MuslimMominSuberbia

moved to http://muslimmominsuberbia.wordpress.com/ since blogger is not working anymore for me, come over there!

2011-07-26T18:13:00.002-04:00

Cant get my posts to post!!

2011-07-26T07:30:00.002-04:00

Shopping

2011-07-25T07:52:00.000-04:00

What happened? where did my post go yesterday! I wrote a really good post and the bloody thing disappeared! I wrote about how I had a job interview yesterday and I was hoping to get the job, but since I have lost my last job I had started wearing a scarf. I was nervous about going into the interview with a scarf on and what the person will think. Well, I went to the interview and the lady was very nice, the company was nice, very casual atmosphere. I think the interview went well, they have to call me for the third round of interviews if I did well, So I will wait and see. I am sick of looking for a job, I want a job and I want this job, it is more than I have ever made, it is a good location and the job is using the skills I have. Please pray I get it. I got a job at a retail store, a bog retail store, I am surprised they didn't care about the scarf, they just wanted the skills. Even though I would be dealing with the public. The corporate job, where there is no customer interaction I feel look at the scarf as a hindrance. Oh well, off to write thank you letters to the interviewer......

2011-07-22T07:49:00.001-04:00

Koran for kids

2011-07-20T08:01:00.000-04:00

How do your kids learn koran?
I have had a hard time with this. DS1 used to go to Islamic Center, but he hated it, he cried the whole time he was there. Out of the hour he was there the maulvi (teacher) spent about 5 minutes teaching him. The rest of the time he was reciting what he needed to know. If you have ever been to a Islamic koran class, especially the pakistani ones you know what I mean. I would drive 20 minutes to get there and sit outside and wait for him and then take him home.
Then last summer a new Islamic center opened in our town, it was such good news, we were so happy! It is very kid friendly and modern, clean and decorated beautifully. They also saturated koran classes and I took both kids to the classes. The teacher was a young American born maulvi and very nice, the kids loved him. He would bribe the kids with pizza and other relevant kid bribes. Then there was talk of him leaving! all the moms were horrified, the board of the masjid wanted him to work more and the teacher was asking for more money. So in the end the teacher left, the moms, me included even offered to pay fees to supplement his salary, but the board refused. The kids were so sad and the classes stopped. To save money the board decided the regular Imam of the masjid can teach the classes, so he started and the kids went to one class, after there were no kids showing up that stopped too.
I am sure there are more sides to this story, I only know this side and I know my kids loved that teacher. Anyway, this summer I started quran learning online, It is an online service which provides tutors to teach children the Koran. The price is very reasonable, cheap I would even say. There are three free classes and there are various times and days you can set it up for. I set up a 3x a week program for both kids, there is a sibling discount too. The teacher my kids have is very nice and teaches the kids through Skype and Gotomeeting. You don't have to buy any software, everything is provided by the company.
DS1 is doing so well with this and I am hoping he will be on Suparh30 by Eid and DS2 is on Kaida and learning the compound words. I am so glad I found this service! I know how important it is to teach the kids Koran, and in the country it is very hard, I am ashamed to say I didn't start it earlier, I finished koran when I was 8years old thanks to my mom teaching me. I am ashamed I did not do that for my own kids. But Inshallah this method will work.
As for how may day is going, DS1 is complaining of toothache so off to the dentist we go!....

Did It!

2011-07-19T07:10:00.000-04:00

I made the cakes! I made the cars cake, it looked great, just like the car! I used the mold and then thought I burnt it but it came out fine, covered it in the the different colored icing, just used frosting out of the can and used food coloring to make the different colors. The prepackaged colored frosting is so expensive, so I made my own and used sandwich bags as icing bags. It all worked out. DS2 (youngest, I'm going to use DS2 or DS1 for each son since it is easier to write!)anyway he loved it! The cupcakes came out great too, the kids decorated those with the left over icing, so they had fun. I am glad I tried and did this, I think I spent about $10 on cake supplies for his birthday, colors and frosting and cake mix I had at home already.

