Home education (or not) in Sweden

Sweden still surprises me

2011-11-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

The dark, grey days are upon us, and I'm telling myself "It's not time to hibernate, you don't need sunlight, you don't need sunlight. . ."
The working day in Sweden often starts at 8 a.m. and the fact that the sun rises after this meant my 'all things garden-related- tuned' ears brought me to take a look out the window when I heard the whir of a lawn-mower. It's hum was steadily getting louder and then quieter as it was going up and down, clipping the last blades of growth of 2011. I was amazed at the punctuality of the gardener and the feeling of just-getting-on-with-it even before I'd got myself properly dressed. I was particularly amazed that anyone mows lawns with the headlights on on their grass-cutting tractor in the semi-darkness! But then most of Sweden would look a bit rough around the edges come Autumn time, and that would just not do!

It's half-term hols now, although I've got more than usual to do on the writing front. The elder two went to the archive centre today where they had detective activities for kids. I'd forgotten all about micro-fiches which DH had tried in vain to explain to the older ladies working there that they should be replaced with something digital!
H is still ill, with a chest infection. The doctor described it as bronchial pnenomia which sounds much more serious. H turned out to be allergic to the penicillin he was prescribed (about 7 quid, doesn't it cost 50 p to make or something?) and another 10 quid on the new antibiotics. Rant over.
Alhamdulillah we have cures like these.
Hz has been adamntly refusing to go to the childminder-- it makes it harder when the boys are off school. But how people with 3 year olds hold down even a a part-time job is beyond me. But that is what the majority of Swedish women do--Hz, despite his Swedish citizenship, is not going to bow to these societal pressures!

Cute phrases 2011

2011-10-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

I am supposed, as a would-be writer, to write every day. Well, it's not been happening on this blog obviously, but the above is a typical view of my weekday mornings. (The Sweet peas are still coming, although not in such abundance).
Anyhow, here's a collection of utterances I've gathered from my big, dark blue week to page diary which is trying to organise my life (and not quite succeeding). I try to write them down as soon as I hear them as I'll never rember them otherwise. Does this count as my daily writing? I have learned that this blog, and most others, can now be nobly called a piece of Creative Non-fiction. That does sound posh, doesn't it!

Biryani

M had some grammar homework involving superlatives. Biryani logically extended it to:”table, tabler, tablest.”!

For some reason she’d been talking quite a bit about death—I was “only a little bit old.”

She plays the game on ‘Martha Speaks’ website—“They know what ‘ex-aasted’ means and you don’t”

Me—“??”

B --“angry, feel like you’re worried about something”

Was that ‘exasperated’, or ‘exhausted’ in a US accent? should check what my kids do online more often!

We are playing a game

me -“you’re wasting your time” (I don’t recall why I said this!)

B-“I don’t have any time, only if I hold the timer I do.”

He had lost his boot and straight away announced:” can’t find it anywhere.”

As if he’d really been looking everywhere for it, my foot!

Hz’s mispronunciations:

“I got a i lossy”-- Ice lolly

“Wishwasher” --Dishwasher

“Weewok” --Ewok (Star Wars)

Biryani made some instructions on how to make a stop sign: ’HOW TOO MEAC STOP SEIN’

I hope this post makes some sense. I've been called away to a bathing situation and so I'll just press publish.

I give in, Summer has gone

2011-10-12T02:05:00.001-07:00

OK, it’s officially Autumn. Not because it's been less than 10C for five days in a row, but because I have carried out the biannual Cellar Mission. I have delved, cast aside things I never will understand why we kept, and hauled up dust-smelling carrier bags full of musty jackets and cheesy boots. I hope and pray there are a few pairs of matching gloves to be found when I work myself up to the next stage: getting the kids to actually try the winter attire on.

I'm allowed to Home Educate in Sweden....

2011-09-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

Myself, that is! I've just started an online Uni course in Creative Writing (in English)- no compulsory attendance, no need for social training (I'm supposed to have passed that unit by now, I assume)
So there you have it, home education is allowed in Sweden, as long as you have done your 9 years school-duty first.

It's actually a pretty enjoyable course, no rights or wrongs really. This used to put me off English in a way, maths was either right or wrong and so less 'mysterious'. Now I've overcome that, may be through looking at education through different spectacles.
And if anyone's interested, if you're from the EU it's free and can be done entirely online- I think the basic requirement may be English GCSE, although maybe any A-level done in the English language. I got on with my British Uni degree, but they kept asking me for evidence of my A-levels done in the UK. (the Swedes who apply have to have an Advanced level in English (typically achieved at the end of sixth form college)- but that's not he same as a British A-level English, that's why I wrote about GCSE English being enough).

Ramadhan 2011

2011-08-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

This year I'm feeling the bigger boys are more involved in Ramadhan. Admittedly my general motivation levels have been on empty recently so I'm not talking about crafty activities. We tried to make some written goals at the start, and S wanted to fast the whole of Ramadhan and so far has managed with hardly a moan. M has also put up a good effort, but we have stopped him today as tempers seem to fray with his decrease in blood sugar level- which is contrary to the point of fasting. H kept reminding him 'Are you fasting or starving?' adding to the general winding up that always happens in this house... He's been doing the 'chiri' sparrow fast, meaning until around lunchtime.
But the memories I hope they keep of their early Ramadhans, are of being out late at night to go to the masjid, or at sunrise coming back. It must be exciting being out at 4 am- but a little too exciting, as not for the first time, our car has been followed by an umarked police car. Maybe it's us living in a relatively 'white' area, or that our British car makes it look like S is driving/ joy-riding!

Nothing special going on...

2011-07-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

These were some flowers I noticed at the park by the funfair earlier in the Summer, and I'd forgotten to upload them- they are rather stunning.

As opposed to these 2 peaks, Mount Washmore and Mont Foldme- do you have piles like this forming, approximately 4 times a week?

The Summer has taken some leave, and we have had somewhat autumnal weather, with heavy rain and gusty winds. I am actually quite pleased as
1. I don't have to go and water the allotment.
2. I don't have to feel that I'm commiting a crime not going out in the beautiful weather when I really just want to wallow about at home.

The first three weeks of the hols was taken up with the swimming school. H did enjoy it and was quite keen to go. Biryani, on the other hand, took a few steps into the water on her first lesson, and that was it. Not going in. Full stop. I couldn't bring myself to force her to go in, what with her tearful eyes and frozen rabbit-in-headlights look. So we went home. This is where having two parents is an advantage. DH had other ideas and so he was in charge of taking them to the next swimming lesson. She did go in, still reluctantly, and then we manged to change the time to the group for younger children. She enjoyed going to this group where they played games, and talked about what games they had played before they had come to the lesson. By the third week, she was saying 'Hurry up we'll be late!'.
So if it had been down to me, I would've just given up until next year. Sometimes it is good to have another opinion.

Summer hols- still lots to do locally

2011-07-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

Biryani and M help out making the potato salad- made totally (save mayonnaise and black pepper) of allotment harvest- new potatoes, chives, and onion.

Here is where they get to cool off when we don't get to the beach/ pool/ water playground; a cheapo, tincy pool. Admittedly, the hose plus attachment, usually reserved for watering the plants, was the most entertaining. Well, who doesn't like making rainbows, or your sister scream by spraying her back with cold water?!

Yes! Biryani can now swing (without needing to be pushed). She happily swings back and forth for ages, and so trips to the park are much more entertaining for her nowadays.(The same cannot be said for indoor activities. The phrase 'I'm bored!' pops out almost every ten minutes.)
She wants to play a game with me (as she has no sisters, she complains, and I am a more worthy subsitute than any of the brothers). But it cannot be just any old game; it has to be one she's never played before. The same goes for computer games, which means the computer is not such an easy thing to keep her occupied while I make a phone call/ cook dinner/ have a shower etc! We must head to the main library which has board games you can borrow...(books, they're old hat, you know)

and the boys jump about in the forest playground, found in the middle of suburbia- fun!
So only 6 weeks of hols left- we've had 3 and a half already- what shall we do?

The allotment and it's produce

2011-06-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

These photos are about a month old, and needless to say, it's a lot greener now. I'll try to do some more up to date ones soon. It does really show how things grow so fast, much like baby photos. I was thinking how plants (i.e. weeds) and children have something in common: the untidiness they incessantly create. We love them though don't we? (the children, I mean!).

Some good news and some bad

2011-06-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Don't worry it's not so bad!
Yesterday I got the good news that a dear of friend has a new addition to the family, and now joins me in the ~~madness~~ joy of having 5 children.
And the bad, I received my first fästing (tick) bite. I was examining my knee for some reason and came across quite a fat one lodged in the side of my leg. I then tried to pull it out with tweezers. It wriggled, I shrieked, and I had to wake up DH so he could remove it while I squeezed my eyes tight. I'm sure it was easier than giving birth, but it needed a good tug. A mouthpart is still in and I just have to wait a few weeks for it to grow out errgh!
Well this is one of the downsides of living in Sweden, insects that want to eat you.
How the tick got there I don't know, as I was all covered up, obviously, when I went out the day before. It's tuck your socks in your trousers time!
I was going to add a photo, but they were all too creepy on Google images, so look if you dare!
Must go, one of the boys has decided to hoover the living room, without me asking?!

Hz, oh Hz

2011-06-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hz has been starting to see order in things these last few months. Unfortunately this does not translate into orderliness in terms of toys being put away (he's brilliant at it at dagmamma), or shoes being put on the shoe rack.
Today was the ultimate in 'testing-moments of parenthood'. WARNING-do not read whilst eating.
Hz, who still insists in using a nappy for number 2's, went off to his usual corner to make use of the fresh nappy, and fiddle with M's Prince of Persia figures. For some of us certain over the counter medicines are required, but apparently a good fiddle with Lego helps things along. Anyway, I had been thinking that a nappy hadn't been filled for a couple of days now. I was frying a second burger for S (growing lad) when Hz came up to me to request I sort his nappy out. The urgency in his voice made me back down on making him wait while I finished the cooking. The nappy couldn't take it, and so the floor had to. So with all the rushing to the bathroom, screams at everyone not to walk in the hall, DH arriving back with H, momentarily terrified as to why I was screaming like a lunatic, I tried to sort out Hz, whilst simultaneously directing everyone to clear up/ stay out of the poo all over the floors. So this is bad enough, and then I smell burning and realise the burger is burnt to a cinder and S is trying to rescue it. I run to the kitchen, ignoring my own warnings and step right in IT.
Don't worry, I've come to expect these sort of situations, but this was a bit of a classic.
And so why wasn't I surprised when about an hour later, Hz announced he had a tummy ache, and proceeded to vomit all over me.

Spring memories

2011-05-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is not my allotment. The owner either has forgotten to come and weed or actually likes dandelions. I am trying not to feel smug, as I seem to have overcome the worst of these 'lions-teeth' this year.
In fact, although they are considered a weed and hinder the growth of plants you really want, they are an amazing creation. The fluffy seeds make such a perfect shape:

and out in our park, the young ones decide to make a pretend fire

and there's been a fair bit of tree climbing, and cherry blossom confetti-making, accompanied by a neighbour's son.

That's my phone photos, next up, next up fathoming out the camera leads etc.

Good teaching doesn't mean good learning

2011-05-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

Another interesting article if you can understand the Google translate. Some researchers,headed by an American neuroscientist basically did some experiments and found that college students taught by researchers inexperienced at teaching learnt more than those taught by experienced teachers. Also study techniques where the students test themselves came out tops
'What is felt that good teaching need not necessarily be the best way to learn'

I am not surprised..

