October 2012 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Health Freak Girls

A health freak mom will raise health freak kids, naturally. See how rascal #2 prepared her sandwich…

She slathered a thick layer of homemade pandan kaya on a slice of homemade wholemeal bread and decorated it with 1/2 slice of cheese and tossed in some organic pumpkin seeds and organic walnut…. unroasted and unsalted nuts some more. I am sure not many kids can stomach this kind of healthy sandwich and for dinner some more. Well, she had to attend ballet at 6:30pm, so eating bread is the best pre-ballet meal for this rascal who can take up to 2 hours to finish her dinner if given rice with dishes. I’ll bet your kid won’t eat this eh?

No. of times viewed = 408

Gender War

This is another post dated post.

Alycia came back from school and excitedly told me that Liam, her classmate (Liam is a boy whom I had met him and his parents several times as he stays near us) had invited her to a Gender War party at Mid Valley Megamall !

When I saw the invite, I was stunned and was wondering what sort of party that was meant to be for 9 year olds. From what it was written on the invite, it looks like a party with games for boys vs girls LOL! And did I tell you that Alycia has more boy friends than girl friends? She tends to like boy games and toys more than girly stuff o_O

No. of times viewed = 455

Join The “Method To The Rescue!” Contest!

I got a big surprise when I received a big box of parcel from TNT courier last week. I could not recall expecting a parcel from any of my suppliers on that day. I was beaming with joy when I ripped off the box and what unfolded were 4 bottles of hand wash in 4 pleasing bright colors, in an aesthetically designed tear-shaped bottle. Ooooh, I could not wait to lay my hands on these self-foaming hand wash!

Method hand washes are super gentle on your hands as they are made with naturally derived, biodegradable ingredients and contain Vitamin E and aloe vera. They rid my hands off grease very easily, yet do not leave my skin feeling tight and dry. There are 8 gorgeous fragrances and colors to choose from. If you ask me which I like the most, I really can’t decide as all four smell terrific. My girls now cooks up all sorts of excuses just so they can wash their hands with Method LOL! So no excuse for them not to wash their hands with soap when they come back from school!

Method range of hand washes are :
1) contain premium, specialty-inspired fragrances
2) decor inspired tear drop bottle, designed by Karim Rashid
3) contain no dirty ingredients including parabens, phthalates, triclosan, EDTA or animal-by-products
4) made from recyclable bottles, made with 100% recycled plastic (PCR)
5) contain natural cleaners derived from coconut combined with natural moisturizers like aloe, vitamin E and glycerine to keep hands smooth

Method’s range of hand wash comes in these heavenly scents: waterfall, pink grapefruit, french lavender, sweet water, green tea & aloe, hibiscus flower, botanical garden and mimosa sun. They are available at all Village Grocer outlets, Isetan (KLCC), Carrefour (Mid Valley), Cold Storage, Jaya Grocer and Hock Choon outlets.

How To Enter Method To The Rescue Contest!
========================================

1) submit a short story on someone whom you think deserve a Method product. Please submit your story by commenting under this blog post (click on Leave A Reply). Just tell me in no more than 100 words why you think your friend deserves a Method product. You can check out Method Malaysia in Facebook to see which product your friend needs. You can submit as many entries / friends as you wish 🙂

2) 5 winning stories will be selected. The 5 readers/commentators will each get a selection of Method household and personal care items worth over RM80 :). Wait, there’s more….

3) Your friend will get the FULL-SIZE Method product as described in your short story (if you recommend Method laundry detergent for your friend who has too many clothes to wash, then your friend will get a bottle of full-size laundry detergent from Method!). Your friend’s name and your name will be in the gift parcel from Method so that your friend knows who the sender of the surprise gift is from!

4) CONTEST DEADLINE IS ON 3O NOVEMBER 2012. So from now, quick quick quick think of friends / siblings / father / mother / husband, grandma, maid, etc whom you think really need Method to rescue them and who knows, you will be the 5 lucky winners to win a RM80 worth of Method products, on top of helping the person in your short story to win!

Not just nice-smelling hand wash, but a nice piece of decor for my bathroom!

