Thoughts
First – the soaker pants are finished, pressed, and in action! Ruth wore them for Toddler Group for the first time this morning – they seem to be doing fine, apart from an unfortunate tendency to descend to round her ankles – complete with nappy! (Easily fixed with a drawstring at the waist.) I’ll post some pics once the batteries for the camera are recharged.
When I was at Greenbelt I ordered a couple of Karen Armstrong’s books – Islam: A Short History (cool – if you go to the link, you can actually read the first few pages!) and The Spiral Staircase. (I read Through the Narrow Gate as a teenager and found it very thought-provoking.) Anyway, although The Spiral Staircase has not yet arrived, Islam arrived last week, and I have finally started reading it. I’ve not even finished one chapter yet, so I can’t comment in depth, but it is very accessible and (not surprisingly) echoes some of the things she said when I heard her speak at Greenbelt.
Anyway, to recap and update on my Greenbelt resolutions: 1) Bedtime prayers with Adam – going fairly well, not perfect every night, but definitely a start. 2) Signing up with the Year of Living Generously – which I’ve done and am now waiting to hear more from them (and while checking the link I’ve finally worked out how to create a household – yay!). 3) Establish links with Muslim women in similar circumstances to mine – I can now proudly announce some success with that. Never mind finding blogs (although I still intend to do that at some point) – our Toddler Group is amazingly multi-national – we represent the UK, Canada, Libya, Turkey, India, Greece, South Africa – and that’s just counting the 10 or so families who turned up today. A couple of women observe Hijab, and I plucked up the courage to talk about it with one of them this morning. I suspect she is going to start evangelising me now (or whatever term she would use), but she was obviously delighted to discuss it with me, and is going to give me some URLs to look at.
Oooh, and the Bengali woman gave me a recipe for Butter Chicken:
Take chicken portions, score them, and marinate (overnight in the fridge, or for a few hours at room temperature) in yoghurt, oil, garlic, ginger and paprika and salt. Then roast in the oven. While they are roasting, make a sauce using butter, tomato puree, “little black seeds” (I’m pretty sure they’re Nigella) and double cream. Pour the sauce over the chicken portions and serve with naan. Sounds yummy – maybe I’ve sorted out what we’re having for dinner tomorrow 
(Tonight, by popular request we’re having fish fingers, chips, broccoli, carrots and beans from the garden – if Adam asks for that much veg, I’m not going to argue!)
Anyway, there’s a Norwegian jumper begging to be finished, so I’d better go and get on…
two comments:
Oooh looking forward to seeing the soaker pants, am thinking about making some myself now… Was the wool OK?Islam, a short history is on my list of things to read, so I may get there eventually… Oh, and I’m on the waiting list for the next Year of Living Generously! Thanks for letting me know about it!
Daisy () (link) - 23 September '05 - 18:10
That recipe sounds great….. when I have time I shall try it. (not tonight as I wont be here to eat it :P but …. ah well I’ll think of something)Can you show me the pants sometime…
Ruth (link) - 24 September '05 - 15:59
