First Day of Lunar New Year 2009

After two days of cleaning, I have to finally keep all cleaning equipments as it is bad omen to clean on the first day.

After so many years, now I finally unserstood why we are not allowed to clean or do any housework on the first day of Lunar New Year. Long ago and till now, women usually stayed home and made sure that food was on the table to feed the family and the house was cleaned throughout the year. They do not have any rest days or annual leave. Hence, there must be some wise lady who decided that they should also have some days to rest and put up their feet, if not to put on some make up and feel beautiful again. Hence, NO HOUSEWORK on the first day of Lunar New Year. (What do you think?)

Anyway, even if I want to clean the house, I can't as out first day have always been packed.

We started the day with my feeble attempt to style their hair with rag curls. I should have done it the night before so that the hair will dry as they slept.

Then, the princesses got to 拜年 to us with two oranges and we returned them with red packets.

And we were off to their paternal grandmother's house and then round the island we went and ended up at my brother's place for dinner. I felt so much more comfortable there than anywhere else and dinner was good... with my mum's best belachan chilli.

However, Ash vomited after drinking a cup of milk... guess she had not chewed her food properly and she did too much jumping around with her cousins.

So this is the four of us wishing all of you a wonderful and blessed "moo moo" year ahead.

Spring cleaning for the Lunar New Year

It is the culture of the chinese to do a spring clean the house before the Lunar New Year.
This year, I was so busy and so tired that I was determined not to do any spring cleaning and also to close my doors to anyone visiting. I was too tired.

However, I just could not get this burden off my shoulders. Even if we agreed not to have any people come our house, I cannot accept that my house is not cleaned for the new year.

So on Saturday, two days before Lunar New Year, I started to clean...
Let me scare you with this pile of dust from under our bed.
Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

I worked hard on Saturday and on Sunday to clean the house. I must say that I was proud of myself as I managed to complete one year's worth of cleaning in two days... (okay, I skipped the study room...)

After two hard days of cleaning, back is aching, eyes are itching and mood is kind of bad. But at the end of each of the two days, I get to see my two princesses loving each other, my aches are all washed away.

Here Ash and Aver were playing "scissors, paper, stone". Aver won and gave her sister a big bear hug.

And whilst watching TV, Aver felt cold and went onto the sofa where her sister was and snuggled with her.

Onto the bento wagon

Due to the lack of time to cook lunch on weekdays when we reach home, I have to learnt to cook the night before and store it in the fridge. Once we reached home, I can pop it into the microwave oven to heat and lunch will be ready in 5 minutes.

Since I cook lunches for Ash and myself, why not prepare another set for Superpig to bring to work.

This is one of it.

Contents:

1. Fried egg with minced meat on rice

2. Simple lettuce, orange and raisin salad

3. Japanese salad sauce in Pooh container

Visit to Chinatown (Con't)

I promised to continue from the previous post about our visit to Chinatown and I do not have to tell you why it took such a long time for it... Haiz... time ... time... time...

Anyway, let's talk about the trip.

Interesting looking plant with interesting lookin fruits.

Beautiful orchids (sorry for the lousy photos... my hands were already shaking with fatigue from carrying Aver)

Cute looking mandarin orange bags

Wonderful array of shoes...

You can buy those off the tables or you can mix and match the soles to the top and have one made to you liking.

Here is the master putting in the nails for my pair.

This is my pair... I like it but thought it looks a little solemn. I hope to get another pair .. a pink one or a white one.

Then there are waxed meat... no idea why they are still around. I only eat the sausages and had tried the wax duck (or something...) and totally puked. Maybe, my aunt did not know how to prepare them so it does not taste nice at all.

So that is the end of Chinatown for me. Next year, we will visit again and hopefully there will be less swearing.

Lunar New Year is coming

In about two weeks time, we will bid farewell to the Mr Rat and welcome Mr Ox in the lunar calendar. I just got over the hustle and bustle of 2008 Christmas and the welcoming of the New Year 2009 and now I have to think about the Lunar New Year.