2011-05-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

Swedish kids learn more English outside of school than in the lessons, according to this article .
(Google translate mistranslated a sentence, it should be 'the school is not good at exploiting' .
I expect if they look at a lot of the Maths e.g. money, division (sharing) they will find a similar result!

I know it's a been a while..

2011-05-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

but the quest to obtain the appropriate wire to upload my photos from the camera, or to install the right driver to get photos off my new phone is dragging on. I am not good at writing blog posts without some visual reminders of what's been going on in this neck of the woods. So here is a photo sent to me by email from DH's phone, showing the progress of the work he's currently doing trying to make the allotment 'rabbit-proof'.
One side was easy to dig but this has lots of roots so needed a pick axe. Next some wood has to be placed in the trench so the lil' bunnies can't burrow under the fence. Well I hope this works, otherwise the other allotment holders recommend just planting extra so that you have some left after the rabbits have had their fill.
Last year they came in but didn't appear to eat anything, but then it was mostly weeds and I have heard before that they don't go for lettuces, which was the most successful crop. However I want to grow Kale and other brassicas this year so a fort knox approach is needed methinks.
Today harvested the first of the baby spinach which was as good as shop bought, and at about £2.50 a box made me feel it was worthwhile. Spinach is to be added to the 'gardening-for-dummies' list, along with radishes, mint, chives and lettuces. We also picked a few radishes although they were a little small. The potatoes are looking healthy so I hope to have some new potatoes with mint by midsummer inshaAllah. This is where photos would have been a plus..
Yesterday we had the annual 'KalvinKnatet' running race where hundreds of kids in Skåne run approximately 1500m, all receiving a medal, T-Shirt and chocolate milk (this is sponsored mainly by the region's dairy). H and M did their best and came somewhere in the middle. One of H's friends came around number 7 which is very impressive, mashaAllah.
Hz almost potty trained- just no.2's to go- he insists on having a new nappy on for this-aargh.
S is a teenager soon- aah teenagers and a two year old within the same four walls. Having a chuckle at this!

quick one before I pick up the little ones

2011-05-03T03:52:00.000-07:00

Nowadays there is just always something pressing that means blogging is just not happening.
The allotment is coming on, with nearly all the beds cleared and plants like spinach actually flourishing. It's become a little chilly here so holding out on planting out many of the window sill occupants, much to the rest of the family's disappointment.
On another note, the other day S handed me back a book I'd got out for him from the library, barely read, plus an article on his namesake that I'd printed out ages ago. I noticed that the printout was on the back of some old Uni maths handouts of DH, and when I inadvertantly mentioned it to S, he became engrossed. It shows that you can only give them the opportunity to experience other genres and topics, but in the end they'll find their own way.

The things they say: Biryani: 'threeth' = third

The unstoppable artist

2011-04-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Not a day goes by, it seems, without Biryani putting pen to paper in one form or another. You would think she would have tired of drawing, painting, or colouring by now. But no, it is her most favourite occupation, and her way of expressing herself. She often draws herself drawing something, so you see a picture of her hand with a pen in it. If something has upset her she will draw almost a story of the event and a picture of a face with downturned eyebrows and a mouth, showing her anger.

Her favourite theme, of course, is ‘Princesses’ and her continued persistence in all things ‘girly’ never ceases to amaze me, what with the male-dominated atmosphere at our place.

So Biryani isn't just memorising books

2011-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Biryani was in a very kind mood and actually carried out my suggestion to read poor, ill S, a story. She read a 'Spot' book straight through, and I thought maybe she'd memorised it. Then I tried her with some basic 'Kathy and Mark' books, similar to Peter and Jane . I was quite shocked, she read some books from the first two levels almost error-free and managed level 3 with a bit of help. By this time S had dropped off to sleep, much needed and Biryani was as pleased with herself as I was. I think my surprise comes after having gone through 3 boys learning to read. However they all get there in the end, don't they?

Get your jam and cream ready- it's a waffle!

2011-03-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

Things are moving on and I haven't really been so much into blogging recently for one reason or another. My original motivation for blogging was as a record of how the kids grew up and developed, and true, it has been fun to re-read things and feel reassured that the 'bad' times pass. What seems like a problem that will never be resolved actually has it's place for that point in time, and is not actually going to last forever. Where the past is reassuring and the future so much an unknown, I'm trying to concentrate more on the present moment, as really that is all you can be in control of to a certain extent.
Anyhow, nowadays it seems like S is all grown up, out the door before I even get up and even the older 2 are getting themselves ready, only needing the odd reminder to get their P.E. kit ready. They now go on the bus in the mornings too, as the little ones (especialy Hz) are usually reluctant to go to the childminder's and so it all gets a bit stressful to have to be at school at a specific time. As it happens the school bus can only come at quite a late time and they usually miss the first lesson, but they seem to manage.
I have a separate post on Biryani that I started a while back, if only I can get my photos sorted out- the gadget for my phone to upload them to the computer has gone missing, and our 'new' camera- well I haven't got round to figuring that out yet-of course.
S is into origami ninja stars at the moment- I can't remember the proper name just now- but it's amazing what they can learn from YouTube!
And the garden, oh Spring, where are you? It snowed/ hailed/ sleeted today and really the poor grass is anything but green. My leek seeds are growing well and do have a fresh, almost fluorescent green colour. Let's hope they avoid destruction by young'uns. One has already been 'pruned' by Biryani's curious fingers, and M looked like he was compelled and could not resist touching them!
M, H and Biryani are now having a 'fest' - party, well it is Friday- Jumaah- and really it's just an excuse to eat too much junk. They wrote and illustrated invitations for each other - very sweet.
Today was the first proper day of potty training for Hz- he did quite well really- but had the familiar problem of not wanting to do no.2's in the pot- demanding to have a nappy on. He likes to go somewhere out of sight to empty the ol' bowels - don't we all?! Now I shall try and find some posts on Biryani's endeavours to become nappy-free. Although it doesn't seem so long since we were going through it, I can never remember the details (some sort of survival mechanism for mother's of more than one child?!).

Sorry, no pics..

2011-02-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

I mean to blog and then the tedious bit of uploading photos just gets in the way. Plus my new phone's camera is actually not much good so I often have no photo- shooting apparatus to hand.
So try and use your imagination as much as you can, although for the next paragraph I'd give it a miss.

Illness strikes

Well, it's been rather like a scene from a Florence Nightingale movie around here, with much measuring of medicine and rushing around with sick buckets. M and Hz are well but the cries of 'I feel hot' and 'I feel cold' are oft-repeated by the others, and 'I'm hungry' - but every suggestion of food is not what they feel like. So such is life in early February...

Soil Obsession

On a positive note the weather warmed up enough to get one trench dug in the allotment for the runner beans, and I managed to aquire some well-rotted manure through some contacts, although they didn't have so much spare. It has covered one bed so either one crop is going to have to be prioritised or I'll have to make a trip to another contact (this stuff seems to be like gold-dust here. Most of the stables have only the fresh, smelly stuff before sending it off in a container to the dump), or lastly, buy some.

Social Skills- 2 year-old style

Hz has started being v reluctant to go to the childminder's, saying 'I want to go home'. He's probably been thinking it much of the time but can finally enunciate it clearly enough for us to understand. He's quite a chatterbox, the other day looking out the window at some neighbours and tried desperately to communicate with them:
'Hej, Hej, HEJ! HELLO! HELLOOOO!'
I don't think they were ignoring him, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, we have double glazing.
And today he sat down next to poor, ill Biryani and suggested they read a story. But the book?:
'Can't find it anywhere!' was his next conclusion. I'm not sure where that came from as he hadn't moved an inch to try and find it.

Point of no Return

This being child number 5 you would think I'd learnt a thing or two along the way, especially about sleep. However there is a special time of day, sometime between 4 and 6.30 p.m which all of my children have found to be a good time for a nap, and a resulting in a negative result for the parents' sanity. At this time they are so tired that trying to stop them sleep can be futile, it has got past the point of no return. But it is too early obviously for starting the sleep for the night. I came across a mother when I was working who had her children all ready for bed at 4.30 p.m but this was extremely early and I dread to think what time they woke up. This doesn't happen every day but on a regular enough basis to make quiet evenings seem like a luxury. But I try not to stress too much about it, it's a stage, like everything.

This is a long Winter

2011-01-22T12:41:00.000-08:00

Activities outside are still limited. I know the childminder takes them out most days but the sultry, grey skies and chilly wind hardly beckon me outside. Biryani decided to measure many things , including Mr Teddy, with my tape measure, the other day. Her feet are only a little longer than Hz's despite there being 2 years between them.

However the temperature outside has been veering upwards to a heady 4 or 5 degrees recently which got me thinking that digging trenches for the runner beans might be possible. The temperature, however, went back down to around zero by the time I got organised to go up to the allotment so I was only able to tidy up a bit and mend a bit of the fence - digging is impossible. I had spotted some rabbit droppings so this was just as well, especially as inshaAllah I'll attempt to grow some Brassicas this year (Brussel Sprouts).
I also took the opportunity to take some 'before' pictures. Here's hoping the 'after' pictures are not showing how well my weeds have progressed!

and finally an equally sombre-coloured picture, showing the numerous, large piles of dirty snow, collected and dumped around the city. There's just so much of the stuff that they are to be found all over the place.
I'm feeling like Spring should be here already, having had snow since November, but I do have to remember that we still have at least 2 more months of Winter, and that gardening (or not being able to do it) can be a test of patience.

Asalamoaleykum, Peace be on you, Hej!

2011-01-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

We are back to civilization, back home (!) to Sweden. To my surprise, our recent trip to the UK, after such a long time, made me realize I had become accustomed to the peace and quiet (some would say 'dullness') of small-town Sweden. Even if the greeting is monosyllabic, you do not have sudden attacks of claustrophobia, be it in the streets or in the shops. The roads have far much more snow. but no-one's skidding about.
My flat on the other hand, has become a disaster on top of a disaster as the contents of our people carrier were unloaded. Bags of tea bags and dirty washing engulfed the place, and then some virus decided to overwhelm me, and it's been a slow process getting the floors just about clear. The children are glad to be back, with their internet and TV. They did have some good times and met up with friends, some who were babies when we last met in the UK. I noticed how the written English just in the general environment/ ads etc is a part of learning and which if course they have missed here (and have Swedish instead). M is still talking partly in a Yorkshire accent and they managed to mind their P's and Q's in front of relatives.
So I've been in bed trying to ignore everything buzzing around me, and unsubscribing from loads of email lists to inshaAllah free up my inbox a little.
Once I've got rid of this virus I hope this year can get going with a bit of organization, decluttering and growth, inshaAllah. Getting away, it's great for getting a bit of perspective!

It was blog or clean the kitchen floor, guess which won!

2010-12-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

I had to document the amazing ability of a 12 year old boy to clean up the living room. The only thing missing is the 'before' picture. I recall the reward for this was some computer time.

And below are some of the various activities that go on, on our kitchen table, besides eating:

Some late pictures from Eid. I now realise that as long as it's pink, Biryani will be happy!

and now we have some hyacinths slowly growing, keeping the restless gardener calm(er). There's not much to do outside, what with the weather (snow being rather non-news I suppose in Sweden).

but these roses show the snow has come a bit earlier than usual

and here is a picture of one of the 'mobile nurseries' that they have in our city. I was on my way to order some new glasses. There is such a demand for childcare that they can't build enough premises and so bus the little ones around to different parks etc. It's quite a good idea, with on board tables/ facilities, but when I took this was maximum -7 C and they were all cosy inside the bus with the engine running. Not a soul in the playground nearby- I'm not surprised. As I was walking to the opticians I felt the rushing co-pedestrians thinking to themselves: 'Blimey, it's cold'. Waiting at the pedestrian crossing, I sneaked a quick 'dragon-smoke' breath, and then rapidly remembered I'm not 7 any more.

and now the shops have run out of sledges- well at least the reasonably priced ones- and we have only one intact, uh oh!
Anyway, now time to, er, ignore the kitchen floor a bit longer.......

