Dh guess how I blogged this!

Life still involving countless rolls of tissue paper, the odd paracetemol and nasal sprays. H now talking swedish at nursery, major success. Biryani's sleep is worse and worse. Laptop was also rendered deceased by afore-mentioned, thus my internet access is now limited. Hope InshaAllah your week is better than mine.

Virus got the better of me, so it was take them away, take them to ... TOYS R US

Alhamdulillah, the cold I thought I was warding off has developed into a full-blown thingy and so I shall not be up to writing anything too coherent, but instead shall probably inshaAllah peruse a few blogs instead. Needles to say little home ed going on, maybe except learning how to deal with grumpy head-biting-off mummys (nice squeezy hugs, just the ticket) .

DH took them to all out to tennis lesson and TOYs r US to spend pocket money. I should have been resting but took the opportunity to start transferring files to my new filing cabinet,(yawn, but has to be done without little hands meddling).

Biryani is now adept at opening doors, drawers what have u so I'm going to have to rearrange things a bit until she understands( and obeys!) the word 'no'

Felt tip pens emptied out of pencil case- 3 times,
Scrabble emptied 2 times,
Meccano 3 times.

You'd have thought I'd have learned by now, being on child no 4.

Oh I thought I'd already written this in another post , but the playgroup I've been taking H and Biryani to has now come to an end, as a Muslim sister has started being a 'dagmama', childminder, so the other children are going there, and many of the other children who used to come hadn't for ages (Mums too busy?). I was considering changing H to this sister but he's just started talking at nursery and I talked to him twice about it and he adamantly wants to stay where he is. Biryani is too young I think although she'd probably like it for a few hours a week. V tempting as its right near the boys' school, but I don't like not being able to explain to her that I'll be coming back etc, so don't think I'd consider it until she's got a certain comprehension level. The stage she's at with mess creation I have had to make sure my selfish needs are not the priority.
Anyhow resulting from the ending of the group we shared out the equipment, so I now have a proper toy shelf (finally) and lots of poster paints, craft stuff and some wooden toys, all for free, alhamdulillah

Sweden sucks

One of those days when I am not liking living here. Some strange guy with a bulldog took pictures of my 2 eldest as they were coming home from school yesterday. I called my Dh as I didnt want to risk myself and he managed to find him but he wouldn’t give up the photos. DH called the police (as if they’d turn up) It turned out he was a some sort of mentally ill person (another one) as my husband talked to his neighbours (they were fed up of this man). Of course the police didn’t turn up nor ring my husband on his mobile. Ok its not an exact emergency but it seems like someone has to be doing some very terrible crime for anything like a police car to be sent round. It turns out the camera is an old fashioned type which is sort of relief as digital could be quickly uploaded, and after my DH hassling police all they can do is call this man into the station, will he go , I doubt it. OK so that’s what our taxes pay for.
Then I get the news that we’d have to pay interest to the government on any profit we make selling our property(even if its our home) unless we pay the tax straight away (used to be able to defer this if you bought somewhere else within a year).
Then I open the post( I tend to leave bill-looking letters a few days at least) to find a new tax on car insurance needs paying.
Then I open the next letter to find we still have to pay charges to the monopoly owner of the electricity grid, as well as the actual electric costs to the company who bills us plus VAT (25%) plus energy tax.
New government gave a glimmer of hope saying if you stay at home with child under 3 rather than send them to day care you’d get some sort of extra parental benefit. They forgot to highlight it depends which area you live in as ultimately its up to the kommun (local councils) budget. Oh look our kommun is not even considering it.
I am really feeling stupidly resentful this morning and hoping scribbling this down removes some tension, alhamdullilah we have food in the cupboards a roof over head, but hate feeling ripped off. Was considering moving back to UK for 2008 as would actually be equivalent of a reasonable annual wage in the tax we’d save if we sell our flat there and are not Sweden residents.(Plus could home educate)

May Allah accept your ibadah from Ramadhan (plus something about Islam channel)

amin
'Taqabal Allaho minna wa minkom'
and a warm Eid mubarak!
Have just seen the funniest thing for a long time on Islam channel, there was a nasheed on and at the end they cut to the show's presenter, unaware of being on camera for a few seconds, miming the song v enthusiastically, and then suddenly stopping when realising he was on air (that's live tv for u). Funnier than that was S's comment, 'A dancing beard' lolwm (nearly)
Here's a link to an article in Swedish metro of a sister I met in the Eid payer and who invited me over that day. I hadn't met her for 3 years or so and we'd each gained 2 more kids (one boy, one girl. alhamdulillah). She was almost crying with happiness that we'd managed to find each other, which was v touching. Then today we met again by chance in another Eid gathering!! It was also reminding me of my early experiences of Ramadhan when my Indonesian friend at University used to have 'Open House' on Eid. From nothing being planned (I was thinking Eid would be on Saturday) to being quite busy, Eid has been v nice this year, Alhamdulillah.

Tiredness just doesn't describe it

Almost falling asleep while standing in Isha prayer? This has happened to me in Fajr before but not in Isha and not whilst standing ! Reminds me of the alarm tone I have on my mobile which is the Fajr athan, prayer is better than sleep, and if I keep repeating it maybe my body will listen !!
So to be brief, I am having to deal with some premature 'terrible twos', type stuff, not wanting to eat so much, tantrums/ sulks to a certain extent , oh and that's just me :)
Biryani wants to go out at any given opportunity and will let you know her dismay as you hastily make your way out the flats to the car without her.On a more positive note , female tidiness is being sorted out, putting¨shoes on the rack and even imitating me emptying the sand into the bin a few hours after she'd seen me do it . The usual scattering of mouldy socks, wellies and carelessly discarded jumpers of the male variety are what normally adorn my floors.
S wants me to wake him so he can catch lailitul qadr, we'll see if he'll be rousable at 2 am??!
Usual rush now, thinking of zakat ul fitr as should be paid before Eid, and Eid preps, although regards the latter I feel that this time should be more spiritual than ever. H's teacher asked me if I was crossing off the days, I replied 'No' but my kids are.....