Living Serenely

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Showing posts from December, 2013

The old and the new

There’s just something about coming back home that I find so reviving. Just breathing in the air and seeing familiar old places brings back so many wonderful memories from my childhood. We are having a great time with family here… eating, playing, talking and more eating. As the year draws to a close, I thought about all the amazing things that have happened including… …My second pregnancy journey, surviving a rough first trimester , our major down-syndrome scare and the restless wait for baby to pop. …Wondering how I could love another child as much as I loved my first one, but having my fears all dissipated immediately at Nathan’s and Grace’s first meeting , and now completely embracing this wildness and sweetness with two little wilds . …Being surprised over how equally tough the post-partum period is second time round, going into survival mode over sleep-deprivation , but then learning how to edit such moments to keep the good ones . …Also bravely taking the big plunge w

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Have a Merry Christmas

So this year, we are escaping the scorching summer heat in Australia and spending it with my folks in the cool breezes of Sabah. I travelled with the two kids on my own on a five-hour flight from Perth to Kota Kinabalu. It was quite an adventure and I learnt some things along the way. But I’ll save that story for another time. Hope you are having fun knee-deep in your Christmas festivities and preparations for the holidays. Here are some fun links which I’ve found to set the holiday mood… Pentatonix’s rendition of Little Drummer Boy absolutely took my breath away A very funny and accurate 10-month old’s letter to Santa Love this cool paper city nativity scene printable And this cute infographic: If Children Ran Christmas **** Linking up to Sakura Haruka , Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the Eye {I am an avid collector and curator of all sorts of linky treasures , I aim to share a few little treasures here every month} P.S. I’ll be taking a break next week as we will

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How do you know it’s time for a new refrigerator?

{Sponsored Post} With Christmas season just around the corner, I’m sure we’re all getting geared up for all the merry-making and festivities. As you know this year, we’re spending Christmas at my parents house. I love being back home, I feel like a little girl again enjoying my mum’s home cooking and raiding her fridge for goodies any time of the day. Some time ago, my parents had given away our old 16 year old family fridge. They now have this sleek and shiny LG fridge sitting prettily in their kitchen housing all their yummy eats. Having a drink in Grandma’s kitchen I asked my mum about the old fridge and how it was doing with its new owners. Apparently it’s still in pretty good condition and chugging happily away. Apart from replacing the rubber seal around the door, they haven’t had any major issues with it. So investing in a good quality fridge to begin with does make a difference. The average life expectancy of a standard fridge is said to be around fourteen to seve

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Gift idea: DIY Christmas Dinner Kit

This year, we are spending Christmas with my folks back in Malaysia. My mum always makes Christmas dinner really special with all the traditional works and trimmings. I love the family time we can share over my mum’s delicious home-cooked food at the dinner table. All afternoon on Christmas Eve, my mum would be happily bustling away in the kitchen, stirring, stewing, baking, roasting. I’m sure she loves having the people she loves most around to cook for, But this year I thought to give her a little extra help so she would be freed up to spend a little more time with her grandkids. So I put together this little Christmas Dinner Kit for her... I bought a cook-in-a-bag roast chicken kit, a packet of gravy and finishing sauce for the vegies. Packed it in a box with some pretty wrapping to add a little festive air. I also made a simple label for the kit... Hopefully with the help of this kit, we would be able to round up a really special Christmas dinner for the whole family in a

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Blue ocean water play

There is something about water play that kids find very soothing. Virtually any kind of play related to water can keep Nathan completely occupied for a good 30-40 minutes all by himself. Inspired by the ocean animal play at my Family Day Care network’s headquarters , I decided to mix things up a bit with our own home water play. Just a couple of drops of blue food colouring can turn ordinary water into an ‘ocean’. The animals all had a gala time having a swim in our cool blue ‘ocean’ on this hot summer day. And I overheard this conversation between Mr Lion and Mr Elephant… Lion : Raaaaaaahhhh!!!! I’m gonna eat you, Elephant! nom nom nom. Elephant : Aaaaaargh… Ouchie! Lion : Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you? Elephant : That’s okay. But now I’m gonna eat YOU, Lion! Raaaaaahhhh!!! I love watching Nathan get engrossed in his play, fully immersed in his own imaginative world. **** Posting this video for the benefit of Nathan’s grandma and grandpa, who are living overseas and don’t

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Pirates ahoy!

So this week is Nathan’s final week at his family day care before we go on our Christmas break and I officially start my family day care next year. I decided a nice way to round things off was to have an early 3rd birthday celebration for him with his friends there. We’ve been reading about pirates. So I settled on having a simple pirate theme for his birthday. Here are the basic pirate theme props I pulled together: Pirate eye patches – I cut the patches out from black felt, punched holes in the two corners and strung a piece of elastic through the holes. A pirate story book – one of Nathan’s current favourites that we’ve been reading. A treasure map – from a ready-made printable card I found; I drew on a simple trail and clue leading to the treasure. Gold treasure – chocolate coins wrapped tied up in a black satin pouch. I baked a crazy cake and decorated it with a pirate theme cake topper kit (from Woolworths), hundreds & thousands, and chocolate gold doubloon

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Nine years

Where we were nine years ago… And where we are now nine years later… A marriage motto: We are a work in progress with a lifetime contract {Phyllis Koss} We’re still a work in progress, but happy to be working alongside you… Happy Anniversary, honey! **** Linking up to Sakura Haruka , Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the Eye P.S. On how we first met . A smashing love poem . And is it okay to go to bed angry ?

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Transitioning your toddler to a bed

{Sponsored Link} After Nathan turned two at the beginning of the year, we started talking about transitioning him out of his cot to a toddler bed. And as we were expecting baby #2 to arrive later in the year, we also had to start thinking about getting the baby’s nursery and bedding ready as well. I was a little hesitant about launching into the whole process at first. All sorts of questions jumped into my mind: Was Nathan too young? What if he felt he was being sidelined to make room for baby? Would his solid night time sleep pattern be disrupted by the change? I read through tons of articles and forums for all the best tips and advice, I planned the sequence of how we would make the change, I talked up the whole thing excitedly to Nathan whenever I could and finally we took the plunge. And you know what? The whole experience turned out surprisingly smooth and happy for everyone. I don’t claim to be an expert on toddler bed transitions. But I can share how we did it and what wor

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5 surprising things about starting a family day care

So things have been chugging along busily in the Family Day Care department… I met with Jan, the educator support coordinator for an initial home visit. I also had an informal interview with another educator support officer, which was essentially a get-to-know-you session to find out more about my background and values. Other initial formalities I’ve been going through include… An orientation session; Business and administration training; Visiting one of the play sessions at the Family Day Care centre; and A home visit to an experienced family day care to observe and learn Nathan had an absolute blast at the play session (we were encouraged to bring our own children to the session). His favourite corner was the ocean water play with miniature marine creatures where he spent a good half an hour there splashing around. Marine ocean water play at our Family Day Care network's centre Here are five surprising things I’ve discovered so far about setting up a fami