Countdown - 6 weeks to go?

We are half way through Lent and sad to note that my Lent sacrifice of not getting worked up with the kids (and their dad) isn't working out at all. After a few days, I couldn't help myself.I am back to my old self, doing the discipline the harsh way, the only way I know and only way that works, unfortunately. Feel bad but my soft approach did not work, so mission abandoned.

My MIL came to 'harvest' the rice wine which was brewing in my kitchen. Seems like it turned out good. It has been filtered and boiled. We waited for it to cool down enough to bottle them up in time for my confinement which will be in about a month's time. After waiting overnight, she managed to get about 10 bottles of clear wine and 2 bottles of more with sediments.

Wine produced in the fermentation must be filtered out.

10 bottles of such, which will be made into yummy dishes for my confinement, hooray!

As the delivery date for my baby is drawing near, I am starting to source for some necessities. I have bought some new clothes, baby wipes and diapers and feeding bottles. I am looking to purchase a breast pump now. I have always had latching problems with my babies, so it's quite likely that I will need a breast pump right after birth to maintain the milk production. Hoping to breast feed for at least 6 months to 1 year. To some women, that's a breeze but to me, because of the latching problems, it's a challenge. I really hope it's different this time around.

As I am getting bigger and more swollen, simple things are getting hard to do. Cannot bend, cannot squat and using chopsticks or spoon is not easy anymore. Sleeping time is the worst for me. My hands are always painful especially at night, waking me up middle of the night! I need to hold on for just 6 weeks more, I am sure I can do that. Please pray together with me and my family for my unborn baby (source):

"Father, in Jesus' name, I thank You for my unborn child. I treasure this child as a gift from You. My child was created in Your image, perfectly healthy and complete. You have known my child since conception and know the path he/she will take with her life. I ask Your blessing upon her and stand and believe in her salvation through Jesus Christ.

When You created man and woman, You called them blessed and crowned them with glory and honor. It is in You, Father, that my child will live and move, and have her being. She is Your offspring and will come to worship and praise You.

Heavenly Father, I thank and praise You for the great things You have done and are continuing to do. I am in awe at the miracle of life You have placed inside of me. Thank You! Amen.

Deliciously Johor

The boys are finally back home with us after two week being away at their Grandparents'. Except for the multiple mosquito bites on their legs and hands, they are fine and enjoyed their stay thoroughly. The boys are already planning to spend 3 weeks next year! But that has not been decided yet, ok boys? (I am typing this because they are watching the screen while I type).

Anyways, we are back home and somethings that the boys remember and miss is the food that Johor has to offer. My eldest now have a new favourite food, Mee Rebus Johor! I have almost forgot what that tasted and my dear father bought us a pack to try while we were there. So now, I am thinking if I should try cooking it sometimes for my son. But the recipes that I can get from the Internet are so surprisingly difficult! I never realised that a seemingly simple plate of mee rebus requires so many ingredients and so much work. Now I am having second thoughts, hmmm, am I up to the challenge or should I go find somewhere in Kajang that serves Mee Rebus Johor Style?! This remains to be seen.

Other than that, our other favourite Johor or specifically BP food are Char Chai Tua Kueh (stir fried radish cakes), 'O' Luak or 'O' Chien (Fried Oyster), Lontong (I love this for breakfast), briyani, duck noodles, etc.. Thanks to their granparents for buying all these nice delicious food for the boys and ourselves. I forgot to take pictures of them, so I only can provide some pics that I can find from the Internet.

Lontong Johor

Mee Rebus Johor

We will be back in BP for CNY next month. Hopefully we get to taste at least some of them then...

Again, the boys would like to thank their Grandparents for taking care of them so well for 2 weeks and they want to remind that they will be back again, next year end!

Growing

Owen and Erin, new friends.

