Gosh! Cobwebs covering this entire blog! Cant imagine I'm still blogging about our 2013 Australia Road Trip!

Should I blame it on the MacBook? Finally, gotten myself a new lappie and back to my old Faster, Favourite and Familiar window system.

2014 had just flew past in a whiz and 2015 had already gone midway.

So what happened in 2014? Things were much busier, with three monsters and with work. It did not help that the Mac seemed slow and it was a dread to find photo and upload photo. Slowly, I began to procrastinate the Mac blogging.

Recalling 2014 in a flash

Feb 14 - Our good helper left to work in Chile. The employer had her to learn driving and one of her duties is to fetch kids to school. What a world of difference between working here and Chile. We still kept in touch and kids occasionally watapps and had a Skype session with her. Nevertheless, thanking god that he sent another good helper to us.


Mar 14 - Kids' first duathlon! We were really unprepared! The other kids' bikes are so pro! Ours was just a normal not more than $100 bike which the kids had used a while. Despite that, we were soooo damm proud of the kids preserved till the end.







May14 - Jolly good time in Hawaii and Seoul


June 14 - A fun time gathering at Pulau Ubin and impromptu trip to Kidzania with Allan and family






July 14 - Trained and being cajoled by colleagues to participate in the Poly60 Run. This year again!
Aug 14 - Had a good Shape run and bumped into my buddy from my ex work place



Sept 14 - Hubby went through a challenging time and thank God for a kairos opportunity and courage which allowed him to break a partnership that was very dear to him. I had seen him struggling through all these years balancing between the need to uphold the friendship and helping to defend his partner's integrity and sacrificing his inner voice that all these were not right. It was indeed painful to see years of what we thought as solid friendship breaking apart as the partner gradually stepped beyond the boundary. It came to a point that his actions were too unscrupulous and this partnership had to end. Thank god for the overflowing of assurance and words from God throughout this period. Every sermon that was preached the following weeks seemed to be speaking to us and gave us comfort and assurancee. We had forgave and moved on. God had never failed us and we always thank god for his plans that were installed for us.


Oct 14 - Hubby had a bike accident and broke his collar bone. Thank god our bro, Allan was with him throughout. He reached home at 5am and told him he had an accident. I was half asleep and asked if he was alright. I was jostled out of bed when he casually mentioned he needed to be warded for surgery the next day! Time really flies and he is due for another surgery to remove the iron plate this Friday! Since the accident, he had laid off cycling and he's itching to get back! Perhaps, he's getting conscious of the 3month big looking belly.


Thank God for the strength to allow me to straddle between home, supervising kids for the SA2, hospital and work. Kids had a good finishing academic year. Both came up top 4 in their respective class! I was amazed.

Nov 14 - My precious sister finally got married! Hoping to hear baby news from her soon!



Dec 14 - Hong Kong trip!
I shall hopefully leave this to the next blog post....after I completed my Aussie trip blog :p

Finally done with a year's worth of posting.

Good Nite!

This year has been an extremely fulfilling year in terms of my fitness level. I am not an exercise person. But as I am approaching "Eldershield" age soon, I decided this year, I gotta put much effort.

While my exercising schedule was rather sporadic and not very consistent, I must still pat myself on the shoulder for the effort I have put in this year to attempt to increase my fitness level.

This year, we have attended complimentary lessons at Fitness first, completed 12 lessons of Zumba in CC, adhoc exercise cum pastor session with DH at our Gym and bought Groupon deal for Power Plate sessions.

Out of the various exercise sessions, I really enjoyed and find myself worked out during the Power Plate sessions at Croyez Studio. After each session, I find myself more toned up! Each session lasted for 40mins and ended with a high density massage on the Power Plate.


Unfortunately, we also pigged out alot! After each session, we will feed our hungry souls at different restaurants at Dempsey. We scheduled one exercise session on a Monday and were greatly disappointed that a number of eating outlets were closed on Monday. After that Monday, we decided no more exercise on Monday. Hmmm...our aim is to eat or exercise!?!?

My favorite got to be Chang Korean BBQ at Dempsey. Went back twice in a row and we were pleasantly surprised by the different side dishes. According to the them, they changed their side dishes every two weeks. How awesome is that! So love love love the food!







Ooops, this is not suppose to be a foodie post.

The greatest fitness achievement was  - together with some of my CG friends, we signed up for GE Women's Run 2013. Ok, so, it was only a 5km run but still it was a big leap for me!!



For the first time this year, Great Eastern also gave out medal for 5km run. Woohoo!

I trust next year will be a better and fitter year - perhaps more regular exercise at our Gym?! Cheers!

Online shopping for clothes is absolutely necessary for me since I don't work in town nor have I have much free time. However, I still prefer to go brick and mortar shop for household items not until I discovered the much more benefits for online household items shopping too! Not only it's convenient, it is also very wallet-friendly!

