Wait, Ee Wern, what did you say again?

It was painting day. So we rolled up our sleeves and you were focus creating your masterpiece. From using a fork to create pattern, you venture out, to fingers printing. It was unusual. This is because you don't like dirty hands. However, you were happy and contented doing thumb printing. I enjoyed the moment. You started to explore and messy, messy and messy. I think I winked my eyes with displeasure. Eventually, I had to say times up and time to clean up. You followed me to clean up. As I was focus cleaning the stain on your dress, you whispered, 'mommy, is shhh shh st.. (this is what I heard).

I stopped. I asked, what did you say again? I learnt to slow down to notice. You gave me a big smile with sparkle eyes and said : Mommy is the best! Wow, you have blown me away. Here I am, cleaning grumpily and chasing the next items on the to do list, you simply slow me down so I can enjoy the moment.

Thank you for that compliment! I am sure 'the best'. *Grin*

Our caterpillar experience

It has been a months we observed caterpillars outside Ee Rynn's school. It fascinate us. They eat non-stop. It fun to observed the girls reaction. My eldest daughter touch the caterpillar. She has seen caterpillar crawl on her teacher's fingers. Ee Wern will say: caterpillar eating. This is my first experience, learning caterpillar's life cycle.

I gathered my courage to adopt a caterpillar. I kept the caterpillar in a box with lots of holes (for air) with leaves I gathered from another plant. We were fascinated with their wonderful digestion system. They eat a lot. As a result, they poop a lot too. The last 2 legs will open as they pass motion. The poops were in green, similar to the colour of the leaves. The first night was a disaster. The caterpillar refuse to eat leaves in the box. He was trying to escape! It was the same night that I wasn't feeling well. Stomach flu. It was heavy rain too. With a heavy heart, we have to send the caterpillar back to its home so he don't starve to death. We did! Standing under the rain, we gently transfer the caterpillar. From this experience, I learnt that caterpillar eat leaves from the same tree or fresh leaves from citrus plan or curry leaves.

The next morning, one of Ee Rynn's schoolmate's mom adopt 2 caterpillars from the same tree. I told her my experience. She was hoping it will turn out well. A day after her adoption, both caterpillars turn to cocoon. She was kind to donate one for us. It's hibernation period. No activities and the cocoon is not moving. Ee Wern said the cocoon is sleeping every day. She would point at it and said : cocoon! cocoon sleeping! So cute.

The cocoon was broken this morning. Today is Wednesday, 20th November 2013. It's the cocoon's 13th day. I was so sad and thought the cocoon didn't make it. But when I was trying to look through the box, I saw an insect! The colour on the body was so dull and I was confuse. With first look, I thought it was dried leaves. With second, I saw a moth! We shout for joy! But it was not moving at all. Is he dead? All of the sudden, the moth moves its head. Then, we knew it's alive. 

We brought the moth to the park. I opened the box. The moth flap its wings. We thought it will fly away. But it remain in the box. Ee Wern was observing and said moth! moth! no more cocoon! As it was windy afternoon, we placed it under a big tree. A few hours later, we went back and the moth is still in the box. We learnt that moth will fly at night instead. After saying 'bye bye', the girls continue playing at the playground.

When the moth breaks away from the cocoon, it has to flap it's wings to gain strength. This process is similar to a crying new born. The first cry will open the baby's lung and starts breathing. The lung will continue to gain it's strength daily, similar to a moth's wing. When the moth breaks away from the cocoon, it was wet and sticky. When we gave birth to a baby, it's wet, sticky and bloody. God has beautifully made all the creatures on earth.

It was a fun journey for us and we hope to adopt another caterpillar with hope it will turn to be a beautiful butterfly.

Another Priceless Conversation

As usual, we chat a lot over our meal. Unassumingly, we are in this conversation tonight.

EeRynn : Mommy, when I grow up, I will have my own family. Will Ee Wern stays with me when I have my own family? 

Mommy : When Ee Wern grows up, she will have her own family too. Both of you will stay in touch and travel together every year. Daddy and mommy will come along. Ee Rynn and Ee Wern will take care of daddy and mommy too. 

EeRynn : Mommy, when I have children, are they your children too? 

Mommy : Your children will be my grandchildren.

EeRynn : Like we are grandchildren to po po and gong gong?

Mommy : Yes!

EeRynn : When Ee Wern has children, her children will be your grandchildren too?

Mommy : Yes.

EeRynn : How about daddy?

Mommy : Same, your children and Ee Wern's children will be daddy's grandchildren.

EeRynn : Are we going to stay in the same house?

Mommy : May be or may be not. 

EeRynn : I want to have a 4 bedrooms house.

Mommy: Oh, what is the 4 bedrooms for?

EeRynn : One for me and my husband, one for my children, one as my office if I am working and one for you and daddy.

Mommy : 'very touch' wow! Such a thoughtful plan.

EeRynn : I want you to stay near to me because I don't want to miss you.

Mommy : - smile from ear to ear - 

To be able to have the time to communicate without rushing through a conversation, allowing her to lead the conversation and see the way she express her thought is priceless. This is why I stayed home for.

- Conversation on Monday, 18 November 2013 ~ @ 6 years old ~

'Ban Mian' or 'Pan Mee'

Pan Mee is my childhood favourite. I love soupy noodle and this is one of them. My daughters like it too. As we are on the journey to know good food in different continents, we have chosen the one that is close to our heart, the place I grew up - Seri Kembangan.

