Life choices

I had two encounters with women of two different world yesterday. It kinda made me think there must be million of women's priorities in this world. We have to go out from our own world to have a counter check of what our life is all about especially when you are feeling lacking of something in your life. Looking at others may help you be more appreciative and thankful of what you have. Let's name these two Lady A and Lady B.

Lady A is a working woman whom I would say a career woman who's very passionate about her job. But hearing her story of her working world scared me. She works in a legal world where she had to meet clients for legal paperworks at the client's convenient time and place. She has appointments at nights and weekends. She's married with two little kids. She only saw her kids for a few hours in a week. The rest of the time her kids stay with the maid. In my two hour encounter, I gathered she's very proud of this "busyness" of her life. In fact she said she once tried not working and only lasted for two months due to "boredom" staying at home.

I met Lady B right after Lady A near my house. She's a new neighbor. A very friendly lady who calls me "kakak" - I swear the minute I saw her I thought she's older than me.. haha! Anyways, in less than an hour I learnt that she's a housewife with no kids. I asked if she has any business, she said no. And I asked if she's going back to work, she said she prefers taking care of her house. Oh and she has a beautiful house with 6 rooms.. (hear.. 6 rooms and no kids!). I would say she's a lady of leisure! She travels frequently as her husband travels for his work.

After meeting the two ladies, it really made me ponder. Definitely I don't want to be Lady A, working very hard, perhaps with lotsa money yet so little time with her kids. I also don't want to be Lady B who travels the world, has beautiful big house and no doubt cash rich... but no kids. And here I am complaining everything about my life, no job, no money... but Allah has trusted me with 4 children to care for and now I have made the choice to "work for" them. No I'm trying to say those working moms are bad, nor those non-moms are unfortunate, I'm just trying to remind myself over and again of the choice that I've made. I have to be thankful of what and where I am now. I shall stop complaining, I shall stop comparing myself with those high-flying and jet-setting moms. Thank you Allah for giving me the opportunities. And thank you for the encounters that has made me realised the gift that you have given me. Amin.

October bash

It has been a busy month, yet interesting. We celebrated another two birthdays which marked the end of "birthdays" for the year. Oh, I had mine in September but it was nothing grand except a hushed surprised party (but I guessed anyway!) by my nieces and nephews. The two October babies, Eussuv and Syasya, on the other hand, had a very simple but great birthday get together at home. Syasya even had another one at school as it is the school monthly birthday party. Since she's the only October baby, it looked as though it was her party. As expected, I bake the cakes... so we can have as many cakes anyone wanted!I shall say no more as the pictures will tell all!

Eussuv is 9! Chocolate Banana cake. Notice the "sengetness" of the cake. Duhh... talk about being proud of baking your own cake! ha ha..

And Syasya is 6. Chocolate Moist cake. Again.. didn't know you must have a very soft hand to twirl the cream around the cake. Despite the sengetness, Syasya thought it was the most beautiful cake! Thank you dear..

Clapping away.. for the years to come..

With the guests... best cousins.

Celebration at school. Another well"crooked" cake. I will not zoom on it cos this one is worse due to some "technical" error on the cream (excuses excuses!). Yet she still thought it's another most beautiful cake in the world!

I like this one the best. Some cupcakes to go around the cake.

No matter how crooked the cakes were, I still felt good. Perhaps, it's a sign that I need to go for a real deco class. Hopefully, for next year's birthdays... and other ocassions.. I shall fare better.

Food .. food and more food..

It's really a month of food. Well Syawal that is. What is supposed to be another good month has become a food month. I had a full "food" weekend for the past two weeks of open houses... and all I could think was those unfortunates in our neighboring countries who were atruck with disaster and eat whatever provided to them.

Dear God, thank for all the food and luxury that you have given us. Ameen.

Ramadhan ... that was...

Syawal is already halfway through. And here I am writing about Ramadhan. Am I in a different time zone or something? It was one great, meaningful, hopefully berkat but way way tiring Ramadhan.

I was OK on the first week of Ramadhan. It was the school holidays, the kids were fasting and they did it well. Even Syasya surprised me by fasting full for the first two weeks. She did it so well that it scared me. No whining, no crying but full of energy. Even the boys whined once in a while. Oh before I forgot.. this was the first Ramadhan in four years that hubby was around. So it sure was different. We got to go for Terawih prayers, I mean all of us. Usually it was just the boys who went, I always have a baby to care for. Now that the "baby" is three years old, old enough to follow instruction while we perform our prayers. Omar had a great time in the surau. He always had other kids to play with without actually disturbing the jemaah.

The second week onwards was rather hectic, maid was off to her hometown until the second week of raya. I had the whole housework and kids all to myself to care for. This is a real challenge. The housework was never ending. What made it worse was the fact that I had to face it 24hrs a day and 7 days a week. Had I work I a 9-5 job, I'd have a break from facing it 24hrs a day.. but no. There was no break to it. Even when you go to sleep you know there's something to be done just before you sleep and the minute you get up. Not to mention the backlog of work that awaits you once you missed it. Call me whatever, nope I don't think I can live with the housework without any help. I value the time with my children more. I realised I spent less time with them but more in the kitchen and with the laundry. The good thing though, I know now how hard my maid works, how committed she is and how efficient she is. I also know now you can train the kids to do housework and they loved it. You have to train them!

It was really one great Ramadhan. Made me realise a lot of things. Taught me lots of patience and gratitude. Did not manage to bake lotsa cookies, did not manage to finish the Quran as I planned to but taught me a great deal another side of me, another side of what life as a full time mother and house "manager" is all about. Perhaps this will prepare me for what's more to come.

Now Syawal is already half way through and my maid is back for another year. I thank Allah for all the things that I went through Ramadhan. I thank Him for gving us the strength and patience especially for the kids who went through Ramadhan without much difficulties (the two boys completed the whole month and Syasya completed almost 3 weeks). And mostly I thank Him for being here again this Ramadhan. InsyaAllah next Ramadhan will be a better one.