From The House of Pinkrabbit

Ah Mei in Jakarta

2012-01-23T12:22:00.000+08:00

I am not refering to the Hong Kong singer.

But I am refering to this singapore brand restaurant located here in Oakwood in Mega Kuningan.

Remember when i mentioned how expensive food is here, well, so far the food at Ah Mei is delicious and big portion too.Which is why i told dearest hubby how i dont mind eating there when the food is worth what we paid.
They even have roti canai/prata and the Ah Mei milk tea is so sedap. It's milk tea which is it's house brand is similar to teh ais. Even its teh tarik is sedap..

I remember eating at Plaza Senayan food court. The place is similar to KLCC & Pavillion. But the size of the food court is smaller than in KLCC or Pavillion. The food is expensive and smaller in portion. One need to spend like around 40,000.00 rupiah for a meal.

I would love to try the local food that is sold at the gerobak.But do not dare if i will get stomachache. So far me and hubby only dare to buy local food from the food court only.. I still do not like the alpukat or avacado drinks. The lemak taste does not suits my tastebud somehow. But hubby loves it..

I have been going to malls just to check what kind of brands do they have in there.. And sometimes I don;t do lunch even though my two girls are with me. Hubby of course la is at work.. I either make sure my girls eat some food before going out or we come back home to eat for lunch. It is no worth paying for lunch at most of the big malls. But what I did is i buy for ourselves some treats like ice blended or some bakery. Only 1 ice blended ye!

My friend here commented how she prefers to stay at home rather than going to malls..Well, she has been staying here for 6 years. And i am at the 1st phase of checking out the malls. Actually I am not a shopaholic. But I am eager to see for myself what has been said by other about the size of jakarta shopping malls. Memang besar bangat!

cooking

2012-01-22T11:24:00.000+08:00

Yep!

I have been doing lotsa cooking thesedays.. How not to when my eldest requested this and that. But I really do not mind at all ..In fact I just enjoy cooking it for them.. which is why this new hat as a ibu rumah tangga fits me so well!!! hahahahah...

Anyway, things here are so expensive . And I hate wasting my husband hard earned money like we are pouring water to our flowers or like the water tap where we leave it on when we are brushing our teeth. Ops! but not me. As I dont leave it on while brushing my teeth.

I did my own apam balik for two solid reasons. First reason is because the ready-to-make apam balik flour sold on the supermarket shelf is so expensive and secondly , actually one can make their own apam balik flour too.You just refer back to the box for its ingredient. Which I did that. So apam balik is just like pancake. Except you excluded the milk or buttermilk & eggs.

So yeah, Arissa is having the marvelous time of getting me to cook this and that. I have been making apam balik these whole week. Last week was the cekodok cheese flavour...Yep! it is cekodok cheese which u just subtitute pisang/banana with cheese. OOh! It's so nice.

I have been planning to make this since my confinement period. It was put up in my cousin's blog and the recipe is purely created by my aunty.. You need to use kraft cheedar cheese for this.. Here the kraft cheddar cheese is so expensive. It's cost about RM5 ringgit more than in Malaysia..And i did try the made-in Indonesia kraft cheddar cheese which is totally tak sedap. So my next substitute will be the Bego brand. Will use it next when Arissa requested for it.

But I can't bake in this apartment as there is no oven. Plus all my cooking gadgets are still inside the boxes in the warehouse. So not all types of food & cooking I can do . I am limited by the gadgets and also by the food stuff that is not widely available or not available at all here in Jakarta.

Mind you all, that I have yet to see cili kering or dried chili which is the main ingredient to make sambal tumis. Sambal tumis is Arissa's all time favourite. She can have it on a daily basis. I do not know what I will have to use when we ran out of it later. We have packed a good amount of cili kering .But it is at the warehouse. And the frozen & cooked sambal tumis that is lovingly cooked by my MIL is almost finishing . In fact the blended cili kering is almost finishing too.. Hubby gave an idea of using cabe merah here. This I will resort in the near future..hehheh

Teh Tarikh RM10

2012-01-21T10:10:00.002+08:00

I mentioned how food is expensive here. Well, raw or cooked, almost everything on the supermarket shelves are expensive.

I had the greatest idea of using locally made in indonesia stuff for cooking. Nevetheless to say, i got a shock when these locally Indofood brands are expensive too. So at last, i resort to what is cheaper. Does not matter the brand or whether it is imported or local products.

