I often come across the view that supplements are pointless and a waste of money and that we should focus on getting our diet right so that we can get the nutrients we need through our food. I would agree up to a appoint, except that I often eat the wrong foods because I like […]

I got  nice early morning surprise this week with a delivery of flowers from my colleagues at work.  Was extra surprising because I forgot they exist!!  How quickly I have got used to the changes in my life.  I called my colleagues to thank them and it felt strange speaking to people I have sat […]

I didn’t manage to get as many pictures of the wedding as I would have liked, mainly because I was too busy enjoying it and because most of them have family members whose privacy I would like to protect. The wedding took place over three evenings as it was too hot during the day. The […]

Our family has always been reserved  and quite proper in the way we do things – part of this has been shying away from showing love and affection.  That doesn’t mean we don’t feel it, we just struggle with showing it in conventional ways like big hugs, declarations of affection and general cheesiness. Instead we […]

The better half was away this weekend with the brother-in-law so I decided to have someme-time and do some things I enjoy (i.e. no cooking, no making chappati’s and no housework). So I let the kids stay up, we watched Robin Hood Prince of Theives (the very bad but very enjoyable Kevin Costner version), ate […]

One of the biggest challenges in my life has been my lack of patience.  It is something I have worked hard to improve in myself over the last decade so that I can become a kinder and gentler wife and mother and to please Allah (SWT) who says: “And be patient. Surely, Allah is with […]

“Know that the cockeyed definition of motherhood to which most of us are trying to measure up, makes it very hard to love being a mom. Only when you begin to write your own definition of great mothering, embracing the contradictions within, will you truly feel at home in your new life” – Mary Stark […]

In a mental asylum there lives a young woman committed by her family.  The screams of the inmates echo around her and her daily life is by turns brutal and monotonous. Her name is Alice and she is not sure why she is there, except for various flashbacks: of someone assaulting her, of her stabbing […]

Little Lady finished Quran recently and I wanted her to know that I was proud of her and wanted to celebrate her hard work.  So we agreed a party was in order before the next phase of studying and learning really takes off (she actually thought she was finished and that would be it!! Think […]

I would love to get to know more about who reads this blog, connect with them and learn from them insh’Allah.  But I know people like to maintain their privacy, or they feel shy, or they don’t think they have anything worth saying (which is usually just not true). So instead of pestering you with […]

I managed to sneak in some time today between grocery shopping, freezing kebabs and marinating chicken legs to make some Eid banners/bunting. The hardest bit is always getting the triangles for the banners right.  It took me a few attempts and lots of wrong pencil lines to figure it out. Little Lady helped to choose colours and […]

I’ve never been to a lighthouse before, so was quite keen to see this one.  It was about a 50 minute walk from where we had lunch and we were told there was no parking so could not take the car.  Hubby decided that was too much parking and decided to take the car anyway. […]

Little Man and I are having a daily moan-fest at the moment. He wakes up and moans at me, I listen and try not to get annoyed. I come home from work and he moans at me a bit more, I’m a bit more wake at this point (marginally) and listen and try to be […]

Hubby is away until after Eid, so usually visiting boot sales would have been out of the question.  But my mum and dad are planning to go Pakistan later this year, so have been visiting boot fairs at the weekend to do some their shopping.  Last weekend, they called me soon after fajr (dawn) prayer […]