Tag: reflection

Ending April 2017 with…

If you would have seen our weekends and weeknights 2 years ago and compare it to our current schedule, you would have noticed a great difference in our time spent as a family. It was all play and hardly any work on weekends and weeknights back then. We had fun planning for outdoor play and playing games at home. Those were the good old days.

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If you would have seen our weekends and weeknights 2 years ago and compare it to our current schedule, you would have noticed a great difference in our time spent as a family. It was all play and hardly any work on weekends and weeknights back then. We had fun planning for outdoor play and playing games at home. Those were the good old days.

Right now, we have a boring schedule. Weekends are ferrying kids to their 1,2 non-academic classes and that’s half a day gone. Afternoon we have 2 hours revision and it will be dinner time. After dinner, it will be rest and relax time. On weeknights, I try to get home before 630pm, eat dinner with the kids and by 730pm, we are back to studying. I cater first 30 minutes to Missy 12 and next 30 minutes to Master 10. At times when Master 10 does not need any of my help, I will spend slightly more time with Missy 12. Then plus some supervision of piano playing, I finally have time for Master 5. Poor Master 5! He has to play by himself as we will have to keep him out of the study room for an hour. I will try to compensate him by reading him 3 books every night after 9pm. Hence, it is not that bad except that his older siblings used to have more fun on weeknights with art and crafts, silly games and many fun play than he does now. I can’t wait for the exams to be over to resume our play.

Missy 12 and Our Revision

I guess by now, everyone kind of knows our revision schedule has been religiously stuck to 30 min a day on weeknight and 2 hours on weekends. I am heartened that the revision has been going on very well and better than we expected. Considering we have only started such #30minrevision from January this year, I think we have made very good progress. We are certainly looking forward to how Missy 12 fares in her SA1. However, I am mentally prepared if her results showed that she needed more time to improve. I still feel that we have time to catch her weaknesses and focus more on them. It helps when I do not place expectations and target marks on her. I am not expecting big leaps of improvement. And it really helps that I know she has tried her best and that is all that matters. Still, I hope that our efforts will pay off and any slight improvement will be a boost of confidence to Missy 12 and me.

On Life as a FTWM – Time Spent at Home is PRECIOUS!

My current job allows me to work from home occasionally. I love this flexibility and makes full use of it to cook a simple love lunch for my kiddos. Each time I stay home to work, I will try to cook something different for them. I made Bentos, Baked Rice and Baked Pasta, Fried Udon, Carbonara, etc. The kids love to see me at home, even though I can nag at them to bathe, hang their towels, do their homework. I prepare tea break in the afternoon and listen to their day in school. We can have early dinner and the evening schedule is brought forward because I am at home. We sleep earlier too. I hope I can work from home come nearer the PSLE. What I used to jokingly said to a colleague that she took leave to make soup for the kids’ exams, I think it is my turn now to stay home to make soup for them as a morale booster. For mummies who have been through or those who are like me prepping for PSLE, do you and will you take a few months leave to stay home during PSLE period?

Activities in the midst of exams

As I have stated in my Life goes on in PSLE year, we still continue our usual schedule and have fun, albeit less of leisure activities. We checked out Safra Yishun new pool and for that day, we skipped a day of revision. We went for the Income Eco Run to soak in some early fresh air and sun. We also had fun creating Terrariums from Masons Home Deco and we skipped that night’s revision too. We played board games on rainy days and had movie nights. We do skip some other events due to the proximity of the exam dates like the Home Team event, Imaginarium opening day, and some other invites. Thus, before the exams are over, I am already planning the places to bring the kids to visit. I know that before long, Missy 12 will have to be back to her revision again to prepare for her prelims in July.

On Myself and self-care

I fell sick after 2 consecutive nights of waking up at 3am to work. Age is catching up and I need my 8 hours of sleep daily to function well. Because of that, I was down with flu for 2 weeks! This is what happened with low immunity. I have been trying to consciously eat healthily and read labels. I consume portions just enough for me and not force myself to eat the leftovers of the kids’ plates for fear of wasting food. I am trying to go the natural way of remedy via Essential Oils. My blogger friend, Serene from Xavvylicious is like a doctor who teaches us ways to recover naturally via Young Living EOs. Amazing results I have seen after trying on myself and my kids! As a result, we avoided taking medication and use the EOs to maintain good health in the long run.

