Sofa cover done!

This is our all time favourite sofa. We bought it in year 2002 when we just moved in into our new house, and still staying here over the years. Its our first sofa ever and we still love it. The cushion is still comfy to our suprise! We bought it from Ikea and it cost us S$299 only! Its a miniature for only the two of us and does not takes up a lot of space. And we only have one cover which we kept on washing it over and over again. Well, the colour of the covers doesn't really faded but the cushion cover just gave up its life span. It tore up tremendously due to wear & tear and of course because of the kids poking and tearing it with their whatever utensils.

At last, I gather my courage and start sewing a new cushion cover! Voila! The beautiful fabrics (Par Avion Ocean) from http://www.needleandthread.com/ a local online store which sells fabrics, really bring up a shine to the old sofa. Since its a success try thou with the so unperfect finishes, i am determined to go ahead with revamping the rest of the angles! Wish me luck!

The Tragic

''....shreeeeekk. booom!''

As I lay on my bed I saw a light beyond the horizon. Transparent. Strong yet diminishing. It seems so far & becoming very faint. As I tried each time to reach it. It gets further & further away. Blur. And I saw the darkness. Nothing else. Silence. Not even the sound of the wind. It just stop.

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     Now I know why, Aunt Lina & Uncle Ria changed their insurance policy. Now I know why they withdraw all their savings. Too sudden without reasons. Now I knew why they paid off their morgage. Its so unpredictable, yet surreal. And there I saw right at a corner the faces of their children. Zuly was in a shocking state, while Hary looks almost breathless. Ri'en. She kept on crying without stopping as if you can feel that her lungs almost burst out while her eyes almost shallowing deeper and deeper.

My heart ache. I do.

I looked around searching. Still searching. I started to cry. Crying and crying. I can't stop crying. I realised that there were so many people here and so many of them. My Family. I kept on searching. My eyes go circling the surrounding. I cried my hearts out when I saw the rest of my cousins - Wannie, Wayu, Weteng and Wanis crying and sobbing. They sat closely beside Aunt Uji and Uncle Samm who is lying motionless, with their body covered with pure white cloth....Now I know why they wish for their daughters be happy and compromise, if ever they be gone. They did.

I narrowed my eyes to another corner whereby I spotted them.
And Sof and Suk with heads down. Sulking. Their parents....

I kept on looking. Thank God! I saw my kids Suf and Kai, they ran to me with much relieved potrayed on their faces. But where is Baby Fur? Where is Rid? I started crying again. Sadness eludes me. I am hoping for a miracle but am not sure if its going to be what I expected.

A child waving at me. And thank God! Rid & Baby Fur was there. Alive.

But why do my hearts still ache? I felt heavy and my body froze.

She can't be dead. They can't be dead. So many of them. So cold. It can't be all are my family. I cried and I can't stopped crying. In fact this time my crying came out from my mouth. I tried to control, I tried. Its impossible, just hours ago we had some fun together, we were planning to have it again, we were enjoying the joyous trip. We were. And we were.

I stammered when I tried to say something. It is so obvious that I can't even figure out what I was trying to say. I am stunned. Shocked at the scene. How can this be? I know God's the Greatest, but why can't I still believe that this is happening? Is it a sign to remind me? To remind me of what? What is the message that God is trying to relay to me? I do not know and I can't even think of any. My mind is blank at the moment. The bodies are so concrete. I felt the coldness eludes everyone there.

I looked again to confirm my visual. I saw my Mum, my grandparents, Aunt Lina & Uncle Ria, Aunt Uji & Uncle Sam, Uncle Shawn & Aunt Rihanna. They are all dead. Dead. Lying on the carpeted flooring only their bodies covered with white cloth.... The last I was with mum when she hugged me over the trip dinner just a few hours ago. The warmth of her cheeks still lingers on my skin...

Where are my siblings? Shara, Wadden and Maria & her family? And where is Aunt May & her family? I saw my daddy, my in-laws and their families outside the Mosque compound. They looked sad and daddy was calm thou his eyes shown a thousands sadness. Where are the rest? Rid seems to know what i am thinking. He wispered gently,''their corpse can't be found...'' ''the search is still on...''

