Take a Summer Walk with Me

Assalaam Alaikum sisters!

I hope you are doing well! I'm so sorry for not being much online and not posting much. I am really taking a break from computers and enjoying much time outside. I'm also sorry to not commenting much! I still love you! ;) :)

I've been spending a lot of days at my parents' place - the place where I also lived a big part of my life. Allah (swt) really blessed us with living in a town like that. Insha'Allah the beautiful nature will be preserved there.
I went on some lovely trips the days, where I didn't have to work and I want to share some of the pictures here with you. I apologize for the sometimes unsharp pictures. They were taken with my 4-year-old mobile phone... But insha'Allah you will enjoy them:

Field - The white spots in the middle are sheep :)

The houses are so beautiful

The following pictures are from another trip I went on one evening with my parents:

I would love to live here!

The next day we went for a walk in a park in the town, to a field and to the beautiful dome and the buildings around it:

I love poppies!

The dome of the town

It's not bad being the bishop of this town living in the yellow house with the car!

Another angle of the dome

Two crows

I hope you enjoyed these pictures, insha'Allah! :)

Take care all of you!

Vacation & Preparing for Ramadan

Assalaam Alaikum dear sisters!


I hope you're all doing well and enjoying yourself, insha'Allah!
As you might know, I have vacation now, my husband is abroad visiting friends... When he left, I decided to escape from the city and go stay at my parents house closer to nature. Of course I brought my rabbit too :-) She's having such a wonderful time and loves all the grass she can eat daily! Last year she was on vacation here too and even gained weight from all the grass, although she doesn't sit in a cage and therefore even gets a lot of daily excercise. Hehe.
I just love to be away from the city and stepping out on the grass and the dew with the sun in my face in the morning - it is just amazing, masha'Allah. Insha'Allah my husband and I can live in a house surrounded by nature one day :-)

Ramadan is getting closer (right now 33 days and 15 hours to go ;-) - see the countdown in my sidebar), Alhamdulillah! We are about to enter the month of Sha'ban. The Prophet (saws) used to begin fasting in Sha'ban as a prelude and towards the end of the month he would stop to gather strength for Ramadan. Therefore, planning ahead is a Sunnah. I read a lot about fasting yesterday and read how you can increase the benefits of fasting and avoid any side effects. Today I am starting a detox diet, which I'll follow for ten days. It includes a lot of herbal teas, water (with/without lemon), fruit and vegetables + brown rice etc. I'm excited to see how my body will react to the detoxification! :-) Did any of you ever try a detox diet?


Detox is not abstaining from all food and water during the day, like in Ramadan. But I hope a detox diet will be beneficial as a preparation for Ramadan, insha'Allah. And also a proper fast.
There are many things to be aware of when fasting. This piece of an article is just some of the things that we should be aware of in the holy month of Ramadan:


"The first meal of the day, before dawn, should contain complex carbohydrates in order to fuel the body for the rest of the day and keep one feeling full in order to reduce the onset of hunger pains at a later stage.  The meal at night, after sundown, should preferably be a lighter one in order to avoid indigestion and heartburn...To avoid the possibility of constipation it is important to eat foods that are high in fibre, increase fruit and vegetables in the diet, and to consume an adequate volume of liquids, such as water, soup, weak tea and fruit juices. Take care not to drink too much or digestive juices can become overly diluted and stomach bloating may occur. Sweet foods high in sugar, including most desserts, and adding salt to meals, thus causing additional thirst, should be avoided.  Decreasing consumption of spicy and fried foods is advised to lessen digestive problems." Source: helium.com


Personally I have not been taking these things into conciderations every time I cooked during Ramadan. Insha'Allah you will also benefit from this Ramadan Health Guide (2007) available online! And insha'Allah we'll all have a blessed and beneficial Ramadan!! :-) I can't wait :-) How are you preparing yourself for Ramadan? Both physically and spiritually? Spiritually I will also this month increase the amount of Qur'an that I read and insha'Allah achieve more knowledge about our deen through books and increase my dhikr.


