The Bible says :

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
         The fruit of the womb is a reward
Psalm 127:3

So those who have many children must be more spiritual that the rest, right? And that’s why we have been rewarded with many children?

WRONG!!!

I don’t think the bible infers that at all. Read a related article from my dh’s website, A Parent by the Grace of God.

I certainly hope there aren’t people out there thinking that they NEED to have many children to prove their spirituality! Or those who look at others who have one or two children as being less spiritual.

God chooses whom He chooses. Whether you have one child or 20, doesn’t make you more spiritual.

Then there are those who feel that we must have a lot of faith to have this large a family since raising children is an expensive exercise in Singapore. Well….

We may seem to have more faith than most people but you can have the same faith! Faith is not something that grows within you overnight. But it grows! It is God who increases our faith as we trust in Him. Everytime you place your trust in Him, He grows your faith and on and on it goes.

We probably pray more than those with less children, but erm…our prayers more often than not, go, “Oh Lord, why me?!?!?!” or “Help me, Lord!!!” Lol!

We could all do better with our prayer lives I am sure. We all know that we need to spend time with the Lord to do what He has called us to do but - horrors! - we also fall by the wayside! We know that unless we abide in the vine (John Ch15), we cannot bear any fruit but then, we are also human and the easiest thing to do when your To-Do list is a mile long is to forgo our time with the Lord.

Been there, done that. There are times when I have gone weeks without opening my Bible except for doing school with the children! And then I wonder why I am so tired, so miserable and so discontented.

Other times, I just didn’t feel like praying or reading the Bible - another shocker, eh? The tv, the internet, the books, the magazines all seem more interesting than the Bible.

So no, trust me, we are definitely as sinful as the next person and could definitely spend more time in prayer and meditaion with the Lord. We are so not super spiritual!

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If you want to know what we have been up to, drop by my blog,

Building An Ark In Singapore.

I need to get this out of the way coz I hear it a lot and it makes me really uncomfortable.

And, no, I don’t do it all nor do I try!

Most times people look at the various roles I perform and conclude, mistakenly, that I am a superwoman : a human with super powers! A superwoman!!!

But I am far from being a superwoman. I am human, like anyone else and most of all, sinful. The only super power I have is the ability to make milk!

Yes, I cook, I clean, I homeschool and I nurse my babies till they are ready to wean. And I maintain both blog and website myself. And we do not have a maid or a part timer or have grandparents help out or live with us. Sounds impressive huh? But these do not make me a superwoman or a supermom.

The title supermom or superwoman implies that all these tasks get done easily, effortlessly. But let me tell you again - they are not done easily, they are not done effortlessly.

Each of the role I perform has its challenges especially cooking! But it is truly only by the grace of God I have been able to juggle and keep these balls up in the air the past few years. So it means that anyone can do it too, IF they rely on God and not on their own strength.

I am not doing this on my own strength or ability. I don’t have that  kind of strength or ability. Ask any of my friends from pre-children days and they’ll tell you that they are very  surprised that I am doing what I am doing today. Or better still, ask my dh. He’ll tell you I am no supermom.

It is an act of God. He calls, He equips.

Many mistakenly believe that only special people can have more than 1 or 2 children. That is not true. He gives you the children, He’ll equip you to raise them. Whether you have one or 18.

But that is not to say that I have not dropped the numerous balls I juggle from time to time. Like I said before, I am a sinful, human child of God, prone to wanting to do things my way, not His and have paid the price for being stubborn and unyielded to His Spirit. And sometimes, I do get tired of it all that I need to do and feel like letting all the balls drop to the ground and just go to sleep!

It ***is*** very hard.

Why? Only because my flesh protests at being asked to deny myself over and over again. The sinful, petulant spirit within me pouts and whines - what about me??? What about my needs, my wants….But life isn’t all about me is it? Well, at least according to the Bible it isn’t. Jesus does talk about denying ourselves, putting others before ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong. we need to take care of ourselves. But deep down I know my problem is selfishness. I don’t feel like thinking of anyone else! I want me to be supreme!

Some may also think that just because I have this website means that I have gotten my act together. Now trust me, you can’t be more wrong about that! God prompted me to start this website to to share what I have learnt after many years of fumbling around. To be an encouragement to moms, especially young moms. But by no means does it imply that I have arrived.

Hey! Sometimes, I don’t even follow the tips and advice I dish out!

