The blessed days of Ramadan are quickly slipping away from us. Ramadan is a golden opportunity to renew our relationship with our Creator, improve ourselves spiritually, change old habits and renew our energy. Many women find themselves pressed for time and would rather spend their hours in worship than doing mundane household tasks. I spoke with several women on how they manage to get housework done efficiently, and still have plenty of time left over to devote to acts of worship. The first tip is to multi-task, so you can get a couple of things done at once. At night while waiting in your children's room for them to brush their teeth and change into their pajamas, you can pick up toys, line books on the shelves, fold clothes, and throw away any clutter. When cooking if you're waiting by the pot for the food to boil, you can do the dishes, tie and throw out garbage bags, and make a salad. Don't waste too much time preparing an elaborate feast for the Iftar meal. Lema Al-Zuabi said she makes a main dish and sambusas, and she alternates between a salad or a soup, but not both. She tends to cook large portions of the main dish so she has leftovers for the next day. “That way on the days when I don't have to cook a main dish I can take care of the hard work, like scrubbing the bathrooms and cleaning the floors of the apartment,” she said. She also delegates chores to her elder daughters. The girls are 100percent responsible for the cleanliness and tidiness of their own bedroom. “We even take turns doing the dishes each day so that the workload isn't dumped on only one person because I do not have a maid to help,” she explained. Lema stressed that she does not make Iftar invitations during the last 10 days of Ramadan so she can concentrate on reading Qur'an and praying in the mosque. Hiba Rujuli, a mother of four young children, had quite some advice for busy moms. In her opinion, the most important tip is to organize your day and avoid wasting time in any way. That means no obsessing over TV programs, and talking for hours on the phone, or oversleeping. She likes to wake up a little early while the children are still asleep so she can have some quiet and peaceful time to read the Qur'an. And then she tackles household chores like getting the laundry done, cleaning the bathrooms, and starting to prepare for the Iftar meal. She does not allow toys in the main TV room so her husband can come home to a clutter free and relaxing environment. Toys stay in the play room or the children's bedrooms. To keep her kids from whining and acting up, Hiba involves the little ones in some housework and cooking. In the kitchen, she gives them some dough and lets them make sambusa with her. While making fresh juice, she lets her kids cut the sticky apricot paste into rectangular strips, roll them up, and insert a toothpick in each roll. That makes a quick sweet treat after the Iftar meal. Hiba is against staying up all night because that makes you feel too tired to keep up with your kids, housework, cooking and then going to Taraweeh prayers. Studies show that the hormones that stimulate the repair and healing of cells in the body are only activated when the body sleeps at night. So if you do not fall asleep until after daylight your body misses out on this relaxation, rejuvenation, and re-energizing. Another common practice that can drain your energy is overeating the Iftar meal. Ramadan should be a time for you to train yourself to get along with less food. Eating a large meal stresses your digestive system, and directs energy away from your brain. Dates, fruit juice, soup, and a small amount of the main dish should suffice. Preparing a simple Iftar gives women more time to heighten their spiritual awareness that would otherwise be spent in the kitchen. And some women need to learn to let the little things go and realize that the house does not need to be perfectly spotless in Ramadan. So what if a little extra dust accumulates on the furniture because you were too busy going to the mosque or reading Qur'an? We only have 10 more days left of Ramadan to give to charities, feed poor families, pray the late night prayers, complete the entire Qur'an, and to grow personally and spiritually, so try to accomplish as much as you can.
