Cute phrases 2011

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.”

Hz

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.

quick one before I pick up the little ones

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

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.

Daffodils and new shoots

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.

Some more notes from the trenches..

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!’

Mostly Biryani

Biryani has a pink spoon she calls her own. She’d retrieves it off the floor, takes it to the bathroom and washes it herself (v. impressive mashAllah). It drops on the floor again. I pick it up and wash it. Tantrum – she wipes it on the floor so it’s dirty and she can wash it HERSELF again.
She’s been annoying brothers by remembering a sentence in a Ladybird storybook before he could read it. M has been reading her some bedtime stories (piles of them) a few nights a go. He looked up from the penultimate one and saw she was asleep as was everyone in the house except me and him.
She also likes the Ladybirds ‘Knights’ book. She insists the first page says ‘fight for their country’ another memorised bit of text! I wonder if it’s not too confusing, considering the books mostly about Knights (not nights) and pages (not the ones we’re reading).
She’s also being playing far too much computer. Admittedly most of the games are pretty educational. She pointed out an octagon the other day (a stop sign)I can’t think where else she learnt it from but the internet games.
And today I finally got around to recording myself reading ‘The Billy goats gruff’ All my children and now especially Biryani, love this story. I have read this story so many times, and hence tend to read it ever so fast. I had heard ages ago about Dads who’d be sent to jail being advised to record themselves reading bedtime stories. Then they could contribute something positive to their children‘s lives even while inside. So I borrowed S’s phone and made a recording, only making one error I think ‘Billy boat gruff’. I was still reading too fast even though tried my best to slow down. Since I recorded it (around 7.30 pm) its been listened to 2 times, Biryani turning the pages at(mostly) the right spot herself, and then I was able to get on and pray maghrib. It felt like I had a babysitter in the house for 5 minutes, something better than a TV or computer! Of course it’s not as good as the real thing having a story read to you, you can’t pause and answer queries or discuss points in the story. But as most have already been discussed (the troll needs to cut his long nails Biryani thinks) on the previous numerous readings I don’t think it mattered. I’m thinking of recording some more and wondering if it’s possible to make an MP3 for the car?

Some recent quotes

H kicks Biryani's dolly and I say we’ll have to take it to hospital.
Biryani ‘We have no choice’ (I think copied froma Sonic game dialogue)

Alhamdulillah Biryani is for the most part, toilet-trained (she is doing everything herself as I speak, including jug).
Bladder has been successfully emptied and I hand her a piece of toilet roll.
Biryani ‘It’s too little’ I give another
‘It’s too big’
I’ve got to take that Goldilocks book back to the library methinks.

We were talking about the NobelPrize (it’s quite a big deal here)
M said ‘Too bad you or Abu Jaan can’t do it’ !! You never know....

Notes from the trenches..

A few things the kids have said/ done recently that made me smile:

H - 'Why is it a rock, can't it just be called a big stone?'

M - 'How many more blessings do you get if you say prayers with 3 people. (Thinking if the 'jammah' (gathering) of 2 gives 27 times blessings then it will go up proportionally, rather than just being for any size jammah)

Biryani to me ' Be quiet!'
Me - 'Sorry, are you concentrating?'
B - 'No I'm not, I'm painting'

Biryani - ' C J G T (or some other random letters)
I look bemused, and then spot the non-slip 'TOTES' socks she's examining.

I am praying and trying not to be distracted- Biryani picks up a lego scuba mask and tries to put it on herself, so cute..
I am praying - Biryani lies in front of me and with her recent quirk of using the opposite preposition, announces 'I'm behind you!'

Managed to sleep through this..

