small blessings

Our family is into avocado lately and avocado family is growing. These cuties are sleep companions every night.

I have been trying to advocate savings to my youngest but she doesn't seem to be able to grasp the concept of delay gratification. So when she showed me this article which she cut out from the newspaper on saving money and start saving her pocket money...no words can clearly describe what I felt. I'm really really thankful. And I learnt that some things is really can't be rushed.

growing more succulent

  Succulents are survivors. I adore them. Somehow they 

  survive and multiply easily. 

And they make me feel relaxed looking at them

especially those that shaped like lotus flower

and showed us how amazing nature is

My intention, grow and multiply them and give them to friends and family

Please grow well 

and I'm grateful to you for bringing me joy and relaxation. Thank you 

 

Growing and improving every day

She is growing and improving each day albeit at her own pace. Today she shared with me a secret how she can remember what she learnt or need to remember. She said : do revision of the thing to remember before sleep. Then before you sleep after you off the light, you say the things that you want to remember out loud. You photostat (copy) the thing that you want to remember in your brain and you go through it again in your brain. You will remember it tomorrow when you wake up in the morning.

I'm grateful she found a way that can help her be better in her learning. I'm grateful that God showed her the way and showed me the way. Thank you

 

It feel good to declutter / give away / throw

Last Saturday, I managed to get rid of 4 boxes of recyclable items .. ie. cardboxes from packaging, old VCDs (if you still remember what they are:) recyclable plastic items, old clothes and some preloved books.

i have to say it feel so good to be able to clear the stuffs that have been sitting at my home for so long because they stop taking recycle stuffs from a few months back. Previously they use to collect recyclable items and garden compost every Thursday.

I feel that my burden are lifted ... perhaps the clutter has been a nagging need-to-do item at the back of my brain giving me invisible stress. I feel at last I managed to do something after promising dear for so long that I'll clear the clutters at home.

With this in mind, I'm looking forward to more clearing and decluttering sessions which actually helps to calm us down. My dream to make our home clutter free although I've been trying for so many years... but still I refused to give up and will even work harder towards my goals.  Till then...wish us luck :)

rediscover mindful activity

Last month we had a long weekend holiday, while others are doing local or overseas travel, we were travelling within our home back to our heart and mind. We started with a jigsaw which i brought online ..

We started our journey on Saturday, 1st day of the holiday

On the 2nd day of holiday, we almost reach our destination

Finally, on day 3 we reached our destination and decided to frame up this memory :)

糖水without the 糖

The long weekend, I boiled 糖水 without the 糖, but happy as everyone like it :D

the yellow, orange & purple sweet potatoes + ginger

all into the pot with lots of pandan leaves...simmer with slow fire

ironing + listening to radio = not that bad

Let's be honest

Ironing is not something I like to do .. 

• the heat coming from the iron in this hot weather
• the technique of getting the best angle to iron in the least steps / flips
• the traditional chinese medicine theory of not standing with direct contacts of bare feet to the ground and not touching water after ironing (so the dampness / wind cannot go inside body)
• how restricted and repetitive the action of ironing can be
• how thirsty I'll become

Yet, almost every weekend / alternate weekend, the ironing need to be done.

So I derived a way to mellow down my 'not something I like to do'

I choose to see it as 'the time I get to listen to radio without disruption' 

and I found it's not that bad

I'm too busy singing along or listening to what the DJ / lyrics have to say that I iron on an auto pilot mode.

So far the result ok, no attire holed / burnt...hehe =p

ps. now it's time to get outside to cut grass ... enjoy the morning dew and air.

Have a nice day!

our work in progress

I love gardening since young, 
but I do not know when I really fell in love with growing plants.
having said that, I however does not really have green fingers, 
but I never give up easily ... I will try and try and try.

I've tried to preserve the small piece of green in front of our home and gradually start growing edible things.
At our backyard, there is a piece of vacant land.
Previously it was managed by my neighbour but seeing my passion for growing things, aunty decided to let me grow plants behind. 
I couldn't thank her enough as it had always been my dream to grow my own edibles fruits and vegetables.
I do have dreams that every taman (housing estates) have their own organic farm.
and every city to have fruit forest / park concept. 
Last year, I went to the extend of putting in a feedback to DBKL for them to ponder over planting fruit trees in place of the normal decorative trees.

Although we may be far far away, at least I can do what I can do.
In fact I think we Malaysians are quite a green lot. 
Try walking around your neighbourhood and you'll realised that about 85% of houses will have at least some kind of plants. 
The heart warming thing is that we despite not with many spaces available, make full use of it. I see people planting sugar canes, papaya trees, banana trees, nangka trees, mango trees, pandan leaves, serai, mulberry trees in that little piece of land outside the gate, in between our house & neighbour house.