     I am so sad. So sad...

At the other corner of the mosque, there are 3 familiar faces and few others, smiling at each other. Why? Why? My family are dead and you guys smile? They looked cynical without empathy.

Are they trying to tell me that this is how you going to feel when you lost someone dear to you... Up till now, I am still not sure. Answers. Will i get to know it? And why that I want to know? It will not bring back the dead. It will only worsen my wounds, my heart. A weak heart.

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SYPNOSIS - all maternal families with spouses & children went for a trip in an Orange Coach bus, few came back 'dead or alive' and few not found... I am still sad. which is not right. And I still am not aware, what happened to me during the tragic trip... what do you think?

Family Lunch @ Sofra Restaurant

When it come to food, our family galores thre idea! Well, both my grandmother cooks deliciously in their own ways and my mom is no exception. Her touch is 'magic'...

Now back to the other food  thing. Apart from home-cooked, we love to explore on cuisines. Be it Indonesia, Malay, Chinese, Middle-East, Korean or Japanese food. And I am glad that I share the wild-exploration character with my other half. He simply has an eye for details especially - Food.

And so, one fine evening my dad said that lets go for a meal. A meal that he has waited for so long to happened, well especially that my sister and I are married and our timing always doesn't seems to coincide with each other. And not to mentioned that we are not living under the same roof anymore, the more its not easy to plan. So what is the food theme? Sofra. A Turkish Restaurant at Beach Road.

I simply love the interior of the restaurant. The food is tasty too. Well, the best part is we dined with our grandparents and the kids love the food too. Nasuha, Sufi, Khair & even Baby Furqan enjoyed every bit of the delicacies. Well except for Khair who ended up with bits of here and there and drinks and desserts. Its one of the best meal ever for now. Dad & Ibu sure knows where to get good, tasty food and easy on the pocket too. The price was reasonable. But the most important thing is, we had a quality time together.

Earth Day - Minimal effort than nothing else...

Its Earth Week again. Or I might call it Save the Earth Week. This time, I believe I have put in extra effort. How about you? Have you done or contribute something?

Since young, my parents has implemented the needs to eat wisely, to the extend of taking supplements (organically claimed by some Companies) to maintain our health. Needless to say, I dread it. I hate the thoughts of drinking self-brewed tumeric drinks, any herbal concoctions by my mum & not forgetting those supplements that is super tasteless to my buds. I didn't appreciate it fully that time. But I have embrace the thoughts eventually. The global warming is one of my concern. I am not really putting 100% thoughts on it, but I tried as much as I can to do something towards reducing the danger of it.

Now, we are still in the midst of cultivating our kids to love the Earth, love the nature, protect the environment, minimise wastage - shop when necessary (its not about savings $$ totally) and lots more that we will try & try & try as long as we can. We also love organics veggies, pesticide free products, supplements that use less or none of synthetic additives; artificial colouring, chemical preservatives and fragrances.

Just for the record, Organic Products are made from ingredients that are grown without using pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, genetically modified organisms or radiation. Usually, these are labeled so you will not miss the info so easily.


What I have done for past years:
- recycled jeans into drink coasters
- recycled papers, reuse it
- recycled loosen socks as window wipes
- recycled clothes to wipe the floor before throwing it
- Breastfeeding reduce the usage of electricity to boil water, reduce plastic bottles
- Minimise waste. Only shop for items that will last me years.
- And cloth diapering, which I fall in love with it for such a long time
- Swith off electric appliances when not in use
- Bring own lunch box for my kids if possible
- Eat more veggies instead of meat, thou red meat are important in your daily diet.
- We purposely do not install any air-conditioners at home (we are lucky our house is a breeze-nope!its just a hdb flat!!)
- Our car is OPC, means we minimise our petrol usage.

And we are hoping to try more & do more & more.. You too!

Love the Earth!

Feeling Great! Body Repaired Done!

