Summer is upon us

With a very wet spring and late entrance to sunny weather. I have fallen behind with my seasonal chores, namely the spring clean! Although I have been working my way through it room by room and bit by bit. The kitchen is always daunting especially the kitchen cupboards. Once they are done it no longer seemed like a long dragged out chores, it's the pre meditating for weeks and weeks, in this case months ( remember the rainy weather? Spring clean has become summer clean), this has become the pattern over the last 3-4 years. Climate change they call it! I have set myself deadlines that I keep passing I may add and the penalty is stressing about it, I just want it done as the years go on I find this task is getting increasingly harder and I am becoming less able to rise to this challenge. Tomorrow I have enlisted the 'rug wash' as there is predicted sunshine. It's been overcast and humid so far this week and knowing my efforts of spring cleaning it may just rain. I need a good blast of over 25oC to get the rugs dry in a day. [IMG]http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac172/csoccerbball/spring-cleaning.jpg[/IMG]

Its been way to long

I keep promising I will come to update month after month after month, until a whole year has elapsed opps!
life is busy alhamduilah ( All praise to Allah)with a newly one year old in tow, life certainly has taken a new dimension.

I miss bloging and sharing with my cyber buddies, so right now , no not another promise of more blog post, but lets just see what happens when it happens inshaAllah.

world number day

1st March , my teen dd school held a fun day raising money for the maths department, Fancy dress and we made some cakes to sell.The number moulds I got from here I often use this place for my cake moulds, fantastic quality and great service.








Can you see the algebra sum, more to the point can you work it out?

its been too long

I need to get back into gear and get back blogging as I have missed blog world and blogging. I do not find much time to sit at the PC these days and just use phone for quick updates and checking in on Facebook. Also i don't know how to upload pictures from my phone to the PC and this has held me back posting as i have loads to share. soon inshaAllah i will be back!
Alhamduilah I have been ajusting to beeing a mother again to a new born after 10 uears and it has been no easy ride, night feeds are hardest and baby has colic, time is no longer my own and it will be like this for the next ...............how many years? alhamduilah!

Its all change

Alhamduilah ,mashaAllah , my princess arrived, we are both at home doing well alhamduilah!

Before big changes

Really just updating everywhere before Thursday, I am going into hospital for delivery of baby at 37 weeks by c-section. While i have been worrying so much and keep thinking every possible scenario that could go wrong is going to go wrong for me. I am over it now and have realized i need to place my trust in Allah and what is written for me will avail inshaAllah.

I just wanted you all to know and i hope to be back updating in due time with good news inshaAllah.
Please remember me in your prayers.

The local hospital has had a new maternity wing re-vamp after almost 20 years in January, and I am so happy to be one of the first to be using it before it gets trashed as all things public do. Its a real treat for us in this borough of London that ranks on of the poorest in the whole of UK. I took a few pictures as I was very impressed, shame the care and attitude by nurses has not changed over 20 years, still rude and uncaring, making me feel like I am a burden, uffing and puffing, over having to do what they are paid to do.

The waiting area of the maternity day care

taken from my bed, my very own samsung flat screen with remote.

No regrets

I am someone who try's to go through life with no regrets as I firmly believe if its meant to be then it will be and choices I make/made they may not have been the right ones but at least I tried. I always stood alone in life and stood tall as I learnt from a very young age, it was never coming to me on a silver platter. Maybe I made some serious errors along the way but I have always been content with what I have and if I didn't have it then alhamduilah Allah never destined it for me.

At long last here I am

I am so sorry I have neglect this blog and its readers for so long. Again a combination of factors kept me away for so long. In November it was illness, I was admitted to hospital for 8 days and then had to take things easy, appears I have developed asmatha during pregnancy and it was giving me breathing problems, then 3 chest infections did not help matters but alhamduilah all is well now and I am managing the asthmatic side.

The cold weather this season does not help as it triggers the chest infection. Just as I was discharged and recovering my dd became very ill and i nursed her for weeks with no improvement, she was diagnosed with pneumonia in the left lung and was in bed for 6 weeks, missing her mock exams. Testing times for us all alhamduilah , mashaAllah we are all recovered now. Then my bump has grown and I more tired and can not place a lap top on my lap comfortable and find it hard to sit at the desk top to type a post without getting back pain. While I have been ill university is suffering and trying to keep up with dead lines for essays have kept me busy too.I have started my university module but am feeling the pressure with the pregnancy and its added problems so I seriously thinking about deferring yet again as my health and baby are my priority at present. Also I am not enjoying it as I was once and I did only choose to return to studies as I had the time and energy to give but Allah has other plans for me.

So what happened in those months? Ed Ul Adha came and went, we didn't make a fuss due to illness but it was nice anyhow I could not manage any cakes or special dinner so we had a Eid day brunch and the children wanted Indian food.


A dear friend came to stay with us for about 1 week and she took care of me while my dh traveled to visit his family in Algeria.





