Ramadan Kareem 2022/1443

Assalam-alaikam

Ramadan Kareem,

I hope this Ramadan has started well for all of my brothers and sisters and that you are making the most of it.

I am deeply grateful to see this blessed month again.

I find Ramadan is always the month I find myself again – it takes me back to my purpose, my self and my Creator Insha’Allah. This year has been no exception. Once again I find myself having to pare back to essentials so that I can manage fasting, worship, family, home, work and community. Everything non-essential falls away just so that I can manage.

 

I was speaking to my bestie about goals for Ramadan and hers was to get closer to Allah (SWT), she encouraged me to set a goal for myself too. I reflected on how I was managing and what I needed to make the most of this month. I have found that I have struggled to get through each day of Ramadan, struggling with painful, cramping muscles. I have been obsessing with my weight for the last few months too. So I decided that my intention during Ramadan would be to get healthy with the intention of being a better Muslimah. Better health would allow me to worship better, serve better and generally fulfil my duties better. I have been trying to eat well, move more and move my focus off of my weight and onto feeling good in myself and taking the best care I can of myself.

 

Another part of me understands that discomfort, illness, personal challenge are all things that help us turn back to Allah (SWT), seeking His help and finding comfort in His faith:

 

“Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it”. (Muslim)

 

That leaves me feeling grateful and positive alhamdulillah.

 

I hope that my Muslim sisters and brothers are making the most of this beautiful month and finding that opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. May Allah (SWT) bless you all with the best of health, perfect iman, an abundance of halal rizq and the acceptance of all your dua’s.

 

I make dua especially for those of my family, this ummah, that are suffering or struggling with injustice, war, illness, debt and doubt. May Allah (SWT) relieve your hardship and send you joyful days insh’Allah.

 

Do you set Ramadan goals? What are they? How are you finding this Ramadan?

2020 Stories: Corona, Tier 4, Exhaustion and Gratitude

Assalam-alaikam to anyone reading this and especially to those who make an effort to stop by and read despite my inconsistency in writing.

I have taken two weeks off work and a quarter of the way in, my head has cleared enough that I am motivated to write again.

It’s a curious time with Tier 4 Lockdown, winter solstices and the “Great' Conjunction” of the planets. I am off work; the kids are home from school and hubby is on his travels in Pakistan.

I hope sisters and brothers reading this are keeping well and are not suffering too much from the physical or mental effects of corona virus or a year of lockdowns and isolation insh’Allah.

It has been a curious time for the children, my oldest two have A ‘levels and GCSE’s in the coming year and so have been studying without knowing if they will have exams.  My younger son has missed a lot of school between lockdown and bouts of an ear inflammation that made him too dizzy and nauseous to go school.  Thankfully after multiple doctor’s consultations and finally a trip to emergency, he is now well and managed to get back to school before the holidays started.  I can tell he is well because he is back to annoying his little sisters until they scream and teasing me non-stop. The youngest two have been playing catch up at school, with their teachers making sure they know how to use google classroom in case schools can’t open in January.

All of them have been inundated with homework and tests, but alhamdulillah have just got on with it. I have tried to focus on how they are getting on emotionally as much as on their studies and just make sure they have what they need. My work has really made me realise how many children are going to fall so far behind that they won’t be able to catch up. For reasons as varied as not having devices, or enough data, having to help with taking care of siblings when they are home, parents that don’t understand how to get their children online, or just the stress of households that have lost income or are dealing with sickness, mental health issues or domestic violence. I noticed when Darling’s class had to go online for the first time, only 6 children showed up (one spent the entire time shouting “I CAN’T HEAR YOU” and had to be put on mute by the teacher). Lots of the children in her school are from newly immigrated families, I suspect a good number from families that don’t have a right to stay in the UK yet or much income to provide a phone or tablet for the children to use.

