Sunday, May 20, 2007
Ordinary Mom vs Super Mum
These cards were given to me by my boys on Mother’s Day. Aren’t they cute? The red heart shape was from Danial (given 2 days earlier) and the big one was made by Danish wt the aid from the younger bro too. I asked Danial what is your role in the big huge card. He answered ‘ambik barang’!(the big bro used his little brother to fetch things for him ie. scissor, glue, color pens etc).
I think the lucky one here is me … because I have them. To my boys, I am the best mom. But if you were to ask me, to be honest I don’t think I deserve such praise. Well maybe not yet. There are so many things that as a mother I still don’t know how and still learning.
When I was a young kid, I use to fill up forms in school where it asked about your family background and I remembered writing 30 something for my own mother’s age. At that age, my mother was a mother in every sense. She cooks deliciously. Whereas me now depend on cookbooks or her recipe to prepare even the simplest meal. My mother can cook a complete meal in the speed of light even before you think you are hungry –talk about efficient! Plus different type of dishes to satisfy our different taste buds. My dad eats chili hot stuffs, me (the mat salleh) don’t take chili even in chili sauce whilst my younger bro is so lazy that he refuses to eat ie. crab bcos it requires more then the usual effort to eat so he prefers simple dish. So my mom ended up wt several dishes on the table; all cooked in a jiffy. Me on the other hand, would be lucky if I don’t cut or burnt any of my fingers during cooking and if the rest of my family don’t die starving first before they can taste my cooking. I’m so slow in kitchen. Angah used to say that I cook like those in the TV cooking shows. Every ingredient must be prepared before I start and the kitchen must look tidy during my endeavour. That according to him contributes to my slowness. Well, thank you Mr. Hubby for the analyze. I am my hardest critic in my cooking, bcos I've taste good cooking before but my family esp. Angah loves anything that I prepare and always encourage me.
My mom also knew 1001 remedies for all common illnesses to treat me and my brothers. I remember having to drink milk + ginger concoction every time I suffered stomach ache. She’s very good in giving us back rub and massage. Although back then, you don’t appreciate it as much bcos you think your mom purposely tormented you to drink weird mixture and massage your heel so hard that any scream from you will be rewarded with an even harder press. In addition, my mom sews our house curtains and cushion covers (my family is lucky if I managed to fix a loose button every now and then), kept the house squeaky clean and stays immaculate all the time (mind you, she was an ex-Pageant Queen before!). But my mother never pressure me to be like her. Instead, she wants me to be better. And of cos' she never sees her only daughter as incapable of doing anything even though the truth is I am so much incompetent.
Compare my mom to me, I’m not even 40% close to her capability. Yet, I’ve earned the best mom title from my two boys. I know I can’t be like my super mother but I will be the best mom for my two boys even if it takes my entire life to learn how.
I'm thankful that I still have my mother around, so I could easily pick up the phone and ask 'mak, how do you make' bla! bla! But the best thing of all is that being a mother myself makes me appreciate my own mother very much and understand why she did the things she did for me and my siblings.
To all mothers out there, I know every day SHOULD be Mother's Day.
Have a blessed one.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Pouring sweat
Yeah, for 2 days in a row I managed to sweat myself. Put on my running shoes and walked, jogged and exercised. This morning I was a bit late since Danial was not feeling well. So I had to massage him first before leaving. Angah promised yesterday that he wants to join me today; alas he jogged on the bed, just like yesterday. He’s running shoes still smell of New Balance shop in 1U.
When I arrived at the park, it was already 0800hr. Compare to yesterday, Sunday’s crowd in the park comprised mainly of older folks. Maybe many have finished their exercise routine and left. There were about 5-6 uncles still doing their tai chi. A few aunties were chit chatting while utilizing the exercise machines provided in the park. This is the same group of people I saw last week and yesterday.
With Black Eye Peas screaming in my ears, I started my slow jogawalk. This morning, I decided to take a longer route. Amidst the greeneries. Towards my 9th lap, I realized how beautiful the trees were. Blossoming yellow and purple flowers. Sight for sore eyes.
Sweat was pouring on me when I finished my 12th lap. The sun was burning my back neck and shoulders when I started on the exercise machine/tools. At least 10min on each tool. I was dead tired and my thighs were aching but I have BiRain’s Freeway ringing in my ears. Enough to give me the strength to go even longer actually.
Until next weekend…I can still feel the sun burnt on my shoulders ooucch!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Books, glorious books!
“Okay, you’ve got 1 hour and we will be out of here”. Angah tried to sound stern and serious to his books fanatic wife. He knows that such advice is futile bcos it will fall on my deaf ears. And he can only HOPE, I stick to the 1hr time limit. We were at the Times Books Clearance Sale, yet again. The last time I was there, I bought 12 books and it only cost me RM170.
Before I discover Bi-Rain and lost my soul to the www and blogs, books were my savior. I have books for every different period of my life. My choices of books depend on my current interest. I was into Edgar Allan Poe (if I got his name right) in my primary school. I love horror and mystery books. Of cos I finished the whole set of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton. There were limited interesting English story books in my convent library school that I even read stories from the bible. Serious, no joke.
