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Just thought to post these before they are completely out of date.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!

My version of 'An honest day' done without notes so may be a blend of other days

Woke up, fajr

S is already about getting ready for school, get H up for Fajr, M won’t wake up. H decides his throat is too bad and takes a sickie. S leaves to catch the 2 buses to school.

Start washing off down in cellar.

M goes to school on school bus.

Hz wakes up, make some breakfast, make breakfast for little ones, porridge for hub. Biryani wakes.

Biryanis friend is dropped off, we bake cupcakes,I try to slip in some maths as in 3 times 4 slots in the muffin tray will result in 12 cakes. Goes over their heads, so try to intersperse some English to Biryanis friend as her family want to move to Tanzania (where Swedish isn’t widely spoken of course)Eat some of afore-mentioned cakes.

I go back down to get washing into drier/ start next 2 loads off.

Drink cup Rooibos and start to feel it’s sedative effects, but the washing must go on..

Make lunch for kids, forget to eat it myself.

Clearing kitchen up a bit(?) Hz decides to remove nappy, friend rings up, I can’t answer it. Friend rings again and we talk a little, Hz does a poo in his fresh nappy, have to call friend back.

Pray Dhuhr.

Somehow, with Hz in tow, I take out the recycling rubbish and put the dried washing in the baskets and leave in the hall for boys/ hub to bring up (noone in their right mind would steal our sheets etc would they??)

Hub and S come back, M soon after by school bus. The cupcakes numbers are dwindling.

Realise my light headedness may be due to the fact that cupcakes are not sufficient nutritionally, and eat leftover sausage sandwiches as a late lunch (not much better I admit).

Try to lie down and read some Quran. S’s friend comes over. Xbox360 is in full use.

Hz poos twice on the floor, patience is wearing thin at this in between potty training phase.

Pray Asr

Make evening meal, boy’s go out to corner shop for Jummah sweets (normally its Saturdays that kids get sweets in Sweden) and get to eat them after supper.

A small alteraction between H and M, more Xbox . Realise that they haven’t done any homework/ Quran, but it is Jummah and friend is over...

Hub lies down with Hz.

and I eat something and watch a halaqah on youtube, while Biryani covers the kitchen floor in all kinds of craft material, and happily paints one of the square tiles with pritt-stick. As I dutifully clear it up I try to focus on how beautifully she kept between the grout lines and not that it needed a scouring pad plus several wipes with a sponge to get it off.

Yell a number of times for boys to stop playing on Xbox. Should have been yelling at self to stop looking at YouTube and pray maghrib on time (was actually really confused whether I’d prayed it or not), it’s got much earlier recently,but astagfirullah. Prayed maghrib and Isha.

Finished off kitchen. Checked some blogs.

Must sleep. Make bread and jam for Biryani. Publish this.

The harvest still trickling in...

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

Would-be guest blogger: Hz

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

It's harvest time!

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

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

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

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

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

End of the Summer

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

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

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

Ramadhan mubarak!

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...

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!!

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.

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

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

There's no doubt it's summer!

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