Today...

 on the walk home from collecting one of the wee people from school, the 3 and a bit year old decided to do the whole John Cleese, ministry of funny walks gig, with wild abandon, a huge grin on his face and loads of giggles from him, and us....

it's not the norm here, of course... but then so much of what we do isn't, that we're pretty much past caring what people think and we just let the kid get on with things in his own peculiar way...

on a later walk home, we were following a few sheep, one of which was doing it's own peculiar walk... which gave me  a slight fit of the giggles... and the 9 year old, complete with very heavy backpack, walked the rest of the way home singing, something about a sheep, moving one way and it's tail moving another, with some interesting drumlike sound effects and not a little swaying this way and that from her... which could have been because of the very heavy school
bag but I'm not totally convinced!

Again, we drew a few stares, which to be honest appeals to the Britishness in us and just made us a bit more giggly...  

It was on my almost last school run of the day, whilst being blown hither and thither in the market, that I mused over how immodest the wind is, and that I'm not keen on my hijab being blown all over the show when I'm least expecting it...(my personal ploy is to turn around and walk backwards for a bit, which my daughters tell me looks a bit weird here but what the heck, in for a penny in for a pound I say!)  anyway this led to another fit of the giggles when dd21 suggested that it made us humble hijabis look like we have  jumpsuits on when the wind blows at us full throttle and mercilessly moulds every inch of fabric to every lumpy bump you possess....

we have a fair number of giggly walks...and I sometimes think it's a shame that I don't see enough Algerians embracing the giggly bits of life.... 

sometimes the reality of how different we are as a family hits me when I least expect it, and I know alot of sisters struggle with the divide. But the more I dare to be myself, the more I realise how accomodating Algerians are... and if they look sideways at me today for being a bit giggly about silly stuff they wouldn't bother to crack a smile for, they'll hardly bat an eyelid
 when they catch me doing it next time...

Weekending...

So it's Friday already.. the day of the week I've been waiting for with relish... it's the day for letting go and just being...
No rainy, cold, drizzly walk to school... no breakfast too early for appetite... a chance to wake slowly and enjoy the warmth of the covers for a while longer before facing the chill..

The beds are all still down in our communal sleeping space, the big boys have taken themselves off to the tutors, and I'm thinking about what I might do with this day of ours.

I hate planning... I fly by the seat of my pants these days, taking life as it comes at me. And on the odd day when neccesity makes me scrawl a to-do list I can only work in brief stages.. planning the next hour or two ahead... no more.

It's a challenge for at least one of my children, who is an organizer, a naturally neat and ordered person who needs to know what's happening ahead of time... all the time.
I try to accommodate everyone in my house, but there are just some things about yourself you can't change... and this for me is one of them.

So my day is starting slowly... it's raining outside, it's cold enough for me to think about lighting the fire inside once all the mattresses are up and out of the way... the 3 yr old is awake and happy to have found that we've brought the kittens (newly born four days ago to a slightly slapdash mama cat!) into the sitting room during the night... it was far too cold upstairs and one of her brood has already lost the struggle for life.

Someone else has gone to put the kettle on the stove for tea, and the first wash of the day has just started tumbling about in the machine... it's a low impact kind of day... no need to rush about making sure lunch is on time... there are enough lentils from yesterday to suffice... perhaps I'll throw some bread dough in a bowl and let it sit on the fire to prove in this all purpose winter room of ours... sometimes I kinda wish we had a wood burner set in the middle or could at least bring the primus stove in here ...

And then I remember it's Friday.. and I need to put pans of water on the stove for Friday showers... and that  I need to plug in the emergency power because the rain did seep into the electrics again and we need light in the bathroom...

The 3 yr old has settled himself down next to the kittens under the fully loaded clothes horse, some of the others are watching the last bits of a film... HOOK I think...

It's a nice start to a weekend which might deteriorate at some point into siblings screaming at one another... the 3 yr old doing what he does best and creating all kinds of havoc, and me screaming at the 14 yr old in my life to clear his room up... it currently looks like a hurricane it it.

The day of course, will be punctuated several times over by prayer, and hopefully some Qur'an.. the nearly 9 yr old has started blessing us with her very own unique Qur'an recital skills.. and as a mother I'm happy to hear the happiness in her voice as she belts out verse after verse... the others of course are different.. siblings don't have the same tolerance levels as peaced out mums....

