Lets Relax & Have Roti Canai Anyone?

watching my diet kunun!!! i'm tired of eating nasi, so i made vege dhalca last night before i went to bed, to be eaten with instant roti canai for dinner tadi. hehehe new age mom, kalau nak buat complete dish during the weekdays mesti kena masak awal. kalau setakat stir fry vege tu boleh lah main campak2 jer, 10mins siap. sebenarnya i'm not in the mood of cooking anything lavish, pastu nak cut down on rice intake. tapi pi belasah roti canai. matematik mana aku pakai? heee

roti canai segera tu boleh tahan jugak lembut. vege dhalca tu jangan cakaplah memang menjilat jari! hehehe masuk lif tekan sendiri... ;-P

i want to thank all yang bagi komen & suggestion in my previous entry. i really thank you all, sedikit sebanyak kurang sikit gelisah. i made fahmi finish 1 page of his homework last night. no screaming, no yelling, no threatening etc. i shower him with lots and lots of compliments setiap kali dia siapkan satu huruf. satu huruf tau! penat mulut, kering lidah... but worth it. he enjoyed doing it ... sampai nak buat the same alphabet dua kali!

i think i have to learn to take it easy. don't push him so hard. tapi tu lah masalahnya... i use myself as a benchmark. as a kid, i'm a self starter, i don't need to be told what to do, where to start. i find my own way, i made my own choice, i create my own path. i excel at school, i stayed away from problem, i was a teacher's pet. i'd rather starve daripada tak sempat siapkan homework. dan secara tak sedar aku sebenarnya expect fahmi to be like me, a self starter. that is too much to ask from a 4 year old, kan?

rasanya banyak lagi yang aku kena belajar tentang parenting ni. this whole thing about fahmi ni, is another learning phase for me as well. i have to relax a bit, take it easy... breath... fuhhh boleh ke aku ni? scary kekadang.

masa kecik nak kena dukung ke sana ke mari, makan bersuap, mandi dijiruskan, baju dipakaikan, jalan berpimpin. masa tu ingat bila anak dah besar sikit, dah pandai pakai & makan sendiri ringan lah keje. tapi bila dah besar lain pulak ragamnya ye? so, sapa kata bila anak dah besar senang nak jaga? :-P

1 Month

tak tahulah if there is any parents out there who had experience facing the same problem like mine right now. if there is any, friends do give your advice. i think i badly need one. :-(

first, i (note the singular) chose not to follow the trend; sending my children to attend pre-school at a very very young age i.e. some starts as early as 3 yo. i don't want my children to get bored by the time they step in to formal school. so i thought i'd coach them at home first, then when they reach 4 only i shall send them to pre-school. which i did with fahmi; he now has been attending the once a week smart reader tutorial class since end of January this year. but, for the past 3 years at home, i had not seriously coaching him. so, senang cerita, walaupun sesekali ku ajar juga abc & 123 but i never teach him how to write until recently just before he join smart reader.

it wasn't easy, juggling between your career, being a wife and a mother. ini kan pula nak jadi cikgu kat anak2 sendiri. as fahmi grew older, i realised that time is running out. at first i thought i could make time for him... and yaya. but now time is chasing us. finally, i gave up... i surrender. i could never do it; coaching them at home. by saying this it really makes me feel like a helpless mother. so, i (note the singular, again. when it comes to the children i made the most decision & planning for them) send him to smart reader, hoping that he will get the attention and education that i lack giving him. oh my... it's me again.

he was so excited about this school thing. perhaps it is the best for him. although he had a late start, but better late than you feel sorry later.

i didn't expect that after a month of him going to once a week class, already he is showing signs of boredom... and lazyness? the teacher been giving him homework, enough to make him occupied at home doing it until the next class. at first i thought that the teacher must be crazy expecting my son to finish of 8-10 pages of homework. if this is how the tutorial done, then i myself can do it too. but i already failed kan? i should be grateful to the teacher. now, i'm beginning to realise that that(homework) is not enough.

fahmi, now he can write AaBbCc. tulisan dia boleh tahan kemasnya. but most of the time when asked to finish off his homework he'd come up with so many excuses i.e. penatlah (after barely a row of alphabet), nak main lah, tangan sakit lah. susah sangat nak keep him concentrate on what he's doing. kekadang i have to force him and use whatever threats that i can think of, kalau tak siap tak boleh main basikal or no food until you finish or no jalan2. he will continue with his homework, but half heartedly. not because that's what he want to do or he enjoy to do. pendek kata, he doesn't enjoy learning. now he even say that he doesn;t want to go to school anymore.

today, his teacher told me that she is splitting the kids into 4 groups based on their progress. and fahmi is in group 4, the less progressing group. his teacher is not happy with his progress, so she's giving him extra attention & tutorial today after other kids left. i'm not happy to hear this, i thought that he is OK at school, and his laziness hanya kat rumah jer. i thought that it is because he had enough at school. teacher said that he can write, but when asked later he does not know or understand what he's writing.

i'm not sure what is his problem? is he so hyperactive he can't be asked to sit and learn? nak kata lemah daya ingatan, dah berkilo ku bagi makan kismis & kalau dengar lagu cepat pulak dia ingat.
how can i make learning an interesting activity for him? dia asyik nak bermain jer, kalau main tak penat pulak. he's already 4, is it still a young age to expect him to be able to concentrate on something like learning ABC? this is not the first class he attended. i used to send him to tumble tots before.
what else can i do for him? how can i make things better for him? helppppp!

