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.

Mastering Math and Sukukata

Yesterday while waiting for our food to arrive, my impatient and restless Cass again bugged me for Math questions and Sukukata (basic reading in the Malay language).  For a good half an hour, I gave her Math addition sums and Sukukata with all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u).  She got almost all her Math sums correct, up to 100 (eg. 2 + 83, 5 + 75, etc).  She could also master all the sounds of the vowels in Malay (eg ba, be, bi, bo, bu, ca, ce, ci, co, cu, etc).  Albeit she knew sa + ya in pronunciation, she however did not know how to say out the word when told to join sa + ya.  My next mission with her is to teach her how to string the 2 or 3 sukukata together into a word. I think it ain't going to be hard since this girl has interest in Math and Sukukata. That is already half of all the hurdles accomplished. Way to go baby girl :)





Cass at 4 years 8 months.
I can't believe that in just a week's time, my baby girl will be in her second year at kindy. Next year, she will have spelling, ejaan and ting xie on a weekly basis with twice yearly exams, just like both her che ches! Time really flies... one moment she was still a sickly and frail baby addicted to my boops and in just a few blinks of my eyes plus loads of eventful events, she is now going to sit for exams *GASP*

Ray of Hope Cafe, Ipoh

On of the eating places that my parents love to frequent to is Ray of Hope Cafe in Bercham, Ipoh.  This cafe is no ordinary cafe. It is a very special cafe managed by kind souls with the help of special workers.
The Ray of Hope Café in Bercham, Ipoh, is a Community Link initiative by CIMB Bank Ipoh Garden branch. The Café provides sheltered employment and vocational training to empower young adults with mental disabilities. By working in the café, they are able to interact and communicate with customers, which facilitates their integration into society. They are trained in frontline and backroom work such as cutting up vegetables, serving customers and cleaning up.

Before we stepped foot into Ray Of Hope, my parents and I warned our young girls not to be shocked with how the workers look and act. We told them that most of the waiting staff have Down Syndrome and other mental disabilities.   We told them not to make loud and unkind remarks on the workers in the restaurant as this would  cause an extremely embarrassing situation for everyone. We explained to the girls that most of the waiters and waitresses in the restaurants are special people who look and behave differently and told them not to laugh at them.

Below pic shows one of the disabled workers. I think that apart from their appearances, they all behaved and performed pretty well.






Chicken Chop - very delish, though I think it would taste even better had it been less saltier.




Wat Tarn Hor (flat rice noodles with egg gravy and seafood)




Fried vermicelli. This is so tasty that we ordered another plate.  Again, health freak mom preferred it to be less saltier.




Cheese baked rice - very delish and cheesy!  After tasting this, I told the girls I will dish this up for them soon.  I am drooling now as I am typing this post.




Home baked cheese tarts. This is really good. It was so tasty that we wanted to order more but they were all sold out. The owner only sells limited number of pieces everyday.




This mango cake is also very fresh, spongy and not too sweet with loads of fresh mango pieces. Love it to bits.





This cafe won 1st placing in the 'Cleanest Restaurant In Ipoh' contest and yes, the cafe and especially the loos are very clean, surpassed my clean freak standard!

 
The bill was unbelievable. For all these items, it was less than RM60. We also ordered 4 fresh fruit juices (not in pic).  There is definitely going to be another visit to this cafe the next time we are back in Ipoh to my parents.

Keeping Track Of My Kiddos' Books

Each of my daughters have at least 15 work books for tutoring by our Mandarin tutor.  In the past, they have so many books that the tutor and I could not keep track.  Many times, the books went MIA, which means homework was not done. It is always only months later that when I went through their drawers that I managed to fish out the hidden treasure... their long-lost work books!!  Now I am not sure if they had purposely 'lost' their work books or what!?

This time, the tutor and I came up with a new way of keeping track of their work books... by snapping pictures of all the books that they each have, followed by snapping close up pic of each book LOL!  I asked the tutor to store these pix in her smart phone for reference each time she comes.

Alycia's Standard 4 work books for tuition...




 Sherilyn's Standard 2 work books for tuition...






And even Cass has work books...





And I have this summary of who owns what written on a sticky note, stuck on my desk.  Now listen up girls, don't you think you can escape tiger mummy ok, muahahahaha!!





For those of you with more than 3 kiddos, how on earth do you keep track of their books? Especially if you are a busy working mum with no maids.  It's crazy, eh?

