The Simple Life at Home: Ramadan and Ramblings

4:31 PM | Posted by Lori ~ The Simple Life at Home | | Edit Post

I'm so touched by your encouraging comments. Thank you so much. I'll continue to blog when something interesting happens (this, more often than not, is the problem - not much interesting going on in my life), but I hope you'll understand if it's not as often as I used to post.

So, I haven't mentioned it, but we are smack in the middle of Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic year. It's a time of fasting and self-reflection for Muslims. From sunrise to sunset, they can neither eat nor drink. But when you live in an Islamic state, you are affected too.

Last year we were so excited for Ramadan to arrive as it meant that Hubby would be working only half days. Little did we realize that during Ramadan everything shuts down in the afternoon! We spent almost every afternoon sitting at home bored to tears.

This year has proved to be different since we are in school. School ends at 2:30 (I still work until 3:30 though) instead of 3:00. By the time we get home and get schoolwork done, things have opened back up again. It's much less disruptive this year.

At the end of Ramadan, there is the Eid holiday. Then 40 days later comes another Eid holiday. I think Hubby gets 4 days off for both of those, while the school will have a week off each time. We were planning on painting the interior of the house during the first Eid, but now Hubby has talked me into waiting until the second holiday. It seems that there is now a glut in the housing market, and now after years of overinflated prices things are coming down. We like our house, but would rather be in a compound with other kids around. So we agreed to do some house-hunting for the next two months and either move or paint this house. I don't know what will happen. Like I said, I like the house and it's only 10 minutes from school so it's an easy commute. But if we find something affordable where the kids can go out and be with other kids more often, we'll move in a heartbeat.

Thank you also for your condolences on the loss of my father-in-law. It's been a hard week and I am desperately wishing I could be in Amman to support my husband. He'll be home on Sunday evening and I can't wait to wrap my arms around him.

4 comments:

Mana Laura said...: Hi Lori,
I meant to comment and say I do enjoy reading your blog and you really don't need to feel pressure for something exciting to be going on. In fact, some of the posts I've enjoyed most have been the ones that give us an insight into your world there. Because I live in Mozambique, I could relate to many things you wrote about adjustments, prices and scarcity of favorite foods, the DRIVING POST was my FAV!!! I meant to ask your permission to use it on my blog and just tell people "substitute Mozambique for Doha" and you'll know about our driving here! So, as you're able to, keep it up!
And, I am sorry about your father-in law. I'm glad you jsut recently visited and assume you saw him then?
Bless you, Laura; September 4, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Mana Laura said...: Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog!! The reason I've been lurking is that I read blogs I've found on Google Reader and it doesn't allow for comments direct from that page, you have to go to the website, so I rarely take time to do that. I think I would comment on most of the blogs I read if I could do it thru Reader. In addition to a bit of "not wanting to take the time" we are also on very limited bandwidth so I do what I can to try and conserve it. So reading on Reader saves a lot from going to websites with all the stuff in the margins, etc.
All to say, that's why you haven't heard from me before. But I thought for sure I'd commented at least once. Oops!
It's funny, when I commented I thought "I wonder if she'll go to my blog and find the post about "sometimes I hate this place" and if she'll relate or think I'm horrible! Thanks for the encouraging comments!
Have a great Labor Day weekend!; September 5, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Leeann said...: Lori,

I always love your blog and look forward to your posts, no matter how frequent or sporadic they may be.

I hope you are able to get on top of things at work, especially now that you are top dog! Whoopee!

Love ya.
Leeann; September 7, 2009 at 4:34 AM
Misty said...: lori *hugs*
it's been ages since i've stopped by... life has just multiplied in busyness w/ avery's addition! i don't get online ... wait, i get online all the time, mostly facebook, but just never have extra hands to do any typing (on my blog or others)... all that to say i'm also interested in YOU and your goings on, even if they're not homeschool/making related. i'm sorry for your family's loss, especially your mil.; September 7, 2009 at 10:17 PM