Have touched up my new nest with some online purchases from half of the world around.

Amazon
Amazon is truly amazing! A wide range and variety of items and shipping to Singapore is FOC! Plus plus plus...they have truly amazing superb service! Oh man, what more can you ask! Here's highlighting some of the items I bought!

Door Stopper
Just had to find a sleeker version to replace the yucky and old fashioned door stopper that DH bought! I think I have OCD.


Don't laugh at me! Yes, I have "imported" Dustbins and I really love the simple and sleek look for these dustbins. Almost wanted to buy dustbins from Ikea until I spotted these at Amazon!

Wall Organizer
@ the kitchen for my ladles, scissors and such.

@ the yard for my brooms, mops and such


Vintage Jars
ok.. I admitted. This was purchased on impulse as they are just too lovely looking!! And, I found the use for all of it! I saw similar glass bottles selling at Typo for $4/bottle. Set of 6 is selling at Amazon now for US$10.99 which comes up to S$2.42/bottle! Grab it!
DhGate
If you followed my instagram, you would see these lovely quotes put up at the wall. Shipping is also FOC from China!! Another favourite part of my wall was the chalkboard area. That was actually the DB Box area and the chalkboard paper we purchased fitted nicely on the door.

These are the only three items I purchased from DhGate.

For the first time, DH really painstakingly the house rules letter by letter on the wall. It was only when we received the second decal for the boys' room, we realised that there was actually a simpler way of transferring the wall decal to the wall!

Taobao
I know Taobao is certainly not foreign to you. People buy all sorts of items from Taobao - from clothes all the way to bulky furniture. I also understand many buy lighting, bed frame, chairs from Taobao. I'm only a small small player. First, to surf in Chinese is abit challenging, second, purchases gotta be done through a shipper and different shippers have different way of calculating shipping charges. Third, according to experts of Taobao buyers, you have to buy those with crowns and stars. Anyway, I used Peeka as they seemed to have rave reviews. I did not bother to compare how the rest of the shippers' charges but there are quite a few recommended shipper like daigou65 or Amcon Express from internet. Anyway, signing up and purchasing through Peeka was real easy for me and I received my goods in good condition. So no complaints.

As I was flipping some Home Magazines, I noted features of living wall having collages of photos hung in a very organised yet artistic manner. Initially, our plan was to purchase the frames from Ikea..until, I spotted these from Taobao! It has different sets for you to choose from. It was super easy to arrange and put up due to the photo paper and nails provided. Each frame with shipping charges involved came up to be around $2/frame!


Tin Tin
Bought the metal paints to touch up the boys' room.



Clocks
Love these simple and quaint looking alarm clocks for the kids room. The alarm is indeed loud and clear..I can even hear from my room.



Da dah....hope this will inspires to do more shopping online.

Pardon me for the long hiatus...comp was down for a period plus super busy with house shifting. From the time we had to vacate the house to the time our new place was ready, it was a good two months gap. During these two months, we put up at my parents' place and although it's a bit far for our usual activities, we are still thankful that there's no need to search for temporary lodgings and paid big rental for it.

Before I share more about my new place, I thought it's good to jot down the little interesting flashback during these times. My parents stay at Yew Tee while our activities centred around Clementi area. Hence, at times, we rather completed all activities before going back home as it can be quite a hassle with the 20-30mins drive. It dawned on me that we have already enjoyed so much convenience with the previous good location and it reminded me so much of "The city mouse and the country mouse".

Morning times
The whole ching gang will leave my parents' place by 645am. Seth, usually in his dreams, would be carried to the car to continue his beauty sleep during the journey to Gor Gor and Jie Jie's school. By the time we reach the kids' school, it will be around 710-715am. We would then proceed to have our breakfast. During that two months, it was a "challenge" thinking which coffee shop/ hawker to go. When we finally nicely settled down, Seth would then blur-ingly wake up knowing it's breakfast time.

In the past, our standard no-frill breakfast would be coffee and bread. For Seth, he would order from the "kitchen",  his fried egg or half boil egg or Cheese or Peanut Butter bread. During these two months, Seth has upped his morning appetite!  Like the usual Ah Pek in coffee shop, he will order the same items without fail - 2 eggs, 1 char siew bao and 1 glass of hot Milo.



IHe can even tell you which coffee shop in Clementi serves the best char siew bao! During these two months, we rotated between few coffee shops / hawkers in Clementi.  And, my breakie during these two months were very flavourful with Dim Sum, Bee Hoon, carrot cake...