Hubby left for Pakistan in early November, he worked throughout the pandemic but by that point in the year I could see how down he was and how much he needed some time to focus on his faith. He travels for dawah for six weeks every year, this year there are no dawah groups (or jamaats), so he stayed in one part of Pakistan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. He has finished his six weeks stay and is spending a few days with his parents before he flies back (if flights are still running…). We have the annual list of things we have broken ready for him 😊

Mum and dad-in-law didn’t come to stay this year due to the Covid situation being worse here than in Pakistan. That was until things got really bad there too, but by then the flights were grounded.  We will have to see about next year, it is always good to have them, but it was also a break for me from caring duties and the constant squabbling between my opinionated oldest child and her equally opinionated grandmother.

Work has been a non-stop fiesta of long hours, new projects, intense learning and often just sensory overload. It has left me fit for nothing for months but evenings of binge-watching rubbish or scrolling through social media. All of my focus, creativity and mental space has been used up working on projects as varied as youth participation, community engagement, sourcing translations for covid information, looking at how we support people with no status to be here (no recourse to public funds) during the pandemic, improving access for people with disabilities, work around racism and women’s experiences – you get the picture…lots of things to fill my brain.

I kept going full speed with work, home and the kids until about autumn and then started to lose sight of why I was bothering to do any of it. I found myself waking up every day sad and then spending the day sad and then starting to feel ok by about the time I got to bed. This went on for weeks and weeks of me feeling miserable and telling myself I have everything to be grateful for, to be positive, to pull myself out of it.  In the end, it took to the end of November and lots of prayer and being still and allowing myself to feel the misery, for me to find my mojo again. I slowly found my heart lifting and seeing the good in the day again alhamdulillah.

 

At the moment I am taking it easy, going through my to-do list of things I have been putting off (what I call “life admin”) and organising the corners of the house where bits and pieces have been accumulating. I am cooking whatever the kids want, having way too many movie nights with the youngest two and have started journaling after a very long time. I intend to spend these two weeks running in the morning, going for walks, filling out my Filofax like a geek, journaling and reading. More importantly, I want to spend the next two weeks reflecting on the lessons from 2020 and dreaming up my plans and intentions (Allah SWT willing) for 2021 insh’Allah.

How has the last year been for you? What has helped you cope? Do you have an intentional end of year process?

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You’re Fat! Unhelpful Comments and Some Helpful Advice Back

I received two interesting comments yesterday that made me think.

The first was from one of my husband’s “auntie” - a lady who calls him her son and who he helps out on occasion with chores and DIY. She sees me as her daughter-in-law; because we all need more than one mum-in-law….

She came to see us yesterday and commented “you must be sitting a lot for work, you’ve gotten fat”.

I get these kinds of comments from older ladies every now and again – I’m not quite sure what bothers them so much about my weight and body, but they don’t hold back in letting me know about it. I have to say it stung – not because I have hang ups about my body – I love this body that carried me through seven pregnancies and five children, that serves me day in day out to serve my family and community, that belies a strength and stamina that people don’t realise is there and that I genuinely believe to be a beautiful body. I don’t walk about thinking “poor me, I’m fat”, I tell myself “Damn you look good, thank you Allah”

It stung because once more someone felt the need to point it out. That this is what she could see before she could see any other good quality I might have. That’s all we come down to: thin and youthful and disciplined (implying good), or fat and lazy and greedy (implying we need to fix ourselves).

When she left my poor husband had to hear about it. I told him if there were no aunties, no husbands, no neighbours and no rude relatives then I would never have to hear comments like this or worry about what they were thinking or going to say. I told him I am happy as I am and I seem to be the only one that is.  He had the good sense to listen and make no comment at this point.

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The second comment was from my daughter, she overheard the conversation with my husband and later mentioned to me that she could never remember a time when I was slim (it was up until baby number four, when she was 10 years old). That surprised me, as it didn’t feel so long ago.

The thing is, if all these well-meaning people who needed to help me see myself as the fat flawed creature I supposedly am, were genuinely well-meaning they could do better than make comments or offer useless advice. They could do the things that make a difference:

Offer your time – when I started walking after work, I found it made me late for the rest of the evening – cooking, evening routines, children’s bedtimes. By the time my children’s evening routines were done, it was dark and I didn’t feel safe to go out (the number of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, drunk people and aggressive beggars, including drug users desperate for their next fix, in our neighbourhood at night is crazy).