Even my indonesian maid got a shocked of her life when she found out how expensive the fresh cabe merah is. Of course the place where you buy it does play a major factor in the price. But things here are expensive. I have made comparison of Carrefour located in Kuningan area ( upmarket) with Carrefour located in middle class market. And yes, its cheaper there. I just can't wait to do my groceries shopping at the pasar once we get our house..

About the teh tarik..yes, it is priced like that. Thank goodness it is sedap and served in big glass. Not in small glass like in some kedai mamak ok..

Ibu RumahTangga

2012-01-19T22:59:00.002+08:00

I am wearing a new shoes these days.. And it’s a well-known brand that is recognized all over the world.

I have just started wearing it just a day before new year . Before year 2012. So far the shoes fit nicely with me. It fits nicely that I hardly notice any bruises on my toes which a new pair normally leave.

Have been wearing it every day without failed. Wanna know what brand is it?

New shoes aka SAHM status!

I am a stay at home mother/mom/mama. I am also the Finance Minister, the Event Planner, the Nanny, the BFF and also the EVIL MONSTER!!! Hahahahah.. My cousin called it “ naga berapi” aka the fire dragon. But I can be my girls fairy god mother too in a split seconds..

Anyway, I have to say that I barely notice or feel the differences in my new work..Yep! It is a work indeed. And it’s a hard work too..I really don’t know why is it that I do not notice any transition phase from being a working mother to a SAHM now.

By right I should be feeling something. But none with me. Is it because of the apartment where I am living currently? I do believe that it makes me feel like I am on a holidays. But you do not do lotsa cooking when on holiday’s right?

Maybe because I have been so busy with Arissa’s school finding.. Yep..We, err r more to I actually as hubby needs to be in the office. So I did a lot of school hunting for Arissa.

Need to pick the right school for her in the sense that the school’s education systems shouldn’t be different from Malaysian school system. This is vital as we want a smoother transition for Arissa when we come back to Malaysia for good once my husband’s contract expired.

This is why we did not pick any international school even though we can do that.

Back to my new shoes aka new status as SAHM, I feel like I am born for it ..hahahhahah… All because the shoes fit nicely and no any red marks/bruises on my toes and feet.

And I did a lot of cooking in the sense we have teas too. I really do not mind making cekodok or apambalik or any type of food that is specially requested by my two girls. But I wish I can have all my cooking gadgets ASAP. All of it is still in the warehouse waiting to be shipped here. And it will be shipped once we found a nice house . This can only be settled once we get Arissa’s school confirmed!!

I used to be worried about being a SAHM. Worried what will become of me. What if I become bored of it. But I don’t deny that could happen to me once Arissa starts her school. Argh!

Life & Live from Jakarta

2012-01-07T23:44:00.000+08:00

Today is day eigth of my life in Jakarta.

We arrived here last Saturday Dec 31st 2011 on Garuda Airlines.Why Garuda?Well, all because dearest hubby had found out that each seat in the flight comes with its personal tv screen. Judging from the flight interior, i think they had it redesigned. One think that it is not hard to notice is the steward & stewardes. They are in their late 30's with average looks. hahah.. I always think that they will be handsome & pretty like Ken & Barbie!

The first few days of my life without being able to stay connected to FB was horrible. I felt so loss! hahha..Hubby had a great laugh at this. I was at a new place. Living a new life. And there was no FB to make me feel like home in a new country. Alhamdulillah.. Now I got my FB back after hubby got my new local hp no.

And we are staying in what is called as Jakarta Golden Triangle..

the day before my last day

2011-12-13T17:14:00.000+08:00

sedih pulak rasanya..

well, i will only be working TOMORROW Wednesday Dec 14th for the final , last time.

and i feel sad as i look at the time now. It's 5.07 pm. Office ends at 5.15pm. Eventhoough i still have one last day to work , to serve as an employee here at my company, I feel sad ...

dah la sibuk ngajar orang lain mcm mana nak buat keje..

I still have not received the approval letter to my unpaid leave application. I am applying for a 2 years of unpaid leave. Only managed to see my CEO yesterday petang . I got to know this big jakarta news on last monday petang pun. And my CEO wasn't around last monday petang.

