HEALTH FREAK MOMMY – Page 302 – The joys and throes of motherhood…

My Perfume Collection

When I was still working in the corporate world a couple of years back, I would habitually go on shopping sprees and make impulse purchases of just anything I set my eyes on that I fancied. When I was sad or had a bad day at the office, I’d indulge in retail therapy which gave me instant stress relief. When I shop, all my woes and worries are just no where in my mind. One of the many items that I loved buying was perfume, apart from clothes, shoes and handbags. I adore perfume, I used to put a few bottles at my office, a small bottle in my handbag and I have a closet full of bottles of perfume with brands ranging from Salvatore Ferragamo, Estee Lauder, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel to Calvin Kline. As a PA to a Dato’, I had to look presentable and smell good too as I used to deal with many VIPs, Datos’ and Tan Sris. Gone are the days now.

Eversince I left the corporate world, my dear collection of perfume remained in my closet, rarely touched. I seldom put on my perfume when I go out with my kids as I don’t want them to be in contact with scented chemical. Each time I opened my closet, I will spend a good few seconds staring at my collection of perfume, longing to spray them all over my body. Sometimes, I would put a few dabs on after my bath before going to bed, just to have some self-gratification.

No. of times viewed = 210

An Unforgetable Mothers’ Day

Yesterday’s Mothers’ Day was quite an eventful one for me. Well, the day started off well but ended in a nightmarish note. As usual, my maid will jaga the gals in their room each night when I fix them their milk in the kitchen downstairs. Yesterday, my samseng Sherilyn tried to climb up the table to switch on the stereo. My maid then used the cane on her. I still don’t know if she actually hit Sherilyn or not but Sherilyn who is very attached to my maid cried incessantly. It wasn’t a painful cry but an upset cry as she was obviously very upset that her kakak had hit her / threatened to hit her. Only God knows whether my maid had hit her or not.

The crying session lasted about 1 hr until bedtime. As I slept with the gals, Sherilyn who was still crying (as if she wanted her kakak to sayang her back)suddenly choked and after a few coughs, vomitted. OMG, she vomitted like a just erupted volcano … all her dinner and her milk spewed out onto the new mattress, the pillows, comforter, all over her hair and everything on the bed. To make matters worst, Alycia got scared and tried to cover the stinky vomit with all the blankets and cried coz her pjs also kena the vomit and she wanted me to change her pjs immediately. Oh God, it was messy, really messy and stinky and it was 11pm for pete’s sake. I could barely open my eyes nor move my tired body. I then yelled out to my maid to help clean up the mess and as she entered the room, I erupted like a volcano too screaming at my maid and snapped at her. I told her that no one can hit my gals except me. My maid denied hitting Sherilyn and said she just threatened her with the cane. She was even in tears when I queried her further. Earlier when my maid left the room, I had asked Alycia if kakak had hit Sherilyn or not and Alycia replied dramatically “yes, very very hard and punched her hand and scolded her”. I know I cannot fully trust my 3.5 yo drama queen’s words for she is a very imaginitive girl and very exaggerative too. But I just had a guts feeling that my maid had hit Sherilyn to discipline her.

My maid and I spent the next 1 hour cleaning up the total mess in the room. Still seething with anger, I went down to the kitchen to fix Sherilyn another bottle of milk. As I opened the can of milk powder, I slopped milk powder everywhere on the counter and floor. GREAT, why must my hands play me up at such time? It was almost midnight then and I was sweating though I had just taken my shower. Spent another 10 mins cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. I ended my day being drenched with sweat and vomit. What a way to end Mothers’ Day.

Oh, today my guilt-stricken maid was super nice and patient to my gals.

No. of times viewed = 185

Tag – 10 Things I Hate About My Hubby

Got tagged by Karen Yiau today. This tag is rather straight forward, no need to add pictures whatsoever. Though I really don’t like to badmouth my DH to the whole world, nonetheless, will still accept this tag as part of the game of the blogosphere. Darling, if u read this, no offense k, it’s just the plain truth 😉

Now the 10 things that I dislike about DH :

1. He is a neat freak, loves to keep and hide my things without telling me where he kept them. When I need those things and can’t find them at the original spot where I placed them, I get really peeved.

2. Loves to eat lavishly and at classy expensive restaurants and hotels all the time. This is unnecessary extravagance.

3. He leads an unhealthy lifestyle… eats at odd hours, eats unhealthy food and loves to drink soft drinks (loaded with sugar!!)

4. Does not initiate to look after the kids so that I can rest and have my day off. I even had to look after the kids when I fell ill and he happily went to play basketball.

5. He spends too much time playing basketball and too little time for me and the kids.

6. He works late and comes home late.

7. He sometimes uses vulgar words and swears in front of the kids.

8. He is not the lovey-dovey romantic kind of hubby.

9. He is impatient with me but SUPER patient with the kids.

10. He snores.

Now, I’m going to pass the baton to :

Leena (Baby Shern)

Elaine (Montessorimum)

MamaBok

Sweetpea (Bubba Stuff)

Scribbles For My 2 Angels

No. of times viewed = 195

Durian Lover

The ‘antidote’ for heatiness…. Mangosteens. Our favourite exotic fruit too.

