Handmade reward chart

Wanted to get a reward chart for the girls long time ago.
But it's always the price that put me off --- a daunting RM 70 or more, just for some removable and stickable cartoons!

Then i realized that i have actually had all the resources, why not DIY?

I have some leftover microfiber cloths, leftover of cotton and flannel fabrics, and snaps button. Just need to get more velcro and also reusing a stick.

1. Fold down the microfiber to form a loop so that it hold on the stick.
2. Mark and snap the button on the microfiber cloth with two males on top and two females at the place just below the stick.
3. Cut out the cute cartoon prints on the cotton and flannel fabrics and sew the velcro at the back. We have snoppy, hello kitty, strawberry, bear, assorted flowers.
4. The end result:

5. The back of the removable, washable reward 'sticker', with velcro stitched at the back.:


6. Velcro sticked well on microfiber without having to have another side of the velcro sewn on the back fabric.

7. And all these cost me only RM 3.50 for the 1 m of velcro. If I didn't use up all the velcro previously, this item will be totally FOC!

The girls are so excited with it! We use that to reward them when they do the cleanup, help mummy to prepare food, behave themselves, etc.

About homeopathy again.... and vaccination

Recommended Dr Ooi's homeopathy to Hooi Ling.
It's has always been our (hubby and me) common recommendation to concern parents who are worried about sending little kiddos to pediatricians who may intend to prescribe overdose or unnecessary medication. Dr. Ooi's kindness and patience has been the key point for us to share.

Google about homeopathy and only realized that the founder, Hahnemann, was whom we had studied before in primary school about quinine and its healing power on malaria.

Thanks to homepathy, little JV has never been on paracetamol, cough mixture, not to mention antibiobiotics and antihisthamine --- not needed anymore.
JV was throwing out paracetamol ever since when she 3 months. For every jab under the vaccination program, paracetamol was just an untouched FREE gift from the Klinik Kesihatan.

p/s: I purposely skipped MMR for both JV and JE.
Why not measles? I mean why not let children get measles? We all do get in during childhood day and as according to many natural healing beliefs, measles is just a self adjusment way of the body to get rid of food from wrong feeding.
Why not mumps? I mean we all get that too. No big deal at all. Just some 'nila' and few days to recuperate at home.
Why not rubella? I get that jab during Form 3. The earliest we should get should be at age 12. So why forced the little body to get the vaccine so early?

Why spoil our body own antibody system?

柔帆的童言童语

去早三伯公。是爷爷的三哥。他生病了。是因为糖尿病和PARKINSON DISEASE瘫痪的.
柔帆问：“他为什么生病？”
妈妈：“他老了。”
柔帆问：“他是不是去玩水？”
:～

A birthday party to cherish and remember

It has always been hubby's dream to have something special for FIL. Being brought up in a conservative and traditional family, I can understand that it is definitely not an easy task to ....even hug your dad!
(I have that 'funny' feeling too when I first thought of hugging my mom and dad too!)

The inspiration came when hubby was contemplating his favorite video clip: 《爱和关怀》


He decided to have this kneel-down-tea-session during FIL 73 yrs old birthday celebration.
With the intention of, telling him that:
- how much he loves FIL
- FIL is loved by all
- and also to put down one's ego when kneeling down.
Well, don't let yourself feeling regret later when you know that you didnt do something that you should have done when your parents are alive, right?

FIL eyes were welled with tears when hubby kneel down and hugged him.
This was followed by SILs.
Then the last but not least, VIP MIL --- the most important person in FIL life, guess he has longed for love and recognition from MIL ever since a long long time ago.

MIL was actually quite reluctant to hug FIL, but you can see that FIL quickly hugged her when MIL approached him. How cute!

Hubby said at least he has accomplished the dream of bringing FIL to China lately.
I said this is the first time I see him seeing eyes to eyes with FIL too....so encouraging! :)

A big Sadhu to Tzu Chi for bringing this wonderful inspiration.
May the Lord Buddha bless FIL, MIL and all who make this birthday celebration a successful and memorable event be in peace, love and harmony!

Kids tagging along for seminar/talks

DH and I have always brought along the girls for any events we went, ever since they were as young as 5-6 months old.

