When I said...

"Nazran, tolong atur mainan elok-elok!" (Please arrange your toys neatly!)
He said, "OK, mama". I came to the living room in the next 5 minutes.

I should've use the word KEEP / SIMPAN, instead of ARRANGE / ATUR.

Vitamins

As any other pregnant mothers, I need to take plenty of vitamins everyday - iron, vitamin B complex, vitamin C and folic acid. During the first trimester, I skipped my vitamins a few times because I was pretty occupied with the morning sickness ;p

Then, I assigned my 3yo son (he will be 4 in 2 months), Nazran, to prepare my vitamins everyday and I havent skip my vitamins since. He has done a great job. 

Every night he will come to me, hand me a cup of plain water and Mickey Mouse Vitamins.

How cute is that?

Adelaide : Sticky wall

I had a privilege to attend EAROPH's Conference in Adelaide, Australia. We were discussing about Cities and their Regions : Catalysts for Change. I was actively participated in a breakup session when I posed a question to Australian speakers on their strategies to make local urban planning graduates ready to face globalisation, especially in services liberalisation.

One of the element I love about this conference is their sticky wall, where we could jot down our thoughts and stick it on the wall. Some of the best views were read by the emcee during the conference. The question was : How easy it is to engage with community members with sustainability issues?

This is my contribution for the sticky wall.

Sleep Masks for the kids

I bought eye masks for my kids, niece and nephew to help with their afternoon nap during weekend. It really helps.

My 4yo son Nazran

My 7yo son Nabil

My 5yo son Nazreen - with a new haircut. super short.

My 9yo nephew Haziq

My 7yo niece Sarah

Chocolate moist cakes and cuppies

My SIL ordered a chocolate moist cake last weekend and she wants it by Saturday. On Night 01 (Thursday) after came back from the office, I made 3 cake mixes - one for my SIL (the whole cake), one for Nabil's class party (40pcs of cupcakes) and one for Nazreen's farewell party at his taska (since he will be joining preschool next year) (another 40pcs). The cupcakes were not consistent in height because I have too many helpers in the kitchen :)

The steamed cake for my SIL didnt turned out as I expected since my mom's wet kitchen is located at the exterior part of the house and it was raining heavily outside, so the temperature for steaming process was inconsistent. It doesnt cooked thoroughly but it is still edible, tho.

I ended up I making another cake on Night 02 (Friday) and I decided to bake it in the oven after discussing it with my BFF from PassionBite. He is a baking expert. Although it didnt came out as moist as my signature steamed cake, but it cooked thoroughly. That's what matters most. I made an extra 12pcs cupcakes for my BIL and PIL, spread chocolate ganache on top, packed everything and sent it to my MIL's house at 10pm.

I hope it survived a night at my MIL's and I REALLY HOPE it was safely delivered it to my SIL the next day. I didnt get any feedback yet. Gosh, it is truly a gut-wrenching feeling to wait for the feedback. Should I call her? or not?

Missing his long hair

Yesterday, Nazreen went to hair saloon and have his hair cut. This time, it is super short.

This was how he look (with his long hair) when he was asleep. Most of the time, it was scary to find him looking like this in the middle of the night or when we were checking him through the rear view mirror while driving. At night.

Supper

Yesterday, my kids had an early dinner at my mom's before they attended their reading class at 8pm. Usually the first thing they will do after coming home from their class is RUN TO THE KITCHEN and look for something heavy to eat. I know a couple of biscuits will not work this time since they had their quick dinner at 6pm. 

Last night, I prepared a quick supper in 30 minutes - mashed potato and grilled garlicandbutter chicken. I know they are not supposed to eat heavy meal at night but they were really hungry. No mom will let their child sleep on an empty stomach.

Qurban 1433

This was last year's (here).

This year is my husband's turn to perform Qurban for Aidiladha. Alhamdulillah. It went well. One nice ustaz brought a few extra goats from his goat farm to the mosque for those who wish to perform qurban this year but didnt manage to book the animal in advance. We went to a few farms and they were out of stock. We kinda frustrated at first but we didnt stop looking.

