Tomorrow or the day after will see the start of Ramadan insh’Allah.  As with every year I am looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect with my faith and with my Creator, refresh my iman (faith), work on improving the quality of my ibadah (worship) and coming out the other side of this special month […]

One of the things I have been doing recently which I find quite therapeutic is making these bracelets. They are all 8mm glass crystal beads – some opaque, some very sparkly. I have been seeing these slightly flattened crystal-looking beads in a few shops (like this one) and really like the look of the beads […]

What a horrid morning. I woke up feeling so miserable today and spent the whole morning veering between rage and sadness, with everyone feeling the brunt of it. The house is still being refurbished and we are still living in two rooms. Everyone has colds and coughs and keeping everyone organised and with a routine […]

We visited Hever Palace and Gardens a few weeks ago.  A good friend had recommended it and Kooky Little Sister went previously and had good things to say about it (she has posted beautiful pictures here and here). We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, which wasn’t as big as some of […]

My husband has been saying for years that he needs to clear out the storage cupboards under our stairs and create some organised storage. I have been asking him if I can have the smaller of the two cupboards to use as a mini pantry to free up some space in our kitchen. He finally […]

This was the second of the two books sent to me by Sister Umm Nassim as part of a book swap (review of the first, Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin, here).Like Persian Girls, this book is also set partly in Iran and takes us through the last days of the Shah’s rule and the revolution […]

Little Lady came to the V&A last year with her school and complained for ages afterwards that she was only allowed to see the Middle East Islamic galleries and that her teacher managed to combine history, maths and every other subject into the trip.  She sneaked into the Japan exhibit and got caught by her […]

The wonderful Sister Umm Nassim recently asked “Can you recommend some Islamic books you read with/to the children, especially Little Lady?” So I had a quick root around on their book shelf and bedroom and found the following:The Berry and Acorn series by Sajda Nazlee – these are suitable for fairly fluent readers and Little […]

Thanks to the dua’s of kind sisters my nausea has subsided and I am starting to feel better. I went for my five months scan yesterday and was told everything looked okay alhamdulillah. After so many years and five previous pregnancies, I thought I would be a bit more clinical about these things, but as […]

So I got the kids to clear out all of the broken bits of crayon from their colouring pencil/crayon box and take the paper covers off (I had to stop them from getting too carried away and breaking the whole ones). Being very anal, I got the kids to sort the bits of crayons into […]

After a mild autumn, the temperatures here have dropped giving us bright cold days and clear nights.  It’s rare to see the stars in the middle of London, but the last few days have been so clear that you can see so many so clearly. The sun rises and sunsets have been quite eye catching […]

I mentioned my mum-in-laws pakoray (plural of pakora) recipe recently and said I would share. She is a decent cook and some of her dishes I like better than others, but her pakoray are just the best I have ever tasted. We sent them to a neighbour a few years ago during Ramadan and she knocked on […]

1. Pray 2. Make Dhikr – “…Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace and satisfaction.” (Al Quran – 13:28) 3. Have a nap4. Meditate5. Halal music – always lifts the heart6. Write things down – analyse (navel-gaze)7. Clear out your clutter, room by room, draw by draw8. Have FUN – games, comedies, […]

Little Man was long the middle child in my home, until the youngest two babies came along after quite a gap. Sandwiched between a confident and opinionated big sister and a charming and noisy younger brother, he displays some of the characteristics of the middle child: empathetic towards others, good at negotiation, humble and sometimes a […]