Out of the habit..

2010-11-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have to admit I am out of the habit of blogging. There's still much going on, but with the children well into school and the fight for home ed seeming like eons in the past, the mental notes of what they're up to are not in the forefront of my mind. Other things are dominating, like what we're going to live off next year and where we're going to be living.
At the moment I'm in practically a hibernation mode. I slept before 8 pm last night and got up after 8 am. In between were quite a few stirrings from Hz, but I think I've caught something from him. He'd been restless the night before with a high temperature.
Hz is also being a challenge to get out of the house as he seems to think a nappy and boots is sufficient. He's not taking this grey, Winter thing easily. Similar to how the change to Summer wasn't accepted- he would never wear his sandals and wore his winter shoes the whole season. Maybe he'd prefer to live somewhere nearer the equator!
M had his tetanus booster yesterday and now has a very painful arm which is giving him an excuse to get out of most things. Poor him though, he felt dizzy and fainted this morning and bumped his nose resulting in a big bruise.
Today, Biryani found a maths workbook and filled in all the empty parts, quite voluntarily. H read a book with me which had a silly storyline to it- a boy flew a plane he'd found in his cupboard to the moon, which H found completely implausible (especially knowing how difficult it's being getting his Dad's plane up and running).
S is at a friend's place, probably playing too much XBox, his friend got a new game for Eid.

I'm still learning...

2010-11-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

The month of Dhul Hijr is coming soon, where Muslims who are able go for Hajj (pilgrimage). I never realised that these 10 days are so special too for those of us who can't make it. Here's a short video about it.

or maybe not quite final..

2010-11-04T15:07:00.001-07:00

These pics are about 3 weeks old, but the flowers are too beautiful to just remain somewhere on my hard drive.....

Final snaps of colour..

2010-11-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

The last of the flowers in the allotment, and gardens round our way.
Trees having their last fashion show before the curtain drops.
The days are pretty short round here,with S swapping leaving in the dark for coming home in it.
Winter is on it's way, I'll have to accept it, it's been nearly 8 years in Sweden and I should be used to it by now....

Some random photos...

2010-10-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2010-10-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Would-be guest blogger: Hz

2010-09-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

Mamma took me out today. She thought that my eyes had looked at the screen too long. We went to a place we go to fairly often. It's OK there, they have screens, you know. I managed to start up Explorer on a couple of the pooters but couldn't get to my favourite site. It kept giving this boring white screen with slots you could type those letter thingies in. The ladies who work there use this website all the time. I don't know why, it's totally unexciting. Anyway I decided to shut down all the computers in the place, bar one which was being used by another big person. The big people twittered to themselves as I skillfully manipulated the mouse. Really, all it takes is regular practice.
Then I found some strange shaped plastic items with big letters printed on them,which occur periodically on the shelves which house those rectangular cardboard things with paper inside. They were good for throwing, and generally scattering around the joint. However Mamma seemed anxious, the beads of sweat beginning to form on her brow, as she quickly slot them back inbetween the cardboard-covered things which this place is completely chocablock with.
The best thing today was the spinning rack full of CDs. If you spin it hard enough they all fly out and Mamma joins me in the pick-up-the CD game very willingly.
So I did like the trip out today, although the place could be improved by replacing those cardboard rectangles for something a bit more stimulating. Really, they take up most of the space. Now what was the name of that place, oh yes, the laibree.

It's harvest time!

2010-09-16T01:29:00.000-07:00

We had many tomatoes on the allotment, it looked like it was going to be a bumper crop. August's rain put a stop to that and many had rotten before even ripening, so I decided to cut my losses and pick all the green tomatoes and make them into chutney.

It is actually quite delicious, even better than Branston Pickle if I do say so myself!

The balcony tomatoes were also disappointing but some have ripened and can be eaten in salads.

However we managed to aquire quite a bit of 'food for free': plums, and apples,

and I have my eye on the elderberries (that managed to avoid being picked by some crazy muslim woman making drinks out of their blossom) which may make a lovely pair with the apples I have left. We shall see if the energy exists to do this or that I buy the usual strawberry squidgy stuff from the supermarket....

End of the Summer

2010-09-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

This Summer has been characterised by : Chicken Pox, Weeding, childminder-run, car problems, and not making it to the UK.
Or if you look at it another way: immunity, harvesting lots of salad, Hz starting to speak Swedish, and maybe a bit of Sabr..

The photos above are mostly of the activity day organised by the recycling (rubbish plant) centre at a nearby nature area that we went to on the last day of the holidays. They are cooking bread on sticks over a wood fire and enjoyed eating it. The children and their friends who came along made some entries to an art competition using recycled materials . They used an awful lot of spray paint (much enjoyed) and glue, and it is questionable as to how environmentally friendly this activity actually was!! They climbed some climbing walls, S shot some targets with a real gun and they got a horse and carriage ride. There was an opportunity to get a bus tour of the rubbish plant which actually I am quite curious as to what they really do with out rubbish. But that'll have to be next year as there wasn't really so much time, and the thunder and rain arrived and we decided to go home.
The buns are the only bread I've cooked for ages, I've really got out the habit which is a shame. Time seems to be at a premium nowadays, as the infrequency of my blog posts indicates. I've been under the weather and went to sleep around 9 pm last night with the litttle ones!

The school run is now really complicated with 3 places to drop them at. S has now got used to his new school I think. On the first day it brought back my memories of starting a new secondary school, with all the different classrooms to locate, and different subject teachers. 3 days a week he starts v early( around 8 am) and this is pretty tiring, alhamdulillah. Anyhow inshaAllah things'll get easier, especially if S agrees to take the bus by himself.
Eid coming up and as usual I'm completely disorganised, but as I may not get a chance to blog before then, wish you a happy Eid and that Allah rewards you for your fasts in Ramadhan.

Ramadhan mubarak!

2010-08-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

A little of what's been onoffer at Iftar time (breaking the fast)

It's still the Summer holidays..

2010-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

The sole surviving sunflower plant has now bloomed and below is a few days later.

and Biryani is ever willing to get cooking

and generally make good use of the kitchen table...

as did H and M who leap on my sewing machine when it comes out for carrying out a few, boring clothing repairs.
and so we made beanbags in the spare minutes while they were waiting for friends to turn up. I'd managed to aquire some free rice from the corner shop as I'd noticed it was past it's date stamp. They would have thrown it away otherwise, so that served well as filling for the beanbags.

and the chalks came out at the request of our visitor, and were enjoyed by all.

Charlie and Lola Butterflies

and what's been happening otherwise? Well the education bill went through at the end of June and has basically banned Home Education in Sweden. Here is a recent article showing how the phrase 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' has not reached the Swedish government's ears.

We had a disappointing but not completely unsurprising experience when attempting to sort out some larger accomodation. A private landlord had a house for rent and agreed a time for us to have a look at the property. However as we drove up, gave us a quick scan and announced to us that it was already rented out, so we would not get a look in. This was possibly true that it could have been rented out within the space of 18 hours from booking the time, but I am surprised he managed to check their references and get contracts signed within that time. May aswell write on their adverts, instead of DSS, immigrants need not apply. Trying not to have a victim mentality here, just have to get on with it and hope and pray for something better, inshaAllah.

On a slightly happier note, Biryani and H began swimming classes today, although Biryani was not too happy in the water. She's been asking when her lesson is for the past few days, even waking me early this morning to ask again. She's been having to start learning the days of the week to get some idea of the time she has to wait. She's been all geared up with her new costume and shorts, beach dress and goggles- In the end it was all a bit scary and shivery I think, and I'm wondering if we'll be able to get her back in the water tommorrow at her next lesson. Otherwise she can just have a paddle in the kiddy pool, it's meant to be fun isn't it!?
Oh and Hz has now got chicken pox, so good job we didn't book any holidays away, alhamdulillah. It can seem like the holidays have to be full of excitement and fun, but having a real reason to take things easy takes off the pressure. I'm wondering if having this cloud of uncertainty drains the energy somewhat. However, of course, almost nothing is certain in this life...

Allotments and AK47s?!

2010-07-23T13:53:00.000-07:00

How can it be raining when there are no clouds? In fact we have finally got a hose-pipe to water the plants with, much to M's delight.
DH is scared to purchase any lettuces from the supermarket now lest I am offended!

and the unidentified plants have now flowered, leaving me no clearer as to what they are. S thinks they should be taken down with the secateurs, but they are not unpleasant-looking, so I've let thenm be. Anyone know what they are??

Lettuce and more mint (tried to pick it before it flowered)

and now drying the mint out, and as it seems to be a constant 26C plus in the kitchen, this seems as good a place as any.

S's using youtube instructions to make a paper AK47 gun. Not exactly politically correct crafting, but a creative and non-computer games passing of time. Much patience was needed, as dozens of pieces of sticky tape were required.

and then some painting..
'No I don't need any help,
no not even in destroying it,'
ta-da!!

Forced to take a break

2010-07-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

Biryani has got the Chickenpox (Chicken spots she insists) which is called vattenkoppar in Swedish. When I explained this to her she was not impressed and said something along the lines that these would only be suitable cups of water for ants (which gives a clue to the literal meaning of the Swedish name). The big boys have already had it but Hz hasn't and so is banned (this sounds a bit harsh, but there are apparently some rules) from dagmamma until everyone's well. So far no spots on Hz and to be honest I'd rather get it over and done with, but there you go...

Anyhow the elderflower cordial was strained and diluted to what DH thought would be suitable for Swedish palates (after having being offered v strong glasses of squash on several occasions)

Now I know it looks more like something you have to produce for the midwife, but it actually tasted OK (but I needed about a third more water adding), and I set off with kids to try the hard sell. We knocked on all the doors of our block on the sweltering Sunday afternoon (which should be a perfect time to sell a cool, refreshing drink) In fact most people were out/ away or quite bluntly said 'No'. However not put off the children persisted while I was longing just to go home and drink it myself. It paid off and after a change of tactic asking if people wanted to taste the home made beverage we made a few sales and the last door that opened was a kind old lady who asked them all what their names were and after receiving her drink, carefully placed a 5 kronor piece in each of the childrens' palms (4 times the drink actual's price). This lady chats to me now and again, consoling with me the difficulties of having 5 children, having borne as many herself. They bought themselves an ice lolly with the profits and thankfully we could go home and recover from the heat.

and here is a half way grown lettuce I picked to accompany supper, I'm afraid to leave them all at the allotment as I suspect the slugs would like them.

and apologies for the blurry photo, it's just the mobile camera you see, but Biryani is really into these letters at the moment (sent by her grandmother) and even puts them away again afterwards (usually)

and some snaps from the balcony, Biryani really hates me to brush her hair. I hope inshaAllah she'll come round to having it brushed/ doing it properly herself more regularly.
Here she's watering the sunflower, the only one out of quite a few that actually survived. It has now grown taller than the cane supporting it, and is teasing us by not flowering.

and Hz deftly waters the plants/ the window with the water pistol. They've all been having much fun spraying each other to saturation point with their new water guns, helped along by the fact my allotment key also opens the tap outside our flats. The best game in this hot weather.

And finally some more pics of the balcony, it's nice to have a little oasis at home, even if compact.