So, any help with watching the kids or getting things done, will help free up time to exercise.

Eat out healthier – every time we eat out its somewhere that has burgers, chips or oily curries. Healthy options are so limited locally – mainly grilled chicken or a basic salad with chicken in. So, when you look at options to eat out, look for somewhere that has better, tastier, and more healthy options.

Stop giving sweet stuff – every time there is a family gathering, or dinner, or visit, we bring chocolates, cake, mithai (Indian sweets) and all manners of unhealthy, sugary sweet stuff. I have stuff still piled up in my kitchen cupboard from Eid. Replace it with fruit, or something else useful (don’t give me a crappy candle). The only exception is Krispy Kreme donuts on Eid – my two guilt-free, eat whatever you want days of the year.

Offer your company – I always struggled to find a walking partner, none of my friends, family or neighbours have ever been able to commit to a regular, brisk walk, esp. when I am available - early in the morning. I find exercising with a partner that is good company helps the time go more quickly and with greater ease.

This all sounds a bit demanding and entitled, but if you are really concerned enough about my weight to point it out or give me unwanted advice, perhaps you can concern yourself in ways that are useful and effective. If this sounds like too much effort, then you may wish to consider if your concern is genuine or just superficial and more about you than me – in which case, shove your advice and your comments!!

Shifting Pounds

I have been working on losing some weight on and off for about the last 4-5 years with very limited success. Over those years I have done a few things that have helped me: start tracking my steps, trying to walk every day, trying to identify my trigger points for when I eat the wrong foods (4pm after work usually) and mitigate them (keep a date or nuts in my bag to stave off the chocolate cravings).

But overall, the love of chocolate and all things carb has been too strong and sitting all day at a desk does not help. Running home to see to the family and home also leaves me with very little time to take better care of myself.

In the run up to this Ramadan, I was walking just under two miles every evening, this meant that once Ramadan started, I found the taraweeh prayer much easier than previous years. In the past I had found myself with sore legs and flagging energy levels. I can’t continue to walk outdoors for so long but have instead resorted to running on my machine at home after taraweeh. Sometimes this means I am on my machine at 12:30 at night, but I am happy to have squeezed it into my routine.

Between running and fasting, I am not losing much weight, but I feel good and energised. I have stopped eating sugar, now I just have to work on the beloved carbs.

There are two more things I have done. Firstly, over the years I have stopped judging myself and getting angry or feeling guilty. I have moved towards honouring and loving myself and my body and being grateful for it, regardless of size. I have moved my focus from being thin, to being healthy, strong and full of energy.

The second is to have a positive goal to visualise and move towards: a future where I am healthy and strong insh’Allah and not in pain with sore knees or other weight-related health conditions, but also a positive vision of being slim and enjoying wearing beautiful clothes insh’Allah.

What are your tips for losing weight and getting healthy?

Ramadan 2020/1441: Ramadan Gratitude Journal Day 5

What about your body are you especially grateful for?

I like this prompt, we spend so much time picking fault, seeing our imperfections and feeling self-conscious, that we forget what beautiful, useful, rewarding creations our bodies can be. When I was a size six with clear skin, I would still see faults. Now twenty years later, bigger, slightly more weather worn, I no longer find fault or look at what needs improvement.

I have learned to love my body and be grateful for how it has served me: bearing children, comforting and holding those around me, in worship and working hard every day. The thing I am most grateful for about my body is that it has held up and served me despite my love of foods that are not the best for it and my inability to rest properly.

In the last few years, this has been more of a focus for me, to eat better, to rest properly, to treat my body with better care and give it the chance to be well and strong for longer insh’Allah.

The Prophet ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Your body has a right over you, your eyes have a right over you and your wife has a right over you”. (Hadith narrated by Imam Al-Bukhari)

You can find the original Ramadan Gratitude journal challenge here and my take on it here.

What about your body are you especially grateful for?

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Our Changing World

We are four weeks into being at home as the Corona virus pandemic goes on in the UK and the whole country at a standstill. One of the things that has really bothered me throughout is all those people that will no longer be able to work or have an income.