Super handy in the kitchen to rid my hands off fishy odor and grease, yet so gentle on even my kids’ hands!

Founded in 2000, Method is the pioneer of planet-friendly and design-driven home, laundry and hand wash products. Method can be found in more than 40,000 retail locations throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.

Some of the celebrities who love Method include Stella McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, Leonarda DiCaprio, Laura Bailey, Lauren Bush and Rachel Bilson!

No. of times viewed = 1754

Getaway at Hilton Sentral (26 – 27 Oct 2012)

We got back from our short getaway at Hilton Sentral this afternoon and my batteries are now at full bars! We spent our 1.5 days eating and eating and watching TV. I had a good bonding time with Alycia and Sherilyn watching The Voice, US Season 3, for hours * bliss *

My 2 little earnest models, donning on clothes that mummy sells in her online store… These days, rascal #2 prefers to smile with her mouth closed as her 2 front teeth are still missing.

Hello Kitty gals! Alycia with her fake smile as she was forced by tiger mummy to pose LOL! Did I tell you that she hates to be photographed?

The girls having snacks of yummy cookies, cakes, sandwiches, assortment of chocolates, fruits, juices and pastries at the Executive Lounge.

Sherilyn enjoying her bowl of mushroom soup during dinner at the coffee house

View of the pool area taken from our bedroom on the 16th floor. Alycia and Sherilyn went up and down the S shaped slide for more than 50 times this morning. Daddy brought Cass down the slide for the first time yesterday evening and during landing, daddy and Cass went under water for almost 5 seconds. My heart beat flat-lined for almost 10 seconds. When Cass was finally out from the water, she was in a shock and told daddy that she wanted to puke. She must have gulped down mouthfuls of the dirty pool water. And daddy’s heavy body weight must have brought her down underwater together! Coz no one else went underwater during landing lol! Ever since that incident, Cass has now developed a phobia of going down the slide.

The 2 vain pots.

Cass in her pink rabbit swimsuit from mummy’s online store too.

Roaring mummy in a long leopard print dress with a leopard print handbag…. all from my online store too. Leopard print is in the vogue now! I should have brought along my leopard boots too, just kidding 😀

No. of times viewed = 10715

Short Getaway

We will be away at a 5-star hotel in town today, for a short getaway. I spent the entire morning packing, cleaning the house and dishing out the filler posts for the 21 online assignments that I received 2 days ago. I spent the past 2 days squeezing my brain for ideas on what to write. In total, I had to dish up 21 paid posts and 17 filler posts (non-paid posts), which totals up to 38 posts in 2 days! Sometimes I wonder how I do it, on top of work from my online store and household chores. Anyway, I will spend the next 2 days almost free from the internet and will catch up on my beauty sleep 😉

Happy holidays peeps!

No. of times viewed = 183

Lunch At Tapas Bistro & Bar @ Micasa All Suite Hotel, KL

After Alycia’s appointment with the orthodontist near KLCC on Saturday, we were hunting for a decent place to have something light. Alycia and Cass suggested sandwiches, so daddy stopped by a few places to check out and in the end, we settled for Tapas Bistro & Bar @ Micasa All Suite Hotel. That was our very first time dining in this decades old hotel and I was initially skeptical on the quality and choice of food. But I was wrong. We were all very satisfied with this cozy place and the food was great too.

Hungry baby gulping down a bowl of creamy mushroom soup before walloping my luscious charbroiled chicken and daddy’s grilled chicken sandwich. This pint size baby girl has a ravenous appetite! As for those fat and oil-laden fries on our 2 plates of main course, they were only allowed a few sticks each and the rest – tapau back for our guards’ as snacks.

My luscious and tender charbroiled chicken. Very flavorful and meat was not dry and tough at all. Rating on HFM’s food scale is 9/10!

Daddy’s omelette on a bed of fries…

Hungry, happy girls before digging into the decadent food. Sherilyn had to stay home as she had ballet class to attend.

