Have a lovely day!

Taking a moment to make some cupcakes with my sweetie pie!

Just because.

We had the help of a boxed mix, and the cute heart picks were from the Dollar Tree!

That was Valentine's Day (hadn't known the app hung on my post).

I'll just like to add this beautiful reminder quote from Our Daily Bread:

"The joy of living comes from a heart of thanksgiving."

Have a lovely day, my precious friends and everyone reading this! XX

P.S. These pretty flowers just came from a sweet friend across the miles to cheer me up after a rough dental surgery that did not work out. The flowers were such a pleasant surprise, and I'm reminded to keep smiling and not stop counting my blessings!

BleSSed Year of the Snake

What's winter without a hearty pot of soup -- and this steamboat-ish meal was just the thing for us to ring in the Chinese New Year over the weekend!

I left the chicken soup to cook itself in the slowcooker, before heading over to an Asian grocery store to get some yummy fishballs.

Fish or "yu" for abundance, and shrimp or "ha" for happiness, together with other ingredients made for a flavorful hot pot of goodness that we ate with long, long noodles! Then we rounded off the meal with a longan and almond jelly dessert, another fave from my childhood!


GONG XI FA CAI from my corner of the world! 
Have a bleSSed and Smooth Sailing Year of the Snake!

Some CNY cheer... with meimei's cute crafts, lovely pottery that eldest made in school, and beautiful wellwishes and gifts from faraway friends like the tablerunner, and card and ornaments that say "peace" and "prosperity". (Just rolled out with pics).

Stress lesssssss...

This week, together with some moms, I signed up to help our preschoolers make crafts in the countdown to the Lunar New Year. We also put pennies into red packets. It was quite a lot of fun packed into one morning! Saying "Gong Hei Fatt Choy" was a bit trickier!

My favorite of the crafts got to be this paper plate snake that my little girl made into a RAINBOW-COLORED one! Just the thing to usher in the Year of the Snake!

I am cleaning as usual, but not springcleaning for CNY, to try and
*Stress lessssssss..
Keep calm... and
Keep sane*! :p

STRESS LESS
A friend shared this via the "English is Fun" page. I am posting it here as a reminder to myself, and also because I think these are very practical steps we can all take to take care of ourselves not just on days when things get a bit much :).

1. Dance it out
2. Go for a walk
3. Talk about it
4. Breathe
5. Go to bed earlier
6. Focus on what you can control
7. Reminisce about good times
8. Ask for a hug
9. Look for opportunities in life's challenges
10. Smile

May I also add: Laugh -- LOL a lot!

Above: Meimei has a stuffy nose and not much of an appetite. She convinced me that piggie cookie from the supermarket would cheer her up, and ate a bit of the frosting and ONLY the frosting! She did ask for as many helpings of the blueberries -- and went and hid under the table to enjoy them so she would not have to share them with her brothers! Haha! (Notice also that the rainbow is very much the flavor of the month/year? I like it)!