It snowed subhanallah it sure snowed and lasted weeks cold cold snow, it was pretty when fresh, my children build their first snow person. I had my baby scan and decided to go against our family norm of not knowing the sex of the baby until birth, we asked this time and its a girl we have been told. I was expecting a boy for some reason but I am not disappointed as any child is welcomed into our family and health of mother and baby out weight the sex. Now we have been having name wars at home, I gave naming the baby responsibility to my dh and children and guess what they can't agree. I am trying not to get involved as the idea was so I would have to be stressed about it but its turning out to be more stressful this way. I have been favoring Facebook during this time but now I feel I have become a little addicted over there and need to ween myself away back here I think.
I have started my university module but am feeling the pressure with the pregnancy and its added problems so I seriously thinking about deferring yet again as my health and baby are my priority at present. Also I am not enjoying it as I was once and I did only choose to return to studies as I had the time and energy to give but Allah has other plans for me.
I have not been crafting at all almost just the odd quick project here and there but nothing major, I have not even made anything for baby. This was made for me, a vintage granny square blanket for baby.

Me and DD9 did a little decoupage , an apple

We made some felt cats, one evening before I knew it everyone wanted one.

Time to reclaim and update

I am back yes so it feels that way its been way too long. I have not been feeling very energetic of late . I have some baby news .YES I am pregnant after 6 1/2 years of trying we have been blessed. I am 18 weeks at present, it has been hard with all the vomiting and smells. Yesterday I received the news I have Gestational Diabetes (GD) in Pregnancy. At first I was concerned as i am generally a healthy person and now its just not my health its baby too. I have been invited to the Specialist GD clinic for tomorrow for an education , so I will have more news on that after tomorrow. A sister who also blog's had a simillar expierence and she wrote about it here . she experienced GD twice and managed to battle the odds mashaAllah. More updates as and when they happen inshaAllah ( God willing).

I am Back

It's actually been a few months , perhaps the longest blogger absence for me , I have a good reason and I bring good news.
Update will have to be in pictures



A lovely Thai meal that was cooked for me by an equally lovely sister in Islam and dear friend.
Ramandan came and went.............sadly I didn't gain what I had set out to and hoped. Some cakes shared in Ramandan Algerian of course.



My Eid cakes for friends and neighbours to share


Evening Eid meal as requested by the family ....was very nice i must add. Buryani with baby lamb, chicken tikka , salad and Natural yoghurt.

Flowers on a rainy day in September in my garden.

Hot cakes topped with banana and home made caramel sauce. Random treat.

my son got me this single flower its so pretty.

just before Ramandan update

I have been a bit poorly and totaly lost my daily mojo. Not in the least bit intrested to do anything. I hope I regain better days soon especially with Ramandan just a few days away inshaAllah. The school hols have been hard for the kids so far, with no break away planned due to lack of cash funds. They are lumped at home, I have told them, just makethe best of it and occupy yourselves. With my health not so good. I have not been able to take them out and about London Town. I did however invest in a big trampoline for the kids and its now set up in the garden, they love it. I myself have been out at least once per week so far,invited to lunch and even managed to host a lunch at mine with about 9 ladies. It was Italian food, I did not manage to take any pictures sorry.

Now with Ramandan only days away inshaAllah, the pace is changing slightly in the home. Goals are being openly dissuced and targets are being set. We are all aiming for a spirtual uplift and a good gain of good deeds inshaAllah.

I have not done no new crafting for some weeks now, I wanted this summer to be about finishing of WIP. Then I want to try some blankets in bright colours.

My oven is still broken, cakes have been off the menu for months now. I do miss baking and hope a new cooker is on the horizen soon inshaAllah.

Joining the Eco revolution and gaining reward

perhaps I am late but I have invested in some composting equipment. Something I have been thinking about for a very long time now, a few years to be exact.

A kitchen top composter ( already half full I may add!).


This is new to me, so all very exciting...............will post pictures once my compost is formed inshaAllah. Anyone compost here? Got any tips for me? My council are doing a specail promotion and I got the bigger out door one at a whopping 90% off.

A dear friend also pointed out to me that this is an Islamic way (showing concern for the environment and waste) and a good way to top up good deeds.

Spring break and all things new

The children have had school holidays for spring, the weather picked up a little but still chilly cold at times, I have managed to mow the lawn (if you can call it that, that's my bald patchy grass I am taking about and not my skill of mowing) and part furnish the garden but still have not been able to sit outside and soak up the sun as of yet, soon I am hoping. I erected the outdoor airer so maybe I may just hang the washing outside today, I will see how the day unfolds.
We finally took part in the earth hour a few weeks ago but I forgot to photograph as I was too busy having fun. The children liked it and we told a one word story and had some chocolate treats during it.

It's been a while since I started writing that post and only just back to finish it. The last few weeks and more have been testing to say the least but alhamduilah, I am still here to tell the tale. Sometimes in life we have that comfy chair that has a soft cushion and when we sit in it daily we feel secure and safe. Content and happier sitting each day out with this comfort. Then one day the cushion is taken away and our comfort and security are no longer the same. We feel down , we feel stressed and times are going to be a little hard on that chair until one day we will be able to get that comfy cushion again.

Random pictures

have a few to share