Unexpected Guests

With my older children away, I was expecting a quiet easy-going Eid with the Babies and a chance to just enjoy the moment.  With the house cleaned and organised, the menu planned, the food shopping done and a decision to wear what we already have rather than buy new clothes, Eid was looking good alhamdulillah.

Then we got a call from friends saying they were on their way to come and stay with us for Eid – all seven of them.  And they had left and were a few hours away – of an eight-hour drive.

This may seem strange to people and you may question why we just didn’t tell them not to come, but as Muslims we have always prided ourselves on our hospitality and have always tried to help others.  The rewards for taking care of guests are supposed to be significant:

Prophet Muhammad ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

 said, "Whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him honor his neighbor; whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him honor his guest as he is entitled." It was said, "What is his entitlement, O Messenger of God?" He said, "[The best treatment] for one day and one night; and hospitality is for three days, and anything after that is charity bestowed upon him.  And whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him, speak good words or else remain silent. (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam said, "If Allāh wants good for a people, He sends them a gift." They asked "What kind of gift, oh Prophet of Allāh?" He said, "The guest comes with his own provision, and leaves with the sins of the people of the house."

The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam said, "Whoever believes in Allāh and the Last Day must be generous with his guest." (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5560)

Both mum and dad in law were fuming.  Dad because he didn’t want to have to give up his bed and mum-in-law because, as she out it, “I went out of my way to shame them the last time they came, so that they wouldn’t come back, and now you let them back!”

My husband is a kind, helpful man and he didn’t feel like he could say no.  Our guests turned up at 1am expecting dinner, which hubby mainly got from the shops – we are lucky there is always something open near us.  We had to pull out mattresses and put some of them in the kid’s room which are empty at the moment as they are in Pakistan.  The Babies outright refused to leave their room and had to be bribed with being allowed into my bed (we put them on a mattress once they fell asleep).

We spent the next day trying to feed and take care of our guests with trying to complete Eid preparations. I hadn’t taken any time off work, so the day before Eid (a Saturday) was the only day I had to prepare for Eid.  Not expecting guests, I had invited my family over for dinner, so had lots of grocery shopping and food prep to do. 

By the end of the day, I realised I had clocked about 24,000 steps on my Fitbit watch trying to get everything done – I was exhausted.  I had also been feeling off kilter physically, and the lack of sleep the night before left me disorientated.  In hindsight I think my blood pressure was low and making me slow and tired.

By the time they left, the day after Eid, I was tired, grumpy and feeling a little ashamed at not feeling so hospitable (although I did behave and be kind to my guests). I was a bit annoyed with myself that I had gone through all of the effort, but not corrected my intentions - the reward for any good deed is based on your intention to please Allah (SWT). I put it to my husband – Is the duty to care for your guests such that you let yourself become ill?  He agreed that it was clearly not, but what could he do?

Alhamdulillah, sometimes the reminders of the virtues of our faith help (like the story below), but it's also important that we find a balance between a good deed with the right intention and doing what we can actually manage.

A Story About Guests:

A woman came to The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam and complained to him about her husband that he invites too many guests and she has become weary from preparing food for them and hosting them. The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam did not answer and the woman left.

Sometime later The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam called the woman’s husband and said, "I am your guest today."

The man was so happy he went home and told his wife "The Prophet of Allāh ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam is our guest today."

 His wife was ecstatic and spent time and effort and used every bit of food to prepare for the arrival of the Most Honored Guest, The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam.

After the amazing joy of hosting The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam generously, The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam told the man, "Tell your wife to watch the door from which I leave your home."

So the wife watched the door from which The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam left her home and saw all kinds of creatures, scorpions and other harmful creatures leaving the house behind The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam, upon which she fainted due to the immense manifestation and greatness of what she had witnessed.

When she came to The Prophet ‎ ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam, he said to her, "This is what happens when the guest leaves your home, with him all kinds of harm, trials and tribulations and harmful creatures depart from your home, and that is the wisdom behind being generous to one’s guest and becoming weary doing so." (source: IslamFaith blog)

Eid-ul-Fitr 2019/1440: Day 2 - Pretty Dresses, Good Food and Family

The second day of Eid for us, was for my mum the first day, so as per family tradition she hosted lunch.  Her Eid lunch is pretty much the meaning and definition of Eid for us – our soul food and our comfort food, our tradition, but also the gorgeous cooking we can’t wait for each year.  It’s the day all of us siblings and our spouses and children all get to be together and just enjoy each other’s company.  

