it took a while...

two days solid in fact. Negotiating my shonky connection to make a few changes around here was a true test of my sanity, but I did it and the place looks a bit brighter don't you think?

today, ALL of my schooly children have a full day of learning... well, I say learning which strictly speaking isn't what goes on in the Algerian school system but never mind. We've had two weeks of exams with some of the children only having school in the morning and some in the afternoon. I can't believe I home-schooled them all for so long without going completely and uttterly demented. They would have tested the patience of the most pious, and I'm not kidding you. Algerian children are wild. And my children are becoming seriously Algerian

I have nothing much planned today, beyond some mild menu planning....a tight-ish month lies ahead. Our shop has been closed for a month (most butchers close for at least that long after Eid) so I'm going right back to basics with my budget and cooking insha'allah.

I'm thinking of doing a post a day for December.... a budget and menu plan special.
It might keep me on track.. it could drive me madder, quicker!
Who knows?

Other than that, there's nothing much doing except some crochet catch up. DD7 needs to have the poncho I started sometime before the cold weather ends so I need to crack on with it insha'allah.

I have things to share later, so I might yet be back at the other end of this fine and sunny Algiers day....
yeah sunny!  We're almost dried out now mash'allah. Two rooms have stopped leaking and are now forming some decorative water bubbles that look like they want to burst.
Our store room is the one room that refuses to stop soaking up all available water and raining indoors. Which is a problem as fas as food storage goes, but there's nowt to be done if the room is insisting on being a sponge.

Me, I'm just getting on with it. Homesickness is behind me. Seven months of careful saving and a moderate amount of planning are ahead of me. There will be frustrations, and no doubt more bouts of longing for "home" but that's life, innit!

We've been back at school for about three weeks now and I really should be settling into some kind of routine...
It's been hard getting back into a rhythm though after four months of summer holiday.
I've been trying to ignore all the things that distract me from being present and attentive during my children's day. It's been hard... I'm easily and all too willingly distracted from most things domestic, and so it's been a challenge to stay focused at times.
 Three weeks in though and the barest hint of me actually getting my crazy act together is finally starting to show. The children are mildly relieved and I'm sure by the time the winter holiday comes round in December I'll have almost found my feet.

Nothing much else has happened over the past three weeks. Dh has been and come back from the UK....
I have tea, I have chocolate, the 18 month old has quickly learned to use both of these new words with willful abundance and my sanity will be thankfully less questionable for a wee while, at least until the tea and choccy runs out. And if only I could muster enough intrest to load the bread machine with enough bits and bobs to make a half decent loaf so that I had a more interesting vehicle for my Marmite than scraggy old Algerian baguette then I'd be on a bloomin roll luvvies.

However, this is ME, and I have a list of wanna do's longer than I care to admit to and it's time to kick my botty into gear. I remain hopeful that October will be THE month the brain fog finally clears!

I haven't forgotten by the way, the requests for recipes. we've had some connection issues, I seem to be sorted now though so I'll be posting a few later in the week insha'allah. Unfortunately my phone and only source of picture taking died on me and I'm waiting to see if it can be fixed, so I'm not sure what will be happening on the photo front. DD19 and I often go out these days and lust after camera's in our local shopping mall... but that will have to wait. We're tryng to be grown up, by not allowing our wants to overtake our needs.
SO not easy!!!

Eid and beyond...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food, dressmaking and cakes seem to have been at the forefront of everything we've done or thought about doing for the past month and a bit.

I don't usually enjoy sewing these days, most of my sewing is functional and not too inspiring, but I enjoyed making these masha'allah and the girls love wearing them too which always helps to boost the seamstresses ego.

We're concentrating now on getting the children ready for the start of a new school semester on Sunday. And praying that dh's long journey to the UK is a safe and fruitful one insha'allah. Our pace of life (and eating habits) change when he's not here and we consoled ourselves with his going away with some good old fashioned bangers and mash!

Tomorrow we're off on an early morning jaunt to the market to stock up on school supplies, and then home to bake for some guests we're hopefully having in the evening. We have days to fill.

xxx

Living well on less...