I still have lots to improve on healthy living. For example, taking my eyes off the screen more often and cutting down social media screen time to save my eyes from fatigue. I need to exercise more too. I also need to be less serious at home, and get into the fun mood with the kids rather than focusing on whether they have done this, completed that. I probably have to relax more so that I can laugh more. Laughing more is the pill to youth. Sometimes I envy my helper who can laugh and get silly with the kids so easily. No stress, no worries.

On a Happier Note…

As I am writing this, the SA1 will officially end tomorrow. I need a good break from revision and I bet Missy 12 needs that too. So, we are going to rest and relax and go for playdates. I am going to date each kid to 1-1 date too. I can finally read more regularly with more time on hand, at least for a few weeks. Just thinking of the relax days ahead makes me very happy! Haha! I think you could really tell how stressful I feel being a PSLE mum who insists on no tuition, has no expectations and heavily burdened with responsibility to help her child meet her own target. Yes, I am really serious in shielding my child from all the academic stress and taking the stress solely upon myself. Stressful as it is now, I feel it is totally worth it as long as the enormous stress is not on the young child.

So, I am ending April 2017 with… away with the academic stress!!! Looking forward to a happy month in May!

How did your April go? 🙂

 

Ending Feb 2017 with …

February has come to an end and so many things happened in this month! Ever since the December holidays, each and every weekend is filled with numerous activities and I have to decline social gatherings and blog events so that we can all have some downtime! Finally on the last Sunday of February, we were able to rest and relax and kids were able to meet their friends from the next block to play on a lazy Sunday evening.

February has come to an end and so many things happened in this month! Ever since the December holidays, each and every weekend is filled with numerous activities and I have to decline social gatherings and blog events so that we can all have some downtime! Finally on the last Sunday of February, we were able to rest and relax and kids were able to meet their friends from the next block to play on a lazy Sunday evening.

On the PSLE kid…

Revision progress with my Missy 12 was kind of slow due to her Volleyball tournament. Her team has entered the Nationals and while I cannot wait for her training to end, it seems that all these intensive training sessions will only end 2 more months later. I cannot have any complaint since Volleyball is her passion and she has proven on being disciplined to do her homework on time and self-motivated to study for her CA tests despite her busy schedule.

Her results are still pending release and we are eager to know if she has improved with our daily English revision, although I do not expect miracles within such a short time frame.

On Master 10…

Master 10 has some unfair treatment by me lately. The hub reminded me that I have to be consistent and have good reasons for certain actions. I agreed, felt guilty about my actions and compensated Master 10 in some other ways like reading the newspaper that he brought home from school together. He seems to enjoy listening to my talk on economics, on news like Donald Trump’s presidency, to how Giraffes are attacked when they drink water. He is so different from my girl who tends to drift off when I talk about world news to her. Spending time with Master 10 this way makes me very happy. I have neglected him and I know I cannot make up for the lost time. I need to start now to spend more alone time with him! Gosh! I have said this in January’s wrap up post too!

I have not managed to keep up my 1 – 1 date with each of my children. It is not easy to plan for 3 kids especially when I need to conserve my off days for the year end holidays. March is coming and I already have plans to date Master 10. As for Missy 12 and Master 5, they will have to wait for their turns and hopefully, it will not be a long wait. Luckily I have my short 1 – 1 alone time with Master 5 every Sunday morning when I do marketing, if that counts!

On Master 5…

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This boy grows up so fast! He is able to recite the 2 story books that I read to him every night (奇奇乱丢垃圾 and The Sausage Went For A Walk). He is also able to recognize some Chinese Characters and simple English words. I am correcting his grip of the pencil too. He is able to draw very decent picture of people, spiders and Police cars! I love to look at him when he is concentrating on his doodling. I cannot capture enough of his cutie face and I know very soon, he will grow up and I shall miss smelling, kissing and hugging little children. Hence, every milestone that I see in him will be the last time that I will see in my own children. I am starting to feel melancholy.

