An article worth reading for a Muslim perspective on ISIS

We sometimes get asked questions regarding Oman's position, or the position in general of the Middle East and it's Muslims, what their position is on ISIS, Al Qaeda, or any other extremist Muslims in the world. 

That answer is very hard for us to answer, because while we can speak in general to the subject, we ultimately are not the people of the Middle East, nor are we Muslims.  It's a difficult subject to fully identify with, let alone speak for them.

This morning, I ran across this column by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE. I found it to be a insightful piece in not only answering the question of position, but also discussing the viewpoint from a religion, cultural, and societal context.


http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2321/Article-The-world-must-wage-an-intellectual-war-to-defeat-Isis

I hope this helps answer some questions any of my blog readers may have, and offers better insight into the views of leaders here in the Middle East, as well as other Muslims.

Play date fun

A couple weekends ago, Isla, Aberly's bestie, came over for a playdate.  

 

Remember these two hams?

We set up the small tent downstairs for them to play in while Em finished her nap.  I was working on the computer at the desk and realized there was gold going on next to me.

I had to start typing.  They talked fast, but I did my best to keep up.  I couldn't note who said what, but I hope you enjoy reading what they had to say.

Here is a snapshot of two five years olds (well, Aberly is almost five) conversation while playing.  

Let’s pretend there was a bad guy that loved candy so much that he was going to come get it. 

So we wrap it up in this bag so he wouldn’t know.

He is scared of cats.

Yeah, I turned into a cat and when we were a cat… we didn’t share candies!  Our candies, we didn’t share.

Well I did when you were sick.  Yeah.  Meow.  And you are sick.

So you didn’t know to not share it and I had my own blanket.

But we can only share these, our own blanket.\

Emalyn joins after waking up from her nap…

She likes that!  She doesn’t like that.  You’re cozy warm!

You want to try that?  You can have this.  Emalyn, here!  She does like green.  No, not  in my face!

Here, I’ll give you…  Aberly, you take one of your music candies and put it here. 

She is sitting on my blanket!  You need to be warm and cozy.   

Emalyn fusses…   

Okay, let’s just take it off.

Pretend you are just the big sister and we are two babies.  You’re the big baby and I’m the small baby, but you’re my mom baby.  

But you can talk lots of words.  Yeah.  She’s the smallest baby.  Pretend whenever I criss cross you snuggle with me.  No, you lay on my straight, like this.  No, oh yeah. 

Say hi to your new sister!  And then I got big and you’re a kid too.  And that’s out little baby.  Good girl!  Brush your teeth after you candy!  You can share candy with her but I don’t want to share my candy. 

Here, look, I need green.  I painted the sewing thing.  Look, I painted this into green!  So then I painted it, and then we needed to dry our blankets. 

Okay, let me just figure out my dance for tomorrow.  Cat, can I have this?  Pretend I’m just a kid and I need to write my new dance. 

And you got cold.

I’m going to put very nice writings on my blanket.  Remember, I’m making your favorite designs!

I’m make a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty pretty design!  Humming…

After this, they went to play upstairs and wanted two rags to clean.  Clean away girls, clean away.  Whatever you think is fun!

Year 4 in Oman begins!

It's pretty crazy to think this is the start of our 4th year.  While each year had it's slow times, overall, these past three years have flown by.  We started in Oman with a 20 month old and now have an almost 5 year old and 1 1/2 year old. 

After a week of recovering from jetlag, we jumped right into inservice week and school beginning.  Aberly was super excited to get back to school and see all her old friends.  Her EC-1 class was split in half between the two EC-2 classes.  She was lucky to stay with one of her besties, Lara, but had to leave a few other friends behind.  Luckily, she sees them every day during shared recess time and they have other EC-2 group activities together.  Aberly is in the class with a new teacher at our school, Loralea Wood (she's wonderful!), and she is having a great time. 

 

1st Day of School 2014

 

Waiting for the bus with her neighbor Izzy

 

Emalyn is home each day with Eunice and settling into the routine of having us gone.  She is still quite sad to see us go each day and clings to us until the moment will pull away.  We are happy to see that the sadness seems to be abating little by little each day.  She does love Eunice, but is very much in a mommy, and even more so, daddy phase.  We are certain she misses her sissy too, but luckily for her, Aberly comes home each day at 12:45. 

The weather has been stifling hot with high humidity recently.  As Colin said, we live in the desert, not the tropics, right?  The evenings haven't been so bad, but the days are not enjoyable.  Lots of inside time.  We do our best to get the girls outside in the mornings and evenings and are grateful for the shade we get on our side of the house all morning for Emalyn's sake at home.

 

A wild and crazy weekend night with the girls

 

We have been spending time with friends and school get togethers.  We recently attended a hilarious 80's birthday party for one of our coworkers and have had a few different dinners at our home, as well as spending a couple lovely get togethers at other friends' homes.  Besides the wonderful friends we've made at school, we've been blessed to get to know some other couples and their kids better in the last year.  As our British friends* would day, our diary has been quite full of event.

 

80's exercise queen

 

Colin hangin' with some other awesome 80's dudes

 

Finally, Aberly started ballet today and LOVED it.  She has been dying to start for the last two weeks and was about peeing her pants all day today in anticipation of going.  On top of starting ballet, she is super lucky to have two of her besties in class with her, Lara and Isla.  She had a FANTASTIC TIME!

*  Speaking of British friends, I miss my dear British boss Mark (former Athletic Director) who is now working in Saudi.  I work under a fantastic new AD, Luther, who has worked as a PE teacher in our school prior to this.  I have to say that I loved working with a Brit as his lingo/slang/phrases/words never ceased to make me laugh and be puzzled.  I often had to look things up on the internet to know what he meant.  Thankfully I still am surrounded by some lovely Brits who either work at our school, like our nurse, or other local schools.  I love em'!

Best British lingo Mark said one time that we had a fantastic laugh over: 
Mark:  "I'll be nippin' out for a bit, yeah."
Me:  Stifling laughter.  "What?"
Mark:  "I'll be nippin' out, stepping out for just a bit."
Me:  "Do you know what that means in America?"
Mark:  Puzzled face.  "No"
Me: chuckling "It's when a person gets cold and their "nipping out" of their shirt". 
Laughter ensues