And honestly, the more children I have, the more I realise that I don’t know a thing about raising them. They present strange and varied challenges on a daily basis.

There are days when I just cry - literally and to the Lord, that “I can’t do this!” OR “I don’t want to do this anymore!”. Dh has been the recipient of many sms-es that read “I quit! I resign! Let’s stop having children and let’s pack them all off to school!”

A supermom wouldn’t say all these things, would she?

But in the end, I remember the call and the convictions that the Lord has placed on my life, on our lives and I press on. Clinging on to His promises that  

The LORD is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6

and to 

Trust in the LORD with all (my) heart,
And lean not on (my) own understanding;
In all (my) ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct (my) paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6

So the next time you see me or refer to me, please do not use the superwoman tag on me It is embarrassing to be called that because I know I am not. Only God deserves the praise and glory over the things He has done in my life.

*** See 10 Myths Debunked!

For more on The Superwoman Myth, check out Jennie Chancey’s article of the same title.

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Check our my blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

Just to let you know that my dh, Henson is conducting a 2-day session on Building a Household of Faith at Christalite Methodist Church on 5th & 12th July, 2008.

A synopsis of the session is found below. More details can be found at Christalite Methodist Church’s website and here.

If you would like to attend, please contact the church directly.

Building a Household of Faith

The prophetic word has been given that families will come under even more tremendous pressure and attack in these last days. What are our roles as Christian parents in these final days? Amidst the stresses and pressures of work and life, how do we stay focused to the task and not give up? Is it just parenting skills we need, or a clear and concise understanding of God’s word and His mandate for parents as they seek to build a household of faith? This course examines the state of the family today, and the pressures it is exposed to. Against this backdrop, it also highlights the urgency for Christian households to get back to God’s Word and His design for their families to live victoriously in these trying times.

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Check out my blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

People often have certain thoughts going on in their heads when they see our family of 8 or hear that we have 6 children (no, no twins, thank you very much!). Then when they find out that we homeschool, have no maid and that dh is in fulltime ministry, their eyes grow bigger and they start thinking that we must be from some other planet

So I thought I should address these common myths people tend to have of us, just coz we have many children and homeschool and have no live-in maid. In other words, being totally un-Singaporean

To cover them all in one posting would make for a long and dreary reading So I thought I should come up with the top 10 common myths people associate with us and tear them down, point-by-point!

1. I am a Superwoman
2. We are very spiritual
3. I am a very patient mom
4. I am a disciplined/organised person
5. I don’t ever shout at the children
6. We must be very rich
7. Our meals are always balanced and healthy
8. The children never fight with each other
9. Our homeschooled children are geniuses
10. Homeschooling goes on perfectly everyday

If you have more beliefs about us that are not listed here, feel free to add them to the list. Dh says I should write a book!

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Check out my blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

Inspired by the Organizing the Playroom edition over at I’m an Organizing Junkie’s blog, I decided to clear out our balcony, aka toy-cum-tools-cum-I-don’t-know-where-to-put-this-stuff room.

It is a very small space that was originally meant to be used as an open-air area for laundry. But the previous owner managed to cleverly convert it into an extra room by putting up windows and grills and a false ceiling! We liked his idea and have used it as our toy-cum-tools-cum-i-don’t-know-where-to-put-this-stuff room ever since we moved in.

In the beginning (2.5yrs ago), there was, of course, very little stuff in there. But recently, it was getting so difficult to vacuum and mop that room without spending much time pushing stuff from one side of the room to the other! Besides, I felt bad for our Chinese tutor who had to teach in that claustrophobic space. She must be distracted by the amount of stuff in there each time she came to the house!

The Balcony Project

Since I hate clutter and I hate mess, I decided to DE-CLUTTER!!!

But I had a big challenge - a crawling-I’m-curious-about-everything-baby! As we had LOTS of stuff in the room, I knew I needed at least 2 whole afternoons to clear it out. Ideally, I should do it during her naptimes but since she only naps an hour per nap (just like all her other siblings at the same age. Sigh.), it would take me forever to finish this project!

I decided to bite the bullet and do it with her. I also enlisted the help of my oldest child. With one more pair of hands, things would progress much faster. He was to be my gopher, my errand boy. And he was a great help! He got rewarded with a Murderous Maths book (he loves maths!).

