brown_accountant_mama

25/11/2022

Happy thanksgiving from my family to yours ! Have a blessed time with your loved ones❤️

11/07/2022

Eid Mubarak from my family to yours ! ❤

24/05/2022

This Mother’s Day was like any other day which makes me think every day is Mother’s Day. We as Moms just chug along doing what we do -24/7 365 days of the week.

Last two years Mother’s Day was a bummer, my expectations were sky high and it just did not happen. This year I send an Amazon link to Abdullah of what I wanted, I don’t have the time and energy to drop hints so I pretty much told him - this is what I want please buy this so that it reaches on time.
End result I was soaking my feet in a nice pedicure tub -I know very cliché midlife mothers day gift but that’s what I wanted ! Minnah made a beautiful card for me at school, Abdullah got the kids to write a beautiful Mother’s Day card separately, Musa made a gluten free chocolate brownie in the mug, I went for a nice haircut baby free and Abdullah took my picture with my babies. That in my book is wonderful !

Yes I know I am super delayed with this post but you know what this is where I am at currently in life. Lately everything is super delayed, with a exclusively breast fed baby who has refused the bottle, a determined 6 year old who is pushing back on everything and an almost 11 year old who is dealing with all that middle school comes with. That said Alhamdulillah for this life and all that comes with it 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽.
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04/05/2022

Eid Mubarak from my family to yours ! It’s been too long since I have posted on my feed. This reno plus the four month sleep regression has me wiped ! Hope this Eid was a happy blessed one for you and your family.

28/03/2022

Going from one HUGE project (pun intended) to another BIG one ! Tune in to my stories to check out how our home renovation project is starting out !

21/03/2022

Face of a Mom whose baby slept for more than 5 hours yesterday night ! We don’t know if this trend will continue but a girl can always dream !
❤️

18/03/2022

Jummah Mubarak ! This Friday marks the end of our fourth trimester. We have finally crossed the 12 week mark mashAllah.
Coined by Dr. Harvey Karp the term fourth trimester is a transitional period between birth and 12 weeks postpartum during which your baby is adjusting to the world and you’re adjusting to your baby. For Moms it is a period of huge physical and emotional challenges including but not limited to postpartum recovery, breastfeeding challenges as well as increased exhaustion/fatigue while taking care of an infant. These are the things that helped me during the last 12 weeks:
✅Getting all the help I can if I felt comfortable taking it. My parents were here for the first 6 weeks and helped with cooking, pickup/drop offs of the older kids and childcare.

✅Nap when the baby sleeps. This is somewhat of a lofty and honestly privileged goal. Most people don’t have help and so Moms can’t afford to nap when the baby naps BUT if you are in a position to outsource tasks like cleaning, cooking and childcare of your other children please do so. It is totally worth it.

✅Self care- whether that is watching your favorite show, going for a slow walk (if allowed by your doctor), putting on makeup and getting dressed, mediation, face mask -whatever floats your boat DO IT. Try to do 15-30 mins of self care everyday. You deserve it!

✅Take Prenatal vitamins and talk to your doctors regarding any prescription medicines that were changed or tapered during pregnancy. I consulted with my endocrinologist regarding my thyroid medication and followed up on gestational diabetes.

✅Don’t forget your 6 week postpartum visit to your obgyn.

✅Lastly cuddle and snuggle your little one to your hearts content. As explained in the prenatal class, babies DO NOT “get spoiled” by you holding them all the time or you attending to them when they are crying . Also babies don’t get spoiled by physical and emotional affection; it’s critical for their wellbeing. Snap loads of pictures and enjoy this time !

Drop what worked for you during the fourth trimester below 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

16/03/2022

As an immigrant, the thing that you miss the most about starting new in a foreign land is the familial bonds you had back home. My siblings are all across the globe and thankfully through technology we are connected however we do not get to meet enough in person.
One of the reasons we wanted to expand our family was to have another sibling for Musa and Minnah. For Musa to have a Chota Bhai (younger brother) and for Minnah to be a Baree Appa (Big sister). Both Abdullah and I have three siblings each and I wanted my kids to have somewhat of a similar experience. I don’t think we would be able to have as big of a family as our parents did due to host of reasons however we are so happy that we have added one more to the brood mashAllah. The best part is seeing the family dynamics change; they both love him so much ! From experience as a sibling who got ousted from her reign of the youngest child by my baby brother I was definitely expecting more pushback but Alhamdulillah for now it has been an absolute sublime experience. How did you react as a sibling when you had younger ones and/or how did the picture change as a parent when you added one more kid to the mix. Comment below 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

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16/01/2022

Egg fried rice -Kid friendly !

