A Fabulous Award

Sister Alisha at Thoughts Unchecked and Sister Hijabee in DC have honoured me by both kindly awarding me this lovely award and meme in one. It looks like fun, so I will join in:

Rules of the Award:

• List five current obsessions.
• Pass the award on to five more fabulous blogs.
• On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well.
• Don’t forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. Blogging – every now and again I go through a lull when I am not feeling very inspired and wonder if I can bother to blog, but at the moment I am enjoying it again. It’s a shame then that events (and little people) have been conspiring to keep me away from the computer.

2. Crafting – How I love getting all my stuff out, organising it, playing around with the gems, ribbons, stamps, pretty papers and embellishments. I know this is turning into an obsession when every time the other half or mother-in-law walks in, I pretend I’m just putting the stuff away and there are paper-trimmers stashed in various locations around my bedroom.

3. Booting – Every sunny Sunday of summer, I, hubby and the brothers-in-laws crawl into the car nice and early leaving the kids fast asleep in the care of their gran and head to one of the Essex boot-sales in search of bargains. It’s a running joke that we all act as if we are not bothered and are only going along to keep the other boot-nuts company and stop them from buying anything useless, not because we really want to.

4. Reading – This is not just my current, but my life-long obsession (post – Why I Love books). Books, newspapers, internet, back of the cereal packet, I’ll read anything.

5. Cooking – I have always hated cooking, but I have decided to learn, to get good at it and to enjoy it whether I like it or not. I have been trying lots of news things (admittedly many, like Faluda and Haleem, are out of a packet), trying out recipes from the net and from my cookbooks and even sitting and reading through cookbooks, in particular Delia Smiths three books entitled “How to Cook” which start off by telling you how to boil an egg. I WILL get good at this!

In turn, I award:

Share My Thoughts on Day to Day Challenges (especially because the sister can REALLY cook)
iMuslimah
Hijabi Apprentice
Shaalom 2 Salaam: A Muslimah's Journey From Judaism to Islam
Islamic Unit Studies
And anyone else who fancies a go at the meme.

The Honest Scrap Tag

I’ve been tagged by Sister Fruitful Fusions.

The Rules:

To do the Honest Scrap tag… here’s the deal. Tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people with the award, and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don’t forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

So my ten?

1. I love, love, love the rain, I love walking in the rain, playing with the kids in the rain and sitting by the window and watching the rain. It might all stem from the fact that my mum used to come out into the garden and play with us if it rained on a summer day. It also feels like such a blessing (bein’ from farming stock an’all I guess).

2. I am book-crazy as are my sisters. My mum used to threaten to put all my books in a bag and throw them out because I concentrated so completely whilst reading that she would yell and yell for me and I would not hear her. My parents even had my hearing checked, only to find it was perfect. When I married, my husband used to get annoyed if I was reading as he would try to talk to me and I wouldn’t even notice he was there. Now he has the bug too! As do the kids, with Little Lady reading her way through Enid Blyton and the boys taking their books to bed. That makes me a very happy woman.

3. I studied psychology at university and absolutely loved it, but then ended up in the civil service and local government. I spent years trying to work out what I want and now I am starting to find peace and satisfaction in what I do alhamdulillah.

4. My favourite colour is green – green cars, green paper, green gems, lush green grass, green fabrics, I adore the colour.

Source

5. I hate making chapatti’s, which I have to do every day. I resist it so much that, every time I get started now my brain starts to space out big time and I am suddenly exhausted. I can’t say that to anyone though, or they will just think I am making up excuses not to cook.

6. Palestine will always be an emotive issue for me because I was a kid during the time preceding the first intifada and saw a young Palestinian boy being beaten by two soldiers on the news. I had nightmares for a long time and can still remember the scene exactly and what he looked like.

7. I had no idea about my family history and assumed it had been lost, until I asked my gran once and she took me back six generations, it was the most amazing experience. Instead of recording in books, there was a man who had memorised every family tree in the region who used to visit each family and recite their geneology.

8. When Little Lady was born she looked like a plain boy and I used to call Kojak. I saw her for the first time and thought “…Oh, is that what you look like? Never mind, I will love you anyway”, then she got to about six months and started looking like a cute little boy. I look at her now and feel like she is the loveliest girl in the world (but then I am her mum).

9. I and the kids all like licking lemons, we are forever getting told off for this by the hubby who doesn’t like them and insists we will end up with a bad throat because of the sourness.

