My little friend is back!

Last summer a baby squirrel used to come to my garden for left overs, and later in the autumn it came to steal apples from a basket I had on my porch. It often used to sit in a tree when I was sitting under it. It was dropping some rubbish on me when it was eating seeds from cones etc haha.. Lol it was so funny.

I didn't see it in the winter and I thought it won't come back. I always put some dry, left over bread under my tree for birds, we have plenty of sparrows. I guess my little friend finally remembered to come and check it out, because now it's back!



He was collecting courage in the tree first


Then he came down


And finally came next to me to eat ali's leftover chicken and rice. mashaAllah ♥


I hope it will survive and be a regular visitor inshaAllah!. It's so cute!

My Big boy!

My older son is 16 years old, he will turn 17 in august. He was and still is an active boy and has a lot going on.

He has always been a normal student in school, not brilliant, but not bad either. He has a lot of potential, but he still needs to learn how to use it. InshaAllah he will soon.

I divorced his father when he was only 5 years old. I think it affected him quite a bit. His dad married again, and so did I. Both of us had kids with our new spouses.

When my son was 7 he moved to his father's place. He missed his dad and was hoping to spend more time with him. I saw him only on weekends and sometimes one night on weekdays.

His father works a lot and he has some hobbies too, so my son didn't get a chance to spend time with him as much as he thought. He spent a lot of time with his dad's new wife, and they didn't get along so well.. His dad has also two little kids from his new wife so my son kind of felt like an outsider.

He started to rebel, got in trouble a few times stealing.. School didn't go well and last year, which was supposed to be his final year in grade school, he started to skip lessons.. And later, whole days.. I didn't know that he has problems in school, his dad didn't tell me and i wasn't invited to any meetings before last spring, when it was almost sure that he won't pass the glass. He also got together with some bad company.. Or maybe he WAS the bad company, and had some really bad habbits. Alhamdulilah no drugs or something really bad, but serious enough to really worry me.

We had a few meetings at school and my son said he wants to move back to my place. His dad is not a muslim so I was hoping that our home environment would be good for him. Our rules are quite tight comparing the ones in his dad's place.. There it sounds like almost no rules to me :/ .

My son promised to work harder and try to pass the school year so that he could catch up what he had missed when he skipped lessons. He did work hard for a while, but I think he just gave up.. The time was too short and he ended up repeating the last school year. He didn't totally adjust to our rules and didn't quit some of his bad habits either. I was so worried and didn't know what to do.

I got him on a special class, where they're used to active boys, who are not too keen into studing. they teeach one to one, and every pupil has their own plan, so it gives much more chance to those who can't concentrate in a big group listening to a teacher preaching in front of the class. They also had some learning at work, so it wasn't only about books.

My son has some artistic skills and in the new school he got a chance to show his talent. He improved so much! I am so happy and proud of him! Alhamdulilah during this year he has grown out of his bad habits, became an independent young man and now he will finish his grade school with ok marks. He has applied to study 'Surface finishing', mainly painting and spray-painting. I don't know much about it lol :D . InshaAllah he will be accepted.

May Allah subhanahuwata'ala guide him! Ameen

Princesses and dogs..

Awww.. today my kids and I went to see the spring party of my grand children's day care center. The theme and the story line for the party was Sleeping Beaty and my grand daughter Laila was one of the dancing and singing princesses. My grandson Ali was a little dog lol ♥ .



I was just planning to take my kids home after playing out for hours, when my daughter Nadia called me and asked if we want to go and see the spring party of her kids, my grand kids. My kids had just been complaining that all their friends left home, so they got really exited and wanted to go..

The party was made outside in the playground of the day care center. Alhamdulilah the weather was pretty nice and sunny.. The day before it was raining and very cold, so we were really happy about it.

When we arrived, I saw that almost all the families from our houses were there, because everyone's kids go to the same day care. My kids were so happy to see all their friends. They found places to sit down and left me alone with my camera :P .