Would definitely pay this cozy place a visit again after Alycia’s next appointment with the orthodontist in February next year 😀

No. of times viewed = 826

Joys And Throes Of Motherhood

After splitting our hairs trying to find a 63cm x 63cm space to fit in a dishwasher into our shoe-sized kitchen, our conclusion is that the kitchen has no space. There is an empty space in the dry kitchen, but that would mean lots of hacking and sacrificing 2 kitchen cabinets… and more $$, on top of the RM2k++ for the dishwasher. The only space available is on top of our washing machine, which would be a tad hazardous. Imagine removing some heavy and fragile chinaware or pots and pans from the upper rack of the dishwasher, placed on top of the washing machine. So, it’s back to square one and rather than get really upset with this conclusion, I am now roping in the 2 older girls to help out in the dish-washing chore every night… on a roster. Of course I will still be the one in charge of rinsing the dirty dishes and putting dishwashing liquid. Aly and Sher will stand next to me on the next sink rinsing the dishes. This way, my time in the kitchen post-dinner can be reduced by half. It’s been 3 days already and the girls are telling me that they are enjoying this * roll eyeballs * Well, I shall see la… if they are still enjoying this after 1 more week.

While her che che and I are washing dishes in the wet kitchen, Cass’ duty is to use a piece of wet tissue to pick up food dropped onto the floor. She’s enjoying it too and would volunteer to wipe the floor after dinner each night 😀

With 3 daughters helping me out, I don’t think I need a live-in maid. Of course it would be a luxury to have one so that I can spend more time with the girls in their school work but unfortunately, the current maid situation in our country is such that most medium class households have to forget about hiring a live-in maid and adjust their lifestyles.

No. of times viewed = 663

What The…?

This is a back-dated post. For those of you with primary school kids, please read on!! 😀

Can you guess what this is? Not the green lunch box but the black stuff inside. It does look like some highly suspicious and deadly substance from X-Files eh? Or a century egg, no?

It is a lunch box filled with mold!! Mold that grew from about 1/4 piece of leftover bread with kaya (coconut jam with eggs). Does this picture give you the “EEEEEWWWWWEEEEEEEE, I want to puke!!” moment? It did give me the creeps and freaks when I opened up the lunch box. I immediately threw it into a plastic bag and ran to the refuse room outside our unit and flung it into the bin!

Story — I had packed kaya sandwich for Alycia but this rascal could not finish it. When she came back from school, she had forgotten to remove the lunch box from her bag. I of course was too busy and had forgotten to check her bag. After 4 or maybe 5 days (it was a long weekend due to some public holidays), the piece of bread metamorphosised into some volcanic powdery mold. Highly poisonous and deadly if ingested!! I remember watching one of the Oprah series years ago where Oprah and her team wore protective clothes covered from head to toe when they visited the wrecked homes of those tornado victims and their houses were infested with molds.

Since that fateful night that sent shivers down my spine, I have now taken an effort to remind Alycia and Sherilyn to remove their lunch boxes from their bags. I should have also disinfected Alycia’s bag with some Dettol spray too that night!

No. of times viewed = 426

Little Fashionista

The little fashionista in her new girly GAP denim jacket from my online store. Stylo moe?

She’s such a vain pot, changing cardigans and jackets every 2 days! Sometimes I disallow her as those thick jackets take days to dry after each wash in the machine but she will secretly sneak it into her bag! She even secretly wears necklaces under her clothes without my knowledge. She’s really going to be one very vain fella with a wardrobe filled with clothes and drawers filled to the brim with make-up and bling bling accessories! I always tell her that she needs a uni degree and has to study really hard or marry a rich guy to sustain her kind of lifestyle 😀

No. of times viewed = 564

Welcoming The Rainy Season :)

The long drought period has finally ended and I was dancing the happy dance with the girls when it finally poured cats and dogs last week. I had been waiting for that day to arrive for over 3 months! I can now put behind my worry and fear of the impending water rationing plan that had been threatening us in the dailies for the past few months as the rain water is now filling up the dams, thank God! But I am welcoming another new worry now – our laundry. During the rainy season, our clothes do not get dried fast and have the musty odor the next day after wash. While I love living in a condo, one of the things that I have to grunt is the lack of space in the kitchen and balcony for the laundry. With an existing headache of finding a space to put a new dishwasher, another headache is the damp clothes piling up everyday during the rainy season. When the hubs and mil saw the eye-sore sight in the dining area yesterday, the hubs bought a new clothes rack yesterday, which we will have to place in the dining area temporarily, directly under the ceiling fan to air-dry our clothes LOL! Well, it is still more practical, economical and space-wise than a clothes dryer which we do not have space to put and shoots the electricity bill sky high.

