Boy vs Backyard II

This was last week, when it didn't begin to get pitch dark till almost 9 pm, and we could still be playing outside at 8.30 pm. Provided it wasn't unbearably hot, though dawn and dusk aren't the best times to be out there together with the mosquitoes.

Remember Jon's hero being Bear Grylls of Man vs Wild, recently?

Well, Ben's hero (for now, and may be for a longer while yet) is Jon, so quite naturally, Ben wanted to give his own take on surviving (not the outback but) the backyard, too!

In some ways, Ben's is a miniature version, like this smaller sticks-shelter and a smaller pile of leaves. But just as plausible if you ask me, and I always enjoy seeing kids (my own, and others') at pretend play.

I don't think his Gor Gor did this, but Ben on his own, found some long blade of grass and was trying to twine it around his sticks before asking me for help to secure them together. And it worked!

The (probably) first and only season of the Man vs Wild show on Discovery Channel has ended, much to our boys' disappointment. There's Suvivorman now instead, but not as action-packed because Les Stroud gets to stay in the wilderness for a whole week before trying to make his way out.

But the photo/videography, considering he brings his own cameras, isn't too bad, and I like how he captured the day changing to night, and especially the breaking of dawn, with the first rays of sunlight peeking through the forest canopy.

Maybe we'll watch the second episode showing later this week.

What fruit is this?

Have you seen this fruit before? What's it called?

My American neighbour came over to show it to me, the other day, hoping I would know. But both of us were seeing it for the first time. Her friend from China just harvested it (and must have somehow brought over the seed from her own country, to grow here in her garden), and wanted to share the fruits (literally!) of her labour with my neighbour.

I took one red 'ruby'. It tasted nice and sweet, and the flesh, soft and smooth. And it slid off easily, to reveal a flat brown seed about the size of a melon seed ("kway ji").

The closest fruit I could think of, based on how it tasted to me, was the custard apple, while my neighbour thought of the pomegranate, probably because of the many individual servings in both fruits.

Maybe you know what it is? And then I can go tell her!

School starting in 2.5 weeks

I've been living in 2.5 to 3 weeks time blocks, it seemed, all of this summer. First, the husband was away for 2.5 weeks. Then, my father visiting us for 3 weeks. And now, my hearing's almost completely back to normal (thank God, and thank you for caring), 2.5 weeks after the infection in my right ear was detected.

And with that, I was able to get back to driving again, and there is some independence with being more mobile in that sense. When I didn't in the last 2.5 weeks, for safety reasons, it was nonethless nice to be chauffeured around by my husband like in the beginning when we got here, before I went behind the wheel!

And especially at the supermarket, I could ask him, "Can you go after Ben please?", whenever Ben was in his 'explorer' mode (read: running amok in the store). And I didn't have to ask for help with loading our groceries (which always came to a lot) into the boot, or worry about offloading everything by myself once home. It's much easier, than when I am normally going with Ben only, or both Ben and Jon, to buy a week's worth of groceries, or even half of that, and have my hands so full, I tell the boys tongue-in-cheek of course, "Look, mommy's a strong woman indeed!". Haha!

Anyway, I was going to say, that we've only got like two weeks odd of summer left, before the boys start school. And judging from how short a timeframe 2.5 to 3 weeks is, I know it will be over soon! These few days also, the sky does look like it's beginning to grow darker, earlier already, never mind that on the whole, the days are still longer this time of the year and I've been kidding myself into thinking that I can stay up later for longer nights, too.

I realised more and more though, that with kids, for us parents to go to bed after 3 am, isn't the wisest thing to do. At least one of our two boys, even though they are sleeping as late as 11 pm or later, will somehow decide to wake up at 6 am and not want to go back to bed, nor need a nap later in the day. I don't know how they do that, but I sure wish I have that kind of energy. But no, when one kid's up, and especially if it's the little one, you just can't expect to sleep in. And if I hadn't slept well myself, I get grouchy more easily when they are grouchy, and vice versa.

So yes, like many a mommy and some daddies more than others, I'm already worrying about this and that associated with school re-opening. And other than for all of us to have an earlier bedtime, there are little things like what I should pack for Ben's lunch, that I have to get round to. It will not be the same thing as Jon's and Vern's (usually extra portions from dinner set aside for their lunchboxes), since it should be some finger food that Ben can eat easily and quickly enough as his classmates who will probably be eating some sandwich and the likes. Only thing is Ben isn't into bread and jam, or ham or raw vegetables.