I love my nieces outfit – my mum-in-law bought these pretty Pakhtun style dresses for all of the little girls in the family.

My youngest spent the whole day showing us her twirls:

My other niece wore a red sharer my mum bought from Pakistan (similar to the pink ones my girls wore the day before).  Matching shoes and bag were her own styling 😊

The whole little gang mashallah:

Eid lunch was mum’s lamb pilau rice, chicken curry, kofta curry, lamb kebabs, tandoori chicken, green chutney, salad and raita.

Honestly the best food I get to eat all year.

Then it was time to hand out gifts.  I think the little girls got so many they didn’t know what to do with them or where to put them all. There was also a ton of plastic wrapped in more plastic and a lot of very small toys or toys with lots of small parts.   I think there might be a lesson in this for us to co-ordinate better next year and give them less!

We also got presents, these mugs with our initials were from Shutterbug Sister and I thought they were a great idea:

The kids spent the afternoon playing games and being sore losers.  The adults spent the afternoon having tea and grazing on the various sweets and desserts, with a stream of guests and relatives passing through.  Fun for the rest of us, exhausting for my poor mum who was hosting.

We left after dinner and were all ready for some down time, especially my in-laws who are not used to being up and about all day.  We got home to find an Oreo cake from a neighbour and also that guests were on their way.  I was a bit out of it by this point and wanted to sleep but ended up sitting with the family until about midnight.  I could bee annoyed but they brought a big box of mangoes which we are still enjoying, so alhamdulillah.

I hope your Eid was a blessed and happy one insh’Allah.

Picture of the Day 19.01.19: Socialising Again

My husband mentioned in passing recently that we had not been having many guests around.  The last year I had been so focused on my new job and the rowdy teens that by the end of it I felt the lack of a social life too.  I plan to spend more time this year hosting, visiting friends and perhaps even going out with friends.

I barely made the intention and find myself with a lunch invite from a close friend and wedding related functions for the next five to seek weekends alhamdulillah.  In reality though I wanted to focus on making sure I visit all my family friends and the sisters from the masjid in turn and host once every month or so insh’Allah.  I was blessed with a childhood where I lived with extended family.  My grandparents were very sociable and we would have a stream of guests coming and going virtually daily.  In turn we would visit a different family every weekend for tea and get to play with their children.  It is a way of living and building community I admire.

The first dinner this year was for a friend who made Umrah (pilgrimage).  I made pea pilau rice, lamb curry, chicken and bell pepper curry (which was well-received, I will share a recipe insh’Allah) and baked chicken (from this wonderful recipe from Fauzia’s Kitchen Fun). We also had channa chaat, green chutney and salad.

My mum and my friend got talking and found that they had come to Britain in the 1970’s in the same year, a month apart.  That gave then fuel to reminisce about shillings and the last days of coal use, much to our amusement.

One of the best things about hosting though, is being left with lots of leftovers. I refused to cook for the next few days.

Italian Noodles

I was rather excited this morning.  Despite my terror of the pain of labour, every time I have a contraction my hopes are up that I might meet my little one soon insh'Allah.  So after about three or four hours of contractions this morning, I was convinced something would happen.  It's also my birthday, so I quite liked the idea of an extra special gift arriving today.

I should be used to this by now, I have been having a few hours of mild, irregular contractions every day or other day for the last two weeks or so, only for them to stop by about mid-morning.  The same happened today.

So to distract myself we had friends over for lunch.  They are a family from Italy who were here for a month which hubby knew through his dawah work.  They are due to go back to Italy tomorrow and we thought it would be nice to break bread with them before they went back.

Hubby asked that I make some kind of non-Pakistani food without chilli, something English - like noodles he suggested.  That had me giggling away all day.  So after an early morning shop, I got down to work.  I ended up making chicken chow mein (because it has noodles), chicken pasta (with a bit of chilli) and macaroni salad.  Hubby invited a few more people from the masjid (the boys teacher and the imam), so I decided to fry chips and wedges to make sure we didn't run out of food.  I added slices of baguette, garlic butter, potato salad, coleslaw and red pepper hummus which everyone really liked (shop bought).