It was really wonderful to see all my old friends in Singapore, some I haven't seen for many many years. They all look good and some didn't change much from their teenage times. So envious of that. The bride looked great and the wedding lunch was really nice. My daughter also had fun with a new friend, Owen, the 5 year old son of one of my friends. They look so sweet together :). I didn't get to shop at all because it rained on the 2 afternoons we were there, so I couldn't get anything for the boys. I think we will make another trip there with the whole family next time, maybe to Universal Studio.

After the tiring but enjoyable trip to Singapore, we are going to have another trip back to my hometown this weekend to send the boys to their grandma. They want to stay for 2 weeks but I think 1 week will be more appropriate. Don't want to tire poor grandma too much. The boys have been bugging me daily to go to BP, so cannot postpone any much longer.

I went shopping recently and I saw that the school supplies and uniforms are out on sale already. So soon, even when there is more than a month to go before the school reopens? I did not plan to buy anything so soon because in 1 month, my sons (especially the 2nd one) could grow out of their new pants and shoes! Why the heck are the school supplies on sale so early? Oh, now I am in a dilemma, to buy now or not to buy now. If I buy later, they may not be on sale, if I buy now, the kids will grow too big for them in a few months! This year, I had to buy new sets of uniforms and shoes by mid year because the existing ones were getting to tight! Arghh... decisions, decisions...

Speaking of growing, I am also growing too much in the middle lately. Looks like I cannot conceal my expectant mother status anymore. Yeah, this is motherhood for the 4th time for me, straight from the horse's mouth. As usual, my pregnancies are never planned. In fact, I was trying to avoid it but as it's God's will, I am going to be a mother for the 4th time. The doctor said we are getting a girl, not that I mind at all since I already have 2 sons and a daughter. Frankly, it has not really sink into me yet. I am not feeling the reality of having a new little one in our lives in a few more months, yet! Actually, I was kind of troubled for awhile. 4th child, how can we manage? But slowly, things become a bit better.We will just have to do the best we can and leave the rest in God's hands. God loves me and my family dearly and I hope we realise and remember this always and love Him back!

School's Out, My Headache Starts!

It's Friday again. This week I was extremely busy since my colleague went for training. Didn't have time at all to blog or Facebook! Luckily, I am able to take half a day off today to attend my sons' school academic prize giving ceremony. Pretty boring, the prize giving hasn't started. So many speeches and 'doas'. So I thought I could blog a bit on my iPhone.

I remembered when I was at school, there were Islamic elements creeping in to schools then when the numbers of non Muslim kids were more in the kebangsaan schools. I remembered feeling uncomfortable about it even though I was still young. Now it looks like this is even more so now with only like 10% non Muslim students in such schools. When I 1st send the boys here, I was quite shocked and doubted if I made the right choice for them. After awhile they seem to be getting on ok and have friends, I was a bit more relaxed. But I am not so sure if I will send my daughter to the same type of school although I dislike the chinese school way of teaching which puts too much pressure on young kids. We'll see, still have a few years to think about it.

I really think the education system needs to be reformed. I am a support 1 school type for all! All children should go to the same type of schools no matter what race and creed. This will truly sow the seeds of a real 1 Malaysia. But one of the changes that needs to be in place is to make schools secular, this will make non muslim parents more at ease to send their children to these schools. Any religious teachings or ceremonies should be extracurricular. Of course just as important, increase the quality of the education and the teachers. One day when the stupid politicians can stop setting policies for their political gains, we may have such a system. It is an chicken and egg issue, when we start having quality education, we may be producing smart politicians with conscience. We will have to live with this for quite a bit I suspect.

Anyway, today is also last day of school and I quite dread it because the kids will be bugging their grandma for full day every weekday instead of half day. And you can bet I will be getting calls from the boys in turn complaining about each other. And my girl, who without her brothers is an angel, will turn into crying and shouting monster! I got to get the boys to their BP grandparents for 2 weeks! At least I can have some peace and quiet time until school reopens next year.

BTW, I have also gotten the RM100 for each boy from the school, although I think it is a bloody stupid idea but what the heck, it's like a tax rebate!