There was an earthquake nearly 5 on the Richter scale in the South of Sweden early this morning. I was actually awake around 4.30 a.m. (to feed Hz) and then again around 5 my neighbours start making a bit of noise when they get up for the day. I must have gone back to a deep sleep by the time it happened (6.20 a.m.). Or maybe it wasn't so strong where we are, S noted none of his lego had toppled off his shelves and it's quite delicately stored there. He was quite annoyed we'd missed it as all his classfellows and our friends in the other town were woken by it.
'Nothing interesting ever happens here', he said.
Well, true, if having earthquakes, people jumping off balconies to their death, mosques being raided and cars set on fire, is interesting.
I suppose it would have been something to witness the biggest earthquake Sweden's had in a long time

Kid’s quotes

I've been trying to 'ignore the bad and praise the good' behaviour: I try to give choices rather than dictate things Let's see how that went

Me: You're welcome

Biryani: I'm not welcome

Me: Thankyou, good girl

B: No

Me: Do you want orange or red (plate)?

B: Purple

S Do we see in pixels?

H How do you know it's (the flight) been delighted (delayed)

B I'm too busy (if I ask her to do something not totally interesting)

B You're too busy (to say prayers, sleep etc)

B I'm not a brat, I'm (Biryani) (response to brother)

M If you think about it almost anything can happen, flower toothpaste for example.

H Is Postman Pat a Christiain? (after I'd explained what Rev Timms church was)

Dealing with a 2 year old’s mentality (I am not referring to husbands’..)

'Do you want juice?'

'NO'

Do you want some toast?'

'NO'

'Do you want some chocolate?'

Pause

'NO' - I will NOT comply

I finish feeding Hz and Biryani approaches me, wanting to have some lap time and sing humpty dumpty.

'Put him away' , pointing to car seat

Biryani wields my biro left unattended for a couple of minutes. I rush to the kitchen to fetch some paper from the drawer, followed in hot pusuit by daughter.

Daughter -*Cries*, 'NO, NO', 'push, push'

Me- '??'

Oh, you want me to shut the drawer so you can fetch the paper yourself.

I close the drawer. Peace is resumed ..

We love whiteboards

I felt really demotivated to do anything today, but just lying in bed seemed to make me feel mentally worse, just thinking about negative stuff (appeal etc), feeling so big. Yesterday’s midwife check did in fact show that my size has suddenly zipped up on the graph, but like everything else is ‘normal’, which I should be grateful for. So my hunger and generally feeling like a whale out of water is not unfounded.
So anyway with Allah’s help I got up to have a cup of Roobibos and just got on with the ‘work’ I’ve started up with S and M this holiday. I’ve been procrastinating stuff like this, excuses such as waiting for permission to home ed, waiting to feel physically 100% etc have been whispered in my ear. So we’ve started going through Al Fatihah, making a mini book, which I hope we can incorporate later with something about Salat later on. I know the boys do see the prayer often as a chore, and not knowing what they are saying must contribute to this. So I’m hoping that this activity is including work on: Arabic reading, writing, tajweed, Arabic vocab, English vocab, English spelling/writing, and a bit of art/ craft. It’s certainly making me learn stuff..

H had his 6 year old friend over from daycare the other day, some socialisation (!). Well the boys learnt a new social skill from said friend, how to make a fart sound with your armpit!? The fact that it has to be slightly wet under the arm to work actually meant they were more than willing to take a shower. This is quite unusual as usually it takes a lot of persuasion to get them in, esp the hair washing bit. If I didn’t force them to take a bath I expect it wouldn’t happen until their mates started commenting on the smell.
In fact I worked out a simple way to reduce water in eyes during hair washing. Basically gravity is used by getting child to look up to the ceiling. You have to be quite quick though I think to avoid a stiff neck!

And Biryani was so pleased with herself mashaAllah at having completed all these puzzles herself

'I did it mama I did it!'

Now must go and make something to eat, just a small portion for me (I'll try)...

Sponges..

'Chill out Mum, I'm only just 2 (who'd have a speech therapist for a mother?!)'

These spongy shapes kept Biryani amused for a while. She knows that shapes are called 'circle, square,' etc ,numbers are 'four, five', letters' a,b, z' etc and colours 'yellow, pink'etc. Now whether she picks precisiely the right label for the concept is another matter. She usually plays it safe and calls any shape 'circle-square'.

