HEALTH FREAK MOMMY – Page 295 – The joys and throes of motherhood…

Tag : SAHM vs FTWM

Have been tagged by Mommy of 2 Angels. The tag is if I were given a choice, would I wanna be a SAHM (stay at home mum) or FTWM (full time working mum).

When I was still working in the corporate world, I was always yearning to quit my job to stay home to be with my 2 angels. Each morning I’d leave the house with an extremely heavy heart as I kissed my 2 angels good-bye. I was constantly thinking about my 2 gals whilst I was at work and I missed them terribly. I finally got my wish granted when my babysitter who was my mil had to go to Hong Kong to attend to some personal matters. I was at a cross-road and finally after months of soul-searching and deliberation, I finally tendered my resignation.

A few months into being a SAHM, I realized that maybe I just wasn’t cut to be a SAHM afterall as I didn’t have the patience and endurance to be a full-time mom. It was a difficult transition for me as I wasn’t used to doing the laborious and back-breaking job of washing poopie bums and potties, bathing two under 3yo screaming toddlers, teaching them, cooking for them, playing with them, stomach their endless nonsense, the list is endless. I was so used to sitting at the office and sometimes getting people do things for me. Now, I had to do things for people who don’t seem to appreciate me.

I’d considered returning to the workforce during times when my 2 brats drive me bonkers but I couldn’t bear the thought of my 2 angels in the care of a babysitter or a maid and not knowing whether they have had proper and nutritious meals, hygienically handled or whether they have been abused, physically and sexually.

When my 2 angels fall sick, I can give them the best attention and tender loving care round the clock so that they recover faster. If I were still working, I wouldn’t be able to take emergency leave so frequently and the sleepless nights tending to them would render my brain foggy, thus would affect my work.

Despite all the meltdowns, power struggles and batttles I’ve had with my 2 angels, I have absolutely no regrets being a full-time mom to them coz they are only young once, they will only be toddlers, adolescents and teenaagers once and I want to be with them every moment of their lives, to share with them their joys, fears, anxieties, victories and all their growing pains.

Now, I’m into my 2nd year of being a SAHM. I’ve finally accustomed myself to the throes of being a full time mom and despite all the challenges and struggles I have to go through, I gladly choose being a SAHM over a FTWM.

Now, I would love to see the following mommies’ choice :