Luckily we found this ustaz. And he still have plenty of it. My husband bought one.

This was the day before, when we went to the mosque to choose the qurban (bare in mind, I was still sick from the raw oyster poisoning). We chose this one. 

On THE DAY, the kids accompanied their papa's qurban until the moment it was sacrificed. (Did you see Nabil with the camera?)

Then, my FIL did the hard part with my BIL. Only after that, me and my hubby joined in and finished the work (did you see Nazreen with the camera? - we have a plenty of photographers that day) After Zuhur, we went out and distribute the qurban to relatives, neighbours and the unfortunates. 

I am glad that I could involved despite the terrible sickness. Let's save some money and perform qurban next year!!!! InsyaAllah.

Our Moving In Adventures!

Since all of my friends are very successful in their life, career, business, successfully expanding their family and finally got their own place to settle down, some of them asked me on my experience of moving into a new house. I am more than happy to share but you have to read this entry until the end.

First of all, I am not moving into a new house. It is an old house, constructed in 1970. It belongs to my grandparents.

Secondly, it is full of old stuff that I could not throw away just like that because they are valuable to my dad and aunt, be it in term of price or sentimentally. We have to provide space for them and squeeze our stuff in between. Believe it or not, we only have one set of dining ware but we have 4 cabinets of old plates, glasses, tea sets, serving dishes which we didnt even use. I have counted them during the moving in process because I washed every piece of it with my mom. I stopped counting at the 900th piece. There are more.

Thirdly, since the house is legally my sister's now, so, I have to hold myself back from doing major renovation although we are dying to have modern bathroom, conducive cooking area and to repair some parts of the old house.

We just have to make do. So far we are doing fine and we REALLLLLY enjoy decorating the house, re-arrange the furniture once in a while, apply new coat of painting here and there and change the fabrics (curtain, cushion covers, carpet, table runner) to give the interior a new look.

Well, at least we have our own place. That's the most important thing. OK, now you can hit the green round button at the side bar to read on our Moving In Adventures. Enjoy.

Raw oyster, anyone?

I love eating raw oyster with a squeeze of lemon or a dash of hot sauce. YUMMY.

(pic googled)

I also know the fact that raw food (half-boiled egg, sashimi, raw oyster, etc) is not good for pregnant ladies, especially raw oyster because they are filter feeders, which means they concentrate any contaminants in the water. (and then we ate the contaminants, raw)

It was OK during my past pregnancies. But, this time around, I have learned the hard way. I had raw oyster poisoning from a buffet at a hotel during a workshop and I was down for three days. I couldnt get up at all. I didnt know whether it is night or day, morning or afternoon. I didnt know what my kids were doing. I just lay down on my bed for three days straight. I tried to eat a bit of this and that for the baby's sake even though I knew my body will eventually reject everything. 

This was on the Day 01 of the poisoning. I went for ante-natal check up (my lucky number that day was 7032) and MGTT (modified glucose tolerance test) - the one that the nurse take your blood sample (fasting), ask you to finish a glass of freakin sweet glucose drink and come again in two hours for another blood test.

I came in 30 minutes late for the second blood test. It was OK in the morning but after 2 hours, I couldnt even stand up. The nurses keep calling my number (7032) because the pick up guy from the General Hospital Lab was already there to collect all blood samples. Everybody have to wait for me. LOL. Blame the oyster.

Today is the 6th day. I still have occasionally nausea and abdominal cramp. I keep eating honey to get rid of the bad bacteria in the system. It is a good thing that I love honey (here) and I have a vast collection of honey at home.

Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri reported: A man came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and told him that his brother’s stomach was upset. He said, “Give him honey.” So he gave it to him, but then later he came and said, “I have given him honey but it has only made his stomach more upset.” He said this three times and then he came a fourth time, and the Prophet said, “Give him honey.” He said, “I have already given it to him but it has only made his stomach more upset.” The Prophet said, “Allah has spoken the truth and your brother’s bowels are wrong.” So he made him drink more honey and he recovered.