So as I type a quasi-fight is going on between 2 younger boys, but is more disturbing as the sponges are being squeezed out and all manner of rude words are coming out in English (mainly with a Swedish accent), Swedish and Arabic. Meanwhile Biryani is happily repeating surah al-fatihah and counting up to 15 as she colours M's Bamse (a swedish cartoon bear) colouring book. A sponge will absorb whatever it's placed upon, not only pure water..

I have been doing final preparations for baby, Biryani has been transferred to the boy's room, and she actually slept in there without a fuss, and I think I slept better for it too. I've been having difficulty sleeping so well recently, particularly after praying Fajr, what with baby wriggling, ongoing stress, and hunger (I had a first breakfast at 4.30 am the other day, sun well up by then, so didn't feel so strange)

Bureacracy Update

Well I rang the Education boss again as unsurprisingly he hadn’t got back to me. He told me he would be ringing his boss to find out the procedure re applying to home educate and would get back to me. He used the word ‘strax’ which I thought meant ‘next, presently’ but did double check in the dictionary. I was indeed right, but haven’t heard anything as yet.. Half of me thinks even if I don’t succeed at least it’s got them thinking about the concept that Home Education is an option here in Sweden, even if you have to jump hoops to do it.
DH back to Africa today and MIL went back to Pakistan yesterday, so back to reality of 4 kids and me.
The last 2 days M was off school (due to previously mentioned school trips), which did give a taste of home ed. DH even commented something like ‘It’s not so hard to home educate when you’ve got just one at home with you.’ Well I don’t know if it makes it so much easier, depends what you’re working on I suppose. But it was hard to keep him away from the computer. They are currently into Penguin club, which at least does involve a bit of reading, and not solely mindless shoot ‘em up type games. S actually plays with his friend in the other town sometimes, as penguins, I’m not sure if it’s real ‘social interaction’ but is cheaper than him using my mobile to talk to him all the time. It seems to have been hard to meet up with him recently (in the real world!) due to people’s other commitments.
Anyhow M did some Quran, more on spelling the trickier vowels (‘oo’, ‘oa’) He initiated his own game on the white board influenced by countdown, so he learnt the difference between vowels and consonants as well. Then while I had to have a nap, he did some of his maths workbooks from school. I woke up to hearing a little voice saying something a long the lines of ‘8, 12, no start again , 8, 10’ There was one number logic sequence he was supposed to fathom out, and I just couldn’t either. Maybe I was thinking too hard, but you get worried when 7 year old maths stumps you?! There must be an answer book teachers get their hands on? Maybe I’ll type it out when he brings his book home later and see who’s a clever clogs out there!
Biryani is watching Madeline on the TV , she says a v cute ‘ooh la la’ and actually there’s more French in it than I realised before. She also counts to 5 in Spanish (Dora). It’s a shame Arabic/ English cartoons are not so readily available. There is now a Jazeera kids channel on Sky, but it’s all Arabic at a relatively high level and also seemed to be some dubbed western cartoons which did look strange. Also more music on than the English cartoons.
The Dhuhr Adhan has gone off on the clock DH brought back from Singapore. She almost always likes to say the Muhammad RasoolAllah’ part but 'AllahhuAkbar' is pronounced in a v funny way something like ‘cluckley’
As for potty training, it feels like we are beyond the point of no return, she is v good with it as long as not wearing anything on the bottom half. Attempts to get her to wear pants/ trousers resulted in many accidents, which she must be thinking are going to do the same job as nappies. It has also been a nightmare getting her to put a nappy on for naps/ bed which I ended up having to do when she’s dropped off to sleep. So it’s tempting to leave the nappies on but seems like she is almost there so maybe a shame to stop?

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...

One of me waffles...