There are days, amidst us preparing Ben to start school (yes, it's going to be his first time!) and my constantly telling him the separation anxiety will be there but we can do it, when he will look me in the eye, and say, "Mommy, I don't want to go to school." Followed by, "I want to stay home with you.".

The other day, he decided too, why not just ask Jon to take home his homework for him? Not that there's going to be homework, I don't think so. But Ben sounded pretty serious when he came up with this rather clever idea, "Gor Gor can pick up my homework. When we go and pick him up (after school), I will do my homework.".

Jon, on the other hand, I wish, would show a more ready interest in his schoolwork. His latest obsession is with Playmobil, after he had a great time not too long ago, playing with the figurines belonging to our friend Chin Tong, who also came up with a game that required Jon to do some thinking and mapping out of strategies. So, talk to Jon about Playmobil, and he can go on and on about how wonderful it is. But ask him to write about it, and he will drag his feet.

We've tried everything from upping rewards to removing privileges, and Jon had also struck a deal with his daddy to eventually exchange (not yet) his reading and writing efforts for a cool Playmobil set that was Gong Gong's gift to him. Still, it takes so much to get him to sit down to read and write, that I sometimes just feel like throwing in the towel.

Jon can do it when he wants to, but when he has his mind on something else, which happens a lot, it is very trying and tiring. I don't think he understands what I mean though, when I say it's bad enough for me to "vomit blood", but there are such days that I feel that Jon is not going on 7 but 14, and he must think we don't understand him either!

But I am beginning to see, no matter how frequently as babies our boys would cry every 2 hours to be nursed night and day, their physical needs are still far easier to meet than emotional ones.

I do not have the answers to so many things, and I know you must have your own solutions to share, and for me to learn from. But above all else, I need to just leave it all in the hands of our good Lord.

How can I connect better with my own kids, and meet their needs, and place them above my own? There is just so much worrying any parent can do.

Lord, help me do my best, and the rest is up to you.

Friends are relatives we choose for ourselves

Two couples dear to us will be leaving St Louis for new, exciting chapters in their lives. And not just for us adults, but our boys too (pictured above with them), we will miss them so much when they go off!

For one couple, their departure date is already set for one week away. And they are probably booked up with farewell parties one after another. Like the one last night, dinner for them with the other Singaporeans was a Chinese buffet spread, before all adjourned to another couple's place for some chitchat -- for what's a gathering without this key ingredient? It was also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with those we don't always get to see. And it's nice when we do!

Awhile ago, I came across a quote that says, "Friends are the relatives we choose for ourselves". How insightful! And like saying goodbye to our relatives before coming here and telling that to Gong Gong last week after his visit, knowing it will be awhile before we will see them again, it's just as hard to do, with friends back home, and those we've got to know here, who've touched our lives in their own special ways. And especially if we don't know if our paths will cross again, the way chances are higher only if they are really our relatives!

It's true, there are just so many people and fellow travellers we get to share life's path with. But way too often, we take not just our own family membes but our friends also, for granted!

For Melvin and Gerrie, like everyone else queuing up to get their shots taken with them, we did so, too! We will get just a bit more time with them later this week.

And for Chin Tong and Mandy, we know the next couple of months before they leave will also go by faster than we know it!

We hope to catch them around while they're still here, and after that, be able to keep in touch, one with another!

All pictures taken by Melvin.

(I will try and upload more later if Blogger doesn't die on me, and my boys aren't screaming, as they always do when I try and sit down, even when it's for a simple post like this one).

Charity meme and blog awards

With this one post, I'm going to try and kill three birds with one stone, but all for a good cause, I promise!

The first tag came from Bkworm, through her "A Meme for Charity" post. For each of this meme completed (at least 17 out of the 27 sentences below), generous Idham will donate RM127.00 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage, provided it's done by 26 Aug.