2010-07-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

As I try to write this I've had to go 3 times to settle Hz after being woken by kids' screams/ noise. I keep forgetting to write about this important stage of his life, as I am normally reminded what to write by my mobile phone pics.
It's been a 3 weeks since he's stopped breastfeeding and it has gone quite smoothly. He of course was not happy about it and continued to ask for it for a few days. Now he just ends up not having any sleep in the day (unless he's at dagmamma (I think this name is much nicer than 'childminder', where he has a good 2 hours nap) and being v restless all night. When he wakes he's either very clingy and needs to be held, or else very angry and thrashes around violently as he can't have what he wants. We've had a few good nights, but it's usually late to bed if he's been at dagmamma or overtired and earlier if he's not had a nap (as in today).
I thought I should feel energised as now it's the first time since I've been in Sweden not pregnant and/or breastfeeding, but the restless nights and the late sunsets means it's not be for the moment.
It also seems that Hz has suddenly come on in his talking, now using consonants for beginnings and ends of words (this helps a lot obviously!) and even small sentences:
Didi (Biryani) move
Aba daan (Dad) gone

He's imitating a lot in all 3 languages he's learning (English, Swedish, Urdu).
He can now go confidently up and down the stairs which is a great help for my back, and can run pretty fast.
Another significant milestone, but which is not likely to be in the child development books (yet) is that he can use the mouse and so he is able to play games himself without too much assistance. It probably sounds like he's too young for all this technology, but it means I can get on with something that takes more than 5 minutes without worrying he's getting into some mischief or whinging for attention. So now there are 5 kids vying for a slot on the pooter and the poor thing rarely gats a break...
So we now no longer have a 'baby' in the house, which feels a bit strange....

There's no doubt it's summer!

2010-07-09T12:16:00.000-07:00

We joined friends to visit the local 'tivoli' (amusement park) and this is the largest ferris wheel apparently in Northern Europe (56m high I think). Last year I went on it with the kids but this year, oh no! it goes round three times, stopping at the top while more passengers get on and the wind blows through your hijab (would be hair) and you imagine how it is to be a bird seeing the tops of trees swaying in the (unwelcome) breeze, and why I did not wear a parachute? and will you kids stop leaning over the edge and scaring the living daylights out of me?!.

and the usual tacky prizes can even be found in Sweden, which is normally renowned for it's style and taste.

So anyway, the next of set of photos are a kind of visual parable of the procrastination of my life.
I had thought about making elderflower cordial after reading a recipe in a book S got out LAST summer holidays called 'Smarta Cash' which is full of ideas for kids to make money. After reading the only ingredient I lacked was citron syra (citric acid I think) I finally got round to purchasing the stuff just after the elderflowers had died and were moving on to berries. So this year I was determined to do the recipe before the same thing happens again. I was almost ambushed by the lack of real lemons in our house and also the recipe needs lots of sugar. But it got done and is now steeping in the fridge. I divided the quantities by 4 as I'm not sure how it'll turn out/ popular it'll be. The quantities were large as it's designed so you can sell truck loads of the stuff.

Sugar syrup/ citric acid mix is poured over elderflowers:

Then place lemon pieces in the mixture and leave for 3-5 days.

Let's hope it tastes good, inshaAllah

A strange Midsummer...

2010-07-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

It's been extremely dry and warm which is quite unlike the usual late June weather. I noticed there were fewer varieties of wild flowers to pick this year, maybe due to the heat, or the cold Winter we had. It's hard to believe it was so cold and snowy as I sit inside typing this as it's just too hot to go out just now (for me anyway!)

I haven't been online so much recently, I got a letter from the council about the allotment. I had to remove the tyres I'd thought would be good to grow potatoes in/use for raised beds- I'd read about this use for them in Gardening books, but apparently they are too unsightly. I think as much as my neighbours assorted 'furniture' and old fridge they have in their allotment, and at least there should have been green leaves adorning them. Also they've said I need to get rid of the weeds, so have been trying to get on top of this problem. This, however, was something I needed a proverbial kick up the backside to get on with.

So the 'harvesting' slowly trickles in. I have learnt a lot as the second lot of radishes are much better than these. I prepeared the ground better and sowed less thickly, and they did have warmer weather to help them grow.

and now we have a good supply of salad leaves. Anyhow hoping inshaAllah next year I'll be more organised and have more plants than weeds rather then vice versa!

So school's out...

2010-06-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

and S holds his 'graduation' rose that is customarily given out to the students leaving the school.

and it's time to be outside a bit more, although the lure of computer is still there, but DH is making this pretty restricted.

and this is my usual view, of little ones running off, hopefully not to a busy road.

M saw a clip on the Swedish equivalent of Cbeebies on the computer several weeks ago, but somehow managed to construct everything himself from memory, mashaAllah. It involved making a pattern first.
and the finished article, which I must get round to uploading to the TV channel's website. H made the patio, well it was going to be another castle but didn't get to construction stage.

We went on a boat trip organised as a marketing ploy by one of the Electricity providers. Actually we already buy our electricity from them. The kids enjoyed the marketing sweets and windmills provided. I was v scared when the boat went right under the windmill blade. Of course it was completely safe (Sweden takes health and safety v seriously) but I buried my face in Biryani's shoulder while she clung on to me. As Hz and Biryani don't watch much British tv, the chance to exclaim 'teletubby windmill' wa not there. S would've loved it as a little one. Now he was thinking more of whether there'd be any more sweets remaining back at the dock.

and eventually the sun peeked out for a bit.

Hoping for some more activities for the kids, they are really finding it hard to get along this holidays for some reason.

We like purple we do

2010-06-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

2 posts in two days, can this be true? Well the little ones are sleeping and I have a few minutes to write a bit. As I said yesterday it's the end of term soon, and things are changing a bit.
S is leaving the current school and is he will not be missing it (maybe the sausage casserole). We've had problems with bullying up to the present and hoping it won't continue in the next school. We've requested that S is in a different class to the boy who's been giving him a lot of trouble who's also supposed to start the same school, and the new school have been sympathetic and granted us the request.
M's 2 main friends in his class won't be around as one is going to another school and the other is staying abroad for 5 months, inshaAllah.
Sometimes we wonder about the choice of school, but recently there was an incident in our local park. M and a friend (neighbour's child) were approached by some young teenage boys and after boasting to them about their girlfriends and their antics, asked them to do something, how can I put it, entirely inappropriate. The friend's mother has addressed this with the teens' school which is our local school and these kids are barely older than S, subhanAllah. We've had to talk about having the courage to say 'no' with the boys and now having to keep an extra eye out when they're in the park, even though this is supposed tobe a safe area.
Hz has started at the childminder's, and I know it's early. In fact he's almost exactly the same age as H was when he started nursery. I would be unlikely to get the place with this particular childminder if I left it until later (she was my Quran teacher) and Biryani will start with her too as her current childminder is stopping at the end of the holidays. He's not happy being left but inshaAllah he'll come to like it. He does enjoy other kids' company, if the boys have friends home he's always happier. It's funny as in some ways he's v independant, running off to explore the world, but on the other hand can be v clingy.

Memories of inside

2010-06-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

We're coming to the end of the school year, and the beginning of the summer holidays. The sun has come out these past couple of days, but up until then it's mostly been grey/ rainy.
So here is a selection of how things have generally been recently inside the house.

I haven't been baking so much recently but made a chocolate pie which was a first which also had marzipan in. Sprinkles on top always add to the delight.
Hama beads are always a hit on a rainy day, and I made a number sign for our allotment!
Latest craze is Bakugan, with its terrible cartoon series, but at least they are playing together, sometimes harmoniously and doing lots of mental maths to see who has the most points, or is it ability score? If I hear the words 'Ability card activate, Bakugan brawl' again I shall go mad! Even Hz has his own now (although currently lost somewhere in the abyss of kids' mess) and says 'Gaan, Gaan'
Biryani gets the playdough out now and again, and I tried making it pink with Beetroot juice (trying to find alchohol free colouring) and it did work OK mashaAllah.

We had been thinking to change the rooms around to somehow give more space/ privacy to the older ones. In the end concluded that the sofa is too large to fit anywhere else and really not much can be changed. So I thought the only other option is to get rid of stuff. However Hz thought better and then proceeded to play with the barely usable toy buggy for a good half an hour or so (which is a loong time for him) which he'd extracted from the rubbish box. It's like that when you want to get rid of stuff the kids suddenly see the toy (junk) with renewed interest

'Summer' Firsts!

2010-05-31T06:14:00.001-07:00

First dip in the sea, followed by first BBQ on the beach, alhamdulilah, and thanks to a great sister (moreover, her son) who got us to be a bit 'spontaneous'
Needless to say the weather is back to normal, rainy and cold, but Saturday afternoon/evening was a hint of the Summer to come, inshaAllah.

Lots of photos: outside

2010-05-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Looking at the glowing yellow of the labernum down in the park.

and if you now look the other way we have the cherry blossom, currently shedding it's flowers and looking as delicious as candy floss. M and his young friends who live nearby made some 'soup' in a big red bucket of which I think blossom was one of the ingredients. That and a big spoon of gravel.

It really is Spring now as temperatures are above 10 C and we don't need jackets on any longer just to pop down to the sandpit for a digging session.

and Biryani has her twirly skirt on (which today gave rise to Hz trying to twirl as he imitated her (and me). H ended up doing a very peculiar dance which was quite funny. By the end of the day he could actually spin round and now has experienced self-induced dizziness.)

'What are these flowers?' I was asked.
How can I have not taught her the name of these? so we did the classic daisy chain making. However, to make a chain long enough to adorn oneself requires more than the patience of a 4 year old, and I probably was off chasing Hz before I could even complete a bracelet.

and here he is chasing after Biryani, playing duck, duck, goose. This was the only way I could think of to distract him from escaping through the 'child-proof' gate to the car-park. Maybe I should bring this up at the next Housing Association meeting?

'Got you!' It was finally sandals weather, so the everlasting sock-location problem is minimized.

The beautiful colours of the flowers in our flats grounds, mashaAllah. Biryani proceeded to inform me of the different colours and then how many different colours there are. So often she talks as if she's the voice from a pre-school concepts computer game.

and the other half of the allotment, which not to my surprise has gone to seed. It would have been ideal to get these out before, but I've been a bit ill. We did our best to remove them, but I never want to see another dandelion again. I did find a few plants among them, which I think were balm, a sage bush, some reeds, some more chives and different sorts of mint.

Some photos, inside and out.

2010-05-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

The beech trees on the way to the main library, aptly named 'bok' in Swedish which also means 'book'.

This is why I don't make many phone calls (although I want to stay more in touch.) The new play material, Weetabix.

Biryani, always willing to give the plants a water. The tomato plants are not doing too well this year. They got, according to my research, sunburn, or maybe they found it too cold at night, or just were in shock at being transplanted. The Spring this year has been particularly cold, normally it's like Summer by now, but you still need a coat on if you're outside for a while.

and Biryani's self-created art exhibition...

Some allotment photos

2010-05-06T02:01:00.000-07:00

We spotted lots of dandelions by the edge of the roads as we drove to the allotment, and my heart sank, slightly. Lo and behold we are the owners of a field of dandelions, battling it out with the mint.
If anyone knows what the above plants are, please let me know.
We managed to get some parsnip seeds in, so hoping they'll start to grow.

The boys were not so interested in weeding today, and instead concentrated on creating a water feature.

You know how it feels...

2010-04-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

When you have one of those head colds that renders your brain pretty much useless, you have this (above) reappearing 3 times a day with avengence, and you have so many small things to do that it feels an uphill struggle to attempt any of it.
So I blog.