10. I will be married nine years this week insh’Allah (the time has whizzed past) and I turn 30 this month insh’Allah –I still feel 21 though, and I have no intention of growing up!

In turn I tag:

Umm Travis
Umm Lazeena
iMuslimah
Eternal Peace
Mummyjaan
Nor
Umm Nassim
C
Umm Malaak
Safiyyah
and anyone else who fancies having a go!

Random Facts Meme

I was tagged by the lovely Sis Washi and it looked like fun, so here goes:

1. Six names you go by:
- Umm Salihah
- Umm Abdullah
- Zaan
- Za-Za (honestly!!! Rolls eyes)
- Mama
- Muuu-um

2.Three things you are wearing right now:
- Jade raw silk scarf courtesy of Kooky Little Sis
- One-off haute couture black abaya (my bare canvas) made by mum (cost £5)
- Armful of jade coloured bangles (they were too light to make noise)


3. Two things you want very badly at the moment:
- To get away from my desk and go for a walk in the park
- Bury myself under the blanket and duvet on my bed and sleep all day

4. Three people who will do this: (only if you want to!)
- Everyone has already done it by the looks of it!
- Anyone who wants to because it’s fun
- Big Sis cause I like her so much

5. Two things you did last night:
- Made some “thank you” cards for the kids teachers for the end of the school year
- Practised Arabic with Little Lady (“un, bun, tun, thun…”)

6. Two things you did today:
- Skive at work
- Get super-grumpy on the bus this morning till I saw some daffodils and totally forgot all about it.

7. Two Things you ate today:
- Nuts and dried fruit
- Chocolate covered peanuts (my current craving)

8. Two people you last talked to on the phone:
- The gentleman who manages the borough’s highways
- The lady who manages commercial debt for the borough (what?! I’m at work)

9. Two things you are going to do tomorrow:
- Celebrate Friday
- See if I can flutter my eyelashes at hubby to take us out for a meal

10. Favourite beverage:
- Warm milk with a spoon of coffee and a spoon of sugar (oh that’s like a latte isn’t it?)

Good Deeds Meme

We all make the good intention to perform good deeds and find ways to balance out the small sins we knowingly or unknowingly commit in our everyday lives. Our dreams of the big sadaqah project, of doing community work, of making time to learn more Quran or gain more knowledge or do something substantial that will please Allah (SWT) are often so worthy. In reality though, we find our plans dropping by the wayside and our homes, husband, children and work taking centre stage. Often we do not have the opportunity to make lots of nawafil prayer or stay up through the night in prayer. In place of the great schemes then we are left with the small things. The little kindnesses and thoughtful actions which we can hope will add to our balance when we are judged. Some of the ones I can think of are:

- Smile – it is a form of sadaqah
- Give up tour seat on the bus or train for someone who needs it more (I KNOW you all do this anyway)
- Make dhikr as you go about your daily chores.
- Visit a friend and see if she needs anything
- Say salaam to a sister you see on the street. You might just make her feel less alone.
- Help someone get their pram up or down stairs.
- Buy a pack of biscuits or sweets and share them with your colleagues.
- Lend someone an Islamic book
- Explain to someone why you wear hijab, or pray or follow Islam.
- Say hello to the cleaner, janitor or maid and ask them how they are. Perhaps no-one normally acknowledges that they even exist.
- Show a sister how to wrap hijab.
- Send part of your meal to your neighbour.
- Take someone a small gift
- Be the one to make a new person feel welcome to your office, class, neighbourhood or sisters group
- Learn one verse of the Quran each day as you go about your work.

I nominate anyone who wants to have a go, to tell us what small good deeds we can do to increase our standing on the last day and wash away some of our sins.

Jummah Mubarak to all of you.

“Fear Allah wherever you may be; follow up an evil deed with a good one which will wipe (the former) out, and behave good-naturedly towards people.” ~ Tirmidhi

"A prostitute was forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for it. So, Allah forgave her because of that." ~Bukhari [Vol 4, 54: 538]

Sofa Epic and Complainer’s Challenge

I did plan lots for this last weekend, but I ended up doing…nothing. Well, nothing productive anyway. I have spent all summer talking my husband out of removing the chimneys from our downstairs (why are all Asians obsessed with removing chimneys – why does about three foot more space by the wall improve our lives so drastically considering it costs so much?). Anyway after agreeing it was unnecessary on a number of occasion, he announced on Friday evening that we had better pack up the back room (where I keep all of my books, the children’s toys, my craft supplies, all of my stationary, paperwork and the computer and pram with all of the children’s coats in it) as the builders were coming on the weekend. So packed everything up in boxes and spend two days sitting on my mum’s sofa. Usually this is one of my favourite places, but by the end of two days of being stuck inside with the kids with nothing to do, we were all going crazy. I spent two days eating rubbish (chocolate bars, pancakes, chips and fish-fingers, chocolate fudge cake, chilli crisps, halal cola bottles, chocolate biscuits…).