So, without further ado, here's my simple contribution of all 27 sentences:

1. A person is only as good as... he thinks he is.
2. Friendship is always... about being there for each other.
3. To love is to... give without expecting to receive.
4. Money makes me... think of taking the sometimes-can-be-easier (but expensive) way out, because to some extent, money does talk!
5. I miss... my mother.
6. My way of saying I care is... by remembering the little things.
7. I try to spread love and happiness... with a personal touch here and there.
8. Pick the flowers when... they must be in a vase, if not, they are always prettiest in their natural environment.
9. To love someone is... to accept him for who -- and all -- he is.
10. Beauty is... skin deep!
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was... having to jog 800 metres around the track, as a school in our uniform (no kidding!), every flag-lowering.
12. When I was twenty one, I remember... that if I don't go after the things that matter most to me, I may lose them for good.
13. I am most happy... when my loved ones are at their happiest.
14. Nothing makes me happier than.. a completed piece of work (like something I owed my boss last time as a FTWM, or now, as a SAHM, a closetful of clothes I finally got round to ironing), and I can lay down and rest without thinking about what I haven't done!
15. If I can change one thing... I would like to have furthered my studies before kids came along.
16. If smiles were... flowers, then... I wish it's spring all the time!
17. Wouldn't it be nice if we could... go around the world in our whole lifetime?
18. If you want to have... results, then... you must work for it.
19. Money is not everything but... there are some nice things we can get with it.
20. The most touching moments I have experienced is... when help comes without us asking for it.
21. I smile when... I think of a happy thought!
22. When I am happy... you can tell!
23. If only I don't have... to wait till the kids are in bed for some me-time, then... I'll be able to fit in more creative projects now and then.
24. The best thing I did yesterday was... being able to spend time as a family with friends.
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title..."Mosaic".
26. One thing I must do before I die... is to live, laugh, and love as much as I can!
27. Doing this meme, I feel like... I am doing my bit to spread a little cheer.

Now to pass it on!

I would like to tag the following bloggers with this charity meme...

Judy of Grandmother Stories

SAHM of Musings of a Stay-at-home Mum

Jomel of Peep-a-Peek

and at the same time,

*drum roll*..........................................

name each of them as a Rockin' Girl Blogger, and also give them the Schmooze Award, the other two good things I have been tagged with and owe to Charlene and Bkworm respectively (thanks, gals, it's so very sweet of you!).









Ladies, I think you may already have received one (or maybe even both) of these honours not too long ago. And if you haven't the other, please claim it right away! I really think you rock, and you are quite the Schmooze-r ("schmooze" defined as being able "to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection").

If you do complete the charity meme before 26 Aug, be sure to pop over to let Idham know! I must admit that it sounded at first to me like a chain letter, but on closer look, only far better. And we've nothing to lose, and the orphanage, everything to gain!

Preserving memories: One moment at a time

... One page at a time...



And here's the story behind this one:

You know, I've been going on and on about how photos capture precious moments. Of course, there are many other wonderful ways to preserve memories, other than to blog about them.

Blame it on the convenience of digital cameras and online storage (whether it's on our own computer or on platforms such as Flickr), I hardly print out our pictures anymore, save for those I've long ago put in frames, already hanging on our walls or sitting pretty on some shelf/table-top in our home (and now crying out to be updated).

I guess to some extent, I am old-fashioned; traditional, if you like. I still prefer the feel of a picture in my hands, more than an image on a screen. Like a book, a magazine, or newspapers even -- something I can hold, and be able to leaf through page by page, and if these have pictures in them, to see how they are laid out. The way clicking on a mouse to get from one link to another, doesn't quite produce that same kind of 'kick'.

And every time I look at Charlene's awesome scrapbooking creations (and beyond!) on her {Scrap_A_Bee} blog, and those magazines of other scrapbookers' works I sometimes borrow from the library, I do itch to play with pretty pieces of paper myself too, and hopefully come up with something creative to preserve my own boys' pictures, and even more so, the memories behind them!

So at 1 am, when I was getting ready to hit the sack, but I couldn't stop thinking about two pictures that had jumped out at me of Jon and Ben, that I had printed, besides all the others that Gong Gong has taken back with him, I had had to turn the lights back on. It's not easy to take pictures of kids, what more to try and capture my two boys together. One of them might be beaming me the widest of smiles, and the other, would nearly always be well out of range of how (not so) far our camera could zoom.

But remember that earlier visit I made with them to the Gardens? I'd clicked away and there were some nice enough pictures of the two of them together. And of those pictures I shortlisted to print, two had the same lighting and mood. One other shot of the boys strutting with their arms around each other, would have been great too, if not for it turning out darker than expected, and on closer look, as I held the picture in my hand, I knew it just couldn't beat the close-up that I eventually picked over it, where the smiles of both boys were the sunniest!