My favourite was a simple salad with a lemony dressing which was the easiest thing to make.

Everyone enjoyed the meal and I enjoyed hanging out with my new friend from Italy.  The kids also made firm friends.

I'm trying not to think about the birth and I'm trying to keep busy so that the time passes.  At least there's plenty of food in the fridge and I won't have to cook tonight.

She’s Back!

We got a call Monday morning that mum-in-law was coming - on Tuesday! Luckily we knew she had been trying to book a ticket and so I had tidied up the house a bit. That still meant I hadn’t had the chance to take the day off work, so rushed out of the office at 4pm to pick the kids up from my mum’s, visit the butcher and grocer and head straight into the kitchen.

The traffic coming back from the airport was so bad that I had done everything by the time they got home anyway. Mum-in-law was well as was my youngest brother-in-law who has come with her (although he said hello and then fell asleep for the next four hours, ignoring the kids attempts to rouse him).

The kids were going crazy, fighting to sit next to their gran at dinner and trying to get into her bed. Everyone was in good spirits (including myself and hubby who were so exhausted it was ridiculous). Finally managed to get into bed at 12.30, happy at the noise and joy in the house, happy with the gifts they had brought us, but oh so happy to be in bed.

Wednesday I got home from work and opened the front door to a blast of noise. I came in to find my uncle and his son, another cousin, and one of my sisters had popped round to say hello to my mum-in-law and brother-in-law. The kids still hadn’t calmed down any so I just sat down quietly in the middle of all of our guests and ate samosa’s and drank in the various conversations going on around me. Was soon joined by another sister (alhamdulillah) and my dad.

Today I found myself having to do some thinking. The house really has such a good vibe right now. I used to think when I had my own place it should be hospitable and full of guests and family and noise, a place where everyone is happy to be and feels welcome. Alhamdulillah Allah (SWT) has given us this. What I am also finding though is that I am slightly out of step with things. I am going to have to lay down the law with the children because at the moment I don’t seem to have any control/influence/authority over them at all. The change in the household means that they are testing their boundaries – extensively! The change also means everyone’s routines are also seriously out of whack. They are on half-term holidays so I have not been strict, but dinner seems to be very late and bedtime consequently very late (eating samosa’s with guests half an hour before your dinner time seems to have some role in this…). I think today I will have to put some effort into reigning in the children and taking charge of what time dinner and bedtime happen.

The other thing I am finding is that I have been walking round in a slightly spaced-out state for the last two weeks. I am struggling to wake up in the morning (I usually get up at 6.30 to get to work for 7.30, so that I can finish early). I like to read at bedtime or chat with the hubby, but at the moment I am out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow. I go back to bed after the dawn prayer (it’s at 4am right now), and again I am asleep as soon as I lie down. Hubby seems to be going through the same as up until now he has been working and minding the children whilst I am at work. At the same time, he is very busy at the local masjid doing building work and DIY (they originally thought he was a builder and he never corrected them!).

At first I thought I couldn’t get up because I hated my job, but I am enjoying my work right now alhamdulillah. No amount of royal jelly, propolis, vitamins or blackseed oil seems to be making a difference either. I suspect I need to look at my diet (I do like my food tooo much). The one day I skipped dinner and had some fruit instead I felt brighter. I plan to drastically reduce the sugar in my diet and replace with fruit and veg insh’Allah and get on hubby’s case to eat properly too.

I realise too that I need to be more sensible about what I take on. Wanting to do everything, does not mean that you can or should. So I need to communicate better to people my enthusiasm for projects and activities along with a clear message about what I can really manage (this will be the hardest for me, as I never want to say no to anything).

One other thing that comes to mind, is that my last holiday was two years ago, for two weeks, in Pakistan in 45C heat, visiting for my brother-in-laws wedding. I think perhaps we both need a small break. Sometimes, you can’t get away for a month to the Seychelles or Marrakesh, but I am sure we can manage one day just for the two of us, just to relax and recharge. Now that mum-in-law is here, I might plan a few days like that insh’Allah.

