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

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.......

Some random photos...

Just thought to post these before they are completely out of date.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

End of the Summer

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.

Allotments and AK47s?!

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!!

The leaves are almost gone..

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.

It's not always the end product!

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!

and some more photos...

Here are the children having a go at crafting with metal. DH made a whisk and a ring for me. S made some decorative hooks, Biryani and I made a bracelet, and M, some glasses frames!

It had been a busy Sunday as S and DH had been on their first excursion with the Friluft club (outdoor activity(Scouts/ Duke of Edinburgh type thing). S especially likes it because he gets to use his knife to shape bits of wood along with other fellow 10/ 11 year olds.

A post that got stuck in my drafts, from end of October

I have found out what the needle was for in M's craft set he received ages ago, it's for this:
and if I had bothered to read the instructions I would probably have realised anyway.






We have been here and they do these sort of crafts plus the added bonus of cakes and farm animals to stroke/ look at/ be terrified of.

We have been up to something..

I take pictures as to remind me easily of things we have actually done, and it has actually been of help the last couple of weeks in terms of reminding me that we have actually done more than eat and sleep. H wanted to make paper helicopters like we did last year some time. Of course with my memory I couldn't remember how to make them. But alhamdulillah I had taken a photo of how we did it and had posted it on the blog, so quickly found out how to do it.
So here they are...



As I was making something for supper I was umming and erring whether to suggest we get the paints out to make use of the cut off ends of aubergines, onions etc. I remember S did some lovely prints using onions at his nursery in the UK, and so thought Biryani would like a try. In the end she used them as a form of large paint brush, but that was fine. Colours are still a popular theme with her now anyway, and we had colour everywhere by the end of it..

Post-operative rabbit (courtesy of S), being measured up for a shirt (by M).

Patterns and pins...

and the end result.



Poster paints out twice in one month, am I insane? Biryani has a thing about clowns. She thinks Hz is one (he was wearing a red sleepsuit, or maybe its his nose) ,
and any red clothes mean you are a circus performer extrordinaire.

So here is a red nose being made from an eggbox (don't ring Blue Peter recruitment up yet..)

Which was attached to young'uns noses with some elastic round the head. Needless to say it only lasted a day or so. But getting red paint everywhere, that's the best bit isn't it Mum?

Besides the kitchen becoming an art room, S has started javelin lessons and did a bit of shot putting too.

Summer's come to an end and we welcome Ramadhan

May you all have a beneficial month of Ramadhan amin.

I've been having cold type symptoms on and off these past couple of weeks, along with some bureacratic pillar to post dealings, means blogging has been left and left.

I found some photos to post anyway, here's the one DH took of the shrimps they caught in the sea back in July.. (you mayhave to click on the pics to enlarge to see properly)The discovery of an old golf ball in the bushes led to S constructing a course for it to roll down. MashaAllah he is certainly a tactile learner.

and here are some worms (I'm not sure about the state of their health) found whilst digging for lego men that have 'fallen' from the balcony to the park below.

and our little crafting start to Ramadhan, although S was not inspired to make one, the younger ones were v pleased to have shields to fight with and we made small swords to represent the bad deeds fasting can shield us from doing (and hence may lead to Jahannum).