Hence, the "Sunny Smiles" layout! At 2.30 am, I was sleepy, but happy! I don't have the proper tools for scrapbooking, but nothing some glue, a penknife and pair of scissors couldn't do!

I used four different pieces of paper to achieve some simple layering, including some patterned paper left over from a card I'd made for my in-laws a few months ago, that was my only other attempt at scrapbooking but on a smaller scale. The letter stickers were from Target's $1 section (yes!), that I was going to use at first to spell out "Jon" and "Ben" to differentiate their paper storage buckets. And they were the only embellishments I had on hand, never mind that they weren't all that fancy.

OK, don't laugh, but this is a very basic attempt at scrapbooking, and I can certainly do with pointers and suggestions from all of you! On the one hand, I already have an idea or two running in my head on what short text I can add to the layout, so it will provide a journalling of sorts as are what scrapbooks are about. On the other hand, I like that there's nothing on that green-and-white polka dotted space on the top righthand corner, and it gives some breathing room so the layout doesn't look cluttered.

What do you think? Should I add any text at all? I don't know if I will sit down to do another layout anytime soon and have enough pages to compile into a proper scrapbook later on. But even if I don't, one alternative is that we can always hang it up in a frame, like any one of our other photos around the house.

Photos with people, faces, in them, that I always feel help add warmth to any home, office, and just about any place you want to add your personal touch. Do you feel the same way, too?

Garden Fresh

Not just the gorgeous flowers in bloom, but all those shapes and lines, curves and zigzags, and the interplay of light and shadows...





There's always something new to love at the Gardens, or to appreciate from a fresh angle. And yes, I'm on a photo roll! Haha!

Ours is a point-and-shoot camera (ead: don't expect professional quality), but am quite happy with how these shots turned out!

Zooooom!

Three weeks have come and gone, and my father is on his way back to Singapore, right now as I blog!

In some ways, it was a vacation for him, and for us, too. Going places, and revisiting the one or two attractions he likes!

But it was definitely more than just a vacation. It was a time of bonding, and rebonding.


We miss him already. Jon wanted Gong Gong to come and visit us again next month, and better yet, Ben asked, why not "tomorrow?"!


For Gong Gong, like he did two years ago, coming to stay with us albeit for just three weeks, he saw all our good days and bad, and not just our house at its messiest, but also whether every one was getting along fine or not so well! Also how much prodding Jon needed to sit down to some reading and writing, and how Ben, Fashion Maven #2 in the making, could take up to one hour to pick his outfit for the day.

Most of all, my father couldn't have not noticed how much the boys have grown! Why, I am amazed myself, every time I look back and wonder, wasn't it not too long ago, when I did this and that for Jon? And now, Ben's wearing the shirts and pants that Jon was wearing when we first got here, and Ben is riding Jon's bike, and pretty soon (not too quickly, I hope), he's going to be like his big brother and tell me to stop showing him any sign of affection in front of his friends!

Why do I blog? As a way of storing up precious memories like these, and that's also why I take tons of pictures, and no excuse not to what with the convenience of a digital camera! Before, on my old blog, I didn't show any images to begin with, but as time went by, I realised pictures can speak more than words, and there are memories captured in them that I want to treasure always. So once I started over there, it's been no end to my posting pictures since!

And for that same reason, I couldn't not let my Pa take back with him an album of the photos taken with us these last few weeks, never mind that the prints were just simply arranged in chronological order. Of all of the shots, this one's my favourite of him and the boys!

All Aboard!

More pictures below, from our first visit to the Museum of Transportation, like I promised!

It was an impromptu visit. We didn't know the museum had a kid's Creation Station that wasn't open all day. We also got there too late to join the last guided tour, and only had a couple of hours to closing time.

So it was just as well (or a pity?) we gave the miniature train a miss, which would have cost $5 per person, in addition to the admission fee (but you could go on it again and again!). The upside was that the sun wasn't blistering hot, and the skies were bright and blue -- perfect for clicking away!

For automobile fans, there are even cars dating back to the turn of the century, and our guys all seemed to have their own favourites!

There was quite a lot of walking to do...

Walk, walk, walk...


... walk some more!

...and the boys got away with parts of it (Jon more than he should)!


As you can see, the museum does boast an impressive outdoor collection of trains, that you can read more about by clicking on the link.

And of course, you don't have to be a Thomas the tank engine enthusiast -- our boys aren't either, to go "puff, puff, choo choo... off we go!"