Assalamalikum everyone,

so what have I been up to this week?? not much really... I started my permanent shift, 3-11pm.. so far so good, its nice to have all the time to do things during the day when theres light and people. I generally get up around 9ish and leave for work abotu 230pm then go to bed around 12ish, well depending on whos online and wants to keep me awake you all know who you are!! I was supposed to meet Laylah this week and, well it wasnt meant to be.. Allahu alim, insha'allah another time, although with all the snow coming down now i have nooo idea.. hence the pic. I tried to take a pic of the snow, its late and dark now, so i cant take it from inside, i have to open a window.... and well... u can see what happened.. im just taking a pic of the snow its falling that hard.

I went out for a hot choc today with a friend from a friend where i used to live. Masha'allah shes really nice and lives just down the road from me, insha'allah we will get to be good friends.. and she has such an adorable son masha'allah he was just chatting away lol, bless him.

Then i went for a tour of the city im living in, went for a drive to the shopping centre to try to figure out whats actually there in case i need it. Saw a few hijabis masha'allah, then went to buy some fabric.. i really need to learn to use this sewing machine i have, and in the store i turned around and there is a niqabi being greeted by a non-muslim by her first name.. she wandered through the shop saying hi to everyone, i couldnt believe it, so outspoken masha'allah. I asked about sewing classes... no community ones im afraid, so maybe ill just force myself

Well thats it for me... back to the stitching board oh i crack myself up

The past few days, islamically

Assalamalikum girls,

ok, so finally on friday morning I eventually managed to drag my sorry behind down to the YMCA where i contacted the sister about the muslim sisters get togethers. Masha'allah she was really nice, greeted me with a smile and a salam and eventually we were able to talk. She told me about what she does at the YMCA (which i didnt manage to remember) then we talked about her involvement at the masjid. She told me she was part of the committee there, they get together every now and again and discuss areas which they can do things for, they decided for her to be involved with the youth of the community masha'allah. She commented that Cambridge doesnt really have many things going on, which i instantly agreed with and told her that, that would have to change. Alhamdulillah she grabbed hold of my hand, shook it firmly and let out an 'alhamdulillah' Being involved with YM back where I lived before cambridge i was sort of used to there constantly being able to go somewhere even if it was just for a social aspect and I really regret not taking more advantage of it. Allahu alim. So tomorrow, Im going to a volunteers meeting at the masjid to meet the other people and see what ideas they have. She told me that generally they go from 12 - just after oneish... then pray dhuhr and some people stay for social things, so im praying insha'allah that i meet some girls around my age.

A few hours ago I started to learn the qunut duaa that goes with the last rakah of the witr salah, alhamdulillah Ive got the english down, just... so now im waiting for some girls on my forum to break down the arabic for me... line by line... this is how i learn them. Im also, still, reading purification of the heart... found a gorg abaya in uk for only 15pounds includin p&p so insha'allah dee or someone will let me send it to their house, then I will pick it up when im next home insha'allah.

Anyways, Ive just eaten and im a little stuffed... so Im gonna leave it here for now. Insha'allah you will write and i will write soon. Miss you all. Fi amenallah

Snow

Salam girls... ok, so Im working 12-8 this week and from around 7ish last night it snowed. I was ok coming home alhamdulillah, although it took 10mins rather than the usual 5mins.. but alhamdulillah I will not complain about that when I think about how long it would have took me to get home from my last job. I woke up this morning at 9am (which is getting to be very easy) and first thing I did (after kicking myself for not waking up for fajr, AGAIN!) was look out the window. Surprise surprise... its still snowing. So I remembered the comment that Khadijah wrote about the snow and thought I would take a picture for her, so here it is. The view out of my spare bedroom window looking onto the main road.

So whats been going on?? i had a really good weekend, was able to keep up with some salah alhamdulillah. We went shopping to Newmarket (Canada!) on saturday with my mums friend and her little boy, she got some Timberland shoes (around 40pounds) and some warm clothes for the boy. I was able to pray dhuhr & asr together in the changing rooms, I prayed together because, well I am actually really far from home at the shops. Then we were back in time for maghrib, went out for chicken wings for food (i had the nicest big massive veggie wrap with nice chips with melted cheese on yummy!) and i prayed isha before bed. Fajr when i woke up.. sunday was a harder day we left for Niagara around 10ish.... the little lad needed the toilet so we stopped off at a service station just around dhuhr time so I prayed dhuhr and asr in the car alhamdulillah. I missed the time for maghrib cause we went after Niagara to visit some friends.. so I made my way down to Cambridge and prayed when I got home.. alhamdulillah, I was grateful for the times that I could pray. Although tell me this girls... if I have no way of finding out the qiblah direction, what do I do?? there was no rising or falling of the sun, no compass.. i just guessed and prayed that my Salah would be accepted, making duaa after each for this request. Insha'allah thats enough.

