Messy Mittwoch: Dustballs, out!

I've been swinging like a pendulum for the past two weeks.  Ping-ponging between the two extremes of feeling extremely tired... and having these crazy bursts of energy where I start these cleaning frenzies in the middle of the night.

So since I've not been able to sleep, I've been able to turn this:

... into this.

This was our bedroom dresser.  Atrocious, wasn't it?  It used to be a dumping ground for stuff that had to go elsewhere, plus receipts and whatever else the hubby would empty from his pockets (those things sorta never got cleared!).  Now the dresser surface is clear, and I can finally use the CD player again!  There's also space for two more baskets, one for Baby J's toys (which have all been soaped and washed, yay!), and another to catch the normal pocket "debris" that comes out of the hubby's pockets (loose change, receipts and whatever else).  I hope the surface stays clear!

Messy Mittwoch: Some progress

I've been using little pockets of time here and there (of 10 minutes or so) to clean and declutter when the hubby is away.  When the in-laws were here last week, they voluntarily helped with some of the kitchen cleaning, and my FIL also helped me to clear up my really messy garden (he's the one with the green fingers).  And finally, I think we're seeing a little bit of progress here and there.  Here's one area that took a blasting:

This was our really messy piano top, which had all sorts of bits and bobs scattered on it.  I cleared everything off, gave the cloth runner a wash (but decided to do without it finally, to allow for easy dusting), and this is the end result:

Little boy brought back flowers for me from a trip to the market with his grandparents. :)
And I love our calendar, which features different artwork each day based on Bible verses.

The other side of the piano has a lamp and this phototray (one of my fav projects!).  All clear!

Have you been decluttering too?  Which areas have you been working on?

Messy Mittwoch: Wardrobe woes

We have a small walk-in wardrobe.  Its currently in a huge giganto-mongo mess, since I'm in the process of unearthing my maternity clothes (which I've been forced to dig out, since now I can no longer fit into normal stretchy stuff) and I'm also trying to sort out and declutter all the clothes and other things that have accumulated over the years.  To add to all the chaos, I've been slowly trying to go through all the baby clothes that Junior J has outgrown, to prepare for number 2.  Its going to be a really long process, so I'm not going to bore you guys with talking about it... However, recently, Junior J has had quite abit to remark with regards to wardrobe matters:

(I change into a large baggy T-shirt to bring the boy to the playground, since most of my usual tops ride up now, thanks to the big belly.)

Me: Let's go to the playground now...

Junior J: Silly mama!  You're wearing Papa's shirt!

~~~~~~~

(Junior J walks into our room, and sees the mess around him.  He shakes his head.)

Junior J: Such CONFUSION!  (This is a phrase he's picked up from a book by Leo Lionni, which we have been reading alot of.)

~~~~~~~

Whatever the case, I still think I have better fashion sense than the little boy:

His current obsession is with toilet rolls.  He wears them on his head, stuffs his arms into them,
stuffs eggs into them and declare they are ice-cream cones...

Just snapped this morning.  Got very fed-up trying to get him to change out of his jammies,
and left the room to prepare his breakfast.  He decided to compromise by wearing
BOTH his jammies and his T-shirt together!

Ok.  Gotta go pack up that confusing mess.  While wearing Papa's shirt.  Have a blessed day!

Messy Mittwoch: Simplifying

This was how our fish tank looked back in April 2007, when we were rather newly married and didn't have kids. The hubby enjoyed fiddling with the tank and doing all the aqua-gardening, and all his time and effort didn't go to waste, since the fish and plants seemed to thrive:

The dog came along later, and Junior J followed about a year later.  Then we had to give the dog away, because the little boy seemed to be sensitive to dogs.  And now the tank sits there sadly, its glass walls green with algae.  So we've decided, in view of our impending move to Germany next year, that we would have to find new (and probably better) homes for all our fish, and are also thinking of selling off the tank and the accompanying equipment.

Guess its something that is necessary right now.  Simplifying by "cutting down" on certain hobbies, since we seem to have less and less time for them, especially with baby number 2 arriving in about 3 months time.  In my case, I've also requested for a break from my design team duties, and have been saying "no" to various scrappy projects (many apologies to my friends for that!).  

Have you had to simplify by cutting down on your hobbies recently?