For the past few weeks, my body has started aching, aching & aching. My self-endurance i must say has expired. My body needs repair every 2 weeks if i am in the midst of breastfeeding duty but has been delaying it due to time constraint. And the aching gets worst!

And today, Mak (MIL) came over to give me a full body-massage and i go ooohhh! Awwww! Haha most of the times! I can feel the veins are really hay-wired, not in line & sore. Oh all those carrying Baby Furqan, lying side to side during breastfeeding and all those mothering duties. I felt good. Thanks Mak for the help.
And now, im feeling the sore back just after two hours of feeling good! Well, a mothering duty never ends, but at least, the body is well-maintained for now...

The kiddos... Updates & tips to share. Hopefully.

Its Friday again. And I am loving it so far. The boys has been great these past days especially Sufi & Khair. And maybe the weather are great always each day, each time when they are home from school. Sometimes, the humid & hot weather makes a kid restless & will trigger their unbelievable tantrums! Not mentioning the adults too.

For April, Sufi has started his Arabic Tuition. Every alternate Fridays. For the rate in Singapore, alternate weeks for tuition is not enough. But Rid & I do not wish to put a stress to the kids. Since they are enrol in the Islamic school, secular & ukhrawi has already taken half of their day.

When Sufi is attending Arabic Class, we will spend time with Khair & Baby Furqan.

Sufi starts school at 7.30am and ends til 4pm. Except on Fridays till 2pm.

Khair start school from 11.30am & ends till 2.30pm.

And I am always looking forward to Fridays, its a start of an early weekend for us. Well, after their snack time, shower and they will start with their cartoons, playtime with Baby Furqan, updates for http://www.ridlisexplorer.com/ or just relax...
If Rid is not working on Friday, we will spend the evening at the park or cycling. Followed by dinner & then school homework if possible to be completed by tonight. We prefer the weekend to be just relax, apart from Mind-Maping/Interactive Learning which is just in between meals, tv or just hangout..

Saturdays will be swimming training which will last the whole morning having fun at the pool. And followed by Art Lesson or Phonics at home, self-taught on alternate saturdays. The reason, do not want the kids to be too tight up in classes, and I want to bond with them as much as i can.

And the rest of the weekend, hurrayyy!! Its always fun, fun & fun especially hubby is a great entertainer to the kids. They just love him!
And looking forward to the next, next & more to come weekends. Always.

Forget to mentioned, we had great time at the Anchorvale Park last few days. The nature is serene, the kids is running around freely without boundaries.

love equally

For past years Rid & I have been exercising equal attention on the two older boys. Trying still each & everyday. Especially when they are just two years apart, it was easy to spend time equally, quality ways. Its either way, I hangout with Sufi or another part with Khair. Sometimes it just happened that we switch roles on the attention job as much as we can so as not to make each one of them feel neglected.

Even when I went through the 3rd pregnancy phase, I still can managed paying attention to both of them equally. So far, as far as I am concerned, we have done a great job. Sometimes,  bring Sufi out for a short trip to the ColdStorage & do some fruits shopping or sometimes I bring Khair to the playground when Sufi was in a class. Most times, we spend crafty lessons & swimming together.

For now, since Baby Fur entered the family zone, I realised that time is never enough. Juggling the kids with my small tiny work & also the household. And not forgetting I need to spend quality time with Rid too, esp. Well, he is the 'man behind this tiny weeny lady' who is trying to be a SuperWife, SuperMom! hahhh! And so little time for myself. Any time that I have will be well-spent with routines.
And I find it so helpless, when I spend more time with either one of the boys & not the other. Which often is a case of indeliberately. I felt sad if I see either of them seating in a corner, sulking or simply just throwing tantrums to get 'our' attention.

Gosh!! I really need to learn from others a tip or two on how to spend time equally as best as I can. I do envy some stories who tried very hard & managed to do it with best result!!

Well, my situation are not in the critical stage nor it needs attention but I do not mind to improve on this.

