Life choices

I had two encounters with women of two different world yesterday. It kinda made me think there must be million of women's priorities in this world. We have to go out from our own world to have a counter check of what our life is all about especially when you are feeling lacking of something in your life. Looking at others may help you be more appreciative and thankful of what you have. Let's name these two Lady A and Lady B.

Lady A is a working woman whom I would say a career woman who's very passionate about her job. But hearing her story of her working world scared me. She works in a legal world where she had to meet clients for legal paperworks at the client's convenient time and place. She has appointments at nights and weekends. She's married with two little kids. She only saw her kids for a few hours in a week. The rest of the time her kids stay with the maid. In my two hour encounter, I gathered she's very proud of this "busyness" of her life. In fact she said she once tried not working and only lasted for two months due to "boredom" staying at home.

I met Lady B right after Lady A near my house. She's a new neighbor. A very friendly lady who calls me "kakak" - I swear the minute I saw her I thought she's older than me.. haha! Anyways, in less than an hour I learnt that she's a housewife with no kids. I asked if she has any business, she said no. And I asked if she's going back to work, she said she prefers taking care of her house. Oh and she has a beautiful house with 6 rooms.. (hear.. 6 rooms and no kids!). I would say she's a lady of leisure! She travels frequently as her husband travels for his work.

After meeting the two ladies, it really made me ponder. Definitely I don't want to be Lady A, working very hard, perhaps with lotsa money yet so little time with her kids. I also don't want to be Lady B who travels the world, has beautiful big house and no doubt cash rich... but no kids. And here I am complaining everything about my life, no job, no money... but Allah has trusted me with 4 children to care for and now I have made the choice to "work for" them. No I'm trying to say those working moms are bad, nor those non-moms are unfortunate, I'm just trying to remind myself over and again of the choice that I've made. I have to be thankful of what and where I am now. I shall stop complaining, I shall stop comparing myself with those high-flying and jet-setting moms. Thank you Allah for giving me the opportunities. And thank you for the encounters that has made me realised the gift that you have given me. Amin.

October bash

It has been a busy month, yet interesting. We celebrated another two birthdays which marked the end of "birthdays" for the year. Oh, I had mine in September but it was nothing grand except a hushed surprised party (but I guessed anyway!) by my nieces and nephews. The two October babies, Eussuv and Syasya, on the other hand, had a very simple but great birthday get together at home. Syasya even had another one at school as it is the school monthly birthday party. Since she's the only October baby, it looked as though it was her party. As expected, I bake the cakes... so we can have as many cakes anyone wanted!I shall say no more as the pictures will tell all!

Eussuv is 9! Chocolate Banana cake. Notice the "sengetness" of the cake. Duhh... talk about being proud of baking your own cake! ha ha..

And Syasya is 6. Chocolate Moist cake. Again.. didn't know you must have a very soft hand to twirl the cream around the cake. Despite the sengetness, Syasya thought it was the most beautiful cake! Thank you dear..

Clapping away.. for the years to come..

With the guests... best cousins.

Celebration at school. Another well"crooked" cake. I will not zoom on it cos this one is worse due to some "technical" error on the cream (excuses excuses!). Yet she still thought it's another most beautiful cake in the world!

I like this one the best. Some cupcakes to go around the cake.

No matter how crooked the cakes were, I still felt good. Perhaps, it's a sign that I need to go for a real deco class. Hopefully, for next year's birthdays... and other ocassions.. I shall fare better.

Food .. food and more food..

It's really a month of food. Well Syawal that is. What is supposed to be another good month has become a food month. I had a full "food" weekend for the past two weeks of open houses... and all I could think was those unfortunates in our neighboring countries who were atruck with disaster and eat whatever provided to them.

Dear God, thank for all the food and luxury that you have given us. Ameen.

Ramadhan ... that was...

Syawal is already halfway through. And here I am writing about Ramadhan. Am I in a different time zone or something? It was one great, meaningful, hopefully berkat but way way tiring Ramadhan.