Weddings, Cousins and Baby-Sitting

We seem to have found another source of childcare for the moment, a rather unexpected one alhamdulillah. One of my cousins has come here from Pakistan to study hotel management in Plymouth. Usually family and friends that come from abroad stay with us. I don’t mind as guests are a blessing and it brings excitement and interest. However, over the last few years hubby and I have noticed that the rest of the family are palming their guests off onto us. Again, this is fine, except for their attitude: “Oh F and S have space”, “Oh, obviously they’ll be staying at yours”. Excuse me, we won’t say no to anyone, but try asking first?

Anyway, I reckoned that this cousin would end up with us, but hubby decided to tell the family no, we don’t have space and see what happens. I backed him up on this because I knew he didn’t mean it, he wanted the cousin to actually appreciate staying with us when he eventually turned up here rather than assuming it was his right.

It took one week. One week at an Uncle’s house, everyone at work, house full of morose teenagers that wouldn’t talk to him (and BOY does he like to talk), admonitions for making a mess in the kitchen or leaving a mess in the bathroom. When my husband offered to have him over for a few days and work with him at the same time, he was over like a shot. He likes it here – he says people talk to each other, we eat together, the food is home-cooked, the kids are friendly (too friendly - I had to stop them from calling him by his name and encourage them to address him as uncle). Hubby has him in the kitchen trying to teach him to cook for when his semester starts at the end of this month and he will be living out in student halls (okra curry, without any chilli).

He is a help for us too. He watches the kids for an hour after school while hubby comes to pick me up from work. They are not very impressed:

“He won’t let us watch cartoons”
“He wouldn’t give us cake”
“We don’t like him!”

Perfect.

In the meantime, my hubby is on a mission to get him salah-trained, trying to drag him to the mosque, waking him up for fajr and giving Little Lady lectures over lunch about the virtues of prayer and the punishment for missing them which are clearly aimed elsewhere, much to everyone’s amusement. I am trying to get him to be gentle as the Cousin will only be here until semester starts.

At the same time, we have mum calling me asking where the baby is and why we haven’t been leaving him with her (d’you reckon she misses him?).

Mother-in-law is also keen to come back to has but has two weddings to arrange. Brother-in-law’s no. 3 (who lives with us) and no.5 have both gotten just engaged and should be getting married in the next month or two. Being my oh-so-organised in-laws, the date probably won’t be announced until two weeks before the big day(s) and then there will be panic (although the mother-in-law has given me a shopping list, bless her). Unfortunately we won‘t be able to fly out to Pakistan, but I look forward to celebrating when they come here with their wives insh’Allah….oh and there is my brother’s wedding in March…

…this is going to be a busy year I think alhamdulillah.

Oh and why does every single person who comes to this house from Pakistan manage to explode an egg in the microwave at least once?

Iftar Clean-up

Our iftar turned out well alhamdulillah, I made:

Starters/Iftar
Dates and almonds
Onion and potato pakora
Fruit salad
Chicken and lamb samosa's
Chicken and lamb spring rolls

Main meal
Pilau Rice
Chicken and potato curry
Haleem (slow-cooked lamb and lentil stew)
Naan bread
Colourful salad
Mint and coriander sauce
Yoghurt with spices, cucmber, tomato and onion.

Desert
Neopolitan Ice-cream
Strawberry jelly for the kids which Little Man tried to hog completely.

I would have taken pictures of the food, but was too busy serving, eating and clearing up:

I still have the giant pots but they can wait till the morning.

Iftar Prep

I invited my uncle'd family for ifatr today and hubby invited his friend's family, so I thought I would give up on the whole simplicity idea for the day and attempt a hearty meal.

Easy Entertaining for Guests – Small Talk and Food

One of the things I learned from my grandmother is the importance of being sociable and inviting guests into your home and taking care of guests properly.

When my grandparents first came to Britain in the 1960’s, the Pakistani community here was fairly new and quite small. There were major issues around finding a decent place to stay, being able to afford the essentials of life, finding the food they ate, especially halal meat and finding work. When they first came here the sought out friends to help them find their feet. When they eventually began to settle they did the same for people who arrived in Britain later. They gained quite a reputation for being open and helpful, a place where you could drop by any time for tea and a chat, some advice and plenty of reminiscing. This was still the case when I was a child and I remember the great variety of people trailing in and out of our big house full of extended family (12 people in a four-bedroom house). We were never short of other children to play with and there was never a shortage of opportunities to make mischief with the adults all so distracted.

