As Bree Van De Kamp says, "I work too, I'm a Home Maker." (pix of Rosie The Riveter copied from smartgirlsknow.com)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Esfahan's Money Craft

One of the greatest joys of Staying Home is, I have ample time for art&crafts with my kids! Yes, I do complain that they mess up the whole house doing crafts, but at the end of the day, when I see their final work, I can only beam with pride and sheer pleasure :)

Kids today are far from how I was at their age. They have vast opportunities to learn, Disney, Nick, Ceria, TV IQ, Tutor TV, Discovery, NatGeo, YouTube, Google, it's like a whole new universe out there! So when they come to me asking to use the computer, and asking for paper, carton box, glue, cellotape, etc., I just sigh and say, "Okay, tell me exactly what you're browsing...paper bottom drawer, others top drawer." And as futile as it may be, I always scream, "Make sure you tidy up your place after you finish!" Oh well, one can only try. But when they ask if they can use actual money to do craft, I'm like, "Heh?"

The latest craft by Esfahan, a racing car and chopper bike, using actual notes : "Mommy, I can only make them using real notes, normal paper won't work!"...something about the size and thickness and whatever...


Cool eh? :)


Another craft he's developing is Voice Over, which really does require lots of time from mommy, playing chauffer and manager! The most exciting one thus far, apart from his Malay dubbing for Francis of "Hana's Helpline" on Astro Ceria, is "Pada Zaman Dahulu", where he lends his voice to the character of Aris. This 3D animation series is targeted to debut on TV Al Hijrah, on Astro channel 114, on 3 December 2011.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Family love...

Ahh, this month has been very testing. Marrakesh got sick, then Damascus, then Esfahan, all with tonsilitis, one after another. Then Damascus developed rashes all over his body, and the poor boy was going around scratching, scratching, scratching! The doctor suspected that it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic that was prescribed to him, Cephalexin. So Augmentin was prescribed to him instead, and his tonsilitis disappeared but it took several more days for the itchiness and scratching to subside. All in all, I was nursing 3 sick children for 2 whole weeks! And since they were sick, they couldn't go to school, and when they didn't go to school, they were hanging out at home, which means that mommy really had her hands full... Sigh... But, this is what I chose to do, and as testing as it may be, it always keeps me close to my kids, and I also learnt something new about antibiotics :)

There were also birthdays : Ayah's mom a.k.a. Tok Baie, mommy's dad, a.k.a. Tok Abah and Esfahan, a.k.a. Abang Long :) Somewhere between aching throats, fevers and itchiness, we managed to have fun and celebrate all these birthdays. But Esfahan has an additional celebration, which he is looking forward to this coming Saturday, a day out with a few of his close friends from school, at the movies and arcade! Phewh, it's good coz it'll all be at the mall, so mommy need not bother with cooking, dirty dishes and kiddy games, but mommy and ayah will be chaperoning them, along with our 2 younger goons. I'm anticipating that handling the 2 younger ones will be more challenging than minding Esfahan and his friends.

Amidst all this, we also received sad news of friends succumbing to cancer and of friends' children falling ill. News like these are never easy. Though it's nothing new to me, it's just as dampening as experiencing it for the first time; it affects me quite deeply actually, every time, but I do my best not to show it of course, I just let it gradually pass and move on, because more importantly, I have to be strong for the ones experiencing the actual loss... And when a child falls ill, it really just is very sad and frustrating. Then I start fearing for the well being of my own family, if anything happened to me who would take care of my children, if they fell seriously ill what am I to do? And then I start looking into our health and education plans again, and start planning for this and that and this and that...

But I've always managed to keep my faith, insyaAllah. And I fall back on the love of my family, something I know I can always depend on. Then my heart and my mind become happy and clear again. And then I'm back to simply driving the kids to school, picking them up from school, chasing them with their homework, screaming at them to clean up their mess and carrying on with my own Jules stuff...

Moral of the story? Hmmm... Family love is super fab. And being a mom is one helluva job! Hehe... :)


3 November, dinner at Hadramawt Jalan Ampang, then cheesecake!


12 November, I was SO busy with my Jules stuff that I only managed to wish my father Happy Birthday later that evening! Terrible daughter huh? Anyway, we tapau-ed him his favourite kuey teow goreng from Sharin Low restaurant, then it was black forest cake!