Regulars @ Clementi Library
The kids' school and enrichment are centred around Clementi area. Hence, there were times when we rather spent time at Clementi Library waiting for one kid to finish his/ her class before the troupe goes back to Yew Tee. Monday was by far the most tiring day for us. Seth has enrichment at West Coast at 7pm while Shan ended her dance CCA at 6pm. While waiting for Seth to finish his lesson, Shan will cool herself at the Library doing her HW in her messy and sweaty school outfit. At times, I felt so sorry for her as by the time we reached back my parents' place, it would be well after 9pm. She would have to quickly shower and dry her hair before settled for the night. Thankfully, these episodes did not affect her studies and her CA results.

While Shan is having her ballet class on Sat/ Sun, Sky would also be in the library doing HW and reading as well.

Our bed
Thankfully, bedroom at my parent's place was huge enough to contain 5 of us! With two mattresses on the floor and a queen sized bed plus a couple of luggage, that was "home" for us that two months!

All glory to god, we are now happily settling well in the new place for a month already and house has now transformed to our home already. For the first few days in the new place, Seth was very upset and had withdrawal symptoms for his egg and char siew bao! People are really very adaptable creature. He's now back to Peanut Butter bread or egg for breakie!

side note
While hubby was doing unpacking during the initial days of shifting, he texted me, "Why on earth do you need 20 pairs of different length and patterns of shorts when you can live off one luggage for the past two months?!" LOL. Forgive him, he doesn't know the difference between shorts, berms, cullocks...

Time swooshed pass and we are now in the last month of 2012. December is my favourite month as it spells Birthday (yeah, my birthday), Love, Joy, Christmas, Festive, Rain, Cosy and of course God! I'm inspired and reminded to give thanks and be grateful. Today's such a special date and I decided that I 1 2 1 2 1 2 have the same blessings over & over again and thus this thankful A-Z list! :p

Arise & Build
My church is going through another season of Arise & Build. I'm really thankful for this chance to give unto the lord. Our family had been bountifully blessed since we first participated in Arise & Build for the church seven years ago. Every time we give, our promises are fulfilled, our faith are tested and we are always saved by his grace.

Body
While we have occasional flu bugs hitting us, we have no serious illness for this year. I thank God that during the last detailed body check up, every part of my body is in order and not malfunctioning. Health is wealth and I thank God that all of us in the family has healthy body.

Cell Group
Cell group really connect and build a circle of support. It's not easy to commit and I really salute the leaders for making the time for us.Besides close friends, you don't go around informing friends of certain happenings in your family. During the time when my Dad needed to go for check up for Parkinson, I only told 1-2 friend and hubby happen to update our CGL too. But because Cg is such a close connect group, I received several messages from Cg members giving words of encouragement and praying for us. It is such a time when people started rallied around you and that itself give you strength to go on which I really appreciate. 

Dance and Draw
Ahhh... Thank God for the extra talent or passion that he gift to Shan and Sky. Glad that they find passion in an activity that they wouldn't trade and give up for.

Everyday
Thankful that I can wake up everyday to smell the roses and feel the fresh air. Ok. Life's not so romantic. Thank god for everyday. Period.

Family & Friends
Thank god that I have a close knit of family and friends that fill my days with joy. Thankful to my hubby who besides God, put the family right on top of the list. Thanks to him that we have food on the table cos he's the marketing man in our household. Thanks to him who knows the pork and fish seller (vice versa) so well that they saved him the freshest buy. Thanks to him for still bringing laughter to me. Thanks to him who is so righteous that always pull me from fantasy firmly to the ground. Thanks to him for not retaliating when I'm in grouchy and grumbling mood. Thanks to like-minded buddies that we can chuck the kids at home and have dinner and movie dates. Thanks to friends that we can do a quarterly or half yearly or yearly meet up to have good food. Thanks to buddies that besides work, we can have good laugh over whatapps.  

God
I thank God that I get to be acquainted with him 10 years ago and can now call upon him anytime, anywhere.

Holidays
I love travelling! Almost without fail, we for yearly family / friends travel trip. Thankful that we have good travel buddies. This year, we manged to cover Europe and Korea! Will be putting up posts on the most recent Korea trip soon!

Independent
Slowly and surely, Seth is gaining his independence. He's fully toilet trained some half year ago. I'm utterly shocked (though I hope my facial expression maintained its composure) during our recent travel, a fellow travel mate asked me if I have spare diapers for her 5 yr old son. They looked equally shocked that Seth is not wearing diapers for night time. Depends on mood, he now wears his own clothes after shower and wears his own shoes before going out. He can eats on his own but depends on the food and his mood of course. 

Jap food
ooooh.....I will never never get tired of Jap food. On the other hand, I can't really stand grilled pork and kimchi after a week.