Everyone in my family and DH’s family love durian to pieces. During each durian season, whenever my mil is in KL, she would buy loads of durians and we will all eat durian till we fall sick and feel bloated with durian. Burrrrppp…. yikes…. I hate the aftertaste and smell of burp. The odour of burped durian in a car with all windows wound up is enough to drive anyone nauseated instantly.

My gals have also acquired the love for durian right from the start. We once fed Alycia durian when she was around 6 – 8 months, she loved them so much that she screamed and wailed when the durian was finished. That was so funny and I even have that recorded in my camcorder.

Many people say that durian is an unhealthy fruit and is very fattening but the durian also has many nutritional values.

Here are the nutrition values of Durian (value per 100 g of the edible part) :

General components
Water 64.99 g
Energy 147 kcal
Energy 615 kj
Protein 1.47 g
Total lipid (fat) 5.33 g
Carbohydrate, by difference 27.09 g
Fiber, total dietary 3.8 g

Minerals
Calcium, Ca 6 mg
Iron, Fe 0.430 mg
Magnesium, Mg 30 mg
Phosphorus, P 38 mg
Potassium, K 436 mg
Sodium, Na 1 mg
Zinc, Zn 0.28 mg
Copper, Cu 0.207 mg
Manganese, Mn 0.324 mg

Vitamins
Vitamin C, ascorbic acid 19.7 mg
Thiamin 0.374 mg
Riboflavin 0.2 mg
Niacin 1.074 mg
Pantothenic acid 0.23 mg
Vitamin B-6 0.316 mg
Vitamin A, IU 45.000 IU
Vitamin A, retinol 5.000 µg

No. of times viewed = 383

Essential Oils May Spur Breasts In Boys and Other Health Issues

I was reading this month’s Reader’s Digest this morning when I read this article which may be of interest to mummies with boys. Here’s an excerpt of the article :

Use of lotions, soaps and shampoos containing high concentrations of lavender or tea tree oil may lead to breast growth in pre-pubescent boys, according to US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Pure lavender and tea tree oils can mimic the actions of oestrogen and inhibit the effects of androgen, the hormone known to control masculine characteristics, says Dr Derek Henley, one of the study’s lead researchers. If you use these products on your child and you see changes in his body, talk to your dr or paediatrician.

Scary isn’t it? There is also this current widespread scare of SLS (Sodium Laureth Sulfate), a relatively cheap chemical which produces suds in almost all the body shampoos, soaps and shampoos, which is cancer causing if used excessively. And then there is this recent report in the newspapers that some of the vegetables sold in our local markets are tainted with pesticides, fish tainted with mercury, diseased poultry and what not, tell me…. what are we to eat and what are we to bathe with? I guess back to basics….. use plain water to bathe lor, use natural oil from plants to smoothen on our skin, plant our own crops lor and rear our own fish and chicken lor, just like what our forefathers did decades back and lived till a ripe old age!

No. of times viewed = 239

Happy Mothers’ Day

We had an early Mothers’ Day celebration yesterday as my mil had to fly back to HK today. DH brought us all to have a sumptuous lunch at Genji Jap Restaurant, PJ Hilton.

To all mothers out there, wishing you all a very happy and blessed mothers’ day. I say we should all sit back, relax a tad bit, go out and have some fun and make tomorrow a stress-free and happy day. We REALLY deserve this, don’t we?

No. of times viewed = 196

Using TV As Babysitter

Do you use the TV to babysit your kids? I do and I limit my gals’ TV viewing time to between 1 – 2 hours a day. I only allow them to watch educational programs on TV or educational VCDs whenever I need to get some work done or take my baths. I’ve had my fair share of heart attacks when I let my maid babysit my kids when I had my bath. During these incidences, my 2 samseng gals got themselves hurt. My maid is the type who does not have foresight and just cannot predict if accidents can happen to toddlers. So, I prefer to let the TV babysit my gals. My 2 gals will behave so well, sitting quietly or dancing and singing whilst watching their favourite VCDs.

Each night when I need to have my shower, I will lock Sherilyn the samseng up in her cot and I will tell Alycia to jaga her sister. I will then leave the bathroom door ajar whilst I have my quick scrub, peeping into the room to check on them every now and then. My gals also learnt to sing most of their nursery rhymes thru these VCDs. So, using TV as babysitter ain’t that bad an idea after all, as long as there’s a limitation to using it, right?

No. of times viewed = 201

Dragon Fruits

Alycia’s breakfast.

Yellow-skin and white flesh pitaya.

One of my favourite fruits is the red dragon fruit or Pitaya. My gals love them too. We love them so much that we eat them almost every other day. Whenever my gals and I have constipation, dragon fruit always comes to my mind in relieving constipation. So far, I know that there are 2 varieties of dragon fruit, i.e. the red-skin & white-flesh ones and the red-skin and red-flesh ones. Recently, I stumbled from the net a picture of a yellow-skined & white-flesh pitaya. Wow, how unique. I don’t know if this yellow-skined ones are already available in Malaysia. So far, I’ve not seen them in the markets or major supermarkets / hypermarkets.