The teachers had built a huge castle prop. The show started like sleeping beauty always does: the king and the queen wish for a child, a fairy promises that they will get one. Then the princess was born and the fairies gave her the gifts.. y'all know the rest.

I don't know why, but anyway some group of little dogs belong to the story :D . It was the baby group of the day care lol, Ali is one of them. They were so cute and funny! They were supposed to growl, sleep, hold their tales etc.. Well, some of them did.. Sometimes :P . I must say that Ali is quite a clever boy for a 2-year-old, he did almost everything right. Only once the nanny had to tell him what to do. It was after the little doggies were sleeping.. He forgot to get up :DDD .. Lol the whole performance of the baby group was hilarious!

Laila's group were singing and dancing. They made 'Black Cat's tango' and ' Woolen sock'.. In Finnish of course :P . She had been singing one of the songs for a long time already and we had been waiting to hear the real version, because Laila's version was a little bit funny :D . Well.. Let's say that we recognized the song, but that's all lol.. Laila and her friends performed really well mashaAllah.

After the party all the children got ice cream. I was so surprised that my little ones asked me if they can go and get ice cream too, or if it's only for those who go to that day care. I thought they'd just run and be first in the queue.. Seems like they are not that hopeless after all.. They know how to behave at least somewhere :D .

Alhamdulilah we had a good time! Thanks Laila and Ali for making a good show! ♥

My twins - They would go to school this year

Somebody who lost a child asked me to write my story a while ago. This friday my good friends sister got twins, and my dear Deena is going to pre school in the autumn, those things got me thinking of my sweet twins who went to Allah subhanahuwata'ala. Some of you might know that on 2003 I was preggy for twin boys. They would go to school this year if they would have made it. I can never be totally over the loss, but I have learned to live with it quite well alhamdulilah. Sometimes when I hear that someone else looses a child, the pain comes back. I guess it will be like that forever.

This story might be too graphic for some readers!!!


It was 9 months after I had Donjana, when I found out that I was preggy again. In the first doc checking on week 10 they found two different heart beats, but as there was no chance to scan in that place, it took another two weeks to know that we were expecting twins. Everything seemed really good and the babies were looking healthy. Dh and I were so exited! It felt sooo special!

On 19 week scan they both were found boys alhamdulilah. Y'all can imagine, how exited dh was! That time I already knew a lot about them. The other one slept more and was more quiet, the other one was strong and restless.. They really had different characters, that was for sure. It was easy to recognize them, because on those weeks they couldn't change the sides anymore, so I knew all the time which one was moving.

On week 20 I had my routine check, RR and stuff, and everything seemed ok.. my RR had been high before and I got medication, and now it had settled down alhamdulilah. I was already feeling kind of safe. I was on the second trimester and didn't think there was any risk to loose the babies anymore.

Then, in the same afternoon I felt that my water broke.. I wasn't 100% sure though, maybe because I didn't want to believe it.. I knew I didn't pee myself, so there wasn't too many options though.. Dh had just left to a garage with our car. I had to call him and tell him to hurry home. The car was put up somewhere because they were checking what's going on under it. The mechanic didn't understand what dh tried to explain to him, so i had to explain him why he had to take our car down in the middle of his work.. We rush in the hospital. They checked me out and found that the water really was broken for the action baby. Yes, they had separate sacks. Everything seemed well for both of the boys, they had enough water and all.. There comes more all the time, so that wasn't a problem.

I was taken to the ward where women usually are before the birth if they're not ready to deliver, or after birth if they have a preemie etc. The nurse told me that the delivery might start any time, but the longer the babies stay in the better chance they have. If they reach 24 weeks, there might be a chance to save them. From 23 weeks the pediatrician would come and make a plan. I was 20 weeks, so it felt impossible at the time. The biggest fear was that I get a womb infection or the babies just start to born too early.

