My Terrible Wednesday - 30 Jan 2013

I woke up with a really irritating and uncomfortable throat and congested nose this morning. My head felt and is still feeling very heavy and I have been feeling really zonked out since this morning. I am definitely bitten by the flu bug that our part-time maid brought to the house. She came with the same symptoms 3 days ago and asked for the following day off as she wasn't feeling well. Now I am bitten, really terribly! I realized that if I do not have enough sleep, I will fall prey to flu bugs very easily. Today, I just did not feel like doing anything -- did not feel like cooking, washing, talking, working but but but.... SIGH.... I have to do them ALL. Cooked twice a day some more, bleh! Coz I can't stand eating outside food. It would irritate my throat more and I don't want my girls to be eating salt+oil+MSG laden food. Breathing is difficult and I am only breathing through my mouth, causing my mouth to be dry and corner of lips all cracked and darn painful. Gawd, I feel horrible! I just told my girls that mummy's life is tougher than a maid's life. While a maid gets medical leave and rest when she is sick, mummy has to work though she is sick till she feels like dying! All I want to do now is to go to my bed, close the door, turn off the light, turn on the air cond and sleep through till tomorrow morning. Yea, dream on! I still have to pick Sherilyn up from ballet, send out customers' orders, churn out invoices, fight fire with some people and..... sigh!

Lunch Today - 26 Jan 2013

I've got a piece of organic Japanese pumpkin sitting in my fridge for 2 weeks already... but still looking good. Not wanting to let it rot, I decided to add it into the tomato-chicken sauce for spaghetti today. So here goes...



A very tasty bowl of spaghetti (angel's hair and whole wheat Penne -- that was all I could find in my kitchen cabinet) with chicken-pumpkin-tomato-garlic-onion sauce. Time to stock up more spaghetti when we shop at Tesco tonight!



Grapes, spaghetti and coconut water, BURP, oops! lol!

Whose Itchy Hands?

Someone with itchy hands stuck the rubber swimming cap onto the bathroom tiled wall when she was having her shower.  The 2 older monkeys always take forever to shower... almost an hour, claiming that they want to poo but I've caught them sitting on the throne enjoying their story books. And when they are inside the shower stall, they do  all sorts of monkey business!  


Who with the curious mind and itchy hands do you think did this? This is hard to guess haha... and that's a give-away already when I say that.

Those Carefree Days

I often wonder how and when I started to metamorphose into a clean freak. When I was younger, I was totally unperturbed by dirt. I could close both my eyes and use a bathroom that was not washed for over a week. I loved camping in the wilderness and did not mind that I had to sleep on dirty tents with my deuter backpacks as pillow. I did not mind digging holes to answer the call of nature in the jungle and I even bathed in rivers and streams and drank water from the stream. Those were my carefree days which I so miss.

Throes Of Motherhood - Sleep Deprivation

The alarm on my mobile phone buzzed at 4:45am sharp again this morning. I was just SOOOOO tempted to go back to sleep after I had swiped the stop icon on my phone but I knew that if I did that, I could have slept for at least another hour or so and the girls will miss the van to school!  So I dragged myself out of bed like a zombie and with a heavy head.  Washed myself up, washed the cups and did some house work, replied my customers' emails and messages and fixed milk for the girls. And since I had 10 more minutes before it was 5:45am (which was the time Aly and Sher have to be up every school morning), I plonked on my chair in front of my PC and snoozed for 10 minutes. I wished I could go on snoozing for another half an hour but...  oh well, that's motherhood and I have no regret that I've brought myself into it :D  So glad that tomorrow is a public holiday yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Hand Painting

Cass had her hand painted by one of the condo residents during the carnival held at our condo yesterday. It was her very first. I was very surprised that none of my girls was interested in the face and hand painting. It was only after coaxing from me that Sherilyn and Cass decided to give it a try. And I regretted as the paint smeared all over their clothes as well as mine!

Living Life To The Fullest

 My friend is a strong believer that we should all live life to the fullest, as if we are living our last day today. Her motto is “We Only Live Once, So Love Your Life And Be Happy Always”. She and her hubby have traversed to almost half the part of the world and they have the generosity to splurge on luxurious food, clothing and house. In short, they give their kids and themselves the best of everything because her motto is “I only live once, so make the best out of it!”. My friend and her hubby recently returned from Paris and Italy. While in Paris, they stayed in some paris luxury apartment rentals which overlooked the Eiffel Tower! The pictures that they took in Paris were awesome. Sometimes, I wish I had her kind of mentality too so that I could let go and enjoy life to the max! Can you do that?

Juggler Of Many Tasks

I guess most mothers are very good in juggling  many tasks at a time. I am definitely one.  Now that I am a WFHM to 3 kids, without the help of a live-in helper, every minute is as precious as gold to me! I stretch every minute I have on hand to the max.  Thus, in the morning when the kids are all in school, I try to accomplish as much as I can before they are home as that's when havoc breaks out again!