I spent most of the two days watching my family channel-hop at high-speed (Long-Suffering Sister is queen of this, whereas Kooky Little Sister just watches weird stuff). In the evening we have the treat of the 45 minute film. This is when my mum watches a particular Indian channel every day at 8pm to see the view the first 45 minutes of a film, before the channel shuts its free-view slot. This is to encourage people to subscribe. Of course the film-makers have clocked on and right before the 45 minutes is about to finish, there is some great surprise about to unfold which has you hooked, which you cannot see the denouement of. None of this seems to bother my mum at all and she happily watches the first 45 minutes every day. I also spent the weekend looking at my books, but not reading a thing. I took my journals with me, flicked through them and again did not a thing. I sat with my gran for a while which is usually something productive, but she was on one of her bi-annual fits of temper, usually caused by one or other of her relatives, so spent two days shouting, swearing and threatening on the phone to the other end of London and to Pakistan, with the rest of us trying not to wet ourselves with laughter while she threatened to “come over there in my wheelchair if I have to and yank all of your hair out!”

Any way the lovely Umm Travis, has shown exemplary timing Mash’Allah with her challenge asking us how long we can go without a complaint and her challenge to have an attitude of gratitude. So I am thinking about the weekend and what I have to be grateful for – a good rest which has left me with buckets of energy and a renewed focus. I am grateful that I spent time with my parents and sisters, I am grateful that they were patient enough to put up with me and my rowdy kids all weekend. I am grateful that my husband cares enough to try and make our home comfortable and beautiful for us. I am thankful that my gran is well enough to yell for 50 minutes without taking breath. I am grateful that I made time to speak with family in Pakistan (a new bride to congratulate, a new baby to ask after, and an ill mother-in-law to make giggle amongst others).

In turn I tag beloved Big Sis, Sis Rainbow, Sis Umm Nassim, Sis Lubna, Sis Umm Zachariya, and anyone else who would like to have a go, please join in if you like.

Meme for Curious People.

I have been meaning to do this for ages since I was tagged by Sister Ummihabibati (or Sis Rainbow as I call her) for a tag on bloggers I wonder about. Of course, being a nosy person I am curious sometimes about:

Big Sis - I wonder what my bestest buddy is up to right now and whether she is destined for her very special trip this year insh’Allah.

Sis Rainbow - and how she is doing with home-schooling her kids and her thoughts on life in the UK for Muslims, I am sure she lives down the road from me (not literally, just not far away).

Sister Umm Nassim - and how on earth she finds all of the great resources that she links up to for us. (I found her Street Children series here and here brilliant, especially after Little Lady announced that she didn’t see any poor people in Pakistan and I was just lying. I think these video’s challenged her skewed world view deeply, they certainly moved her).

Sister Lubna - I wonder where she gets the inspiration for her delicious creations and what makes her love cooking so much.

Sis Ange - I wonder if she ever resorts to decking people when they annoy her, she sounds feisty.

Sister Umm Travis – and how she is managing in Egypt and whether she has picked up the language.

Sister Muslimah at Independent Learners - I wonder where she is right now, I think she lives quite near me too (small world). Also I wonder how she makes the time go by when her husband is away (with Jamaat, not away with the fairies) as mine occasionally is.

I also wonder how Sister Hijabi Apprentice (or Umm Mustapha aka Umm Patootie) and Sister iMuslimah (or Umm iBaby) are doing as new mums.

Brother Mr Moo - I wonder if his family find him as funny as we do, or whether his other half ever tells him to be quiet.


I think I was only supposed to tag five people. Well you have all been tagged!! Join in if you like.

Six Word Memoir Meme

I've been tagged for the first time by the lovely sis Saffiyah - I'm sooo clueless, but here goes:

The Rules

1. Write your own six word memoir

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4. Tag five more blogs with links

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Spreading the love, loving the faith

or

My stomach will be my downfall

(I love my food ;))

I tag:

Sisters Big Plan

iMuslimah

The Covered Lady

Beautiful Muslimah

Diary of A First Wife

This is too much work!