Breakfast is nearly here... the eldest has made crepes while I've been sitting here... the 12 yr old is about to brave the rain to buy butter... the 3 yr old has been crawling around on the floor pretending to be a cat... and  most of our mattresses are still dotted about the floor... it's time to start.

Time to do something slow, yet constructive... to think about grabbing my knitting bag at some point today too and getting on with that cardigan...

Here is some of our week in pictures....

rain rain, go away.....

it's been raining for over a week now, incessant and dismal and very, very heavy.
I've said it before I'm sure, but there is nothing like Algerian rain.. it's relentless. I spent the majority of last week wet.. and muddy. and sleeping with my family in our living room to get away from the leaky upper level of our house. But we haven't flooded yet so this I tell myself is a bonus. We needed the rain.. in fact about half an hour before it started a couple of our local mosques prayed Salat-al-Istisqah.. which is basically a plea for rain.. it worked.. I was standing outside the school when the heavens opened and the rain came down, and it's hardly stopped since.

It's at times like this that I have to remind myself why I came here. Why I put up with the sub standard housing, the mud, dust and bugs...This time last year I was almost booking tickets to go back to the UK, so I guess there's been some kind of an improvement because it hasn't got that bad for me yet this year...

Hijrah does get easier for people. I see the evidence in how other people are living, but then maybe I'm only seeing the surface... who knows how hard it is for people really and how much they divulge about the difficulties of living here. I have yet to see it in my own life.. but we march on regardless... getting through the day and making the best of what we have, and don't have.

Lately I've begun to supplement the 8yr olds schooling ...  trying to weave into this life of ours some of the homeschooling lifestyle we left behind. So we've been reading ALOT... Roald Dahl is what she's loving at the moment and me, doing the grand high Witch complete with German accent is making her super giggly. She's also doing some Math drills online to try and get to grips with the speed at which lessons move in this country. And slowly, very slowly she's recognizing words in English and reading them on her own.

It's been a strange learning curve for her. Her first spoken language is English, but she's so fluent in Algerian derdja that English has become a language she only uses if she has to... She can't read English yet, she learnt to read Arabic first and is learning to read French before attempting to read English in any determined way. So the pace is slow, sometimes too slow for Algerian teachers and she's fallen behind her classmates a little. But this happens in the life of the multi-lingual child. And while I patiently sit by waiting for her brain to filter all the languages and make sense of it all, knowing that eventually it will all settle and make sense to her, the teachers here are not so forward thinking. I console myself with the fact that school will be out by the end of May most probably this year and that we can settle down in the summer to some home-ed unschooling style and do what comes most naturally to us all.

And we're embracing simplicity. Sometimes due to neccesity, but also from choice.
We live a pretty frugal, simple life anyway... we're minimalist from habit and don't have alot of the "stuff" that other folk have. But this year I was determined to set myself a challenge and make this my year of living sunnah. embracing from it what I could and living my Islam more holistically.

Which is why I started the New Year quietly... keeping myself slightly at arms length. Putting it all into perspective and taking slow, purposeful steps. I have hermit tendencies, and I'm standing slightly further back all the time,  no longer trying to find the place where I'll fit but content at last with the fact  that I never will and feeling comfortable with it.

And the rest of the day ahead?
Well the rain is falling... upstairs is leaking and out of bounds. Outside my window the mountains have disappeared into a grey cloudy haze and are no longer visible and I have all of the children in the sitting room trying to stay warm and not get on each other nerves. We were supposed to go to the doctors today for a routine visit for more meds but we're not brave enough to face the rain today. I'm off to cook, and get some laundry done. Figure out my spending plan for February, decide whether I'm going to plan my menu's next month or not. Get some more knitting done, a chunky scrapbusting scarf for the 3yr old and some of the Shalom Cardi that's coming along so nicely despite a couple of very minor imperfections that I can live with and the 8yr old won't notice. And if you've really been taking notice since my last post you'll have notice that the cardi is no longer destined for the 12yr old... we have a bit of a yarn, needle problem here in Algeria .. not enough different sized needles to suit the yarn weights... and I'm not going to even bother discussing my relationship with Math & Dyscalculia  here and my innability to veer even slightly from the pattern... so the cardi is slightly smaller than it should be but will fit the 8yr old nicely thank you...

Pictures will come eventually, when the rain stops and the Internet connection can take the pace of multi-tasking...

Okay people (cue applause) I got to day 14....
pretty good given my track record of sticking to things...

Day 14 is when life hit, school is out, children are home and well, there just aren't enough hours in the day to be honest.
In fact the only reason I'm here now is because they're uncommonly late getting up and dh has left already. Otherwise.... ah well you know how it goes..

