Sleep oh sleep.

New layout again from blogger. Didn't we just change to a new one not long ago?

This whole week, I had been going round like a walking zombie with a cranky mood as I didn't get enough of my precious eyeshuts every single night. It started off with the piece of news I read online just before bedtime about the singer who got robbed in his own home at 4am, did you read that one? Reading it just flood back my memories on the time we had the almost similar experience in 2006 Dec. Scarred for life, won't be able to forget that so easily.

That night I worried for my own safety and the kids', while the hubs was away on a business trip. I so hate that kind of sleepless nights. I don't feel safe anymore in my own country, how sad. However, I know I just have to try my best to brush off my fear, can't afford to be holding this fear all the time.

Everyday, I feel so tired and sleepy that I can't wait for bedtime and I would tell myself to go to sleep early. But, as the night slowly approaches, my body and mind perked up gradually too, awaiting eagerly for the peace and quiet tranquility the night has to offer and I don't feel so sleepy and tired anymore. Then the whole process repeats itself for the next day and the next and the crankiness kept going a notch higher each day.

It's so tiring.

I must slap myself hard in the face one day and just knock off to sleep as soon as the kids are out. Just when would that day be?

wtf, it's past 1.30 am now and I STILL NEED to wake up tomorrow, which is a Sat morning at 7 to drive korkor to his camp activity in school. Argh!!! Sleep NOW!

Oh shit! Bird shit in the room.

Some time ago, we had some guests flying into our room uninvited. It was freaky to have a birdie which looked equally freaked out flapping its wings all over the place trying to find a way out. And I wildly guess, as it was freaking out like that, it was shitting everywhere all over as well!

The whole room smelled foul for the next few days! We had to keep the doors and the windows all locked! We also heard a constant bird chirping day and night, but we couldn't figure out where the sound came from. The bird which flew in was certainly answering that call for help, I am certain.

We searched all over to look for that bird in distress but failed. We had no choice but to leave it to face its own fate and make sure the rest of the days, no other birds can fly in to answer its distress call.

But still, sometimes, the door would be opened carelessly by the kids and in the bird came shitting again. I was sooooo frustrated coz I would be busy searching and cleaning all the shitty spots. The room was getting very shitty foul as well!

Finally, the chirping stopped, and the bird or birds stopped flying in. I could breathe a sigh of relief at last, but also wonder if the troubled bird just starved to death and will create another kind of problem for us again? Anyway, In a ditch to get rid of the smell, I sprayed perfume the whole room and living hall. There wasn't any air freshener and it was too late to get any then.

As a result, I had a mild asthma attack from too much perfume spray and I was puffing away, treating my asthma like crazy. Yeah, I admit it was such a stupid thing to do. But the shit smell... it was too unbearable!

Calling all crows! Please don't fly in here anymore. I don't like you a bit! *shoot crows with watergun*

This is how I recharge.

Do you know, we, SAHMs have these No-Work-day and Supermom-day (sorry, not supermodel) in our monthly planner? But of course, it doesn't show there coz it is meant to come as and when it wishes.

It's a very powerful secret to keep ourselves happy and sane.

As I've mentioned in the previous post, I had been very hardworking. Yes, it was workdays which consists of some Supermom-days too when I would be ferrying the kids around, whipping up a cake and few rolls of sushi, then cleaned up or improvised some parts of the home, tutor the kids or read up some books with them, ironed the damn whole pile of laundry (that one! it keeps coming back!) but feeling absolutely happy and satisfied at the end of the day.

But to be honest, my yoga workouts in the morning still remains un-compromised, as it gives me so much pleasure from all the sweating out and stretching exercises. After the workouts, those gym buddies would be asking round to go for yumcha sessions and it seems much of a routine nowadays. We are having so much fun eating, chatting and laughing that it would be weird not to be having that teh-a-teh after the workout. Now, that part of the "work" that kept me busy whole morning till school pick-up time, I am not complaining. I so love my life right now!

And yet, sometimes, I devour in the simple pleasure of having a quiet time at home, finishing up the chores early or finally putting some action into some ideas in mind.

But once in awhile, it feels so gooooood to be just sitting back, taking a day off from the kitchen, enjoying some simple al-fresco style dinner at the food court while waiting for meimei's ballet class to be over. This kinda impromptu off days are so much more fun than planned ones. And I just have to love my hubs when he just says ok as I called him to ask if he could come home early for dinner for I wasn't feeling like cooking dinner and I want to go out to eat.

Then, on some rare other days, it feels reverberating to just dress up and make up, and go take a walk around the shopping malls even if it's just window-shopping on my own while the kids at school and the hubs at work. It really recharges the flat batteries and the aftermath, more quality time with the family and supermom days ahead.

This has been how I keep myself going and have to say, I'm loving it.