After my last post I was asked to share my thoughts on budgeting and meal planning..
I'm not an expert and I make mistakes...sometimes big ones!
My budget isn't foolproof, but if I stick to some basic principles I can keep my family well fed and happy without having to worry too much.

So let me get one thing straight before we start. Budgeting and living a life even remotely bordering on frugality
doesn't automatically mean you're going to have to live a life of dismal deprivation, eating the boxes other peoples food came in and going completely freegan in a last ditch attempt to keep your head above water on the money front.

Keeping within your budget and being frugal means you're going to be living more conciously... this is a good thing. It means you're thinking about the wider picture and keeping within budget means you're more likely to be able to eat as well at the end of the month as you did at the beginning, which is never bad, especially when you have children.... things can get ugly when children are hungry!

I've  always tried to live a conciously frugal lifestyle, but in the UK I didn't run my budget from my own purse. I wrote a bi-monthly list of everything we needed and then worked with whatever I had to hand. I had a moderate stockpile and things on the grocery front at least, were pretty peachy.

My journey into the word of proper grown up budgeting was born out of neccessity after we made the move to Algeria in the spring of 2008. We had no choice but to tighten our belts and take a cold hard look at our finances. We had no desire to end up back in the UK, but staying in Algeria meant being financially stable, and at the time we were very far from that.

Now for the lovely sister that asked, I can give you the lowdown on my budget but remember its all relative. What works for my family won't work for anyone else. However I'm all for taking the gist of an idea and moulding it to shape my own needs...alot of my budgeting strategy has been picked up along the way after seeing what worked for other people and then adapting it to fit my own familiy's needs

My first top tip is that you make sure that you and spousey are on the same page. Which means you need to sit down together and take an honest look at your finances and what you can and can't do with them. You won't be able to work magic but you can draw up some kind of a plan to make it easier to spend your money wisely, reduce debts and stay afloat.

This is the boring grown up bit... list all your expenses..'  ALL of them!
Everything from the utility bills to the children's pocket money. Include every single expense you can think of. And then start the weeding out process. Some of what's on your list will be an immovabe part of your monthly budget, but take a good look at everything and see if there are things you can reduce spending on or even stop spending on completely.

What you're attempting to do is live within a financial framework, which can be quite daunting at first..especially if like me, you have an aversion bordering on insane to anything remotely grown up and responsible. Which is a somewhat shocking admission from a mother with seven children, but there you are.

To give you some idea of how a budget can work I'll give you a quick glimpse at mine insha'allah

My "payday" is the first of every month. Although sometimes life conspires to make me go ever so slighty over budget and then I may have to start my new month a few days earlier.

We put aside each month what we think we might need to cover utility bills, tutors fees, medical bills, etc. More often than not we're pleasanly surprised to have money leftover, which then gets carried forward to next month.  My household allowance then covers everything else, groceries, school equipment, drinking water, internet. basically everything household including clothing.

The first thing I do when I start my new month is to pay for my next months worth of internet. It's a bit pricey at 2500da a month, but I'm in Africa..I need the contact with the outside world and quite frankly the children need me sane!

Next comes water, my other big budget buster. It's not that I don't trust the tap water here... ah heckers who am I kidding.. I don't trust the tap water here and if it's a choice between the raging runs and putting my hand in my pocket for bottled water, then guess what? I bulk buy 10-15 cases in the winter, more in the summer of course..and have it delivered, which mean I score low on being eco friendly on the transport & packaging. But sometimes a compromise, no matter how ugly it is  has to be made somewhere.

I also buy my milk in bulk at the start of the month, one day I hope I live somewhere where I can easily get hold of fresh unpasturied mik on a daily basis... in the meantime it's Candia.

After that the only other bulk buy I do is flour and semolina. I buy a 25kg sack of flour for 700da on a good day..and seeing as a 1kg bag of flour currently retails at 55da where I live it's a saving audacious enough to blow your socks off.

Once that's taken care of I do the veggies. I write up a list based on what I know is in season and send my boys off to my regular veggie man.. who will quite often let me have any poorer quality veg he has on my list for free. My veg will normally cost me anything between 1500 - 1700da a week..sometimes I have enough to carry me through to the following week although I constantly have to top on potatoes...but I blame that on Irish genes.