Hz helping with the watering of my chives, and for those of you who have Pakistan connections the the lota is clean, and I've seen 101 watering cans used as a lota.

and Biryani guards the chives from overwatering

Let me out of this madhouse!

We got out.

Small, baby steps

2010-04-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Before...

After...

This was last Sunday's efforts on our new allotment. Rome wasn't built in a day, and this is one out of about 10 rectangles of similar size that will need to be tackled at some point.
We were actually restricted on staying too long as I'd somehow forgotten the water bottle and it was thirsty work and also Hz was home with DH- Once we've got the fence up maybe I'll be able to bring him along to play with the worms and weeds!
It was a nice feeling to see the boys getting hands in the dirt rather than on the keyboard, finding the ladybirds and wiggly worms, running up and down with the weeds to the container and generally getting some fresh air.

Daffodils and new shoots

2010-04-10T05:27:00.000-07:00

I ended up buying some daffodils in pots, as I was feeling a bit low on the gardening front. My first batch of tomato seedlings had withered and died when I had tried to plant them in to bigger pots. I suspect it was because they'd been brought up without enough light, they were in my bedroom where there is generally someone sleeping at some point throughout the day. But it was there or risk being plundered by little hands. Alhamdulillah hadn't planted all the seeds so my second lot are thriving as I make sure they get enough rays.
Anyhow my tiny attempts at horticulture are inshaAllah to be scaled up, although whether it'll be this year is another question. On Thursday I got my allotment contract so now I have at least got a 'garden' , and have to be patientand wait for a few more bedrooms. M and H seem quite keen to help me and really I just want some space for us to potter. I am just a bit wary of the rabbits and will have to sort out some fencing I think. Just have to put up with DH calling me 'Arthur' (EastEnders) but then I can always call him 'Pauline' back if he does!
We're on the last stretch of the school year before the holidays. It does feel like a kind of penance of being able to live in Sweden, all this early morning rushing, and tired grumpy kids in the evening. M is plodding a long at school without having to do much homework. H is pretty good at reading and his writing has dramatically improved. We always seem to be behind with his workbooks as he's missed so much school with various illnesses, but I'm sure he's OK with all the concepts, just colouring in the lines is still a chore, although it may be useful as he wants to be an eye surgeon and they do have medical colouring books when you study anatomy....
S has got his place in the bilingual class and also was offered a place in the international school. We went to the latter for a morning and I could sense S was impressed as in the first lesson each student was on their individual laptops doing various projects, and then a boy gave a presentation using powerpoint. We the went to the French lesson which was, ironically the only time the international students speak Swedish. I slinked out after a while as my eyelids were drooping as familiar memories were coming back from my secondary education. In the end we have decided on the bilingual class so that S can keep his Swedish up, although they have let us have the option to change to the international school if later we think it would be more suitable. The students in the international school did seem more mature and commited to their work, but we will see inshaAllah how the bilingual class works out.
Biryani has been going regularly to the childminder, which at the moment is the ideal situation. There are 2 childminders who are also friends of mine and they are in one of their spacious house with a garden. The children are of different ages and they cook nutritious food, do educational activities, go outside a lot. I would like to have her round myself more as this age is very nice (mostly) , but it's also a good age to pick up the Swedish. However it feels like the best place she could be apart from home. I'm hoping it can continue as one of the childminders may start to work at her home instead.
Hz, well they don't have a place for him in the near future (!) . His langage is slowly coming on although I have to translate most words.
'Boo' - boots
'boo boo' lollipop, dog/ animals
'ayn'- orange
'up' - juice(cup?)
'bo' - ball

He also wants to start potty training and is always undressing himself down to nothing. Of course this was not appreciated when we were in the midst of a sickness bug last week. Yesterday it was a vest with lower buttons, dungarees and a jumper on top to stop him taking off his nappy. He knows to take it off just after or maybe just before doing something but the connection between potty and sitting on it to pee etc is nowhere near. It feels like I'd only just put away the potty after Biryani was needing it.
The 2 middle boys have not come back yet from running. We decided that DH should take them running regularly with some friends rather than paying £50 a term for some teenagers to tell them to run up and down at the running club. I expect they have gone for a browse around the toy shop afterwards.

Forgive me if some of the photos are a little blurred...

2010-03-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

but my mobile phone camera is a little limited, and life does seem to pass by in a bit of a blur at the moment.
Here is an example of Hz using a game as, well, it almost was intended, and not just as a floor covering.

and a large scale lego battle took up most of the living room the other day.

and I've been noticing in many blogs for a while the beautiful pictures of the emergence of Spring. So here is our Swedish, relatively late, contribution. In fact looking out for the 'Signs of Spring' is quite a national hobby. M plucked these snowdrops from our park outside, and I'm hoping he left enough for the rest of the residents to admire.

and Hz has a little bit of spring in his step (groooan, pun intended) as he heads off in the direction of the lollipop storehouse (corner shop).

This photo got deleted somehow..

2010-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

but it says it all itself

I almost forgot to blog!

2010-03-08T05:17:00.000-08:00

Again life has been keeping us busy, and we are trying to look forward to Spring as it edges it's way out of the grey snow. The greyish, brown grass may have a chance of becoming green if the temperatures decide to rise and the sun comes out for longer periods.
So here are some rather random pics from the last month or so.

Unfortunately this wasn't made by us, but by some creative neighbours tired of the usual snowmen and snowball fights.

Biryani however decided to get creative with the Stickle Bricks.

A trip to another nearby park which I only discovered recently (and have been living here 7 years!!) I was coming back from a bus stop after Hz's dentist appointment. I so rarely use the bus that it was a new route home. It's always worth taking a detour from the quickest route home and you may find things nearby you never knew were there.

The baking we did while the boys were in Legoworld...

And the thaw began (and then it snowed again) and now it's almost all melted. I thought I'd be v north European and fling a duvet out the window in the fresh air.

and with the thaw came the mud, much to the kids' delight!

Milkshake instructions that M made for himself.

A little bit about Hz

2010-02-21T03:29:00.000-08:00

My memory is so bad, short-term as well as long. So if I don't write it down it'll most likely be forgotten. Although this time is quite testing at the moment, I still want to remember it and reflect if I get time! I do remember, though, a dear friend advising me when it was a similar time of chaos having been wreaked by young hands in the form of Biryani, to have patience. To expect that by they reach the age of three, some degree of sense emerges.
He will now play with toys in the way for which they were designed (puzzle pieces inserted into their correct holes, stacking the hoops, building towers with bricks). This is quite satisfying to see and we are moving on from the chewing, discarding, emptying, flinging, stages. Moving, not quite left.
Yesterday the boys were at LegoWorld again and as both littlies have got bad colds we did not go out. So it was a game of climbing up S's bunkbed to find his mobile and laser pen, switching on and off the computer which Biryani was trying to use, climbing up M's bunk bed and dangling his legs perilously over the edge, and emptying jugs of water all over himself and the bathroom floor. Not his fault of course, and now and again I will find him surreptitiously leafing through ladybird books. I also find later on, ripped pages scattered about, aah!
I have been sucked in to the Swedish system, I am at the limit now, it's daycare for you in August!!!!!!!
But seriously, it may be on the cards as we have to start some sort of business up soon to make ends meet. We shall see..........
So as the doctor put it, Hz is very 'motoric' and this is way ahead of the language skills. He says quite a few 'words' now, and some signs. He cutely pats his head if he wants to play the chasing game 'duck, duck, goose' that the kids found on the sesame street website. This morning I was woken by: 'Doo Doo (milk) more' in a very insistent voice.
And about the feeding/ sleep thing, which I feel cannot not be disentwined: At about 4 months he was sleeping well at night due to his thumb. The teeth came and I was the dummy. I thought, ok, let's wait until 6 months to do something about this night waking. Then it was wait until 8 months, then 1 year old, and for the last 5 or 6 months at least I have just accepted he won't sleep in a cot and it's going to be when he stops feeding (2 years old, islamically) that there's a chance of unbroken sleep. Of course it's not unbearable tiredness and he doesn't feed so much now, and there are nights where he sleeps through. But it's never the 7am to 7 pm that some children do and the others did (more like 9-7) , well that's according to my memory so this may, and quite likely, is innaccurate. This summer looks like being the end of having a baby in the house, which is, in a way, quite sad.

No excuses now?

2010-02-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Kind DH has got me a new laptop, mashaAllah. So no more waiting for the rest of them to get off the computer. I use the computer nowadays, like probably many others, for so many things: communication, paying bills, finding directions, recipes, even the kid's school has it's menu on their website (although usually not up to date). Nowadays whatever I think of to cook they seem to have had for lunch already.
Anyway, the photo software isn't installed yet so can't put any pictures, but to be honest, I think the snow pictures would be a bit tedious now.
Had a letter home about M's national tests which should start in March. These are not really anything to worry about, just a shame they have to spend so much time on them.
H's handwriting has dramatically improved, mashaAllah, as I could compare his writing in his school diary to this week's.
S's school for next academic year is still in the pipeline, having done a test for the bilingual class last week. The Swedish was pretty hard and the English v easy, so I'm wondering if it would be the right choice (if we get one), and maybe the international school would be more appropriate. Anyhow I hope to meet the teachers to help with the decision.
Biryani is still attending the childminder's and picking up a little Swedish, although as usual the ability to speak English ends up being a hindrance, as the other children like to try out their smattering of it with her. She continues to enjoy spelling and writing. She enthusiastically explained to her father that one of the Peter and Jane books had words (letters) missing so she had filled them in! These were the c level which are for filling in, but she thought they were books with misprints!
Hz, well life is indeed a lot easier now we have the kitchen safety gate, but we are still having difficulty figuring out how to prevent him from turning the computer on and off. Even though we can turn off the power supply from a distant source he has figured this out and now it is only the large cushion from the back of the sofa that stands between him and the red button. The problem is our phone relies on the router being on so to avoid the compter ending up in 'safe mode' from being switched rapidly on and off we end up with no phone line.
The slow journey of finding somewhere larger to live also seems to be getting gridlocked, with increasing restrictions on the number of people allowed to live in the possible flats we could be interested in being introduced.
Anyway! The last few days I've been moving things around the house in the vain hope that it will create more space (of course it doesn't really, unless you get rid of stuff).
And so not much of excitement has happened recently, but we have the half-term coming up, known as 'sportlov' where the children can try out various activities, We have LegoUniverse or is it World, LaserDome, swimming, squash, table tennis and origami mm ('med mera' means 'and more) to look forward to inshaAllah. I just look forward to the disappearance of the early morning rush, and really feel a bit overwhelmed over the amount and scope of things to do!!

We're not quite frogs...

2010-02-06T06:28:00.001-08:00

but we can a get a feeling of how this popular character feels about the snow. I am still quite happy for the world around to be white, but from the local media, I sense people are tiring of the flaky white stuff. The children still build snowmen, throw snowballs and toboggan down the slopes, but you can sense the enthusiasm is waning. It will be nice to see some green grass and sense the different light that this produces, as does frog. However I still find white better than the usual grey/ brown of a south Swedish Winter.

and there is some variety, snow with cloud, or as above, snow with sunlight. Hz is a little unsure with his new boots and is actually wearing his gloves (that are normally cast aside). Not surprising as it's about -8C.

and it has also been snow plus wind, so some very deep drifts to, er, jump in. Face down.

and the boys made a large snowman with DH, and snowballed it down afterwards.