Eye-sore in the dining area…

This weekend,we will also have to go shopping to get Alycia another pair of black shoes for her school. Last night, the hubs had to use a hair-dryer to dry Alycia’s pair of black shoes which was still very damp, which she only started to wear 2 weeks ago. She passed her probation and is now a school prefect. And guess what? The hair-dryer got over-heated and is now spoilt!

No. of times viewed = 449

The Eve Of The Girls’ Final Exam

On the eve of Alycia and Sherilyn’s exam, we had a pretty relaxing Sunday. We had lunch at Antipodean @ Menara Tan & Tan.

While waiting for the food to arrive, Alycia and Sherilyn worked on their workbooks. Monkey see monkey do — Cass also kept herself busy by writing pages of her Chinese name and tons of Chinese characters which were all written in the wrong order and strokes LOL!

After lunch, we did grocery shopping at Isetan @ KLCC. After shopping, the girls napped in the car all the way home. And back home, I did some light revision with them. The girls had sushi that I bought from Isetan for dinner.

This week was a hectic week with tuition and revision… and today is the last day of their exam. YAY, I am SO SO happy and relieved. The corrosive guilt I have whenever I spend too much time doing house chores or on my online work vs. doing revision with them is torture. Next week will be another crack-up week for me as they will be bringing home their TEST PAPERS and possibly report card!! And I am going to go through this for at least 17 more long years!

Banana pancake with caramel sauce, Burmese salad, creamy pasta and everyone’s favorite – sausages!

No. of times viewed = 187

Chicken Feet Craze

I have never seen a 4YO kid who likes chicken feet as much as mine! On days when the mil prepares chicken feet dish, my 3 girls will surely whack them all up — gnawing on the feet, chewing on the skin and sucking out all the gooey stuff from the chicken feet oh so yummiliciously! As for me, I will only watch and be amazed with how they enjoy these gory looking stuff. Animals’ feet, trotters and spare parts are just not my kind of food. I’ll be contented with the more modest looking and tasting breast meat.

A huge plate piled up with chicken feet bones, all whacked clean by the 3 girls!

No. of times viewed = 290

Homemade Buckwheat Noodles and Bubur Cha Cha

Living with a great cook and a foodie hubs who is in the food catering industry, I need to have steely will power not to succumb to temptations of sinfully delish food all the time. And thank God I have that steadfast self control to resist the grub and determination to exercise everyday 😀

These are some of the highlights of the mil’s homecooked goodies last week:

Homemade buckwheat noodles with anchovies soup, fish balls and fu pei…

It was her first time making buckwheat noodles using organic buckwheat flour…

She also made bubur cha cha for dessert with thick coconut milk. I could still resist the buckwheat noodles but the bubur cha cha with thick santan? How can I say NO to coconut milk? I go bonkers over coconut milk and can gulp down a cup of coconut milk in one sitting. I am nuts over coconuts LOL!!

No. of times viewed = 431

Surprise For The Girls

It was a day of revision for the girls on Saturday. They are sitting for their final exam starting today for a whole school week. After all the monotonous book stuff, which tired and bored them to the bones (that’s always the case when it comes to pre-exam revision), a surprise unfolded when the door bell rang. It was daddy and he had brought back bags of goodies! They were stacks of original Disney magazines, books, stationery, stickers, Japanese manga comics translated into English and BM, girls’ accessories and snacks! He had bought them from a church carnival and the goodies were worth a few hundred Ringgit. Alycia who was napping on the couch darted up to unravel the bags of goodies when he heard the excited “OOOHS” and “WOWS” from her sisters.

Stress buster — Alycia reading a very interesting Princess magazine in Malay language. I never knew that these magazines come in BM version too and it’s a perfect discovery as I can now buy these mags for them to read to improve their BM language. My girls love reading story books and newspapers but somehow, story books and dailies in BM would just bore them to sleep.

