How did it get to be almost Ramadan already? I ain’t ready!

Last updated on: May 21, 2015 at 12:19 pm by Nancy Qualls-Shehata

How did it get to be almost Ramadan already? I ain’t ready! 2015-05-21T12:19:17-04:00 Nancy Qualls-Shehata

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There’s a rumor going around that Ramadan is approaching. Less than a month and we will embark on our marathon month of fasting. This is the time of year that I contemplate moving to South Africa for thirty days. The summer will be just about to get into full swing in the northern hemisphere by the time we start fasting around June seventeenth, while my friends on the south end of the planet are about to enter winter, with short days and long nights. Around where I live, sunrise will be around 5:30 and sunset won’t come until 8:30, making for around sixteen hours of fasting because we begin before fajr, which is well before the sunrise.

I always look to the beginning of the fasting month with trepidation and sometimes I’m even a little pissed off. Don’t be shocked! Let me tell you I am SO not a morning person, and having to get up at o-dark-thirty and make food is my personal jihaad. I hate hate hate getting up in the morning and even getting up on regular days is hard for me. Getting up early to see the kids off to school is a task I struggle with. I just put myself on autopilot and make breakfast for my father-in-law, then make something for my husband, and the kids are on their own. They know better than to ask me to do anything more complicated than get the box of Cheerios off the top of the fridge.

Having to get up and make food, real sustenance that can keep everyone from falling out by about noon, is so hard – and did I mention I’m not a morning person? Most years I can psych myself up for the first few days, and then after that I start to run out of steam. This year I can’t even get revved up for day one. Ugh.

I am going to do a couple of things this year to make it easier on me. One, I am going to do as much prep the evening before as I can. We probably will eat a lot of fuul in the morning since it stays with you a long time, so I will prep it all and put all the seasonings and stuff in the pot the night before so I just have to snag it out of the fridge and heat it up. Probably not a lot of home-baked pita bread this year. I’ll boil eggs the night before and cut the cheese. (Hah hah, I said cut the cheese. As my kids would say, Mom made a fart reference.) My kids are in charge of making sure there is plenty of filtered water, so that should be easy.

The second thing I am going to do is I am going to tell my dear family that Mama is not going to get up half an hour before everyone else so that all they have to do is roll out of bed and start shoveling food into their mouths. When I get up, we ALL get up. The kids can help with setting the table (one big plate in the middle to share), everyone can get the potty breaks out of the and make wudu and all that so we can eat together, pray together, and then maybe, just maybe I can go lie down for a while before I have to get up again for the day ahead. I am saying alhamdulillah in a BIG way because school will be out so I don’t have to get back up to get kids out the door, but I do still have to go in to work, chickens have to be fed, summer stuff has to be done, and of course we have to make more opportunities for worship during the blessed month. I just don’t want to get stuck with all the morning stuff by myself.

Ah, see there? I feel better already. I better email this blog post to my husband! I’m sure he’ll understand because he knows I’ve had kid duty every morning of the school year so he’ll be willing to pitch in. Otherwise everyone will be feasting on a suhoor of Rice Crispies and toaster strudel. Not that that’s a bad thing….

So, that’s my confession. I don’t enter Ramadan with unbounded joy and choirs of angels singing in the background. My approach is quieter and more practical with a generous dose of stress and anxiety, but this year I want to have a more spiritual Ramadan, so if I ask the family to help shoulder the burden of getting the morning meal (yes, I know there is a blessing in suhoor, but that doesn’t mean I can’t SHARE the blessing), then that will make it easier on me. And you know what they say – Happy Wife, Happy Life. Or, Come Help Mom Take This Bowl To The Table or You’re Getting Instant Oatmeal for Suhoor.

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