As I type, I can hear waves washing up on the empty beach and a huge boat is blowing its horn in the distance. An incredibly chilly wind is coming off the Red Sea, but in just a couple of hours the sun will rise and warm everything here in beautiful Aqaba, Jordan.

We spent the day climbling mountains at Wadi Rum.

It was a surprise trip! Yesterday we spent the day climbing mountains at Wadi Rum.

There’s so much I want to share — Orientalist fantasies, desert love, and exploring cultures through the sharing of food — but unfortunately that will have to wait until we get back to Kuwait. So please bear with me a little longer. We should be back up to a regular blogging schedule by next week.

Wedding season is finally over!

Bittersweet: Wedding season is finally over!

Which will be in a new year!

2012 was pretty fantastic with the addition of Ivy to the wood turtle clan. She’s almost 8 months now, crawls like a pro and says “mama” when she wants me. This year also saw a slew of discussions on Islamic feminism and I asked whether or not Islam needs Muslim Feminists (hint: it does). There was also my struggle with Eryn’s princess hijab and the realization that I no longer wanted to nurse her. I also wrote a note to my dear Ramadan Feminist Dads imploring for a little understanding when mothers with children want to worship at the mosque too, and ranted a bit against the non-romantic haraam notions of Valentine’s Day. But my favourite posts of 2012 was a wonderfully spiritually uplifting guest post by Rawiya on finding God in a bag of milk and my post asking just how many hijab pins does it take to be pious. Apparently they were your favourite posts too, so thank you all for reading, commenting and sharing your thoughts.

Happy New Year everyone! May it be your best year ever.

See you next year!

See you next year!