The other update is on the movie, I finally went with DS1 and watched the movie Harry Potter! it was very very good! however, I should have reread the book!, I have a very bad memory and I couldn't remember what had happened and what was going to happen, I kept asking DS1 and he was getting annoyed!A problem with that movie is I hate snakes! and that Nagini is horrible, I had to close my eyes when it came on the screen!
I couldn't believe how many people were upset in the theater! there were people crying! It was so funny! I have read the book, most of the world has by now and everybody knows HP lives, so why cry when he dies in the movie! he lives again anyway! it was sad to see an end to a series, and to see the characters older was wierd too. It was sad to see the bond DS1 and I made over these books come to a close too. We read all the books together and watched the last 3 movies together. I have to find another series for us to start, any suggestions?

Birthday!

2011-07-18T07:12:00.000-04:00

Today is my youngest birthday! I cant believe he is 6, wow! I remember when he was born, so vividly like it was yesterday. He was an easy birth, I drove myself to the hospital and was induced, he arrived about 3 hours after induction started! which is quick!. Now he is 6, wow! I think I should be sad he is growing, but I love it once the kids become independent, I hated the diapers and the pooing and peeing everywhere. I hated the late night feeds and the dependence the kids had on me. I was crying with joy the day we stopped using diapers, I knew I would never have to use them again!
Update on the Harry Potter movie, I am going to take oldest today to watch it, probably in the morning, when tickets are cheaper, I know I am cheap, but I have to be.
I ahve to make the frigging cake today too! I have to make a cars cake, and some cupcakes! I have never made cupcakes before! Birthday boy wants a lightning mcqueen cake, so we went to Michaels yestrrday and bought the mold and the frosting. I had the fod coloring at home so I will use the cloring to make the different colors and then use plastic sadnwhich bags to make icing bags, cut a corner off and use it for th edetail. I am so stressed about this!. It was my idea to make a cake rather than buy one, but I didnt know Birthday boy would be so specific about what he wants!
How do you celebrate birthdays? In Islam they are not celebrated, when I was little we didn't celebrate them either, we just bought a cake and cut it after dinner. I have kept that tradition now too. Tonight, after and if I make this cake, after dinner we will all get together and put a candle on the cake, sing, cut and eat. We never do any big parties, I don't think it is right to commercialize it so much, he got gifts(Cars 2 game!) and a cake, that should be it right?

Lightning Mcqueen and Harry Potter

2011-07-17T08:23:00.000-04:00

Have you seen them? we went to watch Lightning Mcqueen the day ti came out, I had to fork out money for the IMAX 3D experience, which was nice, not worth the $20 a ticket each though. The kids loved it, my youngest loved LM, he cant get enough of it. It is his birthday tomorrow and he wants me to bake him a cake! I have just started baking and he wants a LM cake, okay, will let you know how it goes!
Harry Potter is out too, my oldest loves HP, he wants to go see that today, I will see if I can manage it today otherwise I want to go tomorrow, there should be less people there tomorrow. I cant for out $20 each again, so I want to go in the morning when it will be cheaper!My oldest and I read the whole HP series of books so to go and watch the movie is a mom and son kind of event we need to do.
I do have a AMC Stubs card it gives you points each time you use it and it lets you buy a medium soda and popcorn for the price of a small, or a large for the price of medium, that helps!
anyway, will let you know when we see it and how it was........

Welcome!

2011-07-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Welcome, Hi or Salaam!
I am Parveen and as you can see from the title I am a muslim mom in suberbia, suburban New Jersey in fact. I am a muslim 33 years old and a mom to two boys ages 10 and 5, well he is 5 about to be 6, so I guess saying 6 will be better!
I should probably write why I am writing this blog, well I have been reading a lot of blogs on my google reader (if you dont use it you should, it is awesome!) and I want more blogs which show women in my situation. I couldnt find any that really fit, so I decided why not start my own, how hard can it be?
Well, it is hard!, harder than I thought, but I will conquer!

So moms, of whatever faith you are, please join me and follow me and watch me on my crazy life in suberbia! as a muslim mom!