So now , I am just waiting for the important news .. Either i get it or not, I will still have to follow my hubby to the new country which is just our neighbouring country.

the race is on

2011-12-06T23:20:00.000+08:00

i can barely breathe for this week..

all because of that one big important news that finally came through.. and it came earlier than expected.

Kudos to dearest hubby for doing an impressive job so far since last September.. for that reason la we got the news early..

and for that reason la this week is one hectic week it has been for me.. Plus, i am busy with account closing. And to make it more hectic, this is my 1st week of work after 2 month of maternity leave.. last monday was my 1st day at work..

and around 4 pm today as i was busy going through my costing report, dearest hubby called.. we need to get Alya's passport done ASAP!

and i was like " what?" . the sooner we have it done, the better and easier it is for the HR people to process & proceed with other important things relating to our move there..

While driving back home, my mind was already thinking this and that..planning this and that.. I can't afford to take leave tomorrow or any other day in this week. Dec 7th is the closing day for us. And after that, i need to settle other work related matter to account closing too.

Which was why I decided to take Alya's photo tonight. Everyone had to follow. The girls did not want to be left behind. And judging at the time, we need a driver to drive us as parking would be impossible at that hour.. it was 630 pm when we left home..So my MIL did the driving. And my maid followed too as she will take care of the two big sisters..

The 1st shop that we went did not do baby photo.Actually they dont know how to take one. This i realised after we drove to another photo shop located in another place.

I had to hold Alya against the blue back drop. And the photographer assistant who is the photographer's mom was busy distracting Alya with a rattler. Why? coz alya was crying at that time.. We got a nice photo of Alya with her eyes open. The old lady did tell me that it's fine if the baby's eyes are closed. But me just being worried as all this thing is new to me, asked his son to take another shot..Alhamdulillah , one of the shots was better..

and later i found out from fb posting on this matter that it's all fine if the baby's eyes is closed. The imigration staff will accept the photo..

and i have not managed to inform my head of dept about this.. why? too busy to sit down with her..maybe will talk to her tomorrow. any how, she is aware and has been informed of this possibility of me moving to jakarta..

tired i am ...i just have to follow my list ..

Fireworks

2011-11-12T11:07:00.000+08:00

Make your own fireworks !

That was what came into my head when my single friends go on holidays..

For me, single people should not stop from creating and making their own fireworks. While we married people have our own fireworks that is created from being married , single people should have theirs too.

Of course for married people our fireworks can come from our children & spouse that we have. Even from the spouse's relatives too..

But for single people, these are not attainable for them.. Thus, going on holidays are one of them.. I hate when single people just live their live between work and home only.. It should be about exploring other things too.. Going places that you have never been.. these are fireworks in life..

My PDA baby

2011-11-11T08:25:00.001+08:00

Alya is a P.D.A baby since birth. May it will close eventually .The sooner the better. Amin.

Even after birth, she does not have the signs of a PDA baby. She feeds normally . She breathes normally too. Thus, even the nurses at the Special Nursery centre where she was warded for jaundice were surprised to find out that she is having PDA.

Even until today, I am so thankful to Allah that it was Dr Azizi who detected this on Alya. Even though he did not hear it during Alya's first few days of her life, I am still thankful that it was detected during her stays at DSH.

Any doctors stand a chance of not being able to hear the echoes or murmur in the baby's heart. This is because one needs to be able to listen to it deeply & focus. One can not blame the doctor for failing to detect it in the first place because of our hearing capabilities. Only an person with sharp hearing would be able to detect it . Which is why for some baby, this condition will go unnoticed until sign of illnesses crop up later in the future. So don't be curious why doctors will check your baby's heart on each hospital or clinic visits.

And I am comforted by the fact that Alya's progress is being monitored and assessed by one of Malaysian most qualified doctor in that field..

How I wanted to break down & cry my heart out again when we went for the 2nd visit .. The 3mm hole is still there. Somehow a part of me told me to seek out more information on Alya's condition from Dr Zul . And I am glad that those information comforted me 99% . And that 1% of worry will be there until we see Dr Zul again in Feb 2012.

As for the moment, we are monitoring Alya's health based on the information we learned from Dr Zul on PDA baby.

Happy Days

2011-10-29T16:34:00.000+08:00

It'S A HAPPY DAY TODAY EVEN THOUGH IT WILL ONLY BE TO DAY AND TOMORROW. ALL BECAUSE HUBBY IS BACK FOR ARISSA'S CONCERT & GRADUATION.

