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after a week or so of trying to get to the computer I’ve finally succeeded masha’allah…life in this last ten days of ramadhan has been full to say the least.. alhamdulillah…
crafting and computer time has been kept to a minimum so that we can spend extra time praying and reading qur’an and trying to gain forgivness from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala…. and those sweet early hours of the morning are indeed a beautiful blessing…
the only real bit of crafting I gave in to this week was the 16 year olds hat…. now bearng in mind she’s a hijabi you might wonder what use a hat would be..but it’s keeping her head warm in the house masha’allah…
she’s very happy with it and has even planned varitions on the theme for me to tackle later…. 
my other moment of joy this week was taking a stroll in the market for eid clothes and coming across a man that sells 100% crochet cotton..now you might think that being in a city like london delights like this would be ten a penny…but this ISthe East End we’re talking about and for someone that NEVER ventures into central London..a find such as this is indeed close to a miracle… but I’m being good and I’ve tucked it away for after ramadhan….this time is for my Rabb and my akhira insha’allah…
much love to you all..insha’allah you’re dua’aat in these last ten days have been answered and your fasts have been accepted and you will bve raised among the successful on the day of reckoning…ameen
xxx
stitching is addictive!!!!
One started
one finished!
I had planned not to start any new projects before going to DZ, however with winter well on it’s way…and the cold wet British weather making staying indoors a bit of a necessity…winter projects are now almost ready to be started…I love winter..I love sitting in my sitting room on the sofa opposite the window and watching people walk past in the blustery weather…it reminds me of how blessed i am that I’m not expected to do anything more than worship my Rabb, raise my family and take care of my home….for sure there are times when I add more and more to those basic ingredients and make myself busy with other things, other people..and then it’s nice to wind back down and appreciate the simple things….snuggles on the sofa on a rainy day..mugs of cocoa, home made yumminess…long dark evenings when you wind down early and can indulge in the kind of slow methodical crafting that soothes the soul and creates a warm homeliness……
DD17 and I are planning a winter project that we can do together, a granny square blanket in these lovely colours…..
Here’s some wool that DD16 fell in love with…..we think, we meaning I of course!, am making a hat for her..yes I know she’s a hijabi masha’allah but our house is COLD in the winter and with heating costs rising to unbelievable prices I can almost guarantee that the soloution this year will be LOADS more layers and NOT the radiators!!
did I mention that I’d got back into stitching?? I haven’t stitched for ages but some quiet little voice inside me just needed to be heard…so a really nice stitching project is already underway… but no sneaky peeks untill I get some more colour into it ok??
beautiful warm colurs for the winter masha’allah….
Insha’allah there will be a great deal of all day PJ wearing, cocoa drinking, comfort feeding, lecture listening, sofa snuggling, winter crafting going on…..
xxx
and two to go ….ramadhan is now halfway through masha’allah and we are racing,it seems. towards the close of this blessed month….
Has my second week of fasting been any more beneficial than my first? well we’ve had more challenges to deal with certainly…the washing machine decided to die this week…so we’re washing a by hand….. alhamdulillah….it’s an opportunity for some labour intensive ibadah…and a reminder that washing machines for many people are an extravagant luxury
The council decided after six months of having me nag them incessantly..to come and finally do something about the profuse mould living in my bathroom….what better time than Ramadhan to have scaffolding erected and non-maharim traipsing through the kitchen to get to the bathroom, but alhamdulillah….it.means insha’allah that whoever we have in the house looking after it for us when we finally get to Algeria will have a nice place to bathe in rather than the mould ridden hovel we have been using….
I have discovered this week that the male of the species are NOT good fasters….this has been a major challange..may Allah bless me with the sabr to cope…she says with gritted teeth trying to fight the desire to bury her head in the leftover shorba from yesterday….
we’ve managed to keep up with our qur’an reading..me and the two teens…by sharing out the household chores and taking up the slack for anyone nedding extra time to finish a juz…it’s been a humbling experience….masha’allah.
Decisions have been made hijrah wise this week which give me hope…of all my dua’s that I raise to Allah this month..I sincerely pray to Him who holds my destiny in His hands that THAT is the one that gets answered if it’s khair for me…..
and we had a couple of get togethers here last week with some luverly sisters..including a neary and deary who had popped over from DZ for a week….
All in all…although it wasn’t quite the week we had planned….it’s been good and we’ve coped…we’re off to the market this morning, the teens and I to get some more crafting supplies for the kiddies..DD16 has a wonderful craft project up her sleeve masha’allah that i can’t wait to see the end result of….
and two more things before i end this uncharacteristically LONG post!!!