[Sahih Muslim, Book 26, Number 5492]

Rappoteur for APEC Workshop

I am currently doing my work as a rappoteur for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Workshop on Remanufactured Goods in Crowne Plaza Mutiara KL. For two days.

A team of hardworking rappoteur. Four of us.

One hour per week - LET'S VACUUM OUR HOUSE!

(Click on the image for a larger version)

Moving In : Part 14 - Cabinet makeover

I know. I know. We have moved into this new house last year. But, still, I have not blog about everything yet. 

This is an old cabinet in my late grandparent's house. My grandfather used to keep his book collection here. When we moved in, my dad brought home all the books and left me with the cabinet. Since it is in a good shape and I love the size and the height, I decided to keep it. (Actually I keep it because of sentimental value. I remind me of my grandparent everytime I look at it).

First and foremost, I took out the doors. Then, I painted it WHITE. I love white furniture, remember? But I only painted the external part white. I left the internal part brown because I love the faux timber laminate.

While waiting for the paint to dry, I pasted leftover gift-wrap so the interior will appear brighter. Usually people will use wallpaper for this kind of project but since the space it quite small, gift-wrap is enough. I love the fact that the pattern is similar to our plates'. Plus, I hate dark cabinet.

After finished with the paper, the paint is still wet and we decided to go to IKEA. We need to buy some stuff. (Bear in mind, this event took place 2 months after we moved in). I bought some fabrics. It took me 30 minutes to cut and sew a new runner for our newly-painted cabinet.

Voila.

I put my cooking books on the shelves. I always wanted to keep my cooking books in the kitchen. 

I did not took any photos when we first put our stuff in there. When it was super-neat. This photo is the recent one, during Raya 2012. This is how it looks like with kuih raya container and various types of tissues. 

I usually store my baking ingredients and electrical appliances (toaster, blender, mixer, rice cookers, coffee maker, juicer) in this cabinet. I like the fact that they are reachable and it is an open cabinet. It is also the best place to store my honey collection.

I decided not to put it against the wall. We use it as an island in the kitchen and as the space divider. Sometimes, it is a working counter top. Sometimes, it just a place where we put our plates and glasses. And snacks.

Did you see Nazreen behind the cabinet?

This is what I like about the cabinet. I re-purpose it the way the front part is used for storage and the rear part belongs to the kids. It is their doodling and playing area. Whenever I am in the kitchen, they will also be there to accompany me. I didnt have to worry about them while I am preparing food. I just love creating multipurpose space and incorporating kids' area into any space!

There are glasses on top of the cabinet. They never break any of those, after one year utilising the space. They have been trained to be very careful in that area. Dont worry.

More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

I am currently on these

Chocolate overload

(on my way to get 40,000th hits) *edited* I got 40,029 the next day. yay.
My brother bought these from a duty-free chocolate shop at the airport not too long ago. We brought home a lot and surprisingly, after 2-3 days eating these chocolates, my three chocoholic sons were no longer attracted to chocolate anymore. They said that they had enough. My fridge was stuffed with all kind of chocolates within their reach (they didnt have to use a stool or a chair to get it, as when they want to grab the ice cream in the freezer), but they just didnt want to eat it. Very impressive. 

It took us months to finish everything :)

Next time we should buy chocolate in bulk.

Serious entry

I have just posted a serious entry in my black blog. I dont put negative entry in my white blog.

Sherperd's Pie and Apple+Corn Salad

I have made Sherperd's pie (casserole with ground beef, veges and topped with mashed potatoes) and green apple + corn salad for my niece & nephew's birthday party. yummy.

Total hits

Since Blogger.com had experienced a technical problem that reset statistics for all blogspots this morning and left me speechless looking at my page hits (from 39,480 views to only 29 views!), I decided to save the snapshot of my current blog statistics here. Saja-saja.