We are proud of the girls who have always behaved nicely when they tagged along for seminars/talks/meetings. They really know how to settle themselves. Tips: we have never regarded kids as 'ma huan'(troublesome) and have let them be a part of our activities when they were as young as few months old.. Having them is a gift of love and a gift of life. 感恩！:)

Well, things doesn't happen just coz i am lucky. Had a hard time when elder girl was a colicky baby when she was 2 months old. Cried non stop every night, from 7pm to 12 am, did everything that others told, from swaddling her, apply ointment on tummy, superstitious acts like knocking her bum on the door before putting her to sleep while saying some mantras, etc....
And later i came to realize that many things has got to do with parents, or usually more related to mother. 凡事有因有缘呵. :) 所以当昨晚的讲座会看到场面刁蛮的孩子时，只是打从心底对其‘不爱负责任’的妈妈有所感触。孩子是自己的，怎可教别人调教啊？感慨感慨。

June was asking about "how u can let your little one to be so coorperate when u r attending seminar or talk?"

i think the parent mindset should come first. Let not our children be our 'burden'. Let them be the source of love n inspiration. I notice a lot Chinese parents nowadays always rgd kids as 'difficult to raise'. Unlike many Malay frens, which i really learn fr them --- parenting is so natural to them coz the love towards oneself and the kids... Read More conquer all. And this sort of 'LOVE' is simply without 'ownnership'. A change of mind will change the energy and thus having more 'cooperative' child. But then, it's not about controlling them.

Cookies baking

It's school holiday time again! we got some cookies mould from "xiao yi poh".
Mummy own creation of easy baking cookies recipe:
2 cups butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
No kitchen scale used, only measuring cup, so that it's easier for the girls,
1 1/4 was a bit difficult to measure. Nevertheless, explaining between 1 1/2 and 1 cup is easier to do.

JE mixed butter and sugar together, mummy blend them together.
Then add the rest.
But then only we realize the dough is too soft for cookies, so mummy add some more flour to make it hard enough. Dont ask me how much i have added it. But it was just nice so that we can press on it with rolling pin and make cookies mould shape out of it.

So the girls make the shapes and mummy bake them in the oven at 170-185oC.
oh gosh, my oven reading has faded so much that i can hardly see the temperature reading nowadays....just agak-agak on everything. :)

The freshly baked cookies tasted to nice that the first tray was immediately gulped by all those little lion cubs!

As time goes by, they begin to loose their patience on finishing all the flour. (LESSON LEARNT: the dough is too much, should have reduced it to half of the amount so that they can finish fast.)

At the end of the session, and as they have promised, they will have to do the clean up. From sweeping the floor to mopping the floor.
But of course, shouting is inevitable.
"IF YOU DONT CLEAR UP AS YOU PROMISED, I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU HAVE ANOTHER SESSION LIKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!" ,
"CLEAN UP NOW! I SAID NOW!!!! NO MORE PLAYING!" --- coz the mop has turned into a toy to play with for the girls and you can hear giggles from them upon seeing each other act on the mop itself.

Daddy will wear 2 specs

爸爸躺着看书。
阿柔：“daddy 你再躺着看书， 就会戴两个眼睛了。”

哈哈！

Art and Craft Session at Taska Lin

This happened some time ago.
I almost forgot about it completely until JE mentioned to me again today.

Decided to let both of them have an art and craft session at Taska Lin which adopted Waldorf education system.
Teacher Lin was giving them a session on Waldorf puppet making.
This means the 6 and 3 yrs old girls will have to use needles to sew the cloths of the puppet, draw the eyes and nose and also glue the hair.
Was an enjoyable session for both of them.
And took back the puppet back.
Each session was only RM 20(plus material) and lasted about 2-3 hours.
They even had a picnic at the taska bungalow compound after that. How fun!

JE told me the untold version of the time they were there:
Teacher Lin tried to warm them up by letting them to feed the little tortoise. While holding the tortoise food, which look so cute, JV had actually had a mouth of the tortoise food. Hmmm.....must be kind of different taste, and not sure if she really gobble the whole thing in or not. But lucky that Teacher Lin saw this and took out from her mouth. Then throw back to the tortoise.

Do you think you will still remember this, Von?

Repairing CD's elastics

Repairing used and old CDs was not really what i want, but seeing those CDs being put to no use after some time is not what i want to see.
So i took up the initiative to repair them, even if they were not bought under me.
Honestly, just to put up my true feelings about the process of repairing them.
Most of them got worn out on the elastic part of the leg holes.
BG was among the easiest to repair, considering the fast that the old elastic starting point or end point are easier to locate. Easier for me to snip open it and later replace with new elastic. But honestly, honestly, i dont quite believe the whole piece is truely made in the US. The elasitc quality was of same quality as those made in else where in Asia, hmmm, u know where. :)

Blueberry, was hard to mend, considering that fact that the PUL and the fleece were sewn together and that make the elastic so much difficult to locate. Told myself, make this the last time to repair this, locating the old elastic and stretching out the new elastic was not easy eh!

