Day 10 of Ramadan Kindness
We made it to double figures people! Ten whole days of acts of kindness in a bid to show the hubby / daddy how much we respect and care for this holy time of fasting in the Islamic calendar.
I am certain he is finding this whole process a heck of a lot harder than me and the Yardimci Lads. Fasting from sun up to sun down is no mean feat, not to mention the total ban on all negativity and gossip. Having said that, I sit at this laptop on a Friday eve, virtually shaking from the full-on square-up I've just had with Little Lad. All over which bloody DVD he wants to watch with his friend who is sleeping over. 'Paddington 2' or 'Pixels' is apparently a life or death situation that warrants screaming in my face, hiding in cupboards and threatening to climb out of a window.
Never mind. We rode the storm together and have finally just had a cuddle. The tremors are gradually leaving me now as the adrenalin knows it is no longer needed here. Come another day my friend, no doubt you will be required again.
Luckily, Big Lad has been a little easier to be around today. This morning he was raring to go with kindness ideas and mentioned he wanted to treat all of the students who go to his Friday night drama after-school club, 'Stagestruck'. The idea of sweets and chocolate reared it's tempting head yet again, so I gently suggested we might find another way to make everybody from Stagestruck smile.
Little Lad (who was yet to become the DVD-alternating-gargoyle) piped up, "Why don't we just tell them some nice words? Some words with kindness in them?"
Now that I could roll with.
So, it being a drama after-school club, we settled on the idea of asking good old Siri for some inspiring quotes from well-known actors. A hop, skip and a Google search later and we had a list of contenders. Big Lad set about writing his favourites down, and I made the promise that whilst the Lads were at school, I would enlarge and photocopy enough quotes to go round the fifty or so children at Stagestruck.
I thought this was the perfect idea because it was part Big Lad's, part Little Lad's and a tiny part of me, the official photocopier and enabler of Siri.
Several hours later and Little Lad and I were sprinting with a bag of folded-up quotes towards the school gates, as we'd somehow forgotten we had to be early for Big Lad to deliver this kindness endeavour. He would have been devastated if I'd rocked up at my usual tardy juncture. Luckily, the sprint did the trick and we arrived just in time to slip the bag into Big Lad's hands and let him have his moment in the spotlight.
It was so lovely to see the kids streaming out of the school hall doors, all excited to open their papers and then reading out their quotes to each other. Even more lovely to hear their teacher explain to them all why Big Lad was doing this in the first place, and potentially showing Islam in the gentle, loving light that it belongs in.
We even managed to spread a little more joy as we left the school grounds because we had a few spares and made sure we offered them to the reception staff, the cleaners and the school caretaker. Lucky for them, they've all headed off into a bank holiday weekend and half term holiday with some words of wisdom from Jimmy Durante, Drew Barrymore or maybe even Mr Clooney himself.
Now that cannot be a bad thing.
Go well,
Abi
xxx
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