3rd and future labour

2011-10-27T10:00:00.002+08:00

I feel the urgent need to share what I knew from my tukang urut .

All labour are different between one woman to another. And we as the owner of our body, should pay serious attention to what is happening and what is felt inside our body. This I meant post labour.

Certain pain that we are feeling are due to how our labour was. It means did we have an easy labour or a tough and complicated one where certain medical equipments like vacuum needs to be used .

During the berurut session, we can easily feel any pain when our body is being massaged. In fact , we can feel the pain when our feet is being massaged. Remember foot reflexology? If one have read a book on it, one will know that our foot hold the secret of our internal body's state.

Thus, if you feel any pain when your feet is being massaged, do inform your tukang urut. A good , realiable and knowlegable tukang urut will tell u what the pain is reflecting to.. And it should be correlated to the pain you are feeling with your body.Which is why I prefer to have my tukang urut who inherited her skills from her family's descent.

As for me, the pain that i felt when my feet was being massaged reflects the pain that i feel within my body. And when i rely another pain that i was feeling, my tukang urut explained to me how i got the pain. And I have to say that her explaination matched my story.

So ladies, open up and dont be shy to tell your tukang urut on any internal pains that you are feeling and having. By doing this, we are actually helping our body to recover fast.

My tukang urut also share with me a some common bad experiences that happened to a few ladies who neglected their pantang/confinement. Upon hearing those stories, I must say how thankful I am that I am in control not to let it happen to me. All I need to do is just do serve my confinement in a moderate way that I can .But certain things like eating food/vegetable should not be taken lightly or ignore at all cost. Vegetables & fruits are important for a good bowel thus keeping constipation at bay. Nevertheless, substitute certain vegetable that is best to avoid during confinement with another good vegetables. And keeping the intake quantity at moderation level is the best methods for us.

Have u heard sound like fart coming out from our vagina & not from our anus? Well, this is actually happening to some married woman outthere who has given birth. And what about certain part of the vagina came out ? Well, all these can happen to us woman if we take our confinement lightly and ignore any pains that we might have felt after giving birth.

I have taken bertungku & berbengkung lightly. But I did not ignore berbenkung at all. Alhamdulillah, i use bengkung during my 1st and 2nd confinement. But only during my 3rd confinement do I fully aware the benefits of bertungku & berbengkung can do for me.All because it's my 3rd pregnancy & labour. Imagine me doing my own bertungku now eventhough my urut session is done. hahahha... I want to live long and have a happy meaningful marriage!!

My tukang urut also gave a good resemblance of our uterus as kain perca.After baby is born, our uterus is like kain perca. Which is why we need to berurut or what we call sengkak peranakan. And these need to be done properly. If not the uterus wont get back to it's shape. And if we ignore it, then our next chance of getting pregnant may be small.

As our vagina & uterus has done it's job in delivering the baby out from our body, thus eating certain kind of food and not eating certain kinds of food need to be paid attention. Which is why now I understand why we need to eat food that can keep us warm inside and heal the wear and tear inside our vagina & uterus. And why eating food that is in the cold category is best to avoid during confinement.

And bertungku will help to keep our uterus warm from the outside. Not only that, bertungku also will help to shortened the days of our darah nifas.. Kira tolong kluarkan darah nifas dengan cepat la .. And berbengkung plus putting some heating cream or param will also keep our uterus warm from outside.

Bertangas also is good. But best not to skip bertungku. And as for me I like to do my confinement in a moderate way. All because I am breastfeeding my child and that I need to eat a healthy & balance food to get well soon.

So ladies, suddenly berbenkung, bertungku and bertangas and serving your confinement make sense in the end right?

Allah Maha Mengetahui

2011-10-26T11:06:00.001+08:00

I can still remember what my bidan urut told me 2 years ago when she was massaging my body during my confinement days in Seremban. And so are what other old people were saying about my next/3rd child's gender. They all said that if i ever give birth next , meaning 3rd time pregnant,then my 3rd child will be a boy.. They said this based on what they saw at my 2nd child's thigh.. I can only smile at that time upon hearing their views. It's hard for me to believe it as all i know that might not be true.

