Happy Muslim Mama: Exhausted Hostess Mama

Oooooooooooh look at me, I’m all blissed out.I got home from work today to find one of my husbands friends at work, as we tend to be segregated at home when there are guests, I ran upstairs to change, pray and breathe. As I planned for dinner with one more in mind, my husband announces more of his friends are coming. In the meantime, my good friend calls and tells me a wonderful recipe for keema muttar (mince and pea curry) that takes 15 minutes and is foolproof.So whilst trying to practice Arabic with Little Lady and keep Gorgeous out of the bin (his new favourite place, toy, source of food when we aren’t looking – yuck) I decided to try to cook at the same time.An hour later I am still cooking and the keema muttar doesn’t taste as good as my usual curry does. So I give up and decide to serve it as it is. I get a call from my better half saying his friends are here and one of them has relatives coming down to London from the seaside to visit him and will meet him at our house (what? – does this happen to other people too?) as there will be ladies too can they sit with me? I think at this point better half hears something dangerous in my voice and offers to go and pick up some takeout for dinner. I decline (I can’t remember why, something to do with sudden, foolish, false pride possibly).So I throw together a salad and put some kebabs on the grill (I always make these in batches of three and freeze two lots for later) and the doorbell goes and guests start turning up. I do love having guests and as soon as they turned up I stopped feeling put-upon, but did feel as if I was being scrutinized a bit (I should have let Gorgeous bite one of them). I asked them to stay for dinner and they excused themselves saying they had to get home as it was getting late.

I dished up for the guys that were left and sat down for a minute; it was sometime around then that my brain fell out of my head and behind the sofa somewhere, and of course when you don’t think too much, you feel happy. So the kitchen is a mess, the house is a tip, my husband is tip-toeing around and its all gone eerily quiet. I’m taking my dinner and one of my fave books, the Exorcist and finding a quiet corner to fill my empty head with nonsense.