Thinking Thursdays: Watching the little ones play

Today, a good friend popped over with her youngest child (she is one amazing mum of 3) and also brought lunch, and we had a lovely time chatting over food and seeing the two kids play.  Though Junior J was 2 years younger than his playmate, they got along amazingly well... Stacking up Playbrix to make a house, and then cooking inside (the boy kept adding copious amounts of "pepper" and "salt" to the food, and she served everything neatly on a tray.  It was so nice seeing them play, and having some grown-up conversation meanwhile. :)  I think we must have more of these sessions, although they can be so difficult to arrange since both of us are so busy!  Do you enjoy playdates as much as your little ones?  I think I do!

PS: We didn't do much on the learning front this week since I've been rather tired thanks to the boy keeping me up at night... but I've finally managed to update some of our art and learning activities on the blog. :)

Messy Mittwoch: A clean house does not a home create

Have you seen our study lately?  Here's a shot, taken on the 16th of January, when I was in the midst of packing in preparation for my in-laws to visit:

Terrible, aint it?  I can assure you it was way neater after I was done (you should see the huge pile of papers/magazines I cleared), but then I think the study still has a long way to go before reaching the ideal cozy, clean room that it should be.  Same goes for most of the house I guess, but more so for this room since it tends to be the dumping ground for stuff in general. :p  Doesn't help that my scrap/craft stuff keeps accumulating there too!

I've been rather inspired by the clean-ups going over at "Project Simplify" over at Simple Mom, however, I think its rather tough to follow through with the weekly clean-ups, not with all that we already have to accomplish each day.  Its so tempting to plunge in and go into a major purging session everyday, but I'm also reminded that while I want the house to be beautiful, clean does not equate to comfortable (this I totally know, since my mum was a fastidious cleaner.  She insisted on having those stiff antique Chinese wooden chairs in the living room, as they were easier to clean than sofas.  No one sat in them, except when we had the occasional guest, and the living room became more or less "dead", or just a place to sit on the floor and veg out in front of the TV)... and I'd rather have love in the home than sparkling windows .  Last week, there also came this reminder that "homemaking is making a home, not about making perfection".  :)

So for the next few months, I thought I'd be simple with regards to de-cluttering (No clutter diet for me, thank you very much).  We do need to clear loads of stuff since most of what we have needs to be in storage when we move to Germany next year, and I can't imagine having to store all 6 (and more) full Billy bookshelves stuffed with books, and a cupboard chockfull of craft stuff... However I probably can only spare about 1/2 an hour a day just working on this, since there's the usual housework, cooking, cuddling and storybook reading that needs to be done.  The plan would be to use 20 minutes a day, either to target an area in the house, or to clear/pack/repair 20 items in the house.  Hopefully this works out, meanwhile, you'd probably have to endure me rambling about this for the next few weeks!

So... have you been de-cluttering or making improvements to your home lately?  What are your tips for making a house a home?

PS: If you're wondering, Mittwoch = Wednesday in German.  I ended up using the term so that I could get my alliterations (sorry, am rather obsessed by that)!

Thankful Tuesdays: Cast your cares...

Yesterday something happened that gave us a huge scare, but things are ok now... And during this process, we are reminded to cast our cares upon God.  And that "In Christ alone, our hope is found"!

And here's our thankful list for the week:

:: Helpful hands around the house.  The hubby who vacuums (and little boy prays "Dear God, thank you for Papa vacuum!"), and takes care of Junior J when I'm tired... And the little boy, who enthusiastically tries to help in household chores, from washing clothes and folding wash cloths...

Rather messy, but the boy tries to fold the wash cloths everytime he sees them.  :)

... to setting the table:

Yesterday, I gave little boy his bowl and my plate to place on the table.  Then I gave him a whole bunch of cutlery for myself and him, and saw this upon reaching the table... My cutlery and his all neatly sorted out in his bowl and my plate!  Was pleasantly surprised as we did not teach him how to sort the cutlery!