How I juggle multi-tasks...

1) I usually eat my breakfast / lunch and work on my computer simultaneously. If the food is the messy type with sauce or soup, then I will eat at the dining table and will read the newspapers or a book.

2) I fill up my watering can and water the plants while making calls on my cordless house phone on loudspeaker mode

3) I hang out laundry while talking on the phone, in loudspeaker mode.  Thus, I love phones with loudspeaker function as my hands are freed to do something else when I am talking on the phone

4) While I take my shower, I put Cass on the throne. Once I am done, she is usually done too. Then I bathe her and I only wet my body once haha!  Oh yes, I wash the bathroom too when I have my shower, everyday.

5) I read the newspapers while working out on the Air Walker in the gym

6) While something is cooking in the pan / wok (frying fish / chicken / braising a meat), I wash   the dirty dishes and mop the kitchen floor

7) While waiting for my friend to pick up Sherilyn for ballet, I reply to emails and messages from my customers on my handphone.


The list is endless. Would you like to add to the list? I am sure we busy mothers are very good at maximizing our precious time. Let's share how you ladies juggle your time :)

cureLauncher

The other morning while I was jogging, I bumped into a friend’s mother. She is a cancer fighter. She was diagnosed as suffering from cancer 3 years ago. Though she has lost the ability to eat food on her own, she still looked great to me when I met her that morning. Her voice has changed, as a result of the chemotherapy and her weight has dropped tremendously. She has a feeding tube attached to her belly. After a 3-year silence from her and having not met her for so long, I felt really happy to have bumped into her. She was having a morning walk with another friend, which was a positive sign. A few weeks later, my friend told me that her mother was admitted to the hospital for some breathing difficulties but has since been discharged.

It is with my utmost hope that my friend’s mother will recover completely and will be in complete remission. If only a cure for cancer is found, the world will be a better place to live in. I fear this disease very much and I pray to Him everyday that none of my loved ones and I will be afflicted with this disease. If we were living in the US, I would have directed my friend’s mother to cureLauncher, a company that connects cancer patients to free lifesaving clinical trials.

Our Lunch and Dinner Today - 15 Jan 2013

That's our lunch today. Well, dinner as well since today will be a busy day for me. It's stock checking day and sending out of parcels day for me today and tomorrow, so I gotta whip up something easy which the kids can eat for lunch and dinner.

Noodles with stir-fried minced pork and dried mushrooms sauce, with blanched cauliflowers and spring onions. I hope my rice pot Alycia will not sulk at not being able to have rice for dinner tonight. If she does, I'll just reheat the rice stored in the freezer (I have containers of cooked rice in the freezer to cater for my rice pot lol!) to satiate this fan thoong.


What are you going to have for lunch and dinner today?

Our Sunday - 13 Jan 2013

The girls attended a birthday party of a friend's 2YO grand-daughter today. The theme of the birthday party was Mickey Mouse. There was a very pretty Mickey Mouse fondant cake, lots of Mickey balloons, Mickey party favors and even a Mickey mascot.  The girls had a whale of a time at the party, albeit Cass was initially terrified of the real life Mickey who could walk lol! She dared not go anywhere near where Mickey was and was tugging at my dress all the time.  But after a warming up session with Mickey, she overcame her phobia and was soon shaking hand with Mickey and posing to have her pix taken with Mickey!










I wish you've had a fabulous Sunday as well :)

Easy To Prepare Noodles For The Kids

For time-challenged WFHM without the help of a live-in maid, having to cook 2 meals everyday is indeed a challenge.  I can take the short cut way out by packing food everyday but I am totally opposed to the idea of my kids and me eating oily, salty food cooked using  utensils with questionable hygiene and water from dodgy source. I'll bet most of the 'chap fan' (economy rice) stalls do not use filtered water to cook their food, nor would they use good quality oil. These stall owners hire mainly foreign workers from third world countries to prepare the food and I have seen how they handle food, which really made my tummy churn. We all love to eat roast chicken and roast duck but I'll bet after you see how those fresh from roaster chickens and ducks are hung  on rusty window grills (with cob webs somemore) next to a stinky drain with rats and roaches crawling, you will turn nauseous *gasp*!!   LOL!

Thus, no matter how busy I may be, I'll try to cook for the kids. And I have taught them to eat simple and no-frills meals, like this one....





Organic brown rice vermicelli with pork balls, crab claws, mustard green veggie in homemade radish chicken soup. Though the pork balls and crab claws ain't the healthiest choice of  meat to go with  the vermicelli, I think it is still way healthier than outside food. Agree?

Clumsy Pot Did It Again!

Miss Butterfingers and Clumsy Pot made another big boo boo. Each time she tries to help out or be independent, she will surely cause more trouble and messes than  to provide help. The other morning (on Xmas day!), I was hanging out the laundry and she volunteered to fix her milk on her own. I consented, though I had a hunch again that she  will cause spillage but I knew I had to let her try doing things on her own, else she will forever be prevented from being independent just because she is clumsy.