So here we are 2 years from that day.Allah Maha Mengetahui. Me and my husband got a beautiful baby girl this time. She looks more like her eldest sister Arissa. They have the same nose and same skin complexion. As for the eyes, Alya got the same big lovely black eyes like her 2nd sister Aisyah.

Back to what my tukang urut said two years ago.. Even towards the end of my pregnancy, I was only 99% sure that it will be a baby girl. Even as my gynea had confirmed the baby's gender via scan, i was still 99% . I hate to be so 100% confident on my baby's gender.Not that I was hoping to get a boy .

But more of Him. Because in the end , He knows what is best for us. For me , the most important aspect is the baby's health and physical.

I guess I know why people have a strong views on why i was carrying a baby boy. As usual, my tummy always look like i was carrying a baby boy inside of me. So were my two previous pregnancy. In fact , one indian grandma who i always see at the park said the same thing about my baby's gender.. I replied back by saying it that my tummy always look like that when i am pregnant. And that the doctor said it is a girl..But they couldn't believe it due to my tummy ..hehhehe..old wives's tale!

Noble & compasionate

2011-10-25T11:05:00.000+08:00

Name: Alya Syafiqah
D.O.B : 6th of October 2011

Our 3rd princess was born at 440pm.
All my three princess were born around evening ..

Website

2011-09-29T11:30:00.000+08:00

Eventhough I was only looking at the photos of this international school in Jakarta, good feelings are suddenly felt by me.

Of course the real stuff may be different from what is displayed online. But I must credited the special human touch effort embedded during their school website creation. In Photo gallery, so many school events from kindy level to Secondary level were put up on display. So are the school's PTA events & meetings. And the I like also the photos of the teachers & school management teams. It easy to tell from a person' smile. And I must say most have a pleasent smile that looks natural not superficial.

I do hope all these are the same when I visit this school .

36th/37th Week & Engaged

2011-09-26T16:23:00.000+08:00

Yup..We are in engaged position and THE HOSPITAL BAG is ready & are in my car now..

Went for my weekly maternity check-up last Thursday. Got a shock when my gynea delivered the latest result of my baby's position.. Engaged!!

I am in 35th/36th weeks and baby is engaged already.. And from what my gynea said, labour is possible within these next 2 weeks..

On my way home from hospital, so many things crossed my mind all of a sudden. I have so many ( actually a few ) stuffs to settle ...

The hospital bag is not ready..
The 2nd batch of newborn/0-3 months old clothes need to be collected from my sister ASAP.
My work need to be settled for whatever is outstanding. And i neeed to clean up my pc ...
The kids wardrobe chest of drawers need to rearrange to make way for the baby's clothes.
The baby bath tub needs to be cleaned.
My room needs to be cleaned & vacuumed..Thank goodness I have cleaned the windows of my bedroom 2 weeks ago..Yep, I cleaned it myself on the day hubby left for Jakarta..
Food stock for the house need to restocked. For me during my confinement period & kids too
Cat's food & litter sand need to be restocked..

So today, I am happy & relieved that most of the items up there are settled.. Alhamdulillah..

One of her favourite clothes

2011-09-22T16:41:00.001+08:00

This chocolate brown dress with printed ice cream motif is one of Aisyah current favourite clothes!!! She will asked us to put it on her each day. Even for night wear and sleep wear too she would request for this...
Alhamdulillah. She did not make a big fuss whenever I reasoned it out with her on why it can't be worn again after shower or for going to bed.

Oh yeah! This cute dress was bought by her Tuk Umi from Bandung ..

36th week and counting

2011-09-21T16:24:00.000+08:00

At this pregnancy stage, I noticed that I will feel so sleepy once I get myself tired.

It happened yesterday . I was buying food from the pasar tani cum pasar malam at my neighbourhood. Due to standing for so long while waiting for the seller to pack my sate, I felt so tired & sleepy once I reached home.

At 730 pm , I just want to have a quick dinner and go to bed as soon as I can.. I tried not to get angry with the girls when I am tired. It is easy for me to be irritated or angry when tiredness swept by ...

And today, here I am feeling sleepy after being on my toes for my office raya open house. I was busy making sure the food were always being replenished. It wasn't my duty but I feel its the right thing to do ..Some of my collegues are busy entertaining our guest while some joined to make sure that food is always available for our guests..