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On my life…

This month sees myself being tested on my EQ greatly. Something happened at work that have made me reflect on how I communicate my intentions to others. A series of misunderstanding had occurred that have led to an unpleasant email directed to me. That mail was copied to my superior too. In the end, I was glad that I kept my cool even though I was greatly affected. I did not reply to the mail and that kind of saved the day. The misunderstanding was clarified and I was even praised by my superior for handling the situation well. Nevertheless, I decided that I have to work on the way I communicate and be more careful in understanding different working styles. This episode has given me chance to handle a tricky situation well although it also cost a friendship. Being a person who values friendship tremendously, I am very sad indeed. Perhaps it is not so easy to find friendship in the workplace even though I had forged several good ones in my previous company. Or perhaps it takes time.

On another front, my own children have been giving me good reminders on my behaviour too. I find that they have been telling me “Chill, Mummy! Chill!” very frequently! Haha! I find myself frowning easily for small things and raising a pitch unnecessarily. If only someone takes a video of myself, then I will know how ugly I have looked and how uncool I am behaving. I need to change!

On happy times…

Master 10 and I have gone on a day’s filming and it was an awesome experience! I find myself not so natural on camera and even tongue-tied during interviews too. It is a Chinese educational show which will be releasing a few months later. Don’t laugh if you see me stuttering in Chinese. I am usually more fluent in Chinese but somehow I was too nervous to speak properly. I shall shout out very soon when it is aired on TV! Hopefully I do not look too bad! Stay tune!

On the 2nd volume of 新列车, the kids appeared on the cover together with their friends! Yeah!

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We celebrated Missy 12’s birthday this month with an Ice-Skating party with her friends. It was a cosy gathering and guess what, this was also her first party with friends. We hardly spent too much on parties and this is quite an exception, but I am glad she enjoyed herself and we all think she deserved a good party with her graduating friends.

We turned up to give Missy 12 support in her Volleyball competition too. Surprisingly, only her school has a good turnout of parent supporters. I cannot fathom why there were no parent supporters in the rest of the schools. Are they too busy to make some time to watch a match? Could it possibly be ALL the parents are not able to spare an hour to support their children? My girl and her friends are all too happy to have their mums and dads to turn up for support. I believe our support has made a difference too. I am sure we will see even more parent supporters from her school in the Nationals competition.

So, my February ends with… making time for the children and working on better communication. I hope March will be a better month!

How did your February go? 🙂

Ending 2016 with Contentment

It is interesting to read my past resolutions and then reflecting on where I am at the end of each year. My past resolutions usually revolve around the same common things like:

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It is interesting to read my past resolutions and then reflecting on where I am at the end of each year. My past resolutions usually revolve around the same common things like:

  • Cut down social media
  • Live in the moment
  • Slow Down

I think it is alright to repeat some resolutions. Life changes with each year and sometimes life events prevent us from keeping to our targets. For some resolutions, they need more conscious effort and change of personal habits. Most importantly, we need to reflect and check on what we have done correctly and let them continue; or for those that we did not handle so well, we need to learn from life’s lessons.

As I realized that I had not really done up any goals right in the beginning of the year, I shall reflect upon the following areas that kind of sum up my life in 2016:

1) Health and fitness
2) Hobbies
3) My Life
4) Family Life
5) My random thoughts

1) Health and Fitness

Getting in shape and maintaining good health have always been a priority for me. I need to be in tip top condition to mind little children and run the household. No wonder a friend marveled that mums are the BEST EMPLOYEES because we can multi-task super well within a very tight timeline! Don’t you agree?

Exercising

I have signed up for the National Steps Challenge and synced it to my Samsung Health app on my mobile. Ever since then, I have been diligently checking my steps. For the first few weeks, I was tracking my meal calories too, but eventually gave it up as it was quite a tedious tracking. I was not sure if the represented meal that I chose from the list was correctly matching the calories that I was taking in. Plus I was not going to succumb as a calorie tracking servant. However, tracking it for a few weeks helped me to understand that a bowl of dry mushroom and pork noodles has a calorie of 500cal! My usual jog of 3km only burns 160cal! I need to choose my options carefully and remind myself to eat in moderation of everything.