These are ideals that have stayed with me. When I moved out into our first little flat, I promised myself I would keep an open house and use my home in Allah (SWT)’s path as much as I could. In the intervening years we have had friends stay for weeks or months, we have extended family stay for months and we have undertaken study circles (unfortunately lapsed) and had people stay whilst they made dawah (taught about the faith). As our family has grown, we have been able to do this less and many of our good intentions have lapsed.

One person who came to stay for two years and was the most welcome of our guests, was my grandmother. She brought with her an endless stream of guests and friends, many sitting with her late into the night, lapping up her stories.

This experience taught me so much about taking care of guests. The most important to me is to make sure they are well fed. We are lucky in that we are surrounded by take-away’s, but I aim now to have food in the house, whether cartons of juice, and nuts and biscuits or spring-rolls and samosa’s frozen in bulk to be whipped out and served in no time. Often in the early days I had no clue and so would find myself caught short with guests and an empty kitchen. This meant I had to learn to be a bit more resourceful. I use to end up serving up chips with tea, chopping up a fruit salad or just throwing together a savoury chickpea salad out of tins in the back of a cupboard. A wonderful lady who used to rent a room from us some time ago, taught me something about the art of preparing food to serve. She saw me about to throw away the last few pieces in a box of Indian sweets that had gotten hard in the fridge. She took them, sliced them into small neat pieces and arranged them on a plate with some almonds and dates. It looked lovely and the plate was cleared. A few minutes extra on the presentation and some imagination and she put together something put of nothing.

The most important thing I learned though, was about putting guests at ease. There is only one golden rule for this and if you stick to it conversation become easy. The rule is that people tend to find themselves to be the most interesting thing in the world, so if you want to open a conversation and then keep it going, ask questions. I don’t advocate being nosy and asking personal questions like age, income and education (the first three things I always get asked in Pakistan and it infuriates me, along with “what is the number of your glasses?”!). But asking how a person is, how their family is or whether they had any difficulty finding your place are nice starters. After that if a person wants to talk about themselves, they just will as long as you are willing to genuinely listen.

I subscribe to my husband’s family’s belief that if you have space for three, then you have space for four people in your home and if you have space for four, you can make space for six, your heart just has to be big enough.

It’s a case of making sure the elderly have everything they need and want, the adults being good-natures and willing to compromise a little and the children being thrown together wherever – they are the ones who enjoy it the most, and I sincerely hope that my children have as many good memories of a chaotic, noise, full house as I do insh’Allah.

image source

Mum and Dad are Back

Spent yesterday and today at my mum's. My parents got back from Pakistan utterly exhausted after a nine hour flight to a house full of noise and guests so had to spend the next five or six hours entertaining guests much to our chagrin (at one point my dad's best friend was chatting away to him whilst he had fallen asleep). Was lovely to welcome them home though and we basked in mum's warm hugs and kisses.

My aunty was kind enough to cook us a giant pot of biryani despite having to pick her husband up from the airport too. I was so annoyed at the thoughtless guests that I made them tea and served them mouldy old biscuits and stale sweets much to my mum's embarrassment.

They came back with gifts for all of us, but best of all they made their house home again. Despite Long-Suffering Sisters best efforts to clear up, mum spent the day clearing mouldering things from the fridge and restoring order to the house.

My favourite was her story about the elderly man, his elderly wife and their young grandson that occupied the seat in front of her. A few hours into the flight the old man pitched a fit because he wanted to go home and he could not see why they were not letting him off the flight. His grandson tried to explain and then called an air stewardess to convince the man they were in mid-air. A little while later the old man pitched a fit at his wife because she didn't get him a glass of water. When she explained she asked but the stewardess asked her to wait, he mumbled "what did I bring you along for then?". My mum kept smiling until his last comment when she burst into laughter. He squirmed in his seat and then declared this manjhi (Punjabi rope bed) is pinching me.

Kooky Little Sister got these two suits. A churidar (fit-and-flare dress with fitted trousers) and a trouser suit. The emboidery on the black one is one the back, which seems to be quite a trend at the moment.

