The harvest still trickling in...

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

It's harvest time!

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....

Ramadhan mubarak!

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

It's still the Summer holidays..

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...

Forced to take a break

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.

There's no doubt it's summer!

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

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

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.

With great difficulty..

I have chucked kids off the computer in coordination with Hz's naptime, so I can actually publish a post. I thought that with no TV and DH at home I would have more time for things I choose to do, but this, on the contrary, seems to get less by the day. Maybe it's because Hz's increasing daytime activity and just having more bodies around just takes up more time. We are doing 4 loads of washing about 3 times a week, the dishwasher twice a day (admittedly it's a little one). Alhamdulillah I have all these modern day appliances. I was talking to DH last night about how families managed 100 years ago, without all this technology and probably more kids, and probably all the work at home was the mother's. I came to the conclusion it was expectations that change, leisure time, would that have any meaning for a working class Victorian family?
Ooh and Hz started walking a few days ago. I keep catching him practising when he thinks I'm not looking.

Anyhow some pictures of a few things that have gone on around here apart from housework...


M reading the speech bubble content of a 'Magic School bus' book to his younger siblings
H has been writing some notes, the first was an invitation to M. They were going to have a party together.
The second says 'hot chocolate powder' which was to remind me to buy it. Funnily, in the end DH bought (mistakenly) 2 packets.
I finally got round to making some scones withe the cream of tartar that DH brought back from the UK last year (for play dough making). I don't know how it differs to baking powder but that's what my Mum's recipe calls for. I did enjoy this Swedish cream tea..It's the hörngädda season again and DH and occasionally the boys have been popping out fishing. This one M and DH caught. The next day S went with him and caught an even bigger one, S willingly broke its neck and then cut off its head as it was still wriggling, uuuurgh. It's in the freezer now waiting to be cooked..Sorry any vegetarians...

The last 2 photos truly show men and women are so different subhanAllah...

Please go to bed!!

It's almost ten to eleven and Hz managed to sleep relatively early alhamdulillah, but the others have started some complicated lego game, Biryani is on I don't know what but has her 2nd wind despite having had no nap and less than 9 hours sleep yesterday. DH is in Germany doing some pilot training, so it's often down to him to get them in the bed direction. I really have no energy for conflict right now, so am hoping they'll flake out and put themselves to bed.
Yesterday we visited friends and today some others came to ours so it was nice to see them, it seems a while since I've met any sisters and the kids miss their friends although it's really not been so long apart. M is always very keen to sleep over but this hasn't materialised.
I was actually able to send S off to read some (basic) Arabic by himself today, and he actually said it was too easy. I am looking forward to when they can study their Arabic reading and memorisation of Quran independently of me. At the moment it still requires me to break things down and give a lot of individual attention which is often hard with Hz also requiring it!
Right I've announced they must go to bed 'Wait' is M's reply.

Also today I've been in thrifty mood, and made another fruit cake based on my mother's all bran cake recipe. It's good for using up the bits of cereal that really aren't appetising, and requires no eggs nor margarine.
mix together in a big bowl:
1 cup cereal (bran flakes etc)
1 cup dried fruit
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

and leave for one hour. Then add 1 cup self-raising flour and mix and then put in a lined baking tin for about 1 and a half hours at 180 C.
It tastes best sliced and spread with butter.
Also made some buckwheat pancakes although this required a bit of improvisation, and there really isn't a proper recipe to give out!
I still have plans for a cheesecake as for some reason DH bought a tin of apricots and I looove cheesecake, just never have enough cream cheese in the house for this!
Can you tell I've been browsing cookbooks? I thought this is a good idea to get my appetite back inshaAllah.
I can still hear the game going on, they rarely think of these during the day, and feel bored/ 'request' computer time etc.

Photos of everyday life..

This is the sort of thing H takes pictures of when he manages to get hold of my camera without my knowledge. Sometimes they're quite telling, other times they show pictures of people in their 'natural' poses (me frowning at some misdeed or squinting at the computer screen). Don't worry I won't upload the latter, they'll have been deleted from the memory!. This is one of a my IKEA chest of drawers that matches the bunk beds but ended up in my room, and the green box contains the paperwork for my Swedish tax return, which this year I have to do myself, and basically is a weight on my shoulders I could do without. The yellow spray is for Biryani' s hair which becomes bush-like, and tangled very easily.


S blew up all these balloons for Biryani while I was out dropping M at school.
He was home as he was ill (the type of affliction that is worst at 7.30 a.m. and it's time to get ready for school).
In fact mashAllah he was a v good babysitter. Nowadays I am trying to avoid picking Hafsah up which is necessary when going out in the car as I get some discomfort in the stomach muscles doing so. Also it means I can take the smaller car whch has a cd player and is less of a gas guzzler. Don't worry MIL was around in the house too, for emergencies.


and more interest as I managed to stick them to the ceiling. When I asked M why this happens, H chipped in 'ecrekticity'. He's been watching too much 'Timothy goes to school' his favourite programme. Still I don't understand why static electricity actually makes them stick, so shall have to look that up...

H playing with the balloons, a lot of fun for a 50p bag of balloons. Also here is the computer desk/ Lego protection unit from nearly 2 year old hands, and general dumping ground, oh and a basket of wet washing hoping someone will hang it up to dry, and a bit of floor, that's a novelty.
The other end of the 'living' room (a lot of living goes on in here as you can see) Washing on radiator needs to be folded and put away, window still needs replacement glass (alhamdulillah it has been a mild Winter) .

Biryani is trying to imitate me, rubbing the balloon on her hair!

and not so exciting a pic, but this is H's pomegranate seedlings popping up, I'd given them up for dead but he reminded me to water them (they were placed on top of the bookcase so prying fingers don't excavate them).

Other things going on, I'm trying out making 'surdeg' sour dough, and I'm on Day 2, so we'll see how it gets on inshaAllah. Have managed to wean the two littlies onto wholemeal rye pancakes and last time sneaked in some sesame seeds, although these seemed to pass straight through. What can I add next to add more nutrients?seaweed?!

Biryani's progressing with the potty training in that I haven't had to change a no 2 nappy for nearly a week, she's very proud and says 'did it!'

It's v difficult to get her to wear a nappy once it's off, which causes difficulties as if I need to lie down I need her to wear one as I can't expect the others to sort her out, so I'm reluctant to leave it off so often. Maybe inshaAllah once DH is back.

School, well M is reluctant to go nowadays, maybe made worse by S being off, but then also found out a boy on his table has been horrible to him. So have had words with the teacher. A sister I know who's son is in the same class phoned me last night. She's been v concerned at how her son's getting on at school / disagreements with the teacher (quite a long story) so nowadays she's coming into the class sometimes to observe. She said it was v noisy and hard for the others to concentrate. She was also concerned about the lack of supervision at break times, as there is a big open public park with woods at the back situated behind the schools. The children aren't supposed to wander off up there but some do, M does seem to listen to the school rules at least.

I don't like the idea of complete silence in classrooms and that discussion is v important but there have to be limits. Also I find it sad our kids can't feel safe playing in woods, but this is 2008. Anyhow, one of those 'doubts about my kids education' times, must trust in Allah to help me get a solution.

S had to write a reply to a 'pen-friend' arranged between another school in the city ('swedish' school) and I was pleased to see that the boys handwriting and spelling were, if not worse, but on a par with S's. I am unsure how the usual standards are here as 99% of kids in my kid's school have Swedish as a 2nd (3rd, 4th) language.

Now must do some housework, yawn...