Today's post brought to you by the letter F

It's the crack of dawn and the faculty pick-n-drop will be here fairly soon to take us all to school. Roomie and I were up at 4:20 for sehri, the meal eaten before sunrise during the Ramzan fast. Gulped down cereal, a cup of instant (!) coffee, and a peanut butter sandwhich (one needs protein, after all) by 4:40 and slid in under the wire--the azzan started just as I was putting my dishes in the sink. Actually I'm just going back to fasting today. I was felled by the first cold of the school year along the way and took a break so I could drink hot tea during the school day. If I were a really good Muslim I'd make up the missed fasts sometime later in the year, but . . . I guess I'm not a very good Muslim.

Usually I would go back to bed for an hour or so after sehri, but today I stayed up to finish preparing materials for school. We're talking about feelings as part of our October health theme. Next week is the body, followed by nutrition the week after that--you get the idea. In conjunction with our feelings theme for the week we're focusing on the letter Ff and the /f/ sound. So I spent much of last night and this morning printing out sheets of clip art of fans, feet, flowers, and phones (it's letter Ff and sound /f/, see?). I'm going to have the kids play Sound of F Bingo and make faces using cut-outs of eyebrows, noses, etc., Mr. Potato-Head-style. We'll talk about different emotions and spend the week learning about constructive ways to handle our difficult feelings.

Schools let out early here during Ramzan, as do most businesses, so I'll probably take a nap when I get home and then tackle our disastrously messy kitchen before iftari. The driver is picking us up after that so we can finish our Eid shopping. Yesterday Roomie and I went to the bazaar to get little gifts for our colleagues, as well as some shoes for ourselves, but a lot of places are closed on Sundays. Tonight we'll go pay the tailor for our holiday clothes and pick up odds & ends. A bazaar during the last week of Ramzan is a post in and of itself.

Pick'n Drop will arrive shortly. Better get going and hope I wake up a little more than this before Little Sweetie and Little Darlin' show up all bright-eyed for Kindergarten. A rousing round of "The Good Morning Song," followed by "If You're Happy and You Know It," should do the trick.