According to The Star newspaper on 18 April 2008, the village was established in 1952 when the British moved Chinese villagers living around Sungai Besi to a centralized location due to the communist threat during the insurgency. During its early days, the village had 50 houses and all were built from scratch because the British only provided empty plots of land. Most of the 15,000 inhabitants earned meagre incomes as mining workers and rubber tappers. Yes, that's the humble beginning of my ancestor. ^^

People speaks Hakka. It is known as Hakka village too. Pan Mee is a Hakka-style noodle. It's literally translates to 'flat flour noodle'. The dough is made from flour. We add eggs to enhance the flavor of the noodle. This recipe is from my mom.

Ingredients (3 persons):

1. 2-3 cups (estimates) flour : Organic unbleached flour (all purpose flour is fine too)

2. 2 medium size eggs

3. 1 cups of anchovies

4. 6-8 cloves of shallots

5. Vegetable - sweet potatoes leaves (you may put any vegetable you like)

6. Shredded chicken/pork

7. Cili padi

8. Salt

9. Parsley to garnish

Steps:

1. Beat 2 medium size eggs (avoid bubbles)

2. Mix the flour into the beaten egg slowly. Hand-knead until it become dough. If it's too dry, add some water. If it's watery, add some flour.

3. Leave the dough for 5-10 minutes. 

4. Torn the dough into smaller piece and roll it with rolling pin to flatten it.

5. Peel it to different shapes and sizes as you wish. Most common shapes is flat stripes of noodle.

6. Add some cooking oil to wok to fried the anchovies and shallots. Fried until it's fragrant. Add water into the wok and let it boil for 30 minutes to an hour until fragrant.

7. Add shredded chicken and bring to boil.

8. Add vegetables and bring to boil.

9. The flatten noodle (we tear it slowly to put into the soup) is added slowly. Bring the whole pot to boil.

10. Add some salt.

11. Garnish it with parsley and served.

12. Minced cili padi with soya sauce may be served together.

Notes:

Be patient when mix the beaten eggs and flour. It might not set as a dough for the first time. We use organic unbleached flour because the noodle will turn out soft and smooth. 

                                           

A merry heart model children's future behavior in managing the unexpected

I was reading an article of the value of laughter at home.  As I was reflecting on some pointers in the article, I realized I 'sometimes' over react in small little things like little hands accidentally drop my IPad, spill juices on table, whining of not liking the food I prepared, complains over their daily routine, throwing tantrum to get more attention and so on. Well, it does make me feeling guilty. It makes me feel worst when the article said, our children behavior models after our behaviors in managing the unexpected. 

I am writing this to remind myself to lighten up the unexpected situation at home. Being discern and aware is the starting. I have to remind myself that my reaction to the unexpected teaches my children many things. If I am showing a happy heart with discern brain, it will help my children to model me in managing their frustrating dilemma in the future. I want to fill their memories bank account with positiveness. I will add laughter into my daily responsibility and routine by:

1. Counting 1 to 5 so my brain will stop for a moment before I react

2. Put a smile on my face so I can think better

3. Instead of asking 'why' or blame, lecture and scold my children, I will bite my tongue and continue to smile... so I can calm down

4. Pray to God so He can guide me in handling the unexpected situation

5. Discern between a true crisis and and opportunity for a healthy laughter... This will takes a lot of practice...

Please share if you have something that work very well for you :-)

Outdoor Excursion

I had decided to think out of the box. Learning don't confine on workbook alone. Learning is all around us. Previously, I can concentrate and have one to one time with my eldest daughter while my baby took her afternoon nap. As my second daughter grow, she skip her afternoon nap and need a lot of attention from me.

I have decided to bring the girls for an outdoor excursion. It's not typical me of going outdoor without planning what to do. I go ahead with no end in mind and let the girls lead me. We started having lunch under a hut. It was a windy day. I brought along their chalk and crayon with a roll of paper. The girls started with drawing. It was really fun to see them sharing and communicating. One using body language and the other talking. The younger one will 'copy' her 'jie jie' in anything. I get to have a quiet lunch while the girls busy with their drawing.

They continue playing at playground. I end up drawing a hop scotch on the sand. We play hop scotch for a while. Then, we numbered the same hop scotch and we had Maths game - addition and subtraction. We will put the little one into the box with the right answer from the addition and subtraction game. The young one will learn to recognize the number. It was really fun. We played word game too. We look around and find objects start with letter A to Z. We learn new words from each other. It was a fun 2 hours.

                                           

Assam BeeHoon/Vermicelli - Penang, Malaysia

This recipe if from my Ah Mah in Penang. She is a good cook and very good in cooking authentic nyonya food. I have decided to let my girls try some spicy food from Malaysia. Though they don't really like it, my husband and I enjoyed it. 

Ingredients (3 persons):

1. Chili boh (from Penang) / instant chili paste 

2. Lime juice / lemon juice

3. Bean sprout

4. Prawn

5. Bean curd 'tau kua'

6. Shallot

7. Spring onion

8. Sugar, salt, light soya sauce

9. 3 eggs (number of eggs depends on number of pax n beehoon quantity)

10. Minced garlic

Method:

A. Slice and fried tau kua. Cut 'tau kua' into small cubes (square) and set aside.

B. Slice shallot and fried until golden brown. Set aside. 

C. Mixed item 1, 2 and 8 together. If you like sourish taste, add vinegar.

D. Heat up the frying pan with cooking oil. Stir fried minced garlic and prawn.

E. Add beehoon n item C. Toss everything evenly.

F. Add bean sprout and toss evenly.

G. Add beaten egg and mix evenly.

H. Add tau kua and spring onion and toss evenly.

I. Last add fried shallot. Served.

Back in Malaysia, we like use this BeeHoon brand : Errawan (5 elephant head on the packaging). In Singapore, we use any brand and it turns out fine. This dish need a lot of patience because it takes strength to toss the beehoon. ^^. Happy trying.