Things that I plan to do in Raya holiday 2011

Long waiting break has started, I actually have a lot of plans and I want to put my time into good use. 

1. I want to follow My Little Sprout's post to make some chocolate coated ice-cream moon cake for my daughters. Alice, you must keep baking and cooking, out of your 20 recipes, I sure can find a simple one to follow.

2. I want to make Konnyaku jelly again. This one, I tried before. So, I should have no issue to accomplish. Now, I only need to go and buy some fresh mangoes.

 3. I want to roll some sushi. Sushi mat was bought 3 years ago. I feel like trying now after reading many posts of other mummies' successful stories in making sushi.

 4. I want to hit the gym every day.

I put April's playing table tennis picture here, as this is the scene that I look at while running on the treadmill for an hour.

When she is in the table tennis training for the total of 2 hours, I will be in the gym on top of her court, I want to shed some fat by running on the threadmil, stepping on the the stepper machine, lifting weight and etc.

After break, I will update you folks on the result of my plans. I hope all my plans are successfully executed. Wish me luck.

Happy Holidays and Selamat Hari Raya 2011

It has been quite some time that I didn't break for so long. This coming week, I will be off  working from Monday till Friday. Though we don't plan to go anywhere, I still think that we shall have a very happy holidays for just being chilled at home.

Some random pictures that I would like to share here.

April and May in their new skirts. April was wearing the big hibiscus necklace which she did in her art lesson at school.

April like to tie hair bun and May likes to tie hair plaits  to school.

This picture was taken when their Papa was at work, and they wanted to show Papa the new McD Hello Kitty watch that I bought for them.

Being with them, my simple life is always blissful.

Here I wish all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and non-Muslims Happy Holidays.

As per my Saturday plan

Continue from my earlier post on An exciting Saturday night.

Sharp at 8pm, we were already in front of the TV. You can see from the clock on the wall.

Who were these two die hard fans? 'Kalau bukan April dan May, siapa lagi?'

They were alerted that this show was lasted for 3 hours. They were smart to cushion their bums with double layers, a small cushion on top of a small mattress.

As  per plan, I have cut some kiwis and dragon fruit and kept in the fridge an hour earlier. This was to allow them to munch on healthy food while watching TV.

It was only one thing not in plan. We actually delayed the dinner to much later. My husband bought dinner for us on his way  back from his work out in the gym.  He also wanted to know the result of the competition, that's why he came back earlier.

I was quite satisfied with the overall performance of the champion and the first runner up winners, but certainly not the 2nd runner up and 3rd runner up winners. Someone else were singing much better than them, but got eliminated from Top 4.

p/s: Thanks for all your support and kind encouragement for me to join the competition in another 10 years. However, I may chicken out, after seeing the standard of the contestants is getting higher, and the amount of time, effort and money invested are so tremendously huge. lol!

pp/s: The gorgeous 49 years old Bai Ling was the first runner up. The champion was really too good to deny.

An exciting Saturday night

Tomorrow night is an exciting night for me. I have been waiting anxiously for this night. I wish that I can have my dinner earlier, settle my children earlier, bath myself earlier and change into my favourite jammies. I will take out the fruit that I have cut an hour ago from the fridge and lay it on the coffee table. I will sit comfortably on the couch exactly at 7.55pm.

Then, I will reach the Astro remote control and press 301. Another 5 minutes, Astro Classic Melody Singing Competition Final is showing LIVE from Astro CH AEC.  I have followed this singing competition preliminary rounds since a month ago. All because of this show, I skipped the chanting class. I will surely resume going to the chanting class next week, after this Saturday final round.

April and May will join me watching the show, they too get excited as much as I am. They enjoy watching this show too, as I have exposed them to this type of singing talent shows many years ago.

While we 3 ladies watching the show, we grant the only man in the house some off hours to do whatever he likes, but he musn't do anything naughty and must remember to come back before the show ends with our supper.

If you ask me why I enjoy watching this veteran group singing.
My answers are:
1) I love oldies, be it Chinese, Englsih or Malay songs, because those are the songs that my late mother sang to me last time.
2) I am actualy just 10 years apart from their age. If I want to participate in such singing contest in future, I must prepare myself now. Agree?