So many people live from pay cheque to pay cheque, barely making it through the month or out of their overdraft. We know of so many single people and families through the masjid and friends that don’t have recourse to public funds, this could be for various reasons – their case is being processed by the home office, they are appealing after their asylum case has been rejected, some that are even here after their visa ran out. If these people can’t work right now, even if under the radar doing low paid work, they can’t eat.

There must be so many others that are just getting by and are wondering what will happen over the next few weeks and months and where that will leave them.  With the country heading for a recession, perhaps the worse for many generations, it is easy to believe that the world will be a very different place when we come out of the other end of this horrible situation.  Just the sheer number of people at risk of losing their homes is terrifying.

Many of us are thinking about how we can get through, others about how they can adapt and ride the changes to their benefit. But there are those that will only be at the mercy of events, the vulnerable, the elderly, those too sick or mentally unable to keep going.  These are the people we will have to look out for, to think of and to find ways to support so that they are not left behind.

May Allah SWT have mercy on all of our brothers and sisters, on all of humanity insh’Allah

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Changing Times: Corona Virus

Assalam alaikam,

I hope brothers and sisters are doing well and keeping healthy wherever you are insh’Allah. I haven’t written in a little while and in that little while, the whole world seems to have changed with the corona virus epidemic and all that I has brought with us. We have been in lock down here in the UK for coming up to four weeks now and we are all mainly housebound. The kids are off school, and I am working long hours from home.

We all seemed to catch a mild form of the virus very early on, about four weeks ago, it was unpleasant and uncomfortable and lasted about 12-14 days, but we were careful to stay away from anyone else and the sickness passed and we are all well alhamdulillah.

So as the days go on we are falling into our routines.  My older children have turned semi-nocturnal and sleep way too late. The little ones wake up early and we try to play school. I have told the older children that they need to try and have routine and a purpose for each day, or they will start to feel very down very quickly.

I am probably the one with the firmest routine, with my day schedules around working hours, meals and the children’s schooling. I have days when I get overwhelmed because the office has scheduled meetings from midday to 4pm and I need to get the children lunch.

I am grateful to be working and my husband is still doing deliveries, so we have an income.  I know there are so many around me who will start to feel the financial pain of being stuck at home as the weeks go on.  I am grateful that my work is part of the Covid19 response trying to work with the voluntary sector and share information.

I am grateful that my parents and siblings have kept well, everyone I know has lost someone or knows someone who has lost a family member. I think it will take a long time for us to get over the emotional and psychological pain of this situation, let alone the financial and I believe that we will not return to the world s it was before. At times like this I am grateful for my faith and the reassurances and strength it gives me.

“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient” ~ Quran 2:155

So verily with every difficulty there is relief. Verily with every difficulty there is relief. ~ Quran 94:5-6

Suhaib al-Rūmī reported that the Messenger of Allāh ṣallallāhu 'alayhi wa sallam (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:“How wonderful is the situation of a believer! there is good for him in everything and this applies only to a believer. If prosperity befalls him and he expresses gratitude to Allāh, then it will be for his good; and if adversity befalls him and he endures it patiently, it will also be for his good.” (Sahih Muslim 2999)

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Picture of the Day 11.02.20: Cheat Carbs

I’ve been trying to eat more healthily recently, reducing sugar and carbs where I can. But to be honest our food is so carb-based, I didn’t know where to start. No rice, roti, nan, bread, chips, pasta...what’s left?!?

So I’ve been experimenting with salad ingredients and having it with a piece of fish, chicken or a veggie burger patty. I didn’t think it was something I could get used to, but it feels doable alhamdulillah.

Yesterday I made the kids rice and I had to have some (was good alhamdulillah).

A Little Eruption

As we get to the end of the twelfth fast, I am beginning to find myself getting tired. I am quite sleep deprived and I wonder if perhaps I am eating enough of the right foods.  I am also struggling with managing long hours on my feet in the kitchen, before and after iftar and managing the needs of my in-laws.  Between work and the Ramadan routine we have fallen into, there is very little time to even keep up with housework or reading Quran.

