making changes for ‘06

our family is at yet another crossroads.
we’ve got our options down
and are praying to be guided in the direction that has best benefit for us.

sanaa had her 3rd birthday this past friday.
we just did cupcakes, party hats and candles with the family.
the following sunday
we had a puppet show party
with all types of puppets from the folks at
carousel puppets.
it was great.
i think sanaa was a little scared at first,
especially with the marionettes.
she’d seen marionettes before, but not as close as they were at the party.
one of the other children actually started crying.
after the puppet show, the kids made dog or cat sock puppets.
then we had cake, pizza, salad and juice boxes.
it went off well.
not too many children
and the children that attended were pretty much well-behaved.
alHamdullilah, it was a good party,
but i won’t be doing that again for a few years.
[smile]

so, we’re going to sell the debacle that is rock creek church road
and move to atlanta, inshAllah.
the plan is to buy a modest home
then go off to study arabic in yemen for a year or so.
from posts at lonely planet’s thorn tree
i found a guy who is about to do just that:
http://arabistfancy.blogspot.com/
he’s already sharing the drama of vaccinations and dealing with visas.
my main concern is the health and education for the girls.
inshAllah, i’ll be able to find a montessori school in yemen.
i’ve found a few on the web, believe it or not.
most folks give rave reviews about yemen,
so many signs point there as the place to go.

this past eid al-adha was the best eid i’ve had.
probably because — as ishaq said — i actually did something
besides just come to the eid.
i had created a funky t-shirt line called
“A” is for Allah
and was able
– through the grace of Allah –
to vend at the eid celebration in the dc cenvention center.
i sold out, alHamdullilah.
and if i’d bought my 2nd shipment earlier
i think i would have done even better.
i think people are sharing the site and even visiting the site,
but web site sells have been nil.
i’ve got to figure out how to get people to buy
because they were really excited when they saw the shirts live.

other than that,
i’m still all about montessori
and doing things with the girls.
story time at the local library and the like.
we’re watching a cool video series called families of the world.
so far we’ve watched ghana, china, mexico, egypt, france, and now we’re on israel.
we received a free video of the adam’s world series from soundvision.
the production is lacking, but the concepts are great for muslim children.