Here are some of the nutritional claims of dragon fruit :

The red flesh variety is believed to be rich in antioxidants.
The pitaya fruit is rich in vitamins.
The pitaya fruit helps the digestive process.
The pitaya fruit helps prevent colon cancer and diabetes.
The pitaya fruit helps to neutralize toxic substances such as heavy metal, reduce cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.
Consumed regularly the pitaya fruit can help against asthma and cough.

No. of times viewed = 273

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This policy is valid from 10 May 2007

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No. of times viewed = 201

Magic Colours

Yesterday, my MIL and I were busy doing our work. So my MIL gave the gals some magic colours for them to doodle and scribble on papers. 15 minutes later, here’s what I saw. Sherilyn had doodled on the marble dining table, on her hands, face and on her clothes. It was a total mess. Hiyah…. I ended up wasting more time cleaning up the stains. Kids… don’t they drive you up the wall all the time?

No. of times viewed = 202

Maids…. are they a help or a pain in your neck?

My current maid of 1.5 years is my 5th maid in less than 5 years. All my previous maids were fired by me before they finished their 2-year contract. I wonder if my current maid will survive the 2-year contract period or not.

Suliah, my current maid is generally an acceptable maid with fairly good work attitude and is diligent. However, she doesn’t like to be corrected of her mistakes. She loves to do work her way, not my way. Each time I correct her mistakes or the way she does her work, she will put on a sour face or let out a sigh. I’ve chided her a few times before. This morning, as she was carrying the garbage from the kitchen to the front of our house to dispose them, I noticed some stinky water dripping out from the garbage bag all the way from the kitchen to the hall. When I asked her to mop the floor, she let out a big grunt, hhhhiiii….yyyahhhh……. as if to tell me “you fussy lady boss”. Trivial matter like this really spoils my day and I always ask myself why am I paying close to a thousand ringgit a month just to stomach someone’s nonsense.

Suliah’s contract will be expiring in December this year. I am still in a dilemma whether to extend her contract or just be done and over with live-in maids for the rest of my life. Maids…. you can’t live with one, yet you can’t live without one.

No. of times viewed = 760

A Special Message to My Dear Friend

This post is specially dedicated to my dear friend, Jennifer or The Imperfect Mom. Just want to say a very BIG thank you for your BIG help recently. I know how busy you are being a SAHM in a foreign land with no maid to help you out but you sacrificed some of your precious time to help your friend in dire need here. Thanks Jenn, you’re truly my true and precious friend of 27 years!

Hope you don’t mind me picking your brain again : )

No. of times viewed = 195

Food Around The World Tag

I was tagged by Montessorimum on 6 May 2007 but only had the time to act on it today.

Fresh from the oven egg tarts with flaky pastry.

Fresh from the oven sesame balls with lotus paste filling.

When it comes to food, I am not a picky eater and will just eat anything. Being a health and fitness freak, I am very cautious about what goes into my body but there are just a few types of grub which I just cannot resist. I love egg tarts and sesame balls, love them to bits. The moment I sink my teeth into these sins, fuiyoh…. feels shyiok. So each time DH and I have dim sum at Overseas Restaurant, these 2 delicacies are a MUST for me.

I am now passing the baton to :

1. Baby Shern…. not sure if you’d got this tag or not.

2. Scibbles For My Angels … care to accept tag?

3. Lim Ai Lian … care to accept tag?

4. Chanel Wong … care to accept tag?

5. Sabrina …. care to accept tag?

********************************************

Instructions.

**Start Copy**

Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country?

Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it?

Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode: You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.

Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Montessorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Health Freak Mommy loves Dim Sum from KL, Malaysia

No. of times viewed = 191

Toys Everywhere

Toys strewn everywhere, at every nook and corner of the house. This is a permanent sight at our house. Stepping and tripping over toys all the time.

Notice the pieces of blue and red plastic on the left? That was supposed to be a new toy trolley / cart that DH had earlier bought the gals. The 2 little brats even had the ingenuity to remove the bolts and dismantle the whole cart.

DH managed to re-assemble the toy cart but the 2 back wheels can’t be re-attached coz the bolts are missing. Just hope Sherilyn didn’t swallow them.

No. of times viewed = 198

My Google PR is 2…. Finally

Just performed a search on Who Links To Me today and found out that my Google PR is 2! I can’t believe it. I’ve been checking the PR almost everyday and each time, all I see is PR 0, how sad. But today, it’s been raised to PR 2. Can’t really trust the accuracy of it coz my blog is only slightly more than 2 weeks old. It the info is indeed accurate, then I am eeeeelated. All my hard work, sleepless nites and sacrifices have indeed paid off.

No. of times viewed = 191

Sherilyn Wearing Mummy’s Bra

Look, mummy…. I can also wear your bra…. but I need to fasten the hook first…..

here I go, all hooked up…. just need to rotate the 2 ‘buns’ to the front and I am done…….

I am done mummy…… but it kinda fits loosely on me, never mind, fun putting it on anyway.

No. of times viewed = 296