... and helping to cook (by "cracking" the eggs and putting veggies into the pan:

He's quite overenthusiastic when it comes to knocking the eggs to crack them, and I have to make sure he doesn't splatter them everywhere!

:: Friends, who keep you in prayer and provide listening ears...

:: A really lovely playdate Junior J could have with the hubby's friend's daughter, J yesterday.  I had a nice time talking with N (J's mum) too!  (But I forgot to snap photos!)

:: And of course, funny antics by the little boy.  Like his incessant singing of songs like "DoReMi" and "The Farmer in the Dell" while banging on the piano.  Or him trying to sit in his toddle truck and pushing himself along (while remembering to pack some of his favourite alphabets and his water bottle!):

What are you thankful for this week?

Monday Made: Beanbags and prepositions

Hello!  It was those busy, stay-home weekends since the hubby was on call on Saturday, and I didn't do much crafting save for Junior J's 26th month scrap.  But when the hubby was doing his German homework last night (I've stopped classes, and am so glad I no longer have homework, hehheh), I stayed up with him and sewed a little beanbag for the boy, using some really old green beans from my mum:

They are easy to sew, just straight seams all around. :)  They're great to use as make-shift beds for toys, and also for those throwing games where you get them to throw the beanbag into a box/container etc...

We also tried playing this game to help Junior J with his prepositions (he uses "on" for everything: "on the room", "on the bowl", and gets confused when I tell him its "in the bowl").  I would sing "Put the beanbag in/on/under the ____ (insert item in blank)", to the tune of "This is the way", and end it with "Where is beanbag now?" to which Junior J will answer me.  Hopefully all this practice will help him with those prepositions, since they can be confusing (I know, since up to now I can't get my German prepositions right!).

So today, Mr Beanbag has been:

On Junior J's head...

In a bowl... (and later, under it)

On top of the bricks...

And in a container!

Think both the beanbag, and the boy had fun. :)  Oh, and here are more ideas for beanbag games...  Have a great week ahead, and come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up!

Saturday scrapping: The other day...

Hello!  Just a quick post on a layout I finished during Junior J's nap (am happy to say I'm learning to scrap way faster than last time!)... An LO to just journal down his milestones on turning 26 months!  (I think I will make this a tradition, one LO per month for the little boy...)

Jo very nicely gave me those really nice chipboard stickers from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe collection, and they were too nice not to use immediately (Thanks gal!):

Pram to remember how he napped in there during the Taiwan trip, plus flowers,
since little boy loves them, and "D is for duck", for him being able to memorize one of his alphabet books! :)

I used the sketch from Crate Paper (Sketches help me save time as I don't shuffle my stuff around the page too long), and a whole mixture of papers and embellies from the Mia, Restoration, Emma's Shoppe, Little Sprouts and Brook collections. :)  And who says you can't scrap boys in red? ;)

Not going to ramble about his milestones, you can slowly squint and read them in the journalling, heh!  

Ok, boy's up.  Gotta run!

Foodie Fridays: A confession

We don't have a recipe book holder.  I scribble recipes on post-its and stick them on the kitchen cabinet! :p

Ahhh... If you have read really old entries for my blog, you might know that I initially embarked on a 3/7 resolution last year, amongst a whole load of other grand plans.  :p  Then I've stopped writing those Foodie Friday posts... because I think I'm still a long way to go in fulfilling that resolution!  Some of you would think, hey, she's a stay-home mum.  She only has one child to care for, putting dinner on the table shouldn't be difficult right?

Well... erm, not so, since I must admit I totally CANNOT cook.  My mum was a pretty decent cook, and her idea of taking good care of her family was making sure we ate well, and didn't need to lift a hand in the kitchen.  I did try to learn how to cook from her, but she was so particular about her kitchen being kept clean, and things being used in a particular way, that we drove each other nuts!  I wisely decided to take the easy way out and stay out of the kitchen, and enjoy the food.  So the only time I got to cook was perhaps during Home Economics lessons in school (which I can't remember much of, except that we had a draconian teacher who made my partner wear a wash basin on her head for not wiping it dry, and that we made pineapple upside down cake).