If you don't see me much online this week, it's because I'm at my parents' place and have chosen not to sit too much in front of a computer. Like today I want to go on a bike trip on my own to the water and forests nearby :-) insha'Allah.


Take care all of you <3

Enjoying the Sun

Dear sisters!

The time has come: I have holidays! :-) I passed the exam yesterday, Alhamdulillah, and insha'Allah I'll also have passed the two papers I wrote :-) Next week I will be observing speech-language pathologists so that I can try to have my first clients (1 or two + a group) this Autumn! It won't seem like not having holidays, because I just love speech-language pathology. Now I only have 1½ years left of my studies, Alhamdulillah.

I hope you're all doing well. Of course I slept till more than 7 this morning and I spent the whole day outside with my sister and just enjoyed not having to study anything! For dinner I met my husband at a sushi restaurant :-)

I just took a cheese cake(!) out of the oven. Something I've been craving sooo much for a long time! And if I like the result I will share the recipe on my blog, insha'Allah.

My husband will go abroad for 12 days on Sunday and I'm already excited about it and already missing him too :-/ Hehe. But insha'Allah we'll both have a wonderful time although we're not together.

Take care dear sisters and you'll hear from me soon again.

Behind Every Great Blog...

Dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well <3

You know I'm busy with studying - one week and two days until my last exam! Yay. I'm already trying to plan my two first weeks of holidays - although I have to work a bit too... My husband will be abroad visiting friends and I will be all by myself, so I need to do something I like! :-) Like going to the sea, visit a city/town I don't know yet, go to the forest, visit family, see friends, watch a movie at the cinema, go to a fav. café and have tea and cheesecake. Hehe. I haven't been alone for such a long time (10 days it'll be) since I married my husband four years ago, Alhamdulillah. It's a bit exciting. Lol.

By the way this picture and text below really made me laugh!

And the husbands wonder why the dinner isn't being served... - We're all busy blogging! :-D

And speaking of great blogs: I'm going to post a list of a few blogs I recently discovered, which I would definitely encourage you to visit - and hopefully follow too :-) Enjoy:

Guard Your Heart

Noir Stripes

 

time turns flames to embers

LOVE2COOK

Ital is vital, halal and sweet

I Cook Halal

Abundance Tapestry

Duaa, a Fisherman & Birds Singing

أَصْبَـحْـنا وَأَصْبَـحْ المُـلكُ للهِ رَبِّ العـالَمـين ، اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أسْـأَلُـكَ خَـيْرَ هـذا الـيَوْم ، فَـتْحَهُ ، وَنَصْـرَهُ ، وَنـورَهُ وَبَـرَكَتَـهُ ، وَهُـداهُ ، وَأَعـوذُ بِـكَ مِـنْ شَـرِّ ما فـيهِ وَشَـرِّ ما بَعْـدَه

The morning has come to me and the whole universe belongs to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, O Allah, I ask of you the good of the day, it's success and aid and it's nur (celestial light) and barakaat (blessings) and seek hidayah (guidance) and seek refuge from the evil in it (this day) and from the evil of that which is to come later.

Hisn from Abu Dawood

Good morning dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well. I've been up since 5am because I had to bring my stepdaughter to school, who then stayed home anyway, 'cause she wasn't feeling too good. So then I got lots of time to prepare a good breakfast for my family and at 9am I'm going to do the laundry and clean the house. But before all that I wanted to share the duaa above and also the picture of the man (leaning forward) in the little boat. The photo was taken by me in 2005 on the Greek island Symi, where I was on vacation with my parents and little sister. I think that vacation was one of the best ones ever. We have always gone on vacation to places, which were not too crowded by tourists. And Symi was just such a unique, beautiful tiny island. This man in the boat was there every morning around 6am catching fish :) What a life. I'd love to live on an island far away from big cities, cars etc. Everything was so peaceful! Insha'Allah, some day :)

Have a beautiful day all of you and perhaps you too enjoy the beautiful song of the birds below. Allah's (swt) creations are truly magnificent.