How I wish I can be as stunning as this finalist contestant when I am in her age? She is a 49 years old, very beautiful, best vocal and good stage performance contestant from Ipoh.

<白琳>

I pray hard that no raining tomorrow, otherwise all my beautiful plans will be spoilt. Astro, please be good.

Feasting

My kids are taking supper almost every night. I don't mind, because they are considered as thin.  My elder used to be chubby, but losing weight after entering Primary 1. My younger is only slightly fatter than the Afghanistan's starving children. Hence, I let them feast on any food for supper.

Monday, my husband offered to buy us the supper. He came back and laid the supper on the able.

This amount of food were for 2 adult and 2 kids. In fact, it was for 1 adult and 2 kids. I only took a few small bites here and there, due to the low metabolism rate that I have, I actually can't afford to eat after 8pm. Those few bites had enough to sentence me to death, and think of standing to sleep, so that I could burn the extra calories over night.

Dim Sum from the pasar malam nearby my place.

Popiah, Char Koey Teow and Char Kuey Kak were also from the pasar malam.

My younger, May is a small eater. Only my elder, April was able to help her father finishing the food.

Trick my kids to take more fruit: part 1

My kids love fruit. I have no problem to get them take fruit. Sometimes, I do play trick to get them take more, and all types of fruit.

 Most children love dipping their food. So, I let them dip the cut fruit in yogurt.

 It was even more fun, if some cute and lovely food picks were to be used to pick the fruit.

Lucky April and May are so blessed to have a generous auntie, who sent them some art craft stickers and  food picks.

While they were picking and dipping the fruit, I heard them saying, "I have taken the lollipop, what have you taken?", "I have taken the donut. Now I am going to take the chocolate. ", ........

They finished the whole plate of fruit and asked for more.

p/s: On behalf of April and May, thank you, generous auntie.

My new ritual

*edited as some questions arise on the chanting calculator*

The chanting calculator is to replace the rosary beads There are two buttons on it. The bigger button is to press each time I chant "Amituofo". I will check the number on the calculator when I think it is about time for 200 times  The smaller button is to reset the number.
It will be perfect, if it can buzz when I chant up to the number that I pre-set it. May have to wait for the next invention.

As a Buddhist, I learned to chant not too long ago.

I started when I brought my kids to Buddhist Chanting class on weekend. We learned chanting there together. At home we chant "Namo Amituofo" for ten times before we go to bed.

The is considered as the most basic practice that we have as the Buddhist ritual.

I got three green chanting calculators for free from the Buddhist society that I went.  I put one in my car, one in my bedroom and one in my children's bedroom. I am now chanting more often than before.
I try to chant "Amituofo" at least 200 times a day.

I don't actually pray a lot, I don't frequently visit Buddhist temple, I don't often have vegetarian on the first and the fifteen day of Chinese Lunar Calendar.

The least thing that I can do is to chant whenever I am alone. I chant when I drive to work in the morning. I chant when I have an insomnia. I chant when my kids and my spouse are all occupied. I chant in whatever position that I feel comfortable. I chant when lying on the bed, I chant when I sit on the couch, I chant when standing and facing the Buddha. Instead of doing nothing, I chant wholeheartedly and silently in my heart.

Through the daily practice of chanting  "Amituofo", I shall gradually improve myself so that I shall be able to deal with worldly matters more openly and with less attachment. I believe, by each individual improving ultimately society will be saved.

Kita anak Malaysia

In conjunction with National day on 31 August, April's school has started to teach  them National day song, craft and art.

All the Primary 1 students were given a piece of paper, which has National flag and 3 major races printed.

First day, April drew the Petronas Twin Tower, KL Tower, National Mosque, Hibiscus, One Malaysia Logo, number 54 and fire work at the background.

Second day, April drew Hibiscus and its leaves at the bottom of the drawing paper. Do you notice that the 3 races of characters having hands now?

Third day, April had finally finished her colouring. She was drawing the outline with 8B pencil.

The complete colouring work of April for National day. She also did some craft work at school. I shall blog about that next time. 

A trip to the zoo

My younger 5 years old May is a more independent child. Thus, I reckon I neglect her sometimes, as her big sister is in Primary 1, we focus on her primary education more.

Friday, May's kindergarten organized a trip to zoo. I signed her up, and I took a day off to join the trip together with her. I wanted to show her that I also care for her and her activity in school.



