Journal Your Ramadan Challenge: Day 1

Sister Neelu of Creating Memories encouraged me to join in her Journal Your Ramadan challenge.  I don’t think I will be able to stick to all of her prompts (listed here), but I thought it was a good idea anyway as a way to reflect back on each day and try and improve and learn insh’Allah.

By good chance, I happened to have the first day of Ramadan off of work.  It turned out to be one of the most productive days I have had in a long time.  I managed to do the school run on the children’s last day before the summer holidays and thank their teachers.  I had a long to-do list consisting of making various appointments for family members, sorting out the children’s passports, banking, shopping and organising various paperwork.

In between I managed to sort through the freezer and the cupboards and make lots of space and do a kind of audit.  I had Little Lady follow me around and write a list of items we needed.  I spent the next few hours in the kitchen cooking.  I made a big pot of chicken and potato filling for spring rolls which I hope to make tomorrow.

Dates stuffed with nuts

Fruit salad or chaat (recipe here),my favourite Ramadan food of all I think.

Pakoras (hubby loves these, recipe here)

In all it was a very productive day. I would love to have the whole of Ramadan off of work and just cook, organise the house and keep the kids busy, but that's not likely to happen.

Its midnight almost as I write this and I am more shattered than I have words to describe. I think I will try to do smaller chunks each day now, starting with trying to organise the kids summer activities so that we all stay sane and plan ahead a little food-wise.  Yesterday I fell asleep whilst I was trying to set the alarm clock and woke up with it under me, late.   So I had better get some sleep.