A Story on a Hijabi's Dreams

If you are expecting a story on when, how, and why I decided to be a hijabi, I'm afraid now is not the time for that long story. I just knew that one day, I will have to be one. When, I had no idea. Then one time, I got out of the shower and knew I wanted to wear a hijab that day. No plans before that. I wanted to do it spontaneously. The good thing about that was I also had no chance to back out. And now, I wear a hijab whenever I go out.

There. Not a long story after all.

Anyway, that is not the subject of this post. My dreams are.

Funny how, before, I have always had dreams of myself going out in public naked. As in, In my dream, I will go to school and suddenly discover that I am naked. I would find myself running so that I can cover myself up. I read that in psychology, it means I have low self-esteem.

Now that I am a hijabi, I no longer find myself dreaming that I am naked. This time, I always see myself forgetting to put on a hijab and really looking for one in my bag!

Am I really just bound to forget an item of clothing in my dreams? If that's the case, I am plenty grateful that at least now, I have clothes on.

Just a random musing on a weekend.

Breastfeeding in the Qur'an

photo source

Today marks the day when I can finally pray again. That's almost two months of not doing the salah.

As I was about to pray Asr, Laika cried for milk. I have already performed my wudhu (ablution) so I turned to the internet to find out if breastfeeding will nullify it. The answer is no, wudhu is not nullified by breastfeeding. Not even changing of diapers (as long as you wash your hands that has touched urine).

Anyway, I was surprised to find out that breastfeeding has also been mentioned in the Qur'an. You know the saying "breast milk is best for babies up to two years and beyond"? It is clearly stated in the Holy Book.

photo source

In the second surah (Suratul Baqarah), 233rd ayat of the Qur'an, it was recommended that a child be breastfed up to two years. You may wean as long as both the parents are consenting. You may also have another person breastfeed your child.

Contrary to popular belief, Islam regards women highly. In fact, I have never felt more special as when I got pregnant. Do you know that if you died while giving birth, it's as if you died as a martyr? Just now, I found out it's the same thing as when you are breastfeeding your child.

 I do not claim to be so knowledgeable about my religion. In fact, I am far from knowing a lot but I am trying. If you know something about this topic, I'll be glad to listen to you.

Allah knows best.

Eid'l Adha Long Weekend

When Malacanang announced October 26 a national holiday to celebrate Eid'l Adha, our little family planned on having our own weekend rest. My husband is a big traveler while I am all for staying-at-home. When there were just the two of us, we used to always argue on whether we will be traveling when opportunity comes or we will just be watching TV in the house. Now, as Laika is only a little over a month old, there was no arguing, we can't go somewhere too far.

On Thursday night, as soon as Laika's daddy got home from the office, we visited baby Nash, our youngest nephew. What a cute baby! Can't believe she was as small as him when she was born and now, she can hold her head and try to climb on our shoulders while we burp her!

And then, we went straight to my parents' house as they live in front of a mosque. We celebrated Eid'l Adha with them on Friday morning. Unfortunately, I can't pray as I still have postpartum lochia (I know, TMI!). We spent the rest of the weekend with them.

You can see the people if you just squint a little

As for Laika, she chillax-ed the heck out of the vacation. We are so much grateful to my mother and siblings as they took care of our baby while we were there.

It was a pretty laid back weekend. Come Sunday, my husband and I went to our future home. We will be moving in a year from now there. Seeing the showroom, we got excited of the development. This is the reason why we are saving up. We bought it last year. It seemed too faraway then but now, we can't wait for our unit to be done.

Not ours. This is just a model unit.

So that's how we spent our long weekend. Another long weekend is coming up. I wonder how we will be spending it this time.