Apart from this, I am getting my new 7 seater car tomorrow to replace my Matrix which had been a very good car except it has bad 2nd hand value. We will miss her but we have to get a bigger car for the growing family both in our sizes and in our numbers *wink wink*. More on this soon...

For our Children

Education is basic human rights to me. Without education, there will be no improvement from generations to generations. Nations cannot be improved and mentality of the people will be stagnant. It is commendable that Malaysia has been giving compulsory free primary education for many decades.

However, the current education system that we have in this country is not in an encouraging state. Our government had changed policies so often that even the teachers are confused. We as parents are also worried. My eldest son learns Science and Maths in English but unfortunately, his brother, who is 1 year younger, is learning it in BM. If given a choice, I would rather the teaching and learning of Science and Maths in English continues. I have signed the petition online in favour of maintaining the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI) in schools. For parents who feel the same way, do go sign the petition.

Make no mistake, I am not in any way disrespecting BM as the national language. BM, as I have said before, is a beautiful language that I am proud to be able to speak fluently in (not so much in writing due to lack of practice). But like it or not English in the language of businesses in Malaysia. We encourage foreign investors to come to our country, surely they would not be interested if the locals are not able to converse well in English. Unless you are not going to be an employee (and a good one at that), you cannot run away from good spoken and written English.

I recently conducted interviews for 3 positions and I was shocked that many of the candidates cannot even speak well in English. Most of them are from places other that Klang Valley. Even with a public college diploma, they struggle to speak a full sentence in English. It was painful to be in the interview panel, I wanted to ask them to speak in BM instead to make it less painful for the candidate and myself. But that of course that would not be acceptable to the rest of the panel. After all, we are in a British University! So needless to say those who were not proficient in English were eliminated. So tell me English is not important. There are a lot of argument in the internet of people opposing the wide use of English in local education citing Japan and Germany as examples. Unfortunately, we are far far  away in terms of development from any of those countries. It is to our own disadvantage (as a country) if we do not make English as important as BM.

For me, it is highly possible to master 2 or more languages for any average person. So make both English and BM equally important. A third language is also possible to master, e.g. mandarin or tamil. If we start the kids with these languages from young, they will be proficient in all of them.

For the record, I am also not supportive of the many different types of schools that we have, there should be only one type of school for all. And for goodness sake, increase the salaries of teachers and produce high quality teachers. Make it a profession of high esteem. We are placing the future of our children in them (of course parents also play important roles), so they should deserve nothing less! If I were to be a politician, I would make that something I will fight for.

We are really in need for strong and firm education policies which are developed by experts in this field and not politicians whose priorities are not in line with the people such as parents like me. I do hope we will get the correct country leaders who can see the problems we are having with the present education system which has been getting from bad to worse. Look at University Malaya, my alma mater, which standards have been spiraling down due to many reasons.

I hope things will change soon so that my kids will not need to suffer the bad quality of local education for the next 10 to 20 years to come.

Modern Parenting

My kids are a bunch of quarrelsome lot. They drive me nuts sometimes. I am especially worried about my youngest, she is getting to be very bad tempered. You cannot scold her, she will shout at you and cry at a volume that you couldn't believe can come out from a 3 year old.   When she is nice, she is a darling but when she is upset, she is really an earful. She even swears, in (broken) malay! Example of her swearing, "lu siapa, lu berak dalam seluar!". Guess she is picking up these bad traits from somewhere, mostly from her brothers and some from the parents. She does take a little after me but she brings it to another level entirely!