I had planned to sew the princesses their dresses like 2008 Lunar New Year but my mother-in-law had generously bought new clothes for the children. I still need one new dress for Ash ... so I will embark on that soon. (Fabric had been bought already... pattern had not been decided.)


Every year, we will make a mandatory visit to Chinatown to absorb the atmosphere. Everytime, we would have a feeling of excitment but 5 minutes after entering Chinatown, we would then kind of regret going. It is very very very very very crowded. It is of the stage of "push your way through or you don't move at all" stage.


However, despite the crowd and the pushing and jostling around, the fear of losing a child in the process, the pain from many steps stepped on my toes, I can safely say that we enjoyed our time in the midst of the crowd and sweat.

You will be hit first with the bright lights.

Then there are the many orange, yellow, red, gold colours.

The bright coloured wrapped sweets.

The traditonal sweets.
The many different types of melon seeds.

Food tasting (sorry for the blurred image... there were pushing)
The perspiration
The cute Mr Ox

My favourite lion

Lunar New Year plants... (it was selling for $10 there but Superpig saw it at Cold Storage at Paradize Centre selling at $5.80. Phew... we did not buy it then.)

(Blogger died on me again... so I will continue the next time.)

8 days into 2009

and I am already burnt out.

I decided not to list down any resolutions for this year as I fear that I will end up crashing into the land of darkness. I will take things as it comes and solve each situation one at a time. This is the best way to do things now.

Why am I burnt out?

1. Work had begun.
2. The work allocated is demanding.
3. Time is working against me.
4. With massive amount of work to complete in an average of 2 hours a day... I still do not have any idea how to get that to work.
5. Learning to plan ahead in terms of preparing lunch for Ash so that once we reach home at 3p.m., she can eat it in three minutes time.
6. Convincing myself that I am not being unprofessional by telling the "important people who allocated the work to me" that I am not able to put in the time that they think I can. I quit from full time teaching because I want to be able to nurture my children and also there is no one else taking care of them. (I work 6 hours in the day and takes care of the children after that plus the household chores...) I do not have the luxury of "me-time"... actually I do not even have the luxury of sleep time... on the average, I sleep 2 hours a night. That explains my nice gothic looking eyes and perfect orange peel complexion.

So, lets handle one thing at a time.

I have to learn to stop and pray for The Lord to help me unburden my burdens.

Now... I need to go wash my shirt for tomorrow, cook lunch for tomorrow and eat my dinner.

Hope to see my blogging friends soon. I am missing the blog world so much.

Goodbye 2008, Welcome 2009

2008 was a year of numerous changes and adjustments in this household.
It also had a lot of challenges that required massive amount of courage and strength to handle each and everyone of it.
I would say that I had learnt a lot about myself in that year and had grown stronger and more courageous.

So we bade goodbye to 2008 with a kite flying outing. (oh.. it was an long overdue outing ... loooooonnnnggggggggggg overdue, like 5 years!)

The kite had taken off ...

Ash had her hand on it. Superpig teaching Aver how to do it."Where is the kite, Mummy?"

"I want... I want..."

I had a go at it too,

Follow the string and you will see the kite.

While Superpig and Ash were kite flying, Aver decided to go exploring on the big open field.

The four of use (Ash in the background) saying goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009.

I do not know what will be installed for us in 2009 but I know that I already have a challenge to overcome when school starts for me on Monday.

I have a few things that I want to achieve in 2009 and I hope friends out there will bear witness to these changes.

I will make my 2009 project list and resolutions soon and put it up here to constantly remind myself.

(After the kite flying, I fell sick in the evening so had to stay home instead of joining a friend's gathering...and one of my resolutions for 2009, is to take better care of myself!)

Aftermath of Christmas

I did not finish the posts up to Christmas, as I would have loved to...
The reason is rather simple... I was way too busy.

As mentioned in earlier posts that I had yet to get ready the gifts of the festive season and was kind of sulking about... then as I was about to get started on baking cookies for Aver's christmas celebration in school, Superpig requested for more handmade presents for his colleagues.