Pasta: One of the dishes I can cook, and have learnt how to prep the sauce from scratch...

Then I moved to a student residence during my uni days, and that was when I started experimenting in the kitchen, but it was simple stuff like pasta.  It helped that I met the hubby then, and he loved to cook. :)  But fast forward to today, and I admit, I'm still pretty bad in the cooking department (should have taken cooking classes instead of that masters course, yes?).  I'm now more adventurous in trying new recipes, but with time constraints and my knack for turning out culinary disasters, I do admit I sometimes get lazy and try to avoid cooking. :p

However, I'm still very inspired by the amazing examples of mums who cook for their families.  Like S, who works, and still ensures the family has a home-cooked dinner every night.  Or the hubby's aunt in Taiwan, who went from not being able to cook, to being a really good cook (her little son fattening up is a good testament to her culinary skills!).  Right now, I've managed to cook 3-4 nights a week (some nights the hubby is on call, and my mum sometimes brings food over), but with the post-trip disorientation and the bad flu, cooking has been sidelined for abit.   However, I guess there's still hope for me, and I'll try to blog about it to keep myself accountable. :p  At least the boy seems to be eating better now, and with him on "adult food" it means I'm forced to be creative in making his meals at least!

Frittata: A dish that I love, but can't cook often for the hubby, thanks to all those eggs...

So stay tuned for more updates from our kitchen, hopefully they will be good ones... and do share any tips you have for getting dinner on the table everyday! :)  Have a great weekend!

Thinking Thursdays: The fall of Jericho

Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites.  No one went out and no one came in.

Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  March around the city once with all the armed men.  Do this for six days..."

"On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets."

"When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse..."

"... and the people will go up, every man straight in."