My middle son, he is just plain loud and obnoxious, always getting what he wants and snatching things from his brother and sister. My eldest, he is more mellow in comparison but may display extreme anger when really upset. He still worries me a lot because he is always so listless, leave things everywhere and losing stuff all the time. He is also very, very mischievous, doing weird things that he knows will get him in trouble. 3 kids with 3 different characteristics, we don't really know what to do. *SIGH*

I have bought some books on parenting for my hubby's birthday present. Hopefully, we will learn some good technics on how to bring up good kids. Parenting nowadays is not like my parents' times, you need to learn how to deal with today's kids who are more exposed to knowledge and information, both good and bad. It's not like the dungu kids we were 20 years ago (By the way, for those who are curious about my age, it's 28. My aging machine broke down at 28, so forever 28). So we have to read more, research more and pray more :).

Received the iPad this week, after about 2 weeks + from ordering it online. Great looking piece of machine (I bought the white one) and works great. Did have a little trouble getting iTunes to detect it properly. I called for techinical help from Apple and it was a pleasant experience. Nice lady and very professional. The matter has since been resolved with a little plugging in and out of device and network cables.

Going to make this iPad a reward for the kids when they are well-behaved! We have to resort to threats and treats to get them to behave, and it works, sometimes. We learnt this from Nanny 911 which I mentioned before in a much earlier posting. We give stars for deeds that they do and thumbs down for misdeeds. Over the months, this process has not been upkept properly, it's time we reinstated it and keep it consistent. I read that consistency is important when dealing with kids, guess we as parents have to work extremely hard to ensure consistency in the ways we treat and deal with our kids. Daddy, I know you read this, CONSISTENCY is the key, work with me!

Late Nights

Lately I have been sleeping late, way later than I usually do. I don't kown if it has got to do with the supplement I am taking or just me trying to catch some alone time.

Well, last night, I was sleeping late again. The TV was on in the room and I was checking the latest house prices on my iPhone. I watched Julie (I like her, she's funny and pretty, see pix) and Zher on 8TV Quickie and they were introducing this 20 something pretty lass who is a fulltime blogger (her blog). I am still quite puzzled. I always thought blogging was just for fun. I still cannot imagine making it as a living but apparently some people do. In fact, many people do, nowadays. I know it's from the advertisements posted on their blogs but I just cannot register that in mind. To me, when I go to any blogs, the advertisements are just automatically ignored in my trained mind. I guess I have trained my mind well, :P.

So, back to blogging. I always take it as a personal journal thing. Never really thought anyone would read it or pay much attention to it. So I rattle on about stuff that sometimes makes little sense to others or just plain boring. But who cares, it's my blog and I can do what I want! That's the power of Internet, it empowers anyone and everyone to have their own space in the cyber world. I admit, it feels great to see something I wrote comes published on the web, even if no one else cares. Plus I have promised myself that I will continue to blog, just to know I have the will power to sustain soemthing when I put my mind to it.

Let's go back to late nights. I have had more time to laze around, reading online news and blogs, look up stuff on the internet. It has been great. I think I will make this a habit. After all, I read that adults do not need that much sleep in a day, 6 hours will do and I am getting about 7.

This weekend is my little girl's 3rd birthday. Time flies, she is now (reluctantly) going to kindy and is whiny and bad tempered (nothing like me :P). But she is my darling, I am guilty of spoiling her. But nowadays, I just ignore her when she shows her temper, maybe she will learn that she doesn't get what she wants by crying and stomping her feet. But for her birthday, we will spoil her once more. I think I will bring her to Toys r Us to pick up whatever she wants. We will not be doing a big celebration, just small meal with families. Happy Birthday to my girl, mummy, papa and your kor kors love you lots. That's her in her pretty CNY gear, ain't she a doll!

Shark Teeth Shocker

I have never heard of shark teeth in children until I saw this shocker in my own son's mouth!! See for yourself the picture I took of his mouth. You bet I was scared out of my wits when I saw it and anxiety and worry started creeping into me, I felt butterflies in my stomach, I kid you not! What if his baby teeth won't fall off, ever?! What if they fall off but too late and his permanent teeth would be uneven? He wouldn't have 'perfect' teeth, that hurts me and I was really worried. I was already talking about bringing him to the dentist the next day. My hubby was just as clueless as me. Instead my son was the one trying to console me (and also trying to talk his way out of a visit to the dentist).