I was mending the mink diaper and i was thinking , "what's the point of buying this expensive piece when you can only use it for some time? and if no one to mend this loosen elastic, this luxury piece will be a waste already? so what's the point of designing this whole master piece? to make more waste of fabric again? so that there is a repeat sale?"

Acupressure

Suppose to have a sharing with friends on acupressure this Saturday but this has got to be postponed to a date that is TBD.

Reason: becoming my own testimonial again for JV who had HFM....slack. Suppose to let you folks witness this upon learning this. but touch wood that this doesnt happen to you too. :P

Got to quarantine her and so cant be meeting you folks for a time being. ...."Sehingga Diberitahu". hehe.

This is her 2nd time, 1st time being passed down by her sis fr the kindy. Now herself getting it fr the kindy herself.

I did some acupressure last week when she was down with fever. A mild fever at 38.3oC was the signal. Wasnt really putting the HFM thing into my mind though, so we continue to let her rest at home for 4 days, then returned to kindy for 1 day. Even told her to get better so that we can go eat durian. gee...

That's another story: had durian on the 6th day morning + mangosteen. Then found out about 1 blister in her mouth on the 6th day night. Fuzzy mum and dad then only quickly went "hunting" for red spots on hand and foot.

Bingo. spotted some.....on palms.

Darn the clinic medical assistance (the usual lousy one) couldnt really diagnose this as HFM, but we know it should be HFM. Since there were already 2 outbreaks in the kindy. Cannot be coming from nowhere.

But good gracious that acupressure was performed during her feverish period and i believe that itself had slow down the outbreak of a HFM symptom.

btw, only taken homeopathy's 1 hot fever and 1 children fever(or was it sth else? cant remember well) during that time.
And she actually had vomitted out some phlegm after the acurpressure session.

The Ah Pek Si Fu had mentioned before that acurpessure is especially good for immunity system related disease...not so good for bacteria infection though. SInce HFM is related to immuno, then it might be of help.

Wesay Day - part 2

It was a rather spontaneous decision to enter to Poh Oo Tong.
Though i believe it has got to do with the wish that i wished since last year that i wanted to be able to get in touch with the dharma learning that i used to had in uni life.
It really touched me to see those drama they put up.
Spectacular and amazing! Of course, one could see the hard work behind them. The costumes, settings, and not to mention acting by the teenagers. They are simply splendid!

YJ said may want to join me together for the metta class which is schedule to start in probably another 2-3 months. I am rejoiced!
Learning together is certainly going to be very fulfilling!

Gonna bookmark this site of Poh Oo Tong now: http://www.pohootong.org/home

Still vividly clear in my mind on the last scene: The Buddha said, "Do not feel sad on my departure, what i have taught you is already very sufficient. See the Dharma and you shall see me."

Life is so crystal clear with the Buddha's guiding light!

Wesay Day - part 1

Happy Wesak Day!Personally, i would think it is certainly a great wesak to start off with lots of metta! Partly due to the reignitation of the recent dharma camp. hehe. Post mortum for the camp: objektif tercapai.

A few of us actually started of with some little things that we can do at home,ie: a meditation in conjunction of the Wesak Day. Just sth like the Earth Hour where everyone switch off the lights, we just meditate at home, since everything start from within.

Upon sharing this with another group of friends are from Tibetan Buddhism, they actually do that almost every week and for each week they will radiate or share the merits with relatives or friends in need at that moment. This group do have Rinpoche that comes over to penang every 1 or 2 months to guide them with talks and mantra chanting.

Well, last night was the meditation day that kicked start.
Frankly, i actually dozed off. hahaha. can stand for only 15 minutes, then beh tahan liao. My physical body was really in a complete shut off mode, even walking meditation also like a drunken monkey liao. So i decided to call it a day and postpone the meditation to this morning since i wake up quite early most of the days. And with fresher mind, i could do it better. I guess this is the first time i have stretched my bandwidth after so many years without retreat. Normally can do till the most 15 minutes only. (better not use the word "pai seh", i think no need to feel guilty or what not, always better late than never). hehe
I was imagining the light of the Buddha that shine through from my head. And with that i wish for the metta from the Buddha to be radiated to all beings.
Was telling friends the other day that, i really like the verse that we usually see outside of the mosque which reads "Sembahyanglah sebelum anda disembahyangkan." Self cultivation and self reliance has always been the truth that i think i should do that more often. Jangan sampai i jatuh sakit then only cari doktor --- too late by then, or perhaps may need more effort to bring ourselves up.

