The Story Of Us

I don't know.. well I do know how but I accidentally ended up changing my blog layout again. My original banner is gone. I will have to make a new one. I got a Google alert saying my blog was not mobile friendly and while I was trouble shooting I changed the layout. This was not not my first time doing it this year.. so just face slap! Anyway..  Today is the 3rd day of Ramadan. While some of you may be familiar with Ramadan I know many may not be. So I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about it. And if you have any additional questions.. ask away.  We start the roza (fasting) just before dawn, there is an actual time when the roza starts so all eating must be done before then. We wake up and have sehri (breakfast) which can be as simple as a bowl of cereal to an elaborate multi dished meal. M and I try to open our eyes as little as possible so we stick with simple. We mix it up a bit with eggs and toast, cereal with fruit, I am going to try some overnight oats ...

The Holy Month of Ramadan has come to a close and today we celebrate Eid. I want to wish all my fellow Muslims Eid Mubarak! The days were long and hot but you did good! We have planned a day of fun along the Jersey Shore today with family and then a some more fun with friends towards the end of the week.. so I'll leave you with some lovely Etsy Eid finds.. and see you next week with a pantry makeover!   Ayeshas Collection Ocean and Ink   Yellow Brush Studio   Path of Light Designs   The Eclectic Revival Amira Rahim Have a great week! Get my post directly in you inbox with  Bloglovin I am now also offering ad space.  See  Sponsors  for more information .  Newsletter Sign Up - Let's Stay Connected, Shall We?

After our nine hours in Amsterdam and three days in Cairo we were now on our way to spend seven days in Iraq. We spent the first four in Karbala, where the tragic battle of Karbala took place. Here lays the body of Imam Hussain (A.S) and his two sons including six month old Ali Asghar (A.S), his brother Abbas (A.S) and the seventy two martyrs of Karbala   The next three days were spent in Najaf where lies the father of Imam Hussain (A.S), Imam Ali (A.S). The mosque in which Imam Ali (A.S) was martyred in. Also in Najaf is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, it houses over half a million graves including two prophets. We enjoyed a lot of delicious and refreshing pomegranate juice. Being in Iraq was unlike anything I had ever experienced. There were check points every where. You were body searched when you entered the area of the shrines, then you were again searched before entering each shrine. Bags were checked to make sure you had no cell phones ...

I am so glad you all enjoyed our layover in  Amsterdam  and now it's almost time to take you to Egypt, but before I do I must give you a little background. When I told you that we had a trip planned I mentioned that is was not going to be a trip of leisure but of prayer and spirituality. And it was exactly that, it was not about the pyramids or the museums but of a beauty, history and pain of a different kind. Let me explain. Most of you know that we are Muslims. Like most religions, Islam too is divided into many sects, the main two being Sunni and Shia. We belong to the latter. The Shia's are further divided into many sects, we belong to a a sub sect of the Fatimid's known as the Dawoodi Bohra's. You may have seen Muslim women wearing headscarves and burqah's etc. We, the women, traditionally wear what is called a rida (they can be a variety of colors with embroidery and applique, sequins, bead work and ribbon work, the sky is the limit) and the men a white kurta ...

Hello Everyone, I am going to be going on a three week hiatus. We have some international travel planned for this month. The trip we have planned is a pilgrimage of sorts, not a trip of leisure or fun but a journey of spirituality and prayer. I plan to take my camera with me though I am not sure who much I will be using it and how much I will be able to document. We are very excited about this new kind of adventure we will be going on. The Offering The flights will be long and we have more than a few destinations, so we are hopping D will be patient with us and dazzles us with his good behavior. Though lets not kid ourselves.. we will be fully armed with snacks, books, toys and games. We just bought  this  which though for a slightly older child, we hope will keep him amused for sometime and I didn't want to buy him a portable dvd player.. he watches enough tv as it is and I'd rather go with something where he might just learn a thing or two. We also...

There we have it, Ramadan has come and gone and it almost flew right by with the exception of a few days when we though it would never end. (Most of us have been fasting even before we hit puberty.. our first fast being around the age of 6 or 7, some even younger) The first day was difficult.. as in I think I might die of starvation. After those first two days things got much better and I was in the mood to cook. M felt that after a long day of fasting dinner should be something special, like a reward. So we feasted. We added a glass of juice and finished the night with fruit or ice cream. But as days went on my enthusiasm started to falter. It wasn't the hunger that was my problem is was mainly the lack of caffeine.. so I cooked some days and then days came were I went back to simpler meals and even leftovers camouflaged as new. By the time we were into week three and especially week four, the finish line was within reach but the lack of sleep was catching up with us and we...