Leena (Baby Shern)
Barbara (Mummy to Chumsy Ashley)
Hui Sia

~~~Instructions~~~
Here’s how it works:
1. So easy peasy, if you were given a choice, would you be a SAHM or FTWM? Just provide 3 darn good reasons.
2. Include your post link to the list below and Finally,
3. Tag another three mommies
List:
1. Immomsdaughter prefers to be a SAHM
2. Etcetera~Mommy prefers to be a FTWM
3. MummyInVain prefers to be a SAHM
4. Lovely Mummy prefers to be a SAHM
5. Mommy of 2 angles prefers to be a FTWM
6. Health Freak Mommy prefers to be a SAHM

No. of times viewed = 833

What’s That Nice Smell?

A few days ago, I baked a loaf of bread for the gals. After I had returned from my morning jog, I quickly prepared the ingredients and dumped everything into my breadmaker so that the gals and I can have fresh hot bread for lunch.

When the bread was almost ready, the sweet aroma of bread wafted up from the storeroom next to the kitchen. It’s as if one has walked into a bakery. Alycia asked me what the nice smell was towards lunch time and I brought her to the storeroom where the breadmaker was. She was delighted to see a fresh loaf of bread in the breadmaker.

The gals and I almost wolfed down the whole loaf of bread for lunch.

No. of times viewed = 192

What Dishes Am I Going To Whip Up?

We went shopping at Mid Valley the whole afternoon yesterday. As usual, as I went on my bi-weekly retail theraphy to de-stress myself, DH secretly bought the gals yet another toy but this time, I have to give DH credit coz the toy is both educational and fun to play with. Want to see the new toy? Wait…. let me snap some pix of it and post them later.

Anyway, I wanted to show you what I’ve bought from the supermarket at Jaya Jusco.

Fresh oyster mushrooms and Enoki mushrooms.

Fresh ginko and fresh lotus seeds (lin chee).

Fresh bamboo shoots.

So, want to see what dishes I am going to whip up with these fresh and healthy stuff? I haven’t got a clue yet. Any good suggestions? I bought the mushrooms coz they are known to be wholesome, full of vitamins and minerals and anti-cancerous. Gingko seeds are supposed to be good for memory and blood circulation and the lotus seeds and fresh bamboo shoots… ah can’t remember what they are good for but they are wholesome too.

Do come back to see what this quack and wannabe cook has whipped up, k?

No. of times viewed = 230

Little Ah Sow

Alycia has caught the ‘toy-obsession bug’ from her lil’ sis. All of a sudden, Alycia has developed an obsession with this Disney plastic bag that my mil brought back from Hong Kong weeks ago. Inside the plastic bag are her toy food, some Pooh Bear cards and some Lego blocks. Each night, she would bring with her this plastic bag filled with toys noisily clattering as she goes upstairs to her room and in the morning, she would carry the shabby plastic bag down, just like a little ‘ah sow’ (meaning middle-aged frumpy woman in cantonese) going to the market. Don’t you think she looks ridiculous?

No. of times viewed = 447

How to get angry leh?

Alycia and Sherilyn have completely different personalites. Whilst Alycia has always been a high need child, very sensitive and more reserved when she’s with strangers, Sherilyn has a very ‘colourful’ personality. She is very chatty, fears no strangers and would greet anyone she meets on the street (which can be dangerous), very cheerful and slap-happy, just like her daddy.

Whenever I scold Sherilyn, she would either sing a song out loudly and lets out a loud pretentious laugh to overshadow my voice or she would run to me and say “mummy, kiss you”, then gives me a wet kiss on my forehead and lately when I reprimand her and give her the fiercest stare ever, she would look back at me, straight into my fiery eyes, puts on the most pathethic look ever and then she would start blinking her eyes. First blink…. no response from mummy, then she tries blinking her eyes harder the second time and I try hard to suppress laughing and often, at her third hard attempt of blinking, I succumb to her hoodwink and would burst out laughing out loud. And when she sees me laughing, she jumps and laughs in victory, as if to tell me “i won again!”. You tell me how to get angry with her leh? From fire raging in my head, her cute tomfoolery douses the flame instantly like rain water pouring on a raging bushfire. I wonder where she learnt all these from.

No. of times viewed = 200

Rubbing Vicks On Soles Of Feet – Part 3

Yesterday was the 5th straight day I applied Vicks on the soles of Alycia’s feet and again, she slept soundly and peacefully through the night. Well, I am QUITE convinced now that Vicks did help to prevent the cough. Today, Alycia is feeling much better, her cough has lessened and the phelgm has also reduced. I must also give credit to Manuka Honey. Other factors which contributed to her speedy recovery include :

1) Sleeping in an air-condLESS room
2) Eating plain rice porridge with dishes that are mostly steamed
3) Avoiding heaty food like crackers, pan-fried food, sweet stuff and cold food.
4) Drinking lots of water and barley water
5) Getting enough sleep
6) Lots of praying

However, what works on a child may not work on another child as every child is different.

No. of times viewed = 443

Tracing On Doodle

Alycia loves drawing and tracing on her Fisher Price doodle. Each morning as Alycia and Sherilyn eat their breakfast, they have a habit of either scribbling on their doodle or have me or my maid read to them or play jigsaw puzzle on the floor or dining table. Learning to scribble and doodle on the Doodle Pro has definitely helped improve Alycia’s and Sherilyn’s fine motor skills and that’s one of the best toys I’d bought them. Best of all, the gals never seem to get bored with it.

Alycia tracing a picture and word from a flashcard on her FP Doodle Pro.

Alycia’s ‘artwork’.

No. of times viewed = 354

Sherilyn and Her Toy Ice-Cream

This is Sherilyn’s latest craze and obsession : her toy vanilla flavour ice-cream. Not that it’s a brand new toy, daddy bought the gals this toy about 2 months back but for the past few days, Sherilyn has been clutching on to her toy ice-cream everywhere she went, including sleeping with it. When she wasnt looking yesterday, I stealthily took the toy ice-cream away and washed it as it was laced with her saliva, only to have her screaming her lungs out when she couldn’t find it the next minute and instead found her ice-cream all wet.

No. of times viewed = 218

Home-cooked Food

Our dinner yesterday :

Braised chicken with canned green peas, bombay onions, pepper and Lea and Perrin sauce.

Stir-fried baby kailan with diced chicken breast, shredded ginger, organic soya sauce and rice wine.

Hmmm….. perhap I should consider starting a food blog one of these days since I am having so much fun experimenting with food, snapping pix of them and writing about them. Another food for thought…..