I was OK on the first week of Ramadhan. It was the school holidays, the kids were fasting and they did it well. Even Syasya surprised me by fasting full for the first two weeks. She did it so well that it scared me. No whining, no crying but full of energy. Even the boys whined once in a while. Oh before I forgot.. this was the first Ramadhan in four years that hubby was around. So it sure was different. We got to go for Terawih prayers, I mean all of us. Usually it was just the boys who went, I always have a baby to care for. Now that the "baby" is three years old, old enough to follow instruction while we perform our prayers. Omar had a great time in the surau. He always had other kids to play with without actually disturbing the jemaah.

The second week onwards was rather hectic, maid was off to her hometown until the second week of raya. I had the whole housework and kids all to myself to care for. This is a real challenge. The housework was never ending. What made it worse was the fact that I had to face it 24hrs a day and 7 days a week. Had I work I a 9-5 job, I'd have a break from facing it 24hrs a day.. but no. There was no break to it. Even when you go to sleep you know there's something to be done just before you sleep and the minute you get up. Not to mention the backlog of work that awaits you once you missed it. Call me whatever, nope I don't think I can live with the housework without any help. I value the time with my children more. I realised I spent less time with them but more in the kitchen and with the laundry. The good thing though, I know now how hard my maid works, how committed she is and how efficient she is. I also know now you can train the kids to do housework and they loved it. You have to train them!

It was really one great Ramadhan. Made me realise a lot of things. Taught me lots of patience and gratitude. Did not manage to bake lotsa cookies, did not manage to finish the Quran as I planned to but taught me a great deal another side of me, another side of what life as a full time mother and house "manager" is all about. Perhaps this will prepare me for what's more to come.

Now Syawal is already half way through and my maid is back for another year. I thank Allah for all the things that I went through Ramadhan. I thank Him for gving us the strength and patience especially for the kids who went through Ramadhan without much difficulties (the two boys completed the whole month and Syasya completed almost 3 weeks). And mostly I thank Him for being here again this Ramadhan. InsyaAllah next Ramadhan will be a better one.

Pesu and her brood

I can't quite recall when it started but we seemed to adopt stray cats and have been feeding at least one cat ever since. There's always at least one cat staying at the house at any one time. But I never allow more than one anyway. The first one they name Simba. After Simba "went away" - well they always come and go - there a few more which the kids would name whatever they want and change it whenever they feel like. There's Nemo, Jamaluddin (?? yeah.. weird), Pesu, Ronaldo, Minnie, Nicky... and the list goes on.

And yes they also have given birth at least twice (at my house). If you watch closely, cats have rather weird way of caring for their young ones (or is it the same for all animals?).. They give birth to at least four kittens but perhaps only one or two survive. I am not sure where the rest went to because it will dissapear one by one and it happened at night!


The current mother cat that we have now (Pesu) was the only one kitten survived of five siblings born in the vase just outside my dining last year. Her mother conveniently dissapeard after Pesu no longer being breastfed. And last week Pesu gave birth to five kittens, the most colorful batch I've ever seen. She's only neyea rold .. mind u! And guess who's the father to these kittens? Pesu's dad! No kidding! I saw them "together"! Euhhh... no I saw the dad "seducing" the daughther. Tried to shoo him away but I guess they did it while we were away. Pesu stayed in our driveway most of the time and would leap up whenever anybody opens the main door. So we would know who she hang out with.

Considering that she's a first time mom, Pesu is rather strong. I did not hear her meowing the whole nite long during labor (unlike her mom who meowed the whole day and circling around the house to look for a "labor room"!). Pesu was quiet only a bit "unsettled". She gave birth at the corner of our porch in the heavy rain in the afternoon. I really didn't hear anything then. I was in the house the whole time. Not that I would have helped even if I knew what was happening. I'm one of those who would not look at newborn kittens... yucks.. geli! So I did not look until a few days later. My maid was the one who had to transfer them into the cage and they stayed there for a few days. Food and milk was served just outside the cage. How pampered huh!