Which reminds me I have been having a thing about pancakes with honey and flaked almonds recently. Delicious, until your son asks you to clip his toenails mid-scoff..
Something happening a lot recently, that if I’m walking about in my local area, a person waves to me, and I have to hope it was me they were waving to and not make a complete fool of myself when I wave back. You see, I am the token Muslim woman in the area, so am not hard to spot, but to me all the Swedish parents/ kids look pretty similar, especially at this time of year when covered in winter overalls and woolly hats.
Half-term is upon us and I was putting my feet up for a moment. I gladly realised I had found the perfect position to alleviate my dizzy head (feet elevated on sofa arms and head below body level as our sofa is getting a tad saggy). But how can I maintain this position when I have 4 kids to attend to and DH has jetted of to Africa?
You see my blood pressure is so low that I was seeing black spots when I was lying down. In contrast my MIL’s blood pressure is too high at the moment which is of course more serious, and not just annoying. Any tips for raising blood pressure (apart from reading upsetting e-mails), and lowering it please forward!
S had been home 2 days as he was unwell, and then he himself clicked that it could be a side effect of his vaccination he had on Wednesday (which I believe was for tetanus). Today I tried calmly to protest about not having been informed in writing that my child was going to be jabbed, but was reminded I had signed a consent form, last year!
Educational topics, er, S wondered how whirlpools were made but was unimpressed by the pictures of some in Norway that we found online. I think he’s thinking Bermuda triangle type thing.
Weather is very crisp and blue at the moment and it is so much better to get up for breakfast and the sun is peeping it’s beautiful head above horizon.
Anyhow tomorrow I have the prospect of the supermarket shop where I can also get some cash out as pocket money is owed. Last time H was with me and he thought it very strange that the lady was giving me cashback.
He asked me if I’d said ‘Hands up, give me the money!’ After that we enjoyed imagining other things I could have demanded.
‘Hands up give me my card back!' was one of them. It made packing bags of shopping a little less painful.
I received a pleasing mail from the library the other day, that my suggestion for them stocking 'From my sister's lips' by Nai'ma B Robert had been taken up, and it was ready for me to collect!!
I have actually read it already but thought it could be a good thing for them to have for a wider audience. All I can say is it is worth trying to suggest titles to your library, they can only say 'No'.
Maybe this was a good time to ask as they must have some of their budget still left as it's early on in the year. I shall pay my tax bill this year with slightly less of a sneer inshaAllah.
On a final note for today, I was flicking through the weekly property paper (I have to find something bigger pretty quick as time is ticking past). There was an article about what your bookshelf says about you. Unsurprisingly it said women thought that bookshelves were for books whereas the male species thinks they are suitable for displaying trophies and other such things besides books. We have one proper bookshelf (plus kids own in bedroom) so DH and I share. My half has all my Islam related books, dictionaries, DH’s travel guides, baby/Childcare books and the odd novel. I also have left the bottom shelf for kids books so they don’t have to only go to their room to read. However the shelves are quite deep and so other people’s stuff gets left there (out of reach of Biryani) such as CD’s, remote controls. DH’s half consists of computer CD’s and more CD’s and flying magazines. What have you got on yours??!

OK, I’ve just taken: paracetemol, iron tabs, folic acid tabs, and my nasal spray and hoping it clears the fog that is my brain right now. I don’t understand while I feel this way as I managed to grab over an hour’s nap this afternoon (maybe it was not the soundest of sleep as had recurring dream of trying to find a clean toilet, but all I could find were ones reminding me of school bogs).
M and H are happily occupying themselves with the alphabet biscuits I ummed and erred over buying yesterday. Alhamdulillah it wasn’t a waste of money as they are actually trying to make word with them rather than just scoffing them. M is teaching H and I find that the most satisfying thing as both are learning a lot without me doing anything (i.e. they want to learn)
H was actually able to sound out and spell a few simple words this morning as we were on google talk with his Dad. He (H) was finding the last letters a bit tricky, which I recall rightly from my training are often slightly unvoiced, so I assume have potential to be confusion, .e.g. dog, the 'g' is more like a 'k'.
Biryani is now fiddling with the phone as opposed to the monitor, and is dancing to the engaged type tone she’s getting for dialling an unknown number. Reminds me of M, who used to ‘sing’ the microwave signal (the beeps it makes when it’s finished).
Biryani’s vocab ever expanding. Star wars, being the main subject in the house, means she says words like ‘Dee two’ (R2D2)
‘Bacca’ Chewbacca
and ‘ky-walker’ Luke Skywalker.

