30 Things Day 4: to my 16 year old self
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
1) Study more seriously.
2) Don't be afraid of failure.
I am a simple human trying to figure out the truth in this life. I encourage any opinions, as long as they're stated in a respectful manner. I want to learn :)
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
1) Study more seriously.
2) Don't be afraid of failure.
Posted by Candice at 8:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: 30things
Artigos Relacionados:There's a giveaway on two fashion blogs I follow where you can win any eShakti item!
One chance HERE on a blog called Just Take a Bow. You could win any item by eShakti by going to the blog, following it and then following eShakti on both Facebook and Pinterest and commenting (find the links for that on the other blog).
Second chance is HERE on a blog called My Marine and Me!
Here are some examples of the goodies they sell:
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denim chambray maxi dress |
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hummingbird dress (knee length) |
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heart mints shirtdress (below the knee length) |
Posted by Candice at 8:58 PM 1 comments
Labels: beauty
Artigos Relacionados:3. Describe your relationship with your parents.
Posted by Candice at 8:42 PM 1 comments
Labels: 30things
Artigos Relacionados:2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
I don't really have any important fears so I'm not sure that I can really participate.
Posted by Candice at 12:36 PM 1 comments
Labels: 30things
Artigos Relacionados:Could any of you spare a quick thought for a friend of mine named Sandra who just had a miscarriage..? She had been trying to conceive for close to one year and was starting to feel discouraged about not getting pregnant, worried that something was wrong with her when it finally happened! So much joy... Her little bean as she called it. You can imagine how she was planning everything (since really she had been planning for almost a year) and to then lose the baby... She's devastated.
Posted by Candice at 12:05 PM 2 comments
Labels: islam
Artigos Relacionados:1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
1) I've always wanted to visit Burma since I read an article about it in a super old National Geographic that was lying around at my house when I was a kid.
2) I admire people who are determined and hardworking and just like a lot of people do, I'm trying to transmit what I wish I was to my kids and this is it.
3) When I was a kid, even very young, I wanted to be skinnier and would suck in my stomach. I was actually very tall and thin so it really made no sense for me to feel that way.
4) My husband helped me overcome my desire to be skinny. I went through a period of "light eating disorder" It was not to the point that I was making my body very ill and I did not look up to others who didn't eat at all and wanted their bones protruding, but I was draining myself mentally to think about nothing else than calories eaten and calories burned and my target weight of 118 lbs... I'm 5'8.5". I was eating normally and letting my body be what it is when I met my husband so I was not in the eating disorder stage of my life, but I was still self-conscious and still had the lingering desire to be skinnier and he was able to help me put things in perspective and make me feel confident about how I looked and how I might look if I gained a few pounds or lost a few pounds.
5) I'm not sentimental about possessions generally.
6) BUT (in relation to 5), I have a teddy bear from when I was 2 years old that I love so much I still keep her close by to this day. I brought her to Egypt when I met my husband. Yesterday, I bandaged her leg. Last month, I made a search online to try to find a place that could make a custom bear that looks exactly like her so I could give it to Nora and have Toutoune to myself (didn't really find one).
7) I hardly ever listen to music anymore and literally don't have the desire to much at all but in all honesty, it makes me sad because it was such a beautiful part of my life when I was discovering great music and growing up to those sounds. It feels like something I can't get back.
8) I'm reading Thirty Shades Darker (second book of the series).
9) When I'm asked if I have any regrets about my life so far, I'm actually honest when I say that I don't.
10) I'm also honest when I say that sometimes I feel weighed down by being a parent. This is mostly when I think of studying and travelling which would be so easy without kids and a husband.
11) I would have preferred it if this was 10 random facts rather than 20!
12) I have trouble finding where I fit in
13) My favourite word is "shard" since I heard it in a song by my favourite artist. The picture he paints in the lyrics is quite memorable to me, "your barefeet dancing crazy in shards of wine glasses". Tarantulove by Hawksley Workman for anyone interested.
14) I don't have much of an interesting pre-Islam past. No drinking, drugs, boyfriends...