Thank you, whoever invented the Internet, for with some googling, I found that it is not that uncommon (about 10% of children may have this) and this is called shark teeth (or the correct technical term, lingually erupting mandibular incisors). I also found a few reassuring articles by dentists which help me understand the matter at hand and rest my anxious heart, a little. So if you are a parent to these 10% of children, you may find these articles helpful (Link 1, Link 2).

Although I am not as worried but I am still worried. If you are a parent, you would understand. And if you are a parent to more than one child, you will also understand how it feels when anything happens to any one of your children. You will be super worried, no matter which child it is. Your heart aches for each one of them, just the same. You may not treat them exactly the same way because they are all different, yet your heart aches the same for them. I think now I can understand how my parents felt when they worry for me or any of my sibblings. This is something so wonderous, all parents feel the same way about their children.

There may be times when disagreements crack the relationships between parents and their kids, but deep in each other's heart, this universal family love can never be broken. We just need to keep mending it. Aptly, this Sunday we just celebrated the Holy Family in church and even made a procession with the Holy Family statues in town. I don't know why the discovering of shark teeth in my son's mouth could make me think of all this, may be that's how God works. HE wants to remind me of my love for my children, the love of my parents for my sibblings and I, and the love of my mother-in-law for one of her daughters, in particular.

I pray for guidance so that I can be the one holding the family together and the strong one giving each one of them the support whenever they need it. When my kids become terrible teens in 10 years and they 'hate' their mummy, I hope that they can read this article which their mummy wrote and understand that mummy loves them no matter what.

For now, I want to say "Mummy loves you, Eron. Mummy will do everything to make sure your teeth will grow out nicely."

Scare of my Life

Today at about 5pm, my mother-in-law gave a call on the the phone while I was still at work. It was scary news as I heard that my 2nd son had slammed the room door onto my two and a half years old daughter's fingers. My MIL described my daughter's 2 fingers were almost severed ('tuin' in cantonese to be exact). I was so horrified but I hoped that they weren't as bad as she described. I rushed home and all the way, I was super worried and tears were welling up. While driving, I was praying that her fingers will be able to heal, eventually, and they were not permanently damaged.

Thank Almight God for my prayers answered. Her fingers were a very scary sight, badly hurting but they looked to me to be no broken bones. She was sobbing a little but she was crying badly before I reached home. Her middle finger's nail was almost coming out and her ring finger was badly skinned. Her pinky had some minor bruises. I brought her to the clinic and she was treated immediately. As I expected, the finger were not broken, the kind Dr Chan dressed the wounds lightly and asked me to bring her back in 2 days to change the dressing. Some antibiotic and pain killer were prescribed to her. Her had stopped crying and seems to be taking it very well, I guess the most painful time had past. Her nail will eventually fall off and new nail will grow. I had a similar accident when I was very young and lost my fingernail but it regrew back normally. So I am quite sure there isn't any permanent damage. Thank God.

I tried to speak some senses to my 2 sons who were quarelling before one of them slammed the door that my daughter's finger were incidentally at the right place at the wrong time. They were no doubt being naughty but it was an accident. I tried to not make it a big deal, I didn't want to make them feel too guilty about it. I want to make an impression on them that they had caused much pain to their little sister and they have to be extremely careful not to slam doors in the future.

Sometimes, I am really at a lost. It seems like not too long ago I was a kid myself but now I am parent to 3 growing children. Adults don't always know what to do, but as parents, we all try our best. I appreciate that my parents also went through the same things bringing us up. They just did the best they could, that's all anyone can do really.

To all my friends who are parents, don't worry, nothing is perfect. You won't be the perfect parent and don't kill yourself trying to be one cause you will never be. Just do the best that you can, your kids will know and appreciate it when they are bringing up their own little ones. Happy parenting and I pray that God will bless all parents with the wisdom and strength to do their very best at all times bringing up their kids. Amen.