It was amazing. We were done de-cluttering by the end of the day (a total of almost 4 hours). We started when the baby went down for her nap. When she woke up, I nursed her and placed her next to me with the toys that had already been sorted and were “safe” for her to play with. We then continued to de-clutter steadily till dinner time. Then when she went to bed at night, I continued by myself till all the toys and games that needed to be thrown away/donated/sold were sorted out.

The next day, (Saturday), we had no school so I proceeded to turn my attention to the tools and the I-don’t-know-where-to-put-this-stuff lot. Tools are my dh’s territory so I merely dusted the boxes and ignored them! The other stuff were again organised into throw away/donated/sold categories. After throwing out 4 huge trash bags of stuff, 2 vacuum cleaners (don’t ask!), and 2 skate scooters, I now actually have space on the shelves that used to be packed tightly with stuff.

Organising them all

But, throwing out things was actually the easy part. Organising what’s left was tougher.

Sorting out the toys was the easier task. So I did that first. They were sorted into baskets : a) dollhouse toys, b) cars, c) balls, d) toy animals, e) children computers, f) baby toys, and g) wooden blocks*. I labelled the boxes by tying a piece of string with the appropriate picture card (for the non-reader) on it. (I’ll try to get some pictures of this).

Sorting out their card and board games was much tougher. The board games had bulky boxes. Which took up a lot of space. I then remembered an idea tossed up on the MOMYS Digest a long time ago - trash the box, keep all the game boards together in one place and pack the tokens/cards separately!

Brilliant idea! I did not want to use ziplock bags as they always tore due to the children’s manhandling So on Tuesday, I went to a household supplies shop near our wet market and bought 10 rectangular boxes in white. In the afternoon, I completed the balcony project!

All the boxes and game boards were labelled. The game tokens/cards were placed into them. Now, all our games fit neatly into ONE big drawer (from Ikea’s Antonius range) instead of occupying 3 shelves!

The balcony now looks so spacious and organised. Maintenance should be a lot easier now … till the next time, that is!

* Legos and MegaBloks belong in a class of their own. Legos go upstairs in the boys’ room since that is the bigger room of the two, with enough space for them to pour everything out. MegaBloks are kept in a huge Toyogo plastic box under the side table in the dining area since that’s the only space that it can fit.

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Check our my blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

Many times it is us, moms, who are doing the main bulk of homeschooling but without the full and complete support of dad, homeschooling is going to fall flat on its face eventually.

I remember the day when the Lord spoke to me concerning this issue when I was debating whether to homeschool or not. Through an email newsletter, God told me in no uncertain terms that without the full endorsement of the head of the house, one shouldn’t proceed to homeschool.

Fathers are so important in this journey of homeschooling. Do not leave your dh out as you make your curriculum choices and do update him on the progress (or non-progress!) of homeschooling.

This month, in honour of homeschooling fathers, Heart of the Matter features an article on The Homeschooling Father by Michael Farris. Check it out. And may you be blessed as you continue to teach your children.

The Homeschooling Father

By Michael Farris
Founder and Chairman, Home School Legal Defense Association

Parents do not need professional training to become excellent homeschool instructors. But they do need divine empowerment if they are going to have the stick-to-it-iveness necessary to keep to the task as their children progress from toddler to adult. Every homeschooling father needs to begin to examine his duty to his wife and children by considering their need for spiritual empowerment. They are going to be mocked by friends, neighbors and relatives. They may be prosecuted by authorities. They are going to face spiritual warfare. They are going to have to do a lot of plain old hard work.

To continue the article, please visit Heart of the Matter Online….

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Do check out my Blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

Hi! My name is Serene and I am a computer addict.

Aaarrgghh! It dawned upon me recently that I am actually rather addicted to the computer! And I was addicted, till recently, to coffee and retail therapy as well!

I have realised that for me, my addictions are a form of escapism. When I am stressed, I turn to the computer for relief, instead of the Lord. I tell myself that I am researching for a better curriculum/household appliance/book/toy/
clothes…the list goes on, to help me in my job as a mom. But seriously, am I really doing that? I am actually using that excuse to justify my escape from either the children or work that I am supposed to be doing.

Addictions are a terrible thing to have. As Christians, it is even worse! Addictions mean that we have put something/someone else ABOVE God! And we have therefore violated the first and greatest commandment to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37.

What other addictions can one have?

