I Miss Working

It has been almost 2 years since I give up my job and stay home with the kids. Have I ever miss working life…yes , I do, sometimes. It has recently flashed through my mind again.

Not to say I don’t enjoy staying home with my kids and not to say I’m bored with them…but I do miss the corporate life, I have been in an MNC since my first informal job….so I miss wearing smart…carrying the laptop…been assigning task and helping end user solve problem, the big fat cheque and bonus and all the medical coverage, the sastifaction (minus office politics and saying goodbye to my girl at the sitter’s) is different from being a full time housewife/mother ….the enviroment is totally different from staying home that makes me miss it occationaly. I just miss the working culture…job sastifaction will give me more self worth I reckon. (human being is so contradicting…when working, I wanted so much to be SAHM and now I’m a SAHM…I miss working “pulak”)

Have I ever consider returning to workforce??? Yes , I do. But since I’m still in “production”…that also mean I won’t be able to go back to work so soon…at least in another 3 years time. (That’s going to be long period of time. *sigh*) And I know I would never experience the same working life again and I will never able to go back to my original profession (market too competative + looking for a half day job). If I ever go back to work..it will most likely to be involved with kids (tuition, babysitting or teacher)

Same thing goes to my student life in Perth. I miss that part of life but I know no matter what…even if I got a chance to go back there… I will never experience that same kind of life again…..

Sick log

JS started to have a bad cough on the wee hours of Wednesday, quickly gave her ventolin inhaler and also the cough medicine…hoping to supress the symptom…unfortunately it turned out to be an acute ashmatic attack in the middle of the night.

1am: slight fever. Gave her paracetemol. But can see she’s suffering, as her breathing is shallow and chest is tight. hoping she can tolerate till morning (the paed opens at 9am)

1am – 3am: Slipping in and out of sleep and keep coughing. Can hear wheezing

3am: Hubby said sent her to the 24 hours clinic for nebulizer. JS refuse to go with daddy alone and baby is in deep slumber…no choice…mummy have to drive out to the clinic 15 min away frm home at 3.am

3.50am: reached home. Complaint about stomach ache. Vomitted. (lucky vomitted in the potty and not all over the place)

4.30am: everybody went back to sleep.

10am: woke up. cough still bad, still alot of phelgm. gave her medicine.

12pm: Still can hear wheezing and shallow breathing. Sent her to the paed for another doze of nebulizer.

2pm: napping now. will monitor to see if she needs another doze of nebulizer during the night…

Learning Chinese

JS always asked me “What shall we do now??” , “mummy, can I watch TV?” , “mummy, can we do….?” .

She seems to be bored. To occupy her, I have decided to teach her some simple Chinese words. But I don’t want to make it sounds bored….so we “play school” at home and make full use of the easel we have. We took turn to be teacher…even WH joined in the fun.

used recycle cardboard to cut out the underwater creatures for JS to paste on the paper. (Theme: My home : water/sea)

Drew natures and the body part for JS to colour.

The “play school” session was fun , both of them enjoy it. This morning I saw JS sitting in front of the easel and trying to go through the words she learn yesterday all by herself.

I hope I can be consistent in doing this homeschooling thingy with them…..so much idea…but a little lazy  no time to prepare the materials…

Ain’t I Cool

WH likes to play with this pair of old sunglasses of hubby and he usually wears it upside down…

Too Much To Do, Too Little Time

Apart from my course material, I’m currently reading these books

1) The Secret Of Childhood (Maria Montessori)
2) The Absorbent Mind (Maria Montessori)
3)  How To Teach Your Baby To Read (Glenn Doman)

Glenn Doman and Montessori are 2 very different methadologies/approaches on early childhood education but both also stressed on how vital it’s for a young child from age 0 -6 to learn and absorb knowledge. In Montessori, it’s call the sensitive period. I regret of not knowing about these in depth earlier…

I always have the mindset that I want my kids to have a carefree and stress-less childhood. Though I have started JS on a right track on the learning process, (reading books, art and crafts, music, nursery rhymes) but I realize that I have not been really pushy enough to lead them to their full potential. Which mean I’ve been doing it in a very slow pace and with less consistency. 

There are so much the kids can learn and without feeling stress….it’s very much on how we set the learning to be fun, enjoyable and meaningful. I’m feeling a little loosing time as JS is already approaching 6. She has left with 2 more years of the sensitive period to learn and as for WH, I felt that I haven’t even really started him off on track.

There’s so much about early childhood education that I want to learn and know….preparing the materials for them, surfing for curiculum and reading up more on homeschooling and at the same time apply what I learn on them….feeling a little pressure now that I’m not having enough time to do all these.

Being a modern mum is hard. Apart of taking care of the household, making sure the kids are heahtly and well fed, I also have to worry that if I’m doing enough to enhance their learning process during the vital years.

Kid’s Pictures

Too lazy to write.. let the pictures tell the story. Some snapshots of the kids having fun the past weeks.

body painting fun

sinful treats….strawberries in choc dip.

 I want to look cool

 Say “cheese”.. let me take ur pic

This is my funny face

 

Happily playing together

Playing doctor…making their own makeshift hospital bed by placing two stools together and the pillow on top..there’s actually a gap under the pillow.

 haha..i bang ur house

“mummy, didi destroyed my house”

see…fun time don’t always have a happy ending….

Craft Again

Each week I spent at least one day doing craft together with JS. She always requested this session and we both enjoy doing something together

 paper plate lady bud hand puppet

 A Cat door hanger

 This photo shot taken by JS

Beside art and craft, actually I wanted to do more other things with her. But time is a limitation as after school she needs her nap. I only religiously read her a story before bed time. I have been consistent with her readers. She’s doing book 3 now, but due to I have not been doing it diligently, most of the time she can’t really remember some new words and I’ve to go through it again…haven’t even started the chinese reader my mum gave me…arghh…maths and science and other stuff.. really no time

I…Me…You

When JS started learning to talk at 18th months, she can’t get it right to address herself. She always called herself “you”, it took about 6 months before she graps the meaning of “ME” & “I” and used it correctly

On the other hand, WH is a slow speaker. He only started off single words at 20 months. But he can use “ME” and “I” perfectly and I ask him question… a very self centred boy I reckon..:D

Breakfast

One hearty meal to start off the day…

-Raisin & Cheese pancake

-Strawberries with choc dip

-Sustagen

-Petit Miam yogurt

yes…my boy can finish everything….

One happy face after meal….

No Bake Cheesecake

Hubby and me love cheese cake, we both like the soft moisty cheesecake from Secret Recipe….Here’s my first attempt of making one.

Crumb Crust

• 240g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 120g melted butter

Filling

• 3 1/2Tbsp gelatine powder, mixed with 250ml boiling water
• 1/2 tbsp grated lemon rind
• 60ml lemon juice
• 1 tin evaporated milk, well-chilled
• 240g cream cheese
• 180g castor sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1) Combine biscuit crumble and melted butter

2) Press onto a tin that line with 2 layers aluminium foil and chill it.

3) Dissolve gelatine powder in boiling water, cool, add lemon rind and juice

4) Whisk chilled evaporated milk till thick and double in bulk, set aside

5) beat cream cheese until smooth, add castor sugar and vanilla, beat well.

6) Fold in milk, lemon and gelatine mixture

7) Pour into the prepared crumb-crust and chill overnight before serve.

*hub said it taste too much like jelly…maybe too much gelatine…will try again to perfect this another time*