Nothing of note has been happening... we hit a bit of a wall (again) which has hit our holiday plans somewhat... but at this stage in the game I just kind of sit back and accept that this is Allah's plan and not mine, and it just "is what it is"..
Nothing more I can do... you can let frustration get the better of you but then where would you be huh?
So I'm pushing through the days, trying to get things done, and more importantly trying to find some space to get closer to Allah ta'ala.

I'm not too happy with where I'm at, Islamically.. and I really feel the need to get back to basics and improve in my worship...
I'm sure I've mentioned before that when I stopped homeschooling it had a huge impact on my eeman and how I practiced Islam on a daily basis... it's been nearly three years now and I do believe it's time enough and that some hard graft needs to happen round here...
I feel it's the answer to alot of my current predicaments and I really feel the need to find some balance.
I was discussing with dh the other night that it's something of a sadness to me that we got lulled into a false sense of security when we came to live in Dz... and that we took much better care of our deen when we weren't surrounded by Muslims... I mean we nurtured it, tended it...made sure it thrived.

The problem is, we lost focus, and didn't realise it... and now it's time to get back on track inshallah
I am working on a project in what spare time my marauding beasts children allow me, and of course I'll share it when the time is right... but I'm not rushing.. I'm taking some time to play things out and see where the feeling takes me.


And now it's time to go... children have been let out into the ziniqa (alley)  while their mothers get on with the morning cleaning and it's only a matter of time  before my own children rumble the fact that I've let them sleep in...  yup, time to get on with the day inshallah...

:: SEVEN ::

This will be my second time writing this post... my fingers got a bit slap happy while I was typing and I accidentally deleted everything... and now, as I sit here listening to the rain lashing against the side of the house I can't for the life of me start piecing that post back together again from what serves as my head...

I know menu planning was in there but after controlling the urge to take a spiteful swipe at my PC by going upstairs to check on the children I'm too cold to think thoughts of budgeting and food and ... well  it'll teach me to make some notes before I even think of approaching the keyboard in future.... 

Suffice it to say (for now at least) that it's going a good deal better this time around... I forced my own hand a little by taping the , menu to the fridge door for all to see... I gave myself less room to flake out and give up.

I even sat myself down this morning and put together another meal plan for the next seven days... 

See, I can be organised and well balanced when I have to..

It's freezing again here... after a full week of beautiful sunshine.. warm enough to have the windows open, the temperature dropped and the rains came down, and I'm shivering... I hate being cold!

if it's as cold as this tomorrow when dh goes away for the weekend... I'm going to drag the kids down for a camp out in the living room for extra warmth inshallah....

And it's the start of the weekend tomorrow inshallah... three of mine have a half day and one of them only has an hour in the afternoon... so it's a mad rush to get all the weekend cleaning out of the way before they all  get home again..... with dh being away it's also an opportunity to slow down a little and catch up on some reading and crafting inshallah.... 

I've also got some plans to spruce up the blog a little... 

What will you be doing this weekend inshallah?

:: TWO ::

I've spent some time this evening going over some old halaqah notes. We used to hold regular halaqaat when we were in London, I also used to help run a youth halaqah and opened up my home to sisters at least a couple of times a week so that we could learn together and spend time focusing on our deen.

Sometimes I miss it. The hustle and bustle of a busy home... my home is still busy, but not in the same way.
I miss being active in my Muslim community. I miss the discussion and the opportunity that writing halaqaat gave me, in terms of researching and learning.

Unfortunately there  isn't the same kind of opportunity here in Dz, and I think alot of sisters suffer because of it. I think we're all alot more isolated in some ways and for some of us it's had an adverse effect on our eeman. I realized while I was reading my notes, that I'm further away from the Islamic ideal I was aiming for. That in making hijrah I have focused too much attention on the rest of my families needs and not enough on my own, and I think sometime soon something will have to give.

I've tried to be useful in my community, I've taught for two years running in our masjid, but decided to spend time away from teaching this year. I've held weekend crafting classes in my home for the young girls in our area, but nothing seems to hit the spot the way it did in the UK. I can be useful... but I can't be useful in the way I find most fulfilling.