Kids' Activities, Cooking and Mooncakes

These few weeks are filled with public holidays. Upcoming is the Raya and then for the 1st time ever in the peninsular, Malaysia Day on 16th Sept. As usual, we have no plans. I think I really need to think of some activities for the kids, it's afterall also school holidays this week. Maybe a kite flying or fresbee playing will get them some exercise and fresh air. Or maybe we should go to Sepang for a half day trip which we planned 2 weeks ago but had to cancel since everyone was sick. I don't know yet but definitely we should do something out of the ordinary shopping in the mall thing.

Last Saturday, I suddenly decided to cook lontong when I saw the 'instant' ketupats are on sale in Tesco. My kids liked it very much and I also made sambal ikan bilis to add some spiciness to it since the lontong kuah is not spicy to accommodate the kids. As usual, I always cook too much. So my hubby took some to my in laws and I still have 3 packets of cooked ketupats in the fridge that will eventually end up in the trash can. My estimation is bad but I hate wasting food. I hope we can do something with the extra ketupats and not throw them away.

For Sunday dinner, as suggested by my hubby, I made 'ham yu fa lum po' (salted fish and pork belly in a pot) which turned out quite good. I even used the claypot and bought the authentic hua tiao wine for the dish. The 'ham yu' or salted fish I used was what I bought from Kuantan which is the really good quality type. I proudly give myself 8.5 out of 10. If I get a thicker soy sauce the dish will be better. So I will make sure I get 9.5 in my next try! We forgot to take picture of the dish before we digged into it, so there will be no pic of it on this post. Cooking or baking for the family is really a great pleasure. When I am in the mood, I really love trying something special and nutritious at the same time.

I was looking at the mooncake recipes but I think it might be a tough one, especially making the fillings and finding a mooncake mould. But in the event that I can get my hands on the mould, I might really try making some simple mooncakes. The prices of the mooncakes are really exorbitant nowadays and there are so many varieties of mooncakes in the market, it's really crazy. I still like the traditional types that are baked with lotus paste fillings and maybe one yolk. Plus it is pretty unhealthy stuff, I am not going to having that many slices.

Being a Mum is not a bed of roses

Hectic week with my hubby working late. I have to manage all the kids by myself after work and they are really a handful. It is fortunate that dinner is taken care of at my in laws or I would really have no breathing space. Well, these are some of the sacrifices working mothers have to face. Not that stay-at-home mothers have it easy, I honestly do not think I can be that even if we can afford it. I think stay-at-home mothers have it worse and I really take my hats off to them.

The house may be in a mess, the clean laundry is still sitting on the sofa. But cleaning is not priority for me. I need to get the kids cleaned and fed and ready for bed. If they have homework, need them to finish it and nag them to practise their piano.

If you have me on facebook then you probably would know about my puppy going crazy and destroyed my small little pebble garden. We even set up a 3 feet fence around it but I think she was must have been really bored last night and decided to jump in and murder my plants! Now we are at a lost on how to prevent it from happening again. Just hope she will grow out of this phase SOON! Here is the mess we found this morning.

This is probably an understatement, being a mum for 3 kids and a puppy is defintely not a bed of roses! Thanks mum, for taking care of us 4 and a couple of dogs too. But as Beyonce would sing...

I'm a survivor, I'm not going to give up, I'm not goin' stop, I'm gonna work harder...

When Life gives you Lemons, make lemonade!

Why the title? You may wonder. It came into my mind a minute ago how close this saying is to my real life situation, literally. Well, not exactly, it has got nothing to do with lemons but has something to do with bananas! Are you curious? Ok lah, here is the story.