2 cups of rice soaked for 1/2 an hour - boil
With 2 tbsp salt

8 cloves of garlic + 1/2 tbsp fresh grinded ginger

2 spring onions (2 stalks on each spring onion)

Fry ginger and garlic and once you can smell them; pop in the spring onions, fry them a little and put 2 cups of peas, 2 cups of corn and salt/ pepper to taste, once they are half done, add finely chopped (small size) carrots and capsicum, add salt and pepper to taste. Fry them till they are done.

Cook scrambled eggs (3 eggs beaten and cooked with salt and pepper to taste) in a separate fry pan.

Mix together 2 tbsp of gluten free soy sauce, 2 tbsp gluten free oyster sauce and 1 tbsp of seasme oil.

Layer the boiled rice on top of the fried vegetables, and throw in the soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil mixture, layer on the scrambled eggs and top this all off with freshly chopped spring onions ( I used 2)

Mix the rice up with vegetables, sauce mixture, eggs and spring onions on low heat till everything is all mixed in together.

10/01/2022

Thank you for the outpouring of love on the gender reveal and the new arrivals reel. Wanted to let you all know that Minnah is in love with her baby brother and such a great helper Alhamdulillah. In fact too enthusiastic of a helper where I need to intervene and navigate how many cuddles the baby can get from his siblings.
I am all about the kids expressing their big feelings and learning how to process them. I do talk it through with them and we make it okay to cry, be sad or be angry, these are normal human emotions that kids need to learn are okay to express and need direction on how to express productively. Handling disappointment is one of those big emotions that Minnah felt when she found out that it’s a baby brother and not a sister who will be joining the family soon. Her reaction partially had to do with how excited Musa was about a baby brother; remember how annoying siblings can be at that stage in your life. We though had loads of conversations before the baby was born about how excited we are about the new baby and how babies are a huge blessing for the whole family. Thankfully Minnah is doing great so far taking on the role of being baree bhen ( big sister) -will keep you posted on how this big transition is going.

❤️

24/12/2021

First trimester and all that goes with it:

This was us in the first trimester; I say us because even though it was me feeling all the feels but 100% my family went through the first trimester fully with me. I am one of those lucky people who have full on intense morning sickness; it didn’t hit me till 6 weeks but once it did; I could not stand any kind of smells; people, food, perfume you name it. Combined with the never ending exhaustion and fatigue I was a literal mess.
These were a few things that helped me:
-Preggie pops; anytime I felt nauseous I would pop one in. Only downside is that they were pretty expensive.
-Sour patch kids which thankfully is gluten free and way cheaper compared to preggie pops.
-Chickpeas cooked with imli (tamarind), some veggies and served cold; I could not stand hot food for some reason.
-Lentils - eaten cold as well with rice.
-Thankfully; eggs -this was such a relief that the smell of eggs wasn’t bothering me because I needed the protein and I could not stand meat.
-All kind of fruits.
-Different kind of vegetables, baked potato with butter, roasted mixed veggies, sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts (grilled, pan fried or air fried).
-Cold salads with avocado and salmon as the
protein.
-This was not a healthy option, but I craved Rooh Afza with lemon and ice. I know, this was extremely bizarre and my doctor was not super concerned because at this point I was not flagged as a diabetic per my blood test.
-Lastly white bread; I like the gluten free white bread. Paired this with Swiss cheese slice, lettuce, fresh onion, tomato, salt & pepper, mustard and mayonnaise.
Did you have morning sickness in any of your pregnancies and drop below what worked for you 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼.
❤️

21/12/2021

This was the January 2022 book for the book club which I was fortunately able to reserve at the library; probably would not be able to attend the meeting but so happy that I got my hands on this book. This was an excellent read and I was hooked till the very end -which is what you want from a good book.
It is a psychological thriller with complex characters and I don’t want to spoil it for you but an epic twist. Apparently this book is being adapted to a movie 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽. A must read recommendation from my end !
❤️