The girl who I was meant to meet at the immigration centre of YMCA has been sick for past 2 days so I didnt go down yet, today she emailed me asking to make it tomorrow when I had emailed her tellin her I wouldnt be able to make it today because of the weather. So insha'allah I will get down this week, although tomorrow Im starting work a little earlier to go and visit a supplier who doesnt believe our testing method so maybe Ill even go next week. Im looking forward to this change in times, Ill be able to go for Jumah insha'allah which Im excited about.. insha'allah the masjid has a proper jumah salah. Ill have all the time when Im awake to do what I want.

Im currently in the middle of reading 'purification of the heart' by Hamza Yusuf and i have to say when I get into it... its a good book masha'allah with many little things I could use. And Im supposed to be learning the duaa for the witr salah (Qunut) insha'allah ill take my english paper with me to work today and sit with that for half an hour... Ive told my forum the deadline is end of feb but i dunno whether ill be able to do it by then, cause usually i have a few days reciting the english.. then i gradually bring the arabic in line by line... Allahu alim. Insha'allah.

Well, now Im off for a shower after trying to send some cross stitch patterns to a friend. Fi amenallah, your sister in Islam, Ammena

Now, this morning

Assalamalikum, so I set my alarm for fajr this morning, and kept putting it on snooze. Eventually I woke up (now) and realised I had pressed snooze to often and it was nearly now time for work. So i made my wudu and came into my room (prayer/office room) and noticed how dark it was still outside and i thought well fajr is earlier and earlier now, maybe the sun is later but Im too tired to actually think about it. So i sat at my computer, which is getting to be a bad habit for me, before I prayed, and looked at the clock its not nearly the hour i should leave, its nearly the hour i should wake up properly ie7am. so now my tv is on... im awake and its ok

My mums friend is flying in from the UK tonight, so im supposed to go up for the weekend, its going to be a hard weekend. They want to go to Niagara Falls... so my prayers are going to be all over the place. Insha'allah it will be ok.

Anyways... time for fajr!!

Cambridge sucks...

.. for islamic events

Salam girls.. so i recently just found out that the immigration services that run with the ymca here have bi-weekly muslim sisters get togethers (is that twice a week? or every 2 weeks? i can never remember) so i emailed the lady to get some more information. Apparently that was last years schedule.. this year?? 4 times a year!! 4 times... thats every 3 months... do they not think we need more than this?? hmm... anyways, the first one is feb 28th and guess what.. i go on my afternoon shift starting from either feb 19th or 26th. This get together is from 10am-12, so alhamdulillah i will be able to go, whereas before i wouldnt be able to. Its title?? Success stories of muslim women 'our strengths, our challenges' Im impressed by the title.. so im looking forward to it. I also rang the woman at the school using the number the imam emailed to me, she told me there wasnt anything happening at the moment, but to email her with what im looking for and insha'allah she will be able to tell me when things come about. Insha'allah something starts soon or else ill go crazy. Actually i pulled out all my arabic books yesterday evening... so insha'allah ill start some more studying, its just hard to study a language on ur own as im sure most of you know already. Anyways, ive just finished the final day of my ramadan fasts, so now im gonna pray maghrib. Insha'allah chat to u soon. Fi amenallah.

My weekend

Assalamalikum ladies... so its been awhile and im sorry about that.. insha'allah i will find more time to blog soon. Im in the middle of a few things at the moment, namely finishing 'purification of the heart' for my reading group, although I really dont know why I bother... noone is really into it and it doesnt help me trying to organise things. Im also nearly finished with a little stitching project for my good sister in Islam anisah to help insha'allah with her bringing hubby over to Canada. Also on friday i learnt that my stepdad was still in florida so he couldnt pick my mum up from the airport when she got back from her week in England, she had been delayed so it was thought that i would pick her up (obviously) her flight was due to come in at 230am saturday morning which i wasnt looking forward to, but Allahu alim. But then it got delayed more, and more, and more, until eventually it settled at 1545 saturday afternoon (a good 24hour delay) i got there at that time and she eventually came out around 1630 so I took her home, she unpacked some stuff and gave me tons of chocolate (so im happy) and she even bought me the 3rd strip for my football team. Apparently there is more to follow cause she shipped some stuff over in boxes to lighten her suitcase. Anyways... thats my news for now, should get on with some work now.

Oh and if any of you remember reading my blog from when i went home last year, my mum even saw the young family friend and her friend from years ago who saw me in hijab when i was at home.. alhamdulillah they never said anything, well she never said anything to me anyway. And the young girl is apparently engaged to a turkish guy lol.. funny how things go. Allahu alim