It's 15 minutes past 4 pm. I am all tired and sleepy now..

When I looked back at my 1st & 2nd pregnancy, this 3rd pregnancy is surely a new & different experience alltogether.. I am thankfull to Him for this 3rd pregnancy... There's my asthma attack, my high fever & food poisoning during fasting month, the 3 kilos that I lost due to lack of appetite/ high fever/food poisoning, and latest how sleepy I can get when I am all tired!!

Oh yeah! I notice how my right ear are easily get blocked right after I drank a bit of cold water!

Duit Raya

2011-09-07T12:04:00.001+08:00

I just do not understand how some parents & kids who like to open up their duit raya packet right in front of the giver. Isn't it rude to do that!

More over, they will start making faces especially when the amount is little & not what they expected to receive! Aiyoh!!!

We give duit raya because we want to give it..Thus, the amount is not significant & unimportant. The act of giving is more noble than the amount itself.. Beside it is hari raya...

But these kind of parents & kids just do not see that moral & reason behind it. Money is more important than the spirit of Hari Raya...

I blame the parents for showing this bad example to their kids .. Because kids copycat whatever words & body language that they seen from their parents...

In Five Weeks Time

2011-09-06T15:52:00.000+08:00

I have only 5 weeks to go before this little bun in my tummy popped out!!!

And yet I have not got all stuff ready for the big event ! Yikes!

So far I have managed to bring back from my parents' house to KL are new born baby clothes, muslin wrap and barut for baby.. Some of the cothes belong to my sister and some belongs to me.. Had it all washed already...

Not forgotten I managed to buy the baby's laundry detergent too..

As for myself, today I printed out the hospital bag check list..Come to think of it, I always do this for each of my pregnancy as I have forgottened on what is essential & a must to be pack inside the labour/hospital bag... Printed out 3 types of list from the internet!!!! hahahhah

And during lunch time, drove to mothercare in KLCC to buy the cheapest nursing breastpad in town... It's RM0.39 cents for one piece of nursing pad! And the quality is as good as Bebe, Avents, etc

More stuff that I need to buy for myself & for this baby too actually.. All needs to be bought ASAP ..I am giving myself up to 24th of Sept to get all stuff ready..

Baby names? We still have not started on it either!!!! I am due for my check up this Saturday... If the baby is still being shy about his/her gender, guess me & hubby will just have to prepare two names for our baby.. For our 3rd child, I prefer to have a name that is short & easy to pronounce.. Of course it needs to have good meaning too as each time we said the name, it is equivelent to a prayer .. Which is why we are discourage to shorten our children beautiful name from Khadijah to Katy or from Mohammad to Mad!!!

Play your legitimate roles!

2011-09-05T11:54:00.002+08:00

Things likes this would not have happened if husband & wife know their responsibilities & roles that they should do in a marriage.

All these while, I read this happening in the magazines .Magazines that always features this kind of articles are Mingguan Wanita.. Thus I can’t believe it when it happened to people I know..

In Islam, a husband main roles, duties & responsibilities are to provide everything, from A to Z for his family. This including providing a maid if he can afford one la.. And it is encouraged & ok for any wife to share & spend any amount of her own money for the well being of her family.. Meaning, a wife are given free option to share her money to buy food & pay for it for her family needs. But it’s not a right given to husband to demand for this from his wife..

Thus, if there is a mutual understanding between husband & wife on their legitimate roles to play, the marriage will be smooth sailing when it comes to spending money for the sakes of the family well being..

Even in other religion too this concept is widely known..I mean both husband & wife should shouldered the same responsibilities in their marriage..

But when a husband especially forget his roles & responsibilities, that is when a harmony marriage turns to be unharmonious one..

I just could not understand why a husband does not want to pay for the family food and other utilities too… The weirdest part is when the husband expect and even asked the wife to find a new job that can offer a higher salaries.. Shouldn’t it be the husband’s roles to find more money for his family? It is good enough that his wife is working too and willing to pay for food & utilities.. But asking her to get a new job is just too much la…

Want to know why this is happening? Based on stories that these ladies shared to me is that these husbands get too complacent once their supportive & kind hearted wives pay all the food & utilities bills… At the early stage of the marriage, these wives were eager & happy to help out with households finances.. And there are husband too that give monthly allowance to his wife to settle all the bills…

But things started to change for worst when these husbands started taking these things for granted… Suddenly the monthly allowance is stopped and the wife has to fork out everything from her own salary… Does not matter if the wife’s salary is lower or higher than the husband’s salary..It is still the husband’s roles & responsibilities to pay some or all for the house expenses..