As far as fruit is concerned I'm a total opportunist and willl buy whatever I can whenever it's cheap enough.
Dried goods I buy as I need them. If I can sort my storage issues I'd be happy for this to change but at the moment I can't bear to think of laying out money for dried goods only to have them get infested with moths and other wildlife and being useless.

Eggs are bought by the tray at the start of each week for roughly 300da..and depending on how much baking we do wil normally last us a week perhaps less.

Twice a month I buy about 250da worth of peanuts and make peanut butter...  I've also just started making my own applesauce and easy pickles.

Meat, I score lucky on, dh is a butcher, so meat these days comes to me for free. When I was having to buy meat out of my budget we hardly ate any meat at all , and ALWAYS the cheaper cuts... It's amazing how tasty turkey neck is!

Oil I buy in 5ltr bottles, though if it's not Ramadhan I try not to use too much and normally a 5ltr bottle if kept out of the hands of those who cook with gay abandon will last me the whole month.
I also buy a large tub of ghee at the start of the month and a couple of large bottls of olive oil.

Everything else I buy (apart from rice and pasta) is by mizan (weight) which means I can buy as much or as little as I need or my purse can cope with.

Anything else like clothes, unless it's an emergency buy has to be saved for...which is no bad thing, certainly in terms of teaching you to seperate your wants from your needs. 

Of course the biggest hurdle you may have in your new endeavour to save money and stick to a budget are teenagers! If you have one at home it's a good idea to bring them on board and explain to them why you're jumping the good ship spontanious and suddenly changing tactics... after all your decision to spend less or at least spend more wisely will no doubt have a knock on effect on the teens lifestyle somewhere.

Once you've decided to keep a budget, try and keep track of where your money is really being spent. For the first few months of my budgeting life I kept a tally of everything I bought during each budget month...and I mean everything. It was soon easy to see where my money was going and to spot any wastage. I was then able to weed out any budget busters and save some money.

At the end of your month it's always useful to review your spending. Are there things you need to change or things you could have done better?
It might take a while for you to get used to budgeting and fine tuning it the needs of your family. Mine is constantly evolving to take into account the needs of my children or price hikes. I've got used to it. But even I have to go back to the drawing board occassionlly and take a really good look at how I'm spending my cash.

My goal for September is to start having some no-spend days. it's been on my list of goals for ages and it's complete laziness tempered with a dash of disorganisation that's stopped me till now. But I'm hoping it will change next month.

In my next post I'll give you the lowdown on menu planning insha'allah. And saving time and money in the kitchen.

·         

For the past two years of my hijrah, I have ambled along. Living life, dealing with crisis, big, small and middling, got pregnant, had a baby...volunteered as a teacher...dealt with the numerous and varied curve balls the dh throws at me.. learnt new skills, made new friends,..lived in three different homes, and as each phase was dealt with and passed, somewhere deep inside there was a niggle that woudn't budge.

I've been slightly off kilter the whole while and didn't realise it till this afternoon when, after nearly  week of suffering the ill effects of a mutant virus and feeling as if I would never feel well again the realisation suddenly hit me full in the face. It's the lack of home-ed that's making everything cock-eyed and out of balance.

Reading through one of my old journals later this evening only served to confirm it... I was so much more productive when I homeschooled. Everything was centred, and we had a a lifestyle based on teaching, learning and exploring faith. And not only do I miss it, I realise now that it's made a profound difference in how I live my daily life...

Of course the children have gained alot of benefit from being at school for the past two years, but we've also sacrificed something huge. And now that I've realised what the problem is, I now need to find a way to heal the wound..which isn't quite gaping but is, none the less in need of a soothing balm insha'allah.

I need to find a way to bridge the gap that a non homeschooling life has made, two years is a long time to have wandered along an unfamiliar road without realising....

the weekend..

has thus far (apart from a visit from a neary & deary who I don't see nearly enough of) been a bit  bleugh...
well actually it's been really bleugh... not at all what I wanted or needed and now a fresh week is nearly upon us and I betcha it's got a load more bleugh waiting for us...

the problem with my weekends lately is many sided...
for one..we can't use our car... (foreign car..foregn papers..Algerian red tape) which means no chance of getting anywhere outside of walking distance.What's that? public transport? erm....in Algeria.... well lets just say I'd rather not....
Secondly the dh is working 7 days straight at the minute so thats a bit of a bummer too...

the biggest problem with my weekeding though is me...yup I am my main problem... and probably alot of other people's too... but I digress...

