Counting Down The Last Week of Ramadhan

Hello and Ramadhan Kareem everyone!

How are your Hari Raya preparations going? For me, Alhamdulillah things are going quite smoothly because I had purchased the boys' (Hubby included) baju Melayu last year! Yes - you read that right, last year!!! After Syawal ended, I took advantage of the clearance sale at Jakel and managed to get Aaron Aziz baju melayu for all three of them for such a good price. We're going with biru Barisan Nasional this year! (Nothing to do with which particular political party I support. *chuckles*) As for my outfit, kain pun beli last year together with the boys, but I only managed to send it to the tailor a few weeks before Ramadhan. Hopefully my tailor meets her dateline! Honestly, with Eid looming in less than a week, I am getting quite nervous!

"Do I look like Aaron Aziz, or what?"

This year, we're doing away with Crocs and sneakers, and trying out loafers. I found a great online shop which sells cute, comfortable loafers for babies and kids below 6. I am always nervous about buying things online (especially shoes!) so I actually took the time to go to their booth, recently opened in Shah Alam.

Check out IG: MiniByDhea. I was not paid to review this, I genuinely liked the workmanship, and they are so prompt on Whatsapp! Their loafers sold out like goreng pisang panas, so I didn't manage to get that beautiful blue suede loafers in Aiden's size. *sigh*

For me, I am just recycling my old shoes and pairing them with my new handbag. I managed to give all of my bags a good cleaning using the products below. Not only are my bags clean (apart from two dots of oil that had managed to seep in through my LV in patent... damn that sambal) *uurrrggghhh*, but the mousse helped give the patent an extra shine too!

Woly combi cleaner and patent mousse.

As for Raya cookies, we decided that we were going to keep it to a bare minimum. No one ended up eating the cookies last year (except for a few chosen favourites) and even when Eid Adha rolled in, we still had plenty of kuih raya stock! In the end everything went into the bin. So this year, in order to support my sister-in-laws new business venture *chewah*, we only ordered biskut raya from them, such as their best-seller chocolate chip cookies, my favourite kerepek nestum, and Hubby's grandmother's resepi turun temurun for kuih makmur. Last but not least, I also made Hubby's favourite biskut cornflakes.

The A Project's really yummy kuih makmur and chocolate chip cookies.

Other than Raya cookies, I have also stocked up on my favourite Mummy Non's Beef Dendeng and instant nasi impit for any surprise visitors that may come knocking on the door during Syawal. I have been buying their daging dendeng for years... it literally kept me company during my years working in Russia. Since it was so hard to get halal food at camp, I would have rice with some dendeng for lunch and dinner everyday. My colleagues even joked that the packet of dendeng must have turned radioactive by the end of my shift rotation (typically one month), as I kept reheating it for every meal! Radioactive or not, it was certainly comforting to have a taste of home at every meal.

Best dendeng ever, as endorsed by Raja Nadia Sabrina.

As for the house - if last year we painted the living hall, this year there really wasn't much to do anymore. We had just revamped our garden hence that was our only major change. To add some Eid cheer, we bought some pelita and outdoor festive lights to decorate the garden.

Need more pelita!

Festive lights for the willow tree!

Call me vain, but this is also the time of the year when I would pamper myself. My facial, manicure and eyelash perming *no kidding* appointments have all been made. So looking forward to these indulgence sessions!

We've also bought our fair share of bunga api, sparklers and pop pop. This year Hubby managed to find some mercun too *shhhh* so I guess we are very well stocked! As for duit raya, I am blessed to have an RHB Bank at the ground floor of my office building. Sharp at 10am I was already in front of the bank door to tukar duit raya - recycled RM5 notes, unfortunately!

Everyone knows that this is the best month to sedekah and give. So here's the link to calculate your zakat pendapatan. Hasil penggajian is where you input your per annum pay (before tax, and you will input your KWSP in Section C). Hasil bebas is your pay if you do any part time jobs. Hasil al-Mustaghallat is the profit you make from renting out any property (rental minus monthly bank installments). There is also an alternative way to calculate it, simply take your yearly pay and multiply it with 2.5%. That's your payable zakat pendapatan. Do not forget your zakat fitrah - for 2015 it is RM7 per person.

Due to my PCOS, like the past years, it looks like I mayyyyy be able to puasa penuh again this year (other than that 2 days mild spotting that turned out to be nothing and totally ruined my track record... *hhmmpphh*). Looking forward to spending the last 10 days of Ramadhan concentrating on my prayers and giving it my best shot. And most importantly, avoiding all drama! (An arduous task since I am such the drama queen.)

So how are you counting down your last week of Ramadhan? Good luck with the week ahead!