I come from a good family

It's with a bit of life experience that eyes become way open to what kind of shit there is in existance on this earth. People are not all decent.

Coming from a good family, I've always been surrounded with good people! I attracted good friends as well... It left me with a general feeling that the world is good, but of course I was just blessed with these people in my life and it isn't most people.

Lottery

I've made a couple posts about the lottery and how I don't participate... I seriously hate the lottery... I don't participate in our office's lottery pool and never even considered it. I didn't even join the office gang when they went to play Bingo. I just don't believe in gambling.

BUT it happens sometimes that a person might give me a lottery ticket for some reason like at Christmas. I got one last Christmas from my uncle and won 15$. I cashed it this week and decided that for such cases where I am forced into a lottery situation and win something, I will just donate it to a charity. I'm quite pleased with my solution to just give it.

My husband brought up a scenario: What if I am given a lottery ticket for the 20 million dollars and win it??? Thinking about it seriously, it would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to give that all away to charity. I am the only income for my family and working in a "haram" industry (loans) and I could not *not* use part of this money on myself and my family to remove myself from this and get educated in a field that really would suit me. And I couldn't not keep some to help my family out! And I couldn't not keep some to ensure my daughter has a fund for future needs. My giving plan works well on smaller amounts, but for millions... I couldn't. A new plan had to be made. (lol)

If I win 20 million dollars from a lottery ticket someone gave me, I'd give some to that person and of course spoil people I love. After, there'd be 20% to charities I support. I'd then take care of a basic want by getting a house that would be large enough to accommodate my family, my parents and husband's parents comfortably (and on a farm near town), and keep enough cash for living expenses handy since I would quit my haram job right away, and put the rest in placements that could be yielding, giving all of the earnings to charity. And also with the left over money, I'd like to start some sort of charity or foundation. I don't know what I'd want to do, but it would be Islamic, and open for anyone. Hopefully it would be good dawa... I'd see where the need is in the community.

I guess it's nothing extravagent... I hope to do most of this stuff in my regular little life! Quitting my job, getting a house and starting a charity or foundation. :)

OK, this has been an anti-gambler's little dream on winning the lottery! lol

OOH! I just thought of something to add. I think I might have to "bite the hand that fed me" by using money for a small anti-gambling campaign. Might be controversial, but that's what gets people thinking, isn't it?

The Islamic Will - Al-Wasiya

Click on this phrase to go to the article about Islamic wills and how important they are.

I would write up my own thing on wills, but this article really puts everything together so well that it would definitely be better if you all just go read the article. It is such a misconception that Muslims are not allowed to have a will and have to divide all their property according to the rules of Sharia. My husband thinks that he will have to go around this by giving his posessions as he wishes before he dies so that when he dies, they don't have to be divided up according to the Sharia. There's no need to try to go around the rules of God! A person should have a will and anything not included will be covered by the Sharia and *that* is from God.

Islam tag

Saw this on Sincerely, LabellaIman and so I consider myself tagged :) I'm not going to sound smart by admitting this, but I never realised her name was Iman! hahaha



1. Name ? Candice

2. How long have you been muslim? About 10 months (since July 2009)

3. What menhaj do you follow? None.

4. Do you attend the masjid regularly? No, I really don't. I went so much more before I was Muslim, and even then just once a week!

5. Have you ever made a pilgrimage (Hajj/umrah/jamaat)? No, but insha'Allah one day! I don't know what jamaat is though (anyone able to help me out?)

6. Do you wear hijab/niqab? I wear hijab occaisionally and wish to wear it full time someday. I would not wish to wear niqab though; at least not here in Canada. If I were in a country where a woman in niqab somehow got more respect or less negative attention and it was necessary for my safety, I most definitely would.

7. Would you like to make hijrah? Of course! What Muslim wouldn't? For me, any move for Islam is a hijrah, so my goal would be to move to another place in Canada that has a bigger Muslim population, a nearby mosque, good programs for children and ideally an Islamic school, easy access to halal food and all that. Basically a place that would make it easier for me to be a good practicing Muslim.

8. Are you married? If so, how long has it been? If not, when do you want to? I am married and have been since December 2005.

9. Do you have children? Yes, I have one daughter and she just turned 3 this month!

10. Do you label yourself (Sunni/Salafi/Shi'a/Tableeghi etc)? I don't actually label myself anything else than Muslim because I think that would go against what I believe Islam is, but of course I have certain things I believe that might make people label me something... Don't know what it would be. Maybe reformed or semi-Qur'an only. But seriously, these labels just divide us.

11. Is your family Muslim? No, they are probably filed under Catholic but they don't follow religion and from what I can see don't believe in the basic Catholc beliefs but they themselves don't know that since they don't really think much of religion.

12. Do you have any Islamic goals? LOTS of them. To observe 5x daily prayer... To give more to charity... To become a foster parent... To begin wearing hijab... To get a "halal" job...