And I'm trying to decide if this is a hurdle I need to jump, if this is something I need to just get past before getting on with something else and being productive in other ways. There is no way of giving dawah in Algeria as an ajnabiya.(foreigner) Even the most subtle attempts are unappreciated. I think the general opinion is that there isn't much a revert ajnabiya can teach someone who was raised Muslim. It's shortsighted, but it is what it is...
And so I'm left with thoughts I need to unravel and make some sense of inshallah. Perhaps the problem is that I've not actually given myself the space to think it through and really find some other purpose for being here... other than just, being here....

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!!!

to plan or not to plan.....

I should start by admitting that planning is not an innate part of my character.
I am, without a shadow of a doubt the most slapdash person I know, which means I have to fight myself every single step of the way.

Menu planning for my family has always been one of my best defences against myself and in the past really kept me on an even keel and helped balance my spending.


After my post on why menu planning doesn't work for me here in DZ, I've forced myself to take a closer look at why. And my most consistant answer has been me!

So for September I'm back on the menu planning bandwagon insha'allah. I used to plan a whole month at a time (which is no doubt another reason I was having a hard time sticking to it!), but think, I'll just stick to a weekly menu for now. I'll post up my menu plan at the start of each week... which for me is Sunday. And of course share any recipes with you, because I'm nice like that.

I would have started this week, but we still have five or six days of fasting left and I'd hate to bore you with the monotony of an Algerian iftar... which basically consists of not much else other than Shorba and bourek for 30 days... well alright that's a slight exaggeration I know but it's what it feels like.

In the meantime, lets have that chat about meal planning.
Here, as with the budgeting it's bestr to work with whatever is easiest for you.

Consider the lifestyle of your family when you work your menu. Do you have to provide packed lunches?
 Do you have children home from school at lunch time? Will you be eating out or having friends over for a meal?


Once you've considered your needs you can start filling up your menu. Which can be as low tech as scrawling it out on paper..or if you're geeky like me in table format on a word doc...
And again, if it's easier for you to plan a whole month... do that. If you'd prefer to only plan a week at a time then go ahead and do that. I've also done a two week menu and rotated weeks one and two.
The key is to find what works for you and, as with budgeting it might take a while to find a method that suits you and works well.

When I plan my meals I have a few basic rules that I try my best to stick to.  I feed eight peole twice each day and ten every day for dinner, so I need a fair idea of what I'm going to feed everyone.
These days I've been more likely to scootch around the kitchen seeing what I have to hand already before planning whay my days menu will be.

We don't have convenience food here, everything is made from scratch everyday, which amounts to a fairly sizeable workload and a truckload of food!
 Sometimes dh will throw a curve ball and ask for extra plate or two to send out to somone needy, which means a bit of extra portion shuffling...but we get there masha'allah.

As far as shopping is concerned I buy enough for the week, and if I'm in Super frugalista Queen of the penny pinchers mode, I can sometimes manage to eke out a weeks worth of groceries into a second week with some creative cooking.

My menu has four columns...Living in Algeria and having children who come home from school at lunchtime means bowing to schedules and customs. So my menu is broken up into four sections... breakfast, lunch afternoon tea and supper.

I try not to repeat a meal during the course of a week, with the exception of breakfast.
I try to keep it as balanced as possible, but this is Algeria and I can't even begin to describe what everyone feels like at the tail end of a veg season. There is only so much you can do with an aubergine or broad bean!

Lunches are always vegetarian.
Breakfasts need to be quick during the week so we pre-bake as much as we can. A couple of times a week we do a big bake and freeze what we can (with limited freezer space) and pull out what we need when it's needed.  In winer our staple breakfast along with anything baked is semolina (in place of my beloved porridge which we can't readily get here).

Afternoon teas I try to keep savoury during the week, things like peanut butter sandwhiches, bread and cheese or toast. Sweet teas are at the weekend, or if we have afterschool guests.
Afternoon tea might seem like a bit of an old fashioned extravagance for someone on a budget, but it's an important meal for the children, who have after school comittments and need something to tide them over till supper time. As long as it's all accounted for it's completely do-able.

I try to keep meals as simple as possible, and I'm not above a bit of creative recycling either.

Dinner is for carnivores.. dh is home by then and it's always something meaty with a veggie side for those who don't like to eat much meat. And I try to keep it frugal by asking dh for cheaper cuts of meat and then stretching it as far as I can.

I also use whatever freezer space I have to store leftovers which then get pulled out in random acts of desperation when I need something extra on the table or when stores are running a bit low. Either way leftovers have been a lifesaver on more than one occasion.

If you're a patient child friendly kind of parent you could involve the children in your menu planning or even the spousey type person in your life.