PS: If you have a fish tank, or are thinking of starting one, and would like to adopt some fishy friends, or purchase a second-hand tank (its a 4 feet tank with an accompanying dark brown cabinet, and of course we'll clean it up first!) or related equipment (eg. filter etc), do drop me a comment or email! ;)      

Messy Mittwoch: No time to clean

I wish the little boy was doing more of this.  But I guess growing up means shorter naps...

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth

empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

hang out the washing and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

( lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

( pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew

and out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo

but I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?

( lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

- Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, Lady’s Home Journal (1958)

~~~~~~~

(Just a little poem I found, that helps me to refocus every time I start to fret about the messy, dirty condition of our home.  Do you find it difficult to balance household chores and parenting duties amidst everything else?  For us, its been tough these days getting the usual housework done with the boy sleeping less, so I'm off to do some tidying now.  Meanwhile, do you have any tips to share on getting your home cleaned and your chores done while still juggling parenthood?  Aside from hiring maids and cleaners that is!)

Foodie Fridays: Breadmaker recipes wanted!

Hello hello!  The weather report said that it was supposed to rain in most areas of Singapore this morning.  But since it just looked cloudy, we took a chance and went to the zoo (half the kindergartens seemed to have the same idea as us!).  Instead of raining, it turned out to be really really hot:

And thanks to all that hot sun, I don't really think I can write a coherent post right now... but I do have something to ask you dear readers (who have been so nice in answering my questions!):
Do you have any tried and tested breadmaker recipes for bread and pizza dough?

Junior J loves helping me put the ingredients into the pan, & is fascinated when he sees the ball of dough forming!

I'm asking this because our current pizza dough recipe (which I blogged about here) seems rather cranky.  One day, it gives a nice thin crunchy crust, and another day I get gloop after the machine cycle (that happened on Wednesday when we had to make pizza for our DG potluck... ooops).  In addition, the recipes that came with our current breadmaker seem a tad... chewy, so I'm hoping to get some recipes that yield a softer loaf.  So, anyone can help me here?

Thanks, and have a good weekend friends!

Messy Mittwoch: Finally, a functional breakfast table

We used to have a little flip-up breakfast table in our kitchen.  Weekends saw us having breakfast there, enjoying the natural light streaming in, while sipping our hot cups of coffee.  Then Junior J came along... we had less time to pack/clean/maintain the house, and gone were those leisurely breakfasts of hot sausages and fried eggs.  The little table became the kitchen dumping ground for bits and bobs, random containers, as well as tupperwares that we didn't have the discipline to put away in their proper places.  I think the table was feeling rather sad, since it went from being an active participant of happy brunches to this:

Sorry state of the table, snapped on Monday.  We have been blessed with too much tupperware,
such that sometimes its hard to find space in our drawers to store them.
And crowning the entire pile is the pink basin that my MIL uses to wash veggies with... 

I decided that this would be one area I wanted to tackle when the hubby was still on leave, since I thought the table would be perfect for Junior J to do his drawing/painting while I cooked/washed up.  (Currently, he does his painting in his high chair in the dining room while I wash up, and I have to keep running in and out of the kitchen to check that he wasn't painting the chair/himself, or eating the paints.)  So while the hubby was vacuuming last night (my parents had brought Junior J out), I spent about an hour clearing the piles of stuff and cleaning up the table...

A clean table means space for everyone.
Space for little hands to do artwork, and even space for a little bit of cheeriness:  flowers in a jar for mama. :)

So finally, we have regained back our breakfast table!  Hopefully, those breakfasts in the kitchen with hot sausages will be back too! ;)

Do you have a favourite spot to eat your breakfast?

Messy Mittwoch: I cleaned my sink... (and Project Spare Attire)

My cough/flu seems to be better but the germs seemed to have ran away with half my brain, so please excuse the rambling nature of today's post... So anyway, Project Clean-up has still been ongoing, but has hit a slump with every cold I got.  I've managed to dig out some clothes to give away or sell, cleared quite abit of trash and all my NIE masters notes (I admit I had to close my eyes, empty all my files and firmly tell the sentimental voice in my head that I wasn't keeping any of those painstakingly written and colourful summaries, in the event that I might need to refer to them in the future).