• Coffee/Tea - the caffeine fix
• Retail Therapy or Shopping
• Food
• TV
• Talking on the telephone
• Going out

…the list goes on. Anyone or anything can be an addiction. Ask yourself, what is the first thing you do or think of doing when you are stressed? That would be your “god”, your addiction. I am not saying that you can’t do anything to de-stress. But you have to be honest with yourself - are you de-stressing or escaping?

What do all these things, I listed above, have in common? Each of them provides instantaneous stress relief but are all temporary and you need it in increasing amounts. Notice how the next time you get stressed, you would need to surf more, shop more, eat more to get the same kind of relief.

So what is a mom to do?

How can we turn away from our addictions? I don’t think there is an easy way at all. We need to go to our source of strength and wisdom and comfort - Jesus. We just have to ask God for help and then discipline ourselves. And, if necessary, get an accountability partner.

Jesus says,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

When we are stressed, we need to stop turning to useless, temporary “gods” for relief. We need to go to God and ask for his help. 

As for me, I have made a resolution to not turn on the computer till I have finished all the work I need to complete each day. Oh Lord, help me!

How about you?

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Check out My Blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim

Sometimes I think no one really cares that the floors are squeaky clean or not. And that no one ever thinks HOW their dirty clothers magically re-appear washed and ironed. They only holler for me when they can’t find clean underwear or a paricular outfit they want to wear.

Often times, I have to keep repeating to myself, under my breath, “God sees, God sees.”

I am sure they don’t mean to ignore me or are ungrateful but it just happens, kwim? I guess I should be glad that they look upon me as a dependable source?! I mean, why else would they ask me where their stuff are when they were the ones playing with it the whole day???

Anyhow, I read this posting off Niki’s Blog and I thought it was a great reminder that God truly sees what we do, no matter how small or insignificant we think it is.

Here’s to us, moms. We are building cathedrals! May we all be encouraged and continue pressing on.

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I’m on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I’m thinking, ‘Can’t you see I’m on the phone?’ Obviously not; no one can see if I’m on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I’m invisible. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this?? Some days I’m not a pair of hands ; I’m not even a human being. I’m a clock to ask, ‘What time is it?’ I’m a satellite guide to answer,’What number is the Disney Channel?’ I’m a car to order, ‘Right around 5:30, please.’

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She’s going, she’s going, she’s gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, ‘I brought you this.’ It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn’t exactly sure why she’d given it to me until I read her inscription: ‘To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.’

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths,after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, ‘Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, ‘Because God sees.’

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, ‘I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you’ve done, no sequin you’ve sewn on, no cupcake you’ve baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can’t see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don’t want my son to tell the friend he’s bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, ‘My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.’ That would mean I’d built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, ‘You’re gonna love it there.’

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we’re doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

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Check out My Blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim for more of my writings & thoughts.

The price of everything seems to have gone up in a twinkling of an eye, hasn’t it?

Flour (wheat), rice, fuel, milk…………

So how does one cope with increasing costs but fixed salaries? There are many ways to deal with this situation. You either cut costs or increase your household income.

Increasing one’s household income seems to be a no brainer. So many SAHMs start thinking about returning to the workforce or working from home or starting a home business.

May I suggest that cost cutting may be a better way?

We need to re-examine our lifetsyle and start asking the hard question : is it a need or is it a want whenever we start eyeing something to purchase or signing up the children for yet another enrichment class.

There are many books and websites that cover these topics and in greater detail than I can ever do so in this post. These are a few titles that come to mind. Just google “frugal living”, “simple living” and you’ll have a whole host of websites and books to start you off. Some examples include :

Books
The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy

Websites
Living On A Dime
The Dollar Stretcher
The Frugal Life

How have we been cutting costs?

1. Cut electrical consumption

a) Reduce use of the airconditioner

The biggest culprit in raising our electricity bills is the use of the air-conditioner. So we don’t sleep with the air-conditioning on. If the weather is extremely hot and humid, we will cool down the bedrooms for a few hours before switching it off and leaving only the ceiling fans on.

But I must say that one of the main motivating reasons to do this is our sensitive noses. Sleeping in air-conditioned rooms often leave us with stuffy or running noses in the middle of the night and lots of sneezing in the mornings.

In the daytime, unless it is extremely hot and humid, I do not turn on the air-conditioner. Even when we do turn it on, I try to hold off turning it on till the late afternoon. It does require a huge amount of self-discipline to not turn it on especially during the hot and humid months.