She also calls her brothers: ‘Ayb’ (unfortunately means something not so good in Arabic), ‘Ahmond’ (like a northern ‘almond’)
and ‘naam’.
It sometimes feels like I have another little mum in the house as she calls out ‘Boys!’ often when I’m trying to beckon them to eat their supper.
M was v proud today as he was awarded ’veckans elev’ this week’s best student. And that was after this morning’s palaver over getting to school late as the week’s student wanted to take his time getting dressed. Well I assume the teacher blames the parents for latecomers, but however early I get up it doesn’t seem to make much difference when we arrive. Maybe making the clocks fast is necessary, it did help before, now the batteries in the clock are losing power we’re back to running a few minutes behind Swedish time.

Managed to write a fair bit, despite having done v little (apart from lying in bed)

Have been on and off the paracetemol for a semi permanent headache, but alhamdulillah it’s not been flu, it’s been v commonplace recently.
Biryanis chattering away and sometimes using 2 words together. She was lying in bed the other night, gone 11pm, saying Mummy, Daddy to herself for a good ten minutes or so. I was puzzled as she either refers to me as Mama or Mimi, and her Dad is called Ba or Baba. Her grandmother who is staying wit us is called Dadi, from the Punjabi. So I thought, now she thinks her parents are me and her grandmother, her Dads been away that long. But the next day I remembered, she was just regurgitating a phrase from a Dora DVD, huh, not thinking about me at sleep time, but the bane of my life, Dora the Explorer.
Biryani also tries to count but manages to remember up to two, so it goes, one, two, two, two, two, a bit like in the Little Wombat story. M used to count by pointing at things and saying 2 2 2. But their minds are so absorbent, mashaAllah, I just told her the name of a circle, and a few minutes later she found the shape again and told me its name.
I watched the Make your child brilliant programme on Channel 5. I was a bit disappointed, but made me think of trying the kinaesthetic stuff more with S. He hates, well let’s say has a touch of enthusiasm once in a while, spelling, writing etc I can tell he just wants to get it over with asap, and the spelling does come unstuck if you go too fast. Also getting them to think things through more when writing stories is something he needs. If he writes a sentence I’m pleased. Lately it’s been speech bubbles for his cartoons, but it’s kind of limited. Now Biryani is imitating me saying Stop it! As she turn ff the monitor repeatedly, gotta go.

Ice, and treasure..

Kids have been spending most of these chilly, grey days ’treasure hunting’ and re-constructing their Lego star wars mini figures. The parts have been hidden in various toy boxes and this morning there were oohs as I decided to check what was lurking under our sofa cushions. ‘Hold our breath, we’re going in…’
Missing arms and heads were quickly whisked away I was tempted to get the hoover out and remove all the remaining dust/ biscuit crumbs etc, but no, in my condition, the cushions were hastily replaced. None of my guests would ever check under there would they?! Last night I did start the mammoth task of trying to sort the ‘sets’ of toys back from the random combinations that occupy most of the plastic toy boxes we have. Yes, there is certain element of imagination and spontaneity in making up a game involving a plastic ring and a teddy bear. But being able to play the bingo game, for example, does require all the parts to avoid disappointment.
I had to go out today as had run out of milk. Nearly toppled over on the black ice. V surprised as normally Sweden v good at preparing for winter, In fact a homeowner is actually liable if someone falls over and breaks their neck on the pavement outside their house! The man with his mini tractor has just made an appearance and so should be a bit safer tomorrow. It was weird today in that it was minus something but raining, shouldn’t it be snow then?
On a different tack, it’s always been like this but have been particularly noticing it since Biryani has started saying small phrases, e.g. ‘Are you?’ for ‘Where are you?’
What I’m talking about is the inability to do anything without interruption if it takes more than a few minutes. So if I need the toilet, one of the two smaller ones will be pounding on the door, or saying the above phrase.
Trying to complete my daily aim of reading 3 pages of Quran went down to 3 verses yesterday. I know I should get up early and do such things (the latter) when I can concentrate but the hormones mean sleep is usually overwhelming.
But hey, this is life with children and these small irritations are easy to bear when you think of the joy they bring the majority of the time. Gosh that was a bit positive, alhamdulillah.

