Sorry, no pics..

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.

Asalamoaleykum, Peace be on you, Hej!

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!

Out of the habit..

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.

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.

A quick, but warm 'Eid Mubarak!'

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..

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..

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..

I am still here

Just a quick post, as I haven't had much energy nor opportunity to post recently. MIL went back to Pakistan about 3 weeks ago (so back to reality again with housework/ entertaining Hz) and I've been ill with flu/ colds/ sore throats/ headaches/ eyelid eczema/ backache, Alhamdulillah not everything simultaneously. Hz has also gone from being the best sleeper to the worst, requiring me to lie with him in my bed to fall asleep. This then requires me to wait until he is asleep enough for me to transfer him to the cot, as he's had 2 escapades finding out about falling off beds after waking up, crawling about, and me not being there to realise this. The first time ended with him laughing, I don't know what happened there, but the last (and I hope the very last) ended in tears. So if , no I mean, when he wakes up in the night, he will not sleep if left in his cot. He has an extremely loud and sometimes angry cry and inevitably he ends up in with me. During the day he's Mr Mobile, coasting along the sofa and coffee table. He's now also developed his commando crawl into somthing more conventional (and a lot easier on the elbows I'd think).
So amongst this heavy, cloudy head of mine, I've been mostly preoccupied with trying to find somewhere bigger to live (at least 150 people after every flat I apply for:( ), and trying to get on top of the mess in the house. This feels like I'm going backwards on a treadmill.
H had another trip to A and E on Wednesday. He was a bit too enthusiastic to help me cook some sausages, and threw one into the hot oil, and it splattered out of course . So he has a few burns on his face. It was v painful for him, poor boy. He has to stay out of the sun for a year to avoid scarring getting discoloured, so now I'm hoping for a rainy summer. That made the decision for us that if we go anywhere this summer it'll probably be the UK!
Just finished my bowl of pear and vanilla yoghurt with oats, my treat at the end of the day when all the kids have finally gone to bed (sometime after 11pm). Oh dear what has life come to eh? Tommorrow is another day..

I am still here, just..

I have been feeling a bit rough the last few weeks, but during the night after Eid as I woke feeling quite awful and I knew it was time to visit the doc's. So I have been on some antibiotics and now I am managing to feel a bit better alhamdulillah. When any type of negative feelings come in my head I remember how blessed I am to be have been to have been born in an era with pretty good medical treatment., and live in a place where it is actually available along with more than the basic necessuties for life.
Shukr and Alhamdulillah

Ups and downs

I often wonder why it feels like there are not enough hours in the day. Even the smallest of plans seem hard to fit in to the everyday drudgery which necessarily repeats itself. Washing clothes, preparing food, it just has to be done. Only by doing these tasks more efficiently can there be a bit more time spare. I laugh to myself as I read advice for parents of young children to do only the bare basics so you have time to rest. What less can I do?, the house looks like burglars came and turned the place over. I can just ignore it and I am doing so as I write and otherwise not much would be written. But cluttered house= cluttered mind and I need to have some clarity in thinking to progress right now. I was discussing with S about how others in the neighbourhood have new cars etc, and this led to discussing double incomes. He perked up when I said if I worked we could have a lot more money. I even looked up mother-tongue teacher job posts. I thought this is me being pro-active in trying to get us out of this stress-inducing situation, that being the flat bursting at the seams with people, their stuff, need for personal space..

This is me writing after a weekend indoors, with poor little Hz with a sore throat and me fighting every type of microorganism. This is Winter in Sweden (again),

Alhamdulillah,

and I am waiting for the broadcast from Makkah to lift my spirits.

On a lighter note, my prayers were answered as yesterday the 'no satellite signal received' came up on the TV. You'd think I could just say 'No' to the TV, but with a concrete reason behind me, it's much easier as there's no point in debates. We even played Top Trumps with each other, and today I thought I should spend some more time with Biryani as I feel I'm expecting her to occupy herself too much. So we made Top trumps cards out of a toy catalogue. She was quite good with the sticking, and I wrote the headings: Price, Batteries, and Fun. I'd actually suggested to S he make some, but got no response. But as often is the case in order to get kids interested in something, I have to start doing it first. Once I'd done the cards myself, and they'd enjoyed playing them, they ( M& S) went on to make some more themselves, adding the category 'strength' (i.e. ability to stay intact at hands of siblings). A stretchy Scooby Doo was top at that.

Other things I've noticed to get reluctant participants to participate

• Make quizzes to test parents on knowledge (e.g. on Arabic word meanings!)
  
• Posh pens (calligraphy) to encourage writing.
  
• Use of percentage or number goals
  

  e.g Rosetta Stone gives you the percentage correct of each section, M goes back and does it again until he gets 100%,
  

  Arabic reading practice, at the end of each page a word total is given and it accumulates so that after a few pages it shows a high number of read.
  

• Use of a timer, good for getting tasks done (e.g. ready for bed)
  

  Hz is rolling front to back and back to front now, likes to stand being held and even stood a few seconds balanced against the coffee table the other day. Solids are going down well and sleep is generally OK, just last night he woke a lot due to his illness.
  