15) I can't imagine that I will *not* get a tattoo someday. I WILL get a tattoo someday...
16) I kind of wish I was born into a different culture. I love the asian cultures and I love the native american cultures.
17) I have one sibling, a younger brother. He's a redhead.
18) My last name is Swedish.
19) My identity is mixed between being a French Canadian and an Anglo Quebecker.
20) I have a lot of interests but no real passion and if I could have anything, it would be passion for one thing. I'm a little tired of having a couple weeks of interest in all sorts of things. Something else always takes over before I get anywhere with the thing I'm interested in.
Posted by Candice at 10:21 PM 4 comments
Labels: 30things
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Posted by Candice at 9:30 PM 2 comments
Labels: 30things
Artigos Relacionados:I was planning on going to Egypt while I was pregnant and felt like my plans died with the start of my husband's company because of our financial situation mostly, and my husband not having any flexibility...
But now my husband is very serious about wanting to find a way to go to Egypt as a family this summer. He wants to have someone else at the store full time (who he has already found) while he does the work through the internet from there to help out the guy who is OK with computers by not a technician really. And for his other full time job, he wants to take his 2 weeks vacation and combine that with 2 weeks extra unpaid. He says they're gearing up for some layoffs so he can volunteer to be affected for those 2 extra weeks even if he has enough seniority to stay on.
Next thing... We're in Canada so that's a long and expensive plane ride. I dread the travelling to the point of not even wanting to go actually... But I also love Egypt and dream of being there... So I'm torn on just that point. Add in the financial aspect and I feel like we need to stay here. We don't have that money and it will take a while to get rid of that debt if we decide to go.
BUT I really do have to take into consideration the most important thing and that's Ahmed's parents. They have seen Nora twice but they haven't met Adam yet and it makes me sad that they haven't been able to be a part of our lives like my own parents have. They are alive and well at the moment, but they are not as healthy as my parents and they are older too so I can't really say, "we'll visit them when we're financially stable" because then we might not even do it. It seems like this sacrifice of putting ourselves in debt is something we need to do. I stil don't know if this summer is the time to do it, but next year, I have 3 weeks off total as vacation while right now, I can stay as long as I want since I'm not working. It makes the trip more worth it that I would be staying a minimum of 4 weeks and possibly staying beyond my husband's trip if I want to.
I'm nervous just thinking about being in Egypt though, really. My stomach is all in knots as I type.
Oh, next thing now... The flight. Ones from Montreal are just way beyond our budget. Even the budget we have for putting ourselves in debt. I found no cheaper than 6000$! But from NYC, it's about 4000$ for the family. That's close to an 8h drive though. BUT, it's a direct flight while anything from Montreal has a layover costing us at least that 8h. If we chose to do the NYC thing, we'd stay for a night or two and visit around a little since it's my husband's dream to visit this city and it would give us a fresh start for the long flight. Part of me is more scared of this than leaving Montreal and having a layover in an airport and part of me feels like this would be closer to relaxing since we'd be doing it in two separate travels... Oh, I don't know! I just want to be in Europe so make the decision easy. I'd have a cheaper, shorter, more direct flight to Egypt and we'd just go every year! lol
Posted by Candice at 12:31 PM 6 comments
Labels: my life
Artigos Relacionados:Last paragraph of my other Muslim feminist post, I was saying that I recognize the differences between men and women and that I believe that accommodations with laws and societies need to be made to insure equality between men and women. I just wanted to go into more detail about that with a couple examples.
Posted by Candice at 10:06 AM 0 comments
Artigos Relacionados:I'm writing with a bit of anger here at being disobeyed on almost every point for the past few hours and I also feel flat out disrespected by my 5 year old.
I'm not an advocate of spanking. In fact, I'm flat-out against it and I have a bit of negativity go out towards people who are pro-spanking who describe it as a necessary method of discipline and who believe that if they don't do it, their child will run wild and will never have respect for authority in later life and all that. I really still think that they are wrong.