And some indoor fun, with clementine peel, DH producing these letters at the request of Biryani. Very Montessori, pat on back DH.

and having been ill, but still unwilling to just mope in bed, I got to work on the colouring pencils. I heard a story about a scholar who didn't like to waste time even when he had guests so would sharpen pencils while listening to them! The urge to draw and colour is always enhanced by freshly sharpened pencils, how frustrating to find the colour you want is blunt. I am now on the hunt for a posh sharpener automatic/ or crank the wheel-type as oh my fingers!

Busy doing I don't know what....

2010-01-26T14:04:00.001-08:00

but that's how it is sometimes, and that's when you get more photos than text.

Biryani doing her Matilda impression at the local library, which we frequented more than often this past holiday as we had no internet!

and finally DH came home, after lots of delays due to the snow, so we made some 'Welcome home' decorations.

I'm still baking bread, these looking a bit too rustic but tasted quite nice all the same

S and M started their papier mache, destined inshaAllah to become a money box, well sometime this year I hope...

M, H and Biryani play schools, with of course M as the teacher.

The recent weather has been very cold, often minus 6 or even less, but from these pictures you can probably get the gist of how things are getting ready in the morning, or getting out the car to go home from the childminders. I just do not try to think about onlookers silently 'tsking' or that she'll catch a cold. In fact, like M who rarely gets ill and who also had a thing for going out in the snow with little more than boots on, she has not had one day off sick from the childminder's since she started.

It is COLD! You can almost see the trees shivering..

My Mum's card webshop

2010-01-18T02:32:00.000-08:00

My Mum has always enjoyed art and has now got some of her designs available as cards, including Eid and ones left blank for your own message. I have a promo code for the first 5 people who order!:

Get your first card for FREE by using this promo code during checkout: MARY150209

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/judyscardstore

Keep in mind that this offer expires on February 02, 2010 (in 15 days).

Here is her website too, and also her blog which has some useful art tips

we have transport, we have internet..

2010-01-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

of a sort. The poor old computer has a suspected virus as well as too much dust in its fans so is not working too well. So I write this in the hope that the virus does not suddenly become deadly.
Here is the recipe for the cocosbullar, the measurements are in volume rather than weight for the most part which could be confusing, but is actually easier once you get used to it:

100g butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 1/2 dl (150 ml) of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar (a few drops of vanilla flavouring I would expect be OK and if you miss it out altogether I expect they would still taste nice)
3 desertspoons of cocoa (maybe a little more,test the mixture is chocolatey enough once all ingredients are mixed)
5 dl (500ml) porridge oats
2-3 desertspoons of cold black coffee
Dessicated coconut for coating.

Mix all the ingredients except the coconut. Form into balls (as in pic here , scroll down a bit) about the size of a large grape or however large you like really.
Then roll them in dessicated cocunut.
Put them in the fridge until needed (usually not for very long, half an hour would be just about manageable before they have to be devoured)

Will this still be Hz's main occuaption in 2010?

2010-01-01T08:34:00.001-08:00

I'm talking about his lightning ability to get his hands in everything, mashAllah! I still have the heart-rate raising experience on a daily basis of him about to grab something dangerous and while I´m sorting that out he's already moved on to another item doomed for destruction.
I have purchased a baby gate accompanied by those dubious words 'easy assembly'.
OK could be easy if a) all the parts were included, b)I did not have 2 young ones very curious about this new piece of apparatus, and c) (controversial but true), I was male.

So the kitchen is still accessible, and awaiting a male who can trudge back to the Baby shop to get a gate that functions, and then put the thing up while I escort small children away from the construction zone. I am along way away from Swedish nationality staus, I hate anything involving spanners/ hammers.

The snow has melted, but now it's minus 6, in the daytime. We just popped out to the corner shop for some Jummah goodies and a quick walk, and my hands hurt when I came back.

So also having both cars out of action, and being home a lot, have been doing a bit of baking. First pretzels, which S had read about and wanted to try..

In the bicarb solution which apparently gives them the distinctive taste, well I'm not sure it's my favourite, but maybe it's an aquired taste.

As you can see the we all made their own interpretations of a pretzel shape!

'Shall I help with the baking?'

I've always had an admiration for those who bake bread on a regular basis. It is an aspiration of mine too, but somehow the ensuing mess, and general scarcity of time, outweigh the benefits. However as I was perusing DH's Union magazine (I try to keep up with some Swedish) there was an article about not wasting food, and generally reducing food bills. It said you could save about £800 a year if you made your own bread, £800??? well it could be possible as decent bread is about £2 a loaf and lasts about a day or maybe 2 if they're at school. Now maybe I can keep the baking up I could afford a lap top, and then maybe blog more than twice a month (as seems to be happening nowadays). We'll see...

'Well, I will help, whether you like it or not!'

Well, it turned out pretty bread-like but yet to taste it.

Winter is truly upon us..

2009-12-20T13:08:00.001-08:00

The sun just rises as we reach school...

and the snow arrived in time for the holidays! mashaAllah.
I was surprised to read that even the Swedish public transport system has been caught out with the snow, and then the usual moans from commentators that it is Winter after all, what do you expect?!
Warnings today not to drive due to weather conditions, so put a stop to sledging as the nearest, walkable slope is not so great. Neighbours built a small 'hill' out of snow for the kids to have a go on. Also meant I had a go at making roti for MIL as shop for these is also a car journey away.

As time is short, just some pictures

2009-12-12T14:58:00.001-08:00

Some sunlight appeared today, so despite sore throat, I took them down for some Vitamin D and very fresh, chilly air.

and some 'cocosbullar' S made fairly recently, and are v tasty, needs no cooking, fairly healthy as mostly porridge oats (well sugar and butter too) and a good one for little ones to help with. If anyone wants a recipe let me know and I'll translate it, inshaAllah.

S wanted me to take this one to show the speed of his rolling of the balls...

A 'mafs test'. created by H, and looks like it was M who did the answers.

and Hz, sporting just what he needs to retain those brain cells. ( Yes giving him a big, padded space suit to wear has crossed my mind!)

A typical day in the life of me..

2009-12-09T14:47:00.001-08:00

Wake, feed, pray, eat , cajole, rush, drive, listen MP3 quran, drive, grocery-shop, feed, change nappy, eat, pray, drive, feed , pray, feed some more hungry mouths, help with homework/quran, pray, yell 'turn the computer off', prepare food, cajole to eat it, cajole to get them to bed, set timer on mobile to get them to bed, think '10 pm could be the best time to do drawing, spelling,maths, hanging on the exercise bar, chasing up and down, but we have to be up before 7 am tomorrow', grab some food, pray, type this, collapse in bed.

A quick, but warm 'Eid Mubarak!'

2009-11-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

Things have been a bit disrupted round here as lst week Hz got his turn at the Acute department. Well actually the child department, the adult ENT department, the local dentist and finally the specialist dentist, 2 times. He was sitting in his highchair (strapped in, but the clip broke in the fall), when fighting big brothers rushed in and his chair got pushed over by accident. He has now lost 2 of the front teeth, and 1 is left in but pushed into the gum, so will have to come out. So we have a trip back to the dentist next week to see if the tooth is coming out itself or if they'll have to pull it- eek! This age, for all the kids has ended up with some accident or other. Alhamdulillah it's never been anything life threatening, but still quite a bit of blood and pain. I need a full-time bodyguard for him really. Having said that, this accident was not of his own making, and from previous post´s it is quite surprising it happened when he was 'safely' strapped in his chair, rather than himself climbing up and maybe having a fall. He had managed to tip that chair before himself though I caught it, so wondering if I should tell IKEA. Maybe my kids could safety test child products. If they passed this they'd be pretty reliable!

The leaves are almost gone..

2009-11-15T06:32:00.001-08:00

and we did get a little bit of snow, although I'd call it sleet. Now the colour is left to the berries, mashAllah.

Do I need to comment, except there are now barely few places left to put things (like hot cups of tea) out of the reach of 1 year olds.

and when I think about throwing away/ putting away in the cellar the odd toys that have failed to be tidied into sets (or indeed have no 'set') I catch my DD playing an imaginary game with the items. Could it be true? Tidying up could damage children's imagination?! I like the sound of that...

S captured this photo on my phone of this brave baby hedgehog, out in daylight hours. (Mummy hedgehog must be waiting in the bush about to say 'Well, what time do you call this then?')

and finally. Last Sunday was one of those rare days when I felt things had gone pretty well on the child (and mum, see last point) nurturing scale. M had an islam class given by a brother (which is always good to have positive male role models), some time playing in the park (finding above wildlife), some card-making with great resources provided free of charge, and some excellent and reasonably priced homemade cakes.
Today we were unable to go again for some crafts and cake as Hz is ill, and so is MIL. I'm actually OK alhamdulillah, and regularly dosing myself with honey.The others are a bit disappointed as they wanted to visit friends and TOYSRUS. Oh that shop. Aargh its Eid soon so shall probably have to darken that shop's doors this week.
Still have to find time to write down some more deep/meaningful stuff regarding kid's, well how can I put it, upbringing, but as time goes by some of the issues are not as they were and I expect others will come up.

I am not ill, I am not ill..

2009-11-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

All this hype over swine flu, I'm trying to ignore it. It's hard when you're getting invitations for vaccination s for your kids, yourself, spouse through the post over the past few weeks. I don't often watch the news (no TV still hurrah!) but do glimpse at the online newspapers. My elderly neighbours asked me today if we were going to have the jabs, and the answer I gave brought a tissue to one of their mouths. I know the power of guilt is being used to make us get it to protect the vulnerable but after discussions with friends and family, we decided to abstain. Midwives and paediatricians have said they wouldn't have it nor give it to their children. So as the headache and dry throat I have persists I hope it's just down to tiredness..
Anyhow here're are a few recent photos:

The younger ones entertain themselves while M has his running club and Hz entertains himself in the sink. I hope the interest in the dishes continues into the teenage years and later..

And Autumn moves into Winter....

2009-11-03T09:26:00.001-08:00

We don't need to go far to enjoy it, the cherry trees have been really appreciated this year and continue for the moment to do so.
Soon they'll be like skeletons with only their bare branches, waiting for some snow to clothe them. Then perhaps inshaAllah become a fun game of 'cover your brother with snow' as those branches are given a good shake....

So enjoy those last few leaf kicking fests/ fights/ general gauping at beautiful colours, I think it's time to wait for some snow....

Some autumn development..

2009-10-23T13:54:00.001-07:00

A trip to a local forest/ nature centre gave us insight into which animals might be lurking in the woods. Here we examine tracks and faeces (assumed to be models). We managed to spot some real fox poo, red hairs and all stuck in.

and of course the beauty of the autumn trees, the fine weather recently has really been showing their full glory.

Back home and grandmother unpacks a multisensory stock of spices from Pakistan....

H decides to write down his verdict on Hz's behaviour..

is there not an electrical appliance that can escape his interest? (he'd made some steps out of the drawers he had managed to pull out, mashaAllah)

Some bits from the surface..

2009-10-15T14:16:00.001-07:00

Some (almost) instant gratification autumn decoration making, inspired by Itto's blog. MashAllah one not to miss for lifting the iman, creative homeschooling, and seeing how it is to live a world away but have so much in common....
These poor little rosehips were at the receiving end of a post-argument, pre-menstrual needle, and even had a bit of a tangle with Hz's interested paws...

The new place for schoolbags, coordinated nicely doncha think?

and the wires fascination continues.

The new map of the world has been holding some interest, esp populaton density figures!

There's a lot more on my mind but so much to do depite MIL being here, so hope for some time to air it inshaAllah.