While on the other hand, i was reading and contemplating these words by Pema Chodron ( a tibetan nun) in her book When Things Fall Apart:"On the night on which the buddha was to attain enlightenment, the Buddha sat under a tree, While he was sitting there, he was attacked by the forces of Mara. The story goes that they shot swords and arrows at him, and that their weapons turned into flowers. What does this story mean? My understanding of it is that what we habitually regard as obstacles are not really our enemies, but rather our friends. What we call obstacles are really the way the world and our entire experience teach us where we're stuck. What may appear to be an arrow or a sword we can actually experiencence as a flower. Whether we experience what happen to us as obstacle nad enemy or as teacher and friend depends entirely on our perception of reality. It depends on our relationship with ourselves.The teachings tell us that obstacles occur at the outer level and at the inner level. In this context, the outer level is the sense that something or somebody has harmed us, interfering with the harmony and peace we thought was ours. Some rascals has ruined it all. This particualr sense of obstacles occurs in relationships and in many other situations; we feel disappointed, harmed, confuse, and attacked in a variety of ways. People have felt this way from the beginning of time. As for the inner level of obstacle, perhaps nothing ever really attacks us except our own confusion. Perhaps there is no solid obstacle except our own need to protect ourselves from being touched. Maybe the only enemy is that we don't like the way reality is now and there fore wish it would go away fast. But what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it had taught us what we need to know. If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. It just keep returning with new names, forms, and manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality; how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves."

May our hearts be filled with loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

Dharma Camp 2009 - Part 1

This happened after some 10 years.
We were so excited to see you all!


It's called supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (No Marry Poppins here, but much greater than holding umbrella....we hold umbrella while listening to talks!)

This version is called - "Just Arrived": --- hmmm, we forgot to put up a sign that reads "WELCOME BACK!"

Just as true as what Ven. Kai Pao mentioned:
"Do you expect to meet up in this place, at this time after 10 years?"
"The dhamma seed if not planted during that time, would you expect to be here?"

Hard knock truth.
Great awakenings!
And perhaps some reignation of the dharma flame.

It was really touching to know that Bee Go and Geok Tin were able to make it to the camp. Not that my heart was not all out for the rest of the friends, but for what we have been through together, it's kind of hard to explain that kind of sense of belongingness. It's also about the dream we have shared.

Then i started to reflect on my life journey:
I now know i had the choice:
- 1998: i had "no choice" but to start working due to family commitments (Granny was sick, and need to be hospitalized and with high private hospital medical bill, that pushed me to earn my salary fast.)
- 1999/2000:i had "no choice" but i did make a choice out of no choice to make a change to get out of that mnc INXXX pressure cooker. With top manager's exist interview and different views from people around me, i shut myself out of all these, coz i know i was not strong enough to take up all this....continue my journey in pursuing my dream
- 2005:i had a choice, but i know that i have a better way of improving my lifestyle. no rat race here. must do sth different here. i guess this is a starting point for me. i am back on track now, with the guiding light of the Buddha Dharma.
- 2009: a much more solid path now. looks like taking my very first baby step out of my shell. setting my way out to see more, oh yes, to "reignite the spirit of Dharma".


p/s:
- was i scared to death to make/take up commitments? Answer: oh yes! dearly!
- would i like to share what i know and to take up some responsibiliity : Answer: oh yes! and i would stop and say "no" i f i am real tired, can i? a human e...need rest ma

Dharma Camp 的余震

从dharma camp回来。很累。但感觉还好。不至于会到一面讲话一面睡觉的地步。(Believe me, i did it when i had my first girl some 6 years ago, juggling between school work, helping hubby's work， household chores(no maid la, that time), plus jaga anak. phew!)
为什么会这样子呢？来回每天都睡不到3小时呵。换成平时一定变猪了。这是余震吧。
谛听佛陀的教诲，没什么比这更殊胜。