I spent 2½ weeks in the hospital hoping and praying that time would fly and the babies would get strong enough before it's time for them to be born. It was scary to think I might get two 24 week preemies. I know how that small preemies are and how easily they get different health problems, but I couldn't even think they wouldn't make it! I don't know what I felt.. I was scared, hopeful, scared, hopeful.. Each day that passed gave me more hope.

Dh and little Donjana visited me every day. Donjana was missing me so much and she wanted to stay with me in the hospital. I missed home! I missed my little girl! I don't remember if anyone really explained her, why I had to be there. I don't think she understood at all what was going on. She was only 14 months old. It broke my heart every time she left, but the same time I couldn't think of even spending one night at home. It would have been too dangerous. I didn't want to take any risks! It would have killed me if I had done something that might make the babies born too early. I had to know I do my best, otherwise I couldn't live with myself.

Two weeks went by. I had a feeling I might get the infection, the water that came out had changed colour. The lab tests that they took daily, showed that it might happen. Then one evening I felt a little pain in my stomach. It didn't feel like a cramp so I didn't get worried. Then I went to the toilet and suddenly felt something so strange.. A baby was almost born in the toilet seat. I rang the nurses to come and they took me fast to the delivery ward.

The first boy was born in the evening when I was at 22+0 weeks. My contractions stopped after the first baby was out. I slept the whole night at the delivery room in case something happens. It seemed like there might be a tiny chance that the second baby would stay in for a bit more. Then early in the morning I woke up for feeling that the other baby's water broke too. The contractions weren't strong enough to make the baby born, so they induced me to have him out quick.. I felt he didn't move much anymore or anything, the infection gave him no chance.

Alhamdulilah I am thankful to Allah subhanahuwata'ala that I could spend those 2½ weeks in the hospital before everything was final. I had hope, but also realistic picture of what was going on. If everything would have happened fast, it would have been very hard and I don't know how I could have gotten over it. Alhamdulilah I had a chance to think it through from every possible side before the end. I'm also thankful to the whole work team in that ward where I was at, especially one older nurse. They kept me sane whole that time.


I think I'm truly blessed. I've had two miscarriages besides this what I told y'all just now, but alhamdulilah I have also 6 beautiful, healthy babies. And two months after my dear twin boys were born, I got preggy with Deena. Alhamdulilah Alhamdulilah for everything!



Thanks for reading ♥





heart picture by frank boenigk

We went hiking with the kids!

This country is not perfect, but there's something here that I really like! It's the clean nature, and we have plenty of it! MashaAllah!



My children share my interest in nature. That's why my daughter Nadia and I take the kids out in the woods as often as we can. This is the first year even my little grandson Ali is old enough to walk a bit more far by himself.


Today we took them to a place we call a troll mountain. There's an old light house (lol it was used for airplanes, not ships. The sea is not near enough :P ). There used to be an airport near here, since 1936, and that's why the light house was built.


The airport was the most northern airport of the world. When the new airport was built in Turku on 1955, the light house wasn't needed and it also hasn't been taken care of ever since.


The light house is not in a good condition, and some youth have painted some art on it and used it as a party spot, but otherwise the place is lovely.


There's a large open area, so the kids can go around alone a bit and it's easy to watch them. The children were playing and exploring the place finding some interesting things. And we don't have dangerous wild animals here so Nadia and I got a chance to relax a bit while the kids were having fun!!


We had a nice picnic and had a very good time and the whole day was wonderful! (some little boys were showing some character at some points though :P ) MashaAllah!


There is a lot of blueberry plants blooming. Later in the summer we have to go back with buckets :P inshaAllah. I love blueberry pie and blueberry muffins! And blueberry milk! It needs just fresh blueberries, milk and a little sugar, eaten from a cup with a spoon.


There's a lot of lingonberry plants too, but those don't bloom yet. They have the berries in the end of summer or autumn. I'm not so exited about them, but my mom makes the best porridge of them mashaAllah! And I'm soooooooo not a porridge eater!