Her Midas Touch

I could not believe it when her Midas Touch damaged the ceiling-mounted clothes hanger at our balcony. It was starting to rain and I told her to get the clothes in. I just had a hunch that she may snap the delicate wires of the clothes hanger by moving the handle clockwise and anti-clockwise non-stop to see what's going happen to the wires holding over 20kg of weight. Knowing this girl too well, I just knew she would not obediently collect the clothes ONLY. She always does extra... of mischief. She loves to try new things without thinking or fearing of the consequences. We had just replaced the clothes hanger and that cost us over RM500. True enough, not even 5 minutes later, she ran in and reported to me that the hanger was spoilt! I ran out to check the clothes hanger. The wires turned flimsy and the handle could no longer move the hanger up nor down. I was terribly upset as we would have to fork out another RM500+ to replace the hangers. And I felt like strangling that rascal. Thankfully hubs is a handyman and he managed to salvage the hanger, albeit the hanger is now acting strangely.

This is not the first time she had created problem whenever I asked her to help out. Just last week, she dropped a bowl with spring onions that I had just chopped all on the kitchen floor. After chopping the spring onions, the phone rang. She passed me the phone. As my hands were wet and stinky, I told her to hold the bowl of spring onions for me and warned her with these words "please hold for me and DO NOT drop it ok "... just after I said the words OK, the bowl just slipped out from her butter fingers!! The chopped spring onions were scattered everywhere! All my effort of washing, soaking and chopping the onions went into the bin again! Just a day earlier, she also dropped a bowl of chopped onions. I could not believe this rascal!!

This rascal has now earned a nickname Butter Fingers and Miss Clumsypot in the family. She spills drinks and drops things all the time. I hope she will outgrown this clumsiness in her, just like how she took 6.5 years to kick off her thumb-sucking habit. God please help her and me!

Super Pissed Off!

Some of my suppliers are sent from the gates of hell. I have ditched about five of such suppliers in the last 3 years. Currently, I am facing another of such supplier from hell. This supplier has zero customer service and acts high and mighty. When he was unable to meet some of my requests, he told me that I am a creator of problem for his shop and that he did not need such customer (implying ME!) and told me that he rather lived poor than to have customers like me who creates problems for him!! WTF, go to h*ll! The next thing that infuriates me is that whenever I have detected mistakes (whether minor or major problems) that they had made, they will just brush it off without an apology. Worse still, they do not even want to reply my emails! That's it, I am so going to write you off my list of suppliers. I rather go poor than to have a supplier like you, you read me?

Do You Take Vitamins and Minerals?

If you google search on whether you really need to consume vitamins and minerals, you will get contrasting and contradicting information from the internet. Some websites will extol the benefits of consuming vitamins and minerals while some website will say that vitamin and supplement consumption is unnecessary, and many products could be a waste of money and potentially harmful. How do you make a decision then?

I think that if you eat a well-balanced diet everyday consisting of fruits, vegetables, fiber, protein, calcium and good carbs and stay away from junk food, you do not really need supplements. Including exercise in your daily regimen and exposing your skin to the morning sun to get your daily dosage of Vitamin D is beneficial too. But the truth is the majority of us are unable to follow this healthy regimen on a daily basis due to a variety of reasons, including myself.   I do consume calcium supplement and a good brand of multi-vitamin and minerals supplement everyday. I remember I used to suffer from pain in my heels and ankles as well as on my knees a few months after giving birth to Cass. After switching to a good brand of calcium supplement, the pain was contained and up until today, I have no more pain on my legs.

If you are suffering from certain disorders, you may need to consume a higher dosage of the required vitamin and mineral to counter the problem. My former colleague was prescribed by her doctor with a high dosage of Vitamin E to counter the outbreak of severe acne on her face. Another friend was prescribed with magnesium oxide as she had some kind of muscles and nerves disorder.

If you are in doubt and need clarification on whether you or your children need a supplement in their daily diet, you can always consult your physician.

Alycia's 9th Birthday Pressies

Months before her 9th birthday, Alycia had already placed her birthday pressie wish.  Tintin comics was her top choice, followed by story books by her favorite authors.  And her birthday wish was granted.


This Tintin comics is from granny and koong koong




Geronimo Stilton (again!!) from granny and koong koong as well.  I have been telling her that she has way too many GS books but this is still her first love.  I allowed her to get them for the last time as it's her birthday.  She should venture out to other authors this year.






Enid Blyton The Wishing Spells and Helen Moss' The Mystery Of The Invisible Spy from mummy dearest.





Funky Things To Draw. I chose this book for her. This book teaches beginners how to draw a whole range of funky stuff from animals and fairies to princess, dragons and all that jazz. Alycia has a strong passion in drawing, just like her daddy and can spend the whole day drawing without leaving the table and chair for breaks. This is from granny and koong koong too.



This is a step by step instruction on how to draw an elephant calf.