- Excerpts from Joshua 6: 1-5 (NIV)

~~~~~~~

We read the story of Joshua and the fall of Jericho in the little boy's Bible storybook, sang the song "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho", then built the walls of Jericho.  Little boy got into the story with gusto, walking around the walls seven times on the seventh day (sorry the photos were blur, since I was trying so hard not to laugh!) and trying to blow his trumpet.  Then it was crash!  And the walls came tumbling down!  After the whole story, the first thing he did was to retrieve the "Jericho" sign, and then he tried to rebuild the city, saying "Jericho no more fall down!"... 

Oh, and anyway, this "Jericho" was built using PlayBrix (available at Smart Alley).  These are large bricks, made using corrugated cardboard which can be wiped clean as they have a water resistant coating.  After letting the boy play with these bricks for a week, here's what we think:

YAY! points:

:: The Brix are great for developing both fine and gross motor skills, since stacking the large bricks would require kids to squat, stand, tip-toe and balance.

:: I liked that they allowed open-ended play and room for imagination.  The little boy has been fashioning tables and TVs out of them, and building "tall towers" out of them.

:: They'll be great for co-operative play, and I think families with two or more young children will probably get alot of mileage from them.

:: They are pretty kid-proof and would probably last.  Being made of corrugated cardboard means they are really light, but yet tough (the boy accidentally stepped on a few of them, and didn't make a dent!), and the water-resistant coating is a plus.

:: They can be folded flat for storage, so they'll help to save space!

NAY! points:  

:: When assembled, they do take up quite abit of space, so for those living in tighter quarters, it might mean tripping over them when the kids are playing with them.

:: You'd probably be able to achieve similar playtime using recycled cereal and shoe boxes, but of course, they'd be all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours, plus not as durable compared to the Brix (not forgetting it'll take quite awhile to save so many boxes!).

:: The cost would make me think twice before purchasing it, but as mentioned earlier, those with 2 or more kids would probably get quite alot of mileage from the Brix. :)

Disclaimer: The PlayBrix are on loan to us for a week, courtesy of Smart Alley. We were not paid to do the review and the points above are based on our own honest opinion.

Thankful Tuesdays: It could be worse

Last night the cough kept me up for the first part of the night (any natural remedies to recommend btw?).  As I tossed and turned and tried to sleep, the "glass half-empty" part of me was thinking that it could be worse.  Like how we were only sick after the trip, and not during.  Or how right now the most respiratory demanding thing I have to do is to keep up with the 20 minute bedtime lullaby routine... unlike previously, where when I had a cough this bad, it always meant losing my voice after a day of teaching (have you tried talking above the voices of 35 teenage boys, all excited about dissecting cow eyeballs?).

Then I was reminded how the pile of laundry waiting to be washed or folded just meant I had family around me.  Or how the long list of housework meant I had a roof over my head.  And that the dishes in the sink meant we had food in our tummies.  And after that everything didn't seem so bad after all.

So here's my thankful list for the week:

:: God's love, and the constant reminders in the Bible about how great that love is.

Butterfly spotted at the Taipei Zoo. :)

:: Butterflies.  Yes, they are pretty, plus, they pollinate flowers, so they result in fruits and seeds, and eventually new growth.

:: My mum, who helped out over the weekend so I could get some rest.

:: The hubby back safe from his overseas conference.

:: Togetherness: Little boy has been trying to use the german word "zusammen" (meaning "together") frequently.  He'd pipe up "Mama eating, papa eating, Juju eating, everyone eating together!  Zusammen!" during meals.  And yesterday, he climbed up on the chair next to where I was finishing my dinner (he had finished his, and the hubby was at German class), asked for some raisins and cheese puffs, and sat next to me and munched his food while I ate.  And of course, declared, zusammen!

:: Cool rains.  Its been raining quite a bit, but its been nice to stay in and read books to the boy.

What are you thankful for this week?  Do share!

Monday Made: A rainbow of ribbons

Hello!  How was your weekend?  The hubby was overseas for a conference, and I was down with a very bad flu, so we stayed in the whole time.  Thankfully though while I was coughing like crazy, little boy only had a slight cough which hardly bothered him (I like to think its due to me passing antibodies to him).  I've been spending most of the time reading to the little boy, since I barely have the energy to do anything, and housework is piling up, but I did manage to make this for him:

Its basically a whole rainbow of ribbons tied to a hoop, some which were scraps, while others were from my craft supply drawer.  I used to give the little boy ribbons tied to a stick, but sticks are pokey things and not that safe, so when I chanced across the same idea but using a hoop (in this book, which is chokful of great ideas for toys you could make yourself), I thought it was brilliant and worth giving a try!  I used the inner ring of a plastic embriodery hoop (available at Daiso for $2, use the inner ring as the outer has a screw which may come out), which is large enough for little hands to grasp, but not large enough to slip through their heads and cause strangulation (same goes for the ribbons, if you are worried, keep them short, I think the guide is 7 inches).

So you can wave them all around and make rainbows in the air:

... And you could go just crazy while doing it:

Then when you are tired, the hoop can hang nicely on your shoulder, while you go and do other important things (like chop apples for your bear bear, for example):

Other points you might find useful:
:: We are also having fun identifying the colours, and learning about light and dark colours.  And spotting unique ribbons, like those with polka dots and those with silver trims...

:: The ribbons can be cut with varying lengths to teach about the concepts of "longer and shorter", and you can use different widths and textures too!

:: Attach the ribbons to the hoop and tie  double knots to secure them.  Initially I just looped them through (like how you loop ribbons through the holes for bookmarks), but these loops would come out rather quickly since toddlers can be really enthusiastic about waving those ribbons!

:: This is great for bringing outdoors where you can let them run with it to their hearts content, plus they can also see the ribbons catch the wind!

Have a great week ahead! :) And come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up!

Twice Taiwan: Traipsing through Taipei

The last two full days in Taipei were spent mainly getting our shopping done (we have never been the shopping type, so we left everything to last minute :p), plus visiting a few markets and museums.  Day 3 saw us shopping at Shinkong Mitsukoshi, and we managed to get some interesting toys for the little boy there.  We didn't get anything else though, since everything was so expensive, even though they were clearing the past season's clothes!  Lunch was at the food court, then it was off to my favourite street in Taipei: Dihuijie, which is home to a long stretch of stores selling cloth and dried goods.  We picked up our bakwa (of the dried beef jerky type) at the shop right at the end of the street, then headed to the market in the drizzle.  The hubby then proceeded to patiently wheel the little boy in the pram round and round the second floor of the market (to ensure he napped) while I frantically shopped for fabrics.  The variety is amazing, however this round I couldn't seem to find the shops that I visited previously, and had to settle for paying more.

We went to the flower market (Jianguo Holiday Flower Market, which is open on weekends only) on Day 4.  It was like walking into the market section of the Singapore Garden Fest, except all the booths were actually tucked underneath a flyover!  Lots to see, and the little boy loved the fountain displays best...

Bamboo seedlings.  The seeds are actually sold at the market...

... and will germinate to give you this!

Its blurred but there was a beautiful vertical garden behind the yellow blossoms. :)

Then it was a quick lunch across the road:

We always try to order a plate of green veggies for every meal and let Junior J have some.
He's been surprising us by eating these by the leaf, and can down about 15 on a good day!
Since our discovery, we've gladly stopped trying to tear/chop up his veggies...

The hubby's addiction: He ordered hong shao niu rou mian (beef noodles) at almost every noodle eatery.
With the hearty breakfasts at the hotel (which gave you 2 eggs every morning), it was no wonder we put on weight!

And then back to the opposite section of the flyover, where there was a jade market, selling all sorts of semi-precious stones:

The atmosphere at the Jade market was pretty different compared to the flower market.  Many stalls had stools for you to sit down to peruse their shiny baubles, and the stones all shone under warm yellow lights...

Then it was off to the National Taiwan Museum (with its accompanying museum of natural history across the road), where little boy got to see the dino skeletons...

... along with alot of other interesting exhibits.

There was a section on Taiwan's indigenous culture, showcasing how the various tribes lived their way of life...

This exhibition was in traditional Chinese and French, so we had no idea about what it was talking about, however, this particular time-line display caught my eye, since it was boldly exhibited in shadowboxes, and everything was in a single colour (either red or white).

Loved the tiny little models... really a crafter's dream to make these! :)

Exhibition on rice, where there was a display also showing animals found living in the padi fields...

Another interesting thing (to me at least): Little cylinders filled with different types of rice, hung gracefully from the ceiling!

An exhibition on the history of radio... along with some exhibits where you could press buttons to listen to common sounds heard in Taiwan over the years ...

Section with displays on various ecosystems.  These models are plastic, but I think they are pretty life-like!

Junior J refused to nap (with all that stuff to see, I don't blame him), so we ended up heading back to the hotel to settle him down... and after he woke we popped by another mall (I forgot the name, but it was recommended by a waitress over at the hotel) to shop a little, as we had to buy a T-shirt for the boy as all the clothes I had washed had refused to dry in the cold rainy weather.

Oh, and this time round, hubby decided to splash out on our accomodation in Taipei, since this was going to be the only family holiday this year.  We had previously stayed at Lilai hotel, which was pretty decent given the price, but the wet carpets (once we came back to find them washing the carpets, and it was all soggy) and clogged up toilets weren't too great.  So this round, we stayed at Waikoloa Hotel, which pretty nice, and the rooms were large and quite tastefully decorated:

The first thing Junior J did when he entered the room was to turn on the TV.  We were puzzled since we hardly turn on the telly when the boy is awake, and when questioned about who taught him to do so, he promptly replied "Kongkong!".  Now I know what he's been up to when he goes over to my parent's place!

The first thing we usually do upon reaching our hotel room (after putting down our bags that is),
is to unplug the telephone.  There's really something about buttons that kids find irresistible!
Oh, and little boy spent many of the nights making mock calls to us, or to his bear,
and we tried teaching him how to dial our numbers.  :) 

Yup, and that more or less covers our trip! :)  It was really tiring and challenging, but all in all we did have fun, learnt much, and ate quite abit... Have a great week ahead everyone!