I used to plan my weekends ahead of time... really put some thought  into what I wanted to get out of them..even the simplest passtimes had some status within those two scrumptiousth  days of opportunity...

and yet since coming to Algeria I seem to have let myself slip..and now the weekend kind of falls through my fingers with me not having very much to show for except a shortened temper and loads of grumpy kids...

it's time therefor to pull myself up by the bootstraps and be a bit more pro-active, especially with the long FOUR month summer hoiday less than TWO weeks away....
personally I'm looking forward to it marginaly more than I'm dreading it...
I mean if  I can barely make it through a weekend with my sanity and the children's lives intact how the hell am I going to make through an entire summer??
My lovely friend asked me yesterday what my plans were for the next few months ahead..and I of the non-stop gob had nothing to say!!
This of course is neither normal nor right... so some summer plans will have to be put into place..otherwise some horrible things might happen at home to some unsuspecting individuals in my life...

So, it's a new year huh?
time to look forward and face new challenges.....

We actually passed the Islamic new year already, and in my house we celebrate neither.
But it is a chance (on both occasions) to think and reflect about how we passed the year gone and what we hope to achieve during the one facing us...

Personally, I'm suffering partial brain fog right now....
and can barely think past the next few minutes,

but things looming on the horizon this year are....
hopefully a visit from my Mum and neice and her beautiful boys insha'allah, which is something we're all looking forward to. It will be two years by then since the last time we saw them, and with our patchy communication (too expensive to phone UK, and we're not even going to discuss the internet connection!) and lack of decent postal service it's been really hard to stay in touch. We have managed, but barely..and it will be nice to have them here and show them the place we call home.

School remains our main focus of attention for the first half of the year, it's all consuming at times, and the school system makes for a really frustrating experience both for the children and the parents. Here the emphasis is on exams, exams, exams...and each term is so full of tests, mock exams and real exams that you begin to wonder where the real learning is happening.
Here in Algeria, if you don't reach the required total in your exams you get the opportunity to repeat the whole year all over again...so we will spend the next few months coaxing, cajloing and worrying our children into studying, revising and re-revising until we're all fit to burst!.

And hopefully there will be some studying for the older family members... I've only just managed to drag out my study books and dust them off, hoping to be able to pick up where I left off. Just don't tell anyone the last time I did any serious amount of studying was when I was still in the UK...

And insha'allah this year we hope to get out and about a bit more...car problems meant we were pretty housebound this summer gone,  it'll be nice to finally get to explore!

Our English lessons in the masjid look set to continue this year, and we may even introdce a craft session for the girls.

it would be good to get some of  THAT  bloomin list accomplished too.....

Really I just hope to have a year full of goodness and blessings from Allah ta'ala..in whatever shape or form they may come. And I pray that all those out there who are suffering hardships find some relief from their problems and gain a bountiful reward for their patient perseverance, ameen

all in all,

the past week and a bit has been a pretty hard slog..and I have been more than happy to see the back of it all..

There is something relentless about sickness in a large family...

it just all seems to keep going round and round and....

well, you get the idea right?

so, I have welcomed December with open arms...

eager to start a fresh month, with new possibilties and put the  nasty old puke filled one behind us...

crafting has been happening...s.l.ow.l.y

what can I say?

the urge to craft dwells within us,

the ability however to find space in the day to achieve it is something else altogether!

Our lack of routine is seriously wreaking havoc on my craft life and it isn't making for a totally happy bunny!

I seem to be in a constant state of routine change these days,

something is slightly off kilter, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find the beat of your own rhythm when everyone else's  is so bloomin loud!

I battle on regardless though, trying to find a way to carve some time for myself while tending the needs of others, and the most routine changing decision I have made this week is to give up tutoring..

a decision that has taken me weeks to make,

but one that feels right.

Living in the commmunity I tutor has not been an altogether profitable experience in many ways.

It's just been far too convenient for people to drop in unannounced and univited for impromptu advice, lessons and requests to do any number of relatives homework..

