Good Parent, Bad Parent.

Two days back, I saw a guy riding his motorbike with a toddler sitting in front of him and his wife cradling a young infant at the back. It was one in the afternoon with the hot sun right above our head. The infant's face, of course faces the sky, with the hot sun glaring right at her eyes. As their bike passed my stationed car, I saw the mum, in baju kurung (a traditional Malay costume) pulled up her blouse and start breast feeding on that moving bike. Gosh!

The same evening, it was drizzling. As I was on my way to fetch my son from school, I saw another family of four, two adults and two toddlers, on a moving bike again. This time, the mum was holding an umbrella above them. Goodness! As if the umbrella will help keep them dry.

I have also seen before, pint size children carrying school bags the size of their body, and probably the same weight too, walking home from school without any adult supervision. They were wearing primary school uniform, so I guess they could be only seven or eight years old. Some of them even cross the road without looking out for cars.

A friend of mine, would drop her two girls off to school and before they enter the school gate, she will give each of them a very tight hug as if they are leaving the country instead. She had been doing that since her girls was in pre-school. Her eldest now is already 16 years old.

Another friend of mine, who only has a son, will drop his son off to school and she herself would get out of the car and hang around the school gate chatting (or investigating) with school children that passes by, up till the bell rings.

There are also Muslims children who kisses their parent's hands (their tradition) outside the school before they enter school. Aw. I think that is so sweet.

Well, I personally don't think there is any wrong or right way of parenting. Just that certain way of bringing up children could be acceptable to one parent, might not, to another. Anyway, there wasn't any parenting school around to guide us nor was it a subject that we could learn in school during our younger days. It is all trial and error.

If my sons turn out to be a good person, a good husband, a good father, able to hold a job and bring home the bread, then I will know I passed as a parent. As at now, I think I passed with flying colors. Well, no one can see the future but time will tell. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy your parenting as much as I do.

Sushi

Click on the picture for clearer view.

My youngest son loves sushi, especially the one with the raw salmon. During the last school holiday, we decided to try and make our own sushi. Most supermarket now a days do sell the sushi starting kit for people like us. It comes with the vinegar, the soy sauce, a tube of wasabi, the wooden mat to roll the sushi and the sheets of sea weed. So simple and the instruction given were so easy to follow.

I didn't use the Japanese rice, I used the normal white rice I have at home. Once the rice is cooked and is still hot, add the vinegar. If not mistaken, the recipe says to add 1 part of vinegar to every 5 parts of rice. Mix well when it is still hot.

I didn't use raw salmon, instead I used steam carrot, raw cucumber, some mix minced meat that I cooked with soy sauce (kind of Chinese style) and some dried chicken floss. Actually you can add anything that is edible.

The difficult part was rolling it into a swiss roll and cut it into cubes like the above. It is quite a sticky business. I have to wet my hands and the knife all the time to prevent it from sticking. My son helped too. He loves doing such things. The one that look like a heart shape was hand made by him, by accident I guess. We could not get another heart shape after that.

Well, most important we, mother and sons, had fun preparing and eating it. Hmmm yummy. Perhaps you should try this with your kids too, sometime. Have fun and thanks for reading.

Sunshine Award.

Oh wow! Another award! Thanks to Jenny from "I'm a full-time mummy" http://imafulltimemummy.blogspot.com/ I am glad you like my blog.

According to the award rules, there are 5 steps to follow

1) Put the logo within your blog or post.
2) Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers.
3) Link the nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person whom you received this award from.


I would like to pass this on to 12 others, who, some are my sunshine and some I would like to be their sunshine to brighten them up, so that they would continue blogging.

1.Tracie Moo (my niece) - http://bittersweetflavours.blogspot.com/
2."Buttery"fly - http://mybutteryfly.blogspot.com/
3.Jolly - http://shiryong.blogspot.com/ (my friend who just started blogging)
4.Rahil - http://delusion-waves.blogspot.com/
5.Owen's mom - http://adventuresinallthingsfood.blogspot.com/
6.Dondi - http://afhousewife.blogspot.com/
7.Cop Mama - http://www.copmama.com/
8.Diane - http://createdbydiane.blogspot.com/
9.Ruth Housley - http://ruthhousley.blogspot.com/
10.Tammy - http://frugalsouthernmom.blogspot.com/
11.Amberlynn - http://fugitivefirefly.blogspot.com/
12.Midnite Skys - http://shadesofgreenneo.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the award again and thanks for your support. Without you readers, I wouldn't be blogging and thanks for reading.

Workshop

Sam's old jalopy was making a lot of irritating notices on the engine. He sent it to the roadside workshop. The foreman took a look at it and marked an "X" on the chassis with a chalk, and then gave it a tight kick and the noise stopped immediately. He handed Sam a bill for $200.00. Sam felt the bill was atrocious for a quick job like that, so Sam demanded an itemized account of his charges. The foreman went back to his office and this is what he wrote: One chalk mark:$1.00. Knowing where to mark "X":$199.00.


**************************************************************************************

When I am Driving

Driving to a new restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Ah Ling took several wrong turns. When she finally found the right road, she asked her husband, "Why didn't you tell me I was lost?"

"I thought you knew where you were going," he replied. "You always know where you are going when I'm driving."