Do what comes easiest for you and whatever you have the most time for.
Budgeting and menu planning are never the same for everyone and you have to work with whatever feels right for you. Having said that I still scour the internet for ways I could improve and do it better. It's a never ending learning curve.

You can find loads of funky resources online to help you menu plan... you can even find other people's ready made, tried and tested, eaten and digested menus to simple shop and cook for.

And with that I'm off to plan my eid cake making insha'allah. if you've got anymore questions about budgeting or menu planning or even ideas for topics you'd like to see me cover, let me know.

xxx

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....

We had a good old fashioned weekend of doing nothing very much at all, Friday and Saturday were indeed the couple of days of rest we both needed and achieved, before starting a new week full hustle and bustle.

We never strayed very far away from the yarn basket and a couple of us even managed to finish a couple of projects that have been lurking around the place for far too long.

Today my 10 year old took the exams which will determine whether she'll pass on to secondary school

I'm so proud of the way she's adapted to school life after being homeschooled for so long, it hasn't been an easy ride for any of them, but for her especially as she came here with no Arabic or French and has steadily surpassed her schoolmates, masha'allah.

We're waiting now for the primaries to come out on holiday (finally!!) and then we can fall into summer mode properly insha'allah.

tomorrow we're off to my husbands aunty for our weekly stomach stuffing marathon...

unfortunately not our own, four sheeps stomachs...

we'll be gone for most of the day and will probably reek of sheep by the end of it all, but we have fun doing it and it's a worthwhile skill to have and be able to pass on.

the rest of the week is uncertain... it's nearly the start of a new month so budgeting needs to be done, meals planned, shopping bought...

I've had to learn how to roll with things since coming to Algeria, and am much happier to just sit back and see how a week unfolds...and I rarely make too many plans too far ahead of time.

As long as it's a fairly equal balance of work and rest I'm generally a happy girl...



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...

There was a whole different post meant for these photos, but at some point between writing it and hitting the publish tab my connection was lost and so were the words I had carefully chosen to share with you.

And in true Kate fashion there is absolutly no way I can hope to recreate the post that was meant to be...it just isn't living in my head anymore I'm afraid.

I'll share the pictures of bits of my home that went with it though insha'allah.

It's somebody else's house of course as we're only renting, but it definately feels like home masha'allah.

We took these on Thursday, which is our day for a big clean up and getting ready for the weekend. Hence the reason you see my trusty old broom propped up against the wall...

Cleaning is bad enough anywhere but here in Algeria the dust is relentless and the morning clean is a ritual that is the most commonplace part of everday life for women here.

And it's strenuous and monotonous work... alot of homes are old, tiny, overcrowded...and you can forget things like dishwashers and washing machines.

Most of the women I know wash laundry by hand or have an old fashioned twin tub, that requires almost as much manual labour as washing the clothes by hand.

This is the third house we've lived in since we came almost two years ago and to be honest I don't mind moving around or even the moderate uncertainty that comes with renting.

Having said that we're a least hoping to stay put for the next year insha'allah.

The area isn't the most beautiful it's true, but the children have put down roots and our neighbours have been so helpful and supportive that it's hard right now imagining moving away.

I don't even mind that the top of our house is completely open to the elements, in fact in summer it's lovely being able to look up and see the outside inside.

This is taken from the second floor where the bedrooms are, and directly above where you see the tarp, is where our sheep lives and where our laundry gets hung.

The rooftop terraces are so close together in our ziniqa that you can easily chat with neighbours from up there...

and there's been some tentative steps on the crafting front

I lost my mojo a bit over the winter, but there are loads of ideas germinating up there in my head..it's just a matter of finding the time to get some of them done.

I'm working on a couple of cardigans, a  baby one and one for the 19 year old in my life...she chose some lovely deep teal yarn that's a joy to work with.

Yarn is a bit hit and miss here, and there's certainly nothing close to the gorgeousness you can find in the UK, but it's cheap and you can find nice soft yarns at a fraction of what it would cost back home. You just have to be prepared to look hard.

Also we only seem to be able to purchase yarn in 25, 30 and 50g balls...which is a bit of a bummer..especially when you're working on a larger projects..but them's the breaks I guess.

and tomorrow...

well, we've been planning a trip to the opticians for glasses for dd19

and there will no doubt be the usual round of meals to fit in somewhere.

There are lesson plans to write out for Tuesday

and I need to phone my Mum, even though the poor old love can barely hear what I'm saying these days.

Other than that, nothing is set in stone.