After spending over an hour checking out their goodies, we went out for dinner. I prefer to eat out during the exam period so that I can spend my time revising with the girls instead of cooking and doing the dishes which can take up to 2 hours.

Good luck girls! Dear God, please guide Alycia and Sherilyn’s mind, eyes and hands and help them to read their questions carefully. Please guide them to choose and write the correct answers to all the questions, Amen!

No. of times viewed = 313

Eventful Tooth Shedding Moments

The tooth fairy visited Sherilyn the 4th time last week and in the usual hilariously fashionable way, just like the previous three times as all were eventful and equally hilarious. I can remember vividly how her teeth came off the previous three times. For the very first tooth, she cried and whined in discomfort for days. The tooth was finally yanked off when I told her to jump and dance round the house vigorously, to shake the tooth off the gum socket. The second time – she was crying and whining too and the tooth was yanked off the gums when I was brushing her teeth. We could not find the tooth that dropped on the bathroom floor as it was covered with suds. She blamed me like I had murdered her lover, for losing her tooth and thought that she had swallowed it and we rejoiced like mad people when we found the tooth on the bathroom floor, covered with shampoo suds. The 3rd time – we brought her to the dentist after she cried and whined (AGAIN!) over the discomfort. The dentist sprayed a numbing agent on the gums and within seconds, it was yanked off effortlessly and she was not even aware that her tooth was extracted.

Now the fourth time was also eventful. Daddy was supposed to bring me to Tesco to get some groceries and the girls had to stay home for tuition. But this rascal cried and whined AGAIN and insisted that daddy called the dentist immediately to fix her an appointment. So she followed us to Tesco (her main intention was to follow us to Tesco!) first and after an hour of shopping, on our way to the dentist’s clinic, her shaky tooth was bumped out from the gum socket during the bumpy ride from Tesco to the dentist’s clinic. Again, all of us broke into a guffaw over how the tooth came off, in yet another fashionable manner. Daddy had to call the dentist to cancel the appointment. That was last week. Yesterday, we went to Tesco again and told the 2 older girls to stay home to complete the work I had set for them as final exam’s next week. But this rascal insisted on following us to Tesco and then to the dentist. But we said NO to her. The loose tooth could wait as it’s not really that loose anyway. And I am now waiting to see how the 5th tooth comes off this time! 😀

The tooth fairy placed a RM1 note (yup only RM1, lest this fler uses the money to buy junk in school) into an angpow packet with her tooth. This fler placed her tooth in a red angpow packet and wrote her name on it somemore, which made hubs and I laughed till we teared.

No. of times viewed = 634

Microfiber Mop From 100 Yen Shop

I love shopping at 100 Yen Shop. After dropping off rascal #2 at the ballet school, I can spend over an hour at 100 Yen Shop browsing the range of amazing yet affordable products. Last Saturday, I found this magic microfiber mop that I have been wanting to get ever since my role now includes housekeeping. I saw a similar one from Scotch Brite (3M), where the mop head attaches to the stick with velcro. I was very tempted to buy it but could not find the refill on sale. Moreover, it’s pretty costly. So I told myself to check out 100 Yen Shop and was so happy to find one last Saturday!

As the stick is lightweight, even my daughters can help me to mop the floor now. After moping, I can just rinse the mop head before dumping it into the washing machine for a wash every evening. Now that I am a full-time domestic maid, I am always on the look-out for household gadgets and accessories to make house cleaning an easier chore for me. The next gadget that I am targeting is the dishwasher. Already got the nod of approval from the boss and BODs at home, so next week we will charge the electrical shop to get one. The only reservation I have now is our kitchen — am very worried that extensive renovation will be needed to install the dishwasher.

Cheap and easy to use – the stick cost RM9.90 and the microfiber mop head only cost RM4.90. So convenient and easy to wipe hard to reach places like under the bed, under the sofa, under the fridge and all the nooks and corners without even having to move these big furniture.

Will be visiting 100 Yen shop again soon to get the disposable wet wipes for my Kao Magic Mop Stick.

No. of times viewed = 2174