Swine flu Vaccination

2009-10-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

We've had permission slips and appointments sent home for the children to be vaccinated against swine flu. S wants to have it as he doesn't like the idea of having flu (who does?), H and M don't want to have the 2 jabs. I haven't been following the latest news about Swine flu for a while so am quite unsure how safe the vaccine is, and if it's really necessary. What's your opinion?

From Summer to Autumn..

2009-10-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or has blogger just got more annoying? I try to delete photos I've posted erroneously and it doesn't let me by just clicking on it and pressing delete. I try to write text for the photos and it comes out blue and underlined. I try to move photos around the post, it doesn't let me. I then enter the unknown of 'Edit HTML' which does the job but somehow seems a step backward.
Anyway! as I sit here, in my cold living room, with the rain and blustery wind pelting the windows, I take this opportunity of procrastinated photo-uploading, to appreciate the change of seasons. Feet adorned with fluffy socks, I accept theat summer is OVER. It is time for ferreting around in the cellar cupboards for winter clobber and trips to the shops (groan) for new jackets etc where hand me downs just aren't going to do the job.
So here are some snapshots from my phone (Allah knows best where the proper pics are on my computer).

At the end of August we went to Stockholm, hurray, out of Skåne. Here is our 'little red house' about which Biryani makes regular requests to return to and 'climb out the windows' which is how the kids decided was the way in and out of the cabin (Dukes of Hazard eat your heart out).

We only went for 2 nights, but I had to wash Biryani's clothes as the wait at reception was too long for her poor bladder (it had been over a 6 hour drive).

There is a lake in the distance which M was v keen to swim in, and so DH was also obliged to enjoy a freezing dip. This is a ski resort in the Winter.

Stockholm old town, just before it poured with rain.

and back home, Hz catching a late afternoon sunbeam.

The 'flower mountain' on the way to one of the favourite parks in our area.

Biryani

with umbrella, now deceased, partly due to blustery outing we had today.

Some autumn colour at the zoo, it's full glory not shown by the picture, I just couldn't stop looking at those red leaves..

5.58 a.m.

2009-09-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

is when my eyes were first open today and they are willing me to let them shut. I had a 7 a.m. washing slot and I wanted to get it in before the little ones woke up. So after Fajr prayers and getting the boys up for school I raced down to the cellar. It was probably a little before 7 a.m. when the machines got going but I hope the neighbours will forgive me.... Why? you might ask, would you want to do washing at this mad time, but the heating is being fixed in our block and I don't have a tumble drier so have to use downstairs, and I think everyone else is doing the same so there's no decent slots and and oh I'm getting bored....enough of Swedish laundry room talk...
These blog posts are getting fewer and further between, and I spend much brainpower trying to work out how I can make more efficient use of time. It seems increasingly hard to come by. What is the reason?one word: Hz
Today he manged to climb into his high chair via the stool and sit himself in it quite nicely. The other day he managed to tip the IKEA high chair down, which thankfully I was near enough by to catch it, and it hadn't been one of my lax days where I'd not bothered with the belt. He does this thing of rocking back and forward in it, and often falls asleep this way (sounds a bit Russian orphanage, but really, he likes it). So he rocked so violently that the whole thing fell forward, despite the legs being designed to give stability and trip up unsuspecting adults as a side effect.
He also manages to pull himself round the kitchen whilst in the chair to check out things like the knives in the sink.
First proper 'emergency' trip to the doctor's last week (inevitable (he's a male)) was when he'd pulled the stone attachment to the barbeque on to his finger and cut it, breaking the top bit of his fingernail off. In the end the nurse wasn't too concerned and now I've given up with the plasters as he just pulls/ bites them off.

Things I can't do when he's awake (without major stress)
go on computer
cook
sew
fold washing
tidy up
wash floor
make phone calls
and it goes on

Things I can do, unharrassed, when Hz is awake:
wash up
hoover (though he gets scared of the noise)
play with him

yes in an ideal, romantic, totally unrealistic world, playing with him should be what we are mostly doing. My trip to the park was in hope of some play and a safer environment than the kitchen appliance laden home, but ended in a trip to the doctor's .
I know it's a phase, I know it's no fault of his and it's normal and it's a test of patience, but the words NERVOUS, BREAKDOWN, no , no, no,
but S replied to one of my (joking) statements:I paraphrase 'But the orphanage won't cope with this behaviour'

Hz, I love you and that's why I'm still sane..

Eid Mubarak!

2009-09-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

So much to write, so little time! It was prayers, pressies and funfair for Eid day, and a trip to the Animal Park on Monday.

A bear, yes they have them in Sweden. This zoo has mainly animals native to Sweden.
M was a bit cold maybe?!

Biryani appreciated this outing the most I think...

Still here..

2009-09-14T04:07:00.000-07:00

just we have all been ill (not swine flu alhamdulillah) but with coughs and colds and general dizziness.
I wake in the morning and think summer has ended and then it brightens up. I think the children are getting fed up with me insisting on wearing their jumpers to school as they get hot later, oh well better than the other way round...
Biryani(and the boys) have had a social training weekend (sorry, I am getting messages from the Home ed forum from Sweden and it has not been only me who's been refused permission for this reason). It's the first time she's really interacted fully with other girls. Normally she's happy to run around giggling with her brother's friends but it was nice to see her having some proper play time with other girls. She also said a short phrase in Swedish which she must have just picked up from them. Otherwise it was lots of giggles and over acting to compensate for the language barrier....

Not much more to say at the mo'

2009-09-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Umar said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to say when breaking his fast:

"Dhahaba al-zama' wa abtalat al-'urooq wa thabata al-ajr in sha Allaah

(Thirst is gone, the veins are moistened and the reward is certain if Allaah wills)."

Narrated by Abu Dawood, 2357; al-Daaraqutni, 25. Ibn Hajar said in al-Talkhees al-Habeer (2/202): al-Daaraqutni said, its isnaad is saheeh

Summer is going on just a bit longer...

2009-08-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

A quick post just before Ramadhan and some random pictures from the summer (which is reappearing, much to my tomato and chilli plants delight!)

This is why there are v few safe places to put things inthe kitchen!

A fine harvest(!?) if you consider the plants were practically dried up sticks that somehow managed to come back to life. There are more to come if Hz doesn't get to them first...

Ramadhan Mubarak, may it be beneficial to you all amin!

The Outings!

2009-08-18T02:47:00.000-07:00

Foteviken Viking museum: with our Viking guide

Inside the reconstructed Viking houses, partaking in a little pretend feasting...

The boys seemed to want to remove the teeth from these jaw bones, they were unsuccessful.(which was fortunate, see later)

M and Biryani marvel at the sight and feel of fox hides. I couldn't bear to touch them! It was a very hands-on museum.

Viking weapons which you can imagine were highly popular!

Battering some 'silver' left over from coin making.

Teaspoon, desertspoon or just plain greedyspoon?

Some more manly viking activities, chopping wood.

and then a chance to make it in to something, Viking style.

Making flour, a fellow tourist from Ghana said they still use the same equipment there.

Did you notice how many of the pictures involved the kids touching things? Well, I have calmed down now, but the friendly guide told us we can touch as try anything in the museum as long as we don't take it home with us. One other member of staff decided otherwise, and basically made one of my kids cry and I had tears welling, as 'This isn't a playground'. We had moved a few items, shut a few doors, nothing broken, nothing destroyed. Ok, so I'd had to call them down from the roof of a house and advise not to wave swords like a real battle, but here was no harm done. I ended up not saying anything except trying to calmly explain that we'd been told they could touch things. I really felt like having a go after my kid's tears appeared as did DH, but we didn't want to be chucked out as the kids had been enjoying it so much.

And now from wood to plastic as we enter Legoland Billund

only these photos as DH took them and most had the kids in, I stayed behind with the little'uns.

Now it's been back to school, with all 3 big ones in the same school! The season of timetables, homework and routines!

A surprise of sorts..

2009-08-15T03:46:00.000-07:00

Probably not a frequent activity amongst home educators, but those of us with schoolkids have to be on the lookout for slips of paper sent home from teachers. Well, I have been relying maybe too heavily on them being delivered into my hands, and so yesterday I needed to use one of the kids' rucksack and what did I find? The school note informing us that school starts the day after tommorrow!! Normally their school goes back a week after the mainstream in the early 20s of August but not this year apparently. This summer holidays has been characterised by the first half trying to get the car sorted and therefore doing things close to home. In between has been hub going off here and there in Europe with plane related things, swimming school, and a final flurry to use to do those activities for which I had free entrance tickets etc. I still have 2 activities planned but they will now have to be postponed to a weekend I suppose, alhamdilillah, But I am hoping that I can go somewhere more than half and hours drive away from home before Winter hits, just to check out the rest of the world is still there...

So here are some close-to-home snippets:

M conquering the climbing wall

Biryani playing with the neighbour's grandchildren's bubbles (always a hit with 3 year olds!)

Hz's favourite area of our park to wander about without being told 'Nooo!' and a big flagpole to try to shake down....

An egg H found (isn't it the wrong time of year, it was too small and round for a chicken's egg).

and the hunters stalk their prey...

The prey

A snippet of conventional education stuff..

2009-08-08T07:04:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a bit of English work with the boys: S doing spellings along with word meanings when they come up. I take words from the series of Unforunate events books he's been reading. Last year or maybe it was the year before, these were recommended to me, but he found them too wordy. Now they're about right for him. We've been doing words like 'mischief' 'orphan' 'assume'. M seems to have the greatest difficulty spelling dipthong vowels (like many children I expect) and their various spelling, e.g. 'ow' 'ay'. This ends up being a difficulty with homophones e.g plane, plain.
H is really needing to practice his writing, and I can see the effect that left handedness has on it (ie makes it harder) He's never been keen on putting pen to paper, drawing etc. Funny, he' s just asked me if he can do some drawing, did he read what I was writing from across the room?
Today H has just asked me how cement is made and can we make some! After looking it up, it seems little chance of this being possible as we need a stone crusher, and an oven that goes above 1000C (mine only does 250C) so maybe we'll head out to the sandpit and make some pretend cement.

Just back from the beach..

2009-08-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today's been a hot one after a long batch of 'showery' weather. So we went down to the local beach this evening. Fun was had flinging stones into the water, a dolly was lost and found and we saw what turned out to be not too serious ambulance and fire engine episode.

With great difficulty I got online..

2009-07-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

I’ve been wanting to blog for days now, just things happen and there’s neither time nor energy to document anything. Just barely enough to live it..
We’ve started swimming school, and S’s been having mixed feelings, (tiredness, trepidation..) however the last were positive as his teachers have been pleased with him. As the other children have failed to turn up he’s had 2 personal teachers. M’s group was also scantily attended so there’s one to one teaching.
We went out on another one of my ‘walks’ (kids must wish I had never done Duke of Edinburgh’s award). We took the fishing nets in a hope to do a bit of river dipping. I wish I could show some photos here, but I couldn’t locate the battery charger for the camera. The stream where we normally baffle passing Swedes by playing pooh sticks had almost completely dried up. Either it’s the recent hot weather (although there has been quite a bit of rain recently) or maybe the nearby housing developments are taking it? The flies and mosquitos were bothering S a lot, so we walked on, and did find a bit of stream with enough water to contain some animal life. Some, what I assume were minnows ,seemed uncatchable (I feel there’s a proper word that I could use instead but it escapes me) but they managed to get some insects, dead and alive and plenty of stones. We continued to the man-made playground (as opposed to the natural one of the woods and streams) as the mosquitos were just too much. Biryani ran with me to empty the jar of wildlife into the river as I suddenly remembered the lid was on tight and they might run out of oxygen. (H thought they’d be alright as they had water as well!). As I ran along with her, having left Hz in S’s care, she looked so adorable with a cheeky grin tightly holding my hand. Sandals had been cast aside, as do most of my children nowadays. (Too much Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer having been watched. I keep reminding them that even he had a bath once a week.) On the way back she ran independently, and the easy flow of running showed that she’s now transitioned fully away from toddlerdom.
Today’s been a bit of a Lemony Snicket day as we got most of the series of Unfortunate events Books PLUS the DVD out of the library. S has also just been constructing a grappling hook out of wool and pipe cleaners.
M has just announced Biryani is counting our spoons. I thought I heard them being banged about, so at least a second wash for them is worth it.
Oh no they’ve now just been thrown on the floor and gathered up by M to show me.
They’ve been keeping up with bits of study (Arabic reading, Quran, English) and actually asking to do it. Before you faint, they’re only allowed their computer time if they’ve done something brain-worthy.
Hz’s communication is coming on, he whole hand points, and now says ‘ooh’ for pain, and anything hot and sometimes just for the sake of it.
Car is fixed finally, so hope we can have some excursions inshaAllah.