I guess everyone knows what this (under pic) is. Wild strawberry! There will be plenty of those too! InshaAllah! I looooove wild strawberries! When I was little we used to pick them up and string them to a long piece of hay. InshaAllah I will teach that to my kids this summer!


Of course a little something had to happen, like every time we go somewhere :D . This time I thing it was my fault. The juice bottle wasn't closed good.. And of course I had some extra shirts for the kids in the same bag :D . Bad me.. So I hung the shirts to the tree to get dry in case they're needed. Alhamdulilah it was so hot they were'nt.


We also found this kind of little flowers. I used to see plenty of them when I was a kid, but I feel like they're disappearing, I haven't seen any for years! They say it's still very common, so maybe I just have been in wrong kind of areas. We call it a forest star. I found two english names for it from wikipedia: chickweed wintergreen or Arctic starflower.


The view from up there was great! Green everywhere! And Finland is like this all the way, 'The Land Of Green Gold' mashaAllah!


We could see until my mothers home, which is over 10 km far from that place. It doesn't show so much in the pic because it's small, but you can grow it a little by clicking on it. Nader the attitude dude wanted to go to my mothers place by walk because it looked like it's so near :P . He is crazy sometimes :D .


Most of the trees high up there are pines, so there's also a lot of ants building houses. This is just a little one, but on the way there we saw some big ones too. Alhamdulilah the kids are used to the ants by now: in the beginning of the summer they often fear them first, and don't want to sit on the ground for picnic because of them :D .


Just before we left my daughter Nadia saw something cute and funny. Two ants were trying to carry a piece of salad that dropped from our sandwiches. They couldn't decide which way to go and ended up walking here and there and after a while in a circle. Lol it was kinda interesting :P like a little movie. Poor ants.


There's something else I also love in this country! That is the summer nights when we don't get darkness! It's not yet the time when the darkness doesn't exist at all, but we're getting there soon inshaAllah! The sun set at 10.23 pm today, but it takes a long time after that to get dark, like two hours. I took this picture from my garden at 11 pm today and it was still like daylight mashaAllah!



Alhamdulilah for days like this! Alhamdulilah for everything!

busy days and..

I got a new, custom made lay out! Jazakillah khir UmmTalal! I love this new look, so fresh! Sisters, check Umm Talal's page, so sweet designs. She is very talented mashaAllah!


AND

The last couple of days have been busy. I've been working in the garden and taking care of the kids. We've been out the whole day and when I get home i fall asleep on the sofa. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have an excuse why I didn't make a new post last night.


oh no.. it's 3.30 am already. I have to go to sleep, but i'll be back tomorrow inshaAllah!

No need for toys!

Now days the children are given everything ready. They don't need imagination, there's plastic fruits, bread, trees, animals etc.. My kids have tons of them, (which I actually don't like) but sometimes I want them to use their own ideas and create stuff. Otherwise they will grow with a very poor imagination..

Yesterday we went to a play ground near our home. We had a picnic and the kids played with what ever they could find, because we didn't bring toys with us, except shovels and buckets to use for sand. My kids spent the day building farms and gardens! It was fun lol, I got to help them :P and i enjoyed it as well!

This thing here is a cone sheep. It could as well be a cow if the cone was bigger :D
Already my mom's mom's mom's mom's mom has been playing with this kind as kid, but too many my aged people haven't heard about it.


This is nader's house and garden. his sheep doesn't show in this pic though.. And he found two cars (plastic lol) and put them in the garage :D



Donjana's farm is in the front. she has many sheep on her field :D . she got lazy making the legs so she said that most of them are sleeping :P



Deena's farm is in the front on the right side here. The left side is Nader's



MashaAllah, we had a lot of fun and time just flew! When we got home I realized that we had been there for 4 hours!

Blooming garden!

