The children’s school recently encouraged them to come in dressed as Superheroes and donate £1 to a charity that supports Rohingya refugees.  I didn’t like the idea of buying a costume to wear for one day and in the past it has been a lot of fun thinking of and making our own costumes. This […]

I have had some hard and very heartfelt conversations with my husband in recent times, about trying to do the right thing, trying to raise your children in what seems to be the right way and still seeming to get it wrong. Like the following: We have never had a TV, for reasons explained here. […]

Health benefits of raw honey has long been realised by our ancestors for centuries for example the first paintings found of beekeeping were in Spain more than 8,000 years ago. Raw honey in its natural form i.e. not heated in anyway contains vitamins (B1, B2, B3, C, B6, B5), minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates, nutrients such […]

I haven’t had time to write as much as I like today for International Women’s Day, but luckily my little sister has and I love how she has personalised it with anecdotes from my family.  She shares how precious having sisters is to us despite our squabbles and how we have come so far on […]

I have been sharing my journey to get healthier and lose weight each month through reviewing my word of the year: Health.  After faltering in February and falling back on junk food and bad habits, I decided that I was going to start doing two things, monitoring what I was earing and trying to learn […]

Now that I am making the kids packed lunches again and taking my own lunch into work, I am trying to experiment with different foods that are easy to prepare and taste good. I have tried a few variations of chicken filling, but this one I experimented with today has been the best I have […]

Assalam-alaikam all, I hope this Ramadan has been truly blessed for you and that you have grown in faith and nearness to Allah (SWT) and that your store of good deeds has grown exponentially insh’Allah: “When it is the last night [of Ramadan], they are forgiven, all of them.” So a man from the people […]

I have been meaning to visit the Victoria & Albert museum for years and kept telling Little Lady the two of us would go.  I visited with my school as a teenager and remember two things, the beautiful Mogul jewellery and textiles and getting shouted at for trying to take a rubbing from one of […]

The funniest thing happened the other day. We were all watching TV at my mum’s when my mother-in-law and husband started pointing at the screen and shouting “there he is!”On the Pakistani ARY and Geo TV Channels and on the British Islam Channel, the adhaan (call to prayer) is announced everyday accompanied by a video […]

I remember being a teen and sometimes getting unwanted attention, probably at a younger age than was appropriate.  I remember being a teen and being aware of my many perceived flaws alongside a cocky arrogance about my youth and how skinny I was.  Despite these things, I would rather have been a teen then than […]

Assalam-alaikam, I realise it’s been a year since I last wrote and in that time I have had moments when I yearned to write and others when I wondered if I ever would again. Then today I realised I have this little pocket of time for myself every day between clearing up after Iftar and […]

Today I am done. It’s not even 10am and I have argued, cried and pushed myself as far as I can go. I woke and was so tired to the bone that I could barely move, it took about half an hour to stop feeling like I was going to drop. I had to go […]

Even as I write the question in the title I have to admit that I am a little biased. I was born and raised in London and I am trying to raise my children here. So what prompted the question? I went to pick up Darling from nursery this morning and said hello to some […]

I have long adored henna and every now and again have ago at creating a pattern, Little Lady also loves the stuff and harasses me into drawing a new pattern on her hand as soon as the previous one has worn off. I loved the idea of being able to do this well, but don’t […]