You know how blogs tend to show..

2009-07-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

those dreamy days of summer, plucking cherries from the trees in our park (after over 5 years here I realised how close our PYO really was)

Tree climbing and hugging...

and just getting the chance to go 'wow, mashaAllah' .

and do a bit of arty stuff...

Well, below the contrast of in and outside is shown as if waking from that dream into :

REALITY OF LIVING WITH A ONE YEAR OLD :

The blockades...

The only way to prevent acrobatics from kitchen tables...

aargh..

aaaaaargh!

AAAAAARGH!!

There are things to do round here..

2009-07-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

In the local school's yard (ignore the cig butts) the kids can play innebandy (street hockey), skateboard, play footy, and roller blade.

In the house those plastic bricks never seem to lose their appeal...

'It's an I' I am proudly informed and I prepare to be defeated at Jenga.

But oh how I wish our car could get fixed, and we had some money to get out of this place, I'm starting to go a bit nuts... But now and again I get a little solice out on my balcony, with the surviving tomato plants thriving (and they now are a lot larger than in this pic, with a few tomatoes on)

There is a green finger or two on my hands then..

Hz's permeating presence

2009-07-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Hz’s motor skills still continue to expand, as he climbs on everything (stools, tables, beds etc) and even tries to scale the kitchen cupboards/ dishwasher as if he is Spiderman, barely hanging on with his fingertips, toes scraping up the sides of the cabinets. He’s just worked out how to get off the bed too without it being head first. He’s realised that things can be placed in as well as chucked out of containers. I took the time to watch time for a few minutes the other day:
Put brick in box, tipped it out, tried again to put it in, misses. Put box on sofa and puts brick in, this time successfully.
Favourite ‘toys’ are: Computer mouse, dishwasher (buttons and knob), cooker (knobs including ability to twist off the safety device), toilet seat (I was perusing eBay for something to make the doors safe for little fingers and saw toilet seat locks, huh! I thought why on earth would you need one of those- now I know). He’s the first child to think the toilet bowl is another sink to wash in uurrgh!, mop, my plants.
He’s starting to use some consistent ‘words’. So far it’s ‘nana’ for anything edible, including me! And ‘naaaa’ for ‘more’. So more bread would be ‘naaa nana’.
Really it is a difficult, but cute time of life. It is almost impossible to get anything done during his waking hours, and you have to clear the kitchen table pretty quickly as he has a good swiping action. We are minus a few cups and plates as our kitchen floor is tiled, good job I don’t have any posh china.
We’ve finally got the locks on the bathrooms sorted out so you can go to the loo in peace, but now are thinking we need to put locks on the outside of the doors too. And have I mentioned the blockades around the house? The computer is surrounded by cupboards/ boxes which we have to clamber over to access the computer. The kitchen doorway is occasionally blockaded with a big box if DH or myself need to get on with some work on the kitchen table. We should really get a gate (there’s no door so can’t just put a lock on) but I expect the other kids will leave it open and by the time we get round to fitting it he’ll have grown out of this ‘exploratory without fear of consequences’ phase.

Some more notes from the trenches..

2009-07-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

S’s questions continue, for which I’m grateful:

‘Why does the moon affect the waves?’
Other diverse topics enquired after are: uranium, invention of pizza

Biryani:
‘H is a gangster, I’m a star’

And on another occasion when she’d been with the boys to Jummah prayer, and her Dad asked her why she didn’t want to wear a hijab like her friend, she said
‘I’m a gangster’ oh dear..

‘Come to my class!’ (the ‘a’ is a short one as in the US pronunciation, again oh dear..!) The she continues to try to write with a broken pencil while sporadically putting up her hand. This was soon after the open day at the boys’ school, so she must have been taking something in.

Biryani sits and waits for the computer to come on, and reads out ‘S-O-N-Y' from the monitor. The alphabet is a bit hit and miss, but ‘S’ is a favourite and she will remind you that it says ‘sss’ like a snake.

She is showing some first signs of feeling remorse. She tore a piece of tissue:
‘I’m sorry to break this piece’

Me ‘What time is it?’ WHY was I asking a 3 year old??
Biryani ‘Ten six hundred’

Some notes about nappies:
Biryani decided the used nappy had to go in the blue bin, NOT the silver one. I had some patience with this apparent illogical behaviour, as I’d observed a friend’s child of a similar age wanting to wear his old nappy, NOT a new one. I think Biryani was also in the same mindset, and fished the old one out the bin so she could wear it. You’d think they were special jewel encrusted nappies. However I think it’s more a power game if you ask me…
　
M- playing dominoes with his brother and me.
‘I have to think good’ (not ‘hard’ then?)

Me ‘Which country did Gladiators come from?’
M ‘Russia?’
Me 'No, Italy’
M ‘Oh let’s not go there!’

Summer hols

2009-06-23T01:07:00.000-07:00

It's the 2nd week of the holidays, and there is plenty to do around our area. They give out a brochure of activities, many of them free or not to expensive. The suggestions of sailing, wrestling, doing a spot of archeology and making a time capsule were not met with enthusiasm. They really want to just met their friends and chill out! So I think there is a time to just be, especially when you've been at the desks of schools for a great part of the year.
However the 2 younger ones have been to an indoor ball games camp, and have actually enjoyed this, and they are booked for more swimming lessons, as M especially needs practice. But only 1 and a half weeks in, S actually admitted he's had enough of the hols, and is looking forward to learning about more Swedish kings! (he's already read one book this holiday about 1)

Other things going on: strawberries are being consumed.... (One of the few types of fruit and veg Biryani will eat. At the moment it stands at: Carrot (raw), granny smith apples (skin off), broccoli (v occasionally), avocado, and of course bananas). Actually now I write it down it's not too bad for a 3 year old.

'Someone's eaten them all' - these delicious fruits disappear as quick as sweets, mashaAllah..

and the marbles are out, it must be Hz's nap time

and it naptime must be over as they've headed outside...

A few pics..

2009-06-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

The bush outside our building's front door, where bees have been gathering. if you stop and watch and listen you see so many bees and hear so much buzzing!

Dandelions and ladybirds, or as Biryani would correct me 'ladyBUGS'.

Elderflowers with their distinctive scent behind the swings..

and a rearrangement of my kitchen shelves, revealing DH's love of pickled garlic, and olives that have given me matching storage jars.

It's not always the end product!

2009-06-23T00:50:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of enthusiam to build this caterpillar, but after the frantic painting of toilet rolls, the interest wained. I would like to encourage a 'starting what you finish' approach, but sometimes I just let them enjoy the process of it, sticky fingers, mixing colours, spilling water, it's all part of the fun!

The UK wants to be like Sweden, now Sweden wants to be like Germany!

2009-06-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit away from the politics of home ed and what's going on in the UK. My head was completely spinning after last years attempts to get permission here, and never quite recovered. I'm getting the idea that a Bad man is making lots of potential problems for families in the UK. So almost in the same few months the Swedish gov wants to make home ed virtually illegal here, here is a translated article about it.
It seems that other than having an infectious disease, or having extreme behavioural problems (which has happened with one boy in S's class, who now receives his education at home with their teacher visiting after school hours), they want to make it impossible to home educate on any philosophical or religious grounds. So if I think my children are not accessing their potential and could do this better at home it's tough luck!
I cringed to myself at S's development meeting the other day when his teacher was wearing a T-shirt saying along the lines of: 'Everyone has the right to education from a Qualified Teacher'.
So (un)educated are these Swedish bureaucrats that they will refuse to look at hard evidence that for most children, Home education either equals or surpasses that of schooling.
Please feel sorry for my keyboard it's bearing the brunt of my anger.

Some midsummer pictures..

2009-06-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take the kids to pick some wild flowers reminiscent of two years ago. I also thought as the weather was so nice that a long walk would be some good exercise as well as much more inspiring than a car or even bike journey. You can notice so many things as you walk along, so many topics of discussion come up. Adventures also happen such as 10 tonne trucks having to swerve as they fail to slow down adequately as we cross a zebra crossing, phew, poor M had told me to wait but I thought I had judged the deceleration of the lorry well enough. For myself yes, but not for M pushing a buggy. I will inshaAllah listen to him in the future!BTW H only pushed a buggy now and again when I wanted to take photos and at one point when M was tired. M never complained, but H found it a bit much walking for nearly an hour (with a break) and then again home. S had stayed at home with his Dad. Anyhow, M was pleased with the flowers and especially liked the playground we found on our way where we had a break from walking. He wanted to go again today, on foot!

Things rarely turn out how you plan ...

2009-06-12T04:35:00.001-07:00

It may seem we are going completely against the grain with H's education. Once I had finally realised what home education really was, I was more than enthusiastic to get going with it. But oops, you find you're in the wrong part of the world to let this be possible without a European court battle in Brussels. Secondary level, don't even go there!

H has always been interested in maths and has recently got going with reading. DH and myself have thought for a while he might find the work, especially maths, in the pre school class not enough to stretch him, and he could get bored.

His day care teacher was quite in favour of just letting him be in the preschool class, where it is mainly play. Islam says 7 years is the time to start more formal stuff, and H is just 6.

So he was tested by the special needs teacher and she agreed he was ready, only he needed to practise writing a little. (he has always been averse to drawing anything that resembled anything other than scribbles until fairly recently, and he's left handed)

But in the end, it was H himself who really seemed keen to get going with 'proper' work. He says he likes homework and wants to go straight into class 1. So I think I am being consistent in that I am thinking of what he wants first and foremost. It's funny that in the UK he would be considered a late starter (I started myself age 4!)

Anyhow I hope and pray he will maintain his enthusiasm for learning

Sanity is barely being preserved..

2009-06-07T03:49:00.000-07:00

Hz is coming on in leaps and bounds, and my heart is often getting to miss a beat aswell. He is taking more and more steps, and can deliberately throw a ball (and anything else in his hand)
Here was a typical sequence of events:
Grabs kitchen roll (mother tries to find somewhere, with great difficulty ,to put it out of reach)
Plays with toaster (mother unplugs said electrical device)
Plays with plughole where electrical device was formerly plugged in (mother watches out for forks or other metallic objects that could produce fatal results)
Watches sister play with a ball (mother has a 30 second breather)
Tries, in vain, to reach the magnetic letters on the fridge (ha ha, mother had already realised you’d try that one)
Watches mother carefully put hot milk and muffins in the restricted area of the kitchen table, which for this point in time, is out of his reach.
Knowing there is no point going for the snack, turns attention to the Swivel sweeper (hoover thingy), to carry on with mission: its destruction.