In all confidence, I can safely say this is the busiest Ramadhan ever for me.
With the new house keys in hand, the husband and kids are motivated to try to move in in time for Eid. And that means packing which means spring cleaning and packing. As we are on a very tight budget, we are making minimal renovation to the house. Which works well because the workers would be able to complete the work sooner rather than later...or so we're told.
On hindsight, it was quite a good move that most of our Eid preparations are completed. I was hoping to just focus on Ramadhan but it now looks like while one task was completed ahead of schedule, another has been placed on our plate. But I remind myself to give thanks that I have these happy "problems" (if you could call them that) to solve.
Shifting gears, I was driving Farah to school to this morning and turned on the radio. Only to be greeted with Hari Raya songs. We both looked at each other and thought out loud that it's way too early to be playing those songs. We're only into 12 days of Ramadhan. I think the Malay radio stations should play the songs from the 15th day onwards...for some reason the half-way mark is significant to me. And then after those songs, the Raya ads came on ad nauseum, luring listeners to "buy now, pay later". The spiral down to credit crunch starts with that one temptation...
Until then, Ramadhan Kareem to those who are fasting!
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We just picked up our keys to the new flat last week. And then went off and immediately bought a huge padlock because the front gate lock doesn't work properly. Have visited two design shops already. There's no way we'd make Eid with renovation work, let alone moving in, and I'm wondering, how will we handle Shawwal this year? Have people come here to this incredibly cramped apartment or have them wait until after Shawwal when we've had the chance to move in and can show off the new place? (The latter makes more sense, but flies in the face of family tradition to the point that I'm not sure it would be accepted.)
Gosh, the husband and I had the same conversation re having people over during Eid.
Our current house is a mess; boxes everywhere and in totally disarray as we threw out some stuff which were frankly, falling apart anyways. Definitely not visitor-friendly.
And then, while we intend to move in a few days before Eid, our new furniture - basically just new sofa and new dining set - can't be delivered until a week after 1st Shawal. If we invited guests over, they'd have to sit on the floor!
So we made a decision that there won't be a cook-out or visitors until perhaps second week of Shawal. And then we'll combine it with a housewarming kinda thing.
I can just see it now...trying to explain to relatives why they can't come over until much later. Fun fun fun!
I forgot to say - Congrats on your new home!!
My theory on busy-ness that creeps up on us during Ramadan: Allah's test to see our patience, resilience and determination. Anyhoo, happy moving! :) Maybe I'm crazy but I've always felt that moving is so exciting even in spite of the stress and tiredness.
Elia, true that re unexpected busy-ness. But like I said, this is not a good "problem" to have. We are exhausted but we are also excited and happy!
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