It’s funny isn’t it, how you think of your home as rooms, doors, furniture and belongings, when really it is the people who live there that make it home. I remember when my grandmother passed away last year, for ages after, when I visited my parents home where she lived, it felt as if there […]

Day 22 – Colour I didn’t grow anything in my little garden this year after the boys managed to kick balls into everything last year and destroy it. This year, I thought I would leave the garden for them to play ball and zoom up and down on their scooters. That was until the neighbours complained that Gorgeous […]

I just wanted to say a big Jazakh’Allah-khairun to everyone who voted for me over at Circle at Mom’s Top 25 European Blogs contest.  Alhamdullilah I came in 23rd (out of 77 blogs).  Which means that they will share what I write and post with their forums insh’Allah. (A special thank you to my brother-in-law […]

This book was the best-selling non-English book of 2004 in Britain and Seierstad the best-selling Norwegian author ever, so I had high expectations.Despite the fact that my family hails from Pakistan originally, next-door Afghanistan has always come across as quite mysterious. The only influences on my impression of the country have been news reports in […]

Last year I was watching a call-in programme on the Islam Channel, where you could call in and ask a scholar a question. A woman called in to ask for advice regarding her children who would disturb her during prayer. The scholar indicated that she has brought them up poorly and there must be something […]

This week we saw a very surreal and quite unsettling deep yellow sky.  I was leaving to pick the children up from school and saw it change quickly from its usual blue grey to a strong yellow-orange colour.  It also got very windy and dark. The children at school were a bit disturbed by it, […]

One thing about being a working mother and a Muslim mother is that there is always plenty to do. First and foremost is the time that we have to devote to Allah, at the very least our Regular prayers. Then there is the duty to our children our partners and our community. On top of […]

Our first visit to the Eden Project eight years ago was an absolute delight, so we were all keen to go back, especially my mum who is a keen gardener.  It also meant we would be out of the rain and cold and for some parts of the Project, in the heat. The Eden Project […]

Eid seems to have passed in a blur, much anticipated, very busy and over before I knew it.  I didn’t manage to take many good pictures, but had a wonderful day.  Most years, my parents and sisters end up celebrating a different day from us and this ruins the celebrations.  This year we celebrated on […]

After reading, and enjoying Wolfskin, I was looking forward to reading the sequel, which of course, Kooky Little Sister obligingly found for me. Wolfskin was about the warrior Eyvind, the cunning Somerled and the priestess Nessa. Foxmask is about their children – Eyvind and Nessa’s sweet-natured daughter Creidhe and Somerled’s intense and introspective son Thorvald.Creidhe […]

Mohammed M. Mahdi, Mohammed A. Mahdi, and Anthony Duncan are the Soapy Soap Guys, the entrepreneurs behind the artisanal soap business: the Soapy Soap Company. Their brand came about through a desire to create a more natural, functional bar of soap.  They have recently launched their new website: DesignMySoap.com, the world’s first online soap-making studio […]

Just wanted to say jazakh’Allah-khairun to all of the kind sisters who have left comments wishing me well with my announcement. Your dua’s are very precious to me as are your kind words (one sister asked why I had not just carried out a pregnancy test instead of waiting – I did, but the last […]

I am now on maternity leave from work and what a relief!  I have had so much on my mind that I was struggling to focus on work.  I finished my secondment with the 2012 Games team a week before my leave started (the team thought my project management skills were brilliant extending as they […]

I think I have mentioned that my new neighbours are really lovely.  They moved in a few months ago and me and mum-in-law have made firm friends with thee neighbour and her teenage daughter.  Her daughter (N) comes round on weekends to help my children with maths and literacy tuition and is great at keeping […]