During my teenage years, there were heavy romance novels which were introduced by my KLite bestfriend. (I was so NOT into Mills and Boon). A novel entitled ‘A Wolf and A Dove’ got me into a rather sticky situation with one of the foreign male teacher in my conservative co-ed boarding school. I shall not elaborate on that. Anyways, I save my monthly allowance so I could buy books during the school break. College years, I was into fashion magazines. I was too busy burying myself into my thick endless medic text books. Some of these books can even be your pillow. It was that thick!!
After that, I was also into motivational and self-improvement books like chicken soup, rich dad poor dad, how to be a millionaire, get the picture? oh and even books on feng shui! At one point, I was so into home decorating that I bought almost every imaginable mags and DIY books. Marriage makes me read books on cooking, best and easy to prepare meals, healthy food books. My mom is a terrific cook but unfortunately I don’t inherit that gene from her. So I rely heavily on recipes.
Then come the kids. Books on pregnancy, babies and toddlers, parenting, Merck manual rules. I even read books on origami and how to organize kids’ parties. Out of late, I’m back into fiction. Anything goes. From Dan Brown to Judith McNaugh. I use to love tear jerking novels but not anymore. Too tiring. In addition, nowadays I don’t have the time since I self-diagnose myself of suffering IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder). Usually, I can finish a good book in 2 weeks mostly after dinner reading before going to bed or early morning before breakfast on weekends. But now my reading time is limited to while waiting for Danish to finish his Kumon class or when I’m stuck at hometown where there is no internet access or at hotel pool where the family ban me from taking my laptop along during the holiday.
After 1hr and 44 mins, Angah already showed his scowl face at me. I looked into my basket; there were only 5 books in it. Sigh. I know I won’t be able to finish the books I buy till God knows when. But I’m one of those people. You know how some women buy clothes or shoes only to end up in the closet for the longest time or worse not wearing them at all. But feel happy just to own them? Well, that is how books work for me. I love to own them. But I do read them if I have the time that is. Being around books give me comfort. I love the feeling of being in bookstore surrounded by books. I can just stay in bookstore, newsstand or library forever (I was a librarian in my secondary years).
When we left the sale I ended up with only 3 books. But I think I’ve made a good choice.
Before I discover Bi-Rain and lost my soul to the www and blogs, books were my savior. I have books for every different period of my life. My choices of books depend on my current interest. I was into Edgar Allan Poe (if I got his name right) in my primary school. I love horror and mystery books. Of cos I finished the whole set of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton. There were limited interesting English story books in my convent library school that I even read stories from the bible. Serious, no joke.
During my teenage years, there were heavy romance novels which were introduced by my KLite bestfriend. (I was so NOT into Mills and Boon). A novel entitled ‘A Wolf and A Dove’ got me into a rather sticky situation with one of the foreign male teacher in my conservative co-ed boarding school. I shall not elaborate on that. Anyways, I save my monthly allowance so I could buy books during the school break. College years, I was into fashion magazines. I was too busy burying myself into my thick endless medic text books. Some of these books can even be your pillow. It was that thick!!
After that, I was also into motivational and self-improvement books like chicken soup, rich dad poor dad, how to be a millionaire, get the picture? oh and even books on feng shui! At one point, I was so into home decorating that I bought almost every imaginable mags and DIY books. Marriage makes me read books on cooking, best and easy to prepare meals, healthy food books. My mom is a terrific cook but unfortunately I don’t inherit that gene from her. So I rely heavily on recipes.
Then come the kids. Books on pregnancy, babies and toddlers, parenting, Merck manual rules. I even read books on origami and how to organize kids’ parties. Out of late, I’m back into fiction. Anything goes. From Dan Brown to Judith McNaugh. I use to love tear jerking novels but not anymore. Too tiring. In addition, nowadays I don’t have the time since I self-diagnose myself of suffering IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder). Usually, I can finish a good book in 2 weeks mostly after dinner reading before going to bed or early morning before breakfast on weekends. But now my reading time is limited to while waiting for Danish to finish his Kumon class or when I’m stuck at hometown where there is no internet access or at hotel pool where the family ban me from taking my laptop along during the holiday.
After 1hr and 44 mins, Angah already showed his scowl face at me. I looked into my basket; there were only 5 books in it. Sigh. I know I won’t be able to finish the books I buy till God knows when. But I’m one of those people. You know how some women buy clothes or shoes only to end up in the closet for the longest time or worse not wearing them at all. But feel happy just to own them? Well, that is how books work for me. I love to own them. But I do read them if I have the time that is. Being around books give me comfort. I love the feeling of being in bookstore surrounded by books. I can just stay in bookstore, newsstand or library forever (I was a librarian in my secondary years).
When we left the sale I ended up with only 3 books. But I think I’ve made a good choice.
Hopefully I can make the time reading them. This morning I started reading one of the books I purchased 5 months ago. Well at least it a start.
The end.
The end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)