Looking back now it’s funny to think that by my mid-twenties I had thought that all my exciting firsts were behind me. However in the past 2.5 years I’ve experienced a lot of firsts that have pushed all my other firsts to second place. Getting married, my first home, my first child and inevitably, my first emotional moment as a mother. I was singing to my little girl while changing her, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make... Read more
The feeling had been with me from the start of the day: that something exciting was going to happen, though for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what it was. So in the car we all piled, with both babies fed and changed, and headed for the medical center. We got to the ophthalmology department and my husband checked in. By then I was feeling really silly, wondering why on earth I had felt the need to escort... Read more
It’s a cruel rite of passage that most new parents experience during their first year on the job. Having escaped the trial with my first, I was put to the test with my second child. At around midnight, I heard my 10-month-old daughter crying in a way that told me she was not just turning over or wanting an extra cuddle. Something sounded wrong and sure enough, she was burning up. I promptly went to the medicine cabinet, took out... Read more
Lauren and I met about eight years ago when I was living in California. She was my next-door neighbour and I remember having to introduce myself one sunny day in March because my son Zayd had kicked a ball over the fence into her yard so I went over to politely ask if she could throw it back. That was the day she told me her devastating news. Standing at the front door, she apologized for not having come over... Read more
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away!” Is this really true? What we eat and drink and what we don’t can definitely make a difference to our health. Eating well is one of the best ways we can take care of ourselves- and those who depend on us. As women we all have special dietary needs during the different stages of our lives, during adolescence, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. Regardless of the stage of life we are in, committing... Read more
Many expressions people use in everyday life simply roll off the tongue, travel through the ears and are not considered profound enough to deserve a second thought. But one has started to resonate with me in a way I didn’t know was possible for words so commonplace: They grow up so fast! Every time I hear those words, I am startled. A typical day in my life includes preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, vacuuming, reading story books, bathing kids, making... Read more
When I was in high school, I knew a girl named Reem Dah. She was a kind, sweet, smiling type of person. One morning when I rode the bus, my friend and bus mate, Rana, told me the shocking news. A bus driver had lost control of his bus yesterday and rammed into Reem’s family car. Her mother, father and four year old sister sitting in the front had all been killed. In a moment. In a heartbeat. Just like... Read more
Do you find yourself buried beneath mounds of laundry as you try to separate darks from whites? Well, this became a weekly event for me, as the laundry piled up until the weekends. I was forced to wash everything together, struggling to reach the end of my task. Needless to say, the whites were no longer white. There was also a real challenge to keep up with the folding and ironing; inevitably, my baskets grew and they grew and they... Read more
I was twenty years old when my mother passed away. I had a great relationship with her, though her great career prevented us from spending as much time together as I’m sure we both would have liked. My mother had cancer for three years before she died, so it was not sudden or unexpected. It was painful, nonetheless, but I did not start grieving until about a month after she passed, when all the funeral-related tasks were done and I... Read more
Our project’s title, GrowMamaGrow, is a little out of the ordinary for the typical Muslim community landscape. Something formal and feminine like “Enlightened Mothering” or “Sisters in Faith” would have been more characteristic. But we intended this site to have a totally different feel from the traditional settings Muslim women are used to. We hope GrowMamaGrow becomes a safe zone where women are passionate about self-growth but refreshingly honest about the frustrations they encounter on a daily basis. Muslim moms... Read more
Grow Mama Grow
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