Working my ass off.

Where had all the time gone to?

Guess I really had been very hardworking these past few days/ weeks.

I'm not only the chauffeur, cook, cleaner, mom, wife (too cliche), I'm also running a business at home here. Oh yes! (although this business always lose money every year, and that is because I'm drawing a very high salary for me self.

Since we moved here, I wanted to do a proper book keeping and filing for the longest time. All the documents were in a mess and god forbid, let's not go into digging some important information from the past, for I know not how to do that.

I had finally found time, which took me one whole full day to keep the records straight. Holy shit, you wouldn't be able to guess how many credit cards statements, bank statements, share statements, bills, receipts, documents we had both accumulated. My man is definitely one of a kind, or one in billions. No one would do things like he does.

At this time when I needed more, the helper had gone back to her own home country to treat her arm. Boy, do I have a good workout cleaning up this whole darn place! It's too big! And every other day, the laundry keep piling up like torpedo and I would be spending hours pressing the clothes. Imgine 10 pieces each of us have, that would be 50 pieces of clothings for me to iron!

These days, I'm also trying to set a routine to sit down with the kids and have an hour of revision time. Though tests are not that crucial, but well, I still need to instill some discipline learning around here. It's 2 entirely different stories, if you were about to ask me.

I am glad another helper is coming to take over soon. In fact, I had been pondering to rope her in for 2 days a week or 3. With 3 days having her around, I would definitely have more time to concentrate on other important stuffs, don't you agree? Err, like, doing facials? Heaven knows, the last facial I had was last November! It's cruel to my own skin, man!

When people asks if I'm working, oh yes, I can DEFINITELY tell him/her I AM!!

Being careless is a big sin

Often I hear moms telling me that their kids are SOOoOO careless in their test papers that had they checked their answers before passing them up, they would have scored high marks.

And what do I have to say to that? "ohh......" *roll eyes 1 full round and another* Of course I rolled eyes at the back of my head.

Isn't that, to use my kids words, lame!

Why are mothers so concerned about getting high marks all the freaking time. Why does carelessness get to them so much? Weren't we all making careless mistakes all our lives? Is it because they don't want the kids to end up like them?

To me, I think exams is the test of skills, knowledge and their attitude itself.

The other day, the tutor for my kids summoned me to her and told me that didi told her mommy taught him not to write the numbers down when doing arrangement of words. She said that is not correct, and see, if he had not missed out on some words in his recent chinese test paper, he would have gotten more marks. What a waste, she said. And ended her lecture with a big sigh.

Aiyo, I myself am not so concerned, why la she's making such a big fuss over the few loss of marks. Then again, it's all good for me as it shows she's concerned about them performing in their tests and not just doing her job day in day out.

The thing is, they need to learn from their mistakes and how they TRY not to repeat them. And if they do not know how to solve a problem, they should be learning how to do it. THAT is my main concern. NOT over some couple of marks.

That said, I still look over their papers and pointed to their silly mistakes, a bit of admonishments and a meaningless advice "don't be so careless again, ok?" and off they go and play. But I won't go round and tell everyone "oh, they actually can score full marks, but oh so careless...." Chill....

Making kids work.

Sometimes I'm too lazy, other times, I can get loads of things done around here. 2 days ago, I was just sitting in front of the computer, reading a blog and crying at the same time (too much a sad story!) and getting NOTHING done at all, but still with dinner served promptly. But I did hug my kids several hundred times that day, thanking God for their pink of health.

And then another day I was up and about the whole day, mopping the floor, cleaning, tidying, ironing, cooking a storm and slept like a baby. Wow! It's a feat, really!

Today, I made the kids to clean up their own desks finally. It was getting messier by the second and I can't tolerate that any longer. I had done it up for them every time it reaches and goes beyond my tolerance level, but I believe they NEVER appreciate that and NEVER know how to keep it tidy and clean.

SO, I told them to take everything on the desks down, clean it up with a nice piece of rag and segregate their books and stuffs accordingly. Those irrelevant items need to go and nothing else should be on their desks except schoolbooks, tuition books and stationery. It's looking much Much MUCH better now. *wipe sweat*

In fact, it's a good exercise that I think I ought to keep up, like once a fortnight. Then they will learn to move things around here. The last thing I want to see when they grow up is being totally useless bums who rely on someone else to do the dirty job for them. Yeah, unless they bring in a lot of money to pay someone else to do it for them. It's a different story entirely then.

Since moving in, they learned to keep their own folded laundry in their respective shelves, wash their own plates, and during weekends, MY plates and utensils too. Some days, they are made to help out around. And of course, every night they have to pack their own bags and do their school work. I'm not checking daily, but doing spotchecks once in awhile.

Not perfect here, but well, we are progressing.