Not even a minute later, she ran to me with a guilt-stricken face and told me that she spilled 'VERY LITTLE MILK POWDER'. I knew her VERY LITTLE meant A LOT as that was not the first time accidents like that had happened.

The counter top was covered with white milk powder, as with the floor and some of the drawers! I had to change the cloth on the kitchen top, which was very tedious as we had things placed on the cloth. I was raging with anger. I enlisted the help of my most reliable helper to clear up the mess while I quickly finished off with the laundry and then mopped the floor.

Accidents like this happen every single day. But I can't put her in cold-storage as this will only cause a more negative impact on her. So I just have to bear with her clumsiness, scream more and work more on cleaning up her messes. Sometimes I wonder if she is Dyspraxia as she has many of the symptoms. But after reading the symptoms from the internet, I do not think she falls into this category as she has excellent social skills and was a fast learner in sitting, crawling, walking, etc when she was a baby --all way ahead of her peers.

Raise Your Heart Rate To Lose Weight

When our live-in maid just left us about 3 months ago, I lost weight as I had to do everything that she used to do on my own, on top of my existing workload. I was on my feet most of the time. I felt hungry all the time and my weight slid down though I snacked the whole day. However, about a month later, my weight went up again to where it was before our helper left. I knew this was going to happen as my weight had hit a plateau. Only fitness freaks and weight conscious freaks will know what I am talking about. When we lose weight too quickly, our metabolism can slow down as our body can sense that it is starving. Rapid or large amounts of weight loss can slow your metabolism by as much as 40% in six months. And when we reach our body’s particular set point (i.e. the weight and metabolic rate our body is genetically programmed to be), it will be very hard to lose further weight and even if we do, it is likely that we regain it. All in all, my weight is still hovering at 44 – 45kg. I was 43kg as a school girl, so I am still pretty satisfied with my weight now. I’ll be glad if I can go back to 43kg ;)

Though my weight is at my own ideal range now, I am still pretty fanatic about exercising. Though I no longer have the time to exercise everyday come rain or shine like I used to do, I try to exercise at least 3-4 times in a week. When I exercise, I try to ensure that my heart rate is raised to between 70% to 90% of my maximum heart rate to maximize the number of calories I burn and to continuously improve my fitness level. If you work out in a gym, the thread mill will help you monitor your heart rate but if you run on the road, you can get a heart rate monitor from HeartRateMonitors.com to help you track your heart rate. For those of you who have not started exercising yet, give yourself a try. Squeeze out some time everyday to exercise and you will notice a difference in your life – physically and mentally. And you will love the glow in your complexion too!

She Talks

This morning, Cass saw a little moth flying in the room. This little fler has a phobia of flying insects. She yelled her lungs out and I comforted her, telling her that the moth was probably more frightened than us than she was of it.  She dared not enter the room to dress up for school.  I then told her that the moth was already under the bed...

Me - don't be scared, the moth is now under the bed

Cass - for what?

Me - waiting to die there

Cass- can you feed it so that it won't die? What can you feed it with?

Me - it probably sucks juice from the flowers but how can we feed it with flowers. Just let it die.

Cass - No, don't let it die.  Please feed it so that the baby moth can go back to its family and be happy forever and ever.

Me - I thought you are scared of it and want it to die?

Cass - NO! If it dies, then the family can't find it. Let it find its family pleasssssse...

My baby girl is such a sweet little girl with such a loving nature. She is so loved that she wants all living things around her to feel loved too ♥

Our First Sunday in 2013

Pix taken on our first Sunday of the brand new 2013

Cass at Sunday School for pre-schoolers...





 

After Sunday School, we had dim sum lunch at our favorite Oriental Restaurant @ Jaya 33. And after lunch, we did some groceries shopping at Jaya Grocer. It's been a relaxing and happy Sunday for us and I hope that the coming days in the week ahead will be smooth sailing and uneventful.

How has your first Sunday in 2013 been?

First Day Of School in 2013

So far, the second day of the brand new year has been smooth sailing for me.  I shot up from bed the moment my handphone alarm buzzed at 5am sharp.  Normally I would feel groggy and would still laze in bed for 5-10 minutes but today, I knew I had no time to waste and quickly started out doing what I had to do. I just could not afford to be late and cause the girls to be late on the first day of school. The girls woke up at 5:45am, with Alycia fussing and whining, which is not unusual for this fella. She's just not a morning person.

Today, my parents ended their 6 days of stay with us. With a heavy heart, the girls and I had to bid them farewell and wished that they would come back to have another stay with us real soon.

Here is our  lunch on the first school day / work day for us in 2013 -- baby's porridge haha!   My dad and mum woke up at 6am to prepare this for us.




Our baby porridge consists of rice, Japanese sweet potatoes, carrots and roast pork ribs. Very sweet and yummy! All natural goodness and perfect for the digestive system after a week of food binging.