So, apart from my once a week job in the masjid AND a few tutoring favours for friends I have decided to take no more new students and to let the ones I have go...

especially after my 10.30 saturday girls decided to take their chance in coming this morning at 9.30.

Of course it's because their mothers are busy with weekend cleaning and want them out of the way..if they dont come to me they wander the streets.

And on one hand I feel bad, but on the other hand I can't allow myself to be used as a baby sittig service at the expense of my own childrens weekend...

The school routine (especially exam time) is pretty outrageous and I just feel the need to spend some quality weekend time with my own children rather than other peoples...

Which means I'm looking forward to some proper weekends with some proper downtime insha'allah...

anyway... a walk into town this afternoon means I need to get cracking and sort myself out..

we're off to buy a couple of pattern(crochet)books

and see what (Algerian quality) yarn can possibly entice us..

Well what can I say?....

It's quite clearly no easy task finding the time to come here and share with you!

Life has picked up a pace, and with first semester exams looming we are being kept busy with students coming and going, for supplementary lesson, and sometimes just for advice.

That, combined with the regular demands of family life have all conspired to keep me away.

When we came to Algeria last June, we knew that we wanted to be as involved in our local community as we possibly could, and for us the main area we've concentrated on so far has been in offering tuition (in English)at home, and our local masjid.

It's been a fruitful and rewarding project, though certainly not without it's challenges and frustrations...

and we're really now beginning to enjoy the girls we teach masha'allah.

Alot of time is spent in planning lessons and finding interesting, and enjoyable ways for the girls to become more confident in their language skills, and for the most part it seems we are winning the battle.

There is a general lack of respect between teachers and students here in Algeria, and it seems the  only teaching tool required here is the ability to bully knowledge into children...so our girls have found it a refreshing change to be so so involved with their own learning path and to be respected enough not to be slapped, smacked and verbally pelted with a barrage of abuse every time they get something wrong.

It's been such a joy to come back after a long summer break and find young girls enthusing about learning and being in a classroom on their afternoon off from school.

On the home-front... changes to our lifestyle continue to happen.... but that's a blog post waiting to happen...

Wonderful new Kabylie recipes have been learnt and I'm waiting for a spare moment and time enough to upload my photos so I can share them with you.

I'm really blessed that my kabylie neighbour is so willing to show me the ropes, and I'm learning to be yet more frugal with her wonderfully rustic and wholesome dishes masha'allah.

And now I'm off, to think about what lies ahead tomorrow...

a day at home..only one student due in the evening (for dd18)

lesson plans and study notes needing my attention

and lots of cooking that needs to be done..after a day with only variations on the theme of pasta lovingly yet unceremoniously thrown at anyone who stood still for long enough it's time to get back in the kitchen and create some homliness for those poor unfortunates traipsing about in the damp, increasingly chilly Autumn weather.

New rhythms...

It's been a strange summer, full of highs and lows and unexpected turns.

Nothing we planned to do came to fruition, but plenty of things happened along the way that we weren't quite ready for, but got through anyway.

And now, at the end of ramadhan it's time to start thinking about getting the children ready for school again after a long four months of holiday.

We're all looking forward to a change of pace to lift what has become a monotonous routine, too much time off is just as bad as none at all it seems, and we're more than ready to get moving again insha'allah.

And for me personally, it's been a time of transition, moving home again... getting to know new neighbours and nuturing new friendships.

Which is why I'm in a new blogspace, I come back to blogging after a bit of a break with a new attitude towards putting my thoughts out and sharing what we do as a family, for a while I was ready to give up blogging completely, but for me, and those I now live so far away from I guess it serves a purpose that can't be easily overlooked.

I have spent the summer deep in thought about my roles as, wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend.

I've also spent alot of time thinking about my own needs and how they relate to my relationships with other people.

It's been a time of introspection and a time for deciding which paths to take next and how best to move on insha'allah.

I'm now a couple of months into my second year here in Algeria, and it's been hard to say the least...but the challenges have brought their own rewards.

I'm thankful for the opportunities I've had in the past year

and hopeful about the possibilites that lay ahead insha'allah.

So as we race towards the end of ramadhan, and towards a new academic year for the children I feel truly excited at what might lie ahead....