Here's my work in progress 
hoping my little farm will grow and flourish.

my collection of pandan, lime, mint leave, serai, ladies finger, aloe vera

Newly planted sweet potatoes leave vegetables, and tiny papaya tree

little banana tree inherited from aunty

 

some sugar cane inherited from aunty

the holes are planted with ladies finger & long bean.
Thank you to the uncle & aunty that helps us with the backyard.

 

From far top : newly planted pineapple, aloe vera, pandan leave, lime tree, serai

inherited this nangka / cempedak tree (I dunno which is which)

 

the tree in the middle is custard apple tree ... again inherited from aunty

these are ladies fingers freshly picked from our front garden

new year new responsibilities

New year, everyone at home got new responsibilities.

Besides the 2 elder ones going to school to learn, 

they've got new responsibilities.

Vacuum, vacuum 

and more vacuum

Then they gang up and say their 'lau ye che' need vacuuming too

helping sister with bicycle 

老板娘的妈妈

how nice will it be to be 老板娘的妈妈

my daughter told me this is her ice-cream shop (think Häagen-Dazs, Baskin Robbins)

and her restaurant (where she cook and serve me) 

haha...fat dreams but no harm harbouring such a little hope

itchy hand, itchy mouth

Nowadays, I'm getting itchy hands and itchy mouth over the past few days / weeks.

So trying to get some nourishing soothing food / drink into my system.

started with red bean soup

then lemongrass + ginger + pandan leave slow boiled water

then pork rib chinese herb soup 

and hoping more to come ...

a different ball game

ah dear was airing some plastic box and plastic drawers the other day.
I was feeding little ah bi when the kor kor jie jie keeps bugging me to play with them.
So out of desperation, I came out with a different ball game for them.
Asked them to pour all the balls into the plastic box, took a ball of each colour and place them into different drawers.
Voila, a new colour ball sorting game. 
and they repeated the game for 3 rounds ... sorting and mixing back and sorting and mixing back.
To up the ball game, I told them got TIME LIMIT
so they got excited all over again....LOL
(ya, I just pretend to count down ie..10 minutes left...9 minutes left... 8 minutes left...)
Well at least the excitement lasted for about half an hour, just enough for me to feed ah bi and let her sleep.

which one should come 1st?

my to do list 

getting more and more each day 

(and mind you, one piece of note paper has more than 1 to do item)

sometimes, I have this feeling that 24 hours really not enough

if write, I feel overwhelmed ... got so many things to do, which one should do 1st (has not included daily routines which need to be done)

if no write, also '4' cause I couldn't remember a thing I need to do and end up with nothing done and very disorganised.

yes, I know there are apps which can help me track and send reminders, 

but the old fashioned me still find nothing beats cancelling off an item completed on the notice board.

and out of the so many things that need to be done ... 

I sometimes wonder how many is of it is really for ME

the truth is I dare not venture into THAT, afraid of knowing the answer. 

reminiscing honeymoon on 'love is in the air' month

You may not believe it
but I'm not lying
the last trip (overseas) I had was way back in early 2009 
that was like 5 years ago and that was our honeymoon

So the day before yesterday, I got this crazy idea
Since we don't get to go for trip what more honeymoon
so just do something to reminisce our honeymoon to land of kimchi

I think it's a great idea... (syiok sendiri)
making KIMCHI ...yes, you heard me right K-I-M-C-H-I
it's the perfect type of food to prepare for a wife who doesn't really know how to cook to begin with
and even if she cooks, not sure if the food she prepare is edible

So what's better (for the wife) to prepare than some food that can be left to ROT (oopppsss...I mean to ferment)

So last midnight, I started reminiscing honeymoon 

ps. so on 14 Feb, hopefully we shall see our love got better with time just like kimchi  

6 years

2/2
It has been 6 years since we decided to sign on that piece of paper consenting 
to end our bachelorhood
to start new life together
to give up partial of our freedom
to share a part of our life

finally

Finally hopefully we can get our peaceful and clean home sweet home back

For those of you who had been to my house during the previous 11 months (almost a year) will have noticed the massive renovation on our neighbour's house. it's like building a house from scratch

While I think my neighbour are sure to be very happy to be finally be able to move in to their DREAM home, 

I guess I'm the HAPPIER one around.