These two were for Fashionista who loved them and declared hers were the best.

This one was for Long-Suffering Sister who is the least adventurous of us style-wise. I thought it was a lovely classic shape. The colours (burgundy and sky-blue) are also perfect if she wants to be a West Ham FC supporter. The only thing was the trousers were a bit short. There is a unfortunate trend in Pakistan at the moment for putting Capri pants with tunics - very appropriate for the majority of traditional Pakistani's - not. Mum says she can undo the bottom and make it longer (otherwise Fash is short and can try cadging it off LSS).

Mine was the simplest and most practical (the rest were mostly delicate chiffon and silk numbers). Something warm and smart to wear on a day off. The trousers are plain green and prefectly straight and the tunic comfy and wearable (and in my fave colour GREEN).

Little Lady, being nan's little princess, got two suits; a pink sharara (short tunic and trousers that flare at the knee) and a pink (obviously) churidar.

So now we have mum and dad back, although they are both still sad and want to talk lots about gran which is fine with me. There is now also a clutch of us girls with lots to wear and nowhere to go (although I am sure Kooky Little Sis will say "speak for yourself" before swanning off to her latest friend's wedding).

Boxing Day Sales and Guests

I woke up this morning and immediately thought of the post-Christmas sales (one of the three things I can stomach about Christmas, the others being the break from work and watching all the good films on my mum's telly). So I left the kids in bed with their dad, who was trying to ignore them and sleep, and headed to the town centre. I was hopin to pick up some school stuff for the kids or some gifts to stash for use throughout the year. An hour later, hands and face numb from the bitter cold, I decided to give up and head home.

Retailers are complaining that shoppers are staying way and that lack of pending is contributing to the recession and retailers going bust, but today was a reminder why in some cases. The shops were full of useless junk - either surplus to a persons needs or poor quality. The few things I liked the look of were still very expensive or not reduced at all. All of the shops sported signs proclaiming 70% off, but inside all I could see were 20-30% off in most cases. I think I might till the end of the sales and have one look around.

Instead of a bargain, all I managed to do was knacker myself out. This nasty virus we have all had seems to be lingering and I still get tired very quickly, or suddenly find my feet dead and threatening to topple me. My nose still looks like someone took a blowtorch to the underside and I am still getting through a roll of tissue a day, making disgusting snorting noises. Alhamdulillah, it's nothing like two weeks ago when I was really bad.

I was annoyed for getting so tired, because we had guests due to visit today. So instead of being sensible and giving my husband a shopping list which he would happily have trundled off with, I did the rounds of the butchers and grocers. Of course, there being so many Asian businesses in this area, everything was open despite it being Boxing Day. Heck, everything was open here on Christmas Day, although I am sure that's not allowed and the traders must have known this because they didn't have all their junk blocking the pavement as usual.

As soon as the shopping as done, I headed straight for the kitchen where I spent the morning in a grump because what I really wanted to do was lie down. i got a good chunk of the cooking done and then finally spent an hour in bed mid-afternoon reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (which I haven't decided yet if I like or not).

Much refreshed despite continuous disturbances from the kids, I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen.

I made the food I make most often when I need to cook for quite a few people. Pilau rice and very spicy chicken curry. Brother-in-law kindly picked up the naan bread on his way back from collecting the guests.

The better half and my cousins (who were also in attendance - including my cousin Tayyib) all love salad with their rice, so I chopped up cucumber, Chinese lettuce, tomatoes and green bell pepper, added some sweet corn and grated in some carrots

My husband also can't do without mint sauce with his rice so whizzed some up (recipe to follow).

Didn't have the enrgy for a sweet dish so made seasoned fruit salad for the grown-ups and jelly with peaches or the children. Little Man managed to wolf down nearly the whole bowl of jelly by himself.

My aunty was kind enough to wash most of the dishes and my husband seemed to think it would be a good idea for him to do the rest whilst I hoovered. The assortment of kids managed to make a big mess, some of which Little Lady managed to tidy up. The kids were so tired they were out for the count in minutes (Gorgeous closed his eyes before his head the pillow). I'm still going to make them scrape off the stickers they stuck all over the floor tomorrow. I am just cream-crackered, so I am taking my sore self off to bed and having another go at that book.