Alhumdulillah means “All Praise is due to God” and are the words uttered by a Muslim when he/she is expressing gratitude to Allah. I find myself saying this numerous times a day and this post is a collection of moments when I have said Alhumdulillah during the past month.

Things I said Alhumdulillah for in November:

1. Watching the seasons change as trees turn orange-golden all around us. Little Z is especially enjoying running through the heaps of fallen leaves on the floor and hearing the crunching sounds as he walks on them. Not as much fun for me when I have to sweep the garden to get rid of said leaves!
2. Master Z completing his third para of the Quran…on to the fourth! MashaAllah!
3. Shopping date day with the husband at Bicester Village.
4. Returning to the world of “traditional” work on the first day of my job after a 9 year hiatus. It’s very strange but I am really enjoying it, especially as the hours are short and still allows me to have a work-life balance. I also love that I get to have adult chat with colleagues again on a daily basis, something that I didn’t have as much when self-employed as a content creator in Dubai.
5. Visiting the kid’s school for the Diya display in the playground, which looked beautiful especially at night time.
6. Heading to the nearest beach (Hunstanton) which is 2 hours away because our Dubai kids were missing the beach. It wasn’t quite the same as there was no sand to shovel whilst playing in shorts, instead we were in our wellies collecting seashell and trying not to get stuck in the mud! Not the same, but still magical.
7. Lots and lots of fireworks for both Diwali and Guy Fawkes night.
8. The perfect Sunday where we all went for a family walk at Watermeade Park and then returned home for hot chocolate and a movie under the duvet!
9. Seeing my baby brother buy his first motorbike and watching him ride to our house and take photos with my boys who are absolutely in love with his motorbike too!
10. Alhumdulillah for a humanitarian pause in Gaza but still praying for a permanent cease fire In sha Allah.
11. Waking up to our first frosty morning and temperatures dipping down to minus 3 degrees Celsius! It is equally amazing to see the awe in my sons’ faces and the excitement. Can’t imagine how much more excited they will get when it actually snows!

These are just a few of the many times I uttered the words Alhumdulillah this month. Check out what I was thankful for last month here. Also, here’s a list of what I was thankful for in November last year! What are you thankful for? Feel free to share your moments in the comments section below.