This app motivates me to walk more. For the second half of this year, I have been walking to and fro the MRT station everyday to work and back home. Most days, I clock about 8000 steps. On weekends, I can clock more than 10k steps because I need to run after the kids and ferry them to and fro playgrounds, classes and running errands.

I am doing Pilates once a week. But I have stopped jogging due to the school holidays. I have to sleep more while I can. Once school starts, I will have to wake up at 615am everyday, then jogging or brisk walking can resume, yeah!

Eating

A recent medical report showed that I have tipped the scale and now officially “OVERWEIGHT”! This is the first time I have fallen into the unhealthy range in BMI and you bet I am super upset. I am determined to shed off 3 kg by Chinese New Year which is in a month’s time. I have already shed off 1.5 kg with the following changes to my diet:

Eating salad with minimal dressing twice a week for lunch.
During dinner time, I will cut down my rice intake to 2 tablespoonfuls and eat more vegetables and drink more soup.
On weekends, I will still eat as per normal with my family. But, I am consciously choosing healthier options even during this feasting period.

Sleeping

I find it challenging to go to bed early. The night is so short and I have so many things to do with the kids. After the kids sleep at 10pm, that is when I have my own me-time to do my own things. I will need to work more on getting adequate sleep, perhaps sleeping early and waking up an hour earlier than usual.

2) Hobbies

Reading

This is probably the only thing that I am consistent in. To date, I have read 10 books this year with a couple that I was not able to finish due to library date due or simply it was too depressing. I have never had such a thirst for reading in my school days. I will certainly be reading into 2017.

1) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
2) When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
3) It’s Easy To Cry by Subhas Anandan
4) Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph
5) 最美的一课 by 杨红樱
6) Charlotte’s Web by E. B White
7) Your Time-starved Marriage by Les and Leslie Parrott
8) When Our Grown Kids Disappoint Us by Jane Adams
9) It’s OK to Go Up The Slide by Heather Shumaker
10) Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K Rowling
11) Harry Potter – The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Baking

I have been baking more frequently these days. While I am no master in baking, I enjoy the baking moments with the kids and even with their friends when they come over. It is encouraging when the kids have all praises for my cakes, cookies and ice-cream.

3) My Life

Working Life

This year is a year of career change. I have never thought that I would quit my job of 11 years and change to a different industry and different role. It was a rare opportunity that came knocking on my door and I could not have left at a better time. This new company is a true “Work-Life Balance” company that I need badly. It has flexi-work arrangements and is pro-family. Next year, I will need to spend more time with my eldest as she will be taking her PSLE exams, and at the same time spend more time with my young kids.

A few days ago, Master 4 decided that I would not be going to work anymore. He told me,”Mummy, you are not going to work anymore.” in his simple and limited words. But I totally got what he meant! He is such a cutie, isn’t he? He wants to make a decision for me to quit my work!

With the acceptance of this new job, it means my SAHM dream has to be shelved off too. Perhaps it will never come true if we never come to the day when we can live comfortably on one income. Giving up financial freedom is a big consideration for me now that the kids are older. I love that I can buy gifts for them, sometimes on impulse and bring them to restaurants during our 1-on-1 dates. I can bring my parents to hi-tea and pamper myself from time to time. Having 2 incomes will also not burden my spouse too much and lead to unnecessary stress and tension in our daily interaction. Money is important, but I believe in going through thick and thin with my spouse as long as we are healthy and happy.

After work hours

I am determined to spend quality time and do more activities with the kids just like a SAHM if I were one. I manage to make an Advent calendar to surprise the kids every day till Christmas. During school holidays, I take off from work to bring them out, sometimes for 1-on-1 with each kid. On normal days, I try to read to Master 4 every night and spend some alone time with the elder 2 before bed. Most days are challenging due to homework and academic coaching, so we will spend more time on weekends together.