If by any chance I forget to proof read any of my posts and it looks like i’ve given up on punctuation and spelling altogether..it’s because I took all the keys off my keyboard last week..in order to clean all the dust and debris from it, and I now have a demon spacebar that is tormenting and teasing me and trying to send me insane sticky spacebar! see!! I knew dust provided a function..it’s not working right without the extra cushioning under it!!!
and finally THIS made me a happy bunny this morning masha’allah….. I have to say I too wonder about whats going on in the lives of those I visit in blogworld….. so taking up Umm Ibrahims challenge
I think about RAINBOW and how she’s managing the transition from life in DZ to life back in the UK, and I wonder about her first steps back into home ed, and looking forward to seeing the fruits of her labour insha’allah….
I think about Z and it takes me back to the times when i have had a new babe in my life to get to know and am happy that she’s blogging again, because i missed her and worried about her during her blog break…..
I wonder about Itto and why, when I really REALLY want to be reading her blog ..the page won’t load for me, and whether being there in that beautiful setting is as soul enhancing as it seems from the outside…..
and no!! I’m not just returning the favour… I really DO think about you and how you always manage to find just the right thing to say, and how positive and kind your comments are…
I could keep going…five is NOT an easy number to restrict yourself to…. but this is a post of epic proportions already and the scaffolders will be here soon…….
for anyone following the ramadhan blog there will be some recipes up and a couple crafts at some stage today….much love to you all….
xxx
it’s been a week of varying degrees of progress masha’allah… I havn’t had time enough to do some of the wonderful “days of ramadhan” that i’ve been reading so it’s sometimes been difficult to appreciate the progress we’ve made over the week as muslims striving to please Allah ta’ala…but on the whole we’re fairly happy I think with how our first week of Ramadhan has gone..
We haven’t stuck as rigiidly to our schedule during the first week and have had to tweak it in places to allow for Ramadhan acclimatisation…but now that everyone has fallen into their ramadhan rhtymn we feel like the final bits of the scheduling jigsaw willl fall into place…
Having fasted most of shaaban by myself and having already got myself into a good fasting pattern it was interesting how having the rest of the family suddenly fasting with me affected my “balance”….it’s been a learning curve certainly!!
anyway…this week,
- we’ve managed to keep up with our Qur’an reading masha’allah, which was something we were all adamanat about….
- we started reading the books on our ramadhan reading lists… and even managed to start our “communal book” which DD16 has been reading to us while we’ve been making our iftars
- there has been crafting!!
I haven’t been praying during this first week of ramadhan so I move into a new phase of fasting insha’allah, and can hopefully now get to grips with some more of my goals….. here’s some pictures from our week insha’allah and you can find some of the crafting tips and ramadhan recipes HERE insha’allah….this one is mostly the work of DD16…especially the craft ideas and photo’s
Three days in, and we are slowly falling into our “ramadhan routine”
There has been crafting…masha’allah the children are decorating the windows that face out onto the street with sun catchers, Islamic style….they ll drifted out yesterday afternoon to take a look at their handiwork
there has been the all important qur’an reading in the early hours, and all the children are actually finding the NO t.v rule easier to live with than they thought they would..the youngest are making good use of islamic cartoons on Islamic tube masha’allah
we’ve cooked of course, but moderately..I think…with a large family you tend to spend alot of time preparing meals anyway, especially cooking from scratch so it’s hard no to spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, ramadhan or not….but the children have been thoroughly relishing their homemade bread and shorba….
i think the thing the children are finding hardest is waking up for suhoor….so many sleepy faces at the breakfast table..ya’allah!! but alhamdulillah they’re managing well so far….
there has been little time though to catch up with what others have been doing and even less time to come here and post which is why I’m snatching time now….I’ll leave you with some pictures of what’s been going on for the past couple of days insha’allah
the beginnings of our ramadhan calender….
isn’t it amazing how you can go from this….
to this…..
to this beauty….
and dd8 started a ramdhan stitching yesterday too masha’allah…so in amongst the sleepiness and settling into a new routine, some effort has been made and some challenges have been met..we haven’t done so well on the home-ed front, but if I’ve learnt anything as a home-edder, it’s to take homeschool life as it comes and to adapt to the changes taking place..and sometimes it’s about kicking back and just lving with the new rythmn for a while