More pity when this involved the well being of their small innocent children… Don’t these husbands want to give the best education for their own flesh & blood?

I get headache (slightly) when I think of these marriage illness… Sometimes I looked back to ones’ religion faith… I always believe a good knowledge of religion will help to shape one’s personalities & characters. Faith & religion will help to curb these marriage illnesses from happening…

I looked back at level of faith & religions of these husbands have…Sad to say that is NIL…

Again I hate it when people get too cosy & complacent of ideas & concepts of marriage.. I know in general, people like to use this concept of “just go with the flow” for their marriage. They apply this to husband & wife relationship. They even apply this concept when raising up their kids.. When it comes to kids, that is why we will see these obese kids due to poor eating habits low nutrition, kids with poor behavior who does not know to salam , respect others, kids who does not know how to behave in other people’s houses etc…More pity when these kids are not guided in their educations..

Argh!!!!

26th day of Ramadan 2011

2011-08-26T16:09:00.000+08:00

Insya Allah, we may be celebrating Raya on Tuesday 30th August.

And with that, we have 3 more days of Ramadan..

Meaning 3 more days left for us to make full use of this holy month. Which sometimes I feel like I have not done enough ie praying, donate, & read Al-Quran.

I read somewhere of how things can be difficult for us at the time when we want it to be easy.. For example, donating..There will always be people from different kinds of organisation standing at the bazar ramadan or pasar malam , asking for donation from passer by . We can either choose to ignore it or donate some money to them.. Sometimes, we ignore because we are in a hurry to buy food & stuffs. But most of the time, we ignore their presence for no reason at all..

There will be some like me who ignore them at first encounter and thinking that we can donate to them later once we are done buying our stuffs.. But it never rings in our mind that the opportunity to donate especially in this holy month of Ramadan may not come true the minute we really want to donate... Meaning Allah take that chances away from us as we have been taking it for granted countlessly..

This crossed my mind last night...I saw my hubby putting some money into the folded part of his kain pelikat at his waist. I knew that that money will be donated at the mosque after he is done with terawih... So it crossed my mind will I ever get that chance to donate tomorrow.. What if Allah take that opportunity & chances away from me?

Three days left for good doings in Ramadan.. I know some of us will be feeling sad . And think will we ever get to see the next Ramadan?

I know I will always be tired at night after putting my girls to sleep early..But I hope I will be able to do my terawih & read Al-Quran & donate in these next 3 days left of Ramadan..Insya Allah..

6th & 2nd Birthday

2011-08-25T11:17:00.001+08:00

This fasting month is also a birthday month for Arissa & Aisyah.. 15th of August 2005 and 7th of August 2009.

Aisyah was excited when I told her that we were going to eat birthday cake that Monday night. Soon we heard her singing happy birthday ( in her own words) ..

Cake was chosen by Arissa. We dropped by at the cake house after picking Arissa up from her Enopi class.. I already though this cake will be picked by her as soon as i see the gummy sweets on it..

As usual, it was a simple but a sweet birthday celebration just for us..

Asthma cough

2011-08-24T10:59:00.001+08:00

I thought it was only a normal cough..Little that I know that it is an asthma cough..Even the normal GP that I normally go near my house could not tell the difference. Only my Gynea was able to tell the different between normal cough & asthma cough..

My lungs are normal. And so is my throat..There is no sore throat either…However, my cough is very chesty & watery & phlegm too..

And the only remedy for this is to increase my asthma puff. And to stay away from drinking cold drinks!!! Thanks goodness this is the fasting month and my appetite is still not so great… I can’t imagine if it is not fasting months…

I know the temptation to gulp down that glass of cold air mata kucing, or cincau or air kedondong or air limau asam boi is really great when one is fasting… And I had gone that road during this fasting month. ..And yet, my cough & phlegm did not go away even though I have my puff daily.

