Ramadan Excitement

I know, Ramadan doesn't start for another 87 (Friday July 20th, 2012), but I am super excited! This will be my very first participation in the fasting and praying of this special religious occasion. I observed my fiance and his brother go through the month of Ramadan last year, and enjoyed the excitement, dedication and spirituality that filled our home during that month.
I have big plans for my first Ramadan! I have already started my homemade decorations and crafts. I have also started planning some family activities that will be charitable and religiously educational. I still have a lot of learning to do actually. I still need to memorize the prayers and get the prayer steps right. My darling husband is extremely patient and devoted in teaching me, I love him very much and am so thankful to have him in my life.

I found this great guide to also help me in learning the prayers. The website I got this from (http://www.islamicposters.co.uk/) has lots of great Islamic guides and educational posters!

So back to my excitement for Ramadan!  I have been so very crafty today! I made `stained glass candles`to light during the month of Ramadan and have started some ornaments to hang on a twig tree of some sort as a decoration. The stained glass candles are made from old jars that I had cleaned and saved for projects such as this. They turned out fabulous so far and I plan on making many more but with the help of family and friends as a social group activity as well. I think my husband would enjoy this the most. His eyes lit up when I showed him my finished project and my ideas to make a very special Ramadan and Ramadans to come for our future family!

Beautiful Ramadan Candles

 I have also came up with a couple of cute ideas to start our family off on the right track. One is to help us to develop a better everyday vocabulary (no swearing or vulgar language). It will make us better people and create a better environment to start and raise a family in. I call it the "Swear Jar"! Yep, we have a swear jar! I even made a cute quote to put on the label! It states "If you utter the slightest profanity, the right thing to do is to donate to charity!" I love it! It turned out great and you'd never think it, but EVERYBODY uses it! Even our guests! We plan on donating the money from the swear jar to the local Mosque. The second idea is also a jar project (yeah, I have a lot of jars saved up)! This one I call the "Sadaqah Jar"! It is a voluntary charitable donation jar. So when we have loose change (and we have done a good job in watching our language), we can drop it is the Sadaqah Jar! When that one is filled up we will decide on a relief effort we shall donate the proceeds too (Im thinking the relief effort for Syria would be a good one). Here are our family's lovely jars...

Sadaqah and Swear Jar

Swear Jar
"If you mention the slightest profanity,
the right thing to do is to donate to charity!"

Sadaqah and Swear Jar