Now a week has passed. Here comes the weird thing. Every morning, Pesu would take out all her kittens from the cage and put them under the bench of my porch. Of course she use her mouth to carry them one by one (this is really gross! it's like she's gonna eat it). And now she's bringing the kittens one by one around the house. Not sure for what! My maid thinks she's showing off her kittens around. Well I think she wanted to give them away! I managed to stop her once or twice. But just a few minutes ago, I checked, one kitten already missing. Either she has sent it away, or it has been eaten by the dad... yes it happened!

That's the story of Pesu. I'm not one who's passionate about animals but since it happened under my nose and in my property, I have to care. Hope things will turn out well for Pesu and her brood!

I finally made it!

One that I will call achievement. It's not easy for me attend a class especially on the weekend, but I did it this time. It's called "Hari Raya Cupcakes". Never attended any cooking class before. And this one is not actually a cooking class, it's a deco class. It was made easy by the ever so friendly instructor, my dear friend Aza of liacakes.com. Everything seemed so easy and simple since everything is being provided, the tools and the materials. I don't think I can do it at home, yet.

I liked it, I liked it. I already inquired for another class, a real baking class. Didn't know I actually like doing all this! Thought this would be the after raya project since I don't think I will be capable of this during the fasting month (my very reliable helper will balik kampung second week of puasa until the hari raya). Duhhh... !

I'm rather proud of my "achievement", don't care what people say. And the best, the kids were so thrilled that their mom actually did it. Should see their disbelief look on their faces when they saw what I brought home. Hilarious!!

Re-unions .. re-unions

I attended three re-unions for the past two weeks. It's a great feeling meeting people in your past who used to share happiness and sorrow at any one point of your life. Usually during meetings like this you only talk about the good times and laughed back at what had happened then... even though at that time you thought your life was ending! Then we would be thankful that we are able to look back at all. Bad moments are usually not mentioned or become funny altogether. Wounds seemed to heal, bad intentions or wrongdoings forgiven or forgotten. Friendship is all that matters.

The first re-union was of my other half's high school re-union. It was a big one held at a nice resort just outside KL. It was an overnite event. About 80 of them turned up with their families. They actually have it every year but somehow this is the first time we joined them. It was great getting into the world where you did not exist before in your other half's life. I did not feel left out at all, made some new friends, played some telematch and enjoyed socializing with some of the spouses. Kids were not forgotten with lotsa goodies and fun. I would say they are one generous batch... every family went home with something, lucky draws, prizes, goodies and best.. more memories with friends.

The second re-union was with my ex-colleueges whom I didn't see for a few months.. oh ok. I should not call it a re-union? Maybe I should call it a catch-up session. It's good to re-connect to the working world again but I was glad after that I don't have to go back to the office after that.

And the third one was the one I enjoyed the most. A re-union with some great college friends. Though I get to meet some of them regularly, getting all of us together at one place and one time is not an easy thing to do. Only 14 of us turned up but it was enough to take us down to the memory lane. It was lot of catching up and time rewind! Lots and lots of laughter. Too much that I went home with fever (exaggerating a bit.. I was already getting sick when I arrived!). Too bad I had to leave early .. the rest stayed until the place was closing! The first re-union we had was some 15 years ago. Looks (and perspective perhaps?) may have changed but we felt as though we were transported back to Bloomington where we shared so so much great (and bad) memories. Memories that brings all of us together. Funny, everybody seems to be as young as we were before (minus the look of course)... cracking the same kind of jokes, making funny remarks, teasing and laughing.. It was just so cool!

Nope... I no longer wish to turn back the time to then, just memories are good enough. Re-unions make you look back and see where you are now, where you were before, what you have changed what you have not, where you have progressed in life --- as compared to your friends! That's the only bad side of it.. then again only if you are the type who likes to compare and be challenged about it or be content or just be happy of who you are and where you are. To me... I'm just happy to have some laughter, remember old times, and the best still .. always have my friends!