A miracle....

Two posts in one day, well I never did (and probably never will again) he he! But I have lost my voice on account of this cold so have turned to the keyboard instead. We have had a good weekend (all though I am still ill alhamdulillah) and we haven't even left the house mashaAllah. I try to stick to everything organic if I can and I found some organic seeds in Asda which meant the we could finally get on with planting our seeds alhamdulillah - well me and DD planted the seeds the boys seem to have grown weary of planting seeds in favour of the harvest this year - anyway this is our little nursery (so far)....

We have organic beetroot, onions, lettace, tomatoes, green beans and also some marigolds and forget-me-nots. We have also planted a dual pear tree (grows two varieties of pear on one tree), a 2nd apple tree and four cherry trees to complement the apple and plum trees that we planted last year. I am also hoping to get in a goji berry (said to be the answer to all ills) plant and a fig tree inshaAllah - I am hoping to use them to 'grow my own drugs' using the new book (with a similar title) by James Wong (£5.99 from the Book People). We are currently in the process of redesigning our back garden so everyone is all excited at the moment mashaAllah. Watch this space for more news of our gardening antics...... this is our apple tree we planted last year that has sooooo many blossoms mashaallah


Next on the list was a 'free time' with the art and craft stuff...... they just love this but I have to leave the room or I get too stressed and bossy with how they are using my precious resources.

Not sure what these are but they enjoyed making them anyways ;o))

DS1 has been forging forwards with his Animals of Africa projects with these little booklets which sparked off a whole conversation between Aunty Y and DS1 about the wonder of Allah's creation. They discussed how wonderful it is that such a ferocious creature like a crocodile would let a tiny bird live on him and pick the meat from his teeth (one of the animal relationships he studied) so the bird got food and the crocodile got his teeth cleaned.... subhanAllah!

These little booklets are amazing and allow you to compare or describe two 'things' and are made up of three circles. The first circle has the subject matter/title page, the second circle has details about one of the items (in this case the Croc), the third page has the details of the 2nd subject (the Plover). The 2nd and 3rd circles are folded in half and the bottom half of the second circle is glued to the top half of the title page so that when you pull the top flap down you have the plover info. The top half of the 3rd circle to the bottom half of the title page so that when you lift the croc part of the title page you have a whole circle of info on the croc. You now have a blank circle shape at the back (made up of the unglued parts of the info circles) so you can glue it to your lap book or project folder etc. I haven't tried it but I'm sure you could add more pages too inshaAllah. Let me know if this doesn't make sense inshaAllah.

Aunty Y aslo got DS1 reading Oliver Twist with her mashaAllah; he read a bit to her and then she stopped and asked questions to make sure he understood it and then moved on to the next chapter mashaAllah. I must say that she seemed to ignite something in him and he even asked if she could stay the night and spend more time with them mashaAllah. She also took an interest in his role play using his Lego men and inspired him to write a play along the same principles. MashaAllah what a lesson I learned from this lovely sister mashaAllah, and I hope that I can keep up these new found skills he and I have learned inshaAllah. It made me realise how sometimes we can be home with them, teach them but not really spend much time sitting and 'doing' with them or listening to them, really listening to them! SubhanAllah!

Note to self: spend some time 'listening' and 'doing' with each of the kids this week.