Flags All Around

we choose to go western for our dinner tonight. we had grilled salmon with light lemon herbs sauce; no rice, dapat salmon sepinggan sorang pun dah kenyang. suka betul buat one meal dinner macam ni, all in one plate, the fish and veggies; cukup lengkap. dapur pun kurang berkecah. but the smell that comes out from the fish masa tengah grill tu memang a bit turn off my selera sebenarnya. it smells like ikan masin, busyukkk. thank God it doesn't taste like one ;-).

it was while sitting leisurely watching tv that we heard bunyi motor lalu lalang depan rumah. and sayup2 suara ceramah politik dari playground neraby. hmm there is no escape from being engulfed in the heat of the coming general election. banners, flags and flyers everywhere. budak2 sekolah yang tak tau apa marching keliling taman carrying flags, some who have bikes would carry the flags riding keliling taman. what i object to most is the youngsters being used to do such thing simply have no regard for their own safety. they'd ride their bike recklessly, they don't give a d*** ada kereta lalu ke apa ke. and those adults who ask (pay) them to do such pun satu hal, tak bertanggungjawab.

and tonight, i heard DSAI is delivering his speech. teringin nak dengar ceramah dia sebenarnya, but my two little kitten ni mesti nak menyibuk. hubby went anyway; will catch up with him later ;-). i was in my first year at uni when he (dsai) was removed from office. back then, he was very popular among young people, uni students. aku pun tak terkecuali teruja dengan auranya. we (me & my hostel mates) were ready to strike a march in reaction to his removal, if we were asked to do so. semangat orang2 muda lah katakan. well, anyway, everyone is entitled to their own opinion dan pilihan. there is no right or wrong in doing so.

and tonite, fahmi dengan mulut banyak soalnya, he blurt out satu soalan lawak. he asked me just now what is the thing yang boleh scroll(not his exact word though) ke atas ke bawah kat monitor pc ni. he assume that since 'benda' tu bleh gerak ke atas ke bawah, then it is a 'lift' as in the elevator yang kita naik tu. and before i say anything further to correct him dia dah terus tanya lagi "ada orang ke dalam lift tu, mama?"

I Forgot!!

i forgot that i was supposed to collect my money (owed to me) from the nursery. i paid them one month advance for january fee, but stopped sending the children halfway. so they were suppose to refund half of the fee back to me. which they promised to do so had i contacted the principal end of last month. but i forgot about it, totally. i check my phone calendar recently and i saw 1st february in bold; i don't recall anybody's birthday in february except mum's birthday towards the end and my niece's birthday few days before valentine's. so i click view, and there my reminder notes clearly stated that i was supposed to collect my dues. with technology invention to help human more efficient in handling daily chores, how can i still overlooked? oww... i'm getting old.

Homemade Beef Burger

we had homemade beef burger for breakfast this morning. hubby likes to have his homemade beef burger once in a while for breakfast.made of mince meat with plenty of ground pepper and a dash of ground basil, salt to taste and 2 tbsp of egg (beaten) so that the meat sticks together. shape and freeze overnight before use.

i gave fahmi & yaya a new haircut yesterday. yaya's hair is now 2 inches short, she look different, no longer will she look like a furious lion (dengan rambut ikal kembangnya itu). and fahmi with his new hair cut, i suspected that soon he would be furious with mama when he realised that he could no longer style his hair macam 'penyanyi hong kong' ( a term we use to describe his rambut terpacak). his hair is short, i didn't keep extra length on top to be styled. he'd soon find out... ;-)

we (me & hubby) planned to go out for a dinner last night, just the 2 of us. something that we do once in a while, away from the children. fahmi fell asleep right after maghrib, that makes our plan even easier. but yaya already had a nap in the afternoon; she was still bright and lively and demanding us to take her with us. the fact that her abang had already fallen asleep, she would be left with no one to play with, it makes her demand ferociously. she wouldn't take any reason. she won the battle. we went to chili's at bangsar.

just the 3 of us

Reunion

we rushed for my best friend's, shikin, wedding in seremban right after work yesterday. we never saw each other ever since our last day at school 12 years ago. we spend 6 years in primary school together and 5 years in secondary which means altogether 11 years of going to school together, children's friendship but it never end there. we were 17 back then, now we are both 29. age is really a factor, we both have changed, we were adults now. i didn't quite expect to see how different she looks now, i remembered how she looked like on our last day at school, she was the cutest girl in our class, small built with a cherubic smile, yess she's like a baby... we even treated her like a baby because she was the smallest, fairest and cutest among us. even describing her now brings a smile to my face. she's so angelic and i secretly admired her for being so angelic that i could never have such composure. i was tomboyish back then.