I’m sitting her in the murky twilight of what is about 10 am, typing this, trying to get some light from other sources and maybe reflect on positive things to bring this feeling of, well, ‘lowness’ is the only word of I can conjure up right now.
Watching the live coverage of Hajj perks me up when I get a chance. Those million supplicating on the plains of Arafat today, begging for forgiveness is what I’m regularly thinking about.
We’ve been bunking school for a few days (ssh!) but to be honest, I’m too wacked to take them so early in the morning, when all they’ll be doing is Christmas-linked activities. (I’ve grown tired with debating with the teachers about the legitimacy of my children participating in this stuff, and to be told that it’s just tradition, nothing religious.) But I’m not happy with it and it’s all around us so they know what’s going on without having to make a Christmas cracker. S’s teacher rang me yesterday to persuade me to bring him as they were going to meet some pen-pals they’d been writing to. (First I’d heard of this). S wasn’t keen and with my ailing voice, I said it wasn’t likely he could come. Biryani has a bad cold, S’s asthma is back (mildly)H had false croup again, and M has a mouth ulcer, alhamdulillah.
So where was I, oh things that have happened in the relatively recent post, DH is in Singapore but alhamdulillah MIL should be arriving this weekend, some welcome adult company., and support. We had visitors yesterday, which gave a slight morale boost, although I felt inadequate as a host. Hang on didn’t I say something about positivity.

Kids quotes:
S ‘what’s’ impat-eee-ent’ (reads from book, impatient). You tell me!

‘How did they choose the first king?’

H ‘Why do you say everything is beautiful?’ Do I really, well it’s a better word than ‘good’ or ‘nice’. Must think of more adjectives to describe your artwork.

He has also worked out that if you have a ‘forehead’ then also one must have a ‘backhead’

H was trying to do some ‘homework’ the other day. I wrote out some sums which he did with some help. Then he did the alphabet stencil, which also contained a comma. That was tricky explaining what a comma is to a 4 year old.

M: ‘Maybe I might’ I can’t remember what he was talking about exactly, maybe having been asked ‘Are you going to pray now?’
The response anyhow may as well have been ‘No’
He also requested a ‘Staplizer’ to staple one of his numerous home-made books together.

Biryani is turning out a little Tom-boyish (unsurprisingly), bangs duplo men together and making fighting ‘Oooh, ooh’ noises. Her word for Star Wars at the moment is ‘Die’ I’m not sure if it’s a way-off pronunciation, or she just hears the boys saying ‘I’m going to die you’ as they race round the house with their improvised light sabres. (‘kill’ is the practically the same word as ‘die’ in Swedish so I assume that’s why they say this, it doesn’t sound so bad anyway somehow!’ )
She also enjoys picture matching the Curious George bingo pictures we have which I was surprised she could do.
She does use some of the baby-signs I taught her earlier on alongside speech, and she showed this by thinking I’d said ‘fish’ instead of ‘finish’. She also uses the sign for ‘pig’ ‘duck’ quite regularly.

Oh and one from DH ‘When did I say I was ignoring you?’. Yeah, I had to think about that one too.