Today I thought I would give myself a break and order takeaway. Except we got to iftar, Little Man went and collected the food and before long there was squabbling over the drinks, Not just the kids either, the grandparents decided they wanted what the kids had.  I couldn’t take it any more. I shouted at them, one minute before iftar, when I should have been making dua.  I have asked for peace during that little window, just so that I can make dua in peace. I don’t think I asked for much.  I took my food and ate with the door shut in my bedroom.

I felt guilty and a little anxious about leaving everyone to it.  I didn’t enjoy my meal, even if I got some quiet.  I did however come to two conclusions:

1. The Ramadan routine is not fixed, if I am finding it all too much, I can change it.  I am thinking less and simpler food and everyone gets exactly the same of everything – they’ll still find something to squabble over, but I won’t be paying for drinks only for them to all start eyeing up the same one.

2. I have always held my tongue with my elders, but my in-laws may need to be given some gentle reminders about what I can manage and that provoking the kids is not helpful to me.  Hubby may also need some slightly less gentle reminders: i.e. if you can eat it in one dish, please don’t use two, unless you want to wash all fifty that seem to have appeared in the kitchen.  The kids may be getting the least gentle reminders if they are not careful, of the “do you want Eid cancelled?” variety.

We have another 17 or 18 fasts to go insh’Allah and I don’t want to spend all of them feeling like a Zombie with marshmallows for brains and a sore back, so I need to make some changes so that the month passes with a little more worship and a little less shouting at kids and the elderly.

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Picture of the Day 03.05.19: Ramadan Prep and Food Intentions

I haven’t done much Ramadan prep except make a big batch of chicken spring rolls as my children really like these and the older three plan on fasting.  I am lucky everything is available on my doorstep, so I don’t need to stockpile, I also don’t have much food storage space, so just as well I can get what I need as I need it.

I thought it would be more useful to plan ahead a little and look at recipes, breakfast/suhoor ideas and meal plans I could adapt easily and quickly.  I have impressed on my family that I don’t intend to sped hours in the kitchen making iftar meals this year as in the past this has impacted on the amount and quality of my worship, and thankfully my husband is very supportive of this.

Both of us are also keen on having a healthy Ramadan, with a focus on fresh fruit and veg and light meals.  On mention of healthy Little Man nearly had a melt down and complained “but it’s Ramadan!”, so we will have to see how that goes.

Grateful for Ordinary

Late last year I picked up the habit of morning journaling again.  I have done this on and off for the last fifteen years or so.  I have my paper journals which I fill with thoughts and ideas and bits of wisdom that resonate.  These are left out where anyone can read them and I have no problem with this.  In fact, I hope my children take an interest one day.  Then I have the journal I keep on my laptop on a Word document, this is to capture my inner thoughts and anxieties.  I write these to help understand myself better.  They have helped me through dark moments and helped me reflect when I can’t make sense of my feelings.  I am happy to delete these at the end of the year or even when I finish writing that morning.

I was digital journaling this morning and it brought back some powerful memories of journaling when I was expecting Baby.  I remembered how absolutely miserable I was at the time.  Both from the nausea of pregnancy and working in a really boring and uninspiring job at the time.  I remember feeling like I could not lift myself out of the hole I was in.  It felt like such hard work to get up each day, to get started.  I would sit at my computer at work, trying not to cry or just sit with my head in my hands.

I had a similar, but much worse experience after Gorgeous was born.  He was a beautiful and happy baby, placid and easy going.  Yet I didn’t want to care for him.  I had three children under five and suddenly I didn’t want to look after them.  I didn’t want to do anything.  Looking back, that is what I find so terrifying, I was not sad, or down or miserable.  I didn’t care, I didn’t feel anything at all.  I thank Allah (SWT) that the feeling, or lack of,  lifted after about three months, but in that time, every day was an uphill struggle and I could see no way out of it.

This morning I wrote: “I feel inspired to write, to move, to go about my daily work, it is a good feeling.” It is a good feeling, one we take for granted.  To be normal, to feel normally, to have the motivation to get up and start our day.  But we are not even aware of it until we lose it.

I have plenty to deal with at the moment: stroppy teenagers, work stress, a killer to-do list, little ones with chicken pox, but I can deal with them one at a time. I am well enough and I want to.