ohhh there were so much childhood memories i could relate, sweet memories. i really appreciate the fact that she tracked me down months before her marriage. eventhough we have not met each other for 12 years, she remember me and wants me to join her celebrate her happy day. the childhood friendship really mean something, the relationship we shared was a treasure.

i've been trying to trace her ever since we left school. i always wonder what is she doing, how is she doing etc. everyone just went their way after we stepped out of school. only a few remain in touch, by accident most of the time, it is either we went to the same school for stpm or the same uni. very little news i got about her from our circle of friends. i just hope that she is doing fine. alhamdulillah she is. now she runs her own 'mak andam' business, left by her late brother. i'm shocked to hear about her late brother (we went to the same school).

i knew she would be a beautiful bride one day, but i didn't expect her to be so breathtakingly beauty. i always hope i would turn out to be a beautiful swan on my wedding day, but a goose is always a goose. she's a swan, always. i hope she'd make a wonderful wife and mother.

ohhh i am soo touched by this reunion... sob...sob.

So Hot

It’s sooo hot these past few days. The weather was very dry with no rain. And my body beginning to react to the hot weather. My lips started to crack, aduii pedih sib baik lately ni I’ve been using lip gloss, no lipstick and it helps to give extra moisture to my lips, takdelah teruk sangat cracked nya. tekak rasa kering so I drink lots and lots of water yet immediately after that mulut semua kering balik. My eyes are sore and dry, my body ached and I gets tired easily walaupun sekadar duduk dalam office. I even postpone my site visit coz i don't think i could stand the hot weather. Am already dehydrated sitting in this fully aircondition office apatah lagi kat luar sana. But I read somewhere that working in a fully air condition place is even worst, sejuk di dalam tapi panas kat luar, lagi senang dapat sakit.

I asked the kids to drink a lot of water too. They are the most hyper ones, they use a lot of energy and with the hot weather they’d sure lost lots of body fluid. But how can I confine them from going out of the house? Especially fahmi who keeps on bugging me if he can go out for riding even di tengah hari panas! But I could not take the risk, let them cry or climb the wall; I’m not going to compromise when it concerns their well being. They’ve just recovered from cold and cough; I couldn’t risk another bout of fever or anything of that sort.

but the hotness doesn't stop me from hibernating in the kitchen. we had grilled chicken breast with white mushroom sauce last night. like its namesake, the recipe is made of chicken breast. the rest of us had grilled chicken breast on our plate except for hubby doesn't like the meaty part, never was and never would be one, so for him i replaced the breast with deboned drumstick.

grilled chicken bed on a bed of potato salad & white mushroom sauce

i marinated the chicken with pepper, italian herbs & salt. coated with extra virgin olive oil and grill til golden. in the meantime while waiting for the chicken marinate, i prepared the chicken stock (for the sauce), sliced white button mushroom, prepared potato salad (cut into 6 halves, mix with ground parsley, pepper, salt & lightly coated with olive oil), arrange garnishing on the plate and sementara meng gril chicken, i made the mushroom sauce. it was my first experiment with this recipe which i pick up from a cooking programme on tv called a'la carte. i didn't actually follow the recipe 100%, i don't know whether the full recipe was given because i missed the first 10mins. but i observed the chef while he's cooking and decided to reproduce.

fahmi enjoying his lot

and wallah... it is worth every sweat, in fact no sweat at all, as it was a very simple dimple recipe but the result is fantastic. the ingredients that i used to marinate the chicken was very simple, yet the chicken taste so good and soo succulent you can even eat it on its own. tambah seronok when you have children like mine yang cukup suka mama dia experimenting with recipes. fahmi is definitely a smooth talker; cukup terer buat mama dia kembang semangkuk dengan ayat2 power dia. would definitely consider putting up this menu when entertaining friends. tapi bila ye?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here's the recipe, khas untuk diana.

chicken breast, cleaned
ground pepper
1 tsp ground mix herbs
salt to taste
olive oil

gaul semua kecuali olive oil & perap ayam for 20mins. panaskan frying pan/grill pan, sapu ayam dgn olive oil dan grill til golden brown. kalau agak2 kering letak sesudu butter. bila masak belah dua, susun atas plate.

bahan untuk sos:

2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
white button mushroom (hiris nipis)
1/2 onion (diced)
2 clove garlic (mince)
2 helai daun bay
2 tbsp mix herbs
2 tbsp ground pepper
1 cup milk/heavy cream
1 cup chicken broth (atau 1 ketuk chicken cube dissolve dlm 1 cup air panas)
1 keping keju
salt to taste

melt butter in a sauce pan, tumis garlic with mushroom & daun bay(jgn sampai garlic hangus). masukkan flour, kacau for about 3 mins, masukkan onion, mix herbs & pepper. let it simmer, lepas tu masukkan air rebusan ayam, bila mendidih masukkan susu or heavy cream. sambil kacau let it simmer for about 5mins, sampai agak pekat. masukkan garam & keju. ready.

untuk potato salad pulak. kupas kentang, rebus sampai empuk. drain, potong 6 bahagian atau kurang jika potato kecil. letak ground pepper skit, garam & ground parsley serta olive oil. gaul semua.