  Now I should sleep, tomorrow I have to rethink the monthly task sheet, redo the menu plan, and I want to finish an information sheet about Eid for nursery so they can talk about something other than Christmas (yes advent started today I think, well there were some very loud fireworks and the tree lights are on).

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).

If they can put a man on the moon..

Surely we can find a way to combat the smallest organisms on earth?
I haven’t been up to posting recently due to cough/cold, and on my last few decongestant tablets read the ingredients (as I had carelessly left them out and Biryani had decided to try and eat one- they are so bitter she hadn’t got v far with it alhamdulillah) and the last one was – ethanol, just when I was going to reorder some from the midwife. Medicine seems to so often need to contain the above, or gelatine.
I was wanting to post earlier as I’ve had a conversation with the ‘Education Boss’ of this area re home education. I’d been spurred on by a phone call with a sister, plus M’s continued reluctance to attend school/ decline in good behaviour and increase in bad (Swedish) language being used. Then the final straw came as on the first 2 days back at school they are going again to the a ‘culture’ house i.e. music activities. It’s quite demoralising having to what seems like every other week, have to re-explain to the teacher why our children can’t participate in x, y, z .
Anyhow firstly the Boss asked if there wasn’t a local state school nearby they could attend. (I’d mentioned my dissatisfaction with their independent school) I said yes but explained a main reason being I feel we don’t have enough time to keep up with their Education in English, should we need to return to the UK at any point. He then asked if they attended the mother tongue classes, which they do, but it is only 40 minutes a week, which we have been doubting is of any value recently. They do nothing linked to any particular curriculum and most of the other kids come out the lessons chatting in Swedish. He didn’t seem to have any other excuses to dismiss my enquiry, except that he didn’t know if there was a specific application form (I’d started the conversation on the grounds of just getting a form, not if they’d actually consider letting us do it), and the lady who would know is ill. So left the conversation which I had managed to stumble through in Swedish, half satisfied that he hadn’t point blank refused, but felt fobbed off as couldn’t even get hold of the necessary paperwork, which I think is supposed to be in by the end of the month! Now it’s a bank holiday so will have to ring and pester on Tuesday inshaAllah.
I talked to another sister who’s been having problems with the school too, and she’s arranged a brother who’s teacher trained to do extra classes. So I was feeling quite positive. However when I talked to S about it, he now says he wants to stay at school, he’s concerned a they have an important national test next year, and what the other kids would think if he doesn’t go to school and maybe comes back for that (and I thought he hasn’t been so influenced by peer pressure) . I was kind of thinking it is more M I am concerned with, as S’s teachers are relatively helpful, but thought S would be annoyed if he had to go to school while M stayed at home. However it also makes a problem with my justifications of home education, so shall probably just apply for both of them and see what happens inshaAllah (if I ever get the forms!).

Three of us not at our best..

Alhamdulilllah.
I have finally got round to posting about the egg and chips game with H (and M). I did take some photos but the camera has disappeared in the mess somewhere. Anyhow they were much the same as on UmmRashid’s blog. At first H carefully arranged the eggs and chips, as if he was giving them out for supper (i.e. more chips than eggs), although each with 6 items. Then I reminded him of them each having to be different. For a minute or so he seemed baffled, but then it was just like seeing the light bulb above the head in cartoons, he realised what to do. He did just copy out the plates for his recording and thought just lines were a good way of showing chips (which certainly was).
Apart from that I have been mostly ferrying kids hither and thither and sleeping in between. I’m feeling like baby is having a growth spurt. I feel full v quickly when eating my meals, I suppose the room inside is reducing.
Spent most of Tuesday trying to find out why M’s leg had suddenly seized up and he couldn’t straighten it and thus could not walk. Poor boy, he was hopping everywhere. 3 departments later and no conclusion. Now he’s almost better, alhamdulillah so I guess it was just some sort of muscle spasm.
S’s been off 2 days with a stomach ache which seems to exist during school hours.
As well as the baby growing I think my exhaustion now is due to the early starts every morning for the school run. I’ve managed not to moan about it so far, but here it is. Yesterday I was looking in the bathroom mirror at my tired face and thinking if anything this is one reason to home educate. Even if we got up around the same time, the lack of pressure to be somewhere at a certain time and drive the car through the traffic (admittedly v calm compared to the UK) would not tire me out so much I think. People might say, 'But you have to learn to get somewhere on time, early in the morning when you get a job'. Well I did that for quite a while when I was working as well as in my school years and it’s still hard. When you have to do it , you do it, If your plane leaves at 6 am invariably you’ll make it. But until the sun gets up before 7 am I’m going to feel crud getting up in the dark.
And for what? The amount of work I’ve been given for them to complete when they've been off sick has only taken them about 15 minutes to complete. What do they do the rest of the time? Learn how to queue in an orderly line and how to put other people down maybe. S was called ‘Harry Potter’ on the bus last week. Not a particularly insulting comment, but S didn’t like it. It was apparently because he has dark hair and pale skin?? (he doesn’t wear glasses). Anyhow, I’ve been given official permission to keep M at home one morning next month when the class is going on a trip to the dance theatre which I thought was inappropriate.