Some random photos...

Just thought to post these before they are completely out of date. The first is of the fishermens' cottages in the centre of town near the museum area. It's a nice area to have a day out with the children. Hope we can get over the recent illnesses (H with croup and Hz with a cold) and maybe visit them again. Anything to get out of this place, the suburbs...
Hz is into his art and craft aswell, diligently scribbling and modelling plasticine. His speech is coming on in leaps and bounds, using little sentences, and he must say 'OK?/ OK' about 100 times a day. Do I really say it so much? he must have got it from somewhere!

My version of 'An honest day' done without notes so may be a blend of other days

Woke up, fajr

S is already about getting ready for school, get H up for Fajr, M won’t wake up. H decides his throat is too bad and takes a sickie. S leaves to catch the 2 buses to school.

Start washing off down in cellar.

M goes to school on school bus.

Hz wakes up, make some breakfast, make breakfast for little ones, porridge for hub. Biryani wakes.

Biryanis friend is dropped off, we bake cupcakes,I try to slip in some maths as in 3 times 4 slots in the muffin tray will result in 12 cakes. Goes over their heads, so try to intersperse some English to Biryanis friend as her family want to move to Tanzania (where Swedish isn’t widely spoken of course)Eat some of afore-mentioned cakes.

I go back down to get washing into drier/ start next 2 loads off.

Drink cup Rooibos and start to feel it’s sedative effects, but the washing must go on..

Make lunch for kids, forget to eat it myself.

Clearing kitchen up a bit(?) Hz decides to remove nappy, friend rings up, I can’t answer it. Friend rings again and we talk a little, Hz does a poo in his fresh nappy, have to call friend back.

Pray Dhuhr.

Somehow, with Hz in tow, I take out the recycling rubbish and put the dried washing in the baskets and leave in the hall for boys/ hub to bring up (noone in their right mind would steal our sheets etc would they??)

Hub and S come back, M soon after by school bus. The cupcakes numbers are dwindling.

Realise my light headedness may be due to the fact that cupcakes are not sufficient nutritionally, and eat leftover sausage sandwiches as a late lunch (not much better I admit).

Try to lie down and read some Quran. S’s friend comes over. Xbox360 is in full use.

Hz poos twice on the floor, patience is wearing thin at this in between potty training phase.

Pray Asr

Make evening meal, boy’s go out to corner shop for Jummah sweets (normally its Saturdays that kids get sweets in Sweden) and get to eat them after supper.

A small alteraction between H and M, more Xbox . Realise that they haven’t done any homework/ Quran, but it is Jummah and friend is over...

Hub lies down with Hz.

and I eat something and watch a halaqah on youtube, while Biryani covers the kitchen floor in all kinds of craft material, and happily paints one of the square tiles with pritt-stick. As I dutifully clear it up I try to focus on how beautifully she kept between the grout lines and not that it needed a scouring pad plus several wipes with a sponge to get it off.

Yell a number of times for boys to stop playing on Xbox. Should have been yelling at self to stop looking at YouTube and pray maghrib on time (was actually really confused whether I’d prayed it or not), it’s got much earlier recently,but astagfirullah. Prayed maghrib and Isha.

Finished off kitchen. Checked some blogs.

Must sleep. Make bread and jam for Biryani. Publish this.

The harvest still trickling in...

Don't get too excited, the pumpkins were not from our garden, but from a kind Canadian girl I met at a local harvest market/fest. However I was glad, even with my ailing memory, to recall that it's a good idea to stick them straight in the oven, and then cut them up as the skin is extremely tough. The flesh went into some soup which is the sort thing you need as the Autumn days move in.
The green leaves are New Zealand spinach, which have been a useful replacement for lettuce/ salad leaves and can be used as normal spinach. I try the to pick the leaves carefully so that the plants can continue to produce more leaves. Hz had other ideas and ripped a few plants from the ground. Admittedly this is a much more time-efficient method which I might adopt when my patience runs out.
The final photo is of H and M joining in (with a little coercion) in a cooperative game involving lots of various sized squash and bamboo canes at the harvest fest. The idea is each team member simultaneously uses his/her cane to pick up the squash and run up and down before the other team completes the task. The other team were mostly adults and they did manage to thrash our boys' team. It was quite painful to watch the shiny vegetables slipping between the canes every couple of minutes. However there was lots of concentration going on and I think they were happy with themselves just to complete the game, whether they won or not.