Then recently while reading my usual blog reads, I came across the "Baby Steps" on FlyLady.  When I first read it, I thought the whole thing was ridiculous.  Clean my sink?  When I have a study table that is tottering under piles of papers and scraps and art materials?  When there's a pile of laundry that is screaming to be washed?  Cleaning the sink seems like something much lower on my priority list.  But since I was doing the washing up after dinner the other night, I thought, "why not?"... since the sink needed a proper scrub anyway.  So I went at it with a wire sponge and some detergent.  I didn't go to the extent of drying the sink or shining it as was recommended, but I think I see the sense in that first step.  After about 15 minutes of elbow grease, I had a nice clean, shiny sink.  Not much effort, yet, a nice shiny spot in the whole messy house.  Nice!

So after the sink-cleaning incident, the next day after the dish-washing and a quick rinsing of the sink... I decided to clean my stove... Now the hubby is thinking I've gone a little bonkers.  Its still only taking about 20 minutes of my day, I now have 2 clean spots in my house (the stove and sink), and I'm thinking of wiping that terribly dirty glass hood next.  And I just might follow through with all those other baby steps listed since they seem rather do-able and won't take time away from family... Perhaps the fever has really affected my brain.  Oh well, we'll see how it goes!

And since I'm talking about decluttering and all... on a slightly related note, you might want to check out Project Spare Attire Flea Market sale happening this weekend:

Date: 23 April, Saturday

Time: 1500-2000 hrs

Venue: Home Club

20 Upper Circular Road B1-01/06

The Riverwalk

All proceeds go to the SUN-DAC Centre for the Disabled's Client Welfare Fund.  More details here!

Ok, gotta run, the boy is up!

PS: I've just managed to finish replying to all your comments in the past week... apologies for the delay since I know some of you had questions!

Foodie Fridays: How to enjoy your kway teow (and an easy risotto!)

Step 1: Make the discovery that kway teow sticks beautifully to the back of your hand.  Layer them nicely...

His hands were slimy from soup btw, not saliva!

Step 2: Then slurp them off the back of your hand...

Step 3: Repeat again and again, until most of your dinner is in your tummy.  Meanwhile, ignore all protests from Mama about using a spoon like a regular human being, but do show her how the kway teow sticks beautifully when she takes out the camera...

Step 4: Then when you get really full and bored, try a physics lesson and dangle them off the edge of your bowl.  If they drop, its due to this thing called gravity...

Kway teow always tastes better if you get to savour it.  Finger-licking good, yes?

(Lest you go tsk tsk at the boy making a mess at the table, he is usually much neater, and I did lecture him about eating properly.  However, properly to a 2 year old seems to have a different definition!  He finished his dinner though.  And I realize the photos may be a little gross to some, sorry... guess to someone who used to teach boys who thought the coolest thing on earth was to smuggle out a pig's heart after a dissection practical and throw it up at the classroom fan, a little mess from a meal is nothing. :p)


Ah yes, what was I supposed to write about?  Oh, yes, the meals.  This week has been a good one for the kitchen (in terms of usage, but not in terms of grime):  

Last Friday's beef soup (I call it our beta-carotene juice since I just stew beef with a can of plum tomatoes, carrots and corn to yield this sourish beefy soup), Sunday's shepherd's pie (the recipe says "easy" but I find it quite troublesome!), Tuesday's chicken with shitake mushroom soup, Wednesday's herb-baked salmon and pumpkin risotto (recipe below), and Thursday's kway teow soup with spinach and mince pork.  

5 home-cooked family dinners, out of 7 days... I guess its an improvement?  At least I still get a huge sense of satisfaction seeing the hubby slurp his soup and lean back with a sigh after a meal. :)  And I finally found a recipe for risotto that doesn't call for a torturous 45 minutes of stirring at the stove:

Oven-baked pumpkin risotto 

(Adapted from a tomato risotto recipe from Annabel Karmel's After School Meal Planner)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp ground sea salt
- 185 g Arborio rice
- 375 ml chicken stock
- 250 g pumpkin, chopped into chunks
- 60 g grated Parmesan
- Black pepper

Steps:
1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Saute onion and garlic for 4 minutes with salt.
3. Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
4. Add stock and pumpkin, bring to simmering point, stirring occasionally.
5. Sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper, cook for 2 minutes.
6. Cover and bake for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked (do open the oven periodically to give the rice a stir, or the top might burn).

(You could also stir in some butter right at the end, which was mentioned in the recipe, but I left it out as I was in a hurry.  If you do, cover for a few minutes before serving.)

I loved how this turned out, since you get your creamy risotto, without having to slave at the stove for a long time. :)  The actual recipe used tomatoes and courgettes, but I ran out of tomatoes and used pumpkin, which turned out quite nice with the rice.  Happy weekend everyone!

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)!