Last week, daddy brought her to Borders and got her more Tintin comics and story books (not in pic).  Now, we really have to get a new book shelf to house the girls' collection of books!

Choosing The Right Flooring

Today the girls have been very good. I gave them a pep talk and they all roped in to mop the floor, cleaned up the rooms in addition to their compulsory task of doing the clean laundry. Alycia cleaned the wall-mounted shelf in her room, where she displays all her lego collection and manga figurines. None of the part-time maids wanted to clean this shelf as they were worried that they would not know how to place them back to the original display. Plus, the figurines are fragile and the lego assembles will break up once they are dropped on the floor.

When it comes to the kids mopping the floor, they are always given disposable wet papers as these papers do not leave the floor wet and slippery. The floor of our living room is marble, with a slippery surface. When the floor has too much water on it, anyone stepping on it is bound to slip and fall. The kids have slipped and fell many times when our previous live-in maid mopped the floor with water. I have slipped and fell several times too and thank God no bone was broken. The worst to happen to anyone is a fall resulting in back injury which would render one wheel-chair bound for life. This  happened to my art teacher. She fell when the maid was mopping the floor. The fall has rendered her paralyzed in one leg. She had to stop teaching in school but she was strong-willed and resilient. She turned her large garden into a tuition class of sorts and conducted art classes for secondary students in her garden.

If we ever move to a new house, apart from turning the kitchen into my dream kitchen, I will change the floor tiling of the living room to tiles with non-skid features. I like hardwood flooring and I think it gives the living room a very rustic and warm feeling. You can learn more on flooring at baycarpetsflooringamerica.com.

My Choice

If you have been a regular reader of my blogs, you may be wondering how I am still thriving without a live-in helper, despite the fact that I still have an online business running, online assignments to write and have to cook for the kids everyday and manage them.  The fact is that I have engaged a part-time helper who comes in for 2 hours everyday in the evening to help me clean the house and wash the dishes.  I know some of you will probably say that you'd rather save the RM30 and do the work yourself but for me, if RM30 can buy happiness and keeps me sane, why not?  Or some of you may prefer to eat out everyday or have catered food delivered to you to save the hassle of cooking and washing up.  But I want my kids to have homecooked food, even if it means more work and stress for me.  Some of you spend RM30 a day on luxuries like a cup of coffee and a slice of cake from coffee boutiques or on a nice nail art or on a stylish coiffured hair-do.  I can live without those luxuries and be happy without them.  Having them is icing on my cake.  I prefer plain cakes as a matter of fact ;)

My choice is that I have decided to keep my online business running and continue with my online assignments.  To see the figures in my bank accounts growing  everyday gives me a lot of self-satisfaction and security.  And I know I am just not cut to be a full-time housewife who cooks, washes and drives the kids around for activities. This is just too mundane for me.  I need a certain level of stress to keep my brain alert ;P

Chiropractic To Overcome Back Pain

Some time early last year, I injured my lower back and was in excruciating pain for 3 days. I think I had sprained my lower back when I lifted Cass up. That was the most painful episode of back pain I ever had. For 2 nights straight, I could not sleep at night and had to be in an upright sitting position with my back propped up by pillows. It was so painful that even a slight cough or sneeze would bring tears to my eyes. The hubs could not sleep too as he was hearing me whine and cry in pain the entire night long. I really thought that I had suffered from a prolapsed disc and was all ready to head to the hospital to visit the orthopedic for an X-Ray on the third day. But thank God, the pain subsided after the hubs used the OTO e-Cell electromagnetic gadget to treat the injured part of my back.

Had I really suffered from a prolapsed disc last year, things will go hay-wire at home as the mil was overseas during that period and the hubs was as usual busy with his catering business. I always wonder what the hubs will do if I land myself in the hospital and am rendered immobile? Perhaps he will then realize all of a sudden how peaceful his life had been when the captain was maneuvering the ship. When there is no captain, the ship will stray and disaster looms ahead.

If you suffer from a sudden back pain or have been suffering silently with back pain, you may want to seek chiropractic treatment. Do select a good chiropractor, like the well-known Stockton chiropractic specialists.

Can't Wait

Alycia and Sherilyn have been going to bed way past midnight almost every night this school holiday.  I know it is pretty bad and I have to start training them to go to bed by 9:30pm again, starting from end of  next week.  School will reopen in 2.5 weeks' time, YIPEEEEE!!!  I CAN'T WAIT! LOL!!    I find that I have lesser time on hand to do my things when all 3 of them are around.  The house is forever noisy with their chatter, bickering and sound of TV blasting away -- they are watching The Voice most of the time.  And I hate it that I can't even listen to my favorite radio stations on Astro as they are hogging the idiot box all the time, aaaarghhh!!!