So this morning, I have my chores to do: ironing uniforms, the last of the laundry, cleaning the house, cooking for the next few days.  But I feel like celebrating normal.  I want to enjoy the ordinariness of the day, because there are much worse things to be and feel like than ordinary. 

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2018 and Word of the Year in Review

I don’t celebrate New Year’s and the changing of the date does not hold a particularly great significance to me, but it seems it as good a time as any to reflect on the last year and set intentions for the coming year.  2018 was a full year for me, both fulfilling and challenging and leaving me wanting to do better.

I started the year with a new job and high hopes working for local government in areas I was interested in: policy, equality and diversity, community development, social action and research.  Over the year, my knowledge grew as did My passion about some of these things.  I think I can safely say that it has been the most enjoyable and rewarding year of my working life.  I’m looking forward to the next year, but also thinking about pacing myself better, managing workload, attention and energy levels. At the end of the year I feel as if I need to re-think how work balances with other elements of my life.

I worry that my work takes up so much headspace that it impacts on other elements of my life.  I have always struggled to pray my salah (daily prayers) with full khushoo (concentration and devotion) and have found certainly when I pray at work, I have to work harder to set work aside and clear my head for a little while.

My Word of the Year last year was actually two words: Quran and Khidmat (Service). For the first, I am not satisfied that I was able to dedicate enough time and energy to the Quran and this is something that I intend to work on this year.  Every other goal and intention pales into significance in front of this one, because I keep telling myself that this is what we are here to do: to understand Allah’s blessed word and live by it.

For khidmat, or service to others, this is the type of worship that comes to me most easily and that I enjoy – whether cooking for others, filling out forms, hosting or accompanying someone on an appointment.  Various opportunities present themselves via the masjid and my family and neighbours and it is always a blessing to get the opportunity to serve others.

In terms of family, hubby is my rock as always and my one dependable anchor I can trust alhamdulillah.  This year he has been busy with work, the affairs of the masjid and demands on his time by attendees of the masjid.  By the end of the year I did start to feel a little neglected and sorry for myself.  But being me and unable to keep anything in, it wasn’t long before he was appraised of the situation and buying me dinner (take-away solves everything right?)

The kids were another matter.  As the older three move into their teens we have butted heads over so many things – technology, phones and internet access, freedom to go out, prayer and Islamic studies, getting into fights at school.  It has made me questioned everything about my parenting of my children. It has also made me grow – in patience and in trusting Allah (SWT).  This means I have had to loosen up about some things and accept they are teenagers and try and remember what it felt like when I was their age.

The babies are now both full time at school and enjoying it…most of the time.  Darling is a regular swot and good girl mashallah, whereas Baby veers between excitement and telling me school is boring.  I am now looking at Quran instruction for them, Little Lady has been teaching them a little, but is about to start the final few months to her GCSE exams insh’Allah.

The loveliest blessing among many was my new little niece Baby Z (I think I just made her sound like a baby Zombie). We are all mad about her and enjoy cooing at her.  We were also blessed with my cousin’s sweet engagement, so are looking forward to her wedding this year insh’Allah.

(image courtesy of Shutterbug Sister)

With respect to my health, I had plans to lose weight this year, I did during Ramadan and put it back on again. The one thing I did change was that I run every morning for 20 to 30 minutes on a running machine that my husband got me.  I haven’t lost any weight, but I feel stronger, can take the stairs more easily and have more energy for longer in the day, so it is a step in the right direction.

For one of the great loves of my life, books, I have been somewhat neglectful.  The lure of social media, surfing rubbish online and reading on my mobile phone, meant I didn’t read as much this year.  But towards the end of the year I found some books I loved and got back into reading again.   I intend to read lots and lots this year insh’Allah.  I was also very happy to find that my office had a book club, so although I haven’t been mad about every choice of the club, I have more than enjoyed finding people to talk about books with.

The other thing that I got involved with this year, both through work and my neighbourhood, is some community work.  This is something that has been close to my heart for a long time, but I just haven’t had the opportunity to do anything about.  Hubby and I have joined the newly formed local resident’s association and he has applied for training for our local Street Watch scheme along with about fifteen people from his masjid.  We have been worried about the state of the neighbourhood for a long time, so perhaps now we can contribute towards doing something about it.

