FollowToday is Nuzul Quran, a midweek public holiday, but for me, there’s really no difference. My daily routine remains unchanged—I’m still up at 5:30 AM, starting the day with house chores. The first task? Feeding Haru, my beloved kitty, her breakfast of fish and chicken, and cleaning her litter. Even on a public holiday, there’s no rest when you’re the one keeping the household running!
In fact, I dislike public holidays because they usually mean more work for me. With everyone at home, the kitchen turns into a war zone, and I spend most of my time cleaning up after the chaos.
Cass had plans to make pancakes today and asked me to buy Greek yogurt from the supermarket. Since I was going out anyway, I also picked up antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken chops and drummets to marinate and grill for lunch.
Once back home, the kitchen became a hive of activity. Cass was flipping pancakes while I was busy prepping and marinating the chicken before throwing it into the oven.
After I finished cleaning up the kitchen, my MIL took over the space to cook her dishes and make mung bean and stinky grass tong sui. And when she was done? Another round of cleaning for me! Without Maria, our part-time helper, I’ve become a full-time housework robot for the past eight months.
Maria is currently in Indonesia, preparing to give birth to her second child. She’ll be spending about four months there before returning to Malaysia, meaning I’ll be without her for a total of one year! I can already feel the effects of doing all the house chores myself—I’ve lost another 1+ kg, bringing my weight down to a scary 40.9kg.
With so much physical work, I need to plump myself up, but the problem is, I can’t eat big meals. Instead, I try to eat small meals throughout the day, loading up on Greek yogurt, fresh milk, almond milk, walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, and lots of chicken breast.
Despite the exhaustion, I’m grateful that I still have the physical and mental strength to keep things running at home without aches and pains everywhere. The only part that’s still aching is my right tennis elbow, which has been bugging me for a year already.
I’ll be honest—I’m really counting down the days until Maria is back! 
She also prepped a big bowl of refreshing salad with Nutrislaw, one tomato, one long cucumber, crushed almonds, wasabi, lemon juice, and coarse black pepper.
Excuse the song title on her Spotify playlist on the tablet. Her choice of music can sometimes be mystifying for me.
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