BUT, the part that I sympathize with after my awful time with Nora this evening is the desire to spank your child into submission. OK, I'm making it sound worse than it is maybe. I'm making it sound like a beating when I realize that the child is not physically injured beyond a few seconds of stinging, but the idea still is that parents want their child to obey and use this physical punishment to make them.
And boy did I want to... I'm not proud of it because I really am against spanking, but I was being physically rough with Nora when I was trying to make her go to the naughty corner and when she didn't stay, I dragged her to her room (she may or may not have touched the ground) and told her that if she came out, she'd get spanked (well, I described spanking because she doesn't know this word). And truthfully, if she came out of that room, she'd have gotten spanked. I WAS SEEING RED!
I see this as part of my mistakes as a parent and part of my faults and I don't blame it 100% on her. If I haven't exhausted every discipline method that does not involve physical punishment before actually punishing her with something like spanking, I will accept it as a mistake and I will not be able to say "I did the best thing for my child, I spanked her". That's how I see myself on this issue... a parent with faults but at least not deluded.
Posted by Candice at 7:57 PM 2 comments
Labels: parenting
Artigos Relacionados:Posted by Candice at 11:39 AM 0 comments
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Artigos Relacionados:Posted by Candice at 9:29 PM 2 comments
Labels: parenting
Artigos Relacionados:There are lots of different opinions, aren't there?
Posted by Candice at 10:28 AM 2 comments
Artigos Relacionados:Posted by Candice at 9:58 PM 3 comments
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Posted by Candice at 9:47 PM 2 comments
Labels: islam
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Posted by Candice at 9:40 AM 0 comments
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Artigos Relacionados:Posted by Candice at 10:01 PM 0 comments
Labels: beauty
Artigos Relacionados:Is anyone signed up for any beauty boxes? I'm thinking of singing up for one but I'm not sure which. There are a handful in Canada and it's still confusing to pick one!
My cousin has a hair and nail salon and sells jewelry and products as well (hair, skincare, make-up) and I just bought myself a really cool mineral powder thing with a brush. I'm loving it! She also gave me some samples for moisturizing creams since mine is not working as well as I need and a cleansing mask and exfoliating mask and it's just so much fun to try new products! I'm not much into make-up or nail polish but since I have so few of these things I'd be happy to try.
Any suggestions on which Canadian box to get?
Posted by Candice at 3:46 PM 0 comments
Labels: beauty
Artigos Relacionados:Nora turned 5 years old last week! Happy birthday to my little sweety! We have been having a lot of fun together lately. She got a lot of fun gifts like legos, puzzles and art supplies which we've been playing with a lot. She also got a big girl bike with all the girly accessories and has been going NUTS about it. My dad has been bringing her out to ride every couple days and even he seems to like it which is great because I'm not that into it myself and I'm enjoying staying at my parents house with my mom chatting or taking a walk with the baby while they're out biking. Yes, I see my parents that often. We're really close.
Adam is doing really well and is 6 months and a half now. He is rolling all over the place and is realizing how mobile he can be. He's starting to stretch and push a little with his toes to inch closer to objects just beyond his reach. He's extremely curious and I have trouble holding him because he lunges towards anything he sees to get a closer look.
I'm having trouble introducing foods... he's just not loving his purees at all but it doesn't seem to be out of lack of interest for food because he always seems to want to get to what we're having and my cousin gave him a couple of his son's crispy disolving corn treats and he enjoyed those. He also enjoyed sucking on an apple A LOT. But I don't want him to have these things regularly until he has established a cereal and vegetable routine - at least a little! It's not like I gave him treats before trying veggies either, making him dislike the taste of plain veggies... I think it has to do with my milk... He ate a lot of cereal around 2 months ago when I tried to go on birth control and found myself losing my milk supply. He ate for a week or two after the pill problem and then got sick so I stopped the cereal I'd been giving him since he was throwing up, and since then he has not wanted to have any. He has enough of milk I guess. Any tips to help me feed this baby are appreciated. Also any tips on starting a baby with formula at this age please! I need to be able to have him babysat for a few hours once in a while and simply can't because he has not managed to take a formula bottle.