No. of times viewed = 213

Blog Back-Up

Weeks ago, I had posted a query in my blog on how to back-up a blog. Yesterday, I found out from Ai Lian that I can now back-up my blog at www.blogbackuponline.com for FREE!! All you have to do is to create an account, register your blog and you get 50MB free back-up space. You can choose to schedule a daily auto back-up of your blog. My query is finally answered but once the 50MB free storage is utilized, I think the blogger would have to pay for the service.

Thanks Ai Lian once again for the community service!

No. of times viewed = 165

200th Post

I cant believe that today marks the day I’ve written my 200th post since I started blogging 2+ months back. I can’t believe that I’ve written so many posts and I’m still enjoying blogging very much. The best part about blogging is that I’ve made new friends with many wonderful blogging mummies & daddies, besides earning some pocket-money through writing reviews.

No. of times viewed = 438

Aly and Sher In Church

Alycia and Sherilyn look forward to Sundays because they get to attend Sunday School. They love getting the attention from their sunday school teachers, story-telling, singing sessions and especially getting stickers at the end of the sessions from Jeff and Shir Lin, 2 young and dedicated sunday school teachers.
Jeff and Shir Lin will be tying the knot in 2 weeks’ time. Last Sunday, the kids from sunday school did a rehearsal wedding march at the church.

Jeff and Shir Lin giving all the attention to Alycia and Sherilyn

Jeff showing Alycia and Sherilyn how to march to the altar.

The kids in single file, waiting to march to the altar.

Instead of marching in slowly, the kids ran helter-skelter. Definitely not an easy task to teach a bunch of under 5s!

No. of times viewed = 195

Home-cooked Fried Glass Noodles

On the suggestion of Chin Nee, I stir fried glass noodles for lunch a couple of days ago, minus the suggested preserved vege. I added chicken breast, puffed tofu, cabbage, shredded carrots, 2 eggs, pepper and organic soya sauce. Tasted really good and everyone loved it, especially the gals. Will definitely cook this dish again. Thanks Chin Nee for the suggestion.

No. of times viewed = 211

Spam E-mail

Lately I’ve been getting a number of spam e-mails notifying me that i’ve struck the Lotto, Lottery and Big Sweep.

So if you were to receive such e-mails, would you believe them, a teeny weeny bit?

This is the latest email informing that I’ve won US$1million, received this morning :

“sapromotions2010@aim.com” to undisclosed-re.
show details Jun 24 (14 hours ago)

AWARD DEPARTMENT
SOUTH AFRICAN LOTTERY UNION INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS IN
CONJUCTION WITH COCA COLA COMPANY

2010 WORLD CUP LOTTERY
AWARD DEPARTMENT.
JOHANNESBURG

SOUTH AFRICA.

Ref: PBL/CN/6654/CP.
Coupon No.PBL2348974321

THE 2010 WORLD CUP OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION

We happily annouce to you the draw of South African 2010 World Cup Bid Lottery Award International program in conjuction with Coca Cola company held in Cape Town. Your “email address” was attached to ticket number; (CC/7PWYZ2007) serial number (CC/BT:12052006/20). This batch,draws the lucky numbers as follows -9-22-23-24-30 bonus number 2, which consequently won the lottery in the second category.

You hereby have been approved to claim the sum of $1,000,000.00 (ONE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) file Ref: FER/8309/1209/26 from the total cash prize of 3,000,000.00 shared amongst three lucky winners based on their category.

All participants “email address” were selected through an internet balloting system drawn from Nine hundred thousand names from Canada,Australia,United States,Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Oceanic as part of our international promotions program which is conducted to Promote first ever world cup in Africa.

This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by some multinational companies and some other EU governmental personalities as part of their social responsibility to promote South Africa 2010 world cup award.

To process your claims you are hereby adviced to contact the Claim Agent immediatly with this information:

NAME:………………………………
AGE:…………………………………
SEX:………………………………..
ADDRESS:…………………………
EMAIL:………………………………
PHONE:……………………………
OCCUPATION:…………………….
COMPANY:…………………………
COUNTRY:…………………………
Prize Ref No……………………….

Please you are advised to file your claim immediately through our Claims Manager, Mr.Peter Robinson to remit your winning fund to your account. Call him or email him immediately you receive this notification.
Make sure you do that before( 25days) from the day you receive this notice or you stand a chance of loosing your prize.

CLAIMS/PROCESSING MANAGER
NAME: Mr.Peter Robinson
Email: peterrobinson.claims@gmail.com
TEL:+27-737-707-042
FAX:+27-86 661 8474

For security reasons, we advice all winners to keep this information confidential from the public until your claim is processed and your prize released to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid dual claiming and unwarranted advantage of this program by non-participant or unofficial personnel.

Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.

Congratulations once again on your winnings!!!

Best Regards
Mrs. LISA Van Heden
PROMOTIONAL MANAGER
SOUTH AFRICAN LOTTERY UNION
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS.

No. of times viewed = 239

Rubbing Vicks On The Soles Of Feet (Part 2)

Well, i did it again last night. This time, I applied the Vicks just before Alycia went to bed, even before she started to cough and I rubbed small blobs on her back, chest, under her nostrils and of course big blobs of Vicks on the soles of her feet . It was miraculous!!! Alycia fell sound asleep within minutes and soundlessly too all through the night without a sound of cough. I had to wake her up at 9am this morning for her milk and after finishing off her milk, went back to sleep and only woke up at 10.

Well, I’m still still not 100% convinced that Vicks really did the trick. I think it was more of a combined effect of the extra strength Manuka Honey UMF20+ (twice a day) and also sleeping without the air-cond.

This picture was taken this morning with Alycia still in her Vicks covered socks.

No. of times viewed = 326

Alycia Loves Her Kids’ Bible

Alycia loves this kids’ bible that sil#2 bought her weeks ago. She is so in love with the book that she begs me to read to her every night.

A couple of nights ago, as I was busy reading to Sherilyn her favourite book, Alycia ‘read’ the bible to herself. I quickly took out my camera and took a pot-shot of Alycia, so deeply engrossed in the book (more of the pictures actually) that she was frowning as she was reading away. I just hope Alycia will have a life-long love for books.

No. of times viewed = 349