Reach the zoo by bus and assemble at the entrance.  

The teacher wanted them to hold the hand of one classmate while touring the zoo, in order to allow the teacher to spot who was missing immediately.

 The children are very cute and innocent. They got excitedly easily.

 They stoped at each corner to tell the name of the animal in BM, Chinese and English.

 The teacher was giving some explanation on the different types of the animal that they saw.

 They walked in a group of classmates that in the same class and led by the form teacher.



Teachers had done a very good job in guiding the children. The children too learned a  lot of things that they couldn't learn in the classroom. Next year, I don't think that I need to accompany her in this type of trip anymore. 

After touring for about 1.5 hours, the children were dropped dead tired and hungry. Teachers gave each of them a hot dog bun and a bottle of water.

Before leaving the zoo, a group photo was taken. The form teacher was arranging the children for the shot.

I took May home with my car, and the rest was taking bus back to the kindergarten.

It was a tired day for me too. I was supposed to be in office enjoying the cool air-con, but I went to the zoo under the hot sun. I was a bit regret half way through the trip. Thank Goodness that May said to me after  we both had woke up from the 2 hours nap, she said that she will be alright to go to the zoo visit alone next year.

Shit lookalikes

Please guess, what is this?

I have successfully made Yvonne wallop all of these shit lookalikes kuih. lol!

I myself also finished the smaller piece of these durian kuih. I still have one big piece of it in my fridge. Although it didn't look appealing, it tasted like the king of fruit.  So, I like it.

Two big pieces of these durian kuih cost only RM4. I bought it from a Malay colleague.

Any one of you love this shit lookalikes durian kuih?

Trick my kids to take more veggie: part 2

 I am really grateful for all your comments in my earlier post. I feel really overwhelmed by your encouragement on trying to trick my kids to take more veggie.

My another trick is to boil a big pot porridge of vegetable with lean pork meat.

I reckon the porridge didn't look appealing at all, but it was really very sweet and yummy.



I put in 2 Japanese sweet potatoes, 1 potato, 1 carrrot, 1 small slice of pumpkin. All chop into small pieces, and boil with 100gram of lean pork meat in the slow cooker.

My girls called it as baby porridge. I gave both of them a big bowl of it when cooked, as I didn't want them to complain that they were hungry. Eating only vegetable porridge with not much protein.

They love it, but when they ate until the last few bites in the bowl, they showed me a gesture of likely to vomit. I guess they were too full, ain't the porridge not nice. T____T.

p/s: I tasted it myself, it is nice. Trust me.

Trick my kids to take more veggie: part 1

When I run out of idea what soup to boil for my kids, and I still want them to take more vegetable, I would resort to spaghetti in vegetable pasta source.  

1. Onions, garlics and tomatoes.  Mix them with half cup of water and blend them in the blender for only 10 seconds.

 2. Cut carrots into smaller cubes.

 3. Blanch potatoes in a pot of hot water for 10 minutes. Remove skin and cut into cubes.

4. Heat up oil in wok, put #2 and #3 in the work, stir fry for 5 minutes, then put #1 and continue to stir fry until it boiled.

5. I didn't put in any seasoning like salt or sugar, but 5 tablespoons of mushroom pasta source for better taste.

 Spaghetti in vegetable pasta source is always healthy for kids.

I felt so satisfying, when seeing them down with lots and lots vegetable pasta source.

Workbooks for Primary 1

There is an exam in August. When looking at the Primary 1 education which April is doing now, I can see that the syllabus is getting tougher towards the second half of the year. I seriously think that other than the routine revision, I need to get extra workbooks for her to have more practices at home.

These are the workbooks that we got from 3 different publications, which included subjects, like BM, English, Chinese, Mathematics, and Science.

This workbook is a monthly exam worksheet for subjects like Chinese, BM, English, Maths, Moral and Science. I find this is quite complete and useful.

 This workbook is only RM 2, it is from "BUDIMAN" publication.

All workbooks are attached with answer sheets. I don't mind April referring to the answer sheet for the answer, as it is a way of learning too, but I want her to let me know which question she is not sure. So far she would check with me or her father, when she had difficulty in getting the answer. This has allowed us to explain to her on her uncertainty. In addition to assist her polishing her knowledge in area that she is still weak.