Korean Shows and Skincare
O...but I love soapy, high school romance Korean dramas... I like to indulge my me-time at the wee hours (besides blogging) to ogled at the hunks and beauties and have my own fantasy. And I can boldly share that Korean Skincare is showing effects on me after using it for a week. My face looked brighter and clearer when I wake up after using different combi of Korean Skincare. I don't even feel any difference when I was using SK2.

Library
Clementi Mall Library is the best thing that could happen. That's the only place we frequent in Clementi Mall. I got excited when I smelled crispy new books when it first opened in April. Since we have 5 of us, we can max out 4 cards at any time except during this time of the year when borrowing limit is doubled. Now, I lamented that there's not enough books.

Mummy
It's only when you become a mother yourself, you can really understand and appreciate your mum. I guess I must have hurt or upset her alot when I'm young. I certainly can't measure up to her as she could did so much more as a mum. Perhaps another person I should be thankful for is my maid so that I could just concentrate to spend quality time with the kids instead of the floor when I'm back after work.

Nationality
Hey, I'm thankful that I'm born a Singaporean.

Optimism
I'm thankful that I'm not a born worrier. In fact, I think I'm too optimistic at times. At times, Pastor shared about how we should not have a poverty mindset. And no, I'm definitely don't belong to this category! Hubby thinks sometimes I too carefree.

Piano
Heard too much of kids dropping out of ballet and piano when they reached P2/3. Glad that Shan maintained her interest and chooses to continue. Thankfully, there's a piano teacher whom revived Sky's interest. I'm not the tiger mum at this area and just thankful that I can hear beautiful pieces of music coming from my home from time to time. There's many subtle benefits associated with playing music and I just pray that their interest last. 

Quaker Oats
Besides the boring bread, expensive atas croissants and sinful char tau kwey and MacDonald's, Quaker Oats is another good alternative breakfast eat that the kids like. Thank god for that.

Read
The kids love reading. Ok, for Sky, needs some pushing to read but at least he reads. Shan, on the other hand, needs to be pushed to stop reading. That's a happy problem. Sometimes, I see books lying in the toilet! Seth loved to be read to every night. The only rant, not enough Chinese books reading time.

Snow
2012 marked the year that our family first see snow. Not just droplets but literally snow pouring. It's beautiful. It's blissful. No words could describe how I felt watching and soaking in the snow and the kids do snowball fight. I can die in peace now! :)

Trio
Ahhh...My 3 Super Ss - Shan and Sky, Seth. Thank god for them that bring us joy and laughter and made the family complete. No, not all is rosy. Sometimes, there's spices - cat fights, screaming, scoldings and canings. But, it's cute when the siblings came up to me and said they made themselves a pact to do a handshake after a heated argument to show that peace is in the family again.

Universal Studio
Ooo. I think I am still a child. I love going to theme park. Despite having 3 kids and at this age, I'm not a grumpy auntie that only goes market. LOL!  Thankfully, I have no fear of height and I love thrilling rides. Glad that my kids are not the scary-cat type and they too enjoy those rides (except unless they are limited by height/ age rule).

Victories
Because we have a sovereign God. I thank God that we have many victories and testimonies to share. And panting!! for finally reaching letter "V"!

Word
His word brings life to my life. Hearing and reading his words give me wisdom and how and what I should say, act and behave.

Xtra
I think I have nothing xtra to say, abit tired by now.

Youth
Secretly, I'm pleased that while I don't have a sexy body and tofu skin, I still receive compliments from time to time that I don't look like a mother of 3. Gotta thanks Mum for the gene. You should look at my Sis - people still think she's a university going student despite being a decade older than that!

Zoo
Finally! My last letter and for the lack of it. I thank god for our Zoo. It brought so much fun for our family. We laid off Zoo for quite a while after maximising the Zoo membership two years ago. Especially with older kids and having classes on Saturday, it's quite impossible to visit the Zoo on weekends. Now with Jia Jia and Kai Kai on board (newly imported Panda if you don't know), looks like we are going to the Zoo again sometime soon! Pray that I get balloted for the Zoo pass (and before school re-opens)!

You have aged gracefully and you are my role model for being active Senior Citizen. Your passion for life long learning never fails to amaze me. You went for English classes (though never seemed to get past the few sentences :p). I'm ashamed that your lifestyle is so much healthier than mine. Besides eating healthily, you go swimming, yoga, line dancing and anymore?? My only form of exercise is to chase after Seth. Despite of your hectic schedule, you visit the kids every week. You kept up with the news and always share your knowledge of child rearing from your reading or your favorite radio station, FM 95.8.

We are not a very expressive family and physical touch such as hugging and kissing seemed so lacking. Now, your grandkids have made up for it by giving you huge hugs and kisses. Your tigress way of bringing me up had somehow brought out some rebellious streak in me during my younger days. However, I'm gratified that your teachings has instilled me to stay firm on the ground and led me to where I am now.

Dad's usual and must order