It was a Sunday morning and both my hubby and I were busy doing some household chores. I was in the kitchen cooking breakfast and my hubby was upstairs doing whatever. The kids were all watching TV in the living room. Or so we thought! I walked into the hallway leading to the dining place and guess what I saw!! A bunch of half mutilated and half peeled bananas (the expensive ones, mind you, the 'Montels') on the floor!! Immediately I knew who was the culprit. So I talked to the culprit and she said it wasn't her, it was her kor kor. Imagine a 2.5 year old girl already know how to push the blame! My kids cannot escape their mother's sharp sense that is beyond all the 6 senses! So I told my hubby, the culprit is the 2.5 year old girl.


But she wasn't totally to be blamed. The reason she did so was she saw her kor kor took a banana (without asking mummy first!) from where we hung them (to rippen further). My daughter is a perfectionist, she doesn't like her banana mushy or ugly. So she kept pulling them down one after another and none of them was to her liking. So she left them on the floor and went back to her TV. The kor kor also got a few words from me but since I was in a happy morning mood, I let them off. We took the mutilated bananas, peeled them and cut off whatever that was too mushy and kept the remaining in the fridge under cling wrap. What should we do with them? Immediately my baking instinct came flashing! Aha! Banana cake! So that was my Sunday evening project, when we came back from our shopping trip in the evening, I spent 30 minutes making the cake dough and another hour or so baking it. This morning, I had 3 slices for breakfast, it was yummy! Juicy (cause I used lotsa bananas) and fragrant! I gave more than half to my mother-in-law where my kids will sure be having them for breakfast or tea later and kept a few pieces for my hubby to try.

the cake dough...

...the finished goods.

So when life gives your mashed up bananas, you make banana cake!

About Sick Kids, Stocks and Religious Freedom

My kids are all down with the coxsackie virus (a.k.a. the hand, foot and mouth disease). Started with my second son last Friday, I think he got it from the kindergarten. Now he is better but my eldest and youngest are both infected! I was worried at first but the GP told us that it should be a milder virus since my second son got better in just 3 days. The problem is with the spots that grew inside their mouth, they caused them discomfort when trying to eat or drink. My baby girl didn't sleep well at all last night and my hubby and I took turns to attend to her. I hope they will get well soon so that they won't spend their school holidays in agony...

On a different matter, I posted about preparing for our retirement some time back. Ever since then, I have finished the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book and is reading up other books about investment. And I finally started my trading accounts last week. Unfortunately, the first stock I got myself into is already making me a loss! I knew when I bought it that this is a risky stock but high risk also means high returns or high loss. Anyways, I didn't invest too much in it and I still have hope that it will recover enough for me to at least cut loss or gain a little money.

Now for another different matter entirely too, would like to share with you another article from Colin Shafer on Malaysian Insider about religious freedom in Malaysia. Something everyone knows but no one talks about. Since I am super buzy with 3 sick kids, ailing stock and a headache, this is all for this week. Cheerio... And don't forget, world cup is starting this Friday....

Nanny 911 to the Rescue

We have been really at wits' ends, trying to instill some discipline into our kids. My two boys are really naughty and their little sister follows whatever the big brothers do. So the whole house is, to say the least, always in disarray. I have tried using the 'magic wand' (i.e. the rotan/cane) but the results were always temporary. After the tears from the pain were dry, they go back to the same ways again. I am not really against 'corporal' punishment to discipline kids but when the effects are not lasting and the experience is painful to the kids and heart wrenching for the parents, we really need to revise our strategy. I will still reserve the 'magic wand' for circumstances that calls for it.


Now, we really needed a new strategy, to make the kids listen and obey without me losing my voice and my sanity (I know nobody said raising children is easy). So came a TV show called 'Nanny 911' to the rescue. The show is about a household with crazy kids and 'about-to-lose-it' parents calling Nanny 911 for help. A nanny (from England) will be flown to the family (in US) to help them in one week. With the nanny's help, within the week, the whole family gets turned around, the kids become better behaving and the parents have better control of the household. We love to watch it together with the kids and I wish I can really call Nanny 911 to rescue us. But since we can't, we have decided to do some of the things the nannies recommended, by oursleves.