09/12/2021

I have generally been too lazy with posting on my feed. I used to be so good when I started on insta but lately have been so blah ! Prob something to do with being completely overwhelmed with third trimester and all that comes with it - wrapping up work, getting extremely exhausted, gestational diabetes, fun GI symptoms (sorry TMI) and endless and endless to do lists.
Today thought I’ll look back and see what was happening in last couple of months and saw this picture of my birthday. Boy organized it, scheduled our family on a zoom call, got this amazing delicious gluten free cake and a lovely gift (which I returned promptly to Nordstrom a week later- will do a post about that that sometime in the future -recovering gift exchanger 🙋🏽‍♀️here). All in all was great ! Everything birthday comes with new realization and mine was I am okay with having low key birthdays with loved ones; grand parties and too much halla gulla is not my cup of tea anymore. How do you like to celebrate your birthday ?

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27/11/2021

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours !!! Hope you enjoyed this holiday the way you wanted to. For us we went super low key; just made some of our favorite thanksgiving food, boy put up some holiday lights and kids played outside with their friends and saw the leaves falling. After a few tantrums thrown by the little one, we convinced her to have her meal and once she got some food in her stomach she was happy. Closed the evening by baking a gluten free apple pie and had it with ice cream while watching Jumanji with the kids !
Kids were in bed by 9:15pm and that was a huge win on a holiday for us, Abdullah watched football while I did some Black Friday deals shopping. Head over to my stories to see it all ! Lots of love to all
❤️

15/10/2021

Jummah Mubarak all ! I’m back to work fully and interestingly it feels like nothing really changed. I thought I would feel lost and not know how to get into the swing of things; atleast that’s how I felt when I was out on leave when Minnah was born. Maybe that one was different because giving birth is such a traumatic experience and it shakes you to its core; for me it was a mental and physical shift. I was essentially a different person!
But this time it’s almost like muscle memory! I jumped back into the thick of things and hit the ground running. This leave was purely to evaluate my priorities in life, to have time to breathe, think, reflect and make some decisions. I didn’t come out of it with a concrete decision where I know what my path is but definitely came out with a realignment of priorities. I looked at the last couple of years grind and even though I am thankful for countless opportunities for progress; I am also in a place in my life where my personal life takes precedence over my professional life. It seems like a very simple conclusion and not something that should take anyone time. It took me 5 years to come to this conclusion - hahahah talk about a slow thinker. How I make this happen is a work in progress- how does any working mother make it happen? If anyone is struggling with the same decision; be it going from being a stay at home to part time/full time work or the other way around; I am open to suggestions and dialogue -your thoughts ?
❤️

09/10/2021

Happy Saturday y’all !!! Our plans for today is to have a mini date while grocery shopping. That’s what is romance is what for us these days; kid free grocery shopping 😂😂😂! What can be more romantic than the produce aisle at Costco ?
What are your fun date ideas after kids with or without readily available child care?

05/10/2021

Happy Monday y’all !! Started my me day with a lovely gluten free breakfast with my friends- I had these amazing gluten free coffee cream raspberry French toast. I have not had French toast since I went gluten free after being diagnosed with celiac disease.
Afterwards I had a glorious kid free nap at home after catching up on some reality tv and then went for a massage. Rest of the day was spent checking kids school work, doing some errands, taking them to karate followed up by the flu shots. Kids are asleep, I took a quick shower, blowdried my hair and watching Netflix. I didn’t even realize that Facebook, WhatsApp and Insta was down till 5pm tonight when my sister texted me frantically being like are you alive, since WhatsApp is how we communicate. I consider that a huge win for me; disengaging completely from social media on my day off! Work week here I come !!
Did you realize Facebook, WhatsApp and Insta were MIA from your lives for a short duration and if you did, what did you do with that time?
💕

04/10/2021

In spirit of sharing -this is my big bootha with the boy in the background ! It was a super chill birthday weekend; we did a small cake cutting ceremony yesterday and afterwards I went shopping at a town wide garage sale followed by a outdoor movie screening of Indiana Jones. Today we went for a couple birthday dinner to a place in the city that offer gluten free pasta followed up by a visit to a gluten free bakery where I got a big loaf of gluten free bread and a gluten free baguette. Tomorrow I am treating myself by taking a day off ! More updates to follow. Happy Sunday y’all!