Just for laughs. Enjoy a good laugh and thanks for reading.

Time to pass on awards

This award was passed to me by Baili (http://bailiandi.blogspot.com/). Thank you very much. I am glad you like my blog. Now is time for me to pass this to 15 others.

There are a few very important things you have to do in order to accept the award:

1. Thank and link to the person that gave you the award
2. Pass on the award to 15 bloggers that you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic
3. Contact said blogs to let them know they've won
4. State 7 things about yourself

The 15 others that I would like to pass this to is:
1. http://delusion-waves.blogspot.com/
2.http://www.copmama.com/
3.http://from-japan-with-love.blogspot.com/
4.http://2setsoftwinsforme.blogspot.com/
5.http://meandcraig.blogspot.com/
6.http://www.middayescapades.com/
7.http://secondtimearound09.blogspot.com/
8.http://chrissyrenee79.blogspot.com/
9.http://www.thebreathingpost.com/
10.http://shadesofgreenneo.blogspot.com/
11.http://jerry-cj7.blogspot.com/
12.http://greatgrannygrandma.blogspot.com/
13.http://2kidsandacat.blogspot.com/
14.http://createdbydiane.blogspot.com/
15.http://imafulltimemummy.blogspot.com/

The 7 things about myself is:
1. I have two teenage sons age 13 and 16
2. I love reading.
3. I like writing.
4. I am an animal lover.
5. I love to eat too, but moderately in order not to gain weight.
6. I love gardening.
7. Most of all I love blogging. Through blogging I learn a lot about parenting, writing, cooking and most important of all, made new friends.

Thanks for reading and happy blogging.

Uninvited Guest

Click on the photo to have a clearer view.


Look what I found on the first day of Chinese New Year. A mother cat with 5 kittens, new born. At a small corner on the porch. Their eyes were still closed. Look at that, so cute. The mother cat stayed there and feed its young the whole day, that day. So pitiful. Wanted to feed it, but whenever we get near, it will hissed, like telling us to back off. My hubby, my 2 sons and I would take turn to go peep every now and then. We notice that, on the second night, the mother cat disappeared until the next day in the late afternoon.

We thought it would not come back anymore. Wanted to feed those kitten on our own. I still have the small bottle, for feeding small animals. Bought it when my rabbits start to reproduce. My hubby suggested that if the mother cat still doesn't come back by the third day, maybe we should send all the kittens to the nearest SPCA.

Luckily it came back just in time. From that day onwards, the mother cat would leave at night to look for food and come back the next morning. Well, they only stayed for nine days. On the eight day I saw some of the kitten open their eyes and start to move slightly further from where they were. Every time we move the car, one of us would have to check if they are all there on that spot. Wouldn't want to turn any of it into pancakes.

Maybe the mother cat is not comfortable with four of us keeping an eye on them. No privacy at all. The whole family pack their belongings and left our porch on the eighth night and left behind cute memories. They never came back since. Occasionally I could see the mother cat roaming around the back of my house. Hmmm, wonder where are those kittens now.





Look at them!So peaceful. So adorable. Enjoy the video clips and thanks for reading. Hope to share more such stuffs with you in the future.

I did it

I submitted 2 stories from my blog to the local newspaper "The Star". They have this section called StarMag which stands for Star Magazine. The public can send in either stories about children or some true stories about personal life etc. It is not a contest, it is an on going thing and I plan to submit more stories in the future. I just wanted to see how far my writing would take me. I send via e-mail right before Valentines Day. Last Thursday I received an e-mail from the editor stating that one the reader would like to send a comment, which was enclosed in the same e-mail.

After reading the mail, only got to know that my piece about "Drunk Dad Are Dangerous" was published on the 28th of February 2010. I was floating that day. Didn't expect them to published it so soon. So excited. The same feeling when I first found out I was pregnant. I got hold of that day's paper and keep staring at it in disbelieve. My 13 years old son ask if I am considered a columnist now. Wow! How I wish.

Well, news like this I could only share with people who love to read and write. Others who don't, think that this is no big deal. Well it certainly means a lot to me. Looks like my law of attraction (The Secret) is working.

They only edited a bit due to space constraint. At least now I know my English is not that bad and others could understand what I am trying to deliver. I am glad, too, that my followers (blog) are increasing by the week. Guess I am doing something very right.

I also participated in some "story writing for children" contest. I promise myself I will try and join all these writing contest from now on. Who knows, I could be the next Stephenie Meyer of Malaysia. Wish me luck and thanks for reading. I appreciate all my readers very much.

What flavour are yours

Nini was breastfed since birth. Now she is 3, still on mother's milk. She had started to drink from cups and packet drinks. One day, she was ask to choose between 2 packet drinks. Vanilla milk or strawberry milk. She said she wanted to try both, then she realize she gets milk from her mom too. She ran over to her mom and ask "Mommy, your milk is vanilla or strawberry flavoured?"




***************************************************************************************

Start A Diet


Mary announced that she was going to start a diet to lose some pounds she put on recently.

"Great!" Sally exclaimed. "I'm ready to start a diet too. We can be dieting partners and help each other out. When I feel the urge to drive out for some burgers and fries, I'll call you first."

"Wonderful," Mary replied. "I'll go with you!"




Just for laugh! Enjoy reading and thanks for reading.