早上在柔帆的亲子联络簿上，写下了这些，就当着是修持日记的开始吧: 如果改天懒惰了，在belakang kira la: :P 或许您可以提醒我一下。ah bo, 怎么可称法侣呢? 哈哈！

Someone strong yet gentle

Meeting one of my seamtresses has always been a thing that sent me to another level of thoughts.
N, a single mother with 5 kids to fend for. Her husband died of sickness a year ago, with no pension and little EPF. 2 of her kids have haemophilia. All are schooling, with one college goer, but luckily is under government subsidy.
(Forget about the racial status here, coz what she get from the government is definitely not enough to feed 5 kids. Forget about your questions about "Why having so many children when you cant feed them?" coz you cant really judge others base on your own perception. Just stay focus on her will of living.)
Despite all these, ever since i first met her till now, she has never showed any grouses on her situation, nor did she seek for sympathy from anyone.
She once told me that, "People dont have to give me money, better to give me skills, coz with skills i can take care of myself."
And indeed, she is constantly seeking for opportunity to increase her income, no matter how small the project is. Imagine working as a cleaning lady and at the same time taking up sewing projects. She says, "I tak pilih-pilih la. Apa saje saya buat."
(Can you do that? Not calculating on whether how much is the return. Coz that is out of the choice. )
And surprisingly, one lead to another. Most of the small projects are now leading to bigger projects.
But of course, big project here doesnt mean drawing few millions, or few thousands, or few hundreds. They are only "a little" more than the usuall stuffs. But do you think she mind that all? Most people will be thinking, "why should i do small small things? No return, or less return." Well, i think if that comes to your mind, that's because you still have some other choices (such as having the luxury of staying at home, doing nothing and can still put food to the table). We are talking about a woman with no other choices left, except for her own physical body and strong will.

When asked how was her sale in one of the exhibition, with her usuall smile she said "Kadang2 ade yang naik, ade yang turun. Biasala, kalau turun, mungkin saya ade buat kesilapan." And i knew the sales was not of those drawing alot due to the crowd.
Do you think of this way? She didnt even pull down her face and said "tak banyak la.like that la.no good lo." Most people i met do this all the time, and so even before they realy venture into anything, i would think, they are not going to make it.

But N is different. She has got the long sights on her future and ever willing to learn, to stand up by herself, to be always positive and most importantly never give up. Yet if you ever see her smile, you know she qualifies for an advertisement on "GENTLENESS".

By the way, once when her daughter was sick, she could even stay confidently that her daughter is getting better and i really believe this was the factor that make the little one healed faster. Can you stay that calm and empower your kids to get better when they are sick?

I see her as a giant. And I see her as a successfull woman already.

May N be blessed with the greatest joy and the utmost success!

Can you recognize what is this?

Can you recognize what is this? ....
Origin: a 3 yrs 22 months girl.
Clue: what you see everyday

Answer: To be mentioned in the comment area once there are people who make a wild guess. hehe

Perth Trip

On luggage packing:

Packing for Perth trip can be a tedious job, not about what to bring, but about what not to bring. We were told that many things just cant go "over board", especially 3 in 1 cereal that contain dairy products. I wanted to spare some homeopathy medicine for the kids just in case we needed them during emergency, but on second thought, since the medicine might appear to be of similar physical appearance as heroine(and what not), I got to put this aside and opted for the unwanted children paracetamol..... Lucky that we didnt use it at all.

I was thinking about bringing over some chrysanthemum to boil with water just in case we may need to ease the body heat or something. But hubby again put off this idea and children paracetamol is still in the list.

This is strictly about Australian Customs Service. We should have checked on more in www.aqis.gov.au. But we didn't.

During the custom check, the officer passed us the info on food, animals and animal products, plant material, soiled footwear and used sporting and camping equipment.

But lucky that we were travelling with kids, and thus they were relatively more lenient to us. Food was ok, coz they were meant for snacks for kids. But anyway, we had only couple of seaweed sheets and some prickles.

Weather: It's spring, and the temperature is expected to swift between 30-15O.

Low Carb Diabetic Food

Mandurah's canal cruise

Our first stop of trip was the canal cruise in Mandurah.

So exciting to catch few glimpse of dolphins frolicking in the canal. Those cheeky mammals really got us keep searching for their whereabouts.

And finally we got one of them:


In this canal cruise eye opener, we were shown some of the by the canal multi million dollar houses. Most owners had their own yatch parked by the house.



Healthy Recipe