Ice-cream in the Rain

I was very grateful to get a few days off during the children’s half-term holidays. Although there wasn’t much to do in the rain locally, we managed to go for pizza, to the library, visit the local museum and see an exhibition of life in the area over the last 100 years.

I also managed to take mum shopping and put lots of ticks on our to-do list for my brother’s wedding in March (can’t wait now). Managed to resolve a few things with the girls side, so no longer feel stressed about this.

Visited the bride-to-be on the weekend and saw her wedding dress – it truly rocked and she will look stunning (her mum also fed us very well). My clothes will turn up this week and the ever helpful, ever-sensible Long-Suffering Sister has helped me work out a strategy to be able to afford Little Lady and my little cousins dresses. It also pays to be nice to people. I found the perfect henna outfits for the little girls (they match my sweet bar!), but could not afford the price tag. I thanked the shop assistant for her help and told her the price was more than I could afford, as I left she whispered in my ear to come back during half-term when they would be half-price. We went back and they were discounted by 40%, LS Sister paid for one and Fashionista paid for the other which meant I could pay for my brothers white shalwar kameez outfit for his henna night.

We tried to order cards from a popular site, but found that the postage cost almost as much as the cards (£80 for £100 worth of cards), so we e-mailed a cousin, who e-mailed his brother in Pakistan, who sent us some designs to pick from, who said it should cost £10! Obviously we picked one with diamante’s stuck all over the place.

Yesterday, I found myself with one day left before going back to work and a list of things to do:
Mop the floors
Clean the bathroom
Sort the toys
Piles of laundry (I swear I have already done about four loads)
Go get the groceries for dinner
etc

I started feeling stressed, so I made dua and asked Allah (SWT) to help me do what is important. I ended up taking the kids for ice-cream at the mall and traipsing home in the rain, then having a delicious meal at my mum’s in the evening. Better than cleaning bathrooms anyway.