13. Favorite Islamic book? Qur'an.

14. What is your favorite thing about Ramdaan? Haven't had a chance to enjoy Ramadan. Last year's was difficult for me.

15. Favorite Quran reciter? Don't really have one. But it could be Mishary Ben Rashid since he's the only one I really listen to!

16. Would you recommend any good Islamic books? Yes :P

17. How many Ju'z do you know? What are juz again? What I know are only a few basic surahs.

18. Favorite Hadith? Don't really have one...

19. What do you like best about Islam? The basic truth of it.

20. What do you think is the best way to spread dawah? By *showing* exactly what a Muslim is and what Islam is through action.

21. For converts, what got you interested in Islam? For born Muslims, what sparked you into being a practicing Muslim? For me, as a convert, it was hijab that got me interested in what Islam was at the very beginning and after that, ritual prayer directly to God ALONE is what really made me feel like this religion was something I wanted to investigate more deeply.

Now add a question, and keep the tag going!!

I tag everyone interested!

Thinking way in advance

My daughter goes to daycare full time while I work, and they have activities for everything as an occaision for learn. I was thinking that as a Muslim child, Nora should bring something Muslim to the table when Ramadan comes! What could I do to try and encorporate a little Ramadan activity for the kids?

A show and tell thing? Nora is only 3 years old so she wouldn't have much to tell, but she could bring in something... Or else just a Ramadan lantern drawing that they could all colour. The teacher could at least tell them this is a Ramadan drawing and the word would be that much less alien to them.

I obviously need some ideas! What could I do or suggest to the daycare to encorporate Ramadan? Keep in mind that Nora is very probably the only Muslim there.

My chicks

Here is a picture of my 3 chicks! I got them Saturday morning before Nora's birthday party. They were a hit with the kids! They are so cute and love to chirp! I need to spend more time with them though because they don't quite like humans yet. The yellow one in particular is a real scardeycat!

Two of the chicks (the yellow one and the darker one you see) are Easter Eggers. They will lay blue or green eggs! The other one is some rare breed I forget the name... It's supposed to lay dark brown eggs when the time comes. I have another 20 weeks or so of waiting before that first egg though! It will almost be winter by then and they won't lay as often as they would during the sunnier seasons. It's OK though! It's a long-term project and I'm looking forward to seeing them grow up!

Wanting to improve myself

I want to separate myself from everything that brings me further away from Allah and from Islam. I want nothing else than to improve myself and make my life as "pure" as possible. For me, an important part lies in simplifying my life and getting rid of all the useless extra we now prioritize like a television show, music, internet (like online games) and other things. But I find that these 3 are MAJOR because of how much time we can spend on them without realizing it.


I am not against any of them in essence. I think that watching a good educational or informative TV show is great. I think that watching 1 or 2 fun shows a week that are halal in their topics but provide no real educational value is fine! I think listening to nasheeds is good and listening in moderation some songs that are halal in topics is fine. Same with internet. There is a lot of great information on there! I think a lot of us came to Islam with a lot of help from the internet and born Muslims probably learned things about their religion that made them better Muslims and that's really great! But there's so much time-consuming crap on there too!


I feel that it's so hard to keep a balance on all this. If you have cable, you are bound to watch some shows that deal with haram topics. I love a lot of those shows, actually, and I feel there is nothing bad since I know what I believe, but I have to admit to myself that it's not doing anything positive to watch these things. That's what is so tempting about them! Why should I continue when I get nothing good out of watching these shows?? OK, I get a laugh and a bit of stress relief, but I know I could get stress relief by better managing my time and getting things done faster and then reading a good book. And I laugh all the time, so who needs the shows? I DON'T.


I now feel blessed that I don't have cable or satellite. I can watch some things on the internet. If I don't find it worth taking the time to search for online, then it probably wasn't worth the time I was going to spend watching it on TV.


Goals:

- have a bigger repertoire of (healthy) meals to make
- be a tiny bit more self-sufficient (have a garden, have chickens)
- make better use of my time (eliminate time not well spent on the comuter)
- read to my daughter at least every day
- better keep the home

Funny how I spend so much of my time at work, but none of my goals have ANYTHING to do with my work. :P

Daughter's 3rd birthday

I'm so excited, I'm having my daughter's birthday party on Saturday May 8th at my place. I never have guests over so it will be really weird to have people over! It will mostly be family with a couple of my friends and a total of 5 other kids. One of them is my daughter's age and the others are a bit older (5, 6, 8, 9).

If it rains, we will stay inside and I plan on having the kids decorate their own cupcakes, do crafts, and there will be a couple games. Pin the tail on the donkey, hide and seek, hot potatoe (or varitation) and maybe limbo. I will not have competition with gifts though and just make individual gift bags /party favours that are appropriate to their age and sex. And I want to make small thank you cards with Nora with stickers and glitters if I have time.

If it's nice enough to go out, I will have a trampoline set up that Nora is getting as a gift from my parents, and I will have a bunch of bubbles they can blow and we will play the games outside. I think we will have a blast. :) My first time planning pretty much anything!