Another Update on Cata

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

We hope you have had a good start to your Ramadan, insha'Allah! It's been a while since we've done an update on our cat, so that's what we are doing in today's post. In case you are new here, you might want to read this post as an introduction to Cata.

We have had Cata for six years and she is around 7 1/2 to 8 years old now, masha'Allah. When we first adopted her she was very feisty and bad tempered. However, alhamdulillah, she has been steadily improving as the years have gone by and has almost done a complete 180. This past year, she has definitely become more grateful, loving and gentle. Bellow is a list of the things she has improved on, masha'Allah:

1. No longer scratches unnecessarily.

2. Lets us roll her onto her back.

3. Lets us stroke her belly.

4. Has gotten used to and accepted the blow-dryer (after showering).

5. Has accepted Huraira. 

All of these things are important milestones to us and we are very proud of her, masha'Allah.

If you are wondering who Huraira is, he is a neighbourhood stray that pretty much lives in our garden full time now. It is not that Cata likes him, but rather she tolerates him. They are quite comfortable around each other which is a big accomplishment for Cata. She really doesn't like other cats, but she has actually accepted Huraira, masha'Allah.

Huraira is a sweet cat and is not trying to challenge Cata's authority. He just wants food, comfort, love and protection. That brings us to Bully. He is a stray that has been terrorising all the cats in our neighbourhood. He has attacked both Cata and Huraira before, and is always causing trouble. We have to chase him away whenever we see him and he is the reason why Huraira is currently living in our garden.

As you can see from his photo, Bully (pictured above) looks a lot like Edelweiss another one of our strays (pictured below). We say he is his evil twin brother! 

Edelweiss (pronounced a-dill-vice) is also scared of him and hasn't been coming around as often. Hopefully Bully will leave someday soon and the other cats can live in peace, insha'Allah.

Well that is all for this post. We hope you liked the update and we will see you next Friday, insha'Allah.

Take care and wasalaam,

        

     



Ramadan Mubarak

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

Ramadan Mubarak! May Allah accept our fasts and Ibadah during this Blessed month.

Love and Wasalaam,

Coming up: Ramadan, Quran Journaling and more Baking

Assalamu Alaikum!

Without a doubt, Ramadan is our favourite time of the year! We love the peaceful atmosphere and the calmness that descends during this blessed month. It is a time of worship, reflection and togetherness. This year, due to this global pandemic, things will undoubtedly be different. Most countries around the world are currently in lockdown, and here in Qatar we are self-isolating.

The masjids are closed and we expect them to remain that way for the foreseeable future. This unfortunately means that there will be no congregational prayers and we are really going to miss them. Insha'Allah, we want to focus more on the good and are aware that such measures have been put in place for our safety, alhamdulillah.

Ramadan Crafts

It has almost become a tradition in our household to have lots of Ramadan-related crafts completed before and during this blessed month. Last year, however, we did two big crafts that we knew would change things. In an effort to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly, we made a couple of reusable crafts, pictured and linked below.

Reusable Reversible Ramadan Banner

Ramadan Reward Calendar Craft

Both of these crafts take a while to make, so if you have the supplies you might want to get started soon! We won't be doing many Ramadan crafts this year, but we will try to do at least one, insha'Allah.

Quran Journaling

Almost two years ago, Hanifah made us each a Quran and Dua'a journal. We tend to do more journaling in them during Ramadan so, insha'Allah, we will be sharing some photos of our Quran journaling. We have recently been inspired by our mum's style of Quran journaling and are excited to show you some of her work too!

Baking

Every Ramadan we have shared a recipe that includes dates, and this year we mean to do the same, insha'Allah. We will also try our best to get two recipes up as we have usually been able to do during this blessed month, masha'Allah. If you want to try out some of our previous Ramadan recipes, we have linked a few below.

Date Ma'moul Recipe

Liqeemat Recipe

Date and Ginger Muffins Recipe

Well, that's all for this week's post. We hope you are all safe and looking forward to Ramadan which is only about a week away, subhan'Allah!

Take care and Wassalam,

Balcony Garden: Tomato Plants

Assalamu Alaikum!

Maryam here this week. SubhanAllah! I didn't think I'd be writing up this post to update you all on my tomato plant, because I really thought it wasn't going to make it.

Recap: Two months ago I left you all with this photo of my tomato plants from November last year.

I had sown two in September, but as you can see, after 2 months they hadn't grown much and didn't look strong enough to survive the colder months.

But again, SubhanAllah, one came through and this is how it looked in February.

And then it flowered, masha'Allah.

When March came round, I spotted the first little green tomato.

A week later the plant seemed to go through a growth spurt. I woke up to find it bent over (almost touching the ground!) because of the weight of the many forming tomatoes.

So, I had to find a way to string it up without hurting the plant.

Here it is 11 days later, on the 1 April.

The bottom leaves were browning and some looked like they had been eaten. I suspected there might be a caterpillar on my plant so I started to look. Sure enough, I found the adorable little invader! 

Can you find him in the photo below?

Aside from the caterpillar, my tomatoes seemed to be doing quite well, masha'Allah.

Every other morning I would wake up to find new tomatoes growing, and I am still amazed at how many there are!

Three days ago my first tomato began to turn orange!

Yesterday it was a bright red.

I left it to ripen in the sun for another day. This afternoon... I picked it!

I've stored it in a dark place to ripen a bit more. Insha'Allah we will eat it tomorrow. Masha'Allah, I'm so grateful that it grew and, insha'Allah, more tomatoes will be on the way.

I hope you liked this post. Have you ever grown anything? I'd love to know.

Well that is all for this update. See you next week, insha'Allah.

Take care and wasalaam,

Maryam

Book Week Characters

Assalamu Alaikum everyone!

About a month ago Hanifah and Sumayyah had to dress up for World Book Day at school. In today's post we are going to show you the outfits they wore.

Mad Hatter Costume

The staff had an Alice in Wonderland theme and had to dress up as a character from the book. Hanifah chose to go as the Mad Hatter and this is the costume she wore:

Our mum made the top hat using cardboard and fabric.

Hanifah made the sash using thick red felt and spools of thread (which she tied to the sash).

The rest of the outfit consisted of Hanifah's grey coat, Maryam's beige skirt and our mum's old handmade waistcoat.

She also wore a stripy black-and-white shirt underneath the waistcoat and wrapped a scarf around her neck like a bow tie.

We mostly just repurposed what we already had. It was a fun, quirky look, masha'Allah - especially with the face paint - and everyone really loved it, alhamdulillah!

Elizabethan Lady Costume

Sumayyah's class were studying Shakespeare in English and they were asked to come in dressed as either a Shakespearian character or someone from the Elizabethan era. Since it was hard to find an outfit, our mum decided to make Sumayyah a dress. This is how it turned out, masha'Allah:

Our mum already had the fabric and it took her a few days to design and make the dress.

She added a crisscross pattern in gold to decorate the front.

For the most part, the dress was kept simple with only a few embellishments on the sleeves.

Masha'Allah, Sumayyah had a very unique outfit to wear and she was very happy, alhamdulillah!

Well, that's all for this post. We hope you enjoyed it and we will see you next week, insha'Allah.

Take care and Wassalam,