So on the eve of Christmas eve, I set my sewing machine to work hard... I sewed over twenty tissue cozies (which I had not taken any photos of... duh... who has the time for it). The tissue cozies goes to Superpig's colleagues and a few of Aver's teachers.

Then when Aver rest for the night, I set my mixer to work and then my oven was hot right up to 2 a.m. in the morning. I baked cookies for Aver to bring to school the next day. (No pictures again... but they are the same as the ones that I made with the gals earlier on)

At 2 a.m., I thought I was able to go rest my sore feet and terribly aching back but I realised that the tissues cozies needed to be wrapped and packed for Superpig and Aver... So I wrapped presents till 3.30 a.m., praying very hard that Aver will not wake up to nurse and grumbled that Superpig was snoring away.

On the morning of Christmas eve, I dragged myself out of bed and into the car. Aver went to school for her celebration and Superpig to work, then I drove home with Ash and I slept till it was time to go fetch them.

I kept telling myself that I have the afternoon and night to get the presents for our friends done up and was feeling kind of relieved. At 3p.m., Superpig got a call from his friend and asked us wht we wanted for dinner... I was in shock! The christmas gethering should be on Christmas... wasn't it? NO! NO! NO! I had gotten the date wrong, we were suppose to meet on Christmas eve!

There I was stunned and with no presents for anyone YET!

So once Aver took her nap, I drove my sewing machine hard for the next 3 hours or more...
And I managed to get two sling bags and two pouches out... enough for whoever we are meeting (I still owe a few others their gifts...)

Then off we went for dinner and I was happy that I can relax for the rest of the remaining days of 2008... but...

27 December there is a little boy who turned two and I was all mixed up in dates and day, thought that it was on Sunday. So I thought to myself: I can rest for two days before I start the machine! So we went out to enjoy Christmas at a big and crowded shopping mall. I still had Friday to rest and I can sew on Saturday.

OOOoooooppppps... big mistake... the birthday is on Saturday and I have to sew his present on Friday. And since Aver's childcare is closed till the new year is here, I was not able to get my machine to start working till night is here.

In the afternoon, I started to pack the toys and books to allow greater organisation for a little homeschooling with Aver. (there is photos but I am not loading them now because the camera is quite a few steps away from me now and I am tired!!!)

Once I tackled the massive collection of books and the small selection of toys, I was already too tired to do anything.

But I still have a present to make for a little guy.

When night came and carried Aver into dreamland, I sewed a pair of pants (but I goofed up quite a bit so it took me 3 hours to get it done... an expert will be able to do it in half and hour!) And there was suppose to be a bag to put the pants in... but I had to make the bag the next morning as I was already too beat to be able to handle my sewing machine.

I read on a blog of a mum who sewed when she was tired and she ran her finger in to the foot of the sewing machine and sewed her finger ... I fear for my own safety too as I know that I was already very tired.

So I was busy from the last time I post till now and am too tired to go get my cameras to upload any photos. I want to rest... tomorrow... I have to return to school for meeting (why... I do not know ... my working scheme do not require me to go for meetings....)

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas and also a rested weekend.

Christmas is coming...

and my christmas presents for my friends, their kids, Aver's childcare teachers are not at all done. I have YET TO START on them!!!

Don't ask me why? Seems like I have this problem of proscratination or simply I still have not found something that is suitable for them yet.

Anyway... in preparation for christmas, I wanted the children to have a go at making christmas cookies but I fear the need to clean up later. Yesterday, I plucked up the courage and we had a cookie making sesssion (just that it was not in the christmas theme.)

The princesses selecting from my stash of cookie cutters the ones that they want to use.

Then, we all started the cookie cutting and cookie stamping.

The dough

Helping Aver with her cookie cutting.

Aver showing her flour-ed finger.

Superpig's turn...

They are waiting patiently for the oven to heat up.

All baked and waiting to be cooled and eaten.

The last bit of the dough... and this is what I created.

Let see if I can squeeze in a christmas cookie making session tomorrow night.

19 December 2008

Something new for the Christmas to adorn our hands...