For we have live in constant UNpeace of mind for the almost past 1 year.

it's like I'm staying in a PRISON and yet I'm in my home.

Imagine living next to a construction side,
so much so that we have to seal the house (meaning all door and window closed) in order to avoid the whole house being polluted. 

- the amount of noise 

- the amount of dust 

- the amount of toxic (cement, paint and i don't-even-know-what)

- the amount of inconvenient (we can't hang our clothes to dry outside... or it will be dirtier than before wash, constant cleaning of porch and home required...etc)

- the amount of ugly sights 

- the amount of rubbish (you know what happen when you have that BIG construction rubbish disposal metal box bin, plus it's the festive spring cleaning season)

- the amount of mosquitoes due to the above (don't even mention the smell)

- the amount of stress - drilling, banging, knocking, you name it. Also thinking the amount of toxic my children are breathing in every single day. Also the chinese believe that there should not be renovation of house during pregnancy....the list is just endless

- the damage the renovation caused to our already old house (and deny it's because of them)

- the 4 different batches of foreign workers (some are ok, some are scary)

- the deprivation - fresh air, gardening time, play time with kid outside house, the chance to have a clean house

- the entrance of house being blocked- loading unloading, worker car

oh...I can go on and on...

yes, exactly, I really sounded like an old grumpy nanny complaining. 

I was eager to celebrate western new year with PEACE but I didn't get to...

I'm thankful though I get to celebrate chinese new year with PEACE ... 

Before this I used to have a little intention to extend the house... but now, I don't think I want to ... a small house is just good enough for us, we stay close & warm and sweet with lesser cleaning. 

Finally, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel...

After having endure so much for the past almost 1 year, I'm don't have the 'gas' to complain anymore, i'm just plain grateful that it's all coming to an end...

and here's to a new beginning

Having said all the above, don't get me wrong, I do not blame my neighbour ... 
it's just the timing and it's just our luck ... 
perhaps god wanted us to learn something ... to learn to appreciate what we have, to appreciate things we taken for granted and things we do not realised we have all along.

Welcome back, my dearie home :D

GO SLEEP EARLY

the title says it all.
I've been telling this to myself since the week before 2013 end ... so called resolution.
But it's far from practice and enforcement.
there's always excuses, ANY excuses
including most bizarre one : I don't want to waste time sleeping! Still got many things to do.  (Sleeping is definately not a waste of time)

UNTIL
I dozed off (more like passing out) yesterday night due to extreme exhaustion just right after putting ah bi down on tilam. Or I was already nodding off while breastfeeding? I wasn't sure actually.

and I woke up this morning FEELING GOOD 
It (sleeping early, sleeping well, sleeping enough) really does WONDERS.
Although it may not seem 100% possible (at least for me) 
I'll try to get as close as I can. 
This, a promise make to my body who seem to have not slept well since half a decade ago. 
(Even half a decade does feel like a thousand years when not enough sleep ... and I'm hearing 'A thousand years - christina perri' playing in my head.

Here's to GO SLEEP EARLY
Here's to SLEEP WELL, SLEEP SOUND 

the never ending story

the washing machine is really a good invention, a good companion!!

one of the many things

of the the many things ...

he did for our home.

Although at times his action or rather inaction 'kek sei' me

but when he does it ... it makes me smile, sometimes even better

makes me laugh, sometimes with cheeky little suprises ... lol

one of those things

for the past 2 - 3 months ago

yet everyday I had to on the pipe by turning the bolt hexagon shape knob with a piece of cloth (using plain fingers will be too painful)

on one fine night, suddenly my kitchen water pipe has a new 'upcycled' look.

see that blue little 'knob' to on the water pipe?

see that pureen baby washing liquid bottle on the left 'with its missing dispenser'?

so now 

he's happy ... she no longer nag about changing the pipe

she's happy ... no more difficulties with the pipe, in fact she smiles every time she washes the dishes @ the 'novelty' of such idea.

wallet & purse is happy ... no need keluar $ 

the earth is happy ... one more plastic item 'upcycled'

perhaps the pureen bottle is 'upset' having its' head stuck on someone else's body ...lol

lucky i still have u

For the past few weeks & months, life has not been easy for me.
work wise also very bumpy, so much so that I feel like giving up because it's affecting me health wise.
But lucky I still have you .. 
who's still there for me even when I show my ugly dark side
who try to cheer me up when I hit the bottom
who tell me things that I refuse to listen and let me see things that I couldn't see through

thank you for the sewing machine and little radio which allow me to seek comfort.
We will together little by little make our effort build our little home sweet home ... even if it's a little brick a day.