We have implemented a reward scheme. Firstly, we set down a set of rules of DOs and DON'Ts. When the kids do something they shouldn't or do not do something they should, they get a 'thumbs down'. But if they do something right, they get a 'star'. So they will accumulate the 'stars' and 'thumb downs' for the week. Each 'thumbs down' will be squashed by a 'star'. By the end of the week or even within the week they can redeem rewards using the 'stars' they have collected, after they have paid the 'stars' due for the 'thumbs down' they received.



We have been getting very good response from the kids so far. They really value their stars and they will try to earn their stars by doing the right stuff. And when I reminded them that they will be given 'thumbs down' if they misbehave, they instantly stop. I have not used the 'magic wand' at all and I cannot remember raising my voice, for the whole week which is a miracle! Well, I know it is not a new concept. But seeing it being done in Nanny 911 kind of motivated us to do the same. Of course this system isn't really working with my 2 year old girl but it works wonders with the 2 brothers of hers and she does what the boys do. So when they behave, she does too (to an extent). Nevertheless, the outcome is still great! So, we will see if we can 'retire' the 'magic wand' for good or at least for a good while....

It's a Fly Day

I did say I will blog once a week, so it's time for another of my ramblings. This week, I have had the 'luxury' to have proper lunch in the company of my dearest colleagues since my hubby can send my son to school (meaning I don't have to rush out during lunch to send my son to school, something I have been doing since he started attending chinese classes offered by his school, outside of his normal time table!). Yesterday, we had Nasi Kandar from Nilai, packed by some of my colleagues who took the trouble to drive there and back. Many thanks to them and the food was indeed good. And many thanks for the good recommendation too, you know who you are.

Today, we went to the club house and this is also one place that serves great food. I had prawn fried rice since it's Friday (no meat day).

But they serve many other delicous food like this great chicken sandwich on homemade bread. Already I am feeling the kilos adding on as I speak about food, I better drop that and talk about something else...

Now on a whole different topic, I was reading this article about Malaysian Schools on the Nut Graph and it made me doubtful again about our choice for school for our sons. Gosh, will they blame us, in 20 years time? You see we (or largely me) decided to place our sons in national schools instead the increasingly popular chinese vernacular schools. I had many reasons, all valid, which I shall not elaborate here. But articles like these are making me real scared.

Why should we have so many types of schools anyway? And the Education systems and the constant policy changes sucks big time. Can they do anything right? Education is so essential in bringing up the next generation to become even more successful then the current one but are we moving in reverse gear or something? My kids are not some lab mice for you to test your policies on! Racial polarsations is so obvoius that they have create NS to try to make amends? But what can a lone parent do? We could home school them but that's like way drastic. Private school, you say? I have 3 kids, not one, cannot afford la...

Meanwhile, I am sorry la son, you have to go through all these but I know you are enjoying the very little homework life you are having as a Year 1 national school kid, compared to the other friends in the Chinese schools. I can only pray that whatever decisions we made for you will not deprive you of a bright future. Mummy loves you...

Guilty

I am really guilty of having no will-power or sustainability. Ok, so my chinese learning thingy is not going anywhere beyond a few pages in my exercise book which is now sitting, gathering dust on my work desk. It is now accompanying my Catholic Guide to the Bible book which I read through the one third of and stopped. Last time I touched the book was a good 6 months or so ago. This blog for instance, 2 months passed since my last update. I really need to get myself organised.

Anyways, I am back. I did make my 2nd fondant cake for my little girl's birthday in Feb and here's a pic. And next, we have hubby's Bday and mother's day in the next 2 weekends. Haven't been able to bake for the past few weeks since the kids were sick one after another. Only last week they got better, thank God.

So many things that I want to do and haven't. I really have to sit down and list down everything and prioritise. I should start with updating my blog more regularly. So stay tuned for more ramblings, I hope...