I love to see how the flowers are starting to bloom in the garden! it's so amazing, every time!

i love this kind of tulips! actually this looks like a peony!



the bushes in fron tof the house are blooming. the fence in the backyard as well, but it was cut last year so it's not as pretty as usually.


i have one of these tulips left.. these grow on the side of the house, not in the garden, and some kids have cut all the blooms but one :(


this is strawberry. woodland strawberry, to be specific.



i have no idea what this is called.. the plant looks kinda like strawberry and it spreads the same way too, and the flowers is similar, just bigger and different colour.


the 'strawberry looking plant' again. one of them makes little bit different colour flowers


i have one, lonely Poet's Daffodil left. i took plenty from mom's place but after a few years they disappeared. now one got up again!

I'm aging, obviously..

SubhanaAllah I think I'm getting old!

I have plenty of evidence of that..since I turned 40 four years ago, I started to have small health problems. Nothing serious alhamdulilah, but some pretty annoying stuff, needed an operation even..

Then I started to have back problems. They found out that one of my spine discs is flattened. The doctor said that it's "normal signs of aging". Even if it can't be fixed I can tolerate it with pain killers alhamdulilah.

Well I wasn't going to make this a rant about my health and it's not only that, there's more... I always used to know how to use modern technology.. What was modern long time ago that is :P . Lately I have realized that I'm loosing it.. It took me a long time to get used to the camera I bought and know its functions... and it's only a pocket camera. My dh has a much better camera, which i'd love to borrow, but I have no idea how to use it!

And then to the point of this whole post: I wanted to make this blog prettier but it took me a long time (like weeks :O )to find out how to change back ground, banner etc.. I sooooo didn't use to be like this! If I was 20 this would have never happened! Alhamdulilah I got some help! Noor on so sweet designs has posted some pretty good tutorials which helped me a lot! And I found some cute tags and banners from there too! Jazakillah khir Noor!

I hope you like the new layout. It might still change though, but not today lol.. 5 hours trying to find out stuff is enough for one day :D. It's getting very late.. So late that it can be already called early :P , 4 am.. Alhamdulilah us older people don't need much sleep :P . Alhamdulilah for everything!

Rain! We Are Blessed!

The last couple of days have been really hot here, and it's only May. Finland was even the hottest country of the whole Europe the other day. Still we got a little rain every day. The nature has really woken up, everything turned green within three days!

Yesterday I was cutting the fence bushes around our play ground. The kids were swinging and playing with the sand next to me. Suddenly the heavens burst! It started to rain so hard and we got soaking wet in a second. We were not happy about it.. But that got me thinking.. Again lol. I really do think a lot lately! (InshaAllah it's a good thing :P)

I don't like rain, I would call it bad weather, but still I must see it as a great blessing! There is many places in the world where it doesn't rain very often and those places don't have much chance to use ground water either, or it doesn't exist. (Groundwater makes up about twenty percent of the world's fresh water supply). In such areas they don't have lakes, rivers or ponds either. Freshwater is an important natural resource necessary for the survival of all ecosystems, and here I stand not liking the rain.. Finland is called The Land Of Thousand Lakes, and we don't have to worry about having freshwater to drink, we have more than enough alhamdulilah. And we shouldn't take it for granted.

Did you know?

* Every day, 2 million tons of sewage and other effluents drain into the world’s waters.
* Every year, more people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war
* The most significant sources of water pollution are lack of inadequate treatment of human wastes and inadequately managed and treated industrial and agricultural wastes
* The quality of water necessary for each human use varies, as do the criteria used to assess water quality. For example, the highest standards of purity are required for drinking water, whereas it is acceptable for water used in some industrial processes to be of less quality.

source


Water quality is important, and we must be thankful for having freshwater to drink! Alhamdulilah!

It is God who sends forth the winds [of hope], so that they raise a cloud - whereupon He spreads it over the skies as He wills, and causes it to break up so that thou seest rain issue from within it: and as soon as He causes it to fall upon whomever He wills of His servants - lo! they rejoice, (30:48) Quran