My randoms in between SAHMing & WAHMing

Today, I had lunch at 12.30pm exactly after I managed to cook 'asam pedas' quite fast & deliciously to my expectations *winks* and start with my WAHMing with replying queries, appointments to be arranged and preparing to mail out receipts. And not forgetting planning for new promotions for collaborations with MMW Joint-Partners.
Up till today, since my last day of service with a Company few years back, I realised I still prefer to work, not only as self-employed but to work in a part-time or freelance environment. I am not sure why exactly, partly due to laziness to wake up early morning which I can't deny at all. But more than that, I can't really specify the exact reason to love working short hours. Sometimes I feel that I am totally lazy to dress according to the corporate demands, report to higher authority or so on... But I realised, I just missed home badly if I am glued to any Office Chair!
Thou I missed badly the 'CPF' monthly contribution stabilising, I missed those AGMs, I missed those paid MCs, I missed HR! I just can't, can't bring myself to wake up early morning, preparing mad-rush breakfast, leaving my kids at home with a helper & me working almost invisible from home.

All this rantings came in when a friend sent me a note... 'everyday sitting at home, with no fix income is better off go out & work your ass out & feel the luxury of dollars...'

Crude. or simply self-proclaimed.

Whatever it is, I am not offended at all. To each of its own. And I didn't seat around the house doing nothing. I do not cook 7days a week, I do not sit at home 24/7 doing nothing. I work from home. Period.

The satisfactions of individual differs. I prefer to work part-time. Or at least like the last time where I work Freelance managing MMW & a had a helper, so at least I know my kids are not away frm me too long. And I still get to work short hours, be with family & still earns... Not rich but able to call myself a 'working-mum'. Ahahhh! Self-proclaimed!

Different mothers bond differently, its the real truth. And I am one who prefers to do it this way. Be a Sahm/Wahm at the same time and bond it my ways... Even if MyMumsWorld (S) is no longer in the 'big' picture, I will still work part-time... Like I mentioned, I can't afford to wake up religiously every morning to go out & work... And do not mentioned that my husband salary is big, its just 'peanuts' for a family of 5 members... Enough to get by. Tiny. Period.

Dinner @ Seoul Garden

It just happened that everyone in the family is not working! Great food and great time we had. And the kids too! Rid was very happy, he had wanted this to happen.

My First April's entry

Its the 1st day of April. Time flies very fast. Tomorrow is Good Friday Public Holiday & the weekend will be a little bit longer than usual. We are not going anywhere tomorrow as Rid will be working until 7pm. I planned not to cook tomorrow & maybe just grab some bites with the boys. And maybe finish up my undone laundries, bedsheets, 30mins of sewing & ice-creams! Planned to, so that Saturday & Sundays will be free & more relaxing, cozying up with Chipmunks & Love.

  Ok, so the purpose of this entry is not about what I planned to do tomorrow but the shocking conversation we had with Sufi - our 7yr old eldest son. We make it a habit to chat with him every night before we tuck him to sleep. Asking him on what he did at school, how he enjoyed the day at school and anything that make him happy or sad... apart from his school work.

Earlier today, he just shoot a questions like this, 'Bapak what is F-U-C-K(he spelled it out)?' *dussshhh*!!! And our jaws dropped for a moment. Not forgetting Sara was at our home too & she goes grinning with blanks on her face. hhmmm.. So slowly we asked him, where did he hear the word from?

And Sufi start his story by mentioning that his 4 clasmates (boys) were calling each others by that F*** word in front of him...

How can a 7 yr old kid knows that kind of word, unless someone at home is using it?

Rid & myself may be very loud at home, sometimes screaming but we do not say uncensored or vulgarities at home. So the word came as an alien vocab to my kid.
We were trying to reason out, maybe the classmates parents are trying how to explain 'intercourse' but do not know how to put it nicely. But to think back, theres other words to describe as instead of F***...

Goshh! And so Rid explained to Sufi that it is a bad word describing bad actions, so refrained from following others saying it & stop yourself from saying it. Its self-discipline (akhlak).

For now, he understood.

We prayed that our children become good children with good manners, we do not asked of them to be clever or genius, but a better person with a good heart.

Insya Allah. Amin.