My husband saw the Avengers and really wants me to go see it with him. And I want to go too... It's just not possibly yet until this baby can have a bottle or eat. Or else there's too much risk that he will need breastmilk during the time it takes to go see a movie and come back and I wouldn't risk having my baby in distress just because I wanted to see a movie.
Posted by Candice at 8:29 AM 2 comments
Labels: my life
Artigos Relacionados:I've known that I want to got back to university since I stopped studying. I didn't really want to stop but that's just wear life took me with marriage and pregnancy and responsibility and for the past couple years I've been wanting to become a teacher. I had been thinking that I wanted to be an elementary school teacher so that I could have the same kids all day long and therefore be able to be a bigger part of their lives but yesterday I think I figured out what I actually want to be and what I should study. I figured out that I'm not the most patient person ever and that I'd have so much trouble dealing with the kids yes, but also the parents who don't do their jobs and doom their kids into being less than they could be. I'm frustrated just thinking about it.
I want to become a MATH TEACHER (high school level)!!
OK, I know it's not the easy alternative to being an elementary school teacher, but I've been figuring out that it's more suited to my abilities. High school students can be more difficult because they are meaner in a real way rather than being innocent and difficult, but I like that I have the possibility of having a more real impact because of just that, they think for themselves and their parents are having less and less influence in these later years. At the same time, it's less frustrating if I don't have the impact I want since I only see them once in a while for math. Which is, to clarify, a field that I love to begin with. I don't even know why I never thought of math before as a field I'd want to go into.
I guess that with having children I only thought of the practical jobs and math never jumped out as being a practical thing to get into until it clicked that I can do both teaching AND math. I sound really dumb, but working full time with kids and a lazy husband and focusing more on spirituality with just a smudge of future dreams will make a person overlook things!
So yay for having an even more concrete plan! Now let's put that aside for a little while and continue my life since it's just not possible for at least 1.5 years.
Posted by Candice at 10:12 PM 4 comments
Labels: my life
Artigos Relacionados:Posted by Candice at 3:02 PM 8 comments
Labels: islam
Artigos Relacionados:Does anyone else want to be better and sort of doesn't know where to start and how to do it? Or you have ideas but are not being very good about implementing them?
I want to be a better mom but I feel frozen in my current routine and I feel mostly alone in my parenting. I want to be a better person but I don't know what to offer or to who. I want to eat ethically but I don't know where to start. I want to be healthier and more active but I have trouble fitting it into my day to day life.
I'd love it if someone wanted to partner up with me. Someone who very available online to be able to exchange messages often, either by email or Facebook. Someone who also wants to better herself (yes, I am asking for a woman) and who needs a little extra support. Someone who is a bit chatty and doesn't feel awkward updating on a lot of little things.
My idea is to be gradual (which is why I need someone who wants to chat about every little bit of progress)... I want to read more often to my daughter until it's set as an every night routine like it should be, I want to lower TV time, I want to do some simple, easy crafts with her when we're home, I want to find new ways to bring education into our day to day activities. I want to find ways to do things for others. From small habits I can form to bigger things like actual volunteering... I want to change my eating habits by lowering meat consumption some more, finding other ways to eat more ethically (I have recently switched to exclusively eating free range eggs for example), cooking more from scratch and lowering my dependence on cans and pre-mixed spices and salt for tastey food. I want to add more exercises into my day. I certainly have the time since I'm home a lot but I don't have the energy or willingness sometimes.
We could add some religious goals to that if we wanted to (if you are a Muslim or any other religion and want to work on your spiritual side as well).
Does anyone have some similar little goals they want to work on? They can be quite different to, I don't mind if you don't have children and have different goals... Important thing is to want to better yourself. If you're a "Try to be vegetarian for a week" type of person, I think this can work out. I'm a little limited because of my husband (and if anything, I'm asking for a partner in this because he is nothing like me when it comes to this stuff) but I still love challenges like that.
You can message me and leave a note not to publish if you want (if you're leaving your email for example). Let's be in touch! :D
Posted by Candice at 6:41 PM 4 comments
Labels: my life
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