Insh’Allah 2018 was a beneficial year for you too. What did you learn last year and what was your greatest achievement?

Accident and Emergency Take Two

Gorgeous came home from school this week cradling his wrist and telling us it was causing him a lot of pain.  Two weeks into his first year of high school, one of the Year 11 boys kicked a ball into his hand with full force.  He tells me it’s not the first incident, one of his friends was hit with a ball by the Year 11’s and knocked clean out.

I didn’t fancy taking him to the Accident and Emergency on a busy Friday night, so gave him pain relief and sent him to bed. Instead, we went after Fajr (dawn) prayers when we found it empty and were seen without any delay and back home by eight in the morning.  It turned out he had fractured his wrist in two places.

After his older brothers fractured ankle earlier this year, where he got stomped on during a game of football, I don’t fancy having to go back to A&E again, nor to the ongoing fracture clinic appointments.

I might have a word with the school about overly boisterous football players. 

Review: MacNahl Raw Honey, Honycomb and Honey Cappings

We are a household of honey lovers with honey gracing our cupboards from both abroad (Pakistan and Czech Republic) and local (Essex and Kent honey's), some bought and some gifted to us.  We use it on toast, in green and herbal teas and as medicine for sore throats and coughs.

So when I was asked by the lovely people at MacNahl Honey if I wanted to review theirs, I agreed to give it a go.

MacNahl Honey sell honey that is organic and also raw.  That means that it is not heated or processed, i.e. blended with other honeys.

I chose the Thyme Honey and Eucalyptus Honey to try along with some Honeycomb and Honey Cappings, a by-product of honey.

All of the products came well-wrapped and packaged to avoid damage, along with some information about the two type of honey I had chosen.

The Thyme Honey is used to treat sore throats, wounds, burns and food poisoning.  It is also considered to be useful in the treatment of high cholesterol and even cancer.

Excuse me while we get carried away with the photo-shoot:

The Thyme honey was the lighter of the two in colour and the smell was what you would traditionally expect of honey, except much more intense.  The taste was almost fruity, but still light and easy to take - I expected with such a strong scent the taste would be very intense, but it was mild and pleasant.

The Eucalyptus honey was slightly darker, the website describes its benefits:

Eucalyptus honey is anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, decongestant, deodorant, antiseptic, antibacterial, healing wounds, ulcers, burns, cuts, abrasions and sores and is often recommended to patients suffering from rheumatism, lumbago, sprained ligaments and tendons, stiff muscles, aches, fibrosis and even nerve pain.

I found the smell once again intense, but the taste was fresh and light.  I could sense a hint of eucalyptus, but I couldn't tell if it was in the taste or small, it was so subtle.

More pictures with the honey dipper (Little Man was having too much fun helping out):

The honeycomb comes in a box with a lid that you can put back after taking the amount you need.  The honeycomb and honey cappings were both sent by MacNahl to be used in the same way as a treatment for asthma and chest problems.  This is done by taking a small amount and chewing every day for half an hour, then spitting out.

The honeycomb was very fragrant and quite intriguing to look at.

The honey cappings are a thin layer of wax that bees build over the top of dried honey to seal it in and is considered by some to be the best part of the honey.  The top was quite firm in texture, but once out of the jar it was soft and quite malleable.

We enjoyed trying the honey and my husband has been using the Thyme honey in his special winter tea (lemons, honey, fennel and ginger) and has made quite a dent in it, I have been enjoying it on toast.

I have passed the Eucalyptus honey and the honey comb and honey cappings to my mum to try as she has asthma.  I am going to get her to try the chewing treatment and keep at it as it is considered to be a long term treatment (at least a year), Insha’Allah I will be monitoring its effectiveness over time.

You can find out more about MacNahl honey and the honeycomb and honey cappings at their website here, or via their social media pages (Facebook and Twitter)

Disclaimer: I received this product at no cost to me for the purpose of testing it for review. The opinions expressed here are my own and from my own honest experience of using the product.