For what I could not do as a SAHM during day time, I try my best to make up for it in the evening and weekends. This is also made possible when I have a good helper to save my time from doing chores. When my helper goes back to her home town next year to get married, I may return to helperless days. I am pretty sure we can manage alright to split the chores in the family as we had done before.

Connecting with family and friends

On connecting with family and friends, I am keeping up nicely with friends on girl nights’ out, perhaps a little too frequent. I do have many good friends to catch up with. I will have to work on dating my mum and dad and hubby more frequently next year. Although I had a couple holiday trip with my hubby this year, I feel that I am still not spending enough couple time with him.

4) Family Life

…on BIG FAMILY TRAVEL TRIP

This year, we have brought the kids on a road trip to Malaysia in June and a staycation in December. Compared to last year, this is a much humble year in family holiday plans. We missed our big family trip too. Time is not on our side. It is my wish to bring both my hub’s parents and my own parents on a trip every year while all are healthy and able to walk and travel. I am a little disappointed that we could not do it this year but we will definitely plan one for next year after Missy’s big national exams.

Many of my friends around me are surprised that we bring both sets of parents on holiday trips every year. First, the expenses are high and it would be much cheaper to travel as a family of 5 instead of 9. Second, most parents and in-laws cannot get along but we are lucky to have ours on very good relationship and are good travel buddies. Third, the itinerary is challenging to cater for old and young at the same time.

Everyone in the family looks forward to a BIG Family Trip together. Our kids love their Grandpas and Grandmas’ company. Kel and I love to bring our parents around the world. Such happy family moments are to be cherished and so what if we do not have much savings left after each big family trip? Money can be earned but family moments like this are hard to come by and we wish to continue our annual big family trips as long as our parents are able and healthy.

…on Family Bonding

We have lots of bonding opportunities throughout the year. We brought the kids to many places to play. I find that the places we are going are gradually taking a shift towards catering to bigger kids. One good thing is that the elder 2 still enjoy playing childish games with the littlest one. Recently, I got a toy car garage for Master 4, and the elder 2 played on it with cars till midnight! It is amazing to know they are enjoying simple toys and games rather than technology.

This year, my elder 2 have been on very good sibling relationship. They had their phase of non-stop squabbling and fights, so it is heartening to know they are on such good terms now. For this, I am extremely pleased and can’t ask for more.

5) My Random Thoughts

Contentment is really about being happy with what you have in your life. We are not a well-to-do family, but that does not mean we cannot give our kids a happy family. Who doesn’t want to be debt-free and have loads of money to spend? However, as what my hub says, if you earn more, you spend more.

Right now, I am contented with staying in our cosy HDB flat. I am contented that we can spend time with our kids every evening. I am contented that we have home-cooked meals to eat. I am contented that our kids and their grandparents have strong bonding. I am contented that we can still afford to use our savings to travel as a big family. I am contented that we are a happy family. Most importantly, I am contented that we are all healthy.

There are so many things to be contented about. I would like to end 2016 with feeling contented about my life even though it is certainly not a bed of roses. Perhaps it is about reaching a maturity in life when material things do not matter as much as good health and family ties, and making do with whatever I have and owned. Somehow I am treasuring my current life more than ever and I am really, really contented.

At this very moment, I am a happy woman, a happy wife and a happy mummy. I hope everyone is happy and contented at where they are now and able to find happiness in simple things in life.

2016 is a happy year. Toast to many happy moments in 2017!!!

I wish I may, I wish I might, have these resolutions to last 365 nights..

It’s the start of the new year! It’s time to reset everything, forget unhappy moments in the past year, and look forward to starting anew in the new year!

On New Year’s day 1st Jan 2014, I tried to have a happy day to start off the year on a happy note. I tried to avoid scolding the kids on that day. I tried to forget about my blog (I was busy thinking of what to post for the brand new year). I tried to ignore all sorts of notifications on my Samsung mobile (wordpress, facebook, whatsapp, thank god I do not have twitter). I tried to be a good yummy mummy (a smiling, soft spoken and pretty mum). Yes, the key word here is “tried“. Continue reading “I wish I may, I wish I might, have these resolutions to last 365 nights..”