Update That Turned into a Short Novel...Sorry!

Salaam alaikum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh everyone, insh'Allah you're all in the best of health and the highest of iman!

Sorry for not posting yet again for a rather extended period of time...as I kind of mentioned in my last post, my husband and I have been a bit busy getting ourselves situated in our new appartment. Alhamdolillah we're pretty much all settled in now (we officially moved in the first of March), and pretty much have all the basics covered (we still need a refrigerator though...which pretty much means that we haven't been eating much in the way of "real traditional" meals...although yesterday my husband got ingredients so that I could cook a tagine for dinner...my cooking still needs perfecting, but alhamdolillah it went better than the last time I tried to cook a tagine...we also need an oven so that I can cook delicious cakes and cookies *ahem* I mean...bread...LOL, but I guess the oven isn't really a necessity, so it can wait for later). After a while insh'Allah when we have the finances I can think about interior decoration and making it look more "homey."

I was also at my husband's aunt L's wedding on Saturday. Mash'Allah she made such a beautiful bride! It was a women's only wedding, which was pretty cool, because the other wedding I was at in January, in Marrakesh for my husband's cousin R, was a mixed wedding...and for obvious reasons I didn't really feel that comfortable dancing. Anyways, I'll talk more about weddings here in another post (or two!) in the future insh'Allah...because they're beautiful and there's so much to talk about...food...negafa...takshetas/kaftans...wedding traditions...so insh'Allah that'll be something for y'all to look forward to! ^_^

Alhamdolillah all my paperwork for my residency permit FINALLY was able to go through last Wednesday (after my poor MIL and I had been going there for almost a month trying to get it done!). Subhan'Allah, people can never tell you the correct information the FIRST time around when it comes to paperwork here; it's so FRUSTRATING!! We had to go to the police headquarters literally four times...sometimes having to wait in line for HOURS...just to be told that we didn't have all the paperwork needed/they needed more legalized copies of this or that/my husband doesn't make enough money to support me (this lady supposedly wanted my husband to make 20,000dh a month to "prove" that he could support me...when my MIL told me this I was like...seriously?!?! Does she really think that I'm THAT high-maintenance?) Another thing that I found extremely annoying is that people there, even after knowing that I can speak and understand French at a near-fluent level, INSIST upon speaking to me in English. Now I don't want anyone to think I'm stuck up or anything when I say this, so PLEASE don't take this the wrong way, but if someone is going to go through the trouble of talking to me in heavily accented English when I'd be able to understand them much better in French anyways, at least they should be able to understand when I respond to them in English as well. However, I find that whenever I do so, I'm often confronted with the blank "I didn't understand a word of what you just said" stare. JUST SPEAK TO ME IN FRENCH DARN IT! I SWEAR TO YOU I WILL UNDERSTAND! I guess it's just not that believable that an American can speak more than one language *eye roll*

Anyways, now that I will have my residency permit, insh'Allah, I will be able to look for work here...if I so choose. So now, I am stuck with a dilemma: to work or not to work? I only have a high school diploma (the equivalent of having your BAC)...and the only real marketable skill that I have would be to teach English. I have always wanted to teach...but doing this would require that I at least pass a TEFL certification first, which of course will take a few months. I also feel very strongly that once I have children, insh'Allah, I DO NOT want to work outside the home. I also know that I would like to start having children rather soon (i.e. 1-2 years time insh'Allah). I also know that, even though he won't say it, if I worked it would help my husband out a lot. I asked my husband what his preference was, and he told me outright that he doesn't really have a preference either way; the choice is up to me. I should also mention that as of now, if I am not accompanied by my husband or MIL outside the house, I am pretty much helpless (i.e. I've never gone outside alone), so I don't know how comfortable I'd be having a job outside my house. So my question to y'all is this: would it be worth me trying to find a job now, or should I forget about it?

Sorry I've basically written a book...insh'Allah I'll be back soon with more posts!

RAMADAN MUBARAK!

Salaam alaikum wa rahmat Allah wa barakatuh,

Alhamdolillah it's day 2 of fasting for me...and I just wanted to say RAMADAN MUBARAK to everyone! Insh'Allah everything is going well, and you're all enjoying Ramadan so far!

I just want to put it out there that I dislike working while I'm fasting. I feel like it takes up a lot of my day that could be used for doing other productive things...and when I come home I'm SO TIRED. However, alhamdolillah that I do have a job...and insh'Allah it will get easier...I've just never worked full time during Ramadan before. It's not like I'm doing anything physically demanding (unless you count lifting 20 pound boxes every now and then physically demanding...) it's just mentally draining. I stare at very crowded jewelry displays for 8 to 9 hours a day and try to organize them, and put more jewelry out...it can be extremely frustrating because lots of things get tangled/put back in the wrong place/broken etc. It seems like sometimes I spend hours fixing something, only to have it be completely destroyed 15 minutes later. I often find myself wishing I could be doing something else more spiritually productive.

I'm sorry for the rather long complaint...I know I shouldn't but I'm just feeling a bit tired. My schedule during the weekdays looks something like this:

3:45 am-ish : get up for Suhoor, find something to eat and drink while trying not to make too much noise so as not to wake up the rest of the house
4:20 am-ish : pray Fajr, go back to bed for a bit more sleep
6:00 am : get up and get ready for work
6:30 am : drive to work
7am - 3 sometimes 3:30 sometimes 4pm : work
anywhere from 3:40-4:30: come home, pray dhohr, use internet, take nap
7:00pm: wake up, pray asr, read Qur'an until maghrib
7:50pm ish: eat iftar, pray maghrib, get ready to go to the masjid
9:10pm: drive to masjid
9:30pm-11:30pm: pray isha and tarawih at masjid
midnightish: arrive home, eat a small snack, drink some tea, collapse in heap on bed

lol I'm hoping that I'll get to work more on my goals during the weekends...right now though I'm just exhausted T_T. Time for a quick shower, then I'm going to the masjid for a halaqa, and insh'Allah I'll be eating iftar and staying for tarawih.

Salaam all! ^_^