We'll wait for the day and just roll with it insha'allah.

xxx

part of my pledge to self for 2011 is keeping it real...
so instead of coming here and ignoring the fact that I gave myself things to do over the weekend, we're going to study the anatomy of a to do list...or more correctly a "to don't" list

my menu plan for January got dumped and deserted half way through thanks to price hikes that made my carefully created and fuss free menu impossible to follow, and so I had the bare bones of an idea of what to cook for my crowd over the weekend... which covers the first four to do's on my list..only two of which were achieved..the garantita and pitta bread got made...the split pea soup and falafel didn't... thats not to say we didn't eat, we juat ate other things..and I can't even remember what!

I did sew velcro onto 3 nappies but my dear friend needed her sewing machine back for a bit so the rest of that job got frogged for a while...

I didn't remember to send the 6 year old to the tutor this weekend, so giant slap on the hand for me..I'm flaky you see, with the short term memory of a gnat and the long term memory of a flea so I can't really be held to account for forgetting can I?

I also didn't cut out any clothes to sew... the bag of material is sitting in the corner of the sitting room making it's presence felt, but what I did do was mend quite a few dresses that dd10 had been a bit too enthusiastic in and so she has a few more wardrobe options than she did, which makes me feel only semi flaky on the clothes making score...and I console myself with the fact that the fabric will still get used to make dresses but it will probably be closer to summer by then and it will be a whole new summer wardrobe...

Okay..stop laughing...I'm trying to give you honesty here!

I did catch up with emails..well, some of them at least...but better than nothing right?

The sardines are still in the freezer, but that's because dh brought home some lovely bbq liver and chicken...NOT my fault!

sticky lemon buns were meant to be made on Saturday morning, but.... I was due to visit a friend and got comandeered out of the house a couple of hours earlier than scheduled and had no time for yeast...which brings me neatly on to doughnuts which there was also no need for me to tackle cos my lovely friend made em instead..so I did HAVE doughnuts...I just didn't MAKE them

the maqroot are still soaking in smen in the kitchen..but that just makes for a moister maqroot in my book, and there's no point cleaning the cooker till I've fried the maqroot is there?

and the crochet...erm well... I didn't FINSH anything but I did START something else...starting is my strong point.

and there you have it... a to don't list deconstructed.

and as I have said before, I dont feel bad about non-achievments. Not alot of the time anyway. Life just happens that way. I write a list...some of it gets done...some of it gets shifted along..it all gets done eventually, just not always in the time frame or order I initially intended

right now though, two of my children have reappeared after only an hour of school because teachers didn't turn up for work, and it looks like they only have two hours of school this afternoon. So the day gets rearranged hastily to accomodate the unexpected... so I'm off to find something interesting to cook for lunch insha'allah... wish me well
xxx

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..

First week....

back at school and I'm already fit for nothing.

Lack of sleep and too many chores backed up and waiting to be got through has meant my whole week has felt like I've chasing my own tail..

There are photos that need uploading... recipes that need sharing,and craft WIP's galore....

So, tomorrow morning...insha'allah, I'm going to grab my coffee and come sit here for a while and share it with you...

I have tried several times this week but somehow or another there was always just that one more house chore that needing getting out of the way before I could tackle anything even remotely bloggy.

I'm trying hard to find beauty in the mundane, but when your elbow deep in stained cloth nappies, your third cup of coffee on the trot has gone cold, and you have no time to even schedule something as simple as a pee into your day, it gets a bit hard to find the time to put thoughts out...

I was discussing the merits of surrendering oneslf to domesticity with dd18 this evening, (or was I trying to convince myself that there are some merits??)

Either way it was an interesting discussion,which led on from an chat we had earlier on in the day about decline of moral values and the destruction of family life.

There has been a huge turnaround in peoples attitudes towards homemaking recenlty, and lots of women are returning to it with a new found confidence.

I chose to stay at home when I had children,and this has been my job now for 20 years... I sometimes wonder if I should have retained my independence for at least a little while longer than I did, and I sometimes feel that women who choose to work after becoming mothers are far more adept at creating balance and creating quality time...

I'm a bit hopeless and hapless at the whole organised home thing, and really am quite domestically challenged left to my own devices...

Which is why a new school term is a good thing for me, its given me focus and a framework...plus time off when the children are at school!

Despite the fact that it's early starts, meals by the clock and constant activity (and my back is feeling it this week!)it's been a fulfilling, if tiring week masha'allah.

My day is falling into it's own little pattern and it feels good...