Seeing this and feeling afraid of getting my lungs infected by virus, I am staying away from cold drinks…

I hate having this cough as I can’t have a good night sleep…Almost every other night I was coughing & flushing my pleghm down the sink bowl…Plus, this cough make me vomit also… There was one sahur where I vomited soon after finishing my sahur food. I only had a few kurma after that to compensate the food that I vomited. And Allah was great..I had a easy puasa for that day..Was feeling afraid that I might be feeling weak and having stomachache too…

Eversince I increased my puff and staying away from cold drink, I can see the improvement on my cough… To be honest, I am just wanting a safe labor when October comes. I am praying this 3rd labor will be an easy one like my previous two labor. Have heard stories about how tough the labor will be if you have an asthma attack on the same day. It happened to one of my staffs..

It’s better to have an asthma free labor if the possibilities of me going into labor without my hubby at my side is there..

Sometimes when I looked back of what had happened during this holy Ramadan, I am just thankful that He gave us strength to go through it..And that we did not even complained a bit about this ..All I know, how we all just pray that all will be over and that we are given chances to make full use of Ramadan by reading more Al-Quran, doing Terawih and donate more..

Ramadan 2011

2011-08-23T10:18:00.003+08:00

This Ramadan has been one challenging fasting month for me & my family.

The 2nd week of Ramadan had seen us all down with high fever which is caused by some virus.. Arissa got it first on the first Saturday of Ramadan. As the fever did not subside by Monday morning, we took her to see our pediatrician along with Aisyah who all of sudden caught the fever bug too.

Came Tuesday , it was hubby’s turn to get the high fever. By this time, Arissa was well. As for Aisyah she was all ok by Wednesday. But came Thursday, Arissa’s high fever came again and were only gone on Saturday .. While for me, I only have mild fever on Wednesday & Thursday. Alhamdulillah mine was gone fast as I did not fast for 2 days.

Anyhow, this fever lasted longer on Arissa & hubby. Both were having the same symptoms. Both will be shivering and so weak when the paracetemol is almost finishing its effect on their body. But as soon as they have the next dosage of paracetemol , hubby & Arissa will be ok… I remember how hubby told me that he was shivering in his air conditioned office. And in fact, he did not even turn on the car air conditioned when driving to & from work.

3rd week of Ramadan sees us all attacked by food poisoning… Again, Arissa got it worst. She was so weak and keep on vomiting … Aisyah only had minor watery poo poo .Thanks goodness she was her normal self. As for me, I was still losing my appetite to eat… Due to this, I lost 3 kilos which I hate it..But thank goodness, my baby is growing healthily. My bowel was still in watery conditioned too up to today.Just not as bad as Aisyah .

And now we are all ok in this 4th week of Ramadan.. But the side effect is still there within us..Our bodies are still 10% weak actually. In fact, my MIL is the last person to get diarrhea. Even though her is just a minor one, but it is still not good on her as she is not the type to drink lotsa water.. Her water intake is never 5 glasses of water daily…

I guess all of us will remember this Ramadan forever…In fact this is my first Ramadan as a pregnant fasting woman. And I did not fast for several days not because I was hungry but because of my sickness..I am glad the 1st week of fasting was an easy one for me..But the 2nd & 3rd week was so challenging… In fact right now I am still having my asthma cough ….I hope it will go away ASAP.

Have a blessed Ramadan everyone..

Baby's gender

2011-07-29T10:45:00.001+08:00

I know that almost everyone that I known had wish & shared the same view on our 3rd baby's gender.. They are all hoping it will be a baby boy as my eldest & 2nd child are both girls.

But to me and my hubby, boy or girl is not an issue for us.. The most important thing is that our baby is healthy and free from any physical & mental deformities..

Actually why we care less on our 3rd baby gender is because of the fact that there are so many married couples out there who yearn to hold and hug their own baby but still could not..

There are so many people around our life , be it among my hubby's surrounding and mine too, that are still childless. They are childless not by an option. Some of them have been married for more than 5 years and still trying to conceive...

With that reason, me & hubby are just thankful to Allah for his precious gifts to us... To tell you the truth, I too was afraid that I would not conceived our 2nd baby as the gap was 4 years from my 1st pregnancy. And even for my 3rd pregnancy, I still had the same fear of not being able to conceive .... Alhamdulillah we are lucky.

No words can describe the feeling a parent can feel when holding & hugging a child of our own flesh & blood. And no words can describe the longing look of those childless couples wishing to be in our shoes..

With that, any parents should be gratefull and honored to have a child or children of their own..