🎈

02/10/2021

Delayed as always ! Happy daughter and happy son day; I didn’t even know we had specific days for this. For me every day is a happy daughter and son day Alhamdulillah.
These two make me want to be a better person, their never ending curiosity, innocence, ability to stay happy and enjoy small moments makes the cynical me look at the world with fresh new eyes.
We discuss how parenthood is a path full of challenges and struggles but I truly believe it is also a path of discovering strength and resolve in yourself; what did you discover about yourself after becoming a parent ? Drop your thoughts below 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼!

25/09/2021

I am so excited to let you all know about Muslim flash cards by

They come very neatly packaged and are very concise while offering a lot of beautiful information about prophets mentioned in Quran. Musa was so excited to receive volume 1 of Muslim flash cards. It was a fun activity for us to do together and he loved learning more about different prophets specially about Prophet Musa. Head over to my stories to see Musa’s thoughts about Muslim flash cards and see the link in my bio to check them out.

13/09/2021

Happy Monday you all ! Time is flying; I feel like this summer was a blur. I took some time off from work to re-focus on the priorities in my life. I thought I’ll take this time to truly self-reflect and figure out what I want to do.
That did not happen but for once in my life I didn’t have a major to do list; I took time to do simplest things in life; doing grocery shopping, sitting outside while my kids played, watched too much tv, read a few books and just took things real slow. It wasn’t one of those fabulous sabbaticals where people travel to exotic locations and check off things on their bucket list that you see being shared on social media BUT it was exactly what I NEEDED for my soul at this stage of my life. To take a breath and actually enjoy the blessing of time and Alhamdulillah for the blessings Allah has bestowed on me - I am talking about simple things, good food to eat, healthy family and friends and ability to stay positive despite challenges!
Do you think we are so busy chasing for a lifestyle that we have forgotten how to actually enjoy the present and live in the now ?

10/09/2021

I was beyond excited to do a podcast with ; a lovely group of moms who invited me to discuss working mom and immigrant experience.
Click on the link in my bio to check out part 1 of the series !

22/08/2021

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14/08/2021

Jashn-e-Azadi Mubarak mera khandaan ki taraf sa app ka khandaan ko! 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰
I miss Pakistan -all the sights, smells and most of all my family and friends. 🇵🇰🇵🇰🇵🇰

#🇵🇰

13/08/2021

Someone got me flowers after we had a heated argument. We have been married for a long time and disagreements are all part of the package.
It is so important to be able to vocalize your concerns in a relationship and to have a healthy dialogue and at times when there is no end to the discussion agree to disagree. It needs to go in hand to hand with a mutual respect.
I wouldn’t say that we have never hit below the belt; we have and it comes from a place of anger not of love and respect. Talking calmly after taking time out after a heated argument, recognizing and accepting that you are at fault, and listening to your partners concerns whether you agree with their take or not is key. At times it just being there for support and not finding solutions.
How do you resolve conflicts in your close relationships ?

29/07/2021

I am finding it very hard to articulate my thoughts into words regarding the recent events in Pakistan. My reaction though sadly was not disbelief but utter disgust moving to outrage while dealing with waves of fear extremely conscious of the fact that I am a woman, have sisters, loads of female friends and am a mother of a beautiful daughter and son.
As news started rolling in with updates, my fear increased and then it was replaced by pure anger at the men and women who were victim shaming, telling people to calm down because it’s not all men who do this and not to publicize what happened in Pakistan because this would “ruin” the image of our beautiful country.
We need to really come to a point of reserving our judgement and calling a crime what it is - A CRIME !!! No one, no one deserves to be assaulted, harassed, abused or murdered despite your take on the circumstances surrounding the said incident. As keepers of the new generation it is our job to teach our sons respect, empathy, consent and equality of women and it is our job to raise our daughters to be independent, strong and willing to question the status quo !! May we be the bearers of change, May the men who have committed all these heinous crimes be held accountable and the victims and their families get justice ! Ameen

14/07/2021

Dropping into say hi on a Wednesday !!! I don’t have a catchy caption or pearls of wisdom to drop. Just wanted to say hi!
How are you all doing ?
🌴🌊

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