and my books definitely
and without a partner in crime

but now i found myself
a man so good hearted
who cares a lot about me
that i cant bear to hurt him
and so i’m no longer alone

so now its 3 weekends away
from our vows of marriage
and i’m wondering if i’m ready
to leave a life of alone
to a life of company
to leave a life of 7 crowd
to a life of peaceful 2

i will miss my room
my mattress, my bronze fan,
my ikea side table, my bookshelf of books
i will miss my travels alone
my zen mp3 accompanying me

i will miss my sisters
their laughters and shouts
our arguments and our hugs

i will miss my brothers
their teasing and craps

i will miss my father
his silence and patience

i will miss my mother
her nags and moodswings

i will miss that all these happen
under one roof within four walls of this house

and i’m moving leaving
no more of my footsteps and my voice

but i’m moving and praying
that i can be as Khadijah r.a
a wife loyal and true
that i can serve my husband
with love and care
sincere and patient
everything for him
with all my heart

Lord, please guide me
through this change