But I must say that sometimes, for the sake of sanity, I will turn it on from the mornings. Thankfully, those are rare days. Usually, we just have the fans on at full blast and we shower more often.

b) Stop boiling water unnecessarily

Another way we have cut down our bill is to stop boiling our drinking water. We used to boil all our water in a 2-litre electric kettle, cool it down and then transfer it to the water dispenser. Now with a family of 8 you can imagine how much water we were boiling per day! Then I switched to boiling the water on the gas stove. That saved us nearly $20 a month!

Today, we no longer boil any water unless it is to make our morning cuppa This is because we have installed a water filter/purifier in our home. Since it eliminates all the impurities and chlorine, it is safe enough to drink direct from the filtered tap. Yes, the cost of installing the filter was high but now we are enjoying clean filtered water and have eliminated the need to boil litres and litres of water daily.

c) Sun and/or air dry our laundry.

We have not used a dryer for our clothes for more than 6 or 7 years. All our clothes are sun and/or air dried. Not only are we cutting down our electrical bills, we are also prolonging the life of our clothes this way.

2. Eat in more

Most of you would know by now that I dislike cooking. But one can’t deny the fact that eating in does save us lots of money. And another side benefit of cooking and eating in? You know exactly what goes into your food!

If you are like me, menu planning is really a life saver. I have heard some say that menu planning is boring and they feel restricted by their plans. And yet, these are the same people who end up eating sandwiches day after day! Isn’t that more boring?!

If you need some inspiration, click this link to find out how you can Save Time And Money By Planning Your Meals

3. Buy less

This is where we often ask ourselves : do we really need this??? Afterall, one item more in our possession means 1 more item cluttering up the home! Do the children or I really need one more dress/shirt/pants? Do I really need to buy that book. Perhaps I can borrow it from the library/friend instead.

Retail therapy and impulse shopping is fun but burns a hole in the pocket. And one often ends up with more stuff than what one has use for. How wasteful! 

Even with groceries. Do the children need to snack? And snack so much? But even as I want to cut costs, I don’t want to compromise on our health. 

We love our meat and don’t plan on becoming vegetarians overnight to cut costs To deal with the rising cost of meat, we use a mix of fresh and frozen meats. I don’t like frozen meat for soups (not as tasty as fresh meat, in my humble opinion) but if I were going to pan fry the meat or cook it in flavourful stews, frozen meat can work quite well. Frozen meat can cost less than half the price of fresh meat! That’s a lot of savings!

Another example - beef is expensive and so is mutton. So we make do with more chicken and pork. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet but the children do not need to eat strawberries everyday!

We drink water not juice or gasp! canned drinks! Water is good for our bodies. Sugared drinks are not. They are bad for our teeth too! If your children are addicted to it, this is a good time to wean them off it. You can choose to cold turkey them or dilute their juices with more and more water till they get used to drinking plain ole water.

4. Eat leftovers

I learnt this from my mom. Everytime there are leftovers from a meal, she would keep them and she would either re-heat them and eat it at the next meal or try to create another dish out of the leftover food. She would also collect leftover rice and cook fried rice with it at the end of the week.

If you hate to eat leftovers, then one way to avoid having them is to cook less! And better still, give your children smaller portions and allow them to ask for seconds if they are still hungry. This way is better than piling their plates with food and have them leave it unfinished.

5. Buy from eBay or Yahoo auction sites

I have said this before and I will say it again. Before you rush out and buy something in a shop, check out the auction sites first. I just bought a pair of brand new, soft, lamb skin shoes for the baby. I saw a similar pair retailing for $36 but bought this brand new pair off eBay at $20.00, including postage!

If you don’t mind well-kept second hand items, these auction sites are great for bargains. Sometimes, you can even get brand new items at a better price than from bricks-and-mortar stores since these online stores have no overhead costs. And occasionally, buying items all the way from the US can even be cheaper than buying it locally! Do your research before you buy anything if you are looking to be thrifty.

6. No enrichment classes

Yes, this may be a hard thing for Singaporeans to give up since it is so ingrained in our culture that junior must be taking up ballet or speech and drama or art classes to be well rounded. Some classes may be necessary - eg. if the child is not doing well in a certain subject and mom or dad can’t help. But many classes are optional and unnecessary. Or they could be delayed till a more appropriate time.

7. Diluting Soaps and Shampoos

I did not start out diluting our liquid soaps and shampoo to cut costs but to prevent the children from leaving a slippery mess in the bathroom. They tend to use too much soap and not rinse off thoroughly leaving the floor very slippery  And for the dd with eczema, this led to the overdrying of her skin. So I decided to dilute the soap and shampoo to “control” the amount of soap and shampoo used.

But then I realised that an added benefit of diluting the soap and shampoo is that one bottle of shampoo or liquid soap can last a long time!

8. DIY

If one can DIY (do-it-yourself) in many areas, one would save a lot of money. Eg. sew your own clothes, fix your toilet, cook from scratch, teach, etc…

If you are able to DIY all your household chores, this is one big way one can save money! I know that this can be difficult to do when one has very young children but it can be done. Or one can compromise by eliminating the live-in helper but getting a once a week part-time helper OR asking your part time helper to come in once every fortnight instead of once every week.

Yes, it means you have to do more but hey! everything has a price, no?

If you need help in managing your housework, you can check out my posts under Home Management.

As we look to cut our costs, please do not compromise on areas of hygiene and health. I once heard that someone did not shower for 2 to 3 days to save water! Perhaps if one lived in a cool and dry climate that is a real possibility. But in hot and humid Singapore?! One would need to shower at least once a day to not cause the person next to us to faint!

What about the use of the car you may be thinking? For us at this stage of our lives, the car is a necessity. Taking the public transport (bus or mrt) with many young children in tow is a real challenge. Especially when neither our walkways nor fellow passengers are child-friendly The only time we take the public transport is if we are taking 2 or 3 children with us only - which is a rarity.

I’d like to add one more point - sometimes, the stress one has to go through to save a few dollars here and there is not worth it. Do prayerfully consider with your dh how you can together cut costs so that you can continue to stay home and be a mother to your children without placing more stress on your dh to bring in more money.

Don’t forget, God does provide!

Sometimes even when it doesn’t seem possible or logical, we have personally experienced His providence in amazing ways. Keep looking to Him for your needs.

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19

Happy cost cutting! And do share if you have other tips that can help the rest of us.

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Check out My Blog, Building An Ark In Singapore, for more of my writings and musings.

(Second part of Confinement without the Confinement Lady)

So how is one to rest during confinement if one has to look after the baby and the housework and the planning and cooking of meals?

1. Make resting your top priority

When I did my confinement without outside help, I would make REST a priority, especially in the first two weeks. That means that whenever I had a free slot, I would go and lie down. I may or may not nap but I would deliberately go and lie down.

I have learnt that sitting down is not the same as lying down to my body. I learnt this when I had bleeding in my second and third pregnancies. Prior to that, I always thought that sitting down is resting. But I would bleed even though I was not doing any heavy work but just sitting down and surfing the net. But if I lay down even for just 10 to 15 minutes, the bleeding would lessen. Ever since then, I have always made it a point to lie down to rest.

Most times I had to fight the urge to rush and do some cleaning or tidying up of the house. I just forced myself to lie down and rest!

2. Schedule a quiet rest period for everyone in the afternoon

This has been and still is a lifesaver in our house. Starting from 2pm, I start putting the children to nap/rest. The older ones obviously do not nap. But they are required to rest and be quiet. Their rest period is over at 3:30pm. I stagger everyone’s nap/rest time so that the older ones need not rest too long. This also allows the younger ones to nap before the older ones go into the room.

I then try to time the baby’s nap in the same slot. This way, I am usually able to nap for at least 30 minutes in the afternoon. It is a much needed nap due to the interrupted sleep at night.

It also helps that the children all go to rest/nap independently.

3. Teach the children to play independently

On desperately sleepy/tired days, I have been known to tell the children to play by themselves and crash out on the sofa! Those are the times I am so grateful that they are all taught from young to play independently and not to thrash the house when left alone.

This I did even with the first born child. I have to add this in as some people have commented that I am able to do this because I have the older children to watch the younger ones. Yes, now I have the older ones to watch the younger ones but not when I had only 1 child (2 years old) and 1 baby!

Teaching them to play independently should start once you are pregnant to get the children used to it. This way, even before the baby arrives, you are able to rest when you really need it without calling for help.

And of course when dh is home, he takes over so that I can nap as long as I need to.

Getting rest when having confinement without the confinement lady is possible even if this is your 2nd or 3rd birth